Autumn at the Old Pond wallpaper, Spaun offers a rare window into the workings of the human brain, A student documents life and research in Greenland

Autumn at the Old Pond wallpaper

Spaun or Semantic Pointer Architecture Unified Network offers a rare window into the workings of the human brain

The brain is an amazing and complex thing, according to Waterloo professor Chris Eliasmith. He should know. He’s building one.

A team led by the Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Neuroscience has created the world’s largest functional brain model. Their research was published Nov. 29 by Science.

Called Spaun, the model can see, remember, think and write using a mechanical arm. Right now, Spaun and its environment are housed in a computer. So Spaun lives in a simulated world with simulated physics. Still, Spaun uses only its brain to understand images it sees, and “move” its virtual arm. In short, it uses the same processes that your brain does to pick up a cup of coffee.

“It has been interesting to see the reactions people have had to Spaun. Even seasoned academics have not seen brain models that actually perform so many tasks. Models are typically small, and focus on one function,” says Eliasmith, who is jointly appointed to the departments of philosophy and systems design engineering, and cross-appointed to computer science at the University of Waterloo.

Currently, other large-scale brain models (over a million neurons or so) do one thing — mimic lots of neurons. Spaun does that too (it has 2.5 million neurons), but more importantly, it is constructed so those neurons actually think about patterns it encounters and make things happen in its environment (and you can watch videos of it working).

To build it, Eliasmith and his team had to create specific brain systems, using methods from a number of different fields, including engineering, computer science, biology, philosophy, psychology and statistics.

“The reason that the Spaun model is so compelling, is that it brings all of this work together,” he said.

“Human cognition isn’t interesting because we can recognize visual patterns … move our arms in an integrated way … [or] solve a particular task or puzzle. It’s interesting because we can do all of this with the same brain, in any order, and at any time.”

Rapid Variable Creation video

I’ll save the warnings about mutant cyborgs enslaving mankind to blogs that specialize in such speculation. For now Spaun’s real world applications, besides just the fascination of something non-human thinking, are insights such a simulated systems can provide into human problems. Notably by simulating the way some drugs act on the brain, how the brain copes with a stroke and how neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease affect thinking.

The Glacial Chronicles: A student documents life and research in Greenland

Consider permafrost. Permafrost is a thick layer of subsurface soil in polar regions that remains frozen year-round. You may not have realized that permafrost contains vast quantities of carbon that was frozen in place thousands of years ago. As the planet warms, and permafrost melts, this ancient carbon becomes food for microbes that transform that carbon into CO2 gas and methane (CH4), which warms the planet, melts more permafrost, and produces more CO2 and CH4.

Ice cores taken from the Antarctic Ice Sheet give us a datable record of the atmospheric CO2 concentrations through time. These records tell us that ice ages are often ended by sharp, fast upswings in CO2. Those upswings could very well be the release of CO2 from melting permafrost.

There are many CO2 feedback loops, and glaciers and permafrost are just part of a few of them. Serious accounting skills are required to understand the delicate balance between all of the world’s CO2 feedback loops, as well as all the sources and sinks for CO2.

Most of Greenland is covered with an ice sheet that reaches two miles thick. If the entire ice sheet melted, it would raise the global ocean’s sea level by 23 feet. That scenario is unlikely, but accelerated flows of ice to the ocean that raise sea levels far less would still cause problems. (Photo by Ben Linhoff, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

I snipped one of the more technical passages, but besides the technical in formation, this is a good read. Like a written version of a national Geographic special. Even those without much science background should enjoy the story.

While we’re on the subject of climate change, Meet The Climate Denial Machine

Despite the overwhelming consensus among climate experts that human activity is contributing to rising global temperatures, 66 percent of Americans incorrectly believe there is “a lot of disagreement among scientists about whether or not global warming is happening.” The conservative media has fueled this confusion by distorting scientific research, hyping faux-scandals, and giving voice to groups funded by industries that have a financial interest in blocking action on climate change. Meanwhile, mainstream media outlets have shied away from the “controversy” over climate change and have failed to press U.S. policymakers on how they will address this global threat. When climate change is discussed, mainstream outlets sometimes strive for a false balance that elevates marginal voices and enables them to sow doubt about the science even in the face of mounting evidence.

Here, Media Matters looks at how conservative media outlets give industry-funded “experts” a platform, creating a polarized misunderstanding of climate science.

One of the first things one wants to do to hide dangerous misinformation that affects millions of lives how and the future is to name your junk science foundation something that sounds wholesome and all American, like the propagandists at Heartland Institute or The American Tradition Institute. If those don’t sucker some folks in there is always the junk science from the patriotic sounding Heritage Foundation or the American Enterprise Institute. We all like enterprise and the heartland, right? So in addition to hurting the USA and our natural heritage with science that is bought and paid for, they’re also insulting.

Finally, some more bad news, 2012 breeding season worst on record for many UK nesting birds

The latest results from these BTO surveys show that many species struggled to raise young during 2012. “Caterpillars appear to have been in short supply during the cold, wet weather and many of the woodland birds dependent on them had a poor season,” noted Carl Barimore, NRS Organiser. “Blue tit, Great tit and Chaffinch fledged 13%, 18% and 58% fewer chicks respectively; this is the lowest productivity recorded for Chaffinch in almost 50 years and the second lowest for Great tit over the same period. Rainfall may have made hunting difficult for raptor and owl species too, and Kestrel breeding success was also significantly lower than average.”

Bad year for migrants
Results from the CES scheme showed that migrant birds also fared badly. “All eight of the migrant species monitored by CES experienced the worst breeding year since the scheme began 30 years ago,” reported Allison Kew, CES Organiser. “These estimates relate to the numbers of free-flying juveniles ringed, so are likely to reflect losses in the nest and the low survival rates of young birds after they have left it – their inexperience in foraging and poor quality plumage is likely to be a disadvantage in wet, windy conditions. Wetland species such as Reed Warbler and Reed Bunting were also directly affected by flooding.”

But will the poor season in 2012 have a lasting effect on our birds? “There is no doubt that many fewer young birds fledged this year and current predictions of another cold winter suggest that survival rates over coming months may be low”, explains Dr Dave Leech, a Senior Research Ecologist at BTO.

People can help to some degree by setting up bird feeders, but for birds whose diet is mostly insect and caterpillars, that will not do much good. It might help in the long run to plant flowers and shrubs that butterflies and moths like. That will in turn help the birds.

How Seawater Turbulence Affects Marine Food Webs, Dealing With the New Era of Storms and Shoring Up Coastal Communities

Stirred Not Mixed: How Seawater Turbulence Affects Marine Food Webs

The movement of seawater–including small whirls and eddies–affects how marine bacteria absorb organic material, such as that produced by phytoplankton.

In the process of generating oxygen, phytoplankton produce waste matter in the form of organic material, some of which becomes dissolved in seawater.

This dissolved organic material is then absorbed by marine bacteria foraging for food. Bacteria are then consumed by larger organisms.

The organic waste material excreted by phytoplankton becomes part of the microbial loop – and contributes to the functioning of the marine food web.

Taylor’s and Stocker’s research revealed that a delicate balance exists between the extent of water turbulence and the recycling activity of bacteria–with high and low levels of turbulence linked to lower recycling rates.

Their study also looked at how the physical environment of the ocean might help to select the most successful types of marine bacteria, which compete for nutrients.

Some marine bacteria have evolved the ability to swim. Swimming bacteria, known as motile bacteria, have advantages over non-swimming species in foraging for food.

However, swimming is energy-intensive so motile bacteria swim only when it is worth the effort in terms of pay-back.

Some bacteria can also detect and respond to chemicals dissolved in the surrounding water, an ability known as chemotaxis.

The researchers compared the activity of motile and non-motile bacteria across environments that differed in levels of water movement and nutrient availability.

All water moves, but the extent of its turbulence varies widely in the ocean.

Wind and waves strongly churn the water near the surface, while the level of turbulence is much lower in the deep ocean, says Stocker.

The results show that the organic matter excreted by phytoplankton is patchy in the ocean, and is not as uniform as had been thought.

Organic matter enters water in bursts, after which a natural mixing and stirring action comes into play and the organic matter is dispersed.

The patterns of dispersal depend on the strength of turbulence and the extent of stirring and mixing.

“When you pour cream into coffee and stir it carefully, you get swirls of cream,” says Taylor.

“Something similar happens when bursts of organic matter enter gently moving water. The swirls of organic matter are easily accessed by swimming bacteria which surround and absorb it.

“If you mix cream into your coffee vigorously, it quickly becomes evenly dispersed. When this happens in the ocean, the swimming bacteria have less to gain in seeking out the thinly-dispersed organic matter.”

Bacteria get energy from organic matter–but they also expend energy in swimming.

“Our research suggests that the optimum environment is one of intermediate turbulence intensity–when bursts of organic matter are stirred into thin filaments that can be exploited by large numbers of bacteria,” says Taylor.

“The best environment for motile bacteria is one in which the organic matter is lightly stirred into the water rather than vigorously mixed.”

Larval fish are dependent on zooplankton (pictured) as their food source.
Credit: NOAA

Plankton in seawater crashing ashore create foam-like bubbles known as mermaid’s souls.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Thus patterns in oceans turbulence – by weather or man-made can have a ripple effect on the ocean food web. Thus effects result in consequences for the overall health of the food web and it’s productivity.

I’ve been interested in coastal ecology since I was a kid so the issue of where to build, sand replenishing and sea barriers are issues I have been aware for a while. Storms like Sandy and Katrina have a way of giving those issues a sense of urgency they normally only enjoy among ecologists and geologists. This article highlights some of those issues, their remedies and how public officials should start thinking about how climate change is affecting coastal areas, Costs of Shoring Up Coastal Communities

For more than a century, for good or ill, New Jersey has led the nation in coastal development. Many of the barrier islands along its coast have long been lined by rock jetties, concrete sea walls or other protective armor. Most of its coastal communities have beaches only because engineers periodically replenish them with sand pumped from offshore.

Now much of that sand is gone. Though reports are still preliminary, coastal researchers say that when Hurricane Sandy came ashore, it washed enormous quantities of sand off beaches and into the streets — or even all the way across barrier islands into the bays behind them.

But even as these towns clamor for sand, scientists are warning that rising seas will make maintaining artificial beaches prohibitively expensive or simply impossible. Even some advocates of artificial beach nourishment now urge new approaches to the issue, especially in New Jersey.

The practice has long been controversial.

Opponents of beach nourishment argue that undeveloped beaches deal well with storms. Their sands shift; barrier islands may even migrate toward the mainland. But the beach itself survives, because buildings and roads do not pin it down.

There is the point of view that beaches in areas that enjoy a lot of tourism – which is most beach fronts – are like any other infrastructure such as bridges and roads. Is it worth it to maintain the sand because the economic investment is returned by way of tourist dollars.

This video has its flaws – the robots that destroy everything may undermine a serious message or just get on viewers’ nerves. Though on balance I found it worth watching, Hurricane Sandy’s Double Whammy

Too bad more people can’t invest themselves in some sense of civic responsibility when there are no disasters, How the Stress of Disaster Brings People Together. New evidence that men are more likely to cooperate in difficult circumstances.

That’s not nice: Hyundai, Kia admit cars’ gas mileage is lower than advertised

Hyundai and Kia overstated the fuel economy on more than one-third of the vehicles they sold in recent years, an embarrassing acknowledgment for two of the fastest-growing auto brands in the U.S.

The South Korean automakers issued an apology and said they would give special debit cards to nearly a million owners to make up for the difference in the lower miles per gallon logged by the vehicles. The discrepancies were found by the Environmental Protection Agency, which began investigating after consumers complained.

The companies — which are corporate siblings — blamed the overstated mileage ratings on “procedural errors” at a jointly operated test center in South Korea.

“Given the importance of fuel efficiency to all of us, we’re extremely sorry about these errors,” said John Krafcik, chief executive of Hyundai Motor America. “We’re going to make this right for everyone.”

Both car makers plan to give car owners a gas debit card that pays for the difference in advertised mileage versus actual mileage. Not a perfect solution, but kudos to them for admitting their mistake, apologizing and trying to work out some kind of compensation for consumers. It seems rare that a corporation even admits fault much less tries to compensate for their mistake. A little prodding by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency probably helped with their motivation.

Sunset Golden Beach wallpaper, Greener Farming Methods Can Be Just As Profitable

Sunset Golden Beach wallpaper

Greener Farming Methods Can Make As Much Green As Industrial Ones

“Integrated pest management” is a mouthful. But the farming method, involving growing multiple crops together and playing their strengths and weaknesses off each other, could be key to using fewer chemicals to grow more food. Though it’s been discussed for decades, a set of recent experiments reported in the journal PLOS ONE puts more weight behind it: using this style of farming with moderate use of fertilizers and pesticides, the study found, is just as productive as industrial agriculture while requiring fewer chemicals. On about 20 acres of Iowa farmland over eight years, agronomists tested out different methods for raising crops. One field was grown the industrial way: corn and soybeans were planted in alternate years and given the customary dosages of fertilizer and herbicides. In two other fields, crops were grown in three- or four-year rotations, adding oats and either alfalfa or red clover to the mix. With more species around, it was harder for weeds to take hold, reducing the need for herbicides; when the researchers did apply the chemicals, they did so on an as-needed basis, choosing formulas targeted to the particular weeds they saw and applying them to specific rows rather than spraying whole fields. The alfalfa and red clover naturally fertilized the soil, and the researchers spread manure on the fields, as well. Like herbicides, synthetic fertilizer was applied only when necessary.

Alfalfa is a great natural source of nitrogen. By using alfalfa and red clover they were able use get by with only around 20% of the synthetic fertilizer used on industrial style farms. Besides less synthetic waste run off, that would also mean less green house gases produced in the production of synthetic fertilizer. The researchers do say this rotation method and spot use of herbicides is a little more labor intensive, but the costs are recouped by spending much less on chemicals. For the complete paper see, Increasing Cropping System Diversity Balances Productivity, Profitability and Environmental Health

More fossil news out of China, New flying fish fossils discovered

New flying fish fossils found in China provide the earliest evidence of vertebrate over-water gliding strategy.

Chinese researchers have tracked the “exceptionally well-preserved fossils” to the Middle Triassic of China (235-242 million years ago).

The Triassic period saw the re-establishment of ecosystems after the Permian mass extinction.

The fossils represent new evidence that marine ecosystems re-established more quickly than previously thought.

The Permian mass extinction had a bigger impact on the earth’s ecological systems than any other mass extinction, wiping out 90-95% of marine species.

Previous studies have suggested that Triassic marine life developed more quickly than was once thought and that marine ecosystems were re-established more rapidly than terrestrial ecosystems.

….The study shows that the new flying fish, named Potanichthys xingyiensis, was 153mm long and had the “unusual combination of morphological features” associated with gliding strategy in fishes.

The fossils show an asymmetrical, forked caudal (tail) fin and a “four-winged” body formation: a pair of enlarged pectoral fins forming “primary wings”, and a smaller pair of pelvic fins acting as “auxiliary wings”, according to the study.

This new fossil represents the first record of the extinct Thoracopteridae family of fishes to be found in Asia. Evolutionary biologists think that fish evolved this unique ability to fly or glide as a way to escape predators. At the link is a video of a flying fish in flight for almost a full minute.

NASA Satellites Capture Hurricane Sandy’s Massive Size. There are regular photographs and video as well. Sandy was as big as the New England region plus some.

NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite captured this visible image of Hurricane Sandy battering the U.S. East coast on Monday, Oct. 29 at 9:10 a.m. EDT. Sandy’s center was about 310 miles south-southeast of New York City. Tropical Storm force winds are about 1,000 miles in diameter. Credit: NASA GOES Project

These are just a few –  7 Fake Hurricane Sandy Photos You’re Sharing on Social Media. Various  sources are putting up hoax images of Sandy and events supposedly taking place during Sandy. It is a shame that such devastation is exploited for whatever reasons – as pranks or politics. Sandy might be a teachable moment or wake up call about being prepared for weather that is becoming increasing extreme.

Great Wall Of China wallpaper, Salt Marsh Carbon May Play Role in Slowing Climate Warming

Great Wall Of China wallpaper

Salt Marsh Carbon May Play Role in Slowing Climate Warming

A warming climate and rising seas will enable salt marshes to more rapidly capture and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, possibly playing a role in slowing the rate of climate change, according to a new study led by a University of Virginia environmental scientist and published in the Sept. 27 issue of the journal Nature.

Carbon dioxide is the predominant so-called “greenhouse gas” that acts as sort of an atmospheric blanket, trapping the Earth’s heat. Over time, an abundance of carbon dioxide can change the global climate, according to generally accepted scientific theory. A warmer climate melts polar ice, causing sea levels to rise.

A large portion of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is produced by human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels to energize a rapidly growing world human population.
“We predict that marshes will absorb some of that carbon dioxide, and if other coastal ecosystems – such as seagrasses and mangroves – respond similarly, there might be a little less warming,” said the study’s lead author, Matt Kirwan, a research assistant professor of environmental sciences in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Salt marshes, made up primarily of grasses, are important coastal ecosystems, helping to protect shorelines from storms and providing habitat for a diverse range of wildlife, from birds to mammals, shell- and fin-fishes and mollusks. They also build up coastal elevations by trapping sediment during floods, and produce new soil from roots and decaying organic matter.

“One of the cool things about salt marshes is that they are perhaps the best example of an ecosystem that actually depends on carbon accumulation to survive climate change: The accumulation of roots in the soil builds their elevation, keeping the plants above the water,” Kirwan said.

Salt marshes store enormous quantities of carbon, essential to plant productivity, by, in essence, breathing in the atmospheric carbon and then using it to grow, flourish and increase the height of the soil. Even as the grasses die, the carbon remains trapped in the sediment. The researchers’ model predicts that under faster sea-level rise rates, salt marshes could bury up to four times as much carbon as they do now.

“Our work indicates that the value of these ecosystems in capturing atmospheric carbon might become much more important in the future, as the climate warms,” Kirwan said.
But the study also shows that marshes can survive only moderate rates of sea level rise. If seas rise too quickly, the marshes could not increase their elevations at a rate rapid enough to stay above the rising water. And if marshes were to be overcome by fast-rising seas, they no longer could provide the carbon storage capacity that otherwise would help slow climate warming and the resulting rising water.

Interesting to ecologists, but probably not help in the long run. In general, especially in the U.S. and Europe we have been less than great at preserving salt-marshes. They tend to be located in areas that provide great views, places to build high end houses for the upper middle-class. In addition to the encroachment of thoughtless land development, over fishing is also having an impact on salt-marshes, Loss of species makes nature more sensitive to climate change

Experiments with eelgrass meadows in shallow inlets on the west coast of Sweden are now showing that climate change can exacerbate the negative effects of losing sensitive species, and that the insurance effect of biodiversity may be weaker than what we typically assume.

Eelgrass meadows in shallow inlets are important nursery habitats for cod, for example. Since the early 1980s the prevalence of eelgrass has fallen dramatically along the Bohuslän coast.

This is thought to be due partly to eutrophication, which favours mats of filamentous “nuisance” algae which shade and suffocate the eelgrass, and partly to the loss of cod, which has resulted in a huge increase in numbers of smaller predatory fish. These predatory fish, in turn, reduce numbers of Grammarus locusta, herbivorous crustaceans which are effective grazers that normally control the filamentous algae.

This type of cascade effect has become increasingly common both onshore and off as many types of predator have been wiped out by hunting or fishing. Worryingly, theory and observations would indicate that these effects could magnify the effects of global warming, which favours heat-tolerant but grazing-sensitive plants such as filamentous algae.

At the Sven Lovén Centre for Marine Sciences’ Kristineberg research station on Gullmarsfjorden, researchers from the University of Gothenburg’s Department of Biology and Environmental Sciences have developed miniature ecosystems in outdoor aquariums and have been investigating how future ocean warming and ocean acidification could affect the balance between eelgrass and filamentous algae.

The effects were unexpectedly clear and unambiguous: it was the diversity of algal herbivores that determined the extent to which the ecosystem was affected by warming and acidification.

“High diversity meant that neither warming nor acidification had any real effect as the algae were eaten before they managed to grow and shade the eelgrass,” says researcher and biologist Johan Eklöf, who headed up the study. “But when we simultaneously simulated the effects of fishing and removed the effective but vulnerable herbivor Grammarus locusta, the algae took over the ecosystem – especially in the warmer conditions.”

The researchers believe that we should be concerned about the results.

“Most management is based on the assumption that we afford to lose the most sensitive species because other, more resilient species will take their place,” says Johan Eklöf. “But this may not be the case with future climate changes, as it can reduce the net efficiency of the resilient species – without directly affecting them.”

San Francisco salt-marsh: United States Geological Survey

Hard to believe, but we’re still having a difficult time as a society explaining the connections between not having access to health care for everyone and the consequent costs to society. Try explaining that we really need to have a healthy population of juvenile fish and algae eating little fish and crustaceans to global warming, and the ripple effect on species diversity. It is still not uncommon to hear someone on radio or TV rant about preserving some seemingly worthless species of fish or flower. They always frame the issue as – do you want jobs or do you want this worthless organism. They do not have a clue what they are talking about and have no real interests in studying the knowledge they need to have an informed opinion.

 Bingo! Ancient Rushing Water on Mars

Mars Rover photo: Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Billions of years ago, enough water flowed down from the rim of Gale crater to carry gravel to the middle of the crater floor—where the Curiosity rover found and imaged it 3 weeks ago, the NASA mission’s team members reported in a press conference today.

Hopeful news, but not as certain an indication of life as finding a dry lake bed, as NASA also pointed out.

 

Dioxin ‘Agent Orange’ causes disease, reproductive problems across generations

Since the 1960s, when the defoliant Agent Orange was widely used in Vietnam, military, industry and environmental groups have debated the toxicity of one of its ingredients, the chemical dioxin, and how it should be regulated.

But even if all the dioxin were eliminated from the planet, Washington State University researchers say its legacy would live on in the way it turns genes on and off in the descendants of people exposed over the past half century.

Writing in the journal PLoS ONE, biologist Michael Skinner and members of his lab say dioxin administered to pregnant rats resulted in a variety of reproductive problems and disease in subsequent generations. The first generation of rats had prostate disease, polycystic ovarian disease and fewer ovarian follicles, the structures that contain eggs. To the surprise of Skinner and his colleagues, the third generation had even more dramatic incidences of ovarian disease and, in males, kidney disease.

“Therefore, it is not just the individuals exposed, but potentially the great-grandchildren that may experience increased adult-onset disease susceptibility,” says Skinner.

Dioxin and its chemical derivations are some of the nastiest compounds ever invented.

Walking on a non-Newtonian fluid, Easy to program robot does the chores

At two weeks old this is old news, but that doesn’t mean everyone has seen it. And since I have not done much posting on physics of late, it also helps make up for that. While not all learning can be fun, the video does makes learning fun or at least arouses one’s curiosity about some of the weird physical properties of some of the substances that we encounter in our everyday lives. Walking on… Custard? Fun with Non-Newtonian Fluids

So what gives? Well, as the Brainiacs explain in the video, it’s an example of a non-Newtonian fluid — or, as I like to think of it, “oobleck.” That’s a nod to Dr. Seuss, specifically, a tale called Bartholomew and the Oobleck.

Bartholomew is a royal page in the Kingdom of Didd. King Derwin is a bit of a dunderhead who decides he’s bored with plain old water-based rain and show, and orders the casting of a magic spell that causes a green sticky substance to rain down from the sky. The stuff was called “oobleck,” and as often happens with magic spells, it turned out to be more troublesome than entertaining, gumming up the entire kingdom until the creatively pragmatic Bartholomew figures out how to save the day.

Oobleck is a favorite substance of mine, because it just can’t decide whether it wants to be a solid or a liquid — it swings both ways!

I think it was last season on an episode of The Big Bang Theory that they used some corn starch and water to create a non-Newtonian fluid and had it do a little dance on a vibrating platform. We’ve all probably seen a similar demonstration. That is what makes this video so interesting. It is done on such a large scale it demonstrates how, at least as far as custard goes, you can walk on some non-Newtonian fluids. And that does mean walk. If you stand still, it tends to suck you down into it.  I’ve While not as viscous as the corn starch or custard fluids, some other non-Newtonian fluids include toothpaste, , paint, blood, and shampoo.

Baxter The Worker Robot Puts In The Hours So You Don’t Have To

While I doubt this guy will replace the Homer Simpsons of the world, Baxter by Boston-based Rethink Robotics is a robot that could definitely give the average button pushers a run for their money. The $22,000 robot essentially does chores.

Baxter is fascinating, yet at the same time it is taking the $10 an hour job of a human being. On the other hand it creates jobs for those lucky enough to have begged or burrowed enough money to get an engineering degree.

Arctic ice shrinks 18% against record, sounding climate change alarm bells

Sea ice in the Arctic shrunk a dramatic 18% this year on the previous record set in 2007 to a record low of 3.41m sq km, according to the official US monitoring organisation the National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Boulder, Colorado.

Scientists and environment groups last night said the fall was unprecedented and the clearest signal yet of climate change.

The data released showed the arctic sea beginning to refreeze again in the last few days after the most dramatic melt observed since satellite observations started in 1979.

This year’s sea ice extent was 700,000 sq km below the previous minimum of 4.17m sq km set in 2007.

This might also contribute to some freaky weather such as both extreme cold and some higher than normal temperatures in various places because of the effect on weather fronts. The winter of 2010-2011 was warmer than normal for the entire U.S. yet the eastern U.S had some freak winter storms because of a cold front that stalled over Greenland.

Case Closed? Comet Crash Killed Ice Age Beasts

A space rock crashed into Earth about 12,900 years ago, wiping out some of North America’s biggest beasts and ushering in a period of extreme cooling, researchers say, based on new evidence supporting this comet-crash scenario.

If such an impact took place, it did not leave behind any obvious clues like a crater. But microscopic melted rock formations called spherules and nano-size diamonds in ancient soil layers could be telltale signs of a big collision. The mix of particles could only have formed under extreme temperatures, created by a comet or asteroid impact.

Researchers first reported in 2007 that these particles were found at several archaeological sites in layers of sediment 12,900 years old. Now an independent study published in the Sept.17 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) says those findings hold up.

Considering the average human life span is now about 75, which is about .58 percent of that 12,900 years. It was quite a few generations ago that we had this Ice Age. Though in geological time the woolly mammoths, Arctic shrew, American lion and tapirs were here, like almost yesterday.