ANAHEIM, California — As if enemy fire, IEDs and suicide bombers weren’t enough, U.S. soldiers in Iraq also must contend with air that’s laden with heavy metals and lung-ravaging particles, researchers reported March 30 at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society. Exposure to particles of the size collected in the study is of special concern, because it can lead to chronic respiratory infections, asthma and elevated risk of cardiovascular problems.

Air samples collected over 90-minute intervals at several sites in Iraq since 2008 contained fine particulate matter, dust, lead, aluminum and other metals in quantities that frequently exceed U.S. air-quality standards, graduate student Jennifer Bell of the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks reported.

While concentrations varied daily, typical concentrations of lead particles ranged from 0.6 to 1 microgram per cubic meter of air, Bell and her thesis adviser Catherine Cahill found. That’s at least four times greater than exposure standards set by U.S. national air quality standards. During one dust storm, airborne aluminum concentrations exceeded 1,400 micrograms per cubic meter. Chronic exposure to more than 65 micrograms per cubic meter of any type of particle in this size range may increase risk for health problems.

Continue Reading “Not Even Breathing Is Safe in Iraq” »

This spectacular image of the half-blocked sun was captured March 29 when the orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory slipped behind the Earth.

SDO shoots dazzling photos and videos of the sun from 22,000 miles above Earth’s surface. Twice a year, the spacecraft enters an eclipse season when the Earth blocks its view for up to 72 minutes a day.

Unlike the sharp shadow seen during a lunar eclipse, the Earth’s shadow has a ragged edged because of its variable atmosphere. Spots where the atmosphere is denser block more sunlight than spots where it is thinner. Brighter spots on the sun can penetrate the atmosphere, too, sending beautiful tendrils through Earth’s shadow.

Continue Reading “Spacecraft Sees Earth Eclipse the Fiery Sun” »

By Annalee Newitz, io9

If you thought that scene in Sucker Punch where the doctor gave lobotomies with an ice pick was artistic exaggeration — well, it wasn’t. That’s exactly how Walter Freeman, a popularizer of lobotomies in the 1940s, performed thousands of operations.

In the mid-20th century, the lobotomy was such a popular “cure” for mental illness that Freeman’s former research partner António Egas Moniz was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize for Medicine for his role in perfecting the operation.

Moniz and Freeman had a falling out after Freeman started using an ice pick-shaped instrument to perform up to 25 lobotomies a day, without anaesthesia, while reporters looked on. Freeman’s crazy antics didn’t scare off potential patients, though: John F. Kennedy’s sister Rosemary got a lobotomy from Freeman, which left her a vegetable for the rest of her life. And she was one of many people whose “cure” was more like zombification than freedom from mental anguish.

How did the lobotomy ever become accepted medical practice? And why are people still getting them today, under the less-disturbing name “lobectomy”?

Continue Reading “The Strange Past and Promising Future of the Lobotomy” »

This new image from the Gemini South telescope in Chile captures a pair of galaxies locked in a graceful waltz that will eventually bring the two crashing together.

The telescope was aimed at these galaxies at the suggestion of a group of Australian students at the Sydney Girls High School Astronomy Club, who won a Gemini-sponsored contest searching for beautiful and scientifically useful images of the cosmos.

These galaxies are “more than just a pretty picture,” the students wrote. The main galaxy, NGC 6872, is one of the largest barred spiral galaxies known, extending 700,000 light-years from tip to tip. Astronomers think the galaxy was stretched by the gravitational pull of its smaller companion, spiral galaxy IC 4970 (right).

Over the next few hundreds of millions of years, NGC 6872’s spiral arms will collapse back into the galaxy’s center, and IC 4970 will be swallowed up by its larger neighbor. Such cannibalism is common among galaxies. Our own Milky Way is in the process of devouring several of its smaller companions, and will eventually smash into and merge with the nearby spiral galaxy Andromeda.

Continue Reading “Galactic Collision Wins Telescope Contest” »

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Hundreds of spectacular new images of Mercury are pouring in from the first spacecraft ever to orbit the smallest planet.

NASA’s Messenger spacecraft took its first shot of Mercury early Tuesday morning, and sent 224 more images to Earth by the end of the day. In its first three days of shooting, Messenger will collect 1,500 images, exceeding the number of photos taken by all earlier flybys combined.

“That’s just the barest hint of what we’ll have on a regular basis once the mapping phase begins” on April 4, said principal investigator Sean Solomon in a news conference Wednesday. “This extremely dynamic planet will be on continuous display for the first time.”

This gallery showcases the first detailed peek at the hot, scarred, under-explored world at the solar system’s inner edge.

First Look

The first-ever image from orbit released Tuesday was actually one of eight images taken through several different filters. Each filter lets in a different wavelength of light, letting planetary scientists piece together colored versions of the images. In the image above, wavelengths of 1,000 nanometers, 750 nm and 430 nm are displayed in red, green, and blue, respectively.

The first image caught sight of terrain that had never been seen before, plus several bright craters and the south pole.

All images: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

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By John Timmer, Ars Technica

Air travel has come under fire for its potential contributions to climate change. Most people probably assume that its impact comes through carbon emissions, given that aircraft burn significant amounts of fossil fuel to stay aloft. But the carbon released by air travel remains a relatively minor part of the global output; The impact of planes results from where they burn the fuel, not the mere fact that they burn it.

A study in the brand-new journal Nature Climate Change reinforces that by suggesting that the clouds currently being generated by air travel have a larger impact on the climate than the cumulative emissions of all aircraft ever flown.

That fact isn’t mentioned in the article at all, however (it’s part of a Nature press release on the paper). What the authors do consider is the fact that carbon emissions are only one of the impacts of aviation.

Others include the emissions of particulates high in the atmosphere, the production of nitrogen oxides and the direct production of clouds through contrail water vapor. Over time, these thin lines of water evolve into “contrail cirrus” clouds that lose their linear features and become indistinguishable from the real thing. Although low-altitude clouds tend to cool the planet by reflecting sunlight, high-altitude clouds like cirrus have an insulating effect and actually enhance warming.

Continue Reading “Contrails Worse for Climate Change Than Planes’ Carbon Emissions” »

By Duncan Geere, Wired UK

The unprecedented flooding in Pakistan in the latter half of 2010 disrupted the lives of 20 million people, but it also affected the country’s arachnid population.

With more than a fifth of the country submerged, millions of spiders climbed into trees to escape the rising floodwaters. The water took so long to recede, the trees became covered in a cocoon of spiderwebs. The result is an eerie, alien panorama, with any vegetation covered in a thick mass of webbing. (You can see images from the region in the gallery linked below.)

However, the unusual phenomenon may be a blessing in disguise. Britain’s department for international development reports that areas where the spiders have scaled the trees have seen far fewer malaria-spreading mosquitos than might be expected, given the prevalence of stagnant, standing water.

The agency is providing aid to the communities affected by the disaster, including safe drinking water, health care, food and shelter. To reduce the population’s long-term dependence on that aid, the government agency is now offering wheat seeds and tools to farmers, and jobs and skills training for those in rural areas. However, reconstruction in the worst-hit areas is expected to take many years.

See more images with the original story on Wired UK.

Image: U.K. Department for International Development

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Dark matter collecting inside exoplanets could heat some cold worlds enough to support life, even without the warm glow of starlight.

Alien-hunting astronomers generally search for planets that lie just far enough from their stars to keep from boiling off or freezing any liquid water, which is thought to be a prerequisite for carbon-based life. But other heat sources could potentially warm up a chilly planet that is outside this habitable zone.

One possibility is radioactive elements decaying inside rocks, which already give the Earth about 0.025 percent of its geothermal energy. Another is a thick atmosphere to drive a greenhouse effect, which renders Venus an inhospitable hot house. Some have even suggested that planets that have been kicked out of their solar systems could still support life beneath a thick atmosphere or a shell of ice.

In a new paper posted on arXiv.org and submitted to the Astrophysical Journal, physicists Dan Hooper and Jason Steffen of Fermilab in Illinois suggest an exotic internal radiator for cold, rocky planets: dark matter. In certain parts of the galaxy, they say, dark matter could effectively outshine the sun.

“It’s not something that’s likely to produce a lot of habitable planets,” Hooper said. “But in very special places and in very special models, it could do the trick.”

Continue Reading “Dark Matter Heat Could Make Exoplanets Habitable” »

Early Tuesday morning, NASA’s Messenger spacecraft sent home the first image of Mercury ever taken from orbit around the planet.

The picture, taken at 5:20 a.m. EDT on March 29, shows a wide swath of Mercury’s southern hemisphere. The bright crater at the top of the image is called Debussy, and a smaller crater called Matabei lies to Debussy’s west. The shadowed, pockmarked region south of the bright craters includes Mercury’s south pole and slice of terrain that had never been seen up close before.

When Messenger became the first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury on March 17, it had already mapped 98 percent of the planet’s surface. But those earlier images were snapped as the spacecraft zipped past to adjust its trajectory. Now that Messenger is in orbit, it will have the chance to explore every crater and crevice of the solar system’s smallest planet in detail.

The good stuff is still on its way. The orbiter took 363 more images of the planet’s surface in the six hours after this first image was captured, and is in the process of downlinking them to Earth. These initial images are part of the commissioning phase, to make sure all the instruments are working. The true-science phase of the mission begins April 4. It calls for 75,000 more images before the orbiter’s science goals are complete.

NASA will hold a teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT Wednesday to discuss this first shot of the innermost planet and release more photos. Stay tuned!

Continue Reading “First Image of Mercury From Orbit” »

After testing hundreds of frogs representing dozens of species on an amphibian version of a treadmill, researchers have determined that colorful, highly poisonous frogs have the greatest aerobic capacities.

Earlier studies had suggested a link between poison and metabolism in frogs, but involved just a handful species.

Of course, unless you’ve always dreamed of putting frogs on treadmills, or plan to bet on frog races, the results might seem a bit academic. But they raise a fascinating natural history question: Why are colorful, poisonous frogs the fittest?

University of Texas, Austin, biologists Juan Santos and David Cannatella, who described their frog experiments March 28 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, have a few ideas.

Continue Reading “Poisonous Lifestyle Makes Frogs More Fit” »