2009 October: Science

2009 October: Science

Anchor: Base Index
Other months: September November
Other areas: Business climate computing education health international Internet social technology Others

Topics: Archaeology astronomy biology birds botany cells chemistry climate ecology evolution extinction general genetics geology geophysics horticulture invertebrates mathematics neuroscience palaeontology physics physiology primates psychology vertebrates weather

Biology and Cells

(see also in Health)

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Jaw bone created from stem cells, BBC, 2009 Oct. 10 (scientists create a joint in the jaw from human adult stem cells, an advance which could revolutionise reconstructive surgery)

Birds

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Adam Morton, Birds in serious decline after prolonged drought, The Age, 2009 Oct. 22 (an unprecedented investigation of Victoria's bird life has found it is collapsing, with two out of three woodland species in significant decline; the 12-year research into native species found that generations of land clearing and more than a decade of drought linked to climate change has reduced numbers for more than 80 species)
Steve Butler, The fight against Malta's illegal bird hunt, BBC, 2009 Oct. 17 (Malta is an important way-point for birds migrating between Europe and Africa; but the spring and autumn migrations attract illegal hunters, who pick off the birds as they fly overhead)
Bird species 'sharing nest boxes', BBC, 2009 Oct. 15 (the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds says it has received a surprising number of reports of different species sharing nest boxes)
Victoria Gill, Lowly females pick mediocre mates, BBC, 2009 Oct. 8 ("low-quality" female birds prefer to mate with low-quality males, say researchers—raising evolutionary questions)
Andrew Darby, Cameras no albatross for sea bird, The Age, 2009 Oct. 8 (Japanese wildlife researchers have given a whole new meaning to the phrase “bird's-eye view”, strapping tiny cameras on albatrosses to unveil their lives on the remote Southern Ocean)

Botany and Horticulture

(see also in Climate and Technology)

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Forest pursues 'dark sky' status, BBC, 2009 Oct. 16 (an official bid is submitted to see a south of Scotland forest become the first "dark sky park" outside the US)

Chemistry

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New repellent foils cling-on bugs, BBC, 2009 Oct. 13 (a non-toxic insect repellent designed to make insects slip on almost any surface has been unveiled by scientists at Cambridge University)

Ecology and Extinction

(see also in Business and Health)

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Emilio San Pedro, New fears for species extinctions, BBC, 2009 Oct. 11 (scientists warn of an alarming increase in the extinction of animal species due to loss of biodiversity)

Evolution and Palaeontology

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Luke Harding, Mammoth clue to climate change?, The Age, 2009 Oct. 13 (Russian experts say that the question of why the mammoth died out may shed light on our own prospects of survival in a world gripped by rapid climate change)
AFP, China fossil a clue to our hearing, The Age, 2009 Oct. 10 (researchers digging in China say they have found the fossil of a previously unknown chipmunk-sized mammal that could help explain how human hearing evolved)
Victoria Gill, Lowly females pick mediocre mates, BBC, 2009 Oct. 8 ("low-quality" female birds prefer to mate with low-quality males, say researchers—raising evolutionary questions)

General

(see also in Technology)

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Anna-Marie Lever, The art of science, BBC, 2009 Oct. 15 (the images that have gone on display at London's Wellcome Collection could equate to several thousand words—and many years work for the scientists who captured them)
Rosie Mestel, Ig Nobel prizes make a gas of wonder bra, The Age, 2009 Oct. 3 (a man who cracked his knuckles on one hand—but not the other—for six decades, scientists who figured out why pregnant women don't topple over and chemists who made diamonds from tequila have been honoured at the annual Ig Nobel prize ceremony in the United States)

Genetics

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Gordon Farrer, Find out who your ancestors really were, The Age, 2009 Oct. 3 (as part of Evolution the Festival, Melbourne University's Bio 21 Institute at Parkville tomorrow morning will host "The Journey of Your Genes?mdash;The Genographic Project Traces Your Roots")

Geology and Geophysics

(see also in Business)

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Zoe Kleinman, Glacier technology feels the heat, BBC, 2009 Oct. 9 (British technology designed to measure glaciers may hold the secret to predicting landslides, scientists believe)
Tom Allard, Bigger earthquake looms for West Sumatra, The Age, 2009 Oct. 8 (scientists who examined last week's devastating earthquake in West Sumatra have come to an alarming conclusion: it was not “the big one” they have long been forecasting for Padang)
Adam Morton, More to come, expert warns, The Age, 2009 Oct. 3 (Sumatra faces further devastation from a much larger earthquake and probable tsunami within decades, a leading geologist has warned)

Invertebrates

(see also in Climate)

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Sarah-Jane Collins, Sterile flies to deal with Queensland invaders, The Age, 2009 Oct. 20 (more than 900,000 bright pink sterile fruit flies were released in Melbourne yesterday in a bid to stop the spread of Queensland fruit flies in the inner city)
Victoria Gill, Bad memories written with lasers, BBC, 2009 Oct. 16 (scientists use lasers to write bad memories onto the brains of flies, revealing some of the brain circuitry responsible for learning)
——, Gene tweak boosts fly sex appeal, BBC, 2009 Oct. 14 (removing chemical signals can make fruitflies "irresistible" to other flies—regardless of gender or species)
Rebecca Morelle, 'Veggie' spider shuns meat diet, BBC, 2009 Oct. 12 (the first spider in the world known to have a predominantly vegetarian diet is described by scientists)

Mathematics

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Neuroscience

(see also Psychology and in Health)

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Victoria Gill, Bad memories written with lasers, BBC, 2009 Oct. 16 (scientists use lasers to write bad memories onto the brains of flies, revealing some of the brain circuitry responsible for learning)
——, Virtual maze 'maps' mouse memory, BBC, 2009 Oct. 15 (researchers take live recordings from inside the brain cells of mice as they move around a virtual reality maze)
Juggling increases brain power, BBC, 2009 Oct. 12 (complex tasks such as juggling produce significant changes to the structure of the brain, according to scientists at Oxford University)
Nick Miller, Testosterone spray may help women fight dementia, The Age, 2009 Oct. 1 (a daily testosterone spray may help post-menopausal women ward off dementia and memory loss, according to new Victorian research; a pilot study run by Monash University's Women's Health Program has been described as “an exciting new lead” by its head researcher)

Physics and Astronomy

(see also in Technology)

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Ian Stewart, Welcome to the world of sci-fi science, BBC, 2009 Oct. 16 (teleportation, time travel, antimatter and wireless electricity; it all sounds far-fetched, more fiction than fact, but it's all true)
Paul Rincon, LHC gets colder than deep space, BBC, 2009 Oct. 16 (the Large Hadron Collider experiment has reached its operating temperature, colder even than deep space)
Jason Palmer, Glimpses of Solar System's edge, BBC, 2009 Oct. 15 (the first results from Nasa's Interstellar Boundary Explorer spacecraft show surprises at our Solar System's edge)
——, 'Magnetic electricity' discovered, BBC, 2009 Oct. 14 (researchers discover a magnetic equivalent to electricity: single magnetic "charges" that behave and interact like electrical ones)
Jonathan Amos, Pallas is 'Peter Pan' space rock, BBC, 2009 Oct. 11 (Hubble provides new insight on 2 Pallas, the huge asteroid that never quite grew up into a full planet)
'Al-Qaeda-link' Cern worker held, BBC, 2009 Oct. 9 (France arrests a researcher at Europe's top particle physics lab who is suspected of links to al-Qaeda, officials say)
Asteroid collision 'less likely', BBC, 2009 Oct. 8 (refined calculations of the asteroid Apophis's path show it is far less likely smash into Earth in 2036 than was previously thought)
Jonathan Amos, New ring detected around Saturn, BBC, 2009 Oct. 7 (a colossal dust ring is seen encircling Saturn, extending some 13 million km into space)

Physiology

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Primates and Archaeology

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Anthony Bartram, Sea gives up secrets to experts, BBC, 2009 Oct. 16 (with shafts of sunlight shimmering through a few metres of crystal clear water, you can pick out the cornerstones of an ancient civilisation which inspired literature and legend)
Rebecca Morelle, Monkey mothers 'coo' over babies, BBC, 2009 Oct. 8 (the way that rhesus macaque mothers bond with their babies bears a remarkable resemblance to human behaviour)
Ariel David, Ancient Rome yields a seaside 'mini-Colosseum', The Age, 2009 Oct. 3 (a team of British archaeologists working in ancient Rome's seaport has unearthed the remains of a “mini-Colosseum”—a smaller version of the monumental arena built in the centre of the imperial capital)
The Guardian, Hairy Ardi swings down from family tree, The Age, 2009 Oct. 3 (the remains of a woman who lived at the dawn of humanity have been found in Ethiopia, providing the clearest picture yet of the origin of our species; the partial skeleton, the oldest from a human ancestor ever discovered, is that of a hairy female who lived about 4.4 million years ago)
Gordon Farrer, Find out who your ancestors really were, The Age, 2009 Oct. 3 (as part of Evolution the Festival, Melbourne University's Bio 21 Institute at Parkville tomorrow morning will host "The Journey of Your Genes?mdash;The Genographic Project Traces Your Roots")

Psychology

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Dewi Cooke , Black Saturday 'may incite arsonists', The Age, 2009 Oct. 16 (arsonists may have an "increased interest" in lighting fires after witnessing the destructive aftermath of events such as Black Saturday, the Bushfires Royal Commission has heard; Monash University forensic psychologist Professor James Ogloff said although the majority of arsonists he encountered did not want to harm people, there was a small group who were “indifferent” to whether people died as a consequence of their actions)
Julian Lee, The mail is, the bloke is dead, The Age, 2009 Oct. 10 (at any time, the average Australian male will use up to five out of 15 different “personas”; the number falls the further out of metropolitan areas one travels, as men revert to a more typical stoic male character)
Social types are happier, The Age, 2009 Oct. 4 (the Mental Health Association NSW online survey of 309 people also found that happiness is linked to spending time with friends or being a member of a club)

Vertebrates

(except Birds and Primates; see also in Climate)

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India agrees to cheetah survey, BBC, 2009 Oct. 9 (the Indian government approves a survey of sites which can accommodate the cheetah, in an effort to reintroduce the animal)
Sarah Mukherjee, Go nuts to help save the dormouse, BBC, 2009 Oct. 9 (a conservation charity has urged the public to scour woodlands for half-eaten hazelnuts to help track down and record the whereabouts of the elusive, endangered dormouse)
Helen Meredith, Crisis for the world's amphibians, BBC, 2009 Oct. 6 (we may be facing our last chance to save this important group of animals)
Peter Ker, Plea to import axolotls, The Age, 2009 Oct. 6 (Melbourne medical researchers have lobbied the federal Environment Department to allow the importation of axolotls—sometimes dubbed “Mexican walking fish”—in the belief they could help research into regenerative medicine in humans)
Simon Webster, Roar deal on the net, The Age, 2009 Oct. 4 (the BBC has opened the world's biggest online zoo, with hundreds of animals on display on the corporation's website)