1. Skeptics Find Fault With U.N. Climate Panel  permalink

Skeptics Find Fault With U.N. Climate Panel
ELISABETH ROSENTHAL / NYT

Rajendra K. Pachauri and the U.N. panel he leads face accusations of scientific sloppiness and conflicts of interest.

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Tim Haab / Environmental Economics
Is climate change skepticism good for climate science?   —  First, a blurb from the Globe and Mail (which I know nothing about and for all I know could be a right-wing nutjob tabloid, or a left-wing wingnut tabloid for that matter, but in this case makes a relevant point): Until now, anyone who questioned the credibility of the IPCC...

2. U.S. wants Iran sanctions in weeks; embassies attacked  permalink

U.S. wants Iran sanctions in weeks; embassies attacked
Reuters

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Tuesday that the United States wanted a U.N. Security Council resolution "within weeks" to tackle Iran's nuclear program as Iran said it had begun making higher-grade nuclear fuel.

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Christian Science Monitor
U.S. wants Iran sanctions in weeks; embassies attacked On eve of Iran anniversary, talk of compromise   —  Opposition protesters are ready to rally when Iran's Islamic republic celebrates its 31st birthday on Thursday. Observers say both sides may be prepared to compromise after eight months of unrest. 

Christian Science Monitor
Iran nuclear program takes another step up escalation ladder   —  Iran announced its intentions Monday to begin processing its uranium stockpile to a higher level of enrichment. Nuclear energy experts say the country is taking yet another step toward producing a nuclear weapon, though a bomb is still years away.

3. Ukraine's Tymoshenko girds to contest result  permalink

Ukraine's Tymoshenko girds to contest result
Reuters

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko launched action on Tuesday to call rival Viktor Yanukovich's election into question, ignoring international endorsement of the poll and threatening a lengthy legal battle.

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Christian Science Monitor
Ukraine tense as Tymoshenko moves to contest vote   —  Yulia Tymoshenko was refusing to concede her narrow defeat by Viktor Yanukovich in Sunday's Ukraine elections. Many say it's doubtful she can prove violations of fraud in the brief period allowed for court challenges.

Christian Science Monitor
Ukraine election result -- a balancing act   —  The likely presidential winner, Viktor Yanukovich, was once the villain of the 'Orange Revolution.' He needs to bridge deep divisions at home and abroad -- and revive a badly beaten economy.

4. From Eternity to Book Club: Chapters Four and Five  permalink

From Eternity to Book Club: Chapters Four and Five
Blogs.discovermagazine.com

Welcome to this week’s installment of the From Eternity to Here book club. This week we’re tackling two chapters at once: Chapter Four, “Time is Personal,” and Chapter Five, “Time is Flexible.” That’s just because these chapters are relatively short; next time we’ll return to one chapter per week.

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Climatewatch / ClimateScienceWatch
Climate Progress interviews Christopher Field and Michael MacCracken on climate change reality   —  Chris Field, co-chair of the next IPCC assessment of climate change impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability, and Mike MacCracken of the Climate Institute were interviewed February 3 on human-driven climate change and its potential impacts and responded to global warming “skeptics”. In talking about how we know humans are changing the climate ...

5. Top 10 areas where open source leads the way  permalink

Top 10 areas where open source leads the way
Www.itpro.co.uk

With job losses rising and belts being tightened across the country, now is the perfect time to look once again at the benefits of using open source software aside from the reported $60 billion a year savings on offer.

discussions

6. "Unrecognised" ice fault caused BA airport crash  permalink

Uk.reuters.com

LONDON (Reuters) - An ice-related technical fault which caused a Boeing 777 to crash-land on the perimeter of Heathrow Airport two years ago was "unrecognised" by aircraft safety procedures at the time, an accident report said on Tuesday.

discussions

7. Signs of Water Found On Saturnian Moon Enceladus  permalink

Signs of Water Found On Saturnian Moon Enceladus
Soulskill / Slashdot

Matt_dk writes "Scientists working on the Cassini space mission have found negatively charged water ions in the ice plume of Enceladus. Their findings, based on analysis from data taken in plume fly-throughs in 2008 and reported in the journal Icarus, provide evidence for the presence of liquid water, which suggests the ingredients for life ...

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Spacefellowship.com
Signs of Water Found On Saturnian Moon Enceladus Signs of liquid water in Saturnian moon   —  (STFC) – Scientists working on the Cassini space mission have found negatively charged water ions in the ice plume of Enceladus. Their findings, based on analysis from data taken in plume fly-throughs in 2008 and reported in the journal Icarus, provide evidence for the presence of liquid water, which suggests the ingredients for life inside ...

Discovery News
Signs of Water Found On Saturnian Moon Enceladus Evidence of Liquid Water on Saturn's Moon Enceladus   —  Enceladus' icy plumes glow as the small moon passes in front of the sun from Cassini's point of view in 2007 (NASA) Saturn's moon Enceladus contains a large body of water under its surface, new research has confirmed. This has ...

8. Stem Cell Vaccination Versus Cancer  permalink

Longevitymeme / Longevity Meme News and Commentary

An unexpected potential use for embryonic stem (ES) cells : "One of the most auspicious, yet challenging, avenues for combating malignancies is to enlist the immune system to come to the defense of the patient. However, myriad components of the immune system interact in extraordinarily complex ways with active or dormant neoplastic cells , an ...

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Mnt.to
Stem Cell Vaccination Versus Cancer Singapore Scientists Identify Gene That Improves Quality Of Reprogrammed Stem Cells   —  In the 7 Feb. 2010 issue of the journal Nature, scientists at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), report that a genetic molecule, called Tbx3, which is crucial for many aspects of early developmental processes in mammals, significantly improves the quality of stem cells that have been reprogrammed from differentiated cells.

Nature Publishing Group / NatureNews
Stem Cell Vaccination Versus Cancer Testing time for stem cells   —  A deal between Roche and two academic institutions will focus on stem-cell-based drug screening.Roche The drug industry is keener on stem-cell technologies than ever before — and not just as a source of new treatments. A wave of new partnerships aims to use stem cells as a way to screen other potential drug candidates.

9. Space Shuttle Spy Gets 15 Years  permalink

Space Shuttle Spy Gets 15 Years
Soulskill / Slashdot

GoG writes "A Chinese-born engineer was sentenced Monday to more than 15 years in prison for hoarding sensitive information about the US space shuttle with the intent of giving it to China. US District Judge Cormac Carney called Chung's crimes a matter of national security, saying he had committed a breach against the trust Boeing and the country ...

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USATODAY.com Science and Space
Space Shuttle Spy Gets 15 Years Space shuttle blasts off on last night flight   —  Space shuttle Endeavour is rocketing toward the space station on one of the shuttle program's last scheduled missions.

CmdrTaco / Slashdot
Space Shuttle Spy Gets 15 Years Shuttle Endeavour Blasts Off For Space Station   —  Gwmaw writes "The space shuttle Endeavour bolted off its seaside launch pad on Monday on a voyage to install the last two main pieces of the International Space Station. The 4:14 a.m. EST (0914 GMT) blastoff from the Kennedy Space Center shattered the predawn tranquility with a deafening roar and a brilliant tower of flames that momentarily ...

10. Google Upgrading G-Mail to Challenge Facebook  permalink

Michael Hickerson / Slice of SciFi

G-mail is going social. In an attempt to challenge Facebook’s social network dominance, Google announced that it will offer a new version of g-mail that incorporates more social networking functions.  Included in the upgrade will be the incorporation of photos and videos as well as the ability to update your status. Google will hold a ...

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Ryan Singel / Wired Top Stories
Google Upgrading G-Mail to Challenge Facebook Google Making Gmail Into a Communications Hub   —  Google is set to turn Gmail into a communications dashboard with rolling status updates. It's a bid to keep up with Facebook and make Gmail the place users turn to when they want to send messages, no matter what the medium.

CNN.com
Google Upgrading G-Mail to Challenge Facebook Google making dive into social media?   —  Google is expected to plunge into the world of Facebook and Twitter, using its popular Gmail service to allow users to post status updates and items.

11. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture  permalink

Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture
Dx.doi.org

*Correspondence to Charles W Bamforth, Department of Food Science & Technology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616-8598, USA.

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Adventures in Ethics and Science
Beer is a rich source of silicon and may help prevent osteoporosis #scio10 aftermath: some thoughts on "Science and Entertainment: Beyond Blogging".   —  Here are some of the thoughts and questions that stayed with me from this session. (Here are my tweets from the session and the session's wiki page .) This was sort of an odd session for me -- not so much because of the topics taken up by session leaders Tamara Krinsky and Jennifer Ouellette , but because of my own sense of ambivalence about a ...

Jean-Claude Bradley / Useful Chemistry
Beer is a rich source of silicon and may help prevent osteoporosis Funding Agencies and Open Science   —  I've been invited to participate in a panel discussion on " New tools in research, teaching, and publishing " on May 24, 2010 at the annual PI meeting for the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship ( IGERT ) program at NSF. After speaking with program manager Vikram Jaswal , I feel encouraged that funding agencies are interested ...

12. UAB research warns of risks of low potassium in heart failure patients with chronic kidney disease  permalink

BJS / Science Blog

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.- -- New research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) says low potassium levels produce an increased risk of death or hospitalization in patients with heart failure and...

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Www3.interscience.wiley.com
UAB research warns of risks of low potassium in heart failure patients with chronic kidney disease Independent and dependent contributions of advanced maternal and paternal ages to autism risk   —  2Department of Pediatrics and the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research, University of California, Davis

TIME.com
Cancer Patients at Greater Risk of Suicide, Heart Attack   —  Getting a cancer diagnosis is a stressful and shocking experience. But is it stressful enough to increase a patient's risk of suicide and heart attack?

13. AU School of Communication Teams with PBS Frontline to Examine The Safety of Regional Air Carriers  permalink

AU School of Communication Teams with PBS Frontline to Examine The Safety of Regional Air Carriers
Framing Science

Tonight, PBS Frontline airs " Flying Cheap ," a co-production with American University's Investigative Reporting Workshop . Above is an excerpt from the Frontline report and below is a description. The production has also received strong advance reviews from the New York Times and Washington Post . One year after the deadly airline crash of ...

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Framing Science
AU School of Communication Teams with PBS Frontline to Examine The Safety of Regional Air Carriers AU Forum and Report on The Climate Change Generation: Youth, Media, and Politics in an Unsustainable World   —  UPDATE: Due to the weather, the Forum is postponed until the end of February or early March. When a date is finalized, I will post details. Tuesday night at 7pm, American University's School of Communication will be hosting a panel discussion focused on " The Climate Change Generation: Youth, Media, and Politics in an Unsustainable World ." [ ...

Www.washingtonpost.com
'Flying Cheap': Buckle up, indeed   —  Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or ...

14. UB geographers help map devastation in Haiti  permalink

BJS / Science Blog

BUFFALO, N.Y.-- In the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, University at Buffalo geography students are participating in a global effort to enhance the international response and recovery effort by...

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Nathan Hodge / Wired Top Stories
UB geographers help map devastation in Haiti Rewiring Haiti: Patience Wears Thin in Port-au-Prince   —  PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI — With the disaster-relief phase ending, the streets of Port-au-Prince are now crowded with the white SUVs of international aid and development agencies shuttling purposefully around town. But while the focus may have shifted to rebuilding Haiti, rising unrest over aid and food distribution could sideline efforts to begin ...

Christian Science Monitor
New Orleans at the ready to help Haiti rebuild   —  Five years after Katrina devastated their city, New Orleanians are putting their knowledge and experience to use in Haiti.

15. Apple's Aperture 3 adds face recognition, GPS  permalink

Apple's Aperture 3 adds face recognition, GPS
News.cnet.com

Apple released on Tuesday the next generation of its professional photography workflow software, Aperture 3. Among more than 200 new features is the addition of face recognition and GPS location for photos.

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John C Abell / Wired Top Stories
Apple's Aperture 3 adds face recognition, GPS Apple Store Is Back Online. Little To See Here.   —  The Apple Store was down this morning. And since this is Apple, one of the high-tech universe's favorite parlor games began: What's really going on?! As it turns out, not much, unless you're in the market for some new photo editing and organization software.

CNN.com
Apple's Aperture 3 adds face recognition, GPS New Apple product is ... Aperture 3   —  Apple on Tuesday unveiled Aperture 3, the latest update of its photo editing and management software.

16. Built-in amps: How subtle head motions, quiet sounds are reported to the brain  permalink

PhysOrg Team / PhysOrg.com

Subtle head motions are amplified by inner-ear hair cells before the signal is reported to the brain, report Marine Biological Laboratory scientists and colleagues. In both the auditory and the vestibular systems, hair cell response is nonlinear: the lower the strength of the stimulus, the more the hair cell amplifies the signal.

17. New magnetic tuning method enhances data storage  permalink

New magnetic tuning method enhances data storage
PhysOrg Team / PhysOrg.com

Researchers in Chicago and London have developed a method for controlling the properties of magnets that could be used to improve the storage capacity of next-generation computer hard drives.

18. In case you missed it  permalink

In case you missed it
Tim Haab / Environmental Economics

Watch Green Police Audi Super Bowl Ad in Autos & Vehicles | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com Let's see if you can get the song out of your head the rest of the day.

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Discovery News
Spaced-Out Super Bowl Ads 2010   —  The Super Bowl is over, the Saints won, but most importantly, were the commercials any good? (Is it me, or is Danica Patrick wearing less and less clothing every year?) On Friday I gave a brief rundown of some of ...

TreeHugger
In case you missed it Does Audi's 'Green Police' Superbowl Ad Reveal a Shifting Paradigm?   —  Photo via World Sports Tribune Much has been made of this year's generally crappy Super Bowl ads. But in the green community, one ad has been showing up repeatedly on just about every enviro blog out there: the Audi "Green Police" ad. We even covered it here before the game , where it was already causing a stir. And that stir isn't over the ...

19. Etc: The burning of fossil fuels is changing the carbon isotope ratios of the atmosphere, and the difference is ...  permalink

Nobel Intent

The burning of fossil fuels is changing the carbon isotope ratios of the atmosphere, and the difference is showing up in maple syrup, confusing our ability to determine if it contains additives. Read More: Nature News story , The paper.

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Mattwilkerson / It
Etc: 
The burning of fossil fuels is changing the carbon isotope ratios of the atmosphere, and the difference is ... Fossil Fools Day 2010: Pull a prank that packs a punch April 1   —  The fossil fools ain’t no joke – but that doesn’t mean we can’t fight them with one! The Fossil Fuel Empire is real and it’s here. The stakes couldn’t be higher: destabilization of the global climate, communities from Alaska to Appalachia being destroyed by dirty energy extraction and combustion, devastating super hurricanes, droughts,

20. A Splendid Endeavour!  permalink

A Splendid Endeavour!
Living the Scientific Life (Scientist

tags: NASA , Endeavour , International Space Station , spaceship launch , STS-130 , Kennedy Space Center , space exploration , physics , astronomy , engineering , streaming video Space shuttle Endeavour, carrying Commander George Zamka, pilot Terry Virts, and Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Bob Behnken, Steve Robinson and Kay Hire, ...

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Ken Kremer / Universe Today
A Splendid Endeavour! Sky on Fire as Endeavour Blasts to Space   —  (Editor's Note: Ken Kremer is in Florida for Universe Today covering the launch of Endeavour.) Night literally turned to day as shuttle Endeavour roared off the pad early this morning Feb.8 at 4:14 AM beginning a 2 day chase to link up with the International Space Station and commence the STS 130 mission. It was [...]

Keith Cowing / NASA
A Splendid Endeavour! One Last Night Departure   —  The Last Shuttle To Leave Earth at Night , SpaceRef "An hour after the orange glow of Endeavour's liftoff lit the Kennedy Space Center press site on Feb. 8, NASA officials beamed at the bit of bright news illuminating an otherwise tough couple of weeks. The smooth countdown for STS-130 and the relatively few technical problems -- a bit of foam ...