Half of Giant Panda Habitat May Vanish in 70 Years, Scientists Say

For all their cuteness, giant pandas are in a tight spot. There are fewer than 1,600 pandas left in the wild, and a new study found that more than half of the bears’ already diminished natural habitat will be unlivable in 70 years thanks to climate change.

To protect the adorable black-and-white creatures, zoologists are working furiously to understand and improve panda-breeding in captivity. Toward that end, another recent study investigated male pandas’ reproductive cycle, and found that, contrary to females, males are ready and able to mate during more than six months of the year.

This is welcome news, given that female pandas have a sharply limited fertility window of only 24 to 72 hours a year.

“The more we know, the more we can understand them and the better we’re able to put guidelines in place for their protection,” said Copper Aitken-Palmer, head veterinarian at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va., and leader of the reproduction study. “We can potentially manage them better in captivity, and we’re actually looking toward reintroduction programs to put captive pandas back into the wild.” [Butter Balls: Photos of Playful Pandas]

When the time is right

Aitken-Palmer and her colleagues studied eight male pandas over the course of three years at the Chengdu Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China. They analyzed pandas’ sperm density, hormone levels and testes size, as well as reproductive behaviors such as movement, scent-marking and vocalizations, to map out their reproductive viability over time.

The research showed that male pandas have a breeding season, but it is much longer than that of females.

“The coordinated increases in testes size, androgen production, sperm density, and sexual behaviors occur over a protracted interval, likely to prepare for, and then accommodate a brief, unpredictable female estrus,” the scientists wrote in a paper reporting the results published today (April 4) in the journal Biology of Reproduction’s Papers in Press.

Love is hard

Still, mating for pandas is notoriously difficult, especially in captivity.

For example, zoologists at Scotland’s Edinburgh Zoo gave their female panda, Tian Tian, and their male, Yang Guang, some private time in an indoor enclosure with the cameras turned off on April 3 and 4, when Tian Tian’s fertility window opened. Though the pair met repeatedly, zookeepers are losing hope of seeing a panda cub this year.

“Each time the pair met, we saw a huge amount of eagerness and attraction between Tian Tian and Yang Guang,” Iain Valentine, director of research and conservation at the zoo, said in a statement. “There was lots of vocalization and encouragement from our female and physical contact between the two. He mounted her several times, however full mating did not occur. Although both have bred before and have borne cubs with other pandas, they are both still relatively inexperienced.” [Video: Panda Mating Dance – Lessons Needed?]

Yet scientists say we shouldn’t blame pandas for their reproductive difficulties.

“All of this physiology and these adaptations worked great for the panda in the wild, historically,” Aitken-Palmer told LiveScience. “In captivity, we changed all the rules and made it more challenging for them.”

For example, while pandas are solitary in the wild, they are often put in enclosures with other pandas in captivity, which could complicate their natural behavior, she said.

Turning up the heat

Though pandas are the pride of many zoos around the world, their situation in the wild is growing dire. One of the greatest threats to the furry creatures is habitat loss from climate change and human encroachment, scientists say.

While the species used to roam over most of southeastern China, northern Myanmar, and northern Vietnam, now pandas are limited to six mountain ranges between the Sichuan plain and Tibetan plateau.

And that habitat is looking to grow much smaller, with pandas set to lose 60 percent of their current range due to climate change by 2080, researchersreported in a paper published in the International Journal of Ecology in March. That’s a loss of more than 6,200 square miles (16,000 square kilometers).

As global temperatures become warmer, on average, the panda-suitable habitats will move to higher elevations and latitudes, according to climate models. In addition to pandas’ limited geographic range, the species has other traits that suggest climate change could hit it hard.

“Giant pandas have a narrow range, do not disperse over large distances, produce one cub every two to three years, and depend on bamboo for 99 percent of their diet,” the researchers, led by Melissa Songer of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, wrote in their paper. “These traits suggest they will be highly susceptible to climate change.”

Holding out hope

While much of pandas’ existing habitat may be lost, the bears might be able to move to new regions.

“New areas may become suitable outside the current geographic range but much of these areas [are] far from the current giant panda range and only 15 percent fall within the current protected area system,” the scientists wrote. “Long-term survival of giant pandas will require the creation of new protected areas that are likely to support suitable habitat even if the climate changes.”

And ultimately, there is reason for hope.

“The panda is so well-known, such a flagship species for conservation in general,” Aitken-Palmer said. “I think if we can’t have hope for the panda, who can we have hope for? I want to have hope, but conservation worldwide is in trouble. Only time will tell.”

You can follow LiveScience senior writer Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

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Scientists raise energy level at Big Bang machine

GENEVA (AP) — Scientists say a Big Bang machine, where high-energy beams of protons are sent crashing into each other at incredible speeds, is now able to operate at a record new energy level, improving the prospect of scientific breakthroughs.

Researchers at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, say the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider in a 27-kilometer (17-mile) tunnel under the Swiss-French border at Geneva has begun operating at 8 trillion electron volts, greater than any previous physics accelerator.

Steve Myers, a director of accelerators and technology at CERN, said in a statement that two proton beams were brought into collision at a new world record energy level Thursday.

He says it marks a new round of data collection through the remainder of the year, and “increased discovery potential.”

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Scientists develop ultra-thin solar cells

Austrian and Japanese researchers on Wednesday unveiled solar cells thinner than a thread of spider silk that are flexible enough to be wrapped around a single human hair.

The thin-film device, comprising electrodes on a plastic foil, is about 1.9 micro-metres thick, a tenth the size of the thinnest solar cells currently available, the researchers said.

One micro-metre is one millionth of a metre (3.3 feet).

“The total thickness of this device is less than a typical thread of spider silk,” the researchers said in a report carried by online science journal Nature Communications.

“Being ultra-thin means you don’t feel its weight and it is elastic,” said one of the researchers, Tsuyoshi Sekitani from the University of Tokyo.

“You could attach the device to your clothes like a badge to collect electricity (from the sun)… Elderly people who might want to wear sensors to monitor their health would not need to carry around batteries,” Sekitani told AFP.

The research was done jointly by Martin Kaltenbrunner, Siegfried Bauer and other researchers from Johannes Kepler University of Austria as well as Sekitani and other contributors from University of Tokyo.

Sekitani said it was possible to make the cells bigger.

“Power generation by solar cells increases with their size. As this device is soft, it is less prone to damage by bending even if it gets bigger,” he said.

Sekitani said the team hoped to increase the rate at which the device converts sunlight into electricity and put it to practical use in around five years.

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Scientists Closing in on Black Hole at Center of Our Galaxy

Though scientists have suspected for a while that a giant black hole lurks at the center of our galaxy, they still can’t say for sure it’s the explanation for the strange behavior observed there. Now researchers are closer than ever to being able to image this region and probe the physics at work – potentially shedding light on the great conflict between the theories of general relativity and quantum mechanics.

At the heart of the Milky Way, astronomers see some wacky things. For example, about a dozen stars seem to be orbiting some invisible object. One star has been found to make a 16-year orbit around the unseen thing, moving at the hard-to-imagine speed of about 3,000 miles (5,000 kilometers) a second. By comparison, the sun moves through space at a comparatively glacial 137 miles (220 kilometers) a second.

Based on the laws of motion, these dozen stars’ orbits should be caused by the gravitational pull of some massive object in the center of the galaxy. Yet telescopes observe nothing there.

“The really important thing is that all the orbits have a common focus,” astrophysicist Mark Reidof the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said during the recently concluded April 2012 meeting of the American Physical Society.”There’s one point on the sky, and there’s nothing you can see on images at this position.”

Plus, all this is happening in a region only about 100 times as wide as the distance between the Earth and the sun – very tiny in the galactic scheme of things. [Photos: Black Holes of the Universe]

There is, however, a very faint emission of radio waves coming from this area, which scientists call Sagittarius A* (pronounced “Sagittarius A-Star”). By comparing it against the sun’s movement around the Milky Way, researchers have been able to determine that this object is barely moving at all – less than 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) a second, much slower even than the rate that the Earth revolves around the sun.

If Sagittarius A* were any moderate-mass object, it likely would be pulled by the gravity of nearby objects and experience some motion.

Reid said of the object’s apparent stillness: “The only way that this can happen is if Sagittarius A* is tied to a very massive object. When you do the analysis, you get a lower limit of 4 million solar masses.”

The density limit of a black hole

Astronomers can’t see the galactic center well enough to measure exactly how large Sagittarius A* is, but they can say for sure that its radius is no larger than about two-tenths the distance between the Earth and the sun.

The means that in the center of the Milky Way, something packing about 4 million times the mass of the sun is sitting within an area that could fit inside the orbit of Mercury and is basically invisible, producing much less light than any of the stars orbiting it.

Right now, that puts this object’s density at about an eighth of the theoretical limit for a black hole. So while scientists can’t say for sure the object is a black hole, it’s looking mighty likely.

“Although there are alternative explanations, they would actually be even much more fantastic than the rather mundane supermassive black hole that almost certainly is there,” Reid said.

One of these other, exotic explanations is that there exists a ball made of an unidentified variety of heavy fermion particles. But even such a ball would be unlikely to have the density required to explain all the evidence.

Looking closer

To finally solve this riddle, astronomers yearn to image the center of the galaxy directly. Not only is it very distant and faint, this region is hard to see because of all the dust between it and Earth.

Astronomers have recently begun a project called the Event Horizon Telescope. This instrument would integrate many radio observatories around the world, turning them into a giant interferometer capable of very precise measurements. Ultimately, the resolution should be sharp enough to distinguish Sagittarius A*.

So far, the Event Horizon Telescope has integrated only three observatories, in Hawaii, California and Arizona, for an observing time of between 15 and 20 hours. But astronomers hope to add more locations and observing time soon.

“EHT is not a dream, it’s not on the drawing board,” said Avery Broderickof Canada’s University of Waterloo and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.”It’s something that works.”

One of Broderick’s goals is not only determining once and for all if Sagittarius A* is a black hole, but probing the physics of the object.

Testing general relativity

Black holes straddle the two most successful theories of physics: one that describes the realm of the very large, and one that describes the province of the very small.

Black holes’ extremely large masses invoke Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which describes how mass warps the fabric of space and time to create gravity. But an explanation for black holes’ extremely small spatial dimensions also requires quantum mechanics. [Images: The Big Bang & Early Universe]

So far, quantum mechanics and general relativity are incompatible. When combined to describe black holes, the equations break down and suggest that the density of a black hole is infinite.

Though the Event Horizon Telescope has produced only very preliminary data so far, Broderick and his colleagues have used them to test the space-time predictions of general relativity.

“Even with existing data today we can say something interesting about the higher-order structure of astrophysical black holes,” Broderick said. “We will in principle be able to distinguish deviations from general relativity.

“General relativity is safe for right now, but it’s not going to be safe for much longer.”

You can follow SPACE.com assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Scientists called in to reinstate rescued Star tortoises – The Hindu

The Hindu DFO 2, 3 A star tortoise rescued by the villagers of Tripuraram lying in the safe custody of the forest officials in Nalgonda. Photo: Singam Venkata Ramana

DNA sequence will be checked to establish their original habitat

In a bid to repatriate 800 Indian Star tortoises, which were seized while being reportedly smuggled out of the country, the Tamil Nadu forest officials have sought the help of molecular biologists to identify their place of origin.With two species of Star tortoises present in the country – one set is found in the western parts in Gujarat and also in Rajasthan. The other type is found in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and also in the neighbouring island country, Sri Lanka. They are smuggled out of the country for use as exotic pets and are eaten as delicacies. Scientists from the Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES), a facility of the Centre for Cellular and Biology (CCMB) here, have earlier enabled successful repatriation of around 1,500 Star tortoises, which were confiscated after they were smuggled out of the country. They compared the DNA sequence of animals from known location and found they belonged to the southern part in the country. Later they were released in the wild in Andhra Pradesh. Ajay Gaur, scientist from LaCONES told The Hindu that they generally collect either a drop of blood or a small piece of tissue to do DNA analysis and determine their geographical location. He said the rescued animals would face problem of survival if relocated in the wrong habitat. If an animal from western part was released in southern part, it would lead to mixing of races and loss of genetic purity. He said either scientists from LaCONES would visit Tamil Nadu to collect the samples or the forest officials would make arrangements to send them. Since the number of confiscated animals was large, it might take two months to conclude the analysis.Dr. Gaur said that normally 10-15 per cent of samples of the total number of seized animals would be required to get an overall idea.Based on the earlier experience, the team at LaCONES was quite confident that they would be able to identify place of origin and repatriate them to their habitat, said Dr. S.Shivaji, Director Grade Scientist at CCMB and in-charge of LaCONES.He said the population, which was repatriated earlier had now more than doubled. “This was probably the first successful repatriation of wild animals,” he added.

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Scripps Research Institute Scientists Create Compounds that Dramatically Alter Biological Clock and Lead to Weight Loss

The New Molecules Could Lead to Unique Treatments for Obesity, Diabetes, High Cholesterol, and Sleep Disorders

JUPITER, Fla., March 29, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have synthesized a pair of small molecules that dramatically alter the core biological clock in animal models, highlighting the compounds’ potential effectiveness in treating a remarkable range of disorders—including obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, and serious sleep disorders.

The study was published on March 29, 2012, in an advance, online edition of the journal Nature.

The study showed that when administered in animal models the synthetic small molecules altered circadian rhythm and the pattern of core clock gene expression in the brain’s hypothalamus, the site of the master cellular clock that synchronizes daily rhythms in mammals; circadian rhythms are the physiological processes that respond to a 24-hour cycle of light and dark and are present in most living things.

When given to diet-induced obese mice, these same small molecules decreased obesity by reducing fat mass and markedly improving cholesterol levels and hyperglycemia—chronically high blood sugar levels that frequently lead to diabetes.

“The idea behind this research is that our circadian rhythms are coupled with metabolic processes and that you can modulate them pharmacologically,” said Thomas Burris, a professor at Scripps Florida who led the study. “As it turns out, the effect of that modulation is surprisingly positive—everything has been beneficial so far.”

Burris stressed that these compounds were first generation—the first to hit their targets in vivo with room for improvement as potential treatments. “In terms of therapeutics, this is really the first step,” he said.

In the new study, the team identified and tested a pair of potent synthetic compounds that activate proteins called REV-ERB alpha and REV-ERB beta, which play an integral role in regulating the expression of core clock proteins that drive biological rhythms in activity and metabolism.

In the study, the scientists observed clear metabolic effects when the synthetic compounds were administered twice a day for 12 days. Animals displayed weight loss due to decreased fat mass with no changes in the amount of food they ate. The animals followed the human model of obesity closely, eating a standard Western diet of high fat, high sugar foods, yet still lost weight when given the compounds.

In one of the study’s more striking findings, both synthetic compounds were shown to reduce cholesterol production. Cholesterol in the blood of treated animal models decreased 47 percent; triglycerides in the blood decreased 12 percent.

The circadian pattern of expression of a number of metabolic genes in the liver, skeletal muscle, and in fat tissue was also altered, resulting in increased energy expenditure, something of a surprise. In the study, the scientists observed a five percent increase in oxygen consumption, suggesting increased energy expenditure during the day and at night. However, these increases were not due to increased activity—the animals displayed an overall 15 percent decrease in movement during those same time periods.

In addition to its impact on metabolism, the two compounds also affected the animals’ activity during periods of light and darkness, suggesting that this class of compound may be useful for the treatment of sleep disorders, including the common problem of jet lag.

The first authors of the study, “Regulation of Circadian Behavior and Metabolism by Synthetic REV?ERB Agonists,” are Laura A. Solt and Yongjun Wang of Scripps Research. Other authors include Subhashis Banerjee, Travis Hughes, Douglas J. Kojetin, Thomas Lundasen, Youseung Shin, Jin Liu, Michael D. Cameron, Romain Noel, Andrew A. Butler, and Theodore M. Kamenecka of Scripps Research; and Seung?Hee Yoo and Joseph S. Takahashi of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

About The Scripps Research Institute
The Scripps Research Institute is one of the world’s largest independent, not-for-profit organizations focusing on research in the biomedical sciences. Over the past decades, Scripps Research has developed a lengthy track record of major contributions to science and health, including laying the foundation for new treatments for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, and other diseases. The institute employs about 3,000 people on its campuses in La Jolla, CA, and Jupiter, FL, where its renowned scientists—including three Nobel laureates—work toward their next discoveries. The institute’s graduate program, which awards Ph.D. degrees in biology and chemistry, ranks among the top ten of its kind in the nation. For more information, see http://www.scripps.edu.

SOURCE The Scripps Research Institute

Posted: March 2012

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Ancient Ichthyosaur Mother Did Not Explode, Scientists Say

It is unlikely that the body of a mother ichthyosaur exploded, say researchers who offer another explanation for the scattered remains of embryos found around her in rock that was once deep underwater.

Rather, the scattering of the embryos was probably caused by minor sea currents after the expectant mother died and her body decayed some 182 million years ago, the researchers propose.

If this scenario sounds confusing, it is important to know that ichthyosaurs, extinct marine reptiles that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs, did not lay eggs but rather carried their young in their bodies until they gave birth. Ichthyosaurs resembled fish but, unlike most fish, breathed air through lungs.

The nearly intact skeleton of the female ichthyosaur in question was found in Holzmaden, Germany. But the remains of most of the approximately 10 embryos were scattered far outside her body it. Other fossilized ichthyosaur remains have been found in similarly strange arrangements, with skeletons usually complete but jumbled to some degree.

A Swiss and German research team set out to examine the idea that after death, such large-lunged marine creatures floated on the surface, with putrefaction gases building up inside them, until the gases escaped, often by bursting. Such explosions would jumble the bones.

The researchers examined the decay and preservation of ichthyosaur skeletons and compared this information with that of modern animals, particularly marine mammals. To get an idea of the amount of pressure that builds up after death during different stages of bloating, they looked at measurements from the abdomens of 100 human corpses.

“Our data and a review of the literature demonstrate that carcasses sink and do not explode (and spread skeletal elements),” the researchers wrote online Feb. 1 in the journal Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments.

Generally, carcasses of ichthyosaurs would have sunk to the seafloor and broken down completely. Only under specific circumstances — including in warmer water less than 164 feet (50 meters) deep — would gas inside the body have brought the remains to the surface, said the researchers, led by Achim Reisdorf of the University of Basel in Switzerland. When this happened, the carcass would decompose slowly, scattering bones over a wide area. 

Ichthyosaurs’ remains stayed neatly in place only under specific conditions, according to the research team: The water pressure had to be great enough to prevent them from floating, scavengers did not pick them over, and strong currents did not disturb them.

The female ichthyosaur died in water about 492 feet (150 m) deep. Decomposition of the body released the embryo skeletons, and minor currents along the seafloor distributed them around her body, the researchers speculate.

You can follow LiveScience senior writer Wynne Parry on Twitter @Wynne_Parry. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

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Scientists warn of ’emergency on global scale’

Leading scientists on Thursday called on the upcoming Rio Summit to grapple with environmental ills that they said pointed to “a humanitarian emergency on a global scale.”

In a “State of the Planet” declaration issued after a four-day conference, the scientists said Earth was now facing unprecedented challenges, from water stress, pollution and species loss to spiralling demands for food.

They called on the June 20-22 followup to the 1992 Earth Summit to overhaul governance of the environment and sweep away a fixation with GDP as the sole barometer of wellbeing.

“The continuing function of the Earth system as it has supported the wellbeing of human civilisation in recent centuries is at risk,” said the statement issued at the “Planet Under Pressure” conference.

“These threats risk intensifying economic, ecological and social crises, creating the potential for a humanitarian emergency on a global scale.”

The conference gathered nearly 3,000 environment scientists, economists, business executives and policymakers in the runup to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio.

In a recorded message, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he welcomed the declaration, saying “its timing… could not be better.”

“Climate change, the financial crisis and food, water and energy security threaten human wellbeing and civilisation as we know it,” he said.

Ban added that he was considering appointing a scientific board or a chief scientific advisor to advise him and other UN organs.

The conference declaration said humanity’s impact on Earth was now so great that a new era — “the Anthropocene,” a term derived from the Greek word for human — had emerged.

Globalisation has shown that economies and societies are now “highly interconnected and interdependent,” it said.

These changes have brought stability and innovation but created a system vulnerable to sudden stress, as the global financial meltdown and surge in food prices had shown.

Tackling the problems of global environment change will mean major reforms, it said.

One is the question of governance.

“Existing international arrrangements are not dealing quickly enough with current global challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss,” said the statement.

It called for a “polycentric approach” for planetary stewardship, meaning a diverse partnership between local, national and regional governments that also includes business and grassroots groups.

But another need was to scrap obsessions with gross domestic product (GDP) as the only benchmark of progress. Governments should also include environment, health and social factors.

“A crucial transformation is to move away from income as the key constituent of wellbeing and to develop new indicators that measure actual improvements in wellbeing at all scales,” the declaration said.

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Scientists pin down historic sea level rise

LONDON (Reuters) – The collapse of an ice sheet in Antarctica up to 14,650 years ago might have caused sea levels to rise between 14 and 18 metres (46-60 feet), a study showed on Wednesday, data which could help make more accurate climate change predictions.

The melting of polar ice could contribute to long-term sea level rise, threatening the lives of millions, scientists say.

Sea levels have increased on average about 18 centimetres (7 inches) since 1900 and rapid global warming will accelerate the pace of the increase, experts say, putting coastlines at risk and forcing low-lying cities to build costly sea defences.

Scientists last month said that thinning glaciers and ice caps were pushing up sea levels by 1.5 millimetres a year, and experts forecast an increase of as much as two metres by 2100.

A very rapid sea level rise is thought to have occurred 14,650 years ago but details about the event have been unclear.

Some past sea level records have suggested glacier melt led to a 20 metre increase in less than 500 years.

But uncertainty lingered about the source of the melt, its force and its link to the changes in climate.

A team of scientists, including researchers from France’s Aix-Marseille University and the University of Tokyo, claim to have solved the mystery which may shed light on climate change.

They reconstructed sea level changes by analysing samples of coral collected from reefs in Tahiti and dated them to determine the extent and timing of the sea level rise.

“Our results … reveal that the increase in sea level in Tahiti was between 12 and 22 metres, with a most probable value between 14 and 18 metres, establishing a significant meltwater contribution from the southern hemisphere,” said the authors of the study published in the journal Nature.

This implies the rate of sea level rise was more than 40 millimetres a year, they said.

A U.N. climate panel on Wednesday said all nations will be vulnerable to the expected increase in heat waves, intense rains, floods and a probably rise in the intensity of droughts.

(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Strange Gamma-Ray Objects in Deep Space Perplex Scientists

The universe is filled with high-energy radiation, much of which is made of gamma rays belched out by strange pulsing stars and the remnants of supernova explosions. But a new study of some of most extreme objects has turned up a mystery: nearly one-third of all gamma-ray emitting objects seen to date defy identification.

The objects were spotted by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, which scans the entire sky over the course of three hours, mapping the powerful spectrum. When stacked together, the surveys create an extremely precise view of the gamma-ray universe.

Scientists then match these images to other observations to identify each source. But the identities of some gamma-ray sources in space still continue to elude the astronomers.

“There’s some that, despite all our efforts, we really do not know what they are,” David Thompson, Fermi’s deputy project scientist, told SPACE.com.  “They do not seem to be any of the usual suspects.” [Video: Mystery of Fermi’s Gamma-Ray Objects]

The cosmic detective

The Fermi space telescope has spotted nearly 500 powerful gamma-ray sources in deep space over the last three years. Before its launch in 2008, scientists only knew of four such objects.

“We’re not looking for the ordinary things,” Thompson said. “We’re looking for the extraordinary; powerful things that might produce gamma rays.”

Of the newly discovered bodies, more than half are active galaxies. Pulsars and supernova remnants each make up about 5 percent of the sources, with high-mass binary stars and other galaxies contributing just a smidge more, the researchers said.

Yet a large collection of objects remains unidentified, they added.

In some cases, the readings themselves helped scientists to classify the sources. By looking for changes in energy levels or studying the objects’ shapes, astronomers could identify pulsars and galaxies.

But gamma-ray targets without these distinctions remain a mystery. In many cases, the problem may simply be one of not enough data.

“Deeper observations at other wavelengths could find counterparts to some Fermi sources in the future,” Pascal Fortin, at the Ecole Polytechnique’s Laboratoire Leprince-Ringuet in France, told SPACE.com in an email. Fortin was one of the leaders of the international team that produced Fermi’s hard-source list.

A tantalizing mystery

Despite their mysterious origins, the sheer number of unidentified sources is promising.

“The fact that there are so many of these suggests to us — maybe this is wishful thinking — that there may indeed be something new out there,” Thompson said. “What we’d really like to find is something new and exotic.”

One potential cause of the baffling readings could be black holes that are interacting in a new and unexpected way, he added.

If the strange objects reveal nothing else, they highlight how much of space is still a mystery.

“We still have a lot to learn about high-energy processes in the universe,” Fortin said.

Over its decade-long mission, Fermi will continue to gather information about the gamma-ray emitters, and may help answer some of the questions it is creating.

“It’s an exciting field to work in,” Thompson said. “The fact that we have so many of these, I think is very promising in terms of future discoveries.”

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Spain faces brain drain as cuts force scientists to leave

With his contract about to run out and no opportunities on the horizon in Spain, paleontologist Diego Garcia-Bellido Capdevila has started looking for work abroad.

“A university in Australia has already said they would love to have me. But I would prefer to keep carrying out research in the name of Spain,” said Capdevila, whose articles have run in top scientific journals such as Nature.

Like Capdevila, growing numbers of Spanish scientists are looking to move abroad as steep government spending cuts cause job opportunities to dry up and work conditions to worsen, with no money for lab equipment.

Spain slashed spending on research and development by just over one billion euros ($1.3 billion) between 2009 and 2011 — from 9.662 billion to 8.586 billion.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative government, in power since December, plans to slash science spending this year by around 600 million euros as it tries to rein in the public deficit and convince markets that Spain will not need a financial bailout like Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

The cuts have led to a sharp reduction in new jobs at public research centres.

The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the largest public institution dedicated to research in Spain and the third largest in Europe, will not hire a single scientist this year to work at its 133 centres.

Five years ago, in 2007, it hired 250 scientists.

“With such a drastic drop in hiring, people are going to leave. What else are they going to do? There are no alternatives,” said Amaya Moro-Martin, 37, an astrophysicist who, like Capdevila, works at a CSIC research centre.

“Spain is facing a serious flight of its scientists.”

Her contract expires in October 2013 and she has also started to look for work outside Spain.

Spanish scientists have issued an open letter to the government that warns the country faces a “multi-generational brain drain” unless it makes research and development spending a priority. The letter has been signed by over 40,000 people, more than half of them researchers.

“If Spain does not take urgent action to preserve the scientific workforce of highest quality, the research system will take decades to recover, dragging down the desired shift to a knowledge-based economy,” the letter reads.

It points out that European economic powerhouses like Germany and France have boosted their spending research in response to the economic downturn.

“Nations that invest more in science are those that have lower unemployment rates,” said Salce Elvira Gomez, the secretary for research and development at Spain’s largest trade union, the Workers’ Commissions (CCOO).

Last month the union published a major study into the state of scientific research in Spain.

Gomez said she had noticed the start of a “brain drain”, but concrete figures about how many scientists have left Spain or are thinking of doing so were not available.

“The numbers trickle in. Researchers finish a project and they leave. We are talking about thousands of researchers,” she said.

“We are training great researchers whom we then don’t take advantage of, who will have to go to other countries instead of staying here to do their work.”

Capdevila — who is 41 and earns 1,800 euros a month — said scientists were drawn abroad not so much because of the higher salaries they earn there, but because of the greater job stability offered.

“We don’t want to be millionaires. We just want to have a house and a car and be able to survive by carrying out research,” he said.

While patent applications from Germany rose by 5.7 percent in 2011 over the previous year, applications from Spain fell by 2.7 percent, figures from the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization show.

In one of the most dramatic examples of the impact of the spending cuts, in November a flagship biomedical research facility in Valencia, the Prince Felipe Research Centre, fired 108 of its 258 workers — including 79 scientists — and pulled the plug on its research into 14 diseases including cancer.

The centre was able to hire back one scientist who did research into diabetes — but that was after the mother of a girl who has the disease raised nearly 8,000 euros through raffles and selling snacks and T-shirts to continue paying the researcher’s salary.

“I don’t know what I would have done if it wasn’t for this,” said the scientist, 37-year-old Silvia Sanz.

“Many of my coworkers who lost their jobs have gone to the United States.”

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Scientists find gene that can make flu a killer

LONDON (Reuters) – A genetic discovery could help explain why flu makes some people seriously ill or kills them, while others seem able to bat it away with little more than a few aches, coughs and sneezes.

In a study published in the journal Nature on Sunday, British and American researchers said they had found for the first time a human gene that influences how people respond to flu infections, making some people more susceptible than others.

The finding helps explain why during the 2009/2010 pandemic of H1N1 or “swine flu”, the vast majority of people infected had only mild symptoms, while others – many of them healthy young adults – got seriously ill and died.

In future, the genetic discovery could help doctors screen patients to identify those more likely to be brought down by flu, allowing them to be selected for priority vaccination or preventative treatment during outbreaks, the researchers said.

It could also help develop new vaccines or medicines against potentially more dangerous viruses such as bird flu.

Paul Kellam of Britain’s Sanger Institute, who co-led the study and presented the findings in a telephone briefing, said the gene, called ITFITM3, appeared to be a “crucial first line of defence” against flu.

When IFITM3 was present in large quantities, the spread of the virus in lungs was hindered, he explained. But when IFITM3 levels were lower, the virus could replicate and spread more easily, causing more severe symptoms.

People who carried a particular variant of IFTIM3 were far more likely to be taken into hospital when they got flu than people who carried other variants, he added.

“Our research is important for people who have this variant as we predict their immune defences could be weakened to some virus infections,” Kellam said.

“Ultimately as we learn more about the genetics of susceptibility to viruses, then people can take informed precautions, such as vaccination to prevent infection.”

MICE EXPERIMENTS HELPED MAKE BREAKTHROUGH

The potential antiviral role of IFITM3 in humans was first suggested in studies conducted by Abraham Brass of the Ragon Institute and Gastrointestinal Unit of Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States. Using genetic screening, he found that it blocked the growth of flu and other viruses in cells.

Teams led by Brass and Kellam then took the work further by knocking out the IFITM3 gene in mice. They found that once these animals contracted flu they had far more severe symptoms than mice with the IFITM3 gene.

In effect, they said, the loss of this single gene in mice can turn a mild case of influenza into a fatal infection.

The researchers then sequenced the IFITM3 genes of 53 patients who had been hospitalised with seasonal or pandemic flu and found that a higher number of them had a particular variant of IFITM3 compared to the general patient population.

The researchers believe this variant results in a shorter version of the protein or one that is less abundant in cells, leaving patients more vulnerable to flu when they get it.

“Our efforts suggest that individuals and populations with less IFITM3 activity may be at increased risk during a pandemic, and that IFITM3 could be vital for defending human populations against other viruses such as avian influenza,” said Brass.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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Scientists find gene that can make flu a killer

LONDON (Reuters) – A genetic discovery could help explain why flu makes some people seriously ill or kills them, while others seem able to bat it away with little more than a few aches, coughs and sneezes.

In a study published in the journal Nature on Sunday, British and American researchers said they had found for the first time a human gene that influences how people respond to flu infections, making some people more susceptible than others.

The finding helps explain why during the 2009/2010 pandemic of H1N1 or “swine flu”, the vast majority of people infected had only mild symptoms, while others – many of them healthy young adults – got seriously ill and died.

In future, the genetic discovery could help doctors screen patients to identify those more likely to be brought down by flu, allowing them to be selected for priority vaccination or preventative treatment during outbreaks, the researchers said.

It could also help develop new vaccines or medicines against potentially more dangerous viruses such as bird flu.

Paul Kellam of Britain’s Sanger Institute, who co-led the study and presented the findings in a telephone briefing, said the gene, called ITFITM3, appeared to be a “crucial first line of defence” against flu.

When IFITM3 was present in large quantities, the spread of the virus in lungs was hindered, he explained. But when IFITM3 levels were lower, the virus could replicate and spread more easily, causing more severe symptoms.

People who carried a particular variant of IFTIM3 were far more likely to be taken into hospital when they got flu than people who carried other variants, he added.

“Our research is important for people who have this variant as we predict their immune defences could be weakened to some virus infections,” Kellam said.

“Ultimately as we learn more about the genetics of susceptibility to viruses, then people can take informed precautions, such as vaccination to prevent infection.”

MICE EXPERIMENTS HELPED MAKE BREAKTHROUGH

The potential antiviral role of IFITM3 in humans was first suggested in studies conducted by Abraham Brass of the Ragon Institute and Gastrointestinal Unit of Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States. Using genetic screening, he found that it blocked the growth of flu and other viruses in cells.

Teams led by Brass and Kellam then took the work further by knocking out the IFITM3 gene in mice. They found that once these animals contracted flu they had far more severe symptoms than mice with the IFITM3 gene.

In effect, they said, the loss of this single gene in mice can turn a mild case of influenza into a fatal infection.

The researchers then sequenced the IFITM3 genes of 53 patients who had been hospitalised with seasonal or pandemic flu and found that a higher number of them had a particular variant of IFITM3 compared to the general patient population.

The researchers believe this variant results in a shorter version of the protein or one that is less abundant in cells, leaving patients more vulnerable to flu when they get it.

“Our efforts suggest that individuals and populations with less IFITM3 activity may be at increased risk during a pandemic, and that IFITM3 could be vital for defending human populations against other viruses such as avian influenza,” said Brass.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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Scientists pin down historic sea level rise

Ice melt shows through at a cliff face at Landsend on the coast of Cape Denison in Antarctica December 14, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Pauline Askin

LONDON | Thu Mar 29, 2012 4:20am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) – The collapse of an ice sheet in Antarctica up to 14,650 years ago might have caused sea levels to rise between 14 and 18 meters (46-60 feet), a study showed on Wednesday, data which could help make more accurate climate change predictions.

The melting of polar ice could contribute to long-term sea level rise, threatening the lives of millions, scientists say.

Sea levels have increased on average about 18 centimeters (7 inches) since 1900 and rapid global warming will accelerate the pace of the increase, experts say, putting coastlines at risk and forcing low-lying cities to build costly sea defenses.

Scientists last month said that thinning glaciers and ice caps were pushing up sea levels by 1.5 millimeters a year, and experts forecast an increase of as much as two meters by 2100.

A very rapid sea level rise is thought to have occurred 14,650 years ago but details about the event have been unclear.

Some past sea level records have suggested glacier melt led to a 20 meter increase in less than 500 years.

But uncertainty lingered about the source of the melt, its force and its link to the changes in climate.

A team of scientists, including researchers from France’s Aix-Marseille University and the University of Tokyo, claim to have solved the mystery which may shed light on climate change.

They reconstructed sea level changes by analyzing samples of coral collected from reefs in Tahiti and dated them to determine the extent and timing of the sea level rise.

“Our results … reveal that the increase in sea level in Tahiti was between 12 and 22 meters, with a most probable value between 14 and 18 meters, establishing a significant meltwater contribution from the southern hemisphere,” said the authors of the study published in the journal Nature.

This implies the rate of sea level rise was more than 40 millimeters a year, they said.

A U.N. climate panel on Wednesday said all nations will be vulnerable to the expected increase in heat waves, intense rains, floods and a probably rise in the intensity of droughts.

(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Scientists say earth makeup differs from sun – Daily News & Analysis

pc(1670411);Published: Monday, Apr 2, 2012, 11:28 IST
Place: Sydney | Agency: IANS art_imgs = 0; cur_art_img = 1; function prev(){ for (i=1;iScientists are rejecting a century-old assumption that the earth has the same chemical makeup as the sun.

“This theory is based on the idea that everything in the solar system in general has the same composition,” said Hugh O’Neill, professor at the Research School of Earth Sciences at The Australian National University and study co-author.

“Since the sun comprises 99 percent of the solar system, this composition is essentially that of the Sun,” O’Neill said.

As it is easier to measure the chemical makeup of chondritic (stony) meteorites, geologists have long used these to more precisely determine the sun’s composition – and therefore the composition of the earth, the journal Nature reported.

From this, scientists have concluded that the earth has a ‘chondritic’ composition,according to a university statement.

“Recent discoveries have shown that the ratio of two of the rare earth elements in earth’s volcanic rocks is higher than in chondritic meteorites,” said Ian Campbell, professor and study co-author from Research School of Earth Sciences.

Campbell spent 20 years researching mantle plumes – columns of hot rock that rise from the boundary of the earth’s core and are the mechanism that removes heat from the earth’s centre.

“However, mantle plumes simply don’t release enough heat for these reservoirs to exist. As a consequence the earth simply does not have the same composition as chondrites or the sun,” he added.

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