Following is a summary of current science news briefs.
Space pictures pick up lots more penguins
LONDON (Reuters) – Scientists counting emperor penguins
from space have found twice as many of the birds in Antarctica
as expected. The discovery is reassuring for a species seen as
under threat from global warming and will provide researchers
with a benchmark for monitoring the giants of the penguin world
in years to come.
Tennessee teacher law could boost creationism, climate
denial
2012-04-13T165347Z_3_BRE83C0JS_RTROPTC_0_US-USA-EDUCATION-TENNE
SSEE.XML () –
Scientist beams up a real ”Star Trek” tricorder
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Starships, warp speed,
transporters, phasers. Think ”Star Trek” technology is only the
stuff of fiction? Think again. Dr. Peter Jansen, a PhD graduate
of the Cognitive Science Laboratory at McMaster University in
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, has developed a scientific
measurement device based on the tricorders used by Captain
Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy and other space adventurers on the
classic TV series that has spawned numerous spin-offs in more
than 45 years.
Scientists examine a hot epoch to forecast climate future
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – To figure out what is likely to
happen to Earth’s climate this century, scientists are looking
3 million years into the past. They have concluded that the
most revealing slice of time is the Pliocene Epoch, a warm, wet
period between 3.15 million and 2.85 million years ago, when
the world probably looked and felt much as it does now. Global
temperatures and the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere were similar to today’s climate, according to
the U.S. Geological Survey.
Turmeric extract may protect heart after surgery
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A new study from Thailand
suggests that extracts from turmeric spice, known for their
antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, may help ward off
heart attacks in people who’ve had recent bypass surgery.
During bypass surgery the heart muscle can be damaged from
prolonged lack of blood flow, increasing patients’ risk of
heart attack.
This is Dan. Dan is a Baboon. Read, Dan, Read
NEW YORK (Reuters) – No one is exactly using the words
”reading” and ”baboons” in the same sentence, but a study
published Thursday comes close. Researchers report in the
journal Science that they trained six Guinea baboons (Papio
papio) to distinguish real, four-letter English words such as
”done” and ”vast” from non-words such as ”dran” and ”lons.”
After six weeks, the baboons learned to pick out dozens of
words as many as 308 in the case of the clever Dan, and 81
for Violette from a sea of 7,832 non-words.
U.S. and Russian scientists launch ice seal survey
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – A team of U.S. and Russian
scientists has launched the biggest population survey to date
of Bering Sea ice seals as federal authorities consider
endangered species protections for the marine mammals, a U.S.
government spokeswoman said. As part of the project, which
began this week, scientists are flying by plane at low altitude
– just 800 to 1,000 feet above the surface – across 20,000
nautical miles of U.S. and Russian waters, tracking the seals
with infrared and digital cameras.
