No Need to Shrink Guts to Have a Larger Brain

ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2011) — The so-called expensive-tissue hypothesis, which suggests a trade-off between the size of the brain and the size of the digestive tract, has been challenged by researchers at the University of Zurich. They have shown that brains in mammals have grown over the course of evolution without the digestive organs having to become smaller. The researchers have further demonstrated that the potential to store fat often goes hand in hand with relatively small brains -- except in humans, who owe their increased energy intake and correspondingly large brain to communal child care, better diet and their ability to walk upright.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111109131304.htm

Physicists Chip Away at Mystery of Antimatter Imbalance

Two types of neutron decay produce a proton, an electron and an electron antineutrino but eject them in different configurations, The experiments at NIST detected no imbalance, but the improved sensitivity could help place limits on competing theories about the matter-antimatter imbalance in the universe. (Credit: emiT team)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111109161336.htm

Wasps airlift annoying ants

http://vimeo.com/21599670
A wasp, attracted to food, dispenses with a vexing ant by grabbing it, flying backward and then dropping its cargo.
Credit: J. Grangier and P.J. Lester/Biology Letters 2011
A kind of wasp that often flees from scary, acid-spraying ants turns out to have a strong move of its own. When both the invasive Vespula vulgaris wasps and native New Zealand ants scramble to collect the same food windfall, one of the wasps sometimes swoops down and grabs an unsuspecting ant, then flies backward and drops it. The ant typically does not choose to return to the food, Julien Grangier and Philip Lester of Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, report online March 30 in Biology Letters.
Behavioral ecologist Monica Raveret-Richter finds the behavior intriguing and puzzling.  Wasps were most likely to make a grab when many ants crowded over the food. “It's hard to imagine the advantage of removing just one,” says Raveret Richter, of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. She hasn’t seen ant-dropping in the Vespula wasp species she studies, but she normally works to keep ants out of her experiments. “Perhaps next time I set out baits,” she says “I should let some ants join in, and see what happens!”

Prehistoric horses came in leopard print

Prehistoric painters probably weren’t taking artistic license when they painted polka-dotted horses on the walls of a French cave 25,000 years ago. A new analysis of DNA from the remains of 31 horses found in Europe and Siberia suggests that prehistoric horses came in bay, black and leopard-spotted at least 16,000 years ago.

Previous genetic studies had suggested that horses were either bay or black before domestication, and more elaborate patterns emerged as a result of breeding selection imposed by humans. That left many people wondering why dappled horses adorn the cave walls in Pech-Merle, France, because animals painted on cave walls were usually true-to-life. Some have speculated that spotted horses may have had religious or cultural significance.

In new study published online November 7 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Arne Ludwig of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin and colleagues show that some prehistoric horses really did sport spots. Of the 31 horses studied, 18 were bay, seven were black and six carried genetic variants that produce a leopard spotting pattern. The finding suggests the cave painters were depicting what they saw.

Women pioneers in computer science

Computers as we know them now are a comparatively new technology. But now computers are an integral part of our daily lives. From everyday jobs such as operating a motor vehicle, to our work surroundings and our home, computers are a key part of our life. Women have played a key role in the development of computer conceptions and programming over the past years.

Among the first women to be involved in computer science was Ada Lovelace the most picturesque characters in computer history. She was a mathematician in the 1800s and considered to be the first programmer because of her work in writing the language for Charles Babbages's analytical engine. Her understanding of mathematics was tied with imagination, and illustrate in metaphors. As acknowledgment of her accomplishments, the U.S. Defense Department in 1980 named a computer language, ADA, after her.

Over the years many women besides Ada Lovelace have been involved in building computer programs.

They embrace Grace Hopper, who helped create the COBOL computer language. Other women programmers include Betty Jennings, Betty Snyder, Marlyn Wescoff, Fran Bilas, Ruth Lichterman, and Kay McNulty helped create ENIAC in 1946. In 1962 Jean Sammet created the FORMAC programming language.

While women have played an important role in the history of the development of computers and computer programming, there is a concern over the future of women in computers. Women have been studying computer science in colleges and universities for many years, with Barbara Liscov in 1968 becoming the first women to receive a Doctorate in Computer Science. However, fewer women are majoring in computer science today than 10 or 20 years ago. This is prompting many colleges and universities to change their programs to become more appealing to women.

Additionally the women pioneers in the computer science field, many other women have made notable accomplishments in the field. Roberta Williams is one of the leaders in creating graphical elements for video games. Susan Kare created interface elements and icons for the Apple Mac. Another woman that has contributed in computer science is Radia Perlman. Sometimes she is referred to as the "Mother of the Internet", Radia Perlman is well known for her invention of the spanning-tree protocol which is fundamental to the functioning of network bridges. Other women that have contributed to the advancement of women in computer science include Sally Floyd, Eva Tardos, and Jeri Ellsworth.

Because women have played an important role in computer science, they have created quite a lot of groups designed at networking, sharing information, and advancing the cause of women in computers.

Some of these organizations include the Association for Progressive Communications (Women's Networking Support Program), the British Computer Society (Women's GroupI, LinuxChix and Girl Geek Dinners.

Women have had an impact on the precedent progress in the computer science arena. With the effort of these pioneers to pave the way, today's women in computer science have many role models to help tile the approach for their career paths.

Planet Seed Chronicles of Lutetia

Asteroid 21 Lutetia isn't just another pebble in a big pile of space rocks. Scientists now think it is a leftover planetary seed, booted into the main belt by the planetary bullies growing around it.

Lutetia and its asteroid cousins are thought to be relics from the early solar system, rocky fossils that have recorded a history of the solar system's early days in their pits and fractures. In July 2010, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft flew within 3,200 kilometers of Lutetia, peered at the asteroid and attempted to read its stony story.

Using data gathered by Rosetta, three reports describe Lutetia's surprising composition and terrain. They appear in the Oct. 28 Science.

“If you have visited one asteroid, you have not visited them all,” says Lindy Elkins-Tanton of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. “We can still learn some amazing new things about planetesimals, primitive materials, solar system dynamics and [asteroid] composition.”

Data suggest that Lutetia is what's known as an enstatite chondrite a rare form of asteroid that makes up around 2 percent of the meteorites that have fallen to Earth. “It's pretty uncommon,” says planetary scientist and study author Pierre Vernazza of the European Southern Observatory. “Our understanding is that this kind of meteorite is the starting composition of the terrestrial planets, from Mercury to the Earth.”

Hiro The Humanoid

Kawada Industries' humanoid robot Hiro pours water into a cup as Tokyo Institute of Technology associate professor Osamu Hasegawa watches. Hasegawa has developed a system that allows robots to look around their environment and do research on the internet, enabling them to "think" how best to solve a problem. Photo: AFP

Orange prospects bright

Orange farming has changed the socioeconomic conditions of people in Sylhet and Moulvibazar, said agriculturists.

The region was once known countrywide for the juicy fruit, but many growers left the sector due to lack of help from the government.

The government took an initiative in 2000-01 and set up some 13,000 orchards on selected farmers' land in the region, said AKM Rafiqul Islam, additional director of Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Sylhet.

Everything was done under a special programme, "Coordinated project for orange and pineapple farming improvement in greater Sylhet", Islam added.

In addition to providing saplings and training, the government extended some other necessary assistance for setting those orchards on the hillock type places attached to the farmers' homesteads.

Three upazilas from each of four districts were taken up under the three-year programme, which was extended for another four years until 2007-08.

Seven hundred block demonstration plots of half hectares each were also prepared in those upazilas. Around 315 plants were sown on each plot. In case of small areas, 10 saplings were sown in each of the hillock-type places attached to farmers' houses.

A new and expanded programme could boost orange farming in the region as the growers are getting good prices for their produce now, Islam added.

The farmers have also become more conscious and sincere about the procedure for pricing and marketing of the fruits, he said.

Many farmers, who left the sector years ago for losses, are coming back to the business with commercial farming.

The government initiative has met with huge success in the last few years, said Md Saiful Islam, deputy director of DAE, Sylhet.

Locals want more such initiatives from the government to help the business grow.

Commercial orange farming has bright prospects in Sylhet as the soil and weather of the region is favourable to the fruit, he added.

“We should provide quality saplings, training and technology to the farmers. And the marketing also needs a boost.”

Ibrahimovic confronts retirement comments

Zlatan Ibrahimovic says he has no intention of leaving AC Milan any time soon.

The Swede made comments in October about growing old and losing his passion for the game but has retracted those statements as he sums up his plans going forward.

"It's not true that I no longer have the desire to play. I was misunderstood," Ibrahimovic told Aftonbladet.

"I meant that after 10 years [of football] you live differently compared to the past.

"I am fine at Milan and I have always felt good there."

Milan have clicked into gear following a slow start in Serie A and the striker insists his team-mates are eager to defend their title.

"We are always improving game after game and if we believe in ourselves then we can go far," he added.

"We are not favourites to win any competition, but we cannot be excluded from winning anything."

Milan sit third in Serie A and will play Fiorentina after the international break.

Light 'promising' in cancer fight

Light is a "promising" tool in the fight against cancer, say researchers in the US.

A study, published in Nature Medicine, showed how a drug could be created which sticks to tumours, but is then only activated when hit by specific waves of light.

It means a treatment can be highly targeted and not damage the surrounding tissue.

A cancer charity said the treatment showed early promise.

Currently, treatments for cancer can be separated into three categories: blasting it with radiation, surgically removing a tumour or using drugs to kill the cancerous cells. All have side effects and scientists are trying to come up with more precise therapies.

In this study, researchers at the National Cancer Institute, Maryland, used an antibody which targets proteins on the surface of cancerous cells.

They then attached a chemical, IR700, to the antibody. IR700 is activated when it is hit by near infrared light. This wavelength of light can penetrate several centimetres into the skin.

To test the antibody-chemical combination, researchers implanted tumours, squamous cell carcinoma, into the backs of mice. They were given the drug and exposed to near infrared light.

The study said: "Tumour volume was significantly reduced... compared to untreated control mice and survival was significantly prolonged.

"This selective killing minimises damage to normal cells."

The authors said the combination was "a promising therapeutic and diagnostic agent for the treatment of cancer".

"Although we observed no toxicity in our experiments, clinical translation of this method will require formal toxicity studies," they added.

Dr Laura McCallum, Cancer Research UK's science communications officer, said the research was promising.

"Using antibodies or photodynamic therapy to specifically target cancer cells have both been successful for treating some cancers, so combining the two together is certainly an exciting plan.

"But it's important to remember that this work was done in mice, so it's much too early to tell if it will work in people with cancer.

"This potential treatment has promise as scientists - including our own - are also looking at using antibodies to deliver other knockout punches, such as radiation, directly to cancer cells."