>’If you go to Mars, stay there!’

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The first astronauts sent to Mars should be prepared to spend the rest of their lives there, in the same way that European pioneers headed to America knowing they would not return home, says moonwalker Buzz Aldrin.

In an interview with AFP, the second man to set foot on the Moon said the Red Planet offered far greater potential than Earth’s satellite as a place for habitation.

With what appears to be vast reserves of frozen water, Mars “is nearer terrestrial conditions, much better than the Moon and any other place,” Aldrin, 78, said in a visit to Paris on Tuesday.

“It is easier to subsist, to provide the support needed for people there than on the Moon.”It took Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins eight days to go to the Moon – 380 000 kilometres from Earth – and return in July 1969, aboard Apollo 11. Going to Mars, though, is a different prospect. The distance between the Red Planet and Earth varies between 55 million and more than 400 million km.

Manned mission to Mars around 2030

Even at the most favourable planetary conjunction, this means a round trip to Mars would take around a year and a half. “That’s why you [should] send people there permanently,” said Aldrin. “If we are not willing to do that, then I don’t think we should just go once and have the expense of doing that and then stop.” He asked: “If we are going to put a few people down there and ensure their appropriate safety, would you then go through all that trouble and then bring them back immediately, after a year, a year and a half?” Nasa and the European Space Agency (Esa) are sketching tentative plans for a manned mission to Mars that would take place around 2030 or 2040.

Based on experience culled from a planned return to the Moon, the mission would entail about half a dozen people, with life-support systems and other gear pre-positioned for them on the Martian surface. Aldrin said the vanguard could be joined by others, making a colony around 30 people. – news24

>Brain’s ‘Hate Circuit’ Identified, Overlaps with Love Circuit.

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People who view pictures of someone they hate display activity in distinct areas of the brain that, together, may be thought of as a ‘hate circuit’, according to new research by scientists at UCL (University College London). The study, by Professor Semir Zeki and John Romaya of the Wellcome Laboratory of Neurobiology at UCL, examined the brain areas that correlate with the sentiment of hate and shows that the ‘hate circuit’ is distinct from those related to emotions such as fear, threat and danger – although it shares a part of the brain associated with aggression. The circuit is also quite distinct from that associated with romantic love, though it shares at least two common structures with it. … Like love, it is often seemingly irrational and can lead individuals to heroic and evil deeds. How can two opposite sentiments lead to the same behaviour?”

… “Interestingly, the activity in some of these structures in response to viewing a hated face is proportional in strength to the declared intensity of hate, thus allowing the subjective state of hate to be objectively quantified. This finding may have legal implications in criminal cases, for example.” – sd

It often seems a thin line between love and hate, and now scientists think they know why.  Brain scans of people shown images of individuals they hated revealed a pattern of brain activity that partly occurs in areas also activated by romantic love, Semir Zeki and John Paul Romaya of University College London reported on Wednesday…. The brain activity also occurred in the putamen and insula, two areas activated when people viewed the face of a loved person. Scientists have linked the regions to aggressive action and distressing situations, Zeki said. – news24

>Sarkozy loses ‘voodoo doll’ case

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A French judge has rejected President Nicolas Sarkozy’s attempt to stop sales of a “voodoo doll” in his image.

Dismissing the case, the Paris judge said the doll was “within the authorised limits of free expression and the right to humour”. Mr Sarkozy’s lawyer said the president would appeal against the decision. The doll comes with pins which users can stick into memorable quotes from the president printed on the doll, such as “work more to earn more”.  Mr Sarkozy took the makers of the kit – publishing company K&B – to the courts after it went on sale on 9 October. His lawyer said Mr Sarkozy had “exclusive and absolute rights” over his own image.

Sales boost

The company refused to stop selling the kit, saying Mr Sarkozy’s reaction was “totally disproportionate”. The case has attracted a fair amount of mockery in France and boosted sales of the kit, says the BBC’s Alasdair Sandford in Paris. K&B also released a similar doll of Segolene Royal, Mr Sarkozy’s rival in the presidential elections last year. She has decided not to take action against K&B, saying: “I have a sense of humour.” This is Mr Sarkozy’s sixth legal action since he was elected last year, but it is the first case the courts have rejected. Voodoo has become associated with zombies and sticking pins into dolls to curse an enemy, but practitioners say this misrepresents their religion. – bbc

>Bongo-maker fights for his life after getting anthrax from African drum skins

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A musician is fighting for his life after contracting a rare form of deadly anthrax.

Fernando Gomez fell ill after handling animal hide imported from Africa which he used to make bongo drums. He is only the second person in the UK to be infected with inhalation anthrax since 1974. He was admitted to hospital a week ago and is on life support.

Seven people who have been in contact with Mr Gomez, a father of four who is in his thirties, have been given antibiotics as a precaution. Last night, his wife said: ‘The illness started to show when he had a cold but then he got worse and worse. ‘Even now he might still not pull through, but I’ve been told today that he is now stable.’ The illness is so rare that medicines have been flown to Britain for him from the U.S.

… Professor Nigel Lightfoot, chief adviser at the agency, said: ‘It is the process of removing the animal hairs during the making of drums that can put people at risk rather than playing or handling the drums. ‘The risk to others who play these drums is very low. We are, however, keen to reiterate to all individuals who make drums from imported animal skins that there is a risk of coming into contact with anthrax.’ The last case of inhalation anthrax in the UK, in 2006, was fatal. Christopher Norris, 50, from Edinburgh, also contracted the disease after handling animal skins to make drums. – dm

Comment:

Yet another case of animal exploitation which has backfired on the perpetrator.
– Karyn, Belfast, 30/10/2008 17:36

Interesting. I didn’t know the British had tested anthrax as a weapon.

>Mexico City’s ‘water monster’ nears extinction

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Beneath the tourist gondolas in the remains of a great Aztec lake lives a creature that resembles a monster – and a Muppet – with its slimy tail, plumage-like gills and mouth that curls into an odd smile.

The axolotl, also known as the “water monster” and the “Mexican walking fish,” was a key part of Aztec legend and diet. Against all odds, it survived until now amid Mexico City’s urban sprawl in the polluted canals of Lake Xochimilco, now a Venice-style destination for revelers poled along by Mexican gondoliers, or trajineros, in brightly painted party boats.

But scientists are racing to save the foot-long salamander from extinction, a victim of the draining of its lake habitat and deteriorating water quality. In what may be the final blow, nonnative fish introduced into the canals are eating its lunch – and its babies.
The long-standing International Union for Conservation of Nature includes the axolotl on its annual Red List of threatened species, while researchers say it could disappear in just five years. Some are pushing for a series of axolotl sanctuaries in canals cleared of invasive species, while others are considering repopulating Xochimilco with axolotls bred in captivity.

“If the axolotl disappears, it would not only be a great loss to biodiversity but to Mexican culture, and would reflect the degeneration of a once-great lake system,” says Luis Zambrano, a biologist at the Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM. .. – az

>Divers reveal Blackbeard treasures

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Divers have been searching through what they believe is the Queen Anne’s Revenge since August. Tuesday, researchers unveiled artifacts like a cannon ball, pewter plates and a dagger hilt.Archeologists working on an underwater pirate shipwreck off the North Carolina coast revealed some exciting finds in a ship thought to be that of the pirate Blackbeard.

“Artifacts provide us with a tangible link to life in North Carolina when essentially North Carolina was a frontier,” Richard Lawrence, of the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Department, said.  Divers even discovered their first coin. “We’re all excited to see what kind of coin it is,” Lawrence said. “Is it a French coin, a Spanish coin, an English coin?”

The crew also revealed a 2005 find headed to the Maritime Museum in Beaufort — a part of a toilet. “Even pirates would have needed a toilet,” Dr. Jeff Crow, of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, said. He said the artifacts will be a big draw. “Children really love piracy, and adults are intrigued by it, so it brings people to the coast to see these artifacts,” Crow said.

The crew still has two weeks to go before they complete this year’s dive. The artifacts will be on display Wednesday at the Maritime Museum in Beaufort from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. – n14

>Alien fish in Swedish waters

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A round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) was caught in late July off the Swedish coast near Karlskrona. This is the first find of its kind in Sweden.

The species, which originates from the Black Sea and probably spread to the Baltic via ballast water, has been found in the Gulf of Gdansk since 1990, in the southern Baltic. Today it is one of the most common coastal fishes there, so it was expected that it would show up in Swedish waters sooner or later, according to researcher Gustaf Almqvist of Stockholm University.

Göran Pettersson is the man behind the sensational catch, which he made as he was bottom angling for perch in Saltsösund outside Karlskrona. Göran, who is from Sibbehult in Scania, has experienced many fish catches in the waters surrounding Karlskrona, but he had never seen this species before. He was even more surprised when, later that day, he caught three more of them.

“I’m interested in fishing, and after having compared them with pictures on the Internet and from an account in the magazine Svensk Fiske (Swedish Fishing), I immediately understood that what I had pulled in were round gobies,” says Göran Pettersson.

Göran alertly froze one of the fish and reported the find to the Swedish Board of Fisheries Coastal Laboratory, which then conveyed the find to Gustaf Almqvist at Stockholm University, who, together with Sven Kullander of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, was able to confirm that it was indeed a round goby. It was a 96 mm long male that was estimated to be two, or at most three, years old. … –astigan

>Sabretooth tigers hunted in packs

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…  The so-called sabretooth tiger – Smilodon fatalis – is famous for its extremely long canine teeth, which reached up to seven inches and extended below the lower jaw.

But although commonly called “tigers”, due to their size, the species is actually part of a different subfamily, and they lived very differently.

While sabretoothed “tigers” were powerful predators, they were social beasts, rather than skulking loners, according to Dr Chris Carbone, a research fellow of the Zoological Society of London.

He said: “The extinct sabretoothed cat, Smilodon fatalis, has been something of an enigma, with almost nothing known of its behaviour.

“This research allowed us… to conclude that this cat was more likely to roam in formidable gangs, than as a secretive solitary animal.”

S.fatalis – one of many sabretooth cat species – lived between 1.6 million and 10,000 years ago, in North and South America.

Many Smilodon fossils have been found in the Late Pleistocene era tar seeps at Rancho La Brea, California – apparently lured to their fate by the calls of trapped, dying herbivores.

In fact, the fossils are so numerous, many palaeontologists now believe the cats were pack hunters, who came to scavenge prey and share the spoils…. – bbc

>Dinosaur Smelling Skills Open New Angle On Bird Evolution

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Although we know quite a bit about the lifestyle of dinosaur; where they lived, what they ate, how they walked, not much was known about their sense of smell, until now.

The study, by U of C paleontologist Darla Zelenitsky and Royal Tyrrell Museum curator of dinosaur palaeoecology François Therrien, is the first time that the sense of smell has been evaluated in prehistoric meat-eating dinosaurs. They found that Tyrannosaurus rex had the best nose of all meat-eating dinosaurs, and their results tone down the reputation of T. rex as a scavenger.

The researchers looked at the importance of the sense of smell among various meat-eating dinosaurs, also called theropods, based on the size of their olfactory bulbs, the part of the brain associated with the sense of smell. Although the brains of dinosaurs are not preserved, the impressions they left on skull bones or the space they occupied in the skull reveals the size and shape of the different parts of the brain. Zelenitsky and Therrien CT-scanned and measured the skulls of a wide variety of theropod dinosaurs, including raptors and ostrich-like dinosaurs, as well as the primitive bird Archaeopteryx.

“T. rex has previously been accused of being a scavenger due to its keen sniffer… Large olfactory bulbs are found in living birds and mammals that rely heavily on smell to find meat, in animals that are active at night, and in those animals that patrol large areas. Although the king of carnivorous dinosaurs wouldn’t have passed on scavenging a free dead meal, it may have used its sense of smell to strike at night or to navigate through large territories to find its next victim.” … – scidaily

>NASA probe finds opals in Martian crevices + What the heck is a boffin?

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A NASA space probe orbiting Mars has discovered deposits of opals in the mighty Valles Marineris canyon system* east of Tharsis. Opals aren’t valuable enough to justify interplanetary trade, but the discovery is significant as it suggests that liquid water existed on Mars a billion years more recently than had been thought.

“This is an exciting discovery because it extends the time range for liquid water on Mars, and the places where it might have supported life,” said Scott Murchie of Johns Hopkins University, in charge of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s spectrometer scope.

“The identification of opaline silica tells us that water may have existed as recently as 2 billion years ago.” … – register

The story mentions boffins again. I’ve been meaning to look this up for a few years now. Finally did.

In the slang of the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, boffins are scientists, engineers, and other people who are stereotypically seen as engaged in technical or scientific research. … the use of “Boffin” by Dickens found its way into naval slang. The Baffin plane, being a naval torpedo craft, perhaps took its variant name from the same naval tradition. The café on the coast at East Anglia took its name from the naval tradition. Then, to counteract spies the term “boffins” was taken from naval slang at the outbreak of war in 1939, and became widely applied as a convenient euphemism for research scientists. – wiki