NEW CANCER SUPERFOODS

The vegetables are thought to be rich in compounds that protect against damage to DNA. But the same study showed other fruits and vegetables did not have the same impact.

Cancer charities said last night that the study carried one vital message: “Men should be eating up their vegetables.”
Cauliflower and broccoli have long been thought to have a protective effect against the disease but this is the first study to show they are particularly good at preventing its deadliest form.

UK scientists develop new fingerprinting technique

LONDON, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- British scientists have developed a new fingerprinting technique that could potentially detect the diet, race and sex of a suspected criminal.

    A research team, led by Sergei Kazarian from Imperial College London's Department of Chemical Engineering, has devised the technique which collects fingerprints along with their chemical residue and keeps them intact for future reference, according to a report Thursday on the science news website of AlphaGalileo.

    The scientists found that the use of gel tapes -- commercial gelatine based tape -- provides a simple method for collection and transportation of prints for chemical imaging analysis.

    The prints, once lifted, are analyzed in a spectroscopic microscope. The sample is irradiated with infrared rays to identify individual molecules within the print to give a detailed chemical composition.

    The information is then processed by an infrared array detector, originally developed by the U.S. military in smart missile technology, which chemically maps the residue.

    This process builds up a picture, or chemical photograph, and allows for the most comprehensive information obtained from a fingerprint.

    "The combined operational advantages and benefits for forensic scientists of tape lifting prints and spectroscopic imaging really maximize the amount of information one can obtain from fingerprints. Our trials show that this technique could play a significant role in the fight against crime," Kazarian was quoted as saying.

    The information, in many cases, is enough to determine valuable clues about a person beyond the fingerprint itself, it could potentially identify traces of items people came in contact with, such as gunpowder, narcotics and biological or chemical weapons, according to the scientists.

    Chemical clues could also highlight specific traits in a personas a strong trace of urea, a chemical found in urine, could indicate a male, and weak traces of urea in a chemical sample could indicate a female. And specific amino acids could potentially indicate whether the suspect was a vegetarian or meat-eater.

    Kazarian speculated about the possible future benefits of this process, saying in the courtroom of the near future, chemical images could feature as key evidence.

    He expressed the hope that their work could assist law enforcement authorities to bring dangerous criminals to justice.

An international team of American and Chinese paleontologists has discovered a new species of mammal that lived 125 million years ago during the Mesozoic Era, in what is now the Hebei Province in China.

The new mammal, documented in the March 15 issue of the journal Nature, provides first-hand evidence of early evolution of the mammalian middle ear--one of the most important features for all modern mammals. The discovery was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

"This early mammalian ear from China is a rosetta-stone type of discovery which reinforces the idea that development of complex body parts can be explained by evolution, using exquisitely preserved fossils," said H. Richard Lane, program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences, which co-funded the discovery with NSF's Division of Environmental Biology and its Assembling the Tree of Life (AToL) program.

Named Yanoconodon allini after the Yan Mountains in Hebei, the fossil was unearthed in the fossil-rich beds of the Yixian Formation and is the first Mesozoic mammal recovered from Hebei. The fossil site is about 300 kilometers outside of Beijing.

The researchers discovered that the skull of Yanoconodon revealed a middle ear structure that is an intermediate step between those of modern mammals and those of near relatives of mammals, also known as mammaliaforms.

"This new fossil offers a rare insight in the evolutionary origin of the mammalian ear structure," said Zhe-Xi Luo, a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) in Pittsburgh, Pa. "Evolution of the ear is important for understanding the origins of key mammalian adaptations."

Mammals have highly sensitive hearing, far better than the hearing capacity of all other vertebrates, scientists have found. Consequently, paleontologists and evolutionary biologists have been searching for more than a century for clues to the evolutionary origins of mammal ear structure.

Mammalian hearing adaptation is made possible by a sophisticated middle ear of three tiny bones, known as the hammer (malleus), the anvil (incus) and the stirrup (stapes), plus a bony ring for the eardrum (tympanic membrane).

The mammal middle ear bones evolved from the bones of the jaw hinge in their reptilian relatives. However, paleontologists long have attempted to understand the evolutionary pathway via which these precursor jaw bones became separated from the jaw and moved into the middle ear of modern mammals.

"Now we have a definitive piece of evidence, in a beautifully preserved fossil split on two rock slabs," said Luo. "Yanoconodon clearly shows an intermediate condition in the evolutionary process of how modern mammals acquired their middle ear structure."

Yanoconodon is about 5 inches (or 15 cm) long and estimated to weigh about 30 grams. Its teeth are notable for the three cusps in a straight line on molars (thus known as a triconodont) for feeding on insects and worms. It has a long body, short and sprawling limbs and claws that were ideal for either digging or living on the ground.

In addition to its unique ear structure, Yanoconodon also has a surprisingly high number of 26 thoracic ("chest") and lumbar ("waist") vertebrae, unlike most living and extinct terrestrial mammals that commonly have 19 or 20 thoracic and lumbar vertebrae. The extra vertebrae give Yanoconodon a more elongated body form, in contrast to its relatively shorter and very primitive limb and foot structures. The new mammal also has lumbar ribs, a rare feature among modern mammals.

"The discoveries of exquisitely preserved Mesozoic mammals from China have built the evidence such that biologists and paleontologists are able to make sense of how developmental mechanisms have impacted the morphological evolution of the earliest mammals," said Luo.

The article is authored by Luo and his collaborators, Peiji Chen and Gang Li of Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, China, and graduate student Meng Chen of Nanjing University.

The researchers also received support from the National Natural Science Foundation (China), Ministry of Science and Technology (China), and National Geographic Society.

Image right: AIRS map of carbon monoxide. Image credit: NASA/JPL
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+ Animation - Global view of carbon dioxide (Quicktime - 10Mb)

A key contributor to this new generation of climate change research tools is the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, or AIRS, instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft. Developed under the direction of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., AIRS measures the key atmospheric gases affecting climate. It's the first in a series of planned advanced infrared sounders that provide accurate, detailed atmospheric measurements for weather and climate applications. Its observations complement existing sensors from NASA and other organizations by providing broad global coverage day and night, even in the presence of clouds.

Newly released AIRS measurements include better temperature and water vapor profiles; profiles of carbon monoxide, methane and ozone; and warning 'flags' to identify concentrations of sulfur dioxide and dust.

"These new data will significantly improve our ability to observe and characterize today's climate with greater accuracy, which is key to increasing our confidence in climate prediction models," said Moustafa Chahine, AIRS science team leader at JPL. "With its nearly 2,400 separate frequency channels sensing different regions of the atmosphere, AIRS creates a global, 3-D map of atmospheric temperature, water vapor, clouds and greenhouse gases with the same accuracy currently possible only through direct measurements by sensors on weather balloons." AIRS provides these measurements continuously, all over the globe, including over Earth's vast oceans, where weather balloon data are extremely limited.

Highlights of the new AIRS measurements include:

- Ozone

AIRS provides a global daily 3-D view of Earth's ozone layer, showing how ozone is transported. This is critical to identify events and places at risk of high solar ultraviolet exposure, which affects the health of humans and other living things. The new AIRS infrared imaging gives scientists the best view of the Antarctic region during the polar winter. It also allows scientists to image the transport of stratospheric ozone into Earth's lowermost atmospheric layer, the troposphere, with broader coverage.

- Carbon monoxide

Carbon monoxide emissions from the burning of plant materials and animal waste by humans in rainforests and large cities can be seen from space using data from the new AIRS measurements. AIRS sees giant plumes of gas being transported across the planet from these large burns. AIRS provides better global coverage than prior instruments, allowing scientists to better monitor pollution transport patterns. See: http://airs.jpl.nasa.gov/News/Features/Features20060403/

- Methane

Image left: Sulfur dioxide plume from Mt. Etna eruption, 2002, as detected with AIRS data. Image credit: NASA/JPL
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Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas on a per molecule basis than carbon dioxide and is responsible for five to 10 percent of the greenhouse effect -- the warming of Earth's atmosphere that occurs when radiation from the sun is trapped in Earth's atmosphere by gases. The first released AIRS methane product has not yet been validated, but will allow scientists to assess its value among the few other sources of global data on methane. Eventually, AIRS data will allow scientists to monitor the global distribution and transport of methane and to address key questions about how this gas affects our climate.

- Sulfur dioxide

Volcanoes emit large quantities of sulfur dioxide. AIRS tracks both ash and emitted sulfur dioxide plumes. AIRS provides global, daily coverage of sulfur dioxide day and night to complement other sensors with more sensitivity. AIRS data are currently being used to alert the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Volcanic Ash Advisory Center in Washington of volcanic events in remote areas. AIRS data also help the airline industry fly safely and avoid costly damage to flight systems from volcanic emissions. The new AIRS measurements include a warning 'flag' to identify locations where volcanic events are occurring.

- Dust and Aerosols

AIRS measures dust and aerosols using infrared, or heat-seeking, detectors. Not only does this allow dust to be viewed day and night, but it also helps us better understand the role dust plays in maintaining Earth's thermal energy balance. Dust storms can affect atmospheric chemistry and rainfall patterns, and can transport micronutrients and microorganisms. Changes in land use such as deforestation or overgrazing have contributed to more frequent dust storms worldwide. AIRS provides a global daily view of the infrared properties of dust, monitoring its transport and distinguishing between different types of dust. The new AIRS measurements include a dust warning 'flag' to allow scientists to identify regions of high-dust concentration, worthy of more detailed examination.

- Real-Time Data for Weather Forecasters

AIRS' contributions to the field of weather forecasting have already been considerable. Weather forecasting centers around the world, using less than one percent of available AIRS data, have extended reliable mid-range weather forecasts by more than six hours. These centers have also demonstrated that AIRS can improve forecasts of the location and magnitude of predicted storms. The improved AIRS temperature and water vapor profiles are now available in real time to regional weather forecasters, giving them another source of daily weather measurements for the entire Pacific Ocean, once in the morning and once in the evening.
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