| News Briefs - November-December - Online Extra |
BBC Questions Global Warming
The BBC (British Broadcasting
Corporation) is asking, “What
Happened to Global Warming?”
Since 1998, the warmest year
ever recorded, no increase in
global temperatures has taken
place despite climate models
which predicted they would.
Scientists are divided over
whether the cool down is due to
the planet’s natural cycles or
whether the long-term trend is
clearly toward warmer
temperatures.—BBC News
(10/9/09)
Life Expectancy Reaches New
High
U.S. life expectancy has now
increased to nearly 78 years, an
all-time high, the government has
reported. The life expectancy for
babies born in 2007 is nearly
three months greater than those
born in 2006, and life expectancy
has grown nearly 1½ years within
the past decade. However, the U.
S. continues to lag behind 30
other countries with Japan having
the longest life expectancy at 83
years.—Milwaukee Journal Times
(8/20/09)
Squid Fossil Found to
Contain Liquid Ink
Paleontologists in England have
uncovered a squid fossil that still
contains liquid ink, which they
used to draw its picture. "It is
difficult to imagine how you can
have something as soft and
sloppy as an ink sac fossilized in
three dimension, still black, and
inside a rock that is 150 million
years old,” said one of the
researchers. It was discovered at
a site where thousands of
Jurassic fossils with preserved
soft tissues have been found.—
BBC News (8/19/09)
The BBC (British Broadcasting
Corporation) is asking, “What
Happened to Global Warming?”
Since 1998, the warmest year
ever recorded, no increase in
global temperatures has taken
place despite climate models
which predicted they would.
Scientists are divided over
whether the cool down is due to
the planet’s natural cycles or
whether the long-term trend is
clearly toward warmer
temperatures.—BBC News
(10/9/09)
Life Expectancy Reaches New
High
U.S. life expectancy has now
increased to nearly 78 years, an
all-time high, the government has
reported. The life expectancy for
babies born in 2007 is nearly
three months greater than those
born in 2006, and life expectancy
has grown nearly 1½ years within
the past decade. However, the U.
S. continues to lag behind 30
other countries with Japan having
the longest life expectancy at 83
years.—Milwaukee Journal Times
(8/20/09)
Squid Fossil Found to
Contain Liquid Ink
Paleontologists in England have
uncovered a squid fossil that still
contains liquid ink, which they
used to draw its picture. "It is
difficult to imagine how you can
have something as soft and
sloppy as an ink sac fossilized in
three dimension, still black, and
inside a rock that is 150 million
years old,” said one of the
researchers. It was discovered at
a site where thousands of
Jurassic fossils with preserved
soft tissues have been found.—
BBC News (8/19/09)
Americans Win Nobel Prizes
Three Americans have been
awarded the Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine for solving
a problem related to cell biology
with relevance to cancer and
aging. Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol
Greider, and Jack Szostak
discovered that the ends of
chromosomes called telomeres
get shorter each time a cell
divides and thus help determine
the cell’s life. Two of the three
are immigrants, Blackburn from
Tasmania and Szostak from
London. They will receive equal
shares of the $1.4 million prize. —
New York Times (10/6/09)
NASA Needs More Money
A big boost in NASA’s budget is
needed if astronauts are to return
to the moon by 2020, according to
a presidential review panel.
About $3 billion more per year
would be need to replace the
aging space shuttle fleet with
bigger rockets. The only currently
affordable project is to enhance
the International Space Station in
order to attract commercial
passenger-launch companies.
The panel has concluded that
even if it were feasible financially,
a human moon mission may not
be as wise as perhaps a trip to an
asteroid. — Reuters (8/14/09)
Three Americans have been
awarded the Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine for solving
a problem related to cell biology
with relevance to cancer and
aging. Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol
Greider, and Jack Szostak
discovered that the ends of
chromosomes called telomeres
get shorter each time a cell
divides and thus help determine
the cell’s life. Two of the three
are immigrants, Blackburn from
Tasmania and Szostak from
London. They will receive equal
shares of the $1.4 million prize. —
New York Times (10/6/09)
NASA Needs More Money
A big boost in NASA’s budget is
needed if astronauts are to return
to the moon by 2020, according to
a presidential review panel.
About $3 billion more per year
would be need to replace the
aging space shuttle fleet with
bigger rockets. The only currently
affordable project is to enhance
the International Space Station in
order to attract commercial
passenger-launch companies.
The panel has concluded that
even if it were feasible financially,
a human moon mission may not
be as wise as perhaps a trip to an
asteroid. — Reuters (8/14/09)
Scientists Find ‘Bluehenge’
Researchers from Sheffield U. in
England have found a smaller
prehistoric site about a mile from
Stonehenge, Britain’s famous
circle of standing stones.
Archaeologists have named it
“Bluehenge” after the color of the
27 Welsh stones that were laid to
make up a path. It is believed that
both sites were constructed
around 2500 B.C. Researchers
plan to publish more information
about it next year. — www.yahoo.
news/AP (10/3/09)
Bronze-Iron Age
Societies Were Advanced
Scientists have been surprised by
new research showing that Bronze
and Iron Age civilizations in
Europe and the Near East were
more complex than previously
assumed. For instance,
Scandinavian settlements around
2000 B.C. did not consist of
scattered farms with little
cooperation but instead were
organized into hierarchical
chiefdoms some 800 years earlier
than had been thought. A U. of
Toronto team of archaeologists
also has found Iron Age societies
were more advanced.—Discover
(September, 2009)
Oldest Person Dies
Gertrude Baines, the world’s
oldest person according to
Guinness Book of World Records,
died in her sleep September 11 in
Los Angeles at the age of 115.
She had been living in a nursing
home since breaking a hip at age
107. She was born in 1894 when
Grover Cleveland was president.
Baines liked fried chicken and
crispy bacon, but she never drank
or smoked. Kama Chinen of
Japan at age 114 now holds the
record.—(Racine) Journal Times
(9/12/09)
Researchers from Sheffield U. in
England have found a smaller
prehistoric site about a mile from
Stonehenge, Britain’s famous
circle of standing stones.
Archaeologists have named it
“Bluehenge” after the color of the
27 Welsh stones that were laid to
make up a path. It is believed that
both sites were constructed
around 2500 B.C. Researchers
plan to publish more information
about it next year. — www.yahoo.
news/AP (10/3/09)
Bronze-Iron Age
Societies Were Advanced
Scientists have been surprised by
new research showing that Bronze
and Iron Age civilizations in
Europe and the Near East were
more complex than previously
assumed. For instance,
Scandinavian settlements around
2000 B.C. did not consist of
scattered farms with little
cooperation but instead were
organized into hierarchical
chiefdoms some 800 years earlier
than had been thought. A U. of
Toronto team of archaeologists
also has found Iron Age societies
were more advanced.—Discover
(September, 2009)
Oldest Person Dies
Gertrude Baines, the world’s
oldest person according to
Guinness Book of World Records,
died in her sleep September 11 in
Los Angeles at the age of 115.
She had been living in a nursing
home since breaking a hip at age
107. She was born in 1894 when
Grover Cleveland was president.
Baines liked fried chicken and
crispy bacon, but she never drank
or smoked. Kama Chinen of
Japan at age 114 now holds the
record.—(Racine) Journal Times
(9/12/09)
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