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Arctic ice grows darker and less reflective
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WANT to do your own space experiment? From next week, you will be able to buy time on the world’s first open source satellites. ArduSat-1 and ArduSat-X were
Panu Lahtinen, FMI
Citizen satellites
60 Seconds
“Users could track meteorites or make a 3D model of Earth’s magnetosphere”
Nine months... or so
“Quote to go in here over four lines range left like this Quote to go in her like this xxxxx”
PABLO BIELLI/AFP/Getty Images
launched to the International Space Station on 3 August aboard a Japanese resupply vehicle. Known as CubeSats, each satellite packs an array of devices, including cameras and a Geiger counter, into a box 10 centimetres Dark Arctic future square. The cargo ship should SUMMER was once an important arrive at the ISS on 9 August, and the CubeSats will then be deployed. time for reflection in the Arctic. Perhaps not for much longer: The project was partially funded by a Kickstarter campaign, the Arctic Ocean now reflects 15 per cent less sunlight than it with backers buying time slots to did 30 years ago. run experiments. Users will be Aku Riihelä of the Finnish able to program controls on the satellites and run experiments for Meteorological Institute and his colleagues looked at satellite three days or a week. Projects are measurements of reflectivity, or yet to be announced, but a list of albedo, between 1982 and 2009 ideas from the developers (Nature Climate Change, doi.org/ includes tracking meteorites and nct). He says the darkening is making a 3D model of Earth’s magnetosphere. “Melting and darkening of The satellites will orbit for the Arctic is a major factor three to seven months before in climate change. It acts burning up as they fall to Earth. as a positive feedback” NanoSatisfi, the San Francisco start-up that builds the machines, partly due to thinning ice and the hopes to send fleets of them into formation of fissures, and partly space on future launches. because in the warmer air, ponds of liquid water form on the surface of the ice. The shallow ponds reduce albedo and increase the amount of solar radiation that the ice absorbs. The melting and darkening of the Arctic is a major factor in climate change. It acts as a positive feedback, because the more ice melts or darkens, the more the Arctic warms and the more ice melts. It may help to explain the speed of Arctic ice loss, which far exceeds the predictions of existing climate –Where the grass is greener?– models, including those used in
Pregnant? You might want to reconsider your due date. Gestation can vary naturally by five weeks, according to a study that recorded 125 women’s hormone levels daily to pinpoint the date of conception. The average pregnancy lasted 38 weeks, but the range between the shortest and longest pregnancies was 37 days (Human Reproduction, DOI: 10.1093/humrep/det297).
Biofuels are go –Worrying loss of albedo–
the 2007 climate assessment issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. At the end of the 2012 summer, Arctic sea ice extent hit a record low. Some recent predictions suggest the Arctic Ocean could have no ice left at the end of each summer by 2030. Riihelä says the dramatic reduction in albedo can only hasten the day.
Cell dispute settled IT’S been a long time coming. Justice has been served for the woman whose cancerous cells have fuelled biomedical investigation for decades. In 1951, researchers collected tissue samples from Henrietta Lacks without her permission and the “HeLa” cell line has become one of the most commonly used in medicine. In March, the HeLa genome was published but then withdrawn after complaints from her family. The family have now agreed to make the genome available, but requests for access will have to be reviewed and a credit must be given to Lacks and her family. A separate study out this week reveals that Lacks was infected with human papillomavirus. It is likely that this caused the aggressive cervical cancer that led to her death (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature12064).
Commercial-scale biofuel production may soon be a reality. INEOS Bio says it has succeeded, at its Indian River BioEnergy Center in Florida, in scaling up the production of ethanol from wood waste enough to make it commercially viable. The US Environmental Protection Agency confirms a small amount of biofuel has been produced so far.
Sleeping Armadillo Armadillo Aerospace is taking a breather in the race to build reusable rockets for commercial space travel. At a conference in Dallas, Texas, on 1 August, founder John Carmack – inventor of megahit video games Doom and Quake – said that the company is out of cash.
West German doping It wasn’t just the East Germans. A report seen by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung claims that the West German Federal Institute for Sports Science experimented with anabolic steroids, testosterone, oestrogen and blood doping in the 1960s and 70s. Three members of the 1966 World Cup soccer team are said to have been involved.
Remember my whistle Every bottlenose dolphin produces a unique whistle that acts as a name, which stays the same throughout their lives. They can even remember the signature whistles of dolphins they haven’t encountered for 20 years (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.1726).
10 August 2013 | NewScientist | 7
WANT to do your own space experiment? From next week, you will be able to buy time on the world’s first open source satellites. ArduSat-1 and ArduSat-X were
Panu Lahtinen, FMI
Citizen satellites
60 Seconds
“Users could track meteorites or make a 3D model of Earth’s magnetosphere”
Nine months... or so
“Quote to go in here over four lines range left like this Quote to go in her like this xxxxx”
PABLO BIELLI/AFP/Getty Images
launched to the International Space Station on 3 August aboard a Japanese resupply vehicle. Known as CubeSats, each satellite packs an array of devices, including cameras and a Geiger counter, into a box 10 centimetres Dark Arctic future square. The cargo ship should SUMMER was once an important arrive at the ISS on 9 August, and the CubeSats will then be deployed. time for reflection in the Arctic. Perhaps not for much longer: The project was partially funded by a Kickstarter campaign, the Arctic Ocean now reflects 15 per cent less sunlight than it with backers buying time slots to did 30 years ago. run experiments. Users will be Aku Riihelä of the Finnish able to program controls on the satellites and run experiments for Meteorological Institute and his colleagues looked at satellite three days or a week. Projects are measurements of reflectivity, or yet to be announced, but a list of albedo, between 1982 and 2009 ideas from the developers (Nature Climate Change, doi.org/ includes tracking meteorites and nct). He says the darkening is making a 3D model of Earth’s magnetosphere. “Melting and darkening of The satellites will orbit for the Arctic is a major factor three to seven months before in climate change. It acts burning up as they fall to Earth. as a positive feedback” NanoSatisfi, the San Francisco start-up that builds the machines, partly due to thinning ice and the hopes to send fleets of them into formation of fissures, and partly space on future launches. because in the warmer air, ponds of liquid water form on the surface of the ice. The shallow ponds reduce albedo and increase the amount of solar radiation that the ice absorbs. The melting and darkening of the Arctic is a major factor in climate change. It acts as a positive feedback, because the more ice melts or darkens, the more the Arctic warms and the more ice melts. It may help to explain the speed of Arctic ice loss, which far exceeds the predictions of existing climate –Where the grass is greener?– models, including those used in
Pregnant? You might want to reconsider your due date. Gestation can vary naturally by five weeks, according to a study that recorded 125 women’s hormone levels daily to pinpoint the date of conception. The average pregnancy lasted 38 weeks, but the range between the shortest and longest pregnancies was 37 days (Human Reproduction, DOI: 10.1093/humrep/det297).
Biofuels are go –Worrying loss of albedo–
the 2007 climate assessment issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. At the end of the 2012 summer, Arctic sea ice extent hit a record low. Some recent predictions suggest the Arctic Ocean could have no ice left at the end of each summer by 2030. Riihelä says the dramatic reduction in albedo can only hasten the day.
Cell dispute settled IT’S been a long time coming. Justice has been served for the woman whose cancerous cells have fuelled biomedical investigation for decades. In 1951, researchers collected tissue samples from Henrietta Lacks without her permission and the “HeLa” cell line has become one of the most commonly used in medicine. In March, the HeLa genome was published but then withdrawn after complaints from her family. The family have now agreed to make the genome available, but requests for access will have to be reviewed and a credit must be given to Lacks and her family. A separate study out this week reveals that Lacks was infected with human papillomavirus. It is likely that this caused the aggressive cervical cancer that led to her death (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature12064).
Commercial-scale biofuel production may soon be a reality. INEOS Bio says it has succeeded, at its Indian River BioEnergy Center in Florida, in scaling up the production of ethanol from wood waste enough to make it commercially viable. The US Environmental Protection Agency confirms a small amount of biofuel has been produced so far.
Sleeping Armadillo Armadillo Aerospace is taking a breather in the race to build reusable rockets for commercial space travel. At a conference in Dallas, Texas, on 1 August, founder John Carmack – inventor of megahit video games Doom and Quake – said that the company is out of cash.
West German doping It wasn’t just the East Germans. A report seen by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung claims that the West German Federal Institute for Sports Science experimented with anabolic steroids, testosterone, oestrogen and blood doping in the 1960s and 70s. Three members of the 1966 World Cup soccer team are said to have been involved.
Remember my whistle Every bottlenose dolphin produces a unique whistle that acts as a name, which stays the same throughout their lives. They can even remember the signature whistles of dolphins they haven’t encountered for 20 years (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.1726).
10 August 2013 | NewScientist | 7