Science in the News

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

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From: inthenews <inthenews () SIGMAXI ORG>
Date: September 28, 2005 10:36:33 AM EDT
To: SCIENCE-IN-THE-NEWS () LISTSERVER SIGMAXI ORG
Subject: Science in the News
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SCIENCE IN THE NEWS
from Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society

Today's Headlines - September 28, 2005

TEACHER SAYS BOARD EFFORT ON EVOLUTION WAS RESISTED
from The New York Times (Registration Required)

HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 27 - Science teachers at the high school in Dover
repeatedly resisted the school board's efforts to force them to teach
creationism on equal footing with evolution in biology class,  
according to a
former teacher who is among those challenging the board in a landmark  
trial.

The conflict in Dover grew so heated that in public meetings board  
members
called opponents "atheists," threatened to fire the science teachers and
invoked Jesus' crucifixion as a reason to change the curriculum, two
witnesses testified on Tuesday.

"We would repeatedly tell them, 'We're not going to balance evolution  
with
creationism. It's an inappropriate request,' " said Bryan Rehm, who once
taught physics in Dover and is one of 11 plaintiffs in the suit.
http://tinyurl.com/a4a7f


GIANT SQUID PHOTOGRAPHED FOR THE FIRST TIME
from Associated Press

TOKYO -- The giant squid can be found in books and in myths, but for the
first time, a team of Japanese scientists has captured on film one of  
the
most mysterious creatures of the deep sea in its natural habitat.

The team led by Tsunemi Kubodera, from the National Science Museum in  
Tokyo,
tracked the 26-foot long Architeuthis as it attacked prey nearly  
3,000 feet
deep off the coast of Japan's Bonin islands.

"We believe this is the first time a grown giant squid has been  
captured on
camera in its natural habitat," said Kyoichi Mori, a marine  
researcher who
co-authored a piece in Wednesday's issue of the Proceedings of the Royal
Society B: Biological Sciences.
http://tinyurl.com/984be


MASSIVE DISTANT GALAXY UPSETS THEORIES
from Space.com

One of the most distant galaxies ever studied is more massive and mature
than expected, astronomers announced today. The finding suggests some
galaxies grew up much more quickly than conventional wisdom held.

The galaxy, named HUDF-JD2, is seen as the universe was only about 800
million years old. The universe today is about 13.6 billion years old.

"This galaxy appears to have 'bulked up' amazingly quickly, within a few
hundred million years after the Big Bang," said Bahram Mobasher of the
European Space Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute. "It  
made
about eight times more mass in terms of stars than are found in our own
Milky Way today, and then, just as suddenly, it stopped forming new  
stars.
It appears to have grown old prematurely."
http://tinyurl.com/abjv7


FORECASTERS SAY STRONG HURRICANE LIKELY IN OCTOBER
from The Los Angeles Times

Meteorologists examining the conditions that spawned hurricanes Rita and
Katrina say there is a strong likelihood another intense hurricane will
occur in October.

And while late-season storms tend to track eastward toward Florida or  
don't
make landfall at all, the experts don't rule out the possibility of  
another
major storm targeting the battered Gulf region.

Researchers also warn that the country should brace for 10 to 40 more  
years
of powerful storms because of a natural ocean cycle in the midst of the
most-active hurricane period on record.
http://tinyurl.com/7n2a4


POST-HURRICANE MOLD THREATENS HEALTH
from ASsociated Press

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) - Mold now forms an interior version of  
kudzu in
the soggy South, posing health dangers that will make many homes tear- 
downs
and will force schools and hospitals to do expensive repairs.

It's a problem that any homeowner who has ever had a flooded basement  
or a
leaky roof has faced. But the magnitude of this problem leaves many  
storm
victims prey to unscrupulous or incompetent remediators. Home test  
kits for
mold, for example, are worthless, experts say.

Don't expect help from insurance companies, either. Most policies were
revised in the last decade to exclude mold damage because of "sick  
building"
lawsuits alleging illnesses. Although mold's danger to those with  
asthma or
allergies is real, there's little or no science behind other claims,  
and a
lot of hype.
http://tinyurl.com/78fsk


STEPS TO LIMIT GLOBAL-WARMING GAS
from The New York Times (Registration Required)

Capturing and storing the carbon dioxide generated by power plants and
factories could play an important role in limiting global warming  
caused by
humans, says an international climate research group associated with the
United Nations.

In a new report the group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate  
Change,
says doing so could cut the cost of stabilizing carbon dioxide
concentrations in the atmosphere as much as 30 percent compared with  
other
options, like switching to cleaner technologies.

Altogether, sequestering carbon dioxide could eventually account for
slightly more than half of what is needed to prevent dangerous
concentrations in the atmosphere, says the report, which was released on
Monday and is online at www.ipcc.ch.
http://tinyurl.com/88a3h


TABLETS MAY SOLVE MAYA MYSTERY
from The Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)

The discovery of pristine stone tablets bearing 140 hieroglyphs that  
record
30 years of Maya history may have solved a mystery that has puzzled
archeologists for nearly half a century — the location of an elusive  
city
long known only as Site Q.

Looted artifacts from Site Q — an abbreviation of the Spanish "¿que?" or
"which?" — are in museum and private collections around the world,  
but their
source has long been a topic of debate.

The two new tablets, discovered by archeologist Marcello A. Canuto of  
Yale
University, may finally lay the debate to rest, proving that Site Q  
is an
ancient royal village called La Corona in the northwest Peten region of
Guatemala.
http://tinyurl.com/cxabd


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