Washington, U.S.A – NASA-funded research on Mars meteorites that landed on Earth shows strong evidence that very large molecules containing carbon, which is a key ingredient for the building blocks of life, can originate on the Red Planet. These macromolecules are not of biological origin, but they are indicators that complex carbon chemistry has taken place on Mars.

Researchers from the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington who found reduced carbon molecules now have better insight into the chemical processes taking place on Mars. Reduced carbon is carbon that is bonded to hydrogen or itself. Their findings also may assist in future quests for evidence of life on the Red Planet. The findings are published in Thursday’s online edition of Science Express.

“These findings show that the storage of reduced carbon molecules on Mars occurred throughout the planet’s history and might have been similar to processes that occurred on the ancient Earth,” said Andrew Steele, lead author of the paper and researcher from Carnegie. “Understanding the genesis of these non-biological, carbon-containing macromolecules on Mars is crucial for developing future missions to detect evidence of life on our neighboring planet.”

Finding molecules containing large chains of carbon and hydrogen has been one objective of past and present Mars missions. Such molecules have been found previously in Mars meteorites, but scientists have disagreed about how the carbon in them was formed and whether it came from Mars. This new information proves Mars can produce organic carbon.

“Although this study has not yielded evidence that Mars has or once may have supported life, it does address some important questions about the sources of organic carbon on Mars,” said Mary Voytek, director of NASA’s Astrobiology Program at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. “With the Curiosity rover scheduled to land in August, these new research results may help Mars Science Laboratory scientists fine-tune their investigations on the surface of the planet by understanding where organic carbon may be found and how it is preserved.”

Scientists have theorized that the large carbon macromolecules detected on Martian meteorites could have originated from terrestrial contamination from Earth or other meteorites, or chemical reactions or biological activity on Mars.

Steele’s team examined samples from 11 Martian meteorites from a period spanning about 4.2 billion years of Martian history. They detected large carbon compounds in 10 of them. The molecules were found inside grains of crystallized minerals.

Using an array of sophisticated research techniques, the team was able to show that at least some of the macromolecules of carbon were indigenous to the meteorites themselves and not contamination from Earth.

The team next looked at the carbon molecules in relation to other minerals in the meteorites to see what kinds of chemical processing these samples endured before arriving on Earth. The crystalline grains encasing the carbon compounds provided a window into how the carbon molecules were created. Their findings indicate that the carbon was created by volcanic activity on Mars and show that Mars has been doing organic chemistry for most of its history.

In a separate paper published by American Mineralogist, Steele and his team report their findings on the same meteorite announced in 1996 to contain possible — but subsequently discounted — relics of ancient biological life on Mars. Called ALH84001, the meteorite was found to also contain organic macromolecules of non-biological origin.

The Steele team’s research indicates that Mars does have a pool of reduced carbon. Their findings should help scientists involved in current and future Mars missions distinguish non-biologically formed carbon molecules from potential life.

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Carslbad, U.SA. – He may be leader of the free world, but little did anyone know President Barrack Obama was also a natural vocalist. This year, President Obama claimed the number one spot in NAMM’s annual survey on America’s favorite “Unexpected Musician,” a personality not primarily known for playing a musical instrument, with a majority of 29%.

Since crooning a few lines of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” at a New York fundraising event in January, the president has captured America’s heart with his surprising talent. In an interview with Barbara Walters one month prior, he revealed that he deeply regrets not having learned a musical instrument in school.

Seasoned Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep (violin) tied with actor Robert Downey, Jr.(piano, vocals) for second-place, both securing 24% of votes, while funnyman Steve Carell came in fourth place (10%) for his flute-playing skills, over “The Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence (5%), who plays the guitar.

The National Association of Music Merchants created the Unexpected Musicians Database in 2010 in response to a Gallup Poll that found 85% of Americans who do not play a musical instrument wish they did in an effort to encourage aspiring musicians by helping them find further musical inspiration from celebrities they already admire.

The extensive list includes professional athletes, actors, politicians and more. From Julia Roberts’ skills on the clarinet to Clint Eastwood’s hidden piano talent, the detailed database offers fans the opportunity to find out just how talented their favorite celebrities really are, demonstrating that anyone can become a musician despite age, experience or profession. The Unexpected Musicians Database can be found at wannaplaymusic website.

This year, as part of NAMM’s National Wanna Play Music Week (May 7-13, 2012), the association commissioned a survey to learn which Unexpected Musicians Americans favor most. Key survey findings include:

• More women (28 %) than men (23 %) were excited to discover that President Obama is a vocalist, while 20 % of women and 27 % of men were excited to learn that Robert Downey, Jr. sings and plays the piano.
• Millennials were most excited to learn about President Obama’s (30 %) and Robert Downey, Jr.’s (30 %) musical talents.
• Meanwhile, survey-takers aged 65-plus were most excited to learn about Meryl Streep’s musical abilities, with 37 % voting for the actress. Streep was also the Baby Boomers’ celebrity of choice at 34 %.

The findings are the result of a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,000 adults ages 18 and over, living in the United States, conducted by KRC Research, April 19-22, 2012, on behalf of NAMM. The margin of error for this study is +3.1 % at the 95 % confidence level. The data was weighted by demographic variables to ensure the sample accurately reflects the U.S. adult population.

Image Courtesy of  cinemafestival / Shutterstock.com

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Bumblebee and honeybee populations have been declining quickly over the past couple of decades. This event has been dubbed the Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD. Beekeepers and researchers have been baffled, unable to determine what causes this sudden declination.

But just last week, researchers at the University of Stirling, UK and the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) conducted two separate studies that point to the culprit: commonly used pesticides, which have been proven to damage the bees’ central nervous systems and homing abilities (learning and memory skills for remember the paths to the plants) and affects the birth of queens for colony growth.

The decline is believed to have been caused specifically by neonitinoid insecticides (which is a class of chemicals), which have been used since the early 90s. The bees pick up the pesticide along with the pollen and transfer it to other plants and bring it home to their hives, making other bees susceptible to the poison.

“Some bumblebee species have declined hugely,” Dave Goulson of the University of Stirling in Stirling, U.K. says in the  AAAS news release. “For example in North America, several bumblebee species which used to be common have more or less disappeared from the entire continent. In the U.K., three species have gone extinct.”

The study at Stirling University worked with bumblebees, a couple colonies of which were exposed to low levels (low enough to not be fatal) of the chemical imidacloprid – which is found in many brands such as Gaucho, Conguard, and Xytect – while a couple more were not. The researchers weighed all of the hives separately to determine how much each would grow by the end of the experiment.

They placed the bumblebees in an enclosed space outdoors for six weeks so they could go about their business in natural conditions. It turned out the exposed colonies gained less weight. The hives were 8-12% smaller. The population decreased as wells the amount of honey/nectar. Also, these hives contained 85% fewer queens (2 queens compared to 14 produced by unexposed colonies) in comparison to the unexposed hives.

The researchers in Avignon, France worked with honeybees. They gave one colony nonlethal doses of thiamethoxam, another chemical found in pesticides. Next, they tagged honeybees with radio-frequency identification microchips to track them. Following the experiment, the researchers found out that the colonies with the infected bees were 2 to 3 times more likely to die than nonexposed colonies. The pesticides were believed to have greatly damaged the bees’ homing systems, reducing the amount of nectar brought the colonies.

The INRA researchers conducted a second study in which they produced a mathematical model of the dynamics of honeybee populations. When the failure of the homing abilities was incorporated, the model predicted honeybee colonies would be impossible to recover at a certain point.

In addition to the honeybees and bumblebees, all other kinds of bees pollinate major vegetable and fruit crops as well as flowers. Because of their waning populations, farms would face dilemmas for the lack of pollination, which would instigate a decrease in the development of crops.

“There are obviously big question marks as to whether the safety testing that was done on these was really adequate,” Goulson adds.

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On March 17th, NASA’s spacecraft MESSENGER revealed surprising details about Mercury’s interior and topography, changing astronomers’ understanding of the small planet and how it was formed.

MESSENGER (MErcury Space Surface ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) is the first spacecraft sent to orbit and study Mercury, which orbits the Sun a mere 36 million miles away. It’s the innermost and hottest planet in our solar system. MESSENGER was launched in August 2004. Before traveling to Mercury, it made a series of flybys around the Earth (once) and Venus (twice).

MESSENGER finally arrived at Mercury on March 18, 2011 and went around three times. Using radio signals, the spacecraft studied Mercury’s gravitational field, magnetic field, topography, internal geological structure, and chemical composition. Because the results of MESSENGER’S flybys around Mercury were so valuable, its mission was extended to last for another year in November 2011.

Mercury’s topography has changed many times since Mercury was fully formed, meaning that there has been a considerable amount of geological activity. For that reason, before studying any of the planet’s internal structure and history, MESSENGER first produced an accurate map of Mercury’s gravitational field using information derived from the planet’s topography and spin state.

Thereafter, two studies were conducted simultaneously, examining Mercury’s internal structure and geography. In one study, the researchers involved with MESSENGER discovered that the planet’s core was much larger than previously thought: it takes up 85 percent of the planet’s radius. Furthermore, it is liquid instead of solid. Previously, scientists assumed that Mercury would have been cooled enough by now for the core to be solid.

Above the core lies an unusual layer that is composed of solid sulphur and iron – a layer not found in the other rocky planets in the Solar System. The outer layers of the internal structure consist of a solid silicate crust and mantle. It is thought that inside the larger liquid core lies a smaller solid core composed of sulphur and iron.

The other study of Mercury’s topography produced other surprising discoveries. When MESSENGER’s Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) produced a topographic model of the northern hemisphere and areas in the mid-latitude range, researchers learned that the elevation spread is smaller than similar regions on the Moon and Mars. The area that sticks out the most is lowlands that contain the northern volcanic plains.

Moreover, according to the Carnegie Institute for Science’s press release,

“… the interior plains of Caloris impact basin — 1,550 kilometers (960 miles) in diameter — have been modified so that part of the basin floor now stands higher than the rim. The elevated portion appears to be part of a quasi-linear rise that extends for approximately half the planetary circumference at mid-latitudes. These features imply that large-scale changes to Mercury’s topography occurred after the era of impact basin formation and large-scale emplacement of volcanic plains had ended.”

This new knowledge of Mercury’s internal structure and topography gives insight as to how Mercury formed thermally and how the planet’s magnetic field is generated. Details of the findings of each study from MESSENGER’s mission will appear in two separate papers, which will appear on March 23 in the journal Science.

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A team of chemistry researchers in the United Kingdom has discovered a molecule that could potentially halt global warming and its effects by cleaning the atmosphere of pollutants and producing clouds.

In the 1950s, German chemist Rudolph Criegee postulated the existence of these molecules, which are known as the Criegee biradicals or Criegee intermediates. Criegee biradicals were confirmed only recently because the means to observe had not been developed until now. They are extremely reactive and elusive: once they form, they immediately bond with other chemicals.

The researchers, from the Universities of Manchester and Bristol and the Sandia National Laboratories, accidentally detected the molecule while performing an experiment with a synchrotron, which used light from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Advanced Light Source.

The intense light allowed the researchers to discern the Criegee biradicals’ formation and eliminate those of similarly arranged molecules. Upon detecting them, the team further observed the Criegee biradicals reacting in atmospheric conditions in the synchrotron. They learned that the molecules formed rapidly – faster than imagined – and accelerated in formation when in the presence of pollutants.

“Criegee radicals have been impossible to measure until this work carried out at the Advanced Light Source,” says Dr. Carl Percival, Reader in Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Manchester and co-author of the team’s paper, in the University of Manchester’s media release. “We have been able to quantify how fast Criegee radicals react for the first time.”

Criegee biradicals oxidize pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide into nitrates and sulfates. These compounds initiate the development of aerosols, tiny particles that deflect solar radiation into space. Aerosol formation ultimately leads to cloud formation, which cools the Earth by blocking sunlight.

These reactions can occur anytime. According to Dr. Percival, “The main source of these Criegee biradicals does not depend on sunlight and so these processes take place throughout the day and night.”

“But the fact is that these [intermediates] haven’t been studied before,” George Marston tells LiveScience.com, “so it’s difficult to know what you would really expect.” Marston, who did not partake in the research, is a chemist at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.

The Criegee biradicals have not yet been observed in action in the atmosphere, so the idea of the molecules controlling the Earth’s climate remains hypothetical. Initiating the formation of Criegee biradicals and controlling their reactions at such a large scale would be a difficult task for scientists to undertake.

Furthermore, the geoengingeering project may backfire; the atmosphere is still complex and not well understood. ”This is very much the beginning of a much more extensive systematic study,” Marston adds.

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Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) announced that its efforts to secure continued increases in federal research funding for lung cancer achieved another victory as an additional $10.2 million was included in the Department of Defense (DOD) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) which was part of the FY2012 budget compromise worked out late last night by the House and Senate.

This $1 trillion omnibus spending package includes nine appropriations measures which establish budgets for hundreds of programs across ten Cabinet agencies including the Department of Defense. The President is expected to sign the bill.

The $10.2 million in DOD research funding is in addition to $47.8 million secured to date by LCA since it first established the DOD lung cancer research pipeline three years ago which  targets research for early detection with special emphasis on high risk military bringing the total appropriated to date to $58 million.

“We are proud to share that our advocacy work to date has secured $58 million for lung cancer research funding via this new program,” said Laurie Fenton-Ambrose, President and CEO of LCA.  “Increasing the federal research pipeline for lung cancer has been – and will continue to be – LCA’s core mission.”

The omnibus spending package also includes a $30.7 billion increase in funding for research programs including lung cancer research within the National Institutes of Health – an increase strongly advocated for by LCA.

“Even in times of tight fiscal restraint,” continued Fenton-Ambrose, “we will continue these efforts for patients and survivors as well as our research community because it is essential and critical life-saving work. I thank our congressional leadership for continuing support for this program.”

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among men and women and every ethnic group and among our military who are at an increased risk in comparison to their civilian counterparts. Lung cancer has a 15% 5-year survival rate with the vast majority of cases found late stage.  In addition, nearly 80% of those diagnosed with lung cancer today are former or non-smokers.

Military personnel have a higher exposure to lung cancer carcinogens and thus are more susceptible than the general public. The FY2012 language calls for continued research focus on screening and early disease management, especially among high risk military. For more information go to www.lungcanceralliance.org.

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An exchange between two robots, facilitated by Cornell University researchers, resulted in a “bizarre and ill-tempered discussion” about god and philosophy. The two researchers,  Jason Yosinski and Igor Labutov, created a system in order to observe how ‘chatbots’ – online programs designed to hold conversations with humans – would fair when speaking with another computer instead of a human.

Labutov and Yosinkski created two avatars with voices – a British man that they named Alan and an Asian woman called Sruthi, Mail Online said. According to Mail Online, the conversation turned “sour” when Struthi asked Alan whether or not he believed in God. Alan replied, “It’s not everything.” This response angered Sruthi.

“Not everything could also be something, for example not everything could be half of something, which is still something and therefore not nothing,” Sruthi said. Another highlight of the conversation involved Alan referring to himself as a unicorn and calling Sruthi a “meanie.”

According to The Telegraph, machines like chatbots were designed to have the conversational abilities of humans, typically in an attempt to pass the Turing Test for intelligence. Alan Turing proposed the Turing Test in his 1950 research paper. The test was meant to measure how smart a computer was.

If, through conversation, the computer was capable of fooling a human into thinking they were human and not a machine, the computer could rightfully be deemed intelligent, Turning said. Different from the Turning Test, Yosinki and Labutov were less interested in seeing how computers mirrored the behavior of humans and more interested in observing an authentic computer-and-computer interaction, according to Mail Online.

The concept of a computer being able to speak is nothing new. Since coming online in 1997, Cleverbot, a web application, has engaged in about 65 million conversations with internet users around the world. People are able and encouraged to come to the site and chat with the cleverbots for one’s entertainment, for free.

According to msnBC, just like a human learning appropriate behavior by studying the actions of members of his or her social group, machines “learn” from dialogues with people. They are capable of storing the new knowledge they gain from each interaction and computers are able to refer to it the information during future conversations.

The unusual exchange between Alan and Sruthi will likely inform researchers that computers need more training before being able to speak logically to each other. But, regardless of how the experiment advances Cornell’s research efforts, the robot video was a major hit on YouTube.

With more than 2,000,000 views, comments posted beneath the video prove, if nothing else, that computer conversations are entertaining. “I could listen to this all day!” Jesseinpain posted. JoeyShambrook goes as far as to call the video, “epic.”

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