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Beijing 106˚F: Earth Has Its Warmest May on Record Globally, Spring Could Be Warmest

Beijing 106˚F: Earth Has Its Warmest May on Record Globally, Spring Could Be Warmest | Amazing Science |
May was the warmest such month on record for the globe, according to preliminary data from Japan and NASA, with a noteworthy heat wave across Asia.

Two of the leading centers that track global surface temperatures have reported their data for May, and they both found it to be the warmest such month on record for the planet. NASA found that May had an average global temperature that was 1.38 degrees Fahrenheit above average, which would make it the warmest such month, coming out far ahead of May 2012. The Japanese Meteorological Agency's separate analysis also found both May and the meteorological spring months of March through May to be the warmest on record.

These results are preliminary, with the data from both agencies subject to revision. NASAposted a note on its surface-temperature data website Tuesday that said "missing data" from China has not yet arrived, and that their data is not "directly comparable" to previous records.

Later this week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will release their global numbers, which typically closely match the other centers, but sometimes differ slightly in rankings. According to the World Meteorological Agency, all but one of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred in the 21st century.

May featured several noteworthy heat waves. Searing heat gripped a large part of Asia during the middle to end of the month, with all-time monthly record-high temperatures hitting Japan, China and Mongolia. According to Weather Underground, Beijing "shattered" its May monthly record with a reading of 106 degrees Fahrenheit on May 30, beating the previous record by six degrees, and came close to its all-time high temperature record for any month.

Studies show that heat waves are already becoming more intense and long-lasting globally, as average temperatures warm in response to increasing amounts of greenhouse gases in the air.

Warmer than average temperatures also predominated during May across Australia, Europe and the western U.S.

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New record: Ethereal deep-sea fish lives 5 miles underwater

New record: Ethereal deep-sea fish lives 5 miles underwater | Amazing Science |


"We were just blown away when we saw it," said Paul Yancey, a biology professor at Whitman College, Washington who studies how animals adapt to life in the deep sea. "Someone on the ship said it looks like a cross between a puppy, an angel and an eel." The fish was first spotted in November during an international research cruise to the Mariana Trench -- the deepest place on Earth.

The new fish, which has not yet been named, was discovered by accident. In the video above you can see it swimming around a series of tubes that were part of an instrument collecting mud samples from the sea floor.  The camera was supposed to be filming the core collecting, when suddenly this ghostly fish swam into view. It is about 10 inches in length, and almost entirely transparent. The dense white part you can see is actually its skull, visible through its skin, Yancey said. It's lengthy, mostly see-through tail is probably made of gelatin.

"It's moving very slowly so it's not clear how well it can swim," he said. "But there has to be some muscle in there somewhere." The Mariana Trench is located in the Western Pacific, just off the coast of Guam. It starts about 3 miles beneath the ocean surface and stretches to an ultimate depth of 6.8 miles. Humans couldn't survive even at the top rim of the trench. At that depth, the proteins and cells in our membranes would collapse. And at the bottom of the trench, the pressure is so immense it would be like having 100 elephants standing on your head.

One way deep sea animals survive even under the weight of all that water is with a molecule called trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) that protects their proteins from being crushed. "It's the molecule that makes marine animals like fish and shrimp smell 'fishy,' " said Yancey, "and in deep sea animals there is a lot more of it."

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Global warming blamed for Pacific coral bleaching

Global warming blamed for Pacific coral bleaching | Amazing Science |

The Marshall Islands is experiencing its worst-ever coral bleaching as global warming threatens reefs across the entire northern Pacific, scientists found in a recent study.

Marine researchers said an El Nino weather pattern had been developing in recent months, raising ocean temperatures and stressing delicate coral reefs. "The worst coral bleaching event ever recorded for the Marshall Islands has been occurring since mid-September," Karl Fellenius, a Majuro-based marine scientist with the University of Hawaii told AFP.

C. Mark Eakin, manager of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Reef Watch programme, said recent observations showed the problem was widespread across the vast waters of the northern Pacific. "Major bleaching was seen in Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, the northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI), the Marshall Islands, and Kiribati," he said.

"Thermal stress levels set new record highs in CNMI and the NWHI and we saw the first widespread bleaching event in the main Hawaiian Islands." Fellenius said coral bleaching was a naturally occurring phenomenon but not on the scale currently being seen. "While bleaching can occur on very hot days in pools of water with little circulation (such as) very low tides on reef flats, it has become a global problem due to greenhouse gas emissions causing elevated temperatures under climate change."

He said sea surface temperatures had been on average half to a full degree Celsius higher than normal for months, adding: "This does not seem like a lot but it makes a big difference to corals." Fellenius said the last major bleaching event was in 1997, when an exceptionally strong El Nino system affected about a quarter of the world's coral reefs.

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SyAm-Ps - a new class of synthetic molecules mimics antibodies to fight cancer

SyAm-Ps - a new class of synthetic molecules mimics antibodies to fight cancer | Amazing Science |

A Yale University lab has crafted the first synthetic molecules that have both the targeting and response functions of antibodies. The new molecules — synthetic antibody mimics (SyAMs) — attach themselves simultaneously to disease cells and disease-fighting cells. The result is a highly targeted immune response, similar to the action of natural human antibodies.

“Unlike antibodies, however, our molecules are synthetic organic compounds that are approximately one-twentieth the size of antibodies,” said David A. Spiegel, a professor of chemistry at Yale whose lab developed the molecules. “They are unlikely to cause unwanted immune reactions due to their structure, are thermally stable, and have the potential to be administered orally, just like traditional, small-molecule drugs.”


Spiegel said the process of synthesizing and optimizing the structure of the molecules required considerable time and effort. “We now know that synthetic molecules of intermediate size possess perhaps the most important functional properties of antibodies — targeting and stimulation of immune cells,” he said.

“It’s also noteworthy that molecules of such a small size can bring together two objects as enormous as cells, and trigger a specific functional response, entirely as a result of specific receptor interactions,” Spiegel added. Beyond their potential for treating prostate cancer, SyAMs may have applications for treating other forms of cancer, HIV and various bacterial diseases.

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Computer-based "deep neural network" as good as primates at visual object recognition | Amazing Science |


This is important beyond the needs of automated digital information processing like Google's image search. Computer-based neural networks that work like the human brain will further our understanding of how the brain works, and any attempts to create them will test that understanding. Essentially, the fact that these networks work to a level comparable to primates suggests that neuroscientists now have a solid grasp of how object recognition works in the brain.

To see how current networks hold up, the MIT scientists started by testing primates. They implanted arrays of electrodes in the inferior temporal (IT) cortex and area V4 (a part of the visual system that feeds into the IT cortex) of the primates' brains. This allowed them to see how neurons related to object recognition responded when the animals looked at various objects in 1,960 images. The viewing time per image was a mere 100 milliseconds, which is long enough for humans to recognize an object.

They then compared these results with those of the latest deep neural networks. These networks produce arrays of numbers when fed an image – different numbers for different images. If it groups similar objects into similar clusters in this number matrix representation, it's deemed accurate. "Through each of these computational transformations, through each of these layers of networks, certain objects or images get closer together, while others get further apart," explains lead author Charles Cadieu.

The best network, developed by researchers at New York University, classified objects as well as the macaque - a medium-sized Old World monkey - brain. That's the good news. The bad is that they don't know why. Neural networks are learning from massive datasets containing millions or billions of images, churning through the information with help from the high-performance graphical processing units that power the latest video games. But nobody knows quite what is going on in there as the networks refine their own algorithms.

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The importance of three-way atom interactions in maintaining coherence

The importance of three-way atom interactions in maintaining coherence | Amazing Science |
Quantum computers will someday perform calculations impossible for conventional digital computers. But for that to happen, the core quantum information must be preserved against contamination from the environment. In other words, decoherence of qubits must be forestalled. Coherence, the ability of a system to retain quantum integrity—-meaning that one part of the system can be used to predict the behavior of other parts—-is an important consideration.

Over the past dozen years, remarkable experiments have shown how the coherence of a Bose condensate loaded into optical lattices can collapse and later return. New theoretical work by JQI scientists provides a detailed explanation for this quantum revival. The heart of their theory are interactions involving three atoms simultaneously.

In Bose Einstein condensates (BECs) typically a million atoms are chilled until their respective waves overlap. In effect, they become a single coherent object. If furthermore the BEC is lined up into a series of zones in space using the powerful electric fields of crisscrossing laser beams—-a configuration called an optical lattice—-then the BEC atoms become a sort of crystal.

The effect of the optical lattice is to encase the atoms in stacks of egg-carton-like confinements. Typically about 100x100x100 (one million) egg-carton slots are filled by a BEC cloud. For a million-BEC atom BEC this corresponds to about one atom per lattice site. The atoms in this artificial crystal are spaced much farther apart than the atoms in a natural crystal but still close enough for them to interact in interesting ways.

If suddenly the strength of the lasers is increased, the depth of the well becomes deeper, and the atoms are less likely to tunnel from one compartment to another, and consequently more likely to interact with its partners within that well. What happens to the coherence of the BEC ensemble when atoms are encouraged to interact with each other at close range in the lattice sites? This is what scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Physics in Garching, Germany set out to explore in an experiment conducted a dozen years ago.

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Mathematicians Make a Major Discovery About Prime Numbers

Mathematicians Make a Major Discovery About Prime Numbers | Amazing Science |





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Unification of wave–particle duality and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle



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NASA considers possibilities for manned mission to Venus

NASA considers possibilities for manned mission to Venus | Amazing Science |




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Dinosaur-killer asteroid nearly wiped out mammals too









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Modern genetics experiments confirm ancient relationship between fins and hands

Modern genetics experiments confirm ancient relationship between fins and hands | Amazing Science |

Paleontologists have documented the evolutionary adaptations necessary for ancient lobe-finned fish to transform pectoral fins used underwater into strong, bony structures, such as those of Tiktaalik roseae. This enabled these emerging tetrapods, animals with limbs, to crawl in shallow water or on land. But evolutionary biologists have wondered why the modern structure called the autopod—comprising wrists and fingers or ankles and toes—has no obvious morphological counterpart in the fins of living fishes.



Initial attempts to confirm the link based on shape comparisons of fin and limb bones were unsuccessful. The autopod differs from most fins. The wrist is composed of a series of small nodular bones, followed by longer thin bones that make up the digits. The bones of living fish fins look much different, with a set of longer bones ending in small circular bones called radials. The primary genes that shape the bones, known as the HoxD and HoxA clusters, also differ. The researchers first tested the ability of genetic "switches" that control HoxD and HoxA genes from teleosts—bony, ray-finned fish—to shape the limbs of developing transgenic mice. The fish control switches, however, did not trigger any activity in the autopod.



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Plans to put cyanobacteria on Mars to generate oxygen

Plans to put cyanobacteria on Mars to generate oxygen | Amazing Science |

Mars is a very harsh and hostile environment for future human explorers and like any other known planet it has no breathable air. That could change someday, and it may be soon enough for our generation to witness it, as the student team from Germany has a bold vision to make a first step to terraform the Red Planet, turning it more Earth-like. The plan is to send cyanobacteria to Mars to generate oxygen out of carbon dioxide which is the main component of Martian atmosphere (nearly 96%). "Cyanobacteria do live in conditions on Earth where no life would be expected. You find them everywhere on our planet!" team leader Robert P. Schröder told "It is the first step on Mars to test microorganisms." The project is participating in the Mars One University Competition and if it wins, it will be send as a payload to Mars, onboard the Dutch company's mission to the Red Planet. Now everyone can vote to help make it happen by visiting the webpage.

The team behind the initiative is composed of a voluntary and interdisciplinary group of students and scientists, from the University of Applied Science and Technical University, both located in Darmstadt, Germany. Cyanobacteria will deliver oxygen made of their photosynthesis, reducing carbon dioxide and produce an environment for living organisms. Furthermore, they can supply food and important vitamins for a healthy nutrition. The team is already testing cyanobacteria with different environmental conditions in quarantined photobioreactors and monitoring their activities to determine the best working solution on Mars.

Schröder reveals that the idea was born in August this year. But why cyanobacteria? "Initial ideas were of a technical nature, but that was too boring for me. In school I liked biotechnology and that have not changed very much. Once I heard of cyanobacteria and how they can survive in harsh conditions on earth and at this special night I had a flashback which grabbed me and convinced me completely," he explains.

So what amount of this bacteria will be needed to fully terraform Mars? "As for now we don't know that really, because we need to find out the best habitable conditions for each strain to cultivate them and then we have references and can calculate it," Schröder says. "We need to test Mars-like conditions and analyze how much energy we have to put into the photobioreactor. So it's a lot work to do."

Mars One will take one project to Mars along with its unmanned lander mission in 2018. Voting submission will be accepted until Dec. 31, 2014. The winning university payload will be announced on Jan. 5, 2015.

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In fossilized fish eye, rods and cones are preserved for 300 million years

In fossilized fish eye, rods and cones are preserved for 300 million years | Amazing Science |

It is the first time that fossilized photoreceptors from a vertebrate eye have ever been found, according to a paper published Tuesday in Nature Communications. The researchers say the discovery also suggests that fish have been seeing the world in color for at least 300 million years. Rods and cones are cells that line the retina in our eyes. Rods are long and thin, and more sensitive to light than cones. However, cones, which are triangular, allow us to see in color. Both these cells rely on pigments to absorb light. Using chemical analysis, the scientists found evidence of one of these pigments -- melanin -- in the fossilized eye as well.

The fish pictured above is about 10 centimeters long. It was found in the Hamilton Quarry in Kansas, which was once a shallow lagoon. Fossils from this area are remarkably well preserved because they were buried very quickly in sediments in the lagoon, said Gengo Tanaka of Kumamoto University in Japan, the lead author of the paper.  In the case of this fish, an extinct species called Acanthodes bridgei, the preservation process probably also got some help from bacterial activity that left a thin film of phosphate over the eyes before it was buried.  Tanaka said that gills and pigments on other parts of the fish were also preserved. However, he had not looked to see whether organs and nerves were intact as well.

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Deep-learning AI algorithm shines new light on mutations in once obscure areas of the genome

Deep-learning AI algorithm shines new light on mutations in once obscure areas of the genome | Amazing Science |


For researchers who study the genetic roots of human diseases, most of the light has shone down on the 2 percent of the human genome that includes protein-coding DNA sequences. “That’s fine. Lots of diseases are caused by mutations there, but those mutations are low-hanging fruit,” says University of Toronto (U.T.) professor Brendan Frey who studies genetic networks. “They’re easy to find because the mutation actually changes one amino acid to another one, and that very much changes the protein.”


Now Frey has developed a “deep-learning” machine algorithm that effectively shines a light on the entire genome. A paper appearing December 18 in Science describes how this algorithm can identify patterns of mutation across coding and noncoding DNA alike. The algorithm can also predict how likely each variant is to contribute to a given disease. “Our method works very differently from existing methods,” says Frey, the study’s lead author. “GWAS-, QTL- and ENCODE-type approaches can't figure out causal relationships. They can only correlate. Our system can predict whether or not a mutation will cause a change in RNA splicing that could lead to a disease phenotype.”

RNA splicing is one of the major steps in turning genetic blueprints into living organisms. Splicing determines which bits of DNA code get included in the messenger-RNA strings that build proteins. Different configurations yield different proteins. Misregulated splicing contributes to an estimated 15 to 60 percent of human genetic diseases.

The combination of whole-genome analysis and predictive models for RNA splicing makes Frey’s method a major contribution to the field, according to Stephan Sanders, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. “I’m looking forward to using this tool in larger data sets and really getting sense of how important splicing is,” he says. Sanders, who researches the genetic causes of diseases, notes Frey’s approach complements, rather than replaces, other methods of genetic analysis. “I think any genomist [sic] would agree that noncoding [areas of the genome] are hugely important. This method is a really novel way of getting at that,” he says.

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Thinnest-ever imaging platform: Atom-thick CCD could capture images

Thinnest-ever imaging platform: Atom-thick CCD could capture images | Amazing Science |





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Thermoelectric power plants could offer economically competitive renewable energy

Thermoelectric power plants could offer economically competitive renewable energy | Amazing Science |

A new study predicts that large-scale power plants based on thermoelectric effects, such as small temperature differences in ocean water, could generate electricity at a lower cost than photovoltaic power plants.

Liping Liu, Associate Professor at Rutgers University, envisions that thermoelectric power plants would look like giant barges sitting in the tropical ocean, where electricity is generated by heating cold, deep water with warm, shallow water heated by the sun. Liu has published a paper in the New Journal of Physics in which he analyzes the feasibility of such power plants.

"This work is about the new idea of large-scale green power plants that make economic use of the largest accessible and sustainable energy reservoir on the earth," Liu told, speaking of the oceans. This is because the sun heats the surface water to a temperature that, in tropical regions, is about 20 K higher than water 600 m deep. Essentially, the surface water acts as a giant storage tank of solar energy.

As Liu explains, thermoelectric power plants would work by harvesting the energy of ocean waves to pump cold water from a few hundred meters deep up through a long channel. As the cold water nears the surface, it enters a heat exchanger where it is heated by surface water on the outside. The heat exchanger acts as an electric generator, as its tubes are made of thermoelectric materials that can transfer heat through their walls and directly convert temperature differences into electricity.

Large-scale, ocean-based thermoelectric power plants would have many advantages. For one, the "fuel" or temperature differences are free, unlimited, and easily accessible. Also, the plants do not take up space on land. Because they have no moving solid parts, they would have low maintenance costs. In addition, the power output does not depend on the time of day or season. And finally, the method is green, as it does not release emissions.

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How do you test an Ebola vaccine for efficacy?










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Birds detect approaching storm from almost 600 miles away











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NASA's Kepler Spacecraft Back In Service And Finds A Super-Earth






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