Grand tree of life study shows a clock-like trend in new species emergence and diversity

IMAGE: The tree of life compiled by Temple
University researchers is depicted in a new
way -- a cosmologically inspired galaxy of
life view -- and contains more
than 50,000 species... view more

Credit: Temple University

Eurekalert | Mar 3, 2015

Temple University researchers have assembled the largest and most accurate tree of life calibrated to time, and surprisingly, it reveals that life has been expanding at a constant rate.

"The constant rate of diversification that we have found indicates that the ecological niches of life are not being filled up and saturated," said Temple professor S. Blair Hedges, a member of the research team's study, published in the early online edition of the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. "This is contrary to the popular alternative model which predicts a slowing down of diversification as niches fill up with species."

The tree of life compiled by the Temple team is depicted in a new way --- a cosmologically-inspired galaxy of life view --- and contains more than 50,000 species in a tapestry spiraling out from the origin of life.
For the massive meta-study effort, researchers painstakingly assembled data from 2,274 molecular studies, with 96 percent published in the last decade. They built new computer algorithms and tools to synthesize this largest collection of evolutionary peer-reviewed species diversity timelines published to date to produce this Time Tree of Life.

The study also challenges the conventional view of adaptation being the principal force driving species diversification, but rather, underscores the importance of random genetic events and geographic isolation in speciation, taking about 2 million years on average for a new species to emerge onto the scene.

"This finding shows that speciation is more clock-like than people have thought," said Hedges. "Taken together, this indicates that speciation and diversification are separate processes from adaptation, responding more to isolation and time. Adaptation is definitely occurring, so this does not disagree with Darwinism. But it goes against the popular idea that adaptation drives speciation, and against the related concept of punctuated equilibrium which associates adaptive change with speciation."

Besides the new evolutionary insights gained in this study, their Timetree of Life will provide opportunities for researchers to make other discoveries across disciplines, wherever an evolutionary perspective is needed, including, for example, studies of disease and medicine, and the effect of climate change on future species diversity.

Researchers around the world utilize molecular clocks to estimate species divergence times, calculating DNA mutational rates with species divergence times from gene and genomic sequences, that together with the fossil record and geological history, provide a constantly improving view of Darwin's "grandeur of life."

These new results add to the decade-long efforts of the Timetree of Life initiative (TTOL), which includes internet tools and a book, led by team members Hedges and Sudhir Kumar. "The ultimate goal of the TTOL is to chart the timescale of life -- to discover when each species and all their ancestors originated, all the way back to the origin of life some four billion years ago," said Hedges.

As an ongoing service to the scientific community, Hedges and Kumar plan to continue adding new data to TTOL from future peer-reviewed studies. They also will improve their current tools, such as web and smartphone apps, and develop new tools, that will make it easier to access the information and to explore the TTOL, and for scientists to update the growing tree with their new data.

###

Besides Hedges and Kumar, other members of the research team that published this new article included Julie Marin, Michael Suleski, and Madeline Paymer.

Missing link? African bones predate earliest-known humans by 400,000yrs

Screenshot from vimeo user Arizona State University

RT | Mar 5, 2015

A newly discovered fossil has shaken up science’s view of human evolution and could be the missing link between apes and humans: 400,000 years older than the oldest human bone found, the discovery could entirely rewrite our story.

For decades scientists have been stumped on the gap between humans that walked bent over and those that walked upright. Who was the mysterious ancestor that joined the ape-like Australopithecus with the human-like Homo? We could be looking at an answer. It now appears the timeline for earliest upright humans goes back not to 2.3 – but to 2.8 million years.


Institute of Human Origins Discovery from Arizona State University on Vimeo.

An Ethiopian student at Arizona State University and an accompanying research team discovered the lower jawbone and five teeth in Ethiopia in 2013. Now, for the first time, the findings have been published in two papers simultaneously, while a third supprorted the notion that this could indeed be a unique species, and not a Homo habilis.

The fragments definitely belong to the Homo lineage (of which we are the only remainder), but scientists are puzzled about what the species exactly is. In fact, it could turn out to be a completely new one.

Found 250 miles from Addis Ababa, the fragments are believed to belong to our ancestor from when the current dry land was still wetlands, interspersed with trees providing shade and rivers nourishing them. It was discovered not too far from another famous find – Lucy, the ape-like Austrolapithecus afarensis, known to be the earliest potential ancestor of the human family.

That transition between the two types is the first time in our history we switched from bashing things with rocks to actually using our brains to solve puzzles, although there was another transitional type – the crude and less brainy Paranthropus – thought to have appeared just before the transition to Homo.

Chalachew Seyoum of ASU, screenshot
from video, Arizona State University

"There is a big gap in the fossil record between about 2.5 million and 3 million years ago — there's virtually nothing relating to the ancestors of Homo from that time period, in spite of a lot of people looking," study co-author and one of the leaders of the team, Brian Villmoare of the University of Nevada, told Live Science.

Now, for the first time, the 700,000-year hole between Lucy-like and Homo-type humans is beginning to fill up with information.

“This is a little piece of the puzzle that opens the door to new types of questions and field investigations that we can go after to try to find additional evidence to fill in this poorly known time period,” ASU Institute of Human Origins director William H. Kimbel said in the press release.

“It’s an excellent case of a transitional fossil in a critical time period in human evolution,” he added.
The nature of the new find is not without its naysayers: some scientists have posited that the fossil actually belongs to the well-known species of Homo habilis –the earliest known member of the Homo lineage. But careful digital processing has shown that these are not Homo habilis fragments and they in fact belong to a creature that came shortly before it.

It took years for scientists to get to where they are now. The research started in 2002 with painstaking surveying. The scientists were careful not to disturb anything unnecessarily. “So it took us basically 13 years to find this [human ancestor]. It doesn’t mean that the work that we did was wasted up until that time. But when we did find this [jaw], we were pretty excited that after all this time it actually worked out,” assistant professor and co-author Chris Campisano said.

Screenshot from vimeo user Arizona State University

The expectation was that if they were to dig around the area, they would find Lucy’s contemporaries – not what looked like the missing link.

“We first started collecting fossils in the area around where the jaw was eventually found in 2012,” Campisano went on. “When we realized how old the sediments were, we thought we might be able to find more specimens of Lucy’s species and figure out what happened to that lineage. Instead, we were rewarded with a much more exciting discovery.”

“Honestly, it was an exciting moment…I had good experience in field surveying and knew where potential sediments are. I climbed up a little plateau and found this specimen right on the edge of the hill,” said Chalachew Seyoum, the student behind the find.

What we know for sure, according to Professor Kaye Reed of ASU, is that the creature walked on two legs and lived in eastern Africa. Diet and tool use are very important logical next steps to understanding just how clever this ancestor was.

The research continues at ASU for other fossils around the same area to find answers to those questions.

Screenshot from vimeo user Arizona State University

DOUBLE BARREL M-CLASS SOLAR FLARES - March 2, 2015

Solar Watcher | Mar 2, 2015

Departing active region 12290 prior to turning off the solar disk unleashed two moderate M-Class Solar Flares this evening. An M3.7 eruption at 15:28 UTC and M4.1 at 19:31 UTC. A spectacular Halo Coronal Mass Ejection followed spewing safely out into space and will not have any earth directed component due to the proximity of the blast site being at right angles or 90 degrees to the earth.


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Olive tree-killing bacteria may spread across Europe

Reuters / Eric Gaillard

RT | Feb 28, 2015

A bacteria affecting olive trees in Italy may soon spread to other olive oil-producing countries of southern Europe, industry officials warn. The blight came from the Americas and is aggravating an already bad harvest for Italian olive growers.

The bacteria, called Xylella fastidiosa, or olive leaf scorch, have affected thousands of trees in Italy's southernmost Apulia region. The microbe hampers fluid movement in affected plants, making their leaves and branches dry out and die. Insects spread the disease to new plants.

According to the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa), the problem already affecting Italy may soon spread to other EU nations, unless contamination procedures are implemented. But Italian olive growers say the government will not allocate money to tackle the problem.

"If it expands its range further, the entire Mediterranean basin risks being contaminated," Giovanni Melcarne, the president of an oil-producing consortium in Otranto, was quoted by The Telegraph as saying on Friday.

Since the bacterium was first detected in Italy in September 2013, it has spread dramatically from 8,000 hectares to 230,000 hectares. Olive trees as old as 1,000 years, which are considered a national heritage in Italy, are affected.

There is no cure for the disease and combatting it has a cost both in monetary terms and in terms of environmental damage. Stopping the aphid carriers from traveling to new areas requires creating wide stripes of ploughed soil treated with insecticides around the contaminated areas.

Reuters / Jon Nazca

The spread of the bacterium is facilitated by Italy's long-time tradition of planting olive trees along the roads, which now gives the infection ready routes.

“There is serious concern that this disease could spread from the Apulia region as it has been increasing in the last few months,” Enrico Brivio, a European Commission spokesman, told the Guardian. “We will evaluate the situation and decide if additional measures are necessary at a standing committee meeting on the 19-20 January.”

The Xylella outbreak coincides with a particularly bad year for Italian olive growers last year. An unusually cold and wet summer meant that olive trees lost many buds. And those that managed to produce olives were attacked by olive fly, which lays its larvae in the olives.

"It's a disaster of Biblical proportions," Johnny Madge, a British producer who has been making olive oil in the Sabine Hills region, north of Rome, told the Telegraph. "In this region, production will be almost zero."

The harvest was the worst in decades, down 40 to 50 percent. With Italy and Spain accounting for some 70 percent of Europe's olive output, industry organizations warn of an imminent price hike.

10 Foods That Make You Smarter

Eco Watch | Feb 22, 2015 | Michael Gonzalez-Wallace

Who doesn’t want to become smarter? Who wants to look better or feel healthier? Many recent studies have shown how certain nutrients can positively affect the brain, specifically in areas of the brain related to cognitive processing or feelings and emotions. Generally speaking, you want to follow a healthy diet for your brain that will lead to strong blood flow, maintenance of mental sharpness and reduce the risk of heart disease and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Food and nutrients represent fuel to our bodies
the same way that when we use
our car we need to fill the gas tank.

We know that foods play a great role in our brain, as concluded in several studies led by a phenomenal neuroscientist at UCLA, Gomez Pinilla.

According to one study, the super fats your brain needs most are omega-3 fatty acids. Your brain converts them into DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) which enhances neuronal communication and promotes neuronal growth.

Food and nutrients represent fuel to our bodies the same way that when we use our car we need to fill the gas tank. Unfortunately, we generally take better care of our cars than our bodies. Why is that? We are hearing frequently that consuming the right nutrients can help our health, aging process, and more efficient brain-body functioning.

With that said, I want to share with you 10 foods you must keep in your diet to maintain brain health:

1. Apples: Eating an apple a day protects the brain from oxidative damage that causes neurodegenerative diseases such Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. This magical nutrient that acts as protection is quercetin, which is a phytonutrient.

2. Asparagus: Asparagus is rich in folic acid, which is essential for the metabolism of the long chain fatty acids in your brain.

3. Lean Beef: Lean beef is rich in vitamin B12, iron and zinc. These vitamins and minerals have been shown to maintain a healthy neural tissue.

4. Blueberries and Strawberries: Studies show that people who eat berries improve their memory and their motor skills. In addition, their antioxidant properties can protect your brain from the oxidative process.

5. Dark Chocolate: Dark chocolate offers incredible concentration powers. It is a very powerful antioxidant containing natural stimulants that increase the production of feel-good endorphins. Trick: you need to find dark chocolate with less than 10 grams of sugar per serving for optimal benefits.

6. Salmon: Salmon contains omega-3 fatty acids, which studies have shown to be essential for brain function.

7. Dried Oregano: Certain spices have powerful antioxidant properties. In several studies, this powerful spice has shown to have 40 times more antioxidant properties than apples, 30 times more than potatoes, 12 times more than oranges, and 4 times more than that of blueberries or strawberries.

8. Walnuts: Walnuts are rich in protein and contain omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins E and B6 which all promote healthy neural tissue.

9. Whole Grains: Whole grains deliver fiber and vitamin E that help promote cardiovascular health, which helps improve the circulation to the brain.

10. Yogurt: Yogurt and other dairy foods are filled with protein and vitamin B that are essential to improve the communication between nerve cells.

Make sure that from now on you select and plan a great menu that include these brain foods. Life is about choices and selecting the right nutrients can play a key role in your health.

Michael Gonzalez-Wallace is the author of Super Body, Super Brain.

Midwestern - Eastern U.S. record breaking cold and snow as seen from space

Watts Up With That | Feb 21, 2015 |

From NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center: NASA snaps picture of Eastern US in a record-breaking ‘freezer’

NASA’s Terra satellite captured this picture of snow across the eastern United States on Feb. 19 at 16:20 UTC (11:20 a.m. EST). Credit: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team

 NASA’s Terra satellite captured an image of the snow-covered eastern U.S. that looks like the states have been sitting in a freezer. In addition to the snow cover, Arctic and Siberian air masses have settled in over the Eastern U.S. triggering many record low temperatures in many states.

On Feb. 19 at 16:40 UTC (11:40 a.m. EST), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument that flies aboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured a picture of the snowy landscape. The snow cover combined with the frosty air mass made the eastern U.S. feel like the inside of freezer. The MODIS image was created at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

On the morning of Feb. 20, NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center (WPC) noted, “There were widespread subzero overnight lows Thursday night (Feb. 19) extending from Illinois to western Virginia, and numerous record lows were set. Bitterly-cold arctic air is setting numerous temperature records across the eastern U.S. and will keep temperatures well below normal on Friday (Feb. 20).”

In Baltimore, Maryland, a low temperature of 1F broke the record low for coldest morning recorded at the Thurgood Marshall Baltimore Washington-International Airport.

In Louisville, Kentucky, temperatures dropped to -6F, breaking the old record low of 0F, according to meteorologist Brian Goode of WAVE-TV. Meanwhile, Richmond Kentucky bottomed out at a frigid -32F.

In North Carolina, a record low temperature was set at Charlotte where the overnight temperature bottomed out at 7F breaking the old record of 13F in 1896. In Asheville, temperatures dropped to just 4F breaking the old record of 10F in 1979. Temperature records for Asheville extend back to 1876.

Several records were also broken in Georgia, according to Matt Daniel, a meteorologist at WMAZ-TV, Macon Georgia, who cited data from the National Weather Service. Daniel said that Macon set a new record low when the temperature dropped to 18F, beating the previous record of 21F set in 1958. Athens broke a new record low, too dropping to 14F and beating the old record of 18F set in 1958/1928.

NOAA’s NPC noted that “Highs on Friday (Feb. 20) will struggle to get out of the teens from the Ohio Valley to the Mid-Atlantic region. After Friday, temperatures are forecast to moderate and get closer to February averages as a storm system approaches from the west.”

NASA to seek life on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa

Jupiter’s moon Europe
(NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute)

Press TV | Feb 3, 2015

NASA gives go ahead for Europa mission as it announces funding for sending a probe to Jupiter's icy moon, which has a high probability of harboring life in our solar system.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) budget request for 2016 includes $30 million to send a spacecraft to examine Europa, NewScientist reported on Tuesday.

"For the first time, the budget supports the formulation and development of a Europa Mission, allowing NASA to begin project formulation," reads the budget request.

According to NASA, the funding will be used to initiate the planning stage for constructing a probe to carry out multiple flybys over the natural satellite -- rather than landing on or orbiting it – and perform a thorough and meticulous study on its surface.

This strategy will lower the cost and heighten safety of the mission as Europa resides in a high radiation environment which may endanger spacecraft.   

NASA will select instruments for the “clipper probe” this year in spring, and is aiming for a launch date in the mid-2020s.

Robert Pappalardo, the pre-project scientist for the Europa Clipper probe concept refers to the project as “a big deal”.

"We're moving toward the next phase, where you're a real mission. It's just thrilling after 15 years of pushing for it. It's a great day."

Since the 1990s, Europa has been tempting planetary scientists as the Galileo orbiter showed that it may have a deep ocean of salty liquid water, which may harbor life, underneath its thick icy exterior.

New views of dwarf planet Ceres released by NASA

This processed image, taken Jan. 13, 2015,
shows the dwarf planet Ceres as seen
from the Dawn spacecraft.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA)

RT | Jan 22, 2015

Impressive new images of the dwarf planet Ceres, captured by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, have revealed crater-like structures on the frozen, icy surface. The images arrived as the probe became due to enter Ceres’ orbit.

The images will help the Dawn spacecraft as it navigates its way towards Ceres. It is scheduled to enter the dwarf planet’s orbit around March 6 to begin a 16-month study.

Dawn’s arrival at Ceres will mark the first time a spacecraft has visited the planet, and the probe will able to linger in its orbit for in-depth exploration. NASA’s interest in the planet is that its surface contains vast portions of ice, and the agency has previously detected water vapor – a potential signal that Ceres may harbor life.

“We know so much about the solar system and yet so little about … Ceres. Now, Dawn is about to change that,” Mark Rayman, Dawn’s chief engineer and mission director, said in a release from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“Ceres apparently formed far enough from the sun under conditions cool enough for it to hang on to water molecules. Indeed, scientists have good reason to believe that water (mostly in the form of ice) may make up an astonishing 30 percent of its mass. Ceres may contain more water than Mars or any other body in the inner solar system except Earth,” Rayman wrote in his NASA dawnblog.  

Read more..

Manatees moving out of Florida waters west along Gulf coast

© AP/ Wilfredo Lee
In this May 15, 2014 photo. a manatee sticks its head
out of the water at Miami Seaquarium in Miami. As
manatees recover in Florida, their U.S. home base,
more and more seem to be showing up
farther west along the Gulf of Mexico.

SOTT | Jan 11, 2015 | Janet McConnaughey

As manatees recover in Florida, their U.S. home base, more and more seem to be showing up farther west along the Gulf of Mexico.

A total of seven stranded manatees had been reported along the Alabama coast before 2007, when a network to report strandings and sightings was created. Since then, "we've responded to dozens" of strandings, said Ruth Carmichael, head of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab's Manatee Sighting Network for Alabama and Mississippi.

"I think things are changing, in the manatee population and in the environment," she said Tuesday. She said scientists know there are more of the big, gentle marine mammals than there used to be. "But habitat is stable or declining. Animals are being forced to do something. The natural thing would be to spread out."

In hope of gathering enough data to learn whether her impression is accurate, she's now working with people in Louisiana and Texas to expand the network - "as far as I know, the only manatee sighting network in the country" - to those states.

"We see more animals coming here, staying longer, going farther west. We want to be prepared," Carmichael said.

Read more..

How The Elite Stay In Power

We Are Change | Dec 30, 2014

In this video we break down in simple terms a very complex game that is happening behind the scenes that many do not notice. A complex game played by the very few against everyone else.

Sleepy Hollow: Unsolved mystery of slumbering village (RT Documentary)

RT | Dec 28, 2014

They call it Sleepy Hollow. A small village in Kazakhstan (see map here) which has succumbed to a mysterious ailment – its dwellers keep falling asleep for no apparent reason. The indiscriminate illness has no cure. Episodes begin without warning, and those affected never know if they will wake up again. Some blame ghosts, others the closed uranium mines located nearby. But despite multiple attempts by medics and scientists to solve the riddle, the causes and consequences of the disease remain unknown. Now the RTD team goes to Kalachi village to undertake its own investigation.

One Awesome, Natural Way to Reduce Stress and Feel Better

Natural Society | Dec 14, 2014 | Christina Sarich

© Natural Society

Connecting with Earth

Did you know that connecting to the Earth with bare skin may offer a host of health benefits – including healing the tired, stressed, and holiday-weary? This practice of connecting with nature is called ‘grounding,’ or ‘earthing,’ and it should be tried by everyone.

Do you remember running in green grass at the park with bare feet? Or sitting in mud or sand piles building castles? Even walking around on an earthen floor can electromagnetically ‘ground’ us, causing our bodies to absorb negatively charged atoms from the Earth. Since our bodies are naturally positively charged, the negative ions ‘neutralize’ disease and strain. This might be why gardeners feel so good! They are always re-charging their bodies with negative ions form the Earth.

Adrenal fatigue is caused by the ever-presence of stress, causing our adrenal glands to be overloaded. It can arise after prolonged periods of emotional crisis, but also after physical illnesses like the flu or pneumonia.

In the most serious cases of adrenal fatigue, the activity of the adrenal glands is so impaired that you may have difficulty getting out of bed for more than a few hours per day. With each increment of reduction in adrenal function, every organ and system in your body is profoundly affected.

This means that our ‘fight or flight’ system, which is largely comprised of the adrenal glands, is switched to a constant ‘on’ with no ‘off’ switch easily accessible.

The adrenals sit right on top of your kidneys, and are made up of two distinct parts:

• The adrenal cortex, which produces vital hormones like cortisol (which helps regulate metabolism and helps your body respond to stress) and aldosterone (which helps control blood pressure).

• The adrenal medulla, which produces nonessential hormones, such as adrenaline and norepinephrine (which help your body react to stress).

Too much cortisol, norepinephrine, and adrenaline can also cause you to be in a forever-stressed state. You won’t sleep well, eat well, or do anything really, with much ease, if these hormones are not balanced.

One article published in the Journal of Complimentary Medicine states that:

“. . . grounding the human body results in [positive] changes in sleep, pain, and stress (anxiety, depression, irritability).”

They measured cortisol levels, specifically in patients who participated in their grounding study.

“[The adrenal system] normally works very efficiently for overt threats . . .such as in the face of a prowling predator, an accident or medical emergency. Yet unfortunately the HPA Axis responds not only to these actual, embodied stressors, but also to those that are anticipated and perceived – our looming worries and fears. The HPA system is helpless in differentiating between psychosocial stressors like getting stuck in traffic or planning a dinner party, and physical threats such as dodging wooly predators.

Thus in our far-from-perfect bustling modern world, where stressors are everywhere and worry is rampant, the HPA alarm is almost constantly stuck in the glowing red ON position. Cortisol levels soar in an unruly and destructive manner at bizarre times of the day and night, and suddenly small tasks such as packing a lunch or responding to an email, morph into treacherous evil threats that we feel like we just can’t handle.”

There is no refuting the potential benefits of connecting with nature and the Earth. Grounding is one of the simplest, most effective ways of allowing the body to right itself.

Full scale of plastic pollution in the world's oceans revealed for first time

SOTT | Dec 10, 2014 | Oliver Milman

Over five trillion pieces of plastic are floating in our oceans says most comprehensive study to date on plastic pollution around the world

More than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes, are floating in the world's oceans, causing damage throughout the food chain, new research has found.

Data collected by scientists from the US, France, Chile, Australia and New Zealand suggests a minimum of 5.25tn plastic particles in the oceans, most of them "micro plastics" measuring less than 5mm.

The volume of plastic pieces, largely deriving from products such as food and drink packaging and clothing, was calculated from data taken from 24 expeditions over a six-year period to 2013. The research, published in the journal PLOS One, is the first study to look at plastics of all sizes in the world's oceans.

Large pieces of plastic can strangle animals such as seals, while smaller pieces are ingested by fish and then fed up the food chain, all the way to humans.

This is problematic due to the chemicals contained within plastics, as well as the pollutants that plastic attract once they are in the marine environment.

"We saw turtles that ate plastic bags and fish that ingested fishing lines," said Julia Reisser, a researcher based at the University of Western Australia. "But there are also chemical impacts. When plastic gets into the water it acts like a magnet for oily pollutants.

"Bigger fish eat the little fish and then they end up on our plates. It's hard to tell how much pollution is being ingested but certainly plastics are providing some of it."

© Bryce Groark/Alamy
Plastic pieces in the ocean damage wildlife
and enter the food chain when ingested by fish.

The researchers collected small plastic fragments in nets, while larger pieces were observed from boats. The northern and southern sections of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans were surveyed, as well as the Indian ocean, the coast of Australia and the Bay of Bengal.

The vast amount of plastic, weighing 268,940 tonnes, includes everything from plastic bags to fishing gear debris.

While spread out around the globe, much of this rubbish accumulates in five large ocean gyres, which are circular currents that churn up plastics in a set area. Each of the major oceans have plastic-filled gyres, including the well-known 'great Pacific garbage patch' that covers an area roughly equivalent to Texas.

Reisser said traversing the large rubbish-strewn gyres in a boat was like sailing through "plastic soup."

"You put a net through it for half an hour and there's more plastic than marine life there," she said. "It's hard to visualise the sheer amount, but the weight of it is more than the entire biomass of humans. It's quite an alarming problem that's likely to get worse."

The research found that the gyres themselves are likely to contribute to the problem, acting as "shredders" to the plastic before dispersing it.

"Our findings show that the garbage patches in the middle of the five subtropical gyres are not the final resting places for the world's floating plastic trash," said Marcus Eriksen, another of the report's co-authors. "The endgame for micro-plastic is interactions with entire ocean ecosystems."

The research, the first of its kind to pull together data on floating plastic from around the world, will be used to chart future trends in the amount of debris in the oceans.

But researchers predict the volume will increase due to rising production of throwaway plastic, with only 5% of the world's plastic currently recycled.

"Lots of things are used once and then not recycled," Reisser said. "We need to improve our use of plastic and also monitor plastics in the oceans so we get a better understanding of the issue.

"I'm optimistic but we need to get policy makers to understand the problem. Some are doing that - Germany has changed the policy so that manufacturers are responsible for the waste they produce. If we put more responsibility on to the producer then that would be part of the solution."

Source: The Guardian

Prenatal exposure to common household chemicals linked with substantial drop in child IQ

Children exposed during pregnancy to elevated levels
of two common chemicals found in the home--di-n-butyl
phthalate (DnBP) and di-isobutyl phthalate (DiBP)--had
an IQ score, on average, more than six points lower
than children exposed at lower levels.
Credit: © rudisetiawan / Fotolia

Science Daily | Dec 10, 2014

Children exposed during pregnancy to elevated levels of two common chemicals found in the home--di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP) and di-isobutyl phthalate (DiBP)--had an IQ score, on average, more than six points lower than children exposed at lower levels, according to researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

The study is the first to report a link between prenatal exposure to phthalates and IQ in school-age children. Results appear online in the journal PLOS ONE.

DnBP and DiBP are found in a wide variety of consumer products, from dryer sheets to vinyl fabrics to personal care products like lipstick, hairspray, and nail polish, even some soaps. Since 2009, several phthalates have been banned from children's toys and other childcare articles in the United States. However, no steps have been taken to protect the developing fetus by alerting pregnant women to potential exposures. In the U.S., phthalates are rarely listed as ingredients on products in which they are used.

Researchers followed 328 New York City women and their children from low-income communities. They assessed the women's exposure to four phthalates--DnBP, DiBP, di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate, and diethyl phthalate--in the third trimester of pregnancy by measuring levels of the chemicals' metabolites in urine. Children were given IQ tests at age 7.

Children of mothers exposed during pregnancy to the highest 25 percent of concentrations of DnBP and DiBP had IQs 6.6 and 7.6 points lower, respectively, than children of mothers exposed to the lowest 25 percent of concentrations after controlling for factors like maternal IQ, maternal education, and quality of the home environment that are known to influence child IQ scores. The association was also seen for specific aspects of IQ, such as perceptual reasoning, working memory, and processing speed. The researchers found no associations between the other two phthalates and child IQ.

The range of phthalate metabolite exposures measured in the mothers was not unusual: it was within what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention observed in a national sample.

"Pregnant women across the United States are exposed to phthalates almost daily, many at levels similar to those that we found were associated with substantial reductions in the IQ of children," says lead author Pam Factor-Litvak, PhD, associate professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School.

"The magnitude of these IQ differences is troubling," says senior author Robin Whyatt, DrPH, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences and deputy director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health at the Mailman School. "A six- or seven-point decline in IQ may have substantial consequences for academic achievement and occupational potential."

"While there has been some regulation to ban phthalates from toys of young children," adds Dr. Factor-Litvak, "there is no legislation governing exposure during pregnancy, which is likely the most sensitive period for brain development. Indeed, phthalates are not required to be on product labeling."

While avoiding all phthalates in the United States is for now impossible, the researchers recommend that pregnant women take steps to limit exposure by not microwaving food in plastics, avoiding scented products as much as possible, including air fresheners, and dryer sheets, and not using recyclable plastics labeled as 3, 6, or 7.

The findings build on earlier, similar observations by the researchers of associations between prenatal exposure to DnBP and DiBP and children's cognitive and motor development and behavior at age 3. This September, they reported a link between prenatal exposure to phthalates and risk for childhood asthma.

It's not known how phthalates affect child health. However, numerous studies show that they disrupt the actions of hormones, including testosterone and thyroid hormone. Inflammation and oxidative stress may also play a role.

Meteorite From Mars Contains Alien Biomass: Scientists

© Flickr/ Jon Taylor

Sputnik News | Dec 3, 2014

A meteorite from Mars, found in the Moroccan desert three years ago, contains organic matter of extraterrestrial origin, scientists say.

MOSCOW, December 3 (Sputnik) — Chinese scientists discovered that a meteorite of Martian origin that hit Earth in Morocco in summer 2011, contains signs of water and organic carbon combinations, which may be evidence of extraterrestrial life dating 700,000 years back in time. 

Meteorite ‘Tissint’ landed in the midst of Moroccan desert of Guelmim-Es Semara on 18 July, 2011, roughly 700,000 years after it was chopped off the Martian surface by an asteroid from outer space. The 8-kg gray-coloured glassy boulder surprised scientists, as in contained traces of water, but it was only recently that the researchers found previously unidentified matter in its carbon composition, biological  and organic in nature.

The researchers assumed the organic matter could still have appeared on the space guest after it landed on Earth. But the recent tests have ultimately proven it is extraterrestrial nature.

"We cannot and do not want to entirely exclude the possibility that organic carbon within Tissint may be of abiotic origin," Professor Yangting Lin of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing wrote, suggesting the organic matter may still be physical, not biological, in origin. However, this is very unlikely.

"It could be possible that the organic carbon originated from impacts of carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. However, it is not easy to conceive by which processes chondritic carbon could have been selectively extracted from the impacting carbonaceous chondrites, selectively removed from the soil and later impregnated in the extremely fine rock veins," Lin concludes. The full study was published in the journal ‘Meteoritics & Planetary Science’.

The scientists point out the organic matter is extraterrestrial in origin and has four unusual features. Firstly, the meteorite did not spend a lot of time on Earth outside of the scientists’ control. Secondly, the organic matter was sealed inside the rock, under its glassy surface, created by the high temperatures only possible at atmospheric entry. Thirdly, some of these carbon compositions hardened into diamond, which is also only possible in natural conditions outside of Earth. Fourthly, the carbon-containing matter also bears a lot of deuterium, found in Martian soil.

Finding Nemo monster is real: Rare black seadevil caught on video

RT | Nov 24, 2014

Still from YouTube video/MBARI

A nightmare-inducing sea creature made famous in ‘Finding Nemo’ was caught on video in the depths of the ocean for the first time. Scientists believe global warming is affecting its environment, bringing the rare anglerfish species to shallower waters.

As shown in Pixar’s famous fish film, anglers get their name from the built-in fishing rod attached to their foreheads. The black seadevil (scientific name Melanocetus) lives in the pitch-black depths of Monterey Canyon off California’s coast, and uses its luminescent orb to attract prey.

“In the darkness of deep water, they flash the light to attract prey and draw them near the angler's mouth. When a fish or a squid swims up, it is quickly inhaled by the angler's huge mouth and trapped by its long, sharp teeth,” senior scientist Bruce Robison said in a video of the seadevil released by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).

MBARI scientists spotted the secretive species 2,000 feet (600m) below Monterey Bay’s surface, but it also lives in the “freezing, crushing water four times deeper,” the San Jose Mercury News reported.


The footage captured at this depth by MBARI’s remotely operated vehicle, ROV Doc Ricketts, is believed to be the first video ever made of this species alive and at such a depth, the institute said in the video description. Fewer than half a dozen encounters with any type of deep-sea anglerfish have ever been recorded by deep-diving research vehicles, MBARI noted in a statement.

The ROV located the fish during a “midwater transect” last Monday, institute spokeswoman Kim Fulton-Bennett told CNN. "This means we 'fly' the robot through the water at a series of different depths (10 minutes at each depth), and count all the different types of animals we see."

The female seadevil is recognizable from ‘Finding Nemo,’ where it snuck up on fish Dory and Marlin as they search for Nemo. As scary as the anglerfish might be, it is only 9 cm (3.5 in) long. The male is even smaller, “like a tiny little baby,” a video called ‘True Facts about the Angler Fish’ says.

“He attaches himself to the female by biting her, and then digesting part of his face so he fuses with her flesh,” the description continues. “He then atrophies, losing his digestive organs, brain, heart and eyes, and winds up nothing more than a pair of gonads, which release sperm when needed.”


Finding a female ‒ no matter how ugly she may appear‒ is imperative for the male.

"If they don't find a female, they drown," Ted Pietsch, professor at the University of Washington and expert on the deep-sea anglerfish, told the Mercury News. "They're not even properly equipped to eat."

Females also collect males throughout their lifetimes. Robison told KSBW that he has seen up to 11 males attached to a single female.

Not much else is known about the elusive seadevil, however. "A video would tell us a lot about how it moves, swims, orients to gravity," Pietsch noted.

Robison and his international team of researchers didn’t just capture video of the angler; it captured the black seadevil to study. Unfortunately, they do not know how long it will survive.



The team is studying the possible impacts of rising water temperatures on deep-sea animals. Robison told KSBW the fish discovery was thanks to the mid-water rest barometer, the only one of its kind.

"What we're trying to do experimentally with instruments that we take down into the ocean is to learn what the range of capabilities of these animals are," he said. "Now that the temperature is rising, many species may not have the ability to adjust to the rising temperatures."

The temperature increase, he told the Mercury News, is "probably because of global warming. If the temperature continues to rise and the amount of oxygen continues to decrease, things are going to change."

The problem the black seadevil and other deep-sea creatures face from global warming is that oxygen ‒ which is already scarce at those depths ‒ will decrease even more.

"Animals that live in the oxygen minim zones are adapted to low oxygen, but they might be close to their limit," Brad Seibel, an assistant professor of marine biology at the University of Rhode Island, told the Mercury News. That could lead to stunted development, and possibly force the animals to head to shallower waters.

And animals near the surface would have to swim to colder waters. These mass migrations would alter ecosystems as food and predators might not shift in the same way, Seibel said.
 

New Documentary “Symphony of the Soil” Extols the Importance and Mystery of Soil

Mercola | Oct 4, 2014 | Dr. Mercola

“If we have declared a war against the soil itself, then we are literally committing a species level suicide.” — Dr. Vandana Shiva

Symphony of the Soil Trailer from Lily Films on Vimeo.
One of Earth’s greatest treasures is soil, without which we could not survive. Soil is the mother of nearly all plant life, and ultimately, all animal life on this planet. It’s the interface between biology and geology—the living skin of the earth.

A new documentary, “Symphony of the Soil,” extols the importance and mystery of soil, as discussed by some of the world’s most esteemed scientists, farmers, and activists.¹ This visually stunning film reveals how the future of humankind largely depends on how well we care for this vital natural resource.

Interestingly, the film was made by Deborah Garcia who also made “The Future of Food” 10 years ago. This is the film that catalyzed my commitment to eliminating GMOs. In September of this year, I actually had an opportunity to meet Deborah and we did the short interview below.

Read more..    (Includes free viewing according to time line below)

The producers of this film are allowing a full and FREE viewing 10/4 through 10/10. Please show your support by purchasing a copy of The Symphony of The Soil DVD by CLICKING HERE

Food Affected By Fukushima Disaster Harms Animals, Even At Low-Levels Of Radiation

Sleuth Journal | Oct 5, 2014

Butterflies eating food collected from cities around the Fukushima nuclear meltdown site showed higher rates of death and disease, according to a study published in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.

Researchers fed groups of pale blue grass butterflies (Zizeeria maha) leaves from six different areas at varying distance from the disaster site, and then investigated the effects on the next generation. Feeding offspring the same contaminated leaves as their parents magnified the effects of the radiation. But offspring fed uncontaminated leaves were mostly like normal butterflies, and the authors say this shows that decontaminating the food source can save the next generation.

The 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant released substantial amounts of radiation into the surrounding area. Humans were evacuated, and no significant health effects have been reported, but the scientists from the University of the Rukyus, Okinawa, Japan, are studying the impact on the area’s wildlife.

In a previous study, the group suggested that eating leaves with high levels of radiation seriously affected the pale grass blue butterfly. Their new study investigated the effect of eating leaves with much lower levels of radiation, which had been collected in 2012, a year after the disaster, from six areas that were 59km to 1760km from the site.

Their study showed that even in these comparatively low levels of radiation, there was an observable difference in the butterflies’ lifespan, depending on the dose of caesium radiation in their food, which ranged from 0.2 to 161bq/kg. For comparison, leaves collected in the months after the disaster around 20km from the site had radiation in the thousands of Bq/kg. Butterflies fed leaves with higher caesium radiation doses were also smaller and some had morphological abnormalities such as unusually shaped wings.

Professor Joji Otaki, University of Rukyus, says: “Wildlife has probably been damaged even at relatively low doses of radiation, and our research showed that sensitivity varies among individuals within a species.”

In the second part of the experiment, the researchers looked at the next generation of butterflies. These were split into groups fed an uncontaminated diet, and those fed the same diets as their parents.

The offspring fed an uncontaminated diet had a similar lifespan, irrespective of the amount of radiation their parents had been exposed to. The only effect seemed to be that those whose parents had been exposed to higher caesium diets had smaller forewings. But those fed the same contaminated diet as their parents showed magnified effects.

The authors say that this shows that the effects of eating contaminated food can be significant, and that they can be passed on, but are minimized if the next generation have an unaffected diet.

Professor Otaki says: “Our study demonstrated that eating contaminated foods could cause serious negative effects on organisms. Such negative effects may be passed down the generations. On the bright side, eating non-contaminated food improves the negative effects, even in the next generation.”

Source: Stone Hearth News

Unique organic molecule discovered in deep space

AFP Photo / NASA

RT | Sep 26, 2014

A new kind of organic molecule has been discovered in a giant gas cloud in interstellar space, indicating that more complex molecules – the very core building blocks of life – can potentially form outside of the Earth and even be widespread in space.

The analysis of a star-forming gas cloud some 27,000 light years away from Earth, published in the journal Science, detected an iso-propyl cyanide molecule with a unique structure that is common in life-forming molecules, such as amino acids.

While finding a simple organic chemical in space is nothing new, a carbon-bearing molecule with a branched structure has been discovered for the first time, indicating that biologically crucial molecules can form not only on Earth, but in deep space too.
 
“This detection suggests that branched carbon-chain molecules may be generally abundant in the ISM [interstellar medium],” the study’s abstract reads.

The scientists – Dr Arnaud Belloche of the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy and his colleagues – found the molecule in a gas cloud called Sagittarius B2 – the “star factory” near the center of the Milky Way where many new stars are formed.

The team used the 12 telescopes of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in Chile, to make its observations.

Reuters/ESA/Hubble & NASA

“Amino acids on Earth are the building blocks of proteins, and proteins are very important for life as we know it. The question in the background is: is there life somewhere else in the galaxy?” Belloche told the BBC.
 
“Our goal is to search for new complex organic molecules in the interstellar medium,” he said.
And the evidence suggests their presence could actually be widespread.
 
“The enormous abundance of iso-propyl cyanide suggests that branched molecules may in fact be the rule, rather than the exception, in the interstellar medium,” stated Robin Garrod, an astrochemist at Cornell University and a co-author of the paper, according to astrobiology.com.

Previously discovered organic molecules, like vinyl alcohol and ethyl formate, all shared a major structural characteristic: the atom carbons they consist of are arranged in one, more or less, straight line. So the finding of iso-propyl cyanide – the largest and most complex molecule discovered to date – is significant according to a Cardiff university astronomy professor.
 
“There seems to be quite a lot of it, which would indicate that this more complex organic structure is possibly very common, maybe even the norm, when it comes to simple organic molecules in space,” Professor Matt Griffin, head of the school of physics and astronomy at Cardiff University said.

The finding is already a breakthrough, but what scientists really hope to discover is actual amino acids.
 
“It's a step closer to discovering molecules that can be regarded as the building blocks or the precursors… of amino acids,” Griffin said.

Black market for water now thriving in California as ultra-rich pay huge premiums for covert water deliveries

© Natural News

Natural News | Sep 23, 2014 | Ethan A. Huff

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. This is quickly becoming the new state motto in California, where epic drought conditions are affecting even the highest echelons of society, including ultra-rich areas near Santa Barbara where celebrities, CEOs, and other "one-percenters" are now having to truck in water from unknown sources just to keep their laundry washed and their dishes clean.

We're no longer talking about extravagant things like swimming pools and polo fields, many of which are now dry, brown and decaying in the plush Santa Barbara suburb of Montecito. No, one of the richest zip codes in the entire U.S. is struggling just to maintain enough water for its residents to live, according to reports.

Water has become such a scarce commodity throughout the region that it may even be more valuable than gold, at this point. The Telegraph reports that it is now a regular occurrence for large tanker trucks to be seen trudging up and down the coastal enclave, delivering fresh supplies of water from... somewhere, the sources of which are mostly undisclosed.

Montecito fining residents millions for using too much water 

It may seem primitive, but with fines ranging in the tens of thousands up into the millions, it makes sense for the well-to-do to ship their water in from elsewhere rather than pay the piper. A recent Politico report highlights how TV talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, for instance, racked up $125,000 in charges last year for using too much water at one of her lavish estates. And others, according to The Telegraph, have faced similar fines for excessive use during a single month.

"It doesn't matter how much money you have, if you run out of water you're screwed. It's a great leveler," stated Larry Reiche, an area resident, as quoted by The Telegraph. "Gone are the days in California when you could throw water around. This is a desert and people have to realise if we run out of water it's going to return to desert."

Reiche's property is small compared to the Pat Nesbitt's 71-acre estate, complete with a polo field. One of the heavier users in the area, Nesbitt's water allocation was cut by more than 90 percent, meaning he faces fines of up to $140,000 per month if he consumes in excess of this. As a result, he has had to make some major lifestyle changes.

"We cut back," he told The Telegraph. "We don't water anything any more. The polo field is brown. We are still able to play but it doesn't play as good."

Are Montecito residents shipping in stolen water?

Such fines make it cost-prohibitive to use municipal water, even for the rich, which is why many Montecito residents are now paying up to $80 per unit of water shipped in on mystery trucks. A unit is the equivalent of about 748 gallons, a quantity that under normal conditions would only cost about $7.00 from the city.

But nobody knows where this water is coming from, at least not officially. Meanwhile, areas of California's Central Valley near Fresno, for instance, have been seeing surges in water thefts from trucks with "mounted tanks," according to The Daily Mail. Though these trucks differ from the types of tanker trucks delivering water to Montecito residents, the question remains as to where this possibly stolen water is coming from.

"California suffers not having a coherent statewide water management policy... [and] a severely antiquated patchwork water storage and delivery system," wrote one Politico commenter about the dilemma.

"Many families in the Central Valley region have no water, completely shutoff, not even a trickle from a kitchen faucet. Meanwhile the wealthy are using millions of gallons of water to keep their private estate ducks quacking happy."

Sources for this article include:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

http://www.politico.com

http://www.fresnobee.com

http://www.dailymail.co.uk

http://science.naturalnews.com