Dust Storms In Sahara Sustain Life In Atlantic

Scientists mapped the distribution of nutrients including phosphorous and nitrogen and investigated how organisms such as phytoplankton are sustained in areas with low nutrient levels.

They found that plants are able to grow in these regions because they are able to take advantage of iron minerals in Saharan dust storms. This allows them to use organic or ‘recycled’ material from dead or decaying plants when nutrients such as phosphorous – an essential component of DNA – in the ocean are low.

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Democracies with separation of powers less likely to stop using torture

As repugnant as torture is, the fact is most countries -- even those with democratic governments -- do it. FSU political science professor Will Moore and graduate student Courtenay Ryals wanted to find out what makes governments stop doing it. They presented their study, "What Stops the Torture?" at a recent meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association.

The researchers were not surprised to learn that governments in which the citizens have a right to vote and freedom of expression are more likely to stop using torture. But it was another finding that, at first glance, seems to fly in the face of common sense: A system of checks and balances, an important dimension of liberal democracy, lessened the likelihood that a country terminated its use of torture.

Why? Because a separation of power often means it is harder to effect change.

"Checks on executive authorities are viewed as a positive attribute of liberal democracies," Moore said. "Unfortunately, they are also associated with the continuation of the status quo. So this liberal democratic institution that at first pass one might expect to be positively associated with the termination of the use of torture is actually a hurdle to be overcome."

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DEFINITION: Cosmic Rays

Cosmic rays are energetic particles originating from space that impinge on Earth's atmosphere. Almost 90% of all the incoming cosmic ray particles are protons, about 9% are helium nuclei (alpha particles) and about 1% are electrons (beta minus particles). The term "ray" is a misnomer, as cosmic particles arrive individually, not in the form of a ray or beam of particles.

The variety of particle energies reflects the wide variety of sources. The origins of these particles range from energetic processes on the Sun all the way to as yet unknown events in the farthest reaches of the visible universe. Cosmic rays can have energies of over 10²⁰ eV, far higher than the 10¹² to 10¹³ eV that man-made particle accelerators can produce.

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Understanding Hearing, Molecule By Molecule

Berkeley Lab scientists have for the first time pieced together the three-dimensional structure of one of nature’s most exquisite pieces of machinery, a gossamer-like filament of proteins in the inner ear that enables the sense of hearing and balance.

The filaments help transform the mechanical vibrations of sound into electrical signals that can be interpreted by the brain. They are only four nanometers wide and 160 nanometers long (one nanometer is one-billionth of a meter), but if enough of them break, the world becomes silent.

The work opens the door for a more fundamental understanding of how hearing works. It may also lead to improved ways to treat some forms of hearing loss, which affects about ten percent of people.

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New 'Window' Opens On Solar Energy

Imagine windows that not only provide a clear view and illuminate rooms, but also use sunlight to efficiently help power the building they are part of. MIT engineers report a new approach to harnessing the sun's energy that could allow just that. The work, reported in the July 11 issue of Science, involves the creation of a novel "solar concentrator." "Light is collected over a large area [like a window] and gathered, or concentrated, at the edges," explains Marc A. Baldo.

As a result, rather than covering a roof with expensive solar cells (the semiconductor devices that transform sunlight into electricity), the cells only need to be around the edges of a flat glass panel. In addition, the focused light increases the electrical power obtained from each solar cell "by a factor of over 40," Baldo says.

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First DNA Molecule Made Of Artificial Parts

Chemists in Japan report development of the world's first DNA molecule made almost entirely of artificial parts. The finding could lead to improvements in gene therapy, futuristic nano-sized computers, and other high-tech advances, they say.

The researchers used high-tech DNA synthesis equipment to stitch together four entirely new, artificial bases inside the sugar-based framework of a DNA molecule. This resulted in unusually stable, double-stranded structures resembling natural DNA.

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New Mercury Images Show Volcanoes, Magnetic Field, More

Mercury is full of volcanoes and other surprises, reveals initial data from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft—the first to conduct an in-depth investigation of the solar system's smallest planet in more than 30 years. MESSENGER—which stands for Mercury Surface, Space Environment, GEochemistry, and Ranging—is Earth's second envoy to Mercury, after the Mariner 10 mission that launched in 1973.

In January MESSENGER made its first of three flybys planned before 2011, when the spacecraft settles into orbit around the enigmatic planet. During the pass, MESSENGER snapped more than 1,200 images of Mercury's scorched sunlit side, including 21 percent of the surface Mariner 10 never saw.

The images reveal a dynamic surface pockmarked by craters and volcanoes. They also shed more light on Mercury's magnetic field, which mirrors Earth's on a tiny scale.

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'Rubber Snake' wave generators

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New Antibiotic Beats Superbugs At Their Own Game

The problem with antibiotics is that, eventually, bacteria outsmart them and become resistant. But by targeting the gene that confers such resistance, a new drug may be able to finally outwit them.

Rockefeller University scientists tested the new drug, called Ceftobiprole, against some of the deadliest strains of multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria, which are responsible for the great majority of staphylococcal infections worldwide, both in hospitals and in the community.

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Alcohol-outlet density and violence are clearly linked over time

While previous studies have confirmed a relationship between alcohol-outlet density and violence, few have looked at what happens within a suburb as outlet density changes. An Australian study examined this relationship over time … finding that increasing the density of all kinds of alcohol outlets in a suburb leads to increasing rates of violence in that suburb.

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