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A female blacktip shark in Virginia fertilized her own egg without mating with a male shark, new DNA evidence shows. This is the second time scientists have used DNA testing to verify shark parthenogenesis—the process that allows females of some species to produce offspring without sperm.

The female shark, dubbed Tidbit, died during a routine physical exam before the pregnancy was identified.

A necropsy—an animal autopsy—after her death revealed she was carrying a near-term pup fetus that was about 12 inches (30 centimeters) in length.

Tidbit was caught in the wild when she was very young and reached sexual maturity in a tank at the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach, where she lived for eight years.

"The interesting thing about that was there were no male blacktip sharks in the tank for the entire time of her captivity," said Demian Chapman, a researcher with the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University in New York.

"So the question is, where does this baby come from?" he asked.

Chapman is the lead author of a study on the female blacktip in the latest issue of the Journal of Fish Biology.

DNA fingerprinting

Chapman and his colleagues generated a DNA fingerprint for the mother shark and her pup fetus with a procedure identical to a human paternity test.

Ordinarily, a shark's DNA contains some genetic material from its mother and some from its father. Tidbit's pup, however, was not ordinary.

"Every part of the fingerprint of the embryo comes from the mother," Chapman said. "In other words, there is no genetic material from a father."

All non-mammal vertebrate species are theoretically capable of parthenogenesis, scientists say. Examples have been documented in komodo dragons , pythons, rattlesnakes, chickens, and turkeys.

Parthenogenesis is not possible in humans because if all the genetic material comes from the mother, certain genes will be switched off, and the embryo won't develop.

"For sharks in captivity, [parthenogenesis] has probably occurred more times than has been documented," says Robert Hueter, director of the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida.

The question then becomes, is parthenogenesis a type of developmental anomaly or a response to the female shark not having a mate in captivity?

"The fact that only one shark embryo was formed may suggest that this is more a case of an egg developmental aberration rather than a physiological response to the lack of a mate," said Hueter, who was not involved with the study.

No Variation

Normally, an embryo is formed when an egg containing half its chromosomes is fertilized by a sperm containing the other half.

When an egg cell is formed, a plant or female animal also produces three other cells called polar bodies. In the type of parthenogenesis observed in sharks, one of those cells behaves like a sperm and fertilizes the egg.

"But that cell is genetically identical to the egg," Chapman said. "So that's where you lose a lot of genetic variation."

Offspring produced by parthenogenesis are not exact clones of their mothers, however, because the genetic material is mixed differently.

Still, researchers believe the risk of congenital defects increases in animals whose DNA lack genetic variation.

"There's an increased risk of having a weakened immune system and there's a risk of reproductive abnormalities," Chapman said. "But in some cases, they'll be able to survive."

The scientists have not ruled out the possibility that increased stress from the abnormal pregnancy contributed to Tidbit's death.

The race is on to make commercial amounts of ethanol or other biofuels out of plant waste containing cellulose -- a fibrous component of plants that gives them structure. But some researchers are looking at a different option -- using cellulose to power microbial fuel cells, in which bacteria digest plant waste matter to create electricity directly.

These fuel cells could be used to charge batteries or power electrical devices.

Others are considering drawing power from microbes digesting human waste at wastewater treatment plants or manure from feedlot lagoons.

"Basically, we're converting cellulose into a different energy source than ethanol," said John Regan of Pennsylvania State University in University Park.

"It's not more efficient right now, but if you look at what's been done over the last decade, there has been about a five to six order-of-magnitude (100,000-1,000,000-fold) increase in power density."

What are Second Generation Biofuels?
Ethanol made from cellulose, as opposed to ethanol made from corn, is a second generation biofuel. The difference, and it's an important one, is that second generation biofuels use non-food residual biomass like the stems, leaves, wood chips, and husks, or they use non-food crops that can be grown without high energy inputs, like switchgrass.

Verenium's Cellulosic Ethanol Goals
Verenium wants to create cellulosic ethanol at $2 per gallon, which right now would make it fairly competitive with corn ethanol and regular gasoline.

But this demonstration plant is just the beginning: Next year, Verenium wants to built several commercial plants that would each produce 20 to 30 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol yearly. That's still a fairly small drop in the bucket of gasoline consumption, but it would be much better than corn ethanol, and certainly better than fossil fuels.

What to do with Corn Ethanol?
One question that remains is: What do we do with all that corn ethanol?

The best hope would be to convert corn ethanol biorefineries into second generation biofuel plants. That might or might not be possible on a technical level, but we suspect that on a political level it will be even harder. The farm lobby is very good at keeping subsidies forever. When food prices are low, they ask for subsidies, when prices are high (as now), they ask for more. So who knows if the fat corn ethanol subsidies will ever be repelled?

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The newfound Aerosteon riocoloradensis had both lungs (in red) and air sacs (in other colors), much like modern-day birds.

The 33-foot (10-meter) long dinosaur—described in a September 2008 study—has given scientists new insight into the evolution of bird lungs.
(courtesy Todd Marshall, National Geographic Society)


A new predatory dinosaur with a birdlike breathing system found in Argentina may help scientists better understand the evolution of birds' lung systems.
The elephant-size dinosaur Aerosteon riocoloradensis lived 85 million years ago during the Cretaceous period.

The fossil provides the first evidence of dinosaur air sacs, which pump air into the lungs and are used by modern-day birds, said Paul Sereno, the project's lead researcher and a National Geographic explorer-in-residence. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

Scientists have known dinosaurs used the pumplike apparatus to breathe, but the new find cements the connection between dinosaur and avian evolution, said Sereno, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago.

"This leaves little discussion that air sacs existed and that meat-eaters really do have lung structures that resemble birds," Sereno said.

Building a Case

Verifying that dinosaurs had bird-like breathing systems has been difficult because lungs do not fossilize, according to Sereno.

In Argentina, Sereno's team found the wishbone, hipbone, and stomach ribs of the newly found dinosaur species hollowed out—a telltale sign of air sacs.

Aerosteon had a sophisticated and extensive breathing system, said Brooks Britt, a paleontologist at Brigham Young University who studies birdlike dinosaurs and is familiar with Sereno's research.

Britt studies Allosaurus, the new dinosaur's closest relative, which lived 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period.

The two giants had something in common when it comes to birdlike features.

Allosaurus had air-filled bones in its vertebrae and possibly other bones. These spongelike textured bones are "the hallmark of the bellows system of breathing in birds," Ricardo Martínez of the Universidad Nacional de San Juan in Argentina said in a press release. Martínez, Sereno, and colleagues published their work today in the journal PLoS One.

The Evolution of Flight

Birds have a unique way of breathing in which the lungs don't expand, Sereno explained. Instead, the air sacs do the pumping. "It's the reason birds can fly higher and faster than bats, which, like all mammals, expand their lungs in a less efficient breathing process, he said.

Despite their birdlike breathing systems, Aerosteon and similar dinosaurs lacked the large sternum of birds, a specialized rib arrangement, and birdlike hips necessary for flight, Brigham Young's Britt said.

"It shows that evolution is not a chalk line—there are many dead ends," he added.

The connection to the much older Allosaurus also suggests that these types of breathing systems were around in the Jurassic, and that the Allosaurus may have had a more sophisticated breathing system than is currently known, Britt said.

The new dinosaur probably had feathers, but did not actually fly, Sereno said, suggesting that even though this species was birdlike, feathers and air sacs didn't necessarily evolve for flight.

"We suggest that air sacs played a role in cooling off the animal," Sereno said. "Our conclusion is that feathers were for insulation, keeping the animal warm."

Aerosteon probably didn't have sweat glands, which help keep mammals cool, Sereno said. A warm-blooded, active animal may then develop air sacs to cool off, he said.

The research team also suggests that air sacs could have been used for the development of a more efficient lung or to help balance the weight of the dinosaur's top-heavy, two-legged frame.

Isolated

Finding a dinosaur living in isolation is "remarkable," Sereno said. It's like finding a piece of the Jurassic period in the Cretaceous, he added.

Sereno and his team found the Aerosteon fossils in 1996, along the banks of the Colorado River in Mendoza Province, but were able to study them closely only after an arduous and meticulous process of detaching the bones from solid rock.

While researchers were preparing the hipbone, they noticed a crack, Sereno said. This led them to look at a cross section of the bone, which revealed holes related to the air sacs.

Aerosteon may have been able to reach the size of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, though the specimen found by Sereno's team measures about 33 feet (10 meters).

The research team found crocodiles, among other animals, at the site, where the climate 85 million years ago resembled a "lush, forested area," Sereno said.

Stars have onion-like layers that blow off in fiery explosions before a final killing blow—a supernova—turns them into black holes, according to a new theory of star death.

These repetitive blasts are too powerful to be caused by stellar winds, as previously believed—so they must come from a new type of explosion originating in the star's interior, astronomers say.

The theory was advanced this week in a study led by Nathan Smith, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley.

Using ground-based telescopes, Smith took a close look at the Homunculus Nebula, the cast-off material from the 1843 explosion of the nearby star Eta Carinae, the most luminous star in the Milky Way (see photo below.)




That explosion suddenly and mysteriously brightened the star.

In the nebula, Smith discovered new, faster moving wisps of gas—too fast to be accounted for by stellar winds.

"We still don't know what the mechanism is that would initiate the explosion in the first place," Smith said, "but at least now we know that there was an explosion that we need to explain."
Double the Power

Researchers had already observed non-fatal explosions on other late-stage stars. Sometimes called "supernova imposters," the blasts are even less well understood than supernovae.

Using two telescopes at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory and the International Gemini Observatory in Chile, Smith took another look at both the Homunculus Nebula and another shell of cast-off material, estimated to be a thousand years old.

Most of the material from both blasts is crawling along at about 1.5 million miles per hour (650 kilometers per second). But Smith's newfound gas filaments are moving much faster, catching up to the materials from the thousand-year-old blast.

The finding potentially doubles estimates for the power of Eta Carinae's 1843 eruption, he said.

Not New?

Douglas Currie, an astrophysicist at University of Maryland at College Park, reported some fast-moving gas jets in Homunculus as far back as 2002, but he says the speeds reported in the new paper are significantly faster—up to double—than what has been seen before.

He doesn't agree that Smith's theory is necessarily new, since other researchers have previously suspected causes of the fast-moving gas other than stellar wind.

"I would call this a further and strong piece of evidence showing that it is a different kind of explosion," he said.

But study leader Smith said that the old speeds were on the edge of what could be produced by stellar winds—and the new speeds, even if only slightly faster—beget new questions.

He said the results "may change our interpretation of what happened in the 1843 event, and what that means for our understanding of the most massive stars."

"It means, essentially, that we still don't fully understand what is going on in the deep interiors of massive stars shortly before they die."

About picture 1 : Six red panda cubs gather around a food bowl during their unveiling at Fuzhou Panda World. The research center bred ten cubs this year. Eight survived.

The World Conservation Union lists the species as endangered. Deforestation of their high-altitude habitat is the primary threat.

Adult red pandas—which look more like raccoons than like their namesake bears—reach the size of a house cats, though the red pandas' bushy tails add an additional 18 inches (46 centimeters).

about picture 2 : Lacking eyelids and true eyelashes, a New Caledonian crested gecko at the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo licks its eyeballs to keep them moist in a photo released last week.

The geckos are native to their namesake French territory in the South Pacific Ocean. Scientists thought the species was extinct until a population was rediscovered in 1994.

Today the gecko is widely kept in the pet trade. Its conservation status is under review by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

about picture 3 : How small is a Kihansi spray toad at birth? This photo of a one-week-old at the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo gives an idea.

The toads are native to a lone gorge in Tanzania, though the conservation group believes the species is extinct in the wild due to habitat destruction, disease, and climate change.

The society has bred the toads—which give birth to live young rather than lay eggs—for seven years and plans to reintroduce some to Tanzania.

about picture 4: Surf's up, pooch! A dog shakes after catching a wave in the small-dog heat at the third annual Surf Dog Surf-A-Thon hosted by the Helen Woodward Animal Center.

The surf dogs raise money to support the shelter by catching as many waves as they can in a half-hour session. Sponsors make a per-wave pledge. The event's champion won a trip to K-59, a surf spot in El Salvador.

An early whale had large back legs, a tail like a dog's, and a hip-wiggling swimming style, according to a new fossil study. The discovery helps pinpoint the advent of "modern" whale flukes to between 38 and 40 million years ago, scientists say.

Flukes are the two wide, flat triangular lobes on a whale's back end and are made of skin and connective tissue, with bones in the middle.

Scientists have known whales evolved from semiaquatic, four-footed creatures with long, thin tails to today's fully aquatic mammals with fluked tails, no back legs, and flippers instead of front legs.

But it was previously unknown when the tail flukes first arose in the whale family tree.

"What's interesting about this animal is that it had these back legs that it used to push itself through the water," said study author Mark D. Uhen, a paleontologist from the Alabama Museum of Natural History.

"This animal didn't have flukes, but the ones just a little bit younger [geologically] did. So we can really narrow that time frame now."

Uhen's study is detailed in the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Fossil Puzzle

Amateurs found different parts of the newly described fossils over time in Coffeeville Landing, Alabama.

After the various fossil parts were brought to the University of Alabama in 2005, Uhen realized that all the pieces belonged to the same individual of the species Georgiacetus vogtlensis. "This is not a new species," Uhen said. "What's significant about it is that we learned more about a species that we already knew." After analyzing the fossils for almost three years, Uhen concluded the individual had a tail, but no fluke, and that Georgiacetus wiggled its hips and moved its entire trunk up and down through the water to move forward—a swim stroke whales no longer use.

"We knew some fossil whales had a tail fluke from slightly younger [fossils]. But we hadn't had decent tail vertebrae to tell where [in time] the whales had tails and where they didn't," Uhen said. "This one little vertebra tells us that Georgiacetus vogtlensis didn't have a tail fluke."

Surprise

Jonathan Geisler, of Georgia Southern University, said the new findings, if true, would force a rethink of early whale migrations.

In a 2005 paper Geisler and colleauges hypothesized that the evolution of flukes helped early whales scatter around the world from their birthplace in South Asia.

"If Georgiacetus, which is known only from North America, did not have tail flukes,"—as the new study suggests—"then our hypothesis would be wrong, and we would have to look elsewhere to explain the dispersal of early whales into the different ocean basins," said Geisler, who was not involved with the current study.

According to Geisler, the findings are a surprise, because previously evidence about the base of the tail in Georgiacetus suggested tail flukes.

"I would have guessed that it did have flukes," he said. "Of course that is the great aspect of paleontology—new fossils can lead to new understandings."

A man pulls his boat through floodwaters at the Xiengkuane Buddha Park, about 16 miles (25 kilometers) east of the Laotian capital.

Heavy rains throughout the region caused water levels to rise in the Mekong River, which flows through Laos, to a peak of 45 feet (13.7 meters) last week—the highest recorded levels in at least a hundred years.

Annual flooding of the Mekong is crucial to rice farming and fishing in some regions along its path, but months of unusually heavy rains have caused deadly landslides and spurred evacuations.

The National Weather Service issued a rare tornado warning for the Bronx on Friday as strong thunderstorms rolled over the city.

Residents were initially urged to move to the lower floors of their buildings. Within moments the advisory was downgraded to a severe thunderstorm warning.

Last year a tornado did touch down in Brooklyn, causing damage to buildings. Last week's winds knocked down trees and stalled commuter trains, but didn't spawn any twisters

A network of Iowa Republicans is playing a leading role in a secretive group advocating nationally on behalf of “conservative and free market ideals” in congressional races around the country. Among the group’s leaders are two media consultants who played key roles in the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads in 2004 and the Willie Horton ad in 1988, both of which helped defeat Democratic presidential candidates.

The American Future Fund (AFF), operating out of Des Moines, is sponsoring advocacy advertisements in closely contested congressional races from New York to Louisiana to Minnesota and Colorado. It is one of the most ambitious conservative independent expenditure groups to emerge in 2008. Most observers expect AFF to begin increasing its role in elections around the country, stoking speculation that it will spend heavily to prop up lightly funded Republican campaign committees.

Because of the way the group is organized under Internal Revenue Service guidelines for nonprofit organizations it does not have to disclose its donors and is not governed by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

But an Iowa Independent investigation has found the group has deep roots in state Republican politics. And, unlike MoveOn.org, a similar group advocating liberal causes, it’s hard to determine who is actually behind the AFF. The key players include:

Nicole Schlinger, the group’s president, the former executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa.

Tim Albrecht, a former spokesman for Republicans in the Iowa House who worked for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign and spent a short time this year working for the Republican Party of Iowa, is the group’s communications director.

David Kochel, another former state GOP executive director and a senior adviser to the Romney campaign, who has served as spokesman for AFF, although Albrecht said he is no longer associated with the group.

The Washington Post reported in March – and Albrecht confirmed to Iowa Independent — that Ben Ginsberg, of the high-powered D.C. law firm Patton Boggs, is the group’s legal counsel. Ginsberg resigned as chief outside counsel to the Bush-Cheney campaign in August 2004 when it was revealed that he was also providing advice to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that sponsored error-laden attacks on the military service record of 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

Larry McCarthy, president of D.C.-based media firm McCarthy Marcus Hennings, is AFF’s media strategist. In 1988, McCarthy produced the infamous, racially tinged Willie Horton television ad that helped then-Vice President George H.W. Bush bury Michael Dukakis under charges that he was soft on crime.

Public records show the AFF also has connections to Iowa businessman Bruce Rastetter, who is widely believed to be considering a run for governor in 2010. Rastetter is a regular donor to the Republican Party and founder of Hawkeye Renewables, the fourth largest ethanol producer in the nation. Eric Peterson, business manager at Summit Farms, another of Rastetter’s companies, is listed on documents filed with the Iowa Secretary of State’s office as president, secretary and director of Iowa Future Fund, a conservative nonprofit that essentially morphed into American Future Fund.

The address listed on an AFF ad buy in Minnesota is a post office box used by Nick Ryan, a Des Moines lobbyist who works primarily for Rastetter’s companies and who served as campaign manager for 2006 Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Nussle. In February, Ryan was acting as spokesman for Hawkeye Renewables when 29,000 gallons of ethanol was accidentally spilled at the company’s Iowa Falls plant.

The many faces of AFF

The Iowa Future Fund, technically the first incarnation of AFF, gained public attention in March when it ran a series of television and radio ads accusing Gov. Chet Culver of increasing spending by 20 percent over the past two years and raising taxes and fees by $100 million.

“Culver raises taxes and spends more money and wants to use your tax dollars to benefit Microsoft,” the ad’s narrator said, referring to a tax package that Culver backed and that the legislature passed geared to lure companies like Microsoft Corp. and Google to the state.

The Iowa Democratic Party filed a complaint with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board to determine whether the ads constituted political advertising, which would require disclosure of the group’s donors.

Charlie Smithson, executive director of the Iowa Ethics Campaign and Disclosure Board, said the complaint has not yet been fully settled.

“It is still under investigation,” he said. “The determination was made that it did not violate the state campaign laws because it did not ‘expressly advocate’ for or against Gov. Culver or a clearly identified candidate for office. The issue the Board is now looking at is whether any of the state lobbying laws were triggered.”

The next Ethics Board meeting is Aug. 28.

In April, Iowa Future Fund effectively split into two groups: AFF, which focuses on federal races around the country, and the Iowa Progress Project, which puts its resources toward state issues.

Albrecht said AFF and Iowa Future Fund “are completely unrelated.” But they share an organizational history. AFF and IFF were incorporated on the same day by the same Virginia law firm. David Kochel served for a time as spokesman for IFF and AFF before becoming president of Iowa Progress Project.

In March, an ad run by AFF in the race between Democrat Al Franken and Republican Sen. Norm Coleman for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seat caused the state’s Democratic-Farmer-LaborParty to file a formal complaint with the FEC alleging that the group violated federal election law and that its ads constitute blatant electoral advocacy.

“The American Future Fund is a shadowy nonprofit organization,” the complaint said. “It purports to be exempt from tax under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. But its notion of ‘promoting the social welfare’ is to send valentines to electorally troubled Republican Senate candidates. The Commission should take immediate steps to enforce the law and expose this group’s secret financing to light of day.”

Under federal election law, the organization is prohibited from engaging solely in “express advocacy,” which would include asking voters to vote for or against a certain candidate. But so long as the ad hasn’t been coordinated with a campaign and doesn’t outright say “vote for” or “vote against,” it is not considered express advocacy, according to Paul S. Ryan, FEC program director for the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington, D.C.-based organization.

“An organization that is careful about how it writes the script of its ad can fly under the radar or stay outside of the net of campaign finance activity,” he said.

The ad in question didn’t ask voters to vote for Coleman, but rather asked voters to “call Norm Coleman and thank him for his agenda for Minnesota.”

In 2004, several groups filed complaints against so-called independent expenditure committees saying they ignored campaign finance law. It took the FEC two years to rule on the complaints. In the end, the groups had to pay less than 2 percent of the fund they illegally raised and spent.

Brad Smith, a former chairman of the FEC and currently a professor of law at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio, said that if a group’s “major purpose” is not trying to affect elections, “they are not regulated by the FEC.” But Smith added the definition of “major purpose” is not clear, which could open the door for some nonprofit groups to face a challenge on their tax status.

“I think there would be an opening for someone who wanted to prosecute a group who is spending millions of dollars on advertising,” said Smith, a Republican who has been a vocal critic of campaign finance reform.

Albrecht said there is no validity to claims that AFF is anything but an issues-focused organization.

“We are an issues organization,” he said. “That is evident by the things that are prominently displayed on our Web site and in our work.”

Abhinav Bindra who won the Olympic gold medal in the men's 10m air rifle on Monday.

Age: 25 (date of birth: Sept 28, 1982)

Place of birth: Dehra Dun, India

Career achievements:

Gold medallist, 2006 World Championships, 10m Air Rifle

Fourth place, 2005 Asian Championships, 10m Air Rifle

Previous Olympic result:

Seventh place, 2004 Olympics, 10m Air Rifle

Bindra began the sport at the age of 15 because he liked the idea of fame. He does seven hours of shooting and two hours of stretching and jogging per day.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Abhinav Bindra won India's first individual Olympic gold medal on Monday with a thrilling come-from-behind victory in the men's 10m air rifle.

Bindra had been fourth after qualifying but had a brilliant final round and the Indian, the epitome of tranquility, hit a near perfect 10.8 on his last shot to pull in front of Henri Hakkinen of Finland, who fell to bronze with a poor final shot.

That late stumble by the Finn allowed China's Zhu Qinan, the defending Olympic champion and heavy favourite, to salvage a bitter day with silver. Zhu sobbed uncontrollably on the podium and again at a news conference.

"I can't describe how happy I am," the ever-calm Bindra told journalists. "It's the thrill of my life. That's about it. It's hard to describe. I just went for it. I knew I was lying in fourth. Thankfully it went my way and I just went for it."

Zhu suffered a lapse in concentration in the qualification earlier when he had to rush his final shots to make the time limit, dropping to second behind Hakkinen ahead of the final.

"I was under tremendous pressure and at times I felt really agitated," Zhu said just before stepping on the podium and breaking down in tears. "But I tried my best."

Moments later at the news conference Zhu was crying harder.

"I've been through a lot of hardship and shed a lot of tears in the last four years, there have been successes and failures," he said. "After 2004 my only aim has not changed. I had so very much wanted to be a champion at the Beijing Olympics."

He added: "In the last two rounds I made several mistakes because I had used up all my physical and mental energy."

Bindra, who faced criticism for failing to deliver on the great promise he showed as a child, said he was not thinking about making history in India with a first individual gold medal. In fact, he said, he was "not thinking about anything".

"I was just trying to concentrate on shooting," he said. "I wasn't thinking of making history. I was two points behind the leaders. I was just trying to shoot good shots. I wanted to shoot well and shoot aggressively. And that's what I did."

His 10.8 of a possible 10.9 on his final shot sparked loud celebrations from group of fans from India.

Hakkinen, who was even with Bindra before his mere 9.7 on his last shot, said that crucial shot felt like the nine before it.

"It just wasn't my turn," he said. "It shows that shooting is a sport from the first to the final shot. Every one counts."

Randhir Singh, Indian Olympic Association secretary-general and former shooter who was present at the range, was stricken by nerves as the competition reached its climax.

"I haven't prayed so much in my life. With the second last shot they tied together and then he (Bindra) shot a 10.8. It couldn't have got better," he told Indian television.

Bindra won the 2006 world championships and finished seventh in Athens four years ago.
Cheer for india. :)

A monkey grabs a marshmallow treat with a robotic arm—using only the power of its mind.
The new research represents a breakthrough in the field of brain-machine interfaces, which scientists hope will one day bring relief to the disabled.

In a mental meeting of monkey and machine, two primates have learned to feed themselves with a robotic arm by controlling the appendage with signals from their brains. The success boosts hopes for mind-controlled robotic prosthetics that may help disabled humans achieve some mobility.

The experiment employed "visualization" methods of learning that study leader Andrew Schwartz likens to those employed by many professional athletes.

"You show the animal what you want him to do, and neurons in the brain go off as if he were actually doing it," said Schwartz, a neurobiologist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Mapping that brain activity enabled Schwartz and colleagues to figure out what nerve cell activity produced the desired physical actions.

Recording the Brain

Probes the width of a human hair were inserted into the neuronal pathways of the monkeys' motor cortex—a brain region that controls voluntary muscle movement.

Physical movement begins as electrical impulses generated by the activity of thousands of nerve cells.

When a monkey envisioned moving the arm, probes captured the neural activity and sent the information to a computer, which mapped that data to specific physical motions.

Because brain activity is so complex, it is impossible to map the activity of all the neurons associated with motion. But the team developed an algorithm that was able to simulate and recreate much of the activity from the limited data detected by the probes.

This neuron-activity blueprint was then delivered to the robotic arm, which features working shoulder and elbow joints and a clawlike "hand."

Monkeys were able operate the arm merely by thinking. The animals fed themselves meals of marshmallows and fruit even when their real arms were restrained.Schwartz and colleagues report that the monkeys learned quickly and were soon able to operate the arm almost as if it was a natural appendage, avoiding obstacles and changing trajectory when scientists surprised them by moving the target food.

Mind Over Matter

The new work is one of many widespread efforts to develop brain-machine interface (BMI) technology, which could someday help people with spinal cord injuries, strokes, and degenerative neuromuscular diseases such as Lou Gehrig's disease.

"It represents the current state of the art in the development of neuroprosthetic controllers for complex arm-like robots," wrote physiologist John Kalaska of the Université de Montréal.

Kalaska was unaffiliated with the study but penned a commentary on the work for Nature.

While the concept of brain-operated prosthetics is promising, though, some major challenges remain before the devices become practical, he said.

Durable sensor electrodes must be developed, because current systems degrade quickly. Today's lab settings also feature an array of bulky computer systems that must somehow be condensed to a much more manageable size.

Kalaska also stressed that human brains must receive information from prosthetics as well as send it.

Sensory receptors in real skin or muscles, for example, report back to the brain so that a hand doesn't squeeze too hard or let objects fall.

Current robotic appendages lack this feedback element, which is essential to giving the devices a natural feel.

Krishna Shenoy, a Stanford University neuroscientist unaffiliated with the research, said the new work provides a valuable real-world addition to past studies in which monkeys have controlled virtual reality cursors on computer screens.

"This is a very powerful first demonstration of direct brain control of a real prosthetic arm," he said. "This is the first time a monkey has directly seen a real arm, controlled it in three dimensions, and grasped objects to feed himself.

"I think it's a major advance because, in some loose way perhaps, he's adopted that arm. He's able to see that arm but not be bothered by the fact that it's not truly his and still act upon the world with it."

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To prevent cellulite build-up, one should maintain normal weight and avoid eating junk food. Exercising regularly would control cellulite.

Working out tightens the muscles and improves the appearance of areas of cellulite.

One can ask a fitness trainer about exercises for the parts of the body that are affected by cellulite.

Exercise would improve the body tone, reduce fat, build muscle and boost the circulation of lymph and blood. Avoiding sitting or standing for a longer period can reduce cellulite.

Eating five servings of vegetables and fruits each day could be an ideal Cellulite Solution. Intake of alcohol, tea and coffee should be limited. Cellulite can also be reduced by drinking water-based fluids every day. This would relieve thirst.

There are number of therapies that can help improve the appearance of the affected areas. A firm massage improves circulation and massaging with a blend of essential oils may be helpful.

Stimulation of the skin surface contributes to an improvement in the appearance of the skin. Gently brushing the affected parts with a soft, dry bristle brush would boost circulation. It removes dead skin and helps improve the appearance of the skin.

Muscles can also be stimulated through a special type of massage using gentle electric current. A low electric current passed through a person’s body causes some of the muscles to contract. This simulates the effect of physical exercise and encourages development of the affected tissue.

Body wrapping is one form of reducing cellulites. In this method the waist and the abdomen are wrapped with plastic or rubber wraps with specially formulated creams and herbal solutions. This dehydrates the body. Some people have experienced losing a few inches quickly through this method.

Body wrapping should only be done in a reputable spa.

There are other herbal Cellulite Solutions also. Since Cellulite is accumulation of waste products and toxins, dandelion helps reduce the wastes. Dandelion contains substances that enhance the liver’s ability to break down waste products and toxins. It also aids elimination from the blood of water and wastes by the kidneys. Dandelion leaves can be added to salads or can be cooked along with spinach. Taking dandelion tea everyday would help reduce cellulite. This type of diet may help clear excess fluid, toxins and wastes from the body. But before embarking on such a program seek the advice of a doctor.

Although one may not find Cellulite Solutions attractive, there is little treatment other than a healthy diet and exercise. If one is considering for a cosmetic surgery to remove excess fat, consult a doctor about the risks inherent in such procedures.

Space shuttle pilot Alan Poindexter and commander Steve Frick look out of the pilot-side window of Atlantis while it is docked to the International Space Station. Astronauts on Tuesday prepared the shuttle for the ride home, wrapping up "arguably one of the most successful docked missions we've had," according to LeRoy Cain, a mission manager.



Atlantis astronauts got their spaceship ready for the ride home on Tuesday, wrapping up a two-week mission to add Europe's new orbital laboratory to the International Space Station.
The crew of seven was spending the day conducting prelanding systems checks and completing other chores, along with participating in televised interviews.

Early weather forecasts looked good for Wednesday morning's planned touchdown at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA said.

If the weather changes, however, Atlantis will aim for the backup touchdown site in California to give the military time enough time to shoot down a damaged spy satellite without endangering the shuttle.

After leaving the space station on Monday, Atlantis's crew inspected the ship one final time to ensure it is prepared for the fiery descent through the atmosphere.

The astronauts used a laser-tipped boom to hunt for possible micrometeorite damage to the shuttle's wing and nose that might have occurred while the shuttle was docked at the space station.

NASA was finishing up its analysis of the latest laser data and expected to let the astronauts know later Tuesday if they are cleared for landing.

The prelanding check has become standard procedure ever since Columbia was destroyed during re-entry five years ago.

During their nine days of joint operations, the shuttle and station crews devoted almost all of their time together to the European Space Agency's $2 billion Columbus lab.

The astronauts conducted three spacewalks to install the module, attach science experiments to its exterior and replace a station nitrogen tank.

"It's arguably one of the most successful docked missions we've had," said LeRoy Cain, a mission manager.

What Can We Do? The evidence that humans are causing global warming is strong, but the question of what to do about it remains controversial. Economics, sociology, and politics are all important factors in planning for the future.

Even if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases (GHGs) today, the Earth would still warm by another degree Fahrenheit or so. But what we do from today forward makes a big difference. Depending on our choices, scientists predict that the Earth could eventually warm by as little as 2.5 degrees or as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

A commonly cited goal is to stabilize GHG concentrations around 450-550 parts per million (ppm), or about twice pre-industrial levels. This is the point at which many believe the most damaging impacts of climate change can be avoided. Current concentrations are about 380 ppm, which means there isn't much time to lose. According to the IPCC, we'd have to reduce GHG emissions by 50% to 80% of what they're on track to be in the next century to reach this level.

Is this possible?

The shuttle Atlantis, seen here from the International Space Station as the vessels pass over Central America traveling at 17,500 miles per hour (28,200 kilometers per hour).

This still image was taken from NASA video.

Image courtesy NASA







Two spacewalking astronauts floated out of a hatch on the international space station on Monday to help install a new European lab, while a crewmate who was supposed to participate in the outing helped from inside.
Spacewalkers Rex Walheim and Stanley Love ventured outside as the space station passed over Asia.

"Welcome to spacewalking, buddy," Walheim said as Love made his way through the hatch for his first spacewalk.

"It's awesome," Love replied.

At Last

German astronaut Hans Schlegel was supposed to be Walheim's spacewalking partner, but he was pulled from the job Saturday because of an undisclosed illness.

Schlegel looked and sounded well Sunday and was expected to take part in the second spacewalk of the mission on Wednesday. On Monday, however, he was helping choreograph the outing from inside the station.

The main task for Walheim and Love will be attaching a handle to the Columbus lab so that robotic arm operator Leland Melvin can grab hold of the module and delicately lift it from the cargo bay of the shuttle Atlantis, which brought the device to the space station after launching last week from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Melvin will then install Columbus on the right side of the Harmony module, which the shuttle Discovery's astronauts delivered in December.

The ten-ton Columbus laboratory is Europe's main contribution to the space station.

The original plan called for the module to be launched in 1992 to mark the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' voyage to the New World.

Since then, the two-billion-U.S.-dollar lab has endured space station redesigns and slowdowns, as well as a number of shuttle postponements and two shuttle accidents.

"A Big Day" "It's getting more exciting here for us every day," a European flight controller said Monday. "... We're looking forward to a successful Columbus installation today."

"This will be a big day for us," replied French Air Force Gen. Léopold Eyharts, who arrived at the station aboard Atlantis to spend a month setting up and activating the new lab.

With their flight now 12 days long because of the spacewalk delay, Atlantis's astronauts conducted another survey of a thermal blanket that has a torn corner—the stitching came apart at the seams, and the corner pulled up.

Engineers were analyzing the problem to determine whether the blanket would stand up to the intense heat of re-entry at flight's end, or whether spacewalk repairs might be needed. The blanket is located on the right orbital maneuvering system pod back near the shuttle's tail.

NASA is vigilant when it comes to the shuttle's thermal shielding, ever since Columbia was destroyed in 2003 following a foam strike to its wing during launch.

John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team, said the thermal covering on the wings, nose and belly of Atlantis have no areas of concern and have been cleared for re-entry in just over a week.

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A recent study suggests that dust in interstellar space can arrange itself into structures that resemble inorganic life-forms.
According to a team of Russian scientists, lifelike behavior could occur in certain configurations of plasma—a state of matter composed of electrically charged atoms.
The claim has drawn mostly baffled, and skeptical, responses from physicists and alien-life experts.
Vast, diffuse clouds of dust and plasma are prevalent throughout the universe. (See a National Geographic magazine feature on "Dust in Space".)
Using computer simulations, a team led by Vadim Tsytovich, of Russia's General Physics Institute in Moscow, found that under certain conditions dust and plasma can organize into stable, helix-shaped structures resembling DNA.
While the structures exhibit none of the complex chemistry associated with even the simplest forms of life on Earth, they appear to at least mimic some the basic processes associated with living systems, the team said.
For example, the helical strands were sometimes capable of reproducing by splitting and reassembling into two identical copies.
The structures also exhibited a kind of evolution, according to the researchers.
Structural changes that took place in the strands were passed from one "generation" to the next, the researchers said. As conditions changed, only the most stable configurations were able to persist.
Because of these and other characteristics, Tsytovich's team argued that the dusty plasma structures should be considered a form of inorganic life.
"It appears from our numerical simulations that large assemblies of … dusty plasmas may satisfy the commonly accepted minimum conditions used to define life," said co-author Gregor Morfill of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany.
Morfill said that while the results were based on computer models, lifelike plasmas may one day be discovered in space.
"[Given] a sufficient concentration of charged dust, the process of self-organization and growth can be triggered," Morfill said.
"My best guess as to where such systems could develop would be the quiet and benign environment inside interstellar dust clouds," he added.
The study appeared in the August issue of the New Journal of Physics.
Dust to … Life?
Other scientists are skeptical that space dust may form a kind of inorganic life. All life on Earth is considered organic, or carbon-based.
Several researchers declined to comment on the record but suggested the claim of lifelike behavior exhibited by the material was highly speculative.

But Mihaly Horanyi, a plasma physicist at the University of Colorado, said the behavior of the structures is "amazing," regardless of whether they are classified as truly living.
"I trust that the physics is sound," Horanyi said. "You could reproduce these results experimentally.
"At some level the statement [that the structures may be forms of life] is almost tongue in cheek," Horanyi said.
"It's more a philosophical question—how do you define life?
"This is a very original, very intelligent paper that will trigger a lot of debate," Horanyi added.
Co-author Morfill said that such a debate was exactly the researchers' goal.
"It all comes down to a definition of life, and there the experts will need to come to terms with other issues as well," Morfill said.
"Since these are only definitions, which can be changed, I hesitate to call these systems life myself. I prefer to view our results as an interdisciplinary, thought-provoking trigger for further research." Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

Fast-growing gelatinous sea squirts are among the species that appear to have recently moved into the Larsen zone. Dense patches of the animals were found in the region that used to be covered by the Larsen B ice shelf. These sea squirts could only have colonized the area, experts say, after the ice shelf collapsed. Examining the region as soon as possible after the event will help establish a baseline for how global warming is affecting polar biodiversity, the survey team says. "This is virgin geography," Gauthier Chapelle, a biologist at the Brussels-based International Polar Foundation, said in the media release."If we don't find out what this area is like now following the collapse of the ice shelf, and what species are there, we won't have any basis to know in 20 years' time what has changed, and how global warming has altered the marine ecosystem."
regards: MAHANEESH CHANDRA

A previously unknown species of uakari monkey was found during recent hunting trips in the Amazon, a New Zealand primatologist has announced.
Jean-Phillipe Boubli of the University of Auckland found the animal after following native Yanomamo Indians on their hunts along the Rio Aracá, a tributary of the Rio Negro in Brazil.

"They told us about this black uakari monkey, which was slightly different to the one we knew from Pico de Neblina National Park, where I'd worked earlier," Boubli said.
"I searched for that monkey for at least five years. The reason I couldn't find it was because the place where they were was sort of unexpected."
Uakaris normally live in flooded river forests, but this one turned up in a mountainous region on the Brazil-Venezuela border, far from its nearest relatives (see map).

"There is another species of primate in that region which is very similar to the uakari," Boubli said.
The two compete ecologically, he added, "so wherever that monkey occurs, you don't expect to find uakaris. That's why I wasn't really looking in those places."
Already Vulnerable
Boubli named the new monkey Cacajao ayresii after Brazilian biologist José Márcio Ayres.
As a senior zoologist for the Wildlife Conservation Society, Ayres—who died in 2003—helped create a protected zone in the heart of the Amazon.
But the newfound Ayres uakari, Boubli said, appears confined to a very small area outside any preserve and is hunted by locals.
"The population is quite small, so they are quite vulnerable. I'm a bit concerned."
Little is known about the creature's habits, but Boubli said it lives in social groups and is likely a seed-eater, based on his observations of other uakaris.
Anthony Rylands, a primatologist at Conservation International, said work such as Boubli's is vital to wildlife protection.
"Many of these tropical forests are being destroyed now," Rylands said. (Read about threats to the world's rain forests.)
"There's a desperate need to save these animals, but we really need to know what animals we're trying to save [and] where they live. Otherwise you can't do anything about it."
Rylands added that today more new primate species are being described in the wake of advances in DNA technology.
"The sophistication of genetic analysis from just about any material—hair, feces—means we're able to get a much more precise view of primate diversity.
"Some of them, especially the nocturnal ones, are really quite cryptic—you can never recognize the differences simply by looking.
"Now … we've suddenly begun to realize that animals we previously considered to be one species are completely different creatures."
Defining the Species
A formal description of C. ayresii has been submitted to the International Journal of Primatology.
Meanwhile, some of Boubli's students will return to Pico de Neblina to study the new monkey's environment and behavior.
"It's very important to define what those monkeys are doing there, how big their range is, because we want to make a case for the Brazilian government to create a reserve," Boubli said.
"Finding a relatively large monkey as a new species these days is pretty cool," he said. "It shows how little we really know about the biodiversity of the Amazon."

In 2003 Boubli described another new species from the region, the bearded saki.
And he believes that new types of spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, and capuchin monkeys await confirmation.
"If we are still finding monkeys, imagine how many invertebrates and things like that are still out there. It's pretty amazing."