October 4, 2006, 10:27 PM CT

Remains Of St. Louis Founder's Home

Archaeologists believe they have found the Illinois home of the founder of St. Louis.

What had been believed to be a priest's residence near the French colonial village of New Chartres, in present-day southern Illinois, "appears instead to have been owned by a series of merchants during the mid-1700s, before it was sold to a young merchant from New Orleans Pierre Laclede, the founder of the city of St. Louis."

So says Robert Mazrim, an archaeologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and director of the French Colonial Heritage Project. The project is sponsored by the Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program and the Sangamo Archaeological Center. ITARP is a joint program of the university and the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Initially, the archaeological remains of a large 18th-century structure on the heritage project's Ghost Horse Site were thought to have possibly been those of a residence of a priest affiliated with Ste. Anne's Church.

"But several artifacts found in the cellar may have been part of Laclede's property and supplies, including Spanish majolica brought upriver from New Orleans, and a lead seal from a bale of men's stockings perhaps destined for a store in St. Louis."

Mazrim's recent examination of the features and artifacts from the site, which ITARP excavated on a small scale in 1998, "resulted in a reconsideration of Ghost Horse," Mazrim said.........

Posted by: William      Permalink         Source

October 4, 2006, 10:21 PM CT

Alaskans Feel The Heat Of Global Warming

A new study finds that most Alaskans believe global warming is happening and is a serious threat to the state. The statewide survey, with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) at Columbia University, was commissioned by Dr. Anthony Leiserowitz of Decision Research and conducted this summer by the Craciun Research Group.

Jean Craciun, research director for CRG said, "Across the board, no matter what political affiliation or ethnic background, Alaskans are united in their concern about the impacts of global warming."

Highlights of the survey include:

• Most Alaskans believe global warming is already having major impacts, including the loss of sea ice, melting permafrost, coastal erosion, and forest fires, among other impacts.

• A number of expect that global warming will have dangerous impacts on Alaskans within the next 10 years.

• Majorities of Alaskans report that global warming is a serious threat to themselves and their families, their local communities, Alaska as a whole, the United States, other countries, and to plants and animals.

• Most Alaskans support the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and the signing of international treaties to reduce emissions, but oppose higher taxes on electricity or gasoline.

........

Posted by: Tyler      Permalink         Source

October 4, 2006, 10:19 PM CT

Loss Of Trout Habitat In The Southern Appalachians

USDA Forest Service (FS) research projects that between 53 and 97 percent of natural trout populations in the Southern Appalachians could disappear due to the warmer temperatures predicted under two different global climate circulation models. In an article published October 2 in the online version of the Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, Patricia Flebbe, research biologist at the FS Southern Research Station unit in Blacksburg, VA, maps out trout habitat in a future, warmer climate.

The three species of trout that live in the Southern Appalachians--native brook and the introduced rainbow and brown trout --all require relatively low stream temperatures to survive. Average air temperature in the United States has increased by about 0.6 C (1o F) over the last 100 years, and is projected to increase 3 to 5C (5.4 to 9o F) over the next century, causing a corresponding warming of stream temperatures.

"Trout species in the Southern Appalachians are already at the southern limits of their ranges," says Flebbe. "If temperatures warm as much as predicted, trout habitat in the region will definitely shrink".

To estimate trout habitat in relation to higher temperatures, Flebbe and fellow scientists Laura Roghair from the Virginia Tech Conservation Management Institute and former FS employee Jennifer Bruggink produced a regional map of wild trout habitat based on information from stream samples, expert knowledge, and suitable land cover. They then developed a model that uses elevation and latitude as surrogates for temperature, producing spatially explicit information about how much trout habitat will be left as temperatures rise over the next 100 years.........

Posted by: Ashley      Permalink         Source

October 4, 2006, 10:09 PM CT

Tree Rings Provide A 200-year-old Hurricane Record

Scientists have shown that an age-old "database"--tree rings--contains surprisingly accurate information about hurricane activity that occurred hundreds of years ago. By measuring different chemical forms of oxygen present in the rings, researchers identified periods when hurricanes hit areas of the Southeast more than 100 years before modern records were kept.

The technique allows scientists to extend from decades to centuries the time-frames of intense hurricane cycles and may help determine if the increase in the number of hurricanes hitting the Southeast since the mid-1990s is part of a regularly occurring cycle or due to causes such as global climate change.

Their research is being published in the Sept. 18, early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and the University of Tennessee (UT).........

Posted by: Jessica      Permalink         Source

October 4, 2006, 10:03 PM CT

Ice Age Climate-change And Ocean Salinity

Sudden decreases in temperature over Greenland and tropical rainfall patterns during the last Ice Age have been linked for the first time to rapid changes in the salinity of the north Atlantic Ocean, according to research published Oct. 5, 2006, in the journal Nature. The results provide further evidence that ocean circulation and chemistry respond to changes in climate.

Using chemical traces in fossil shells of microscopic planktonic life forms, called formanifera, in deep-sea sediment cores, scientists reconstructed a 45,000- to 60,000-year-old record of ocean temperature and salinity. They compared their results to the record of abrupt climate change recorded in ice cores from Greenland. They found the Atlantic got saltier during cold periods, and fresher during warm intervals.

"The freshening likely reflects shifts in rainfall patterns, mostly in the tropics," Howard Spero of the University of California at Davis said. "Suddenly, we're looking at a record that links moisture balance in the tropics to climate change. And the most striking thing is that a measurable transition is happening over decades".

Spero, who is currently on leave at the National Science Foundation's Marine Geology and Geophysics Program, worked with lead author Matthew Schmidt of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Maryline Vautravers of Cambridge University in the United Kingdom to conduct the research.........

Posted by: Tyler      Permalink         Source

October 4, 2006, 9:54 PM CT

New Drug To Blocks Influenza Virus And Bird Flu

Opening a new front in the war against flu, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have reported the discovery of a novel compound that confers broad protection against influenza viruses, including deadly avian influenza.

The new work, reported online this week in the Journal of Virology, describes the discovery of a peptide -- a small protein molecule -- that effectively blocks the influenza virus from attaching to and entering the cells of its host, thwarting its ability to replicate and infect more cells.

The new finding is important because it could make available a class of new antiviral drugs to prevent and treat influenza at a time when fear of a global pandemic is heightened and available antiviral drugs are losing their potency.

"This gives us another tool," says Stacey Schultz-Cherry, a UW-Madison professor of medical microbiology and immunology and the senior author of the new report. "We're quickly losing our antivirals".

The new drug, which was tested on cells in culture and in mice, conferred complete protection against infection and was highly effective in treating animals in the early stages of infection. Untreated infected animals typically died within a week. All of the infected animals treated with small doses of the drug at the onset of symptoms survived.........

Posted by: Sean      Permalink         Source

October 4, 2006, 8:23 PM CT

Light On Evolution Of Life Cycles

In the history of life on earth, one intriguing mystery is how plants made the transition from water to land and then went on to diversify into the array of vegetation we see today, from simple mosses and liverworts to towering redwoods.

A research team led by University of Michigan evolutionary biologist Yin-Long Qiu has new findings that help resolve long-debated questions about the origin and evolution of land plants. The work will be published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Two major steps kicked off the chain of events that helped land plants prosper, forming the basis for modern land-based ecosystems and fundamentally altering the course of evolution of life on earth, said Qiu. The first step was the colonization of land by descendents of aquatic plants known as charophyte algae. That event opened up a vast new world where the sun's intensity was undiminished by passage through water and where carbon dioxide-another essential ingredient for plant life-was abundant.

The second event was a key change in plant life cycles. Plants exhibit a phenomenon known as alternation of generations, in which two alternating forms with different amounts of DNA make up a complete life cycle. One form, known as a sporophyte, produces spores, which grow into individuals of the other form, called gametophytes. Gametophytes produce gametes-eggs and sperm-which unite to form a fertilized egg capable of becoming a new sporophyte, thus completing a life cycle. While all plants exhibit alternation of generations, some spend most of their life cycle as sporophytes, and others spend more time in the gametophyte phase.........

Posted by: Jessica      Permalink         Source

October 4, 2006, 4:39 AM CT

All Stages From Life To Death

Taken on the grounds of the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I thought it was very cool how this one leaf displays all of the stages from life to death.

Via Flicker.........

Posted by: Jessica      Permalink         Source

October 3, 2006, 10:19 PM CT

Chemical Found In Curry May Help Immune System

Researchers found that curcumin -- a chemical found in curry and turmeric -- may help the immune system clear the brain of amyloid beta, which form the plaques found in Alzheimer's disease.

Published in the Oct. 9 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, the early laboratory findings may lead to a new approach in treating Alzheimer's disease by enhancing the natural function of the immune system using curcumin, known for its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties.

Using blood samples from six Alzheimer's disease patients and three healthy control patients, the researchers isolated cells called macrophages, which are the immune system's PacMen that travel through the brain and body, gobbling up waste products, including amyloid beta.

The team treated the macrophages with a drug derived from curcumin for 24 hours in a cell culture and then introduced amyloid beta. Treated macrophages from three out of six Alzheimer's disease patients showed improved uptake or ingestion of the waste product compared to the patients' macrophages not treated with curcumin. Macrophages from the healthy controls, which were already effectively clearing amyloid beta, showed no change when curcumin was added.

"Curcumin improved ingestion of amyloid beta by immune cells in 50 percent of patients with Alzheimer's disease. These initial findings demonstrate that curcumin may help boost the immune system of specific Alzheimer's disease patients," said Dr. Milan Fiala, study author and a researcher with the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the VA Greater Los Angeles Health Care System. "We are hopeful that these positive results in a test tube may translate to clinical use, but more studies need to be done before curcumin can be recommended".........

Posted by: Sean      Permalink         Source

October 3, 2006, 10:14 PM CT

Ultrafast Photochemical Reactions

MIT scientists have made a fundamental advance in understanding how different environments affect chemical reactions by devising a novel way to observe ultrafast photochemical reactions--reactions induced by a pulse of laser light--in crystals.

The new MIT experiments show that the reaction dynamics, including whether the product molecules remain or recombine to reform the original compound, depend with exquisite sensitivity on the local "cage" environment formed by neighboring molecules in the crystal. Cage effects of this sort play crucial roles in a number of natural and industrial chemical processes.

The method they have developed allows them to observe other light-induced changes in solids, including those used to burn CDs and DVDs. For some materials, these transitions may be reversible, allowing information to be both written and erased.

"This is a very active area of research for both fundamental and practical reasons," said Keith Nelson, MIT professor of chemistry and leader of the team. "What we're able to see, in a simple and direct way, is how different local environments around the reacting species lead to extremely different dynamics and different outcomes".

The work was reported in the Aug. 31 online issue of Science. Nelson's co-author on the paper is Peter Poulin, a former graduate student in his lab.........

Posted by: Sarah      Permalink         Source