The retreat of coastlines due to rising sea levels may be accelerated by wildfires, a Duke University researcher has discovered. In the absence of such fires, forests can slow the encroachment, he found. At such fire scenes, though, finger-like patches of marshlands can extend into former forest by as much as several hundred yards. The result is a “punctuated” near-shoreline landscape, the scientist said. Such punctuated advance of the sea is in sharp contrast to the widespread belief that coastal
Here’s one way to win a debate: Start an argument with folks who aren’t particularly talented debaters. Then keep them on the defensive with complicated, highly philosophical spurious attacks and baffling red herring arguments. Finally, before they have finished responding, pull the rug out from under them with a well-planned political end-run that trumps the whole debate.
That basically sums up the strategy being employed by the Intelligent Design (ID) movement as it con
Something remarkable happened on the island closest to the epicenter of the great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake last December: Only seven of the island’s 78,000 inhabitants died. This is despite the fact tsunamis hit the island only eight minutes after the quake, despite the destruction of many Simuelue villages, and despite the lack of an official tsunami warning system and little in the way of telecommunications.
Why were the lives of Simuelue islanders spared when all around the I
New high-resolution images of mid-latitude Mars are revealing glacier-formed landscapes far from the Martian poles, says a leading Mars researcher.
Conspicuous trains of debris in valleys, arcs of debris on steep slopes and other features far from the polar ice caps bear striking similarities to glacial landscapes of Earth, says Brown University’s James Head III. When combined with the latest climate models and orbital calculation for Mars, the geological features make a comp
A sensitive new genetic test can now detect a crippling disease called QPX occurring in clam beds from Cape Cod south to Virginia and north to Canada. Although it does not affect humans and it is not as well known as red tide, the disease can have a significant impact on a local economy by killing clams and devastating shellfish harvests and commercial aquaculture operations.
QPX – for quahog parasite unknown – is a single-celled organism related to slime mold. It was first de
The ice ages made massive changes to the Earth’s landscape. But what was happening below the ice in the oceans?
Research by marine scientists reveals that it was a time of mass destruction as whole communities of animals were wiped out by ice sheets scouring the sea floor.
In the past it has been thought that these ecosystems somehow dodged extinction by recolonising from nearby habitats that escaped obliteration. But researchers at the National Oceanography Centre,
The most comprehensive climate model to date of the continental United States predicts more extreme temperatures throughout the country and more extreme precipitation along the Gulf Coast, in the Pacific Northwest and east of the Mississippi.
The climate model, run on supercomputers at Purdue University, takes into account a large number of factors that have been incompletely incorporated in past studies, such as the effects of snow reflecting solar energy back into space and of
Virginia Tech Geoscientists Patricia Dove and Nizhou Han have demonstrated that crystals dissolve and grow by the same set of analogous ’reversed’ mechanisms. Previously, the scientific community had long-maintained that growth and dissolution could not be unified into a single framework of understanding. The new evidence is certain to overturn that perception.
Dove, Han, and James J. De Yoreo of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory report their research in the Oct.
A NASA study is offering new insight into how the Earth’s water cycle might be influenced by global change.
In recent years, scientists have warned that the water cycle may be affected by temperature changes, as warmer temperatures can increase the moisture-holding capacity of air.
The global water cycle involves the transfer of water molecules between the Earth’s land masses, cryosphere, oceans and atmosphere. It’s a gigantic system powered by the su
New studies unveiled at bone marrow failure symposium
The following studies on bone marrow failure diseases will be presented at the Bone Marrow Failure Scientific Symposium Oct. 18-19, L’Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington, DC. Organized by the Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation, Inc. (AA&MDSIF), the symposium is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, including the Office of Rare Diseases, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Cancer
A new method of radiation — accelerated partial breast irradiation using balloon brachytherapy — makes it more convenient for breast cancer patients to receive radiation therapy after surgery and appears to be safe, offer good cosmetic results, and keep cancer from coming back, according to four-year results of an ongoing study presented October 17, 2005, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology’s 47th Annual Meeting in Denver.
“This radiation tech
For patients with rectal cancer, receiving radiation therapy and chemotherapy before surgery to shrink the tumor so it can be more easily removed helps keep the cancer from coming back, according to a study presented October 17, 2005, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology’s 47th Annual Meeting in Denver .
Beginning in 1992, doctors in France enrolled 733 patients suffering from rectal cancer into the study. The patients were split into two group
Most abuse of boys done by parents … most frequently mothers
According to a study in the October 18 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, a history of childhood physical abuse may be common in men from urban settings, and these men with physical abuse histories may be more likely to commit domestic violence. The study found that the childhood abuse was primarily committed by parents, with mothers being the most frequent abusers.
“The results provide a circumstanti
Scientists have developed a new tool that may prove to be invaluable for investigating the long-term mutagenic effects of chemotherapy and radiation, therapies that are widely used for the treatment of cancer. The research study, published in the October issue of Cancer Cell, provides evidence that a genetically engineered mouse model faithfully recapitulates treatment-associated cancers that occur in humans and may be useful for investigating the mechanisms involved in the development of ther
Combined therapy is good for BAD
A new research study published in the October issue of Cancer Cell identifies a molecular switch that integrates cell survival signals from multiple intracellular signaling pathways. The finding has substantial clinical significance, as mutations in these cell survival-signaling pathways are associated with many human cancers, and a better understanding of how these pathways converge to regulate the delicate balance between cell proliferation and cel
Four of the most widespread environmental toxins–lead, trihalomethanes (found in drinking water), ionizing radiation from indoor radon gas, and tobacco smoke–can cause serious damage to health even at very low levels, say researchers in the international medical journal PLoS Medicine.
What this means, say the researchers Donald Wigle of the University of Ottawa and Bruce Lanphear of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, is that there are simply no safe levels of exposur
Feedback
