| How Sunlight Controls Climate Small changes in the sun's brightness can have big impacts on our planet's weather and climate. And now scientists have detailed how that process might work, according to a new study published August 28 in Science . [More] rss.sciam.com |
Sewage Industry Fights Phosphorus Pollution Tucked away in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, three massive metal cones could help address the world’s dwindling supply of phosphorus, the crucial ingredient of fertilizers that has made modern agriculture possible. The cones make consistently high-quality, slow-release fertilizer pellets from phosphorus recovered at the Durham Advance Wastewater Treatment Facility, less than 10 miles from downtown Portland. By generating about one ton of pellets every day, they are changing the view that such recycling could not be done efficiently. Ostara, the firm that makes the reactors and sells the pellets as Crystal Green, thinks that Durham is one of hundreds of facilities that could use the technology.Humans excrete some 3.3 million tons of phosphorus annually. In fact, phosphorus from domestic sewage, in addition to fertilizer runoff, has traditionally been a nuisance, because it triggers blooms of algae that deplete local waters of oxygen. In some wastewater plants the element can also bind with ammonia and magnesium to form a mineral called struvite, which keeps phosphorus out of waterways but clogs pipes at the facilities. The growing recognition that cheap supplies of phosphorus will grow scarce in the coming decades has led some nations to consider conservation. Sweden has mandated that 60 percent of phosphate be recycled from wastewater by 2015. In 2008 China slapped a 135 percent export tariff on phosphate. [More] rss.sciam.com |
How a Lack of Control Leads to Superstition Imagine a time in your life when you felt out of control--anything from getting lost to losing a job. Now look at the top illustration on this page. What do you see? Such a scenario was presented to subjects in a 2008 experiment by Jennifer Whitson of the University of Texas at Austin and her colleague Adam Galinsky of Northwestern University. Their study, entitled “Lacking Control Increases Illusory Pattern Perception,” was published in Science .Defining “illusory pattern perception” (what I call “patternicity”) as “the identification of a coherent and meaningful interrelationship among a set of random or unrelated stimuli ... (such as the tendency to perceive false correlations, see imaginary figures, form superstitious rituals, and embrace conspiracy beliefs, among others),” the researchers’ thesis was that “when individuals are unable to gain a sense of control objectively, they will try to gain it perceptually.” As Whitson explained the psychology to me, “Feelings of control are essential for our well-being--we think clearer and make better decisions when we feel we are in control. Lacking control is highly aversive, so we instinctive­ly seek out patterns to regain control--even if those patterns are illusory.” [More] rss.sciam.com |
Rare flowers and common herbal supplements get unmasked with plant DNA barcoding NEW YORK--Will exotic orchids soon be subjected to the same genetic scrutiny as some luxury caviars? That is just one of the coding conundrums that scientists convened at the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx to discuss on a cloudy mid-April afternoon. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Flight of the Squid Marine biologist Silvia Maciá was boating on the north coast of Jamaica in the summer of 2001 when she noticed something soar out of the sea. At first she thought it was a fish. After tracing the creature’s graceful arc for a few seconds, Maciá realized it was a squid--and it was flying.The sighting led Maciá, who teaches at Barry University in Florida, to co-author one of the first studies on squid aeronautics in 2004. She and her colleagues noted that squid as small as 20 centimeters could launch themselves as high as two meters above the water and propel themselves, actively flapping their fins and spiraling their tentacles, for a distance as great as 10 meters. The paper collected sightings of at least six distinct squid species squirting themselves as high as three meters over the waves using jet propulsion, the process of taking in and forcing out liquid to generate thrust. Sometimes the squid flew solo, sometimes in packs, sometimes with enough force to match the speed of boats. [More] Squid - Jamaica - Tentacle - Water - Species rss.sciam.com |