The origin of perennial water-ice at the South Pole of Mars
... Early during the mission, the OMEGA instrument (Visible and Infrared Mineralogical Mapping Spectrometer) on board Mars Express had already found previously undetected perennial deposits of water-ice. They are sitting on top of million-year old layered terrains and provide strong evidence for a recent glacial activity. ... However, only now a realistic explanatio...ASU geologists suggest Mars features are result of meteorite strikes, not of evaporated lakes
Geologic features at the Opportunity landing site on Mars were formed not by a lake that evaporated but by constant strikes from meteorites, say two Arizona State University geologists. ...... The site where the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity landed has sediments and layered structures that are thought to be formed by the evaporation of an acidic salty sea. The prevailing thought is that when...Researchers publish first marsupial genome sequence
BETHESDA, Md., Wed., May 9, 2007 An international team, led by researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today announced the publication of the first genome of a marsupial, belonging to a South American species of opossum. In a comparison of the marsupial genome to genomes of non-marsupials, including human, published in the...LSU professor involved in genome sequencing of the first marsupial
BATON ROUGE Since the launch of the Human Genome Project, which released a first draft of the entire sequence of human DNA in 2001, many researchers have dedicated themselves to creating a library of comprehensive, species-specific genetic sequence "maps" available for study. Scientists at LSU recently took part in a multi-institutional effort spearheaded by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harv...Orbiter provides new hints of past groundwater flows on Mars
... ... Within those layered deposits, the exquisitely detailed images show, there are a series of linear fractures, called joints, that are surround...World's oldest rocks show how Earth may have dodged frozen fate of Mars
... Scientists have theorized for years that high concentrations of greenhouse gases could have helped Earth avoid global freezing in its youth by allowing the atmosphere to retain more heat than it lost. Now a team from the University of Chicago and the University of Colorado at Boulder that analyzed ancient rocks from the eastern shore of Hudso...Marshfield Clinic's electronic health record first to receive CCHIT certification
... ... "This certification acknowledges the comprehensiveness of Marshfield Clinic's...Mars Express and the story of water on Mars
... Since the Viking missions of the 1970s, planetary scientists have changed their perception of water on Mars several times, passing from the picture of a dry planet to that of a warmer and wetter one. Mars Express's data are now shading a new light on the complex issue of the evolution of water on the Red Planet. ..."We are re-writing the history of...Mars mission Risk 29: Scientists research ways to reduce radiation-induced brain damage
... ... Now, medical scientists have been tasked to determine the human brain's maximum safe cosmic radiation dose and to d...Species unique to tidal marshes face threats
Tidal marshes cover only about 45,000 square kilometers worldwide--about the area of Denmark. In comparison with other habitats, tidal marshes support few nonaquatic vertebrate species, but their unique characteristics have led to the evolution of species and subspecies that are endemic (found nowhere else). These endemic species and subspecies, which seem to be largely restricted to North Americ...Controlling robots that search for Mars life
... The fourth decade of this century could see Europe participating in a manned mission to Mars in what would be one of humanity's grandest space expeditions ever. ...Aurora is ESA's programme aimed at the long-term robotic and human exploration of the Solar System, with Mars and the Moon as the main targets. ... A human mission t...Damaged Iraq marshes show renewed signs of life
The marshes of southern Iraq, devastated in recent decades by Saddam Hussein's regime, are showing a "remarkable" recovery, according to an ecological survey team led by scientists at Duke University and the University of Basrah....... In their latest and most thorough evaluation of the marshes -- claimed in some quarters to be the site of the biblical Garden of Eden -- the researchers found that...Iraq's marshes show progress toward recovery
Reflooding of Iraq's destroyed Mesopotamian marshes since 2003 has resulted in a "remarkable rate of reestablishment" of native invertebrates, plants, fish, and birds, according to an article in the June issue of BioScience. Curtis J. Richardson of Duke University and Najah A. Hussain of the University of Basrah, writing about fieldwork conducted over the past two years in four large marshes in s...How healthy is that marsh? Biologists count parasites
Is that salt marsh healthy? To answer this, Sea Grant biologists are cracking open common marsh snails and counting parasitic worms. Their claim: the more parasites, the healthier the marsh....... While the parasite hypothesis may conflict with conventional ideas about infectious disease and human health (malaria, for example, is caused by a parasite), the worms the scientists are investigating a...In undersea habitat, aquanauts learn about teamwork and task performance for the moon and Mars
In isolated environments, astronauts, flight crews, offshore workers and military forces must maintain vigilance and work together to ensure a safe and successful mission....... Between daily living, telemedicine activities and moon-walking simulations, participants in the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) 9 project helped National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) res...Massive marsh planting to begin in coastal Alabama and Mississippi
An unprecedented marsh gardening project, spanning two states and utilizing the talents of many agencies, is ready to begin this spring. ...Headed by Dr. Just Cebrian, Senior Marine Scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, this ambitious "greening of the estuaries" seeks to establish new, or rehabilitate existing, marsh sites....... In 2002, the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program's Comprehensive...Next phase reached in definition of Mars Sample Return mission
ESA has taken a further step in preparing for participation in Mars Sample Return (MSR), the landmark mission to return samples from the Red Planet, with the announcement of the next phase of industrial activity....... The Phase A2 activity will address many critical issues and identify key areas in which Europe can participate in this flagship of the Aurora Programme....... The search for eviden...Mars challenge is protecting humans from long space travel and heavy metal ion bombardment
Just like winning the Nobel Prize, one way to be eligible to into space for NASA is by becoming a successful physiologist or medical doctor, former payload specialist James A. Pawelczyk told an audience of high school students and science teachers today at an American Physiological Society Education program, "Physiology for Life Science Teachers and Students" session at Experimental Biology 2006...Mars meteorite similar to bacteria-etched earth rocks
A new study of a meteorite that originated from Mars has revealed a series of microscopic tunnels that are similar in size, shape and distribution to tracks left on Earth rocks by feeding bacteria....... And though researchers were unable to extract DNA from the Martian rocks, the finding nonetheless adds intrigue to the search for life beyond Earth....... Results of the study were published in t...Cold case: Looking for life on Mars
Evidence never dies in the popular TV show Cold Case. Nor do some traces of life disappear on Earth, Mars, or elsewhere. An international team of scientists,* including researchers from the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory, has developed techniques to detect miniscule amounts of biological remains, dubbed biosignatures, in the frozen Mars-like terrain of Svalbard, a island north of N...Behavioral studies show UV contributes to marsupial color vision
Work reported this week provides new evidence that marsupials, like primates, have functional color vision based on three different types of color photoreceptor cones--but unlike primates, a component of marsupial color vision includes sensitivity to ultraviolet wavelengths. In the study, researchers employed behavioral tests to show that at least one type of marsupial uses its detection of UV li...Finding life on Mars and outer space begins by examining Earth's inner space
Clues to finding current or past life on Mars now or at some point in the past begins with an examination of Earth's most extreme environments and the adaptable microscopic life that thrives there, according to a group of researchers on an international broadcast science expedition January 30 through February 4 with The JASON Project. ... ...By investigating "unlifelike" places on Earth where co...Inside rocks, implications for finding life on Mars
UCLA paleobiologist J. William Schopf and colleagues have produced 3-D images of ancient fossils -- 650 million to 850 million years old -- preserved in rocks, an achievement that has never been done before.... ...If a future space mission to Mars brings rocks back to Earth, Schopf said the techniques he has used, called confocal laser scanning microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, could enable scie...Marsupial genome reveals insights into mammalian evolution
The genetic code of marsupials has now been documented for the first time. An international team led by Kathy Belov from the University of Sydney's Faculty of Veterinary Science published an analysis of the marsupial genome in the open access journal PLoS Biology. The paper details the evolution of an important cluster of immune genes known as the MHC using available genome sequences of the gray...Surprising killer of southeastern salt marshes: Common sea snails
Periwinkles, the spiral-shelled snails commonly found along rocky U.S. shorelines, play a primary role in the unprecedented disappearance of salt marsh in the southeastern states, according to new research published in Science.... ...Based on extensive field studies, the work challenges six decades of salt marsh science. Ecologists have long thought that stressed soil too much salt, not enough o...Research: Snails were overlooked contributors to marsh destruction
Buoyed by the effects of an intense drought, otherwise harmless snails likely killed off thousands of acres of salt marsh in the Southeast in recent years....... Periwinkle snails, known to science as Littoraria irrorata, normally coexist happily with salt marsh. But the drought, which lasted from 1999 to 2001, weakened and killed marsh grasses such as cordgrass, or Spartina alterniflora, so exte...Microbes under Greenland Ice may be preview of what scientists find under Mars' surface
A University of California, Berkeley, study of methane-producing bacteria frozen at the bottom of Greenland's two-mile thick ice sheet could help guide scientists searching for similar bacterial life on Mars.... ...Methane is a greenhouse gas present in the atmospheres of both Earth and Mars. If a class of ancient microbes called Archaea are the source of Mars' methane, as some scientists have pr...UC Santa Barbara researcher tapped by Europeans for design of instrument to test soil on Mars
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) The European Space Agency (ESA) announced today support of a new program that will include development of an instrument for testing deep soil samples on Mars in a European mission called ExoMars. A researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara will direct the development of the instrument.... ... "We are very excited about this," said Luann Becker, research sc...NC State researchers redesign life for Mars and beyond
Researchers at North Carolina State University are looking deep under water for clues on...how to redesign plants for life deep in outer space. ......Some of the stresses inherent with travel and life in space extreme temperatures,...drought, radiation and gravity, for example are not easily remedied with traditional plant...defenses.... ...So Dr. Wendy Boss, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished...Restoring Mesopotamian marshes
After two years of study, Iraqi and other researchers will present their findings on the marshes' current state, as well as offer their perspectives on hopes for wetland restoration during a special session held during the Ecological Society of America's-INTECOL's Joint Meeting. This marks the first time Iraqi ecologists have been to a western ecology meeting. It is also the first comprehensive...Life detection instrument passes key test on road to Mars
Berkeley -- The dry, dusty, treeless expanse of Chile's Atacama Desert is the most lifeless spot on the face of the Earth, and that's why Alison Skelley and Richard Mathies joined a team of NASA scientists there earlier this month. ......The University of California, Berkeley, scientists knew that if the Mars Organic Analyzer (MOA) they'd built could detect life in that crusty, arid land, then it...Marshfield Clinic researchers launch study of environmental causes of Alzheimer's disease
MARSHFIELD, Wis. -- Marshfield Clinic researchers have begun searching for genetic and environmental links to Alzheimer's disease as a first step toward developing diagnostic markers to identify people at risk before they develop the disease. ...Researchers will study the DNA of Alzheimer's patients from its database of more than 18,000 voluntarily-donated DNA samples. The Marshfield Clinic Resea...Small species back-up giant marsupial climate change extinction claim
Thinking small in a time when everything was big has helped Queensland researchers to unearth new evidence that climate change, instead of humans, was responsible for wiping out Australian giant marsupials or megafauna 40,000 years ago.... ...Instead of only excavating 'trophy specimens' such as giant kangaroos and wombats, the researchers from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Queen...Marshes tell story of medieval drought, little ice age, and European settlers near NYC
Aside from views of cattails and blackbirds, the marshes in the lower Hudson Valley near New York City offer an amazingly detailed history of the area's climate. Sediment layers from a tidal marsh in the Hudson River Estuary have preserved pollen from plants, seeds, and other materials. These past remnants allowed researchers from Columbia University, New York, N.Y. and NASA to see evidence of a...The Academy of Natural Sciences investigates effects of climate change on Delaware tidal marshes
PHILADELPHIA--What will happen to birds, plants, insects, fish, other animals and drinking water when more salt water mixes in with freshwater in the tidal marshes of the Delaware Estuary as the predicted result of climate change? ...That's what The Academy of Natural Sciences has begun investigating thanks to a prestigious...$700,000 Science to Achieve Results grant from the Environmental Protec...Science's Breakthrough of the Year: Salty, acidic soup could have supported life on Mars
This release is also available in ......Evidence for the prolonged presence of potentially-life-supporting, salty, acidic water on the surface of Mars claims top honors as the Breakthrough of the Year, named by ......The findings from 2004 suggest that Mars was once a wet, warm place that could have been capable of cradling life billions of years ago, when life...Man-made wetland's effectiveness similar to natural marsh
COLUMBUS, Ohio Researchers who studied a man-made wetland in Ohio for two years concluded that the created wetland filtered and cleaned water as well as or better than would a natural marsh....... The wetland, which was built in an agricultural area, reduced levels of phosphorus by nearly 60 percent and nitrates by 40 percent. Phosphorus and nitrates are prime ingredients in both fertilizers and...Scientists find both damage and promise for renewal in devastated Iraqi marshlands
DURHAM, N.C. -- In the first analysis of the ecology of the storied Iraqi Mesopotamian marshes after the toppling of the regime of Saddam Hussein, scientists have found many problems, but also the promise of partial revitalization, should those problems be solved. ......During his 24-year reign, Saddam decreed the extensive draining of the original 15,000-square-kilometer wetlands, in part to pu...In one of the rare good news stories coming out of Iraq, the country's almost-decimated wetlands have begun rebounding under the efforts of local residents and the new government in Iraq, monitored by an international team of scientists....... Dr. Barry Warner, a University of Waterloo scientist who leads the Canadian contingent of the project, has been working with Iraqi scientist Dr. Majeed Ras...From Mars to Maryland's Chesapeake Bay, and from whales of the world to Iraq's once-lush marshlands, the 2005 AAAS Annual Meeting -- America's largest general science conference -- promises breaking-news headlines on a wide range of topics, plus free family science activities.... ...Set for February 17-21 in Washington, DC, the AAAS Annual Meeting offers an unsurpassed technical program for scien...