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Megathrust quake! New Yorker scares the bejesus out of NW

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By now you might have seen or been told about the New Yorker’s deep-dive into the coming megathrust earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone that’s guaranteed to smash the hell out of everything west of the Cascades. If not, well glad we could jump onboard the fear train!

This graphic was lifted from the Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup's updated scenario document for what that magnitude of quake would do to us now.

(Click for larger version) This graphic was from the Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup.

We’ve written on this a ton …

. . . but it never hurts to be reminded of the truly great disaster awaiting us or the next couple of generations. The New Yorker writes:

In the Pacific Northwest, everything west of Interstate 5 covers some hundred and forty thousand square miles, including Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Eugene, Salem (the capital city of Oregon), Olympia (the capital of Washington), and some seven million people. When the next full-margin rupture happens, that region will suffer the worst natural disaster in the history of North America. Roughly three thousand people died in San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake. Almost two thousand died in Hurricane Katrina. Almost three hundred died in Hurricane Sandy.

FEMA projects that nearly thirteen thousand people will die in the Cascadia earthquake and tsunami. Another twenty-seven thousand will be injured, and the agency expects that it will need to provide shelter for a million displaced people, and food and water for another two and a half million. “This is one time that I’m hoping all the science is wrong, and it won’t happen for another thousand years,” Murphy says.

In fact, the science is robust, and one of the chief scientists behind it is Chris Goldfinger. Thanks to work done by him and his colleagues, we now know that the odds of the big Cascadia earthquake happening in the next fifty years are roughly one in three. The odds of the very big one are roughly one in ten. Even those numbers do not fully reflect the danger—or, more to the point, how unprepared the Pacific Northwest is to face it. The truly worrisome figures in this story are these: Thirty years ago, no one knew that the Cascadia subduction zone had ever produced a major earthquake. Forty-five years ago, no one even knew it existed.

The story is a classic New Yorker good read. So, go get scared. In the meantime, here’s some of what we last wrote about the big one in several stories:

On the 314-year anniversary of the last megathrust quake, the Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup published an updated scenario document for what that magnitude of quake would do to us now. The group said in a news release:

“Cascadia’s last great earthquake occurred on January 26, 1700 and ‹stresses have been building on the fault ever since. While the full extent of the earthquake hazard was not realized until the 1980s, the Cascadia subduction zone is now one of the most closely studied and monitored regions in the world.”

And in 2013 when a study was released confirming the relative timing for megathrusts in our region, we wrote:

Digging into the soil at the Effingham Inlet in British Columbia, Canadian scientists have confirmed that a city-destroying megathrust earthquake in the Northwest is due.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone running the length of the coast from northern Vancouver Island down to California last slipped and shook the surface of the Earth 300 years ago, and that was just the latest of 22 such quakes in the past 11,000 years.

The scientists, whose work is published in the latest Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, used a new aging model for identifying and dating disturbed sedimentary layers in a core raised from the inlet.

The disturbances appear to have been caused by large and megathrust earthquakes that have occurred over the past 11,000 years, According to a science news site run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

One of the co-authors of the study, Dr. Audrey Dallimore, associate professor at Royal Roads University, told the news site:

“We have identified 22 earthquake shaking events over the last 11,000 years, giving an estimate of a recurrence interval for large and megathrust earthquakes of about 500 years. However, it appears that the time between major shaking events can stretch up to about 1,000 years.

“The last megathrust earthquake originating from the Cascadia subduction zone occurred in 1700 A.D. Therefore, we are now in the risk zone of another earthquake. Even though it could be tomorrow or perhaps even centuries before it occurs, paleoseismic studies such as this one can help us understand the nature and frequency of rupture along the Cascadia Subduction Zone.”

Jake Ellison can be reached at 206-448-8334 or jakeellison@seattlepi.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jake_News. Also, swing by and *LIKE* his page on Facebook.
If Google Plus is your thing, check out our science coverage here.

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1RuR17j

We love doing this, too!

(Click for larger version) This graphic was from the Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup.

We’ve written on this a ton …

. . . but it never hurts to be reminded of the truly great disaster awaiting us or the next couple of generations. The New Yorker writes:

In the Pacific Northwest, everything west of Interstate 5 covers some hundred and forty thousand square miles, including Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Eugene, Salem (the capital city of Oregon), Olympia (the capital of Washington), and some seven million people. When the next full-margin rupture happens, that region will suffer the worst natural disaster in the history of North America. Roughly three thousand people died in San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake. Almost two thousand died in Hurricane Katrina. Almost three hundred died in Hurricane Sandy.

FEMA projects that nearly thirteen thousand people will die in the Cascadia earthquake and tsunami. Another twenty-seven thousand will be injured, and the agency expects that it will need to provide shelter for a million displaced people, and food and water for another two and a half million. “This is one time that I’m hoping all the science is wrong, and it won’t happen for another thousand years,” Murphy says.

In fact, the science is robust, and one of the chief scientists behind it is Chris Goldfinger. Thanks to work done by him and his colleagues, we now know that the odds of the big Cascadia earthquake happening in the next fifty years are roughly one in three. The odds of the very big one are roughly one in ten. Even those numbers do not fully reflect the danger—or, more to the point, how unprepared the Pacific Northwest is to face it. The truly worrisome figures in this story are these: Thirty years ago, no one knew that the Cascadia subduction zone had ever produced a major earthquake. Forty-five years ago, no one even knew it existed.

The story is a classic New Yorker good read. So, go get scared. In the meantime, here’s some of what we last wrote about the big one in several stories:

On the 314-year anniversary of the last megathrust quake, the Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup published an updated scenario document for what that magnitude of quake would do to us now. The group said in a news release:

“Cascadia’s last great earthquake occurred on January 26, 1700 and ‹stresses have been building on the fault ever since. While the full extent of the earthquake hazard was not realized until the 1980s, the Cascadia subduction zone is now one of the most closely studied and monitored regions in the world.”

And in 2013 when a study was released confirming the relative timing for megathrusts in our region, we wrote:

Digging into the soil at the Effingham Inlet in British Columbia, Canadian scientists have confirmed that a city-destroying megathrust earthquake in the Northwest is due.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone running the length of the coast from northern Vancouver Island down to California last slipped and shook the surface of the Earth 300 years ago, and that was just the latest of 22 such quakes in the past 11,000 years.

The scientists, whose work is published in the latest Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, used a new aging model for identifying and dating disturbed sedimentary layers in a core raised from the inlet.

The disturbances appear to have been caused by large and megathrust earthquakes that have occurred over the past 11,000 years, According to a science news site run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

One of the co-authors of the study, Dr. Audrey Dallimore, associate professor at Royal Roads University, told the news site:

“We have identified 22 earthquake shaking events over the last 11,000 years, giving an estimate of a recurrence interval for large and megathrust earthquakes of about 500 years. However, it appears that the time between major shaking events can stretch up to about 1,000 years.

“The last megathrust earthquake originating from the Cascadia subduction zone occurred in 1700 A.D. Therefore, we are now in the risk zone of another earthquake. Even though it could be tomorrow or perhaps even centuries before it occurs, paleoseismic studies such as this one can help us understand the nature and frequency of rupture along the Cascadia Subduction Zone.”

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1RuR17j

Pluto mission: Another dwarf planet, another sign of aliens … er … mysteries

While the world waits for the aliens on the dwarf planet Ceres to stop playing games with us — bright spots (!?), 3-mile-high “pyramid-shaped mountain” (!?) — NASA’s spacecraft New Horizons has begun sending back photos of Pluto that are … well, mysterious.

They include, but may not be limited to, a heart-shaped bright area, a “dark feature” called The Whale and a series of four regularly spaced “mysterious dark spots.” All of which are in the following gallery:

The spacecraft will zoom past Pluto and moons on July 14, providing humans the first views of that dwarf planet’s surface. NASA is ramping up for the great fanfare that goes with such profound human technical achievements.

Team celebrates confirmation from mission control that we’re Pluto bound, #PlutoFlyBy sequence officially underway. http://pic.twitter.com/Se2Ls12maE

— NASA New Horizons (@NASANewHorizons) July 7, 2015

The agency’s media relations people are probably also preparing a lexicon of vaguely alien-suggestive names and analogies for what features New Horizons reveals … and it works. The agency got an ion-propulsion amount of milage out referring to big mountains on Ceres as “pyramid-shaped.” A reference we deconstructed in our story … “‘Pyramid-shaped mountain': How NASA broke the Internet with one phrase.”

And we love it. Why not.

The science of detailing geological forces, chemical analysis of what atmosphere there is and so on are important and interesting … but hard to wrap our non-rocket-scientist heads around. We live in a world where technical achievements vastly outpace our ability to understand them. So, we use metaphor and words like “mysterious” and “surprising” to capture the magic.

“We’re at the ‘man in the moon’ stage of viewing Pluto,” said John Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado, deputy leader of the Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team. “It’s easy to imagine you’re seeing familiar shapes in this bizarre collection of light and dark features. However, it’s too early to know what these features really are.”

The man in the moon is made of cheese and spends his weekends in a pyramid-shaped mound on Ceres and visits Pluto’s dark spots for … well we’ll have to wait and see what New Horizons has to show us in a few days.

“The next time we see this part of Pluto (that heart-shaped region) at closest approach, a portion of this region will be imaged at about 500 times better resolution than we see today,” said Jeff Moore, Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Team Leader of NASA’s Ames Research Center. “It will be incredible!”

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1Hbuu5b

Team celebrates confirmation from mission control that we’re Pluto bound, #PlutoFlyBy sequence officially underway. http://pic.twitter.com/Se2Ls12maE

— NASA New Horizons (@NASANewHorizons) July 7, 2015

And we love it. Why not.

“We’re at the ‘man in the moon’ stage of viewing Pluto,” said John Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado, deputy leader of the Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team. “It’s easy to imagine you’re seeing familiar shapes in this bizarre collection of light and dark features. However, it’s too early to know what these features really are.”

“The next time we see this part of Pluto (that heart-shaped region) at closest approach, a portion of this region will be imaged at about 500 times better resolution than we see today,” said Jeff Moore, Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Team Leader of NASA’s Ames Research Center. “It will be incredible!”

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1Hbuu5b

What’s small and fluffy and a reason Neanderthals went extinct?

When it comes to Neanderthals, the story goes basically like this:

Roughly around some 40,000 years ago, Homo sapiens wondered into Europe and began competing on some level with their thicker, big-brained, big-eyed genetic relatives for space and resources. We and they overlapped in time possibly as much as 5,000 years.

During that time, some of our more congenial ancestors comforted or were comforted by Neanderthals in those long cold European winter nights … if you know what I mean (we have some of their DNA in ours).

But mostly, one of the newest theories goes, Neanderthals used their big brains to operate their big bodies and to process information from their bigger eyes, eyes evolved just for spying their congenial genetic relatives at night. Meanwhile, Homo sapiens were using their big brains to build social communities over much larger areas than Neanderthals.

And then the Neanderthals disappeared.

So, unless they were taken into deep space aboard alien spacecraft, they’re genetic line got snuffed out. Was the major cause (and there would have been a matrix of causes) a giant volcanic eruption? The Campi Flegrei volcano west of Naples went nuts 39,000 years ago, becomign the biggest volcanic eruption in Europe for more than 200,000 years, reports The Guardian.

“Some researchers believe there is a link between the eruption and the Neanderthals’ disappearance. But I doubt it,” a scientist told the Guardian. “From the new radiocarbon dating and the work carried out by Reset scientists, it looks as if the Neanderthals had probably already vanished. A few may still have been hanging around, of course, and Campi Flegrei may have delivered the coup de grace. But it would be wrong to think the eruption was the main cause of the Neanderthals’ demise.”

It’s also unlikely Homo sapiens had the brawn to beat their bigger cousins the Neanderthals to death. Did they just get absorbed into the Homo sapiens line and basically out-sexed? That is a possibility.

From The Guardian’s great story “Why did the Neanderthals die out?”

So what did kill off the Neanderthals? Given the speed at which they seem to have disappeared from the planet after modern humans spread out of Africa, it is likely that Homo sapiens played a critical role in their demise. That does not mean we chased them down and killed them – an unlikely scenario given their muscular physiques. However, we may have been more successful at competing for resources, as recent research has suggested.

That competition might have been the final blow, but new research suggests that Neanderthals were in trouble before Homo sapiens ate their way into Europe.

There is some genetic evidence that Neanderthals in Western Europe may have experienced declining genetic diversity about the time when the first modern humans began arriving on the continent, (one scientist told Live Science). “This might mean that they were fading out at this time, although, of course, our evidence suggests that there was a long period of overlap during which this occurred,” he said.

Punchline

Researchers from the Bournemouth University in the UK add a furry bit of evidence to this idea that Neanderthals were having a tougher time surviving in Europe than Homo and their numbers may have collapsed because of a simple fact:

They shunned rabbit meat.

Maybe they had a bad experience:

Wikimedia commons: The Rabbit of Caerbannog in mid-attack, in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Whatever caused their aversion, the university writes in its news release:

Dr John Stewart, Associate Professor in Paleoecology and Environmental Change at Bournemouth University (BU), is part of a team which analysed data on rabbit bone remains, found in archaeological excavations of caves in the Iberian Peninsula. They found that while rabbits were a crucial part of the modern humans’ diet, they were relatively under-utilised by Neanderthals.

“Rabbits originated in Iberia and they are a very special kind of resource, in that they can be found in large numbers, they are relatively easy to catch and they are predictable,” said Dr Stewart. “This means that they are quite a good food source to target. The fact that the Neanderthals did not appear to do so suggests that this was a resource they did not have access to in the same way as modern humans.”

The fact that Neanderthals – typically associated with hunting large prey over short distances in woodland settings – were seemingly unable to catch and kill such creatures is compounded by rapid changes in the environment. “The climate was changing and the ecology was decreasing in terms of the amount of animals they were able to hunt,” Dr Stewart explained. “If Neanderthals were more tied to these large mammals, the loss of them could have driventhem to extinction.”

Evidence that modern humans were more able to hunt across large, open spaces – and used technological innovations such as twine and traps to help them catch faster,smaller prey, including rabbits – suggests that they adapted better to this change insurroundings.

Dr Stewart said: “Modern humans had more that they could do – they had more possibilities and were more able to cope with the deterioration of climate than Neanderthals were. If modern humans thrivedwhen Neanderthals did not, it must mean that modern humans were better at exploiting resources than Neanderthals.”

So, we survived in larger healthier numbers and it’s because of rabbits. No wonder we find them so cute and want to be around them … just saying.

Then, to top it all off, the volcano blew …

… and the Ice Age hit. BU writes:

This ability to adapt to shifting temperatures is particularly pertinent, with climate change currently threatening to impact upon human life once more. “It does relate to our own situation currently, with humans now in this potentially perilous situation with climate change,” said Dr Stewart. “From a long-term ecological perspective, all species go extinct – that is an inevitability. But if we do not want it to happen sooner rather than later, we have to understand this phenomenon.”

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1dhdQIE

When it comes to Neanderthals, the story goes basically like this:

And then the Neanderthals disappeared.

“Some researchers believe there is a link between the eruption and the Neanderthals’ disappearance. But I doubt it,” a scientist told the Guardian. “From the new radiocarbon dating and the work carried out by Reset scientists, it looks as if the Neanderthals had probably already vanished. A few may still have been hanging around, of course, and Campi Flegrei may have delivered the coup de grace. But it would be wrong to think the eruption was the main cause of the Neanderthals’ demise.”

From The Guardian’s great story “Why did the Neanderthals die out?”

So what did kill off the Neanderthals? Given the speed at which they seem to have disappeared from the planet after modern humans spread out of Africa, it is likely that Homo sapiens played a critical role in their demise. That does not mean we chased them down and killed them – an unlikely scenario given their muscular physiques. However, we may have been more successful at competing for resources, as recent research has suggested.

That competition might have been the final blow, but new research suggests that Neanderthals were in trouble before Homo sapiens ate their way into Europe.

There is some genetic evidence that Neanderthals in Western Europe may have experienced declining genetic diversity about the time when the first modern humans began arriving on the continent, (one scientist told Live Science). “This might mean that they were fading out at this time, although, of course, our evidence suggests that there was a long period of overlap during which this occurred,” he said.

Punchline

They shunned rabbit meat.

Maybe they had a bad experience:

Wikimedia commons: The Rabbit of Caerbannog in mid-attack, in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Whatever caused their aversion, the university writes in its news release:

Dr John Stewart, Associate Professor in Paleoecology and Environmental Change at Bournemouth University (BU), is part of a team which analysed data on rabbit bone remains, found in archaeological excavations of caves in the Iberian Peninsula. They found that while rabbits were a crucial part of the modern humans’ diet, they were relatively under-utilised by Neanderthals.

“Rabbits originated in Iberia and they are a very special kind of resource, in that they can be found in large numbers, they are relatively easy to catch and they are predictable,” said Dr Stewart. “This means that they are quite a good food source to target. The fact that the Neanderthals did not appear to do so suggests that this was a resource they did not have access to in the same way as modern humans.”

The fact that Neanderthals – typically associated with hunting large prey over short distances in woodland settings – were seemingly unable to catch and kill such creatures is compounded by rapid changes in the environment. “The climate was changing and the ecology was decreasing in terms of the amount of animals they were able to hunt,” Dr Stewart explained. “If Neanderthals were more tied to these large mammals, the loss of them could have driventhem to extinction.”

Evidence that modern humans were more able to hunt across large, open spaces – and used technological innovations such as twine and traps to help them catch faster,smaller prey, including rabbits – suggests that they adapted better to this change insurroundings.

Dr Stewart said: “Modern humans had more that they could do – they had more possibilities and were more able to cope with the deterioration of climate than Neanderthals were. If modern humans thrivedwhen Neanderthals did not, it must mean that modern humans were better at exploiting resources than Neanderthals.”

So, we survived in larger healthier numbers and it’s because of rabbits. No wonder we find them so cute and want to be around them … just saying.

Then, to top it all off, the volcano blew …

… and the Ice Age hit. BU writes:

This ability to adapt to shifting temperatures is particularly pertinent, with climate change currently threatening to impact upon human life once more. “It does relate to our own situation currently, with humans now in this potentially perilous situation with climate change,” said Dr Stewart. “From a long-term ecological perspective, all species go extinct – that is an inevitability. But if we do not want it to happen sooner rather than later, we have to understand this phenomenon.”

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1dhdQIE

‘Pyramid-shaped mountain': How NASA broke the Internet with one phrase

NASA, we know, has a lot of smart scientists. Basically, everything they do is rocket science.

And, we also know that there is a very dedicated base of citizens who follow everything the agency does. And, many of those people are also journalists who have used the wealth of NASA photos, videos and information as the basis for a bazillion stories.

Nevertheless, the space agency is in the same boat as all the rest of us when it comes to public exposure … I mean, informing the public. That is … *slow drum roll* … the primacy of the Internet.

So while engineers, chemists, astronauts etc. ponder the incredible tasks of putting machines into deep space and on extraterrestrial bodies, examining the farthest galaxies, pondering the shape of the universe, black holes and all of that … NASA communications teams are working on getting the science noticed.

Having read agency news releases, social media posts and old-school full-length research reports nearly daily for years now, I can tell you they are getting smarter: Shorter, less technical, punchier and Internet savvy.

All of which came to fruition in a recent news release about the dwarf planet Ceres.

Now, there is already a lot of interest in Ceres because of those mysterious bright spots.

So much interest that the agency has set up a poll for all of us amateurs to weigh in on …

Screenshot of recent voting results on the Great Ceres’ Mystery.

But then NASA scientists examining images taken by the Dawn spacecraft spotted some odd geological features on the dwarf planet. We weren’t privy to the conversation between scientists and the public relations team, but I can imagine it went something like this.

Scientists: These are some pretty tall geological features in the middle of a general flat area probably created by a meteor impact that shows something about the makeup of Ceres’ crust.

PR: It kinda looks like it has steep edges … almost pyramid-like

Or maybe it was the scientist who came up with that comparison to pyramids. But whoever did, the entire team at some point got behind the comparison and the phrases “pyramid-shaped mountain” and “pyramid-shaped peak” were born.

Genius.

Why? Because pyramids suggest extraterrestrials to almost everyone. Not that very many people actually think space aliens built the things, but because almost everyone has been intrigued by or had a good laugh at those wild-ass theories woven deep into our culture.

And since Ceres’ bright spots are already bringing out the aliens-are-among-us crowd, that comparison was bound to strum that cord as well. For instance, we got this in a email:

According to Sitchin’s interpretation of Sumerian clay tablets, the Anunnaki came to Earth on a gold mining project. Gold mined on Earth, according, to Sitchin, was taken to Mars, and from there to Nibiru. I think it’s possible that they took it to Ceres, it being a better choice for a trans-shipment point due to its lower gravity, allowing for easier lift-off with the cargo of gold. The Anunnaki are the Nefilim of Genesis, those who made mankind in their image, “to tend the garden”, and mine for gold.

It’s a long shot, but history is full of surprises!

Here’s the phrase from the news release:

The closer we get to Ceres, the more intriguing the distant dwarf planet becomes. New images of Ceres from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft provide more clues about its mysterious bright spots, and also reveal a pyramid-shaped peak towering over a relatively flat landscape.

NASA’s phrase nearly broke the Internet … First page of Google search results:

Maybe they’re embarrassed or some scientist stormed into the PR offices and slammed the director’s door: “You’re making a mockery of us!” But I doubt it. I bet it was drinks all around.

Fun stuff. I know we got a lot of milage out of it with this headline “Now there’s a 3-mile-high ‘pyramid-shaped mountain’ on Ceres.”

So kodos to NASA’s PR people. Now, if those bright spots are alien gold and those mountains are buried pyramids … well, the world will suddenly change in some very Hollywood-esque ways. Here’s to hoping.

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1SLiheZ

NASA, we know, has a lot of smart scientists. Basically, everything they do is rocket science.

All of which came to fruition in a recent news release about the dwarf planet Ceres.

Now, there is already a lot of interest in Ceres because of those mysterious bright spots.

So much interest that the agency has set up a poll for all of us amateurs to weigh in on …

Screenshot of recent voting results on the Great Ceres’ Mystery.

Scientists: These are some pretty tall geological features in the middle of a general flat area probably created by a meteor impact that shows something about the makeup of Ceres’ crust.

PR: It kinda looks like it has steep edges … almost pyramid-like

Genius.

And since Ceres’ bright spots are already bringing out the aliens-are-among-us crowd, that comparison was bound to strum that cord as well. For instance, we got this in a email:

According to Sitchin’s interpretation of Sumerian clay tablets, the Anunnaki came to Earth on a gold mining project. Gold mined on Earth, according, to Sitchin, was taken to Mars, and from there to Nibiru. I think it’s possible that they took it to Ceres, it being a better choice for a trans-shipment point due to its lower gravity, allowing for easier lift-off with the cargo of gold. The Anunnaki are the Nefilim of Genesis, those who made mankind in their image, “to tend the garden”, and mine for gold.

It’s a long shot, but history is full of surprises!

Here’s the phrase from the news release:

The closer we get to Ceres, the more intriguing the distant dwarf planet becomes. New images of Ceres from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft provide more clues about its mysterious bright spots, and also reveal a pyramid-shaped peak towering over a relatively flat landscape.

NASA’s phrase nearly broke the Internet … First page of Google search results:

Maybe they’re embarrassed or some scientist stormed into the PR offices and slammed the director’s door: “You’re making a mockery of us!” But I doubt it. I bet it was drinks all around.

Fun stuff. I know we got a lot of milage out of it with this headline “Now there’s a 3-mile-high ‘pyramid-shaped mountain’ on Ceres.”

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1SLiheZ

Great view of Seattle and environs in new NASA photo from space station

We never get tired of these … maybe we’re all narcissists or just like to realize what a great place we live in. I mean, there’s the water … and there’s The Mountain … and the big mountain chain that makes you understand plate tectonics in ways you can’t from the ground …

The International Space Station has proven to be a pretty remarkable platform for these snapshots of us … of our home.

Here are those two photos to click on for larger view — Check out the gallery above for caption information and for many more views of Seattle from space.

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1QOUHjK

The International Space Station has proven to be a pretty remarkable platform for these snapshots of us … of our home.

Here are those two photos to click on for larger view — Check out the gallery above for caption information and for many more views of Seattle from space.

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1QOUHjK

Amazing video of Monday nights aurora borealis show … from space!

A solar flare Sunday night sent a coronal mass ejection (radiation particles) at the Earth and lit up the northern hemisphere with spectacular auroras. Here’s a great video of the action from the International Space Station:

Yesterday's #aurora was an impressive show from 250 miles up. Good morning from @space_station! #YearInSpace https://t.co/wZJOxrD0EQ

— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) June 23, 2015

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1Lso3ko

Yesterday's #aurora was an impressive show from 250 miles up. Good morning from @space_station! #YearInSpace https://t.co/wZJOxrD0EQ

— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) June 23, 2015

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1Lso3ko

2nd solar outburst will invigorate already strong Aurora borealis

Right on the hot heals of Sunday’s solar flare and coronal mass ejection (CME) that led to amazing Aurora borealis sightings all across the Earth’s northern hemisphere Monday night, the sun kicked out a second flare and CME that will charge auroras deep into Wednesday night.

Here’s what the Space Weather Prediction Center wrote on Facebook:

While one event rages, get prepared for another one. The coronal mass ejection that erupted June 22 in conjunction with the R2 solar flare has been modeled and arrival is expected June 24 at 2300 UT (7 pm EDT). This timing bodes well for aurora watchers in North America. As for the expected intensity, SWPC is continuing to analyze the event and will update the forecast when this analysis is complete.

Space Weather Prediction Center’s graphic of the second recent coronal mass ejection that will charge up the northern night sky with auroras.

Here’s the latest predicted visibility for Tuesday night.

Geomagnetic storming continues. A G4 (Severe) geomagnetic storm was observed at 0513 UTC on 23 June. Solar wind conditions continue to be favorable for continued geomagnetic storming through the night. Below is a picture of the aurora forecast ovation model.

NOAA: Geomagnetic storming continues. A G4 (Severe) geomagnetic storm was observed at 0513 UTC on 23 June. Solar wind conditions continue to be favorable for continued geomagnetic storming through the night. Above is a picture of the aurora forecast ovation model.

All of which is no big deal until you remember …

… in 2012, the Earth nearly got cooked … as we reported:

What would happen if we were hit by one of those solar flare superstorms today? This is a map of vulnerable electrical transformers with areas of probable system collapse encircled. Credit: National Academy of Sciences.

… there was some big activity in July 2012 as a plasma cloud, or coronal mass ejection (CME), from a solar flare narrowly missed Earth. The storm passed through Earth’s orbit, but fortunately the Earth wasn’t there. If the flare had occurred a week sooner we would have been hit. That flare wouldn’t have physically harmed our bodies, but it would have damaged satellites and taken down our power grid.

A study done by the National Academy of Sciences totaled the estimated damages of that event at over $2 trillion. This close-call flare is most often compared to the “Carrington Event” of September 1859, when multiple CMEs hit Earth. That event most famously caused the northern lights to be visible as far south as Hawaii and even sparked fires at some telegraph offices.

In February, Pete Riley of Predictive Science Inc. published “On the probability of occurrence of extreme space weather events,” in which he analyzed the records of solar storms. He concluded that the likelihood of Earth being hit by a Carrington-class storm in the next 10 years is 12 percent.

“Initially, I was quite surprised that the odds were so high, but the statistics appear to be correct,” Riley told NASA. “It is a sobering figure.”

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1FzCtqL

Here’s what the Space Weather Prediction Center wrote on Facebook:

While one event rages, get prepared for another one. The coronal mass ejection that erupted June 22 in conjunction with the R2 solar flare has been modeled and arrival is expected June 24 at 2300 UT (7 pm EDT). This timing bodes well for aurora watchers in North America. As for the expected intensity, SWPC is continuing to analyze the event and will update the forecast when this analysis is complete.

Space Weather Prediction Center’s graphic of the second recent coronal mass ejection that will charge up the northern night sky with auroras.

Here’s the latest predicted visibility for Tuesday night.

All of which is no big deal until you remember …

… in 2012, the Earth nearly got cooked … as we reported:

“Initially, I was quite surprised that the odds were so high, but the statistics appear to be correct,” Riley told NASA. “It is a sobering figure.”

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1FzCtqL

Now there’s a 3-mile-high ‘pyramid-shaped mountain’ on Ceres

In addition to the fantastically mysterious cluster of bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres, there now appears in NASA photos another very unique feature described as a ‘pyramid-shaped mountain.’

Might as well start a cult (or maybe just a very enthusiastic alien-centric club) right now. In fact, we got an email from someone making a case for Anunnaki gold … the person wrote:

According to Sitchin’s interpretation of Sumerian clay tablets, the Anunnaki came to Earth on a gold mining project. Gold mined on Earth, according, to Sitchin, was taken to Mars, and from there to Nibiru. I think it’s possible that they took it to Ceres, it being a better choice for a trans-shipment point due to its lower gravity, allowing for easier lift-off with the cargo of gold. The Anunnaki are the Nefilim of Genesis, those who made mankind in their image, “to tend the garden”, and mine for gold.

It’s a long shot, but history is full of surprises!

Well, that’s for sure. But, hey, no judgments from me … though I suspect unique geology more than alien miners. (See another theory and NASA’s answer in the bottom gallery.)

Here’s what NASA has to say about these new photos:

The closer we get to Ceres, the more intriguing the distant dwarf planet becomes. New images of Ceres from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft provide more clues about its mysterious bright spots, and also reveal a pyramid-shaped peak towering over a relatively flat landscape.

“The surface of Ceres has revealed many interesting and unique features. For example, icy moons in the outer solar system have craters with central pits, but on Ceres central pits in large craters are much more common. These and other features will allow us to understand the inner structure of Ceres that we cannot sense directly,” said Carol Raymond, deputy principal investigator for the Dawn mission, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. …

At least eight spots can be seen next to the largest bright area, which scientists think is approximately 6 miles (9 kilometers) wide. A highly reflective material is responsible for these spots — ice and salt are leading possibilities, but scientists are considering other options, too.

Dawn’s visible and infrared mapping spectrometer allows scientists to identify specific minerals present on Ceres by looking at how light is reflected. Each mineral reflects the range of visible and infrared-light wavelengths in a unique way, and this signature helps scientists determine the components of Ceres. So, as the spacecraft continues to send back more images and data, scientists will learn more about the mystery bright spots.

In addition to the bright spots, the latest images also show a mountain with steep slopes protruding from a relatively smooth area of the dwarf planet’s surface. The structure rises about 3 miles (5 kilometers) above the surface.

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1I9EOiq

Might as well start a cult (or maybe just a very enthusiastic alien-centric club) right now. In fact, we got an email from someone making a case for Anunnaki gold … the person wrote:

According to Sitchin’s interpretation of Sumerian clay tablets, the Anunnaki came to Earth on a gold mining project. Gold mined on Earth, according, to Sitchin, was taken to Mars, and from there to Nibiru. I think it’s possible that they took it to Ceres, it being a better choice for a trans-shipment point due to its lower gravity, allowing for easier lift-off with the cargo of gold. The Anunnaki are the Nefilim of Genesis, those who made mankind in their image, “to tend the garden”, and mine for gold.

It’s a long shot, but history is full of surprises!

Well, that’s for sure. But, hey, no judgments from me … though I suspect unique geology more than alien miners. (See another theory and NASA’s answer in the bottom gallery.)

Here’s what NASA has to say about these new photos:

The closer we get to Ceres, the more intriguing the distant dwarf planet becomes. New images of Ceres from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft provide more clues about its mysterious bright spots, and also reveal a pyramid-shaped peak towering over a relatively flat landscape.

“The surface of Ceres has revealed many interesting and unique features. For example, icy moons in the outer solar system have craters with central pits, but on Ceres central pits in large craters are much more common. These and other features will allow us to understand the inner structure of Ceres that we cannot sense directly,” said Carol Raymond, deputy principal investigator for the Dawn mission, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. …

At least eight spots can be seen next to the largest bright area, which scientists think is approximately 6 miles (9 kilometers) wide. A highly reflective material is responsible for these spots — ice and salt are leading possibilities, but scientists are considering other options, too.

Dawn’s visible and infrared mapping spectrometer allows scientists to identify specific minerals present on Ceres by looking at how light is reflected. Each mineral reflects the range of visible and infrared-light wavelengths in a unique way, and this signature helps scientists determine the components of Ceres. So, as the spacecraft continues to send back more images and data, scientists will learn more about the mystery bright spots.

In addition to the bright spots, the latest images also show a mountain with steep slopes protruding from a relatively smooth area of the dwarf planet’s surface. The structure rises about 3 miles (5 kilometers) above the surface.

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1I9EOiq

Big surprises found in study of sex and Millennials

Young adults today are having more sex than their parents, grandparents (hell, everyone) than when they were that age, according to a new study on sexual behaviors and attitudes.

If that doesn’t surprise you, you should ask yourself, “Why?” After all, it’s not axiomatic that each successive generation will be more promiscuous than the previous.

While you ponder your answer and look more closely at the data presented in the research paper Changes in American Adults’ Sexual Behavior and Attitudes, 1972–2012, you’ll run into more conundrums.

Such as, Why would a generation that professes the highest acceptance of any (legal) sex outside of wedlock, reject extramarital affairs more strongly than all generations including the one that fought in World War II?

Or, why do Millennials report fewer partners than the generation before them, GenX’ers, but still report more casual or non-partner sex? (Hint: Think HIV paired with getting married much later in life. For more of these details, see the above gallery.)

When ‘we’ boils down to ‘me’

When researchers lead by Jean Twenge — psychology professor at San Diego State University and author of the newly updated book “Generation Me” — asked themselves those questions, one answer made the most sense of the data: Individualism.

“Individualism is at the core,” Twenge said in an interview. “Generations comes from cultures. (And our) whole culture has changed. Our culture is more individualistic now.”

Here’s how they explain it in their research (in short):

Individualism is a cultural system that favors the needs or desires of the individual over those of the group. As a result, more individualism should mean a relaxation of rules around marriage and sexuality. At base, marriage represents society’s official recognition of a sexual relationship. Cultural individualism instead promotes the idea that social rules and societal recognition are less important (Fukuyama, 1999), which may encourage more acceptance of sexual behavior outside of marriage. …

As individualism increased in the U.S., sexual attitudes and behavior became more permissive and less rule-bound. Attitudes toward non-marital sex changed the most dramatically in the last 15 years, reaching all-time highs of acceptance in the 2010s and among Millennials.

So, when the current generation of young adults called Millennials — those born between 1982 and 1999 — answer personal questions that feed these big data research projects, they reveal a complex matrix of social forces that revolve, in their minds, around themselves.

… but, of course, it’s more complicated than that too.

So, we called Twenge to get more insight into this new generation of adults.

First, on that lower number of partners …

That decline in sexual partners for millennials surprised me. It did. I think that is the most surprising thing. … It’s always hard with this type of data to answer the why question.

There’s a disconnect between their attitudes and their behaviors. So, among the generations they are the most accepting of premarital sex yet they have chosen to have sex with fewer partners. …

There are some logical reasons why you see that decline. One is this is a generation raised around a lot of concerns about safety. They were the first to be put in car seats and told they couldn’t walk to the park alone. So that attitude may be extending to sexual partners, particularly … as you get to people who were teenagers when the AIDs epidemic hit. …

So … they find a small group of friends and are much more sexually active with each other, but it doesn’t even enter into the equation that they’re going to have longterm or any-kind-of-term partner?

Yes — eschewing live-in relationships period.

The “hook-up”?

That whole concept of a “hook-up,” which can be any level of sexual activity but the definition is that there is no commitment attached to it, that wasn’t a thing until the 2000s that I know of …

So, there are more hook-ups, but the very very low acceptance of extra-marital affairs suggests that even though they are more accepting of sex before marriage, once a person makes that commitment, they’re supposed to stick with it.

Right, even more so. I think the ‘even more so’ part comes from the idea that (Millennials) are going to get married even later, and that’s when you are going to say, ‘Okay, this is a sexual commitment.’

And, only certain types of people, the ones who are going to be okay with that, with saying ‘I’m not going to have sex with anyone else,’ are going to get married.

And since you don’t have to get married to have sex or children, why get married for either?

… so what’s happening with millennials, you can see from this data, maybe they are not having sex with as many partners or waiting longer to have sex (as suggested by other data), but then once they are in their 20s they might just say, ‘Hey, we don’t have to get married to have kids.’

That’s a troubling trend, Twenge said, because “there’s data that it will be a bad thing.”

Will a generation of single parent homes build the society to support them or wallow in social disfunction as we Baby Boomers and GenX’ers seem determined to do?

“Overall,” the researchers conclude, “this is a time of fascinating changes in the sexual landscape of the United States.”

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1JcLH3Y

Young adults today are having more sex than their parents, grandparents (hell, everyone) than when they were that age, according to a new study on sexual behaviors and attitudes.

If that doesn’t surprise you, you should ask yourself, “Why?” After all, it’s not axiomatic that each successive generation will be more promiscuous than the previous.

When ‘we’ boils down to ‘me’

“Individualism is at the core,” Twenge said in an interview. “Generations comes from cultures. (And our) whole culture has changed. Our culture is more individualistic now.”

Here’s how they explain it in their research (in short):

Individualism is a cultural system that favors the needs or desires of the individual over those of the group. As a result, more individualism should mean a relaxation of rules around marriage and sexuality. At base, marriage represents society’s official recognition of a sexual relationship. Cultural individualism instead promotes the idea that social rules and societal recognition are less important (Fukuyama, 1999), which may encourage more acceptance of sexual behavior outside of marriage. …

As individualism increased in the U.S., sexual attitudes and behavior became more permissive and less rule-bound. Attitudes toward non-marital sex changed the most dramatically in the last 15 years, reaching all-time highs of acceptance in the 2010s and among Millennials.

… but, of course, it’s more complicated than that too.

So, we called Twenge to get more insight into this new generation of adults.

First, on that lower number of partners …

That decline in sexual partners for millennials surprised me. It did. I think that is the most surprising thing. … It’s always hard with this type of data to answer the why question.

There’s a disconnect between their attitudes and their behaviors. So, among the generations they are the most accepting of premarital sex yet they have chosen to have sex with fewer partners. …

There are some logical reasons why you see that decline. One is this is a generation raised around a lot of concerns about safety. They were the first to be put in car seats and told they couldn’t walk to the park alone. So that attitude may be extending to sexual partners, particularly … as you get to people who were teenagers when the AIDs epidemic hit. …

Yes — eschewing live-in relationships period.

The “hook-up”?

That whole concept of a “hook-up,” which can be any level of sexual activity but the definition is that there is no commitment attached to it, that wasn’t a thing until the 2000s that I know of …

Right, even more so. I think the ‘even more so’ part comes from the idea that (Millennials) are going to get married even later, and that’s when you are going to say, ‘Okay, this is a sexual commitment.’

And, only certain types of people, the ones who are going to be okay with that, with saying ‘I’m not going to have sex with anyone else,’ are going to get married.

And since you don’t have to get married to have sex or children, why get married for either?

… so what’s happening with millennials, you can see from this data, maybe they are not having sex with as many partners or waiting longer to have sex (as suggested by other data), but then once they are in their 20s they might just say, ‘Hey, we don’t have to get married to have kids.’

That’s a troubling trend, Twenge said, because “there’s data that it will be a bad thing.”

Will a generation of single parent homes build the society to support them or wallow in social disfunction as we Baby Boomers and GenX’ers seem determined to do?

“Overall,” the researchers conclude, “this is a time of fascinating changes in the sexual landscape of the United States.”

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1JcLH3Y

The top UFO sightings in America … out of 90,000 reports since 1905

Ever wonder how many reported UFO sighting there have been in America? Well, wonder no more! How about where they are from and whether they could all be mapped with dots, the size of which tell you how many reports there were of a particular sighting?

Bingo!

Big data wonk Max Galka at his website Metrocosm has compiled all the sightings reported since 1905 that have been collected by the National UFO Reporting Center into one handy interactive map … and a list of top 10 (details from both are in gallery above) … and several correlations between sightings, locations and dates (such as Forth of July … which as you might guess is a hot time for UFOs).

Graphic by Metrocosm

It’s the smartest fun big data visualizations we seen in while.

RELATED STORIES:

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1GWgnE8

Bingo!

Graphic by Metrocosm

It’s the smartest fun big data visualizations we seen in while.

RELATED STORIES:

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1GWgnE8

Winning photos of ‘The World at Night’ contest are truly amazing

Call it “nightscape imaging” or “landscape astrophotography” … but whatever you end up calling these winners of Earth and Sky’s “The World at Night” (TWAN) photo contest, you’ll be awed by them. (Including a winning photo of Mount Rainier!)

The annual contest began in 2007 and really took off in 2009 when The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the International Astronomical Union designated TWAN as a Special Project of the International Year of Astronomy.

For this years contest, roughly 1000 photos from 54 countries and territories were submitted with 839 of them approved for judging, the organizers explain.

“The images were taken during 2014-2015 and were all created in the ‘TWAN style’ — showing both the Earth and the sky — by combining elements of the night sky set in the backdrop of the Earth horizon, often with a notable scenery or landmark,” the group wrote.

The photos were judged in two categories: “Beauty of The Night Sky” and “Against The Lights.”

The organizers add:

The selected images are those most effective in impressing public on both how important and delicate the starry sky is as an affecting part of our nature, and also how bad the problem of light pollution has become.

TWAN founder and the contest chair, Babak Tafreshi, adds “The sky above us is an essential part of our nature, a heritage for us and other species on this planet. The contest main goal is to present the night sky in this broader context that relates to all of us, while it is also astronomers laboratory to explore the universe. Perhaps from this perspective we can better preserve the natural night sky and reconnect it with our modern life.”

Get the complete details on the TWAN website. Here’s a video of the images.

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1JZaZkC

For this years contest, roughly 1000 photos from 54 countries and territories were submitted with 839 of them approved for judging, the organizers explain.

The photos were judged in two categories: “Beauty of The Night Sky” and “Against The Lights.”

The organizers add:

The selected images are those most effective in impressing public on both how important and delicate the starry sky is as an affecting part of our nature, and also how bad the problem of light pollution has become.

TWAN founder and the contest chair, Babak Tafreshi, adds “The sky above us is an essential part of our nature, a heritage for us and other species on this planet. The contest main goal is to present the night sky in this broader context that relates to all of us, while it is also astronomers laboratory to explore the universe. Perhaps from this perspective we can better preserve the natural night sky and reconnect it with our modern life.”

Get the complete details on the TWAN website. Here’s a video of the images.

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1JZaZkC

Mystery unsolved: Bright spots now a ‘cluster’ in new dwarf planet Ceres photo

“The bright spots in this configuration make Ceres unique from anything we’ve seen before in the solar system.”

It’s the mystery that NASA still can’t solve, even with this super-close, hi-rez image of the cluster of bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres:

Click for larger image: The brightest spots on dwarf planet Ceres are seen in this image taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on June 6, 2015.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

NASA writes:

The region with the brightest spots is in a crater about 55 miles (90 kilometers) across. The spots consist of many individual bright points of differing sizes, with a central cluster. So far, scientists have found no obvious explanation for their observed locations or brightness levels.

“The bright spots in this configuration make Ceres unique from anything we’ve seen before in the solar system. The science team is working to understand their source. Reflection from ice is the leading candidate in my mind, but the team continues to consider alternate possibilities, such as salt. With closer views from the new orbit and multiple view angles, we soon will be better able to determine the nature of this enigmatic phenomenon,” said Chris Russell, principal investigator for the Dawn mission based at the University of California, Los Angeles.

So, it’s still anyone’s guess! The space agency also has a page for citizens to vote on what it could be …

As you can see … “Other” is still the favorite with the regular folks.

I love that “other” is running the show. That doesn’t tell me people think the space scientists are way off the mark; rather, I think it reflects our desire for it to be something really wild … like an alien space camp or giant reflector discs beaming our Facebook pages. (I voted for ice).

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1B5hIbk

“The bright spots in this configuration make Ceres unique from anything we’ve seen before in the solar system.”

It’s the mystery that NASA still can’t solve, even with this super-close, hi-rez image of the cluster of bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres:

Click for larger image: The brightest spots on dwarf planet Ceres are seen in this image taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on June 6, 2015.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

NASA writes:

The region with the brightest spots is in a crater about 55 miles (90 kilometers) across. The spots consist of many individual bright points of differing sizes, with a central cluster. So far, scientists have found no obvious explanation for their observed locations or brightness levels.

“The bright spots in this configuration make Ceres unique from anything we’ve seen before in the solar system. The science team is working to understand their source. Reflection from ice is the leading candidate in my mind, but the team continues to consider alternate possibilities, such as salt. With closer views from the new orbit and multiple view angles, we soon will be better able to determine the nature of this enigmatic phenomenon,” said Chris Russell, principal investigator for the Dawn mission based at the University of California, Los Angeles.

So, it’s still anyone’s guess! The space agency also has a page for citizens to vote on what it could be …

As you can see … “Other” is still the favorite with the regular folks.

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1B5hIbk

Wonder what dinosaur tissue looked like? Wonder no more …

See gallery below for what this is!

Just in time for the release Friday of the movie Jurassic World, scientists (real ones!) have announced discovering “soft tissue” inside dinosaur bones. The discovery is another step in creating a new field fantastically called “dinosaurian cellular biology.”

That phrase was coined by paleontologist Mary Schweitzer in her 2012 research paper exploring the soft tissue and perhaps red blood cells she first accidentally spotted in T-Rex bones 20 years ago. She writes:

These data are the first to support preservation of multiple proteins and to present multiple lines of evidence for material consistent with DNA in dinosaurs, supporting the hypothesis that these structures were part of the once living animals. We propose mechanisms for preservation of cells and component molecules, and discuss implications for dinosaurian cellular biology.

Her earlier findings were publish in 2005 under the title “Soft-Tissue Vessels and Cellular Preservation in Tyrannosaurus Rex.” That earlier claim was …

Soft tissues are preserved within hindlimb elements of Tyrannosaurus rex (Museum of the Rockies specimen 1125). Removal of the mineral phase reveals transparent, flexible, hollow blood vessels containing small round microstructures that can be expressed from the vessels into solution. Some regions of the demineralized bone matrix are highly fibrous, and the matrix possesses elasticity and resilience. Three populations of microstructures have cell-like morphology. Thus, some dinosaurian soft tissues may retain some of their original flexibility, elasticity, and resilience.

Latest findings in ‘common bones’

New research shows that while Schweitzer’s conclusions have been controversial, dino soft tissue appears to be more common than even her supporters anticipated.

The new discoveries were reported in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday under the title “Fibres and cellular structures preserved in 75-million–year-old dinosaur specimens.” The research was led by Sergio Bertazzo of Imperial College London.

The news site Vox reports:

Susannah Maidment, one of the paleontologists who worked on the paper, called them “crap” specimens. If they have preserved soft tissue inside them, it could be a sign that thousands of other fossils in museum collections do too.

The researchers state in their paper “the bones are not exceptionally preserved and show no external indication of soft tissue. In one sample, we observe structures consistent with endogenous collagen fibre.” Those are the types of fibers found in animal tissues such as tendons, ligaments and skin.

“Furthermore,” the researchers state, “we observe structures consistent with putative erythrocyte (red blood cell) remains that exhibit mass spectra similar to emu whole blood. Using advanced material characterization approaches, we find that these putative biological structures can be well preserved over geological timescales, and their preservation is more common than previously thought. The preservation of protein over geological timescales offers the opportunity to investigate relationships, physiology and behaviour of long extinct animals.”

In other words, these bits and pieces of long-extinct creatures will not only give us clues as to their basic characteristics (such as whether dinosaurs were warm- or cold-blooded and how many might have had feathers, if not all of them), but can also provide clues for what creatures in the current animal kingdom are direct decedents of dinosaurs.

So far, scientists have not been able to identify any DNA structures and apparently are very unlikely too since DNA is very fragile. “Scientists currently estimate that it has a half-life of just 521 years, and dinosaurs largely died off 65 million years ago,” as Vox puts it.

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1GfXWZm

See gallery below for what this is!

These data are the first to support preservation of multiple proteins and to present multiple lines of evidence for material consistent with DNA in dinosaurs, supporting the hypothesis that these structures were part of the once living animals. We propose mechanisms for preservation of cells and component molecules, and discuss implications for dinosaurian cellular biology.

Her earlier findings were publish in 2005 under the title “Soft-Tissue Vessels and Cellular Preservation in Tyrannosaurus Rex.” That earlier claim was …

Soft tissues are preserved within hindlimb elements of Tyrannosaurus rex (Museum of the Rockies specimen 1125). Removal of the mineral phase reveals transparent, flexible, hollow blood vessels containing small round microstructures that can be expressed from the vessels into solution. Some regions of the demineralized bone matrix are highly fibrous, and the matrix possesses elasticity and resilience. Three populations of microstructures have cell-like morphology. Thus, some dinosaurian soft tissues may retain some of their original flexibility, elasticity, and resilience.

Latest findings in ‘common bones’

New research shows that while Schweitzer’s conclusions have been controversial, dino soft tissue appears to be more common than even her supporters anticipated.

The news site Vox reports:

Susannah Maidment, one of the paleontologists who worked on the paper, called them “crap” specimens. If they have preserved soft tissue inside them, it could be a sign that thousands of other fossils in museum collections do too.

“Furthermore,” the researchers state, “we observe structures consistent with putative erythrocyte (red blood cell) remains that exhibit mass spectra similar to emu whole blood. Using advanced material characterization approaches, we find that these putative biological structures can be well preserved over geological timescales, and their preservation is more common than previously thought. The preservation of protein over geological timescales offers the opportunity to investigate relationships, physiology and behaviour of long extinct animals.”

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1GfXWZm

Fellow Geektards! ‘The Martian’ movie trailer is out … and so far so great

I like “The Martian” by geek-extrodinar Andy Weir so much … I’ve read the book twice and listened to the story three times already. After watching the trailer a couple more times, I’ll probably listen to the story again while doing chores around the house … I’ll be sick of it before the movie even comes out in November.

My only hope is that Matt Damon will become Mark Watney (the main character who has to survive on Mars for a very long time until he might be rescued at great risk to everyone involved). And, then I’ll have the movie to overwatch too!

My second hope is that director Ridley Scott doesn’t try to make any political points or some “see, you don’t need the gov’ment – you can do it all on yer own” type message. I doubt he will … here’s the trailer:

What’s truly worth pointing out about Wier’s book and hopefully the movie is that education, opposable thumbs, tools and extremely well-designed and engineer equipment — something NASA, JPL and the rest of the space world excel at — are a matrix within which individual genius and strength can shine … and survive.

“The Martian” is a work of fiction that celebrates the best of what humans can achieve together … around an individual with, well, pluck. Anyway, here’s that viral video of “Mark Watney” introducing the cure of the ship that takes them to Mars.

And I, like commenters across the Internet, highly recommend reading or listening to the book before the movie … cuz the really fun, detailed jury-rigging Weir has written will be hard to get in a 2-hour-or-so movie.

Oh, and the back story to how “The Martian” came about is also great. From Wikipedia:

Andy Weir, the son of a particle physicist, has a background in computer science. He began writing the book in 2009, researching the book to be as realistic as possible based on existing technology. Weir studied orbital mechanics, astronomy, and the history of manned spaceflight. He has stated that he knows the exact date of each day in the book.

Having been rebuffed by literary agents when trying to get prior books published, Weir decided to put the book online in serial format one chapter at a time for free at his website. At the request of fans he made an Amazon Kindle version available through Amazon.com at 99 cents (the minimum he could set the price). The Kindle edition rose to the top of Amazon’s list of best-selling science-fiction titles, where it sold 35,000 copies in three months, more than had been previously downloaded free. This garnered the attention of publishers: Podium Publishing, an audiobook publisher, signed for the audiobook rights in January 2013. Weir sold the print rights to Crown in March 2013 for six figures.

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1F6TLeo

Oh, and the back story to how “The Martian” came about is also great. From Wikipedia:

Andy Weir, the son of a particle physicist, has a background in computer science. He began writing the book in 2009, researching the book to be as realistic as possible based on existing technology. Weir studied orbital mechanics, astronomy, and the history of manned spaceflight. He has stated that he knows the exact date of each day in the book.

Having been rebuffed by literary agents when trying to get prior books published, Weir decided to put the book online in serial format one chapter at a time for free at his website. At the request of fans he made an Amazon Kindle version available through Amazon.com at 99 cents (the minimum he could set the price). The Kindle edition rose to the top of Amazon’s list of best-selling science-fiction titles, where it sold 35,000 copies in three months, more than had been previously downloaded free. This garnered the attention of publishers: Podium Publishing, an audiobook publisher, signed for the audiobook rights in January 2013. Weir sold the print rights to Crown in March 2013 for six figures.

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1F6TLeo

Surprising data visualization of World War II dead shows hope for future

“The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.” — Commonly attributed to Joseph Stalin.

We’ve passed through Memorial Day and various World War 2 anniversaries, not the least of which for us, of course, is the June 6, 1944, landing on the Normandy beaches of France, opening a “Second Front” against the Germans.

Screenshot from Neil Halloran’s “The Fallen of World War II.”

We’ve heard the big numbers again. Seen the last few old men who fought get awards, heard their stories and paid our respects. But as we go on into our future, World War II and its tens of millions of dead slides farther and father into the past, out of our collective memories, our daily lives.

“World War II … was the largest war ever fought, the largest single event in history. Other than the black death of the Middle Ages, it’s the worst thing we know of that has ever happened to the human race. Its aftereffects surround us in countless intertwining ways: all sorts of technological commonplaces, from computers to radar to nuclear power, date back to some secret World War II military project or another; the most efficient military systems became the model for the bureaucratic structures of postwar white-collar corporations; even the current landscape of America owes its existence to the war, since the fantastic profusion of suburban development that began in the late 1940s was essentially underwritten by the federal government as one vast World War II veterans’ benefit. (Before the war there were 3 suburban shopping centers in the U.S.; ten years after it ended there were 3,000.)”

— Lee Sandlin in “Losing the War”

But so what … new conflicts have our attention, recent war dead our sorrow and current service members our honor.

Enter big-data-story-teller Neil Halloran and his amazing, humbling visualization of World War II war dead, civilian and military: “The Fallen of World War II.” You can see some of the highlights in the gallery below, watch just the video (at bottom of story) or go to his project page for an interactive version.

While Halloran totals the war dead at 70 million, Wikipedia still has it at 61 million. Whatever the absolute number is, the number of killed continues to climb as the West gets a better reckoning of how many died on the Eastern Front between Germany, Poland and Russia. That section is probably the most powerful moment in his presentation.

What’s so important about this visualization isn’t just that it’s gripping story telling and powerful reminder … but also what it says about the decades since World War II. (See last slide in above gallery.) Basically, we’re living in an unparalleled period of “peace” (some say we wage war today more with our economy than our military with nearly as devastating effects … but that’s another topic).

In fact, the vast majority of humans live in a time of peace. Those out front dying and fighting across the globe can’t be overlooked, and Americans fighting in our wide-flung wars and skirmishes say we’re too disconnected from their service.

But there is no other way. If just 10 percent of Americans deemed “available” for service — say, 140 million — were in some branch of the military right now, that would be a standing military of roughly 14 million. Currently, the U.S. struggles to afford all the hardware and personnel expenses of an active military of 1.4 million and 850,000 reserve. There’s just no way for anything like even one percent of all 314 million Americans to have direct military experience.

The Fallen of World War II from Neil Halloran on Vimeo.

So, more people are living without the direct threat of death by military conflict than ever, according to Halloran’s data video. Basically, Halloran’s video is a lesson in how to tell a positive story using the vast numbers of war dead.

Addendum: Gut checks

Data visualizations rarely tell a “story,” because data doesn’t speak to causes or motives or the why of an event. That’s where all the debate is, that’s where all the personal stories and all the guessing about motives goes on. But big data visualizations can act as a gut check to our assumptions about events or what is really going on all-around us.

In America, we most often tell our stories based on what happened recently, today or yesterday, and/or based on what we want to see happen. In that way we are very fortunate since the future is where we will live.

But, the downside is that we misjudge the actions of others whose cultures have undergone such powerful shocks and crippling wars (watch that video and you suddenly see Russia in a new light) that their stories and motives stem from events eighty, a hundred or a thousand years in the past.

If you want at least some understand for what’s driving Russian aggression and what drove Russian isolationism and obstructionism during the Cold War, again Halloran’s data visualization will give you a new perspective.

But since we in the U.S. are present- and future-oriented, we see each death or conflict magnified by the present ubiquitous news coverage and talking heads guessing at what those things might spiral into. Our politicians fan these flames vigorously by declaring we live in a state of chaos and danger with a future of decline and violent death almost certain for every single one of us … unless he or she is elected …

“So if watching the news doesn’t make us feel hopeful about where things are heading, watching the numbers might,” Halloran says in his video.

And that’s a powerful gut check. Sure we have problems, but nothing compared to a world at war. And, if we can continue down this general path we’re on and react with our minds, science and hopes instead of fear-driven military smashing of things and people (… and, of course, tackle climate change) well, it’s possible we can in fact live in a world much better than any humans before us and the scarifies of World War II will be truly honored.

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1JDJzAp

“The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.” — Commonly attributed to Joseph Stalin.

Screenshot from Neil Halloran’s “The Fallen of World War II.”

“World War II … was the largest war ever fought, the largest single event in history. Other than the black death of the Middle Ages, it’s the worst thing we know of that has ever happened to the human race. Its aftereffects surround us in countless intertwining ways: all sorts of technological commonplaces, from computers to radar to nuclear power, date back to some secret World War II military project or another; the most efficient military systems became the model for the bureaucratic structures of postwar white-collar corporations; even the current landscape of America owes its existence to the war, since the fantastic profusion of suburban development that began in the late 1940s was essentially underwritten by the federal government as one vast World War II veterans’ benefit. (Before the war there were 3 suburban shopping centers in the U.S.; ten years after it ended there were 3,000.)”

— Lee Sandlin in “Losing the War”

But so what … new conflicts have our attention, recent war dead our sorrow and current service members our honor.

The Fallen of World War II from Neil Halloran on Vimeo.

Addendum: Gut checks

“So if watching the news doesn’t make us feel hopeful about where things are heading, watching the numbers might,” Halloran says in his video.

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1JDJzAp

Burke Museum’s laser-beam scans start revolution in paleontology

After years of painstakingly analyzing fossils by hand, paleontologists have discovered a new powerful technique for identifying fossils. The discovery also supercharges their ability to identify and examine the smallest features of ancient animals embedded in stone.

Scientists from the Burke Museum and University of Kansas have developed a method of analyzing fossils that uses commercial-grade lasers, which are larger and more powerful than hand-held pointers. That’s right, lasers. The technique was introduced by a paper in the science journal PLOS ONE on May 27.

The laser method makes it easier to decipher fossils that are hidden within clumps of surrounding dirt and rock, called matrix. The lasers (generally half-watt lasers bordering dangerous) cause fossil samples to fluoresce or glow from intense ultraviolet radiation, revealing fine details that are otherwise easily missed underneath normal ultraviolet light.

Essentially, the use of lasers allows paleontologists to analyze fossil samples without removing or disturbing it. The technique can limit the damage that is often done during the identification process.

Through novel uses — such as back-lighting opaque specimens to reveal finer details — small bones and scales become apparent. Researchers can detect new fossils hidden within the surrounding rock and dirt and employ silhouette illumination of carbon fibers to detect feathers from a primitive bird.

“Basically you want to excite electrons in the object so it emits photons you can see,” said David Burnham, preparator at the KU’s Biodiversity Institute & Natural History Museum, and co-author of the paper. “This requires a camera filter of some kind, and that’s where an orange or yellow long-pass filter is used — it takes away everything else so we can see the photons.”

According to Kaye, while scientists are using lasers to look at microscopic specimens, nobody else is using lasers to sort micro-fossils or on a macro scale to search for intriguing specimens for museum collections.

How the laser technique developed

The laser method was first used a few years ago when KU researchers were examining a Microraptor specimen — a four-winged, raptor-like dinosaur with feathers — in China. They noticed the fossil sample included a second fossil in the surrounding material and sought help from the Burke Museum’s Thomas Kaye to identify it.

“We sent him the specimen and he came up with this laser technique,” Burnham said.

It was a technique that Kaye had been developing since the 90’s in his search for tiny fossils. He realized the UV lights he was working with only identified mammal teeth rather than the dinosaur fossils that fascinated him. After reading about advances with confocal microscopes, he decided to try using a laser, and the rest is history.

Suddenly, Kaye said, the team was able to make many discoveries at a fast pace.

“We were able to image soft tissues under the laser that no one knew existed in those fossils,” said Kaye.

More breakthroughs to come

KU researchers have since worked to perfect the laser-identification method. Lasers have been used on samples from Jehol Biota, which is said to be a gold mine of 27 million year-old fossils excavated in the Northeast Chinese province of Liaoning.

Volcanic ash has preserved not only bones in this region of China, but also body tissue and feathers, much like in Pompeii. That’s where the laser technique comes into play, as it can highlight fine details with fluorescence.

“With things like feathers, we can see details really well using lasers,” said Burnham. “If the fossils themselves won’t fluoresce, the background will. We can see if a primitive feather looks like a modern feather.”

In addition to these uses, Burnham says that lasers would allow paleontologists to detect phony fossils, or a smorgasbord of fossils that are mistakenly passed as a whole, singular fossil. The varying fossils would emit different fluorescence when exposed to the laser, highlighting their mixed origins.

While these developments are potentially groundbreaking for paleontology, Kaye is adamant there is more to come.

“This paper is the initial groundwork describing the techniques,” said Kaye. “If you like these case histories, you will be absolutely blown away by the next one.”

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1JAOjqF

How the laser technique developed

“We sent him the specimen and he came up with this laser technique,” Burnham said.

Suddenly, Kaye said, the team was able to make many discoveries at a fast pace.

“We were able to image soft tissues under the laser that no one knew existed in those fossils,” said Kaye.

More breakthroughs to come

While these developments are potentially groundbreaking for paleontology, Kaye is adamant there is more to come.

“This paper is the initial groundwork describing the techniques,” said Kaye. “If you like these case histories, you will be absolutely blown away by the next one.”

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1JAOjqF

NASA: We live in a weak arm of the Milky Way

Talk about your ego deflater … or maybe its a call to action, like being the underdog! Come on humans, we know you can get out of that depressing hood you’re living in!

Whatever it is, the latest exercise in mapping the Milky Way and our place in it by NASA scientists shows that not only are we a speck in the mass of stars, but a speck in the mass of stars living in a minor wing of the four-spiral galaxy we dare call our own.

Click for larger view: Astronomers using data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, are helping to trace the shape of our Milky Way galaxy’s spiral arms. This illustration shows where WISE data revealed clusters of young stars shrouded in dust, called embedded clusters, which are known to reside in spiral arms. The bars represent uncertainties in the data. The nearly 100 clusters shown here were found in the arms called Perseus, Sagittarius-Carina, and Outer — three of the galaxy’s four proposed primary arms. Our sun resides in a spur to an arm, or a minor arm, called Orion Cygnus.

Here’s what NASA was up to:

… researchers have turned to a new mapping method that takes advantage of data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. Using WISE, the research team has discovered more than 400 dust-shrouded nurseries of stars, which trace the shape of our galaxy’s spiral arms. Seven of these “embedded star clusters” are described in a new study published online May 20 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

“The sun’s location within the dust-obscured galactic disk is a complicating factor to observe the galactic structure,” said Denilso Camargo, lead author of the paper from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.

The results support the four-arm model of our galaxy’s spiral structure. For the last few years, various methods of charting the Milky Way have largely led to a picture of four spiral arms. The arms are where most stars in the galaxy are born. They are stuffed with gas and dust, the ingredients of stars. Two of the arms, called Perseus and Scutum-Centaurus, seem to be more prominent and jam-packed with stars, while the Sagittarius and Outer arms have as much gas as the other two arms but not as many stars.

And the bigger-yet picture …

This artist’s concept depicts the most up-to-date information about the shape of our own Milky Way galaxy. We live around a star, our sun, located about two-thirds of the way out from the center. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC/Caltech)

Home, home on the range … where the deer …

Oh, sorry. Was feeling all nostalgic for a minute there. Now, where were we. YES – We’re a blip in a lesser arm of a mediocre galaxy. Let’s say we try to survive long enough to see what a real arm of our galaxy holds.

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1dfBlSO

Talk about your ego deflater … or maybe its a call to action, like being the underdog! Come on humans, we know you can get out of that depressing hood you’re living in!

Here’s what NASA was up to:

… researchers have turned to a new mapping method that takes advantage of data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. Using WISE, the research team has discovered more than 400 dust-shrouded nurseries of stars, which trace the shape of our galaxy’s spiral arms. Seven of these “embedded star clusters” are described in a new study published online May 20 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

“The sun’s location within the dust-obscured galactic disk is a complicating factor to observe the galactic structure,” said Denilso Camargo, lead author of the paper from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.

The results support the four-arm model of our galaxy’s spiral structure. For the last few years, various methods of charting the Milky Way have largely led to a picture of four spiral arms. The arms are where most stars in the galaxy are born. They are stuffed with gas and dust, the ingredients of stars. Two of the arms, called Perseus and Scutum-Centaurus, seem to be more prominent and jam-packed with stars, while the Sagittarius and Outer arms have as much gas as the other two arms but not as many stars.

And the bigger-yet picture …

Home, home on the range … where the deer …

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1dfBlSO

NASA wants your vote: What are those bright spots on Ceres?

As NASA’s Dawn spacecraft gets tantalizingly close to Ceres and its mysterious bright spots, the agency is playing it for all it’s worth. And why not! It’s fun. It’s interesting. It’s a space opera … well, maybe not space opera.

Whatever it is, people have started voting on what they think are causing the spots. As of Thursday, many more people think the mystery is more mysterious than NASA scientists, who have said they think it’s either ice volcanoes, just ice or other reflective material that’s made its way to the surface.

Here’s a snapshot of the voting percentages so far … vote here.

A screenshot of NASA’s page for voting on what those spots on Ceres are …

I love that “other” is running the show. That doesn’t tell me people think the space scientists are way off the mark, rather I think it reflects our desire for it to be something really wild … like an alien space camp or giant reflector disks beaming our Facebook pages. (I voted for Ice).

And to show just how close Dawn is getting and what kind of photo resolution we can expect when it does get its cameras pointed at the great bright spot mystery, NASA just released this photo:

Click for larger view: This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on May 23, 2015, from a distance of 3,200 miles (5,100 kilometers). Resolution in the image is about 1,600 feet (480 meters) per pixel. The view shows numerous secondary craters, formed by the re-impact of debris strewn from larger impact sites. Smaller surface details like this are becoming visible with increasing clarity as Dawn spirals lower in its campaign to map Ceres. The region shown here is located between 13 degrees and 51 degrees north latitude and 182 degrees and 228 degrees east longitude.

Here’s the map of where the images if from … just missed the spots.

The agency added in its news release:

After transmitting these images to Earth on May 23, Dawn resumed ion-thrusting toward its second mapping orbit. On June 3, Dawn will enter this orbit and spend the rest of the month observing Ceres from 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) above the surface. Each orbit during this time will be about three days, allowing the spacecraft to conduct an intensive study of Ceres.

(Please let it be aliens … because it’s friggin’ lonely here all by ourselves)

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1BsyHyQ

Here’s a snapshot of the voting percentages so far … vote here.

A screenshot of NASA’s page for voting on what those spots on Ceres are …

And to show just how close Dawn is getting and what kind of photo resolution we can expect when it does get its cameras pointed at the great bright spot mystery, NASA just released this photo:

Here’s the map of where the images if from … just missed the spots.

The agency added in its news release:

After transmitting these images to Earth on May 23, Dawn resumed ion-thrusting toward its second mapping orbit. On June 3, Dawn will enter this orbit and spend the rest of the month observing Ceres from 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) above the surface. Each orbit during this time will be about three days, allowing the spacecraft to conduct an intensive study of Ceres.

(Please let it be aliens … because it’s friggin’ lonely here all by ourselves)

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1BsyHyQ

Gallup: We’re fatter than ever — see where Washington/Seattle rank

If you thought that Americans couldn’t get any fatter, think again. The most recent Gallup Obesity Rankings, which measures obesity by state and metropolitan area, has revealed that Americans are fatter than ever.

According to the poll, the national obesity rate has risen from 27.1 percent in 2013 to 27.7 percent. The national rate has risen considerably since only 2008, when it was 25.5 percent.

Obesity rates are highest in Southern and Midwestern states and the lowest in the Western and Northeastern regions. The poll has consistently found these results since it started recording data.

Gallup asked respondents to report their height and weight, which is used to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI). Those who have a BMI higher than 30 are considered obese.

So where does Washington rank? Seattle-Tacoma? Check out the galleries below, ranked from fattest to healthiest, for the run down of the most obese—and healthiest—places in the country. Some rankings spring a few surprises.

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1clvvP2

According to the poll, the national obesity rate has risen from 27.1 percent in 2013 to 27.7 percent. The national rate has risen considerably since only 2008, when it was 25.5 percent.

Obesity rates are highest in Southern and Midwestern states and the lowest in the Western and Northeastern regions. The poll has consistently found these results since it started recording data.

Gallup asked respondents to report their height and weight, which is used to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI). Those who have a BMI higher than 30 are considered obese.

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1clvvP2

NASA’s first moisture map of the world should freak you out

Ever wonder what a mega-drought looks like via a map of the world measuring moisture in the ground? Well, it looks like this and it’s a little troubling … and if you look at it long enough you can freak your self out over just how little of our planet has what we would consider a current abundance of fresh water.

High-resolution global soil moisture map from SMAP’s combined radar and radiometer instruments, acquired between May 4 and May 11, 2015 during SMAP’s commissioning phase. The map has a resolution of 5.6 miles (9 kilometers). The data gap is due to turning the instruments on and off during testing. Click for larger view.

True this is just a snap shot (May 4 to May 11) and heavy rains in some places, such as northern Texas, also show up, but it shows the very dry conditions in the West and just how far they range.

NASA writes:

The new global image shows dry conditions in the southwestern United States and in Australia’s interior. Moist soil conditions are evident in the U.S. Midwest and in eastern regions of the United States, Europe and Asia. The far northern regions depicted in these SMAP maps do not indicate soil moisture measurements because the ground there was frozen. …

In the days prior to this data collection, intense rainstorms pounded northern Texas. The areas affected by the storm in northern Texas and the Gulf Coast are visible in much greater detail. Such detail can be used to improve local weather forecasts, assist in monitoring drought in smaller watersheds, and forecast floods.

Speaking of forecasts … Thursday, we got even worse news about the drought building up in our neck of the woods from Washington State University’s Ag Weather Network:

Despite recent rains, the drought settling over Washington state that spurred the governor to declare an emergency last week is likely to grow worse – driven by a strengthening El Nino weather pattern from the Pacific Ocean.

El Nino may be renewing hope for relief in drought-stricken California, but it’s more likely to bring more heat and dryness to the Northwest, said a Washington State University climate scientist who’s monitoring the state’s dry-off conditions.

“The impacts of El Nino vary across the globe, including among regions here in North America,” said Gerrit Hoogenboom, director of WSU’s Ag Weather Network and drought coordinator for university extension. “While it typically brings rainfall to central and southern California, it leads to warmer weather and less precipitation across much of the Pacific Northwest.”

El Nino is produced by an ocean-warming phenomenon that can drench some parts of the world while parching others.

Washington drought: Severe=orange. Moderate=beige. Abnormally dry=yellow. (WSU image)

WSU adds:

What’s more,“El Nino probably has not yet hit its peak,” said Hoogenboom. “It’s likely that it will be stronger in autumn and winter.”

Which isn’t good news for a state facing an already historically low mountain snowpack and depleted water levels in rivers and reservoirs, mainly east of the Cascade Range. So much so that Gov. Jay Inslee has declared a drought emergency in an attempt to avert crop and salmon losses and a perilous fire season.

Add also this from what NASA said earlier in the year … that big map of the world’s moisture content gets real scary real fast.

NASA says … “if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase along current trajectories throughout the 21st century, there is an 80 percent likelihood of a decades-long megadrought in the Southwest and Central Plains between the years 2050 and 2099.”

“Natural droughts like the 1930s Dust Bowl and the current drought in the Southwest have historically lasted maybe a decade or a little less,” said Ben Cook, climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York City, and lead author of the study. “What these results are saying is we’re going to get a drought similar to those events, but it is probably going to last at least 30 to 35 years.”

But for goodness sakes, let’s please do gut NASA’s funding for this kind of research so that we just don’t have to look at this scary maps!

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1FGgjtt

True this is just a snap shot (May 4 to May 11) and heavy rains in some places, such as northern Texas, also show up, but it shows the very dry conditions in the West and just how far they range.

NASA writes:

The new global image shows dry conditions in the southwestern United States and in Australia’s interior. Moist soil conditions are evident in the U.S. Midwest and in eastern regions of the United States, Europe and Asia. The far northern regions depicted in these SMAP maps do not indicate soil moisture measurements because the ground there was frozen. …

In the days prior to this data collection, intense rainstorms pounded northern Texas. The areas affected by the storm in northern Texas and the Gulf Coast are visible in much greater detail. Such detail can be used to improve local weather forecasts, assist in monitoring drought in smaller watersheds, and forecast floods.

Speaking of forecasts … Thursday, we got even worse news about the drought building up in our neck of the woods from Washington State University’s Ag Weather Network:

Despite recent rains, the drought settling over Washington state that spurred the governor to declare an emergency last week is likely to grow worse – driven by a strengthening El Nino weather pattern from the Pacific Ocean.

El Nino may be renewing hope for relief in drought-stricken California, but it’s more likely to bring more heat and dryness to the Northwest, said a Washington State University climate scientist who’s monitoring the state’s dry-off conditions.

“The impacts of El Nino vary across the globe, including among regions here in North America,” said Gerrit Hoogenboom, director of WSU’s Ag Weather Network and drought coordinator for university extension. “While it typically brings rainfall to central and southern California, it leads to warmer weather and less precipitation across much of the Pacific Northwest.”

El Nino is produced by an ocean-warming phenomenon that can drench some parts of the world while parching others.

Washington drought: Severe=orange. Moderate=beige. Abnormally dry=yellow. (WSU image)

WSU adds:

What’s more,“El Nino probably has not yet hit its peak,” said Hoogenboom. “It’s likely that it will be stronger in autumn and winter.”

Which isn’t good news for a state facing an already historically low mountain snowpack and depleted water levels in rivers and reservoirs, mainly east of the Cascade Range. So much so that Gov. Jay Inslee has declared a drought emergency in an attempt to avert crop and salmon losses and a perilous fire season.

Add also this from what NASA said earlier in the year … that big map of the world’s moisture content gets real scary real fast.

NASA says … “if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase along current trajectories throughout the 21st century, there is an 80 percent likelihood of a decades-long megadrought in the Southwest and Central Plains between the years 2050 and 2099.”

“Natural droughts like the 1930s Dust Bowl and the current drought in the Southwest have historically lasted maybe a decade or a little less,” said Ben Cook, climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York City, and lead author of the study. “What these results are saying is we’re going to get a drought similar to those events, but it is probably going to last at least 30 to 35 years.”

But for goodness sakes, let’s please do gut NASA’s funding for this kind of research so that we just don’t have to look at this scary maps!

from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1FGgjtt