Science anticipa la Giornata mondiale degli oceani, con un editoriale di Marcia McNutt:
With every other breath you take this 8 June, take a moment to thank the ocean for supplying half of your oxygen and for all the other ways in which it makes Earth a habitable planet. It is time to start valuing the ocean and stop using it as a dump for waste heat, CO2, sewage, pollutants, and other trash.
e uno speciale dedicato al veliero Tara, capitano il bretone Eric Karsenti del CNRS, e ai paper dei velisti francesi e tedeschi che a bordo hanno studiato, filmato e campionato, e dei multinazionali “marins d’eau douce” che hanno analizzato, il plancton oceanico a rischio di liquami, inquinanti e pattume tra il 2009 e il 2013:
Success depended on collaboration between scientists and the Tara Expeditions logistics team. The journey involved not only science but also outreach and education as well as negotiation through the shoals of legal and political regulations, funding uncertainties, threats from pirates, and unpredictable weather.
Lo sapevate che un litro d’acqua di mare contiene oltre un milione di virus? Scherzi a parte, gli sponsor hanno fatto un bel regalo alla biologia marina, dicono i biologi-velisti Virginia Ambrust e Steve Palumbi, con una punta d’invidia:
The Tara Oceans expedition harkens back to 18th-century sailing voyages that explored uncharted worlds, including Darwin’s voyage aboard the HMS Beagle and the Challenger expedition that heralded the beginning of modern oceanography. The 36-m schooner Tara departed Lorient, France, in 2008 and sailed through the Mediterranean Sea and into the Indian, South Atlantic, and Southern oceans (see the map). Tara visited coral reefs in the South Pacific Ocean and then sailed through the Panama Canal and back across the North Atlantic Ocean, arriving at her homeport nearly 3 years later. At hundreds of locations along the way, scientists and crew collected thousands of samples from surface waters, from the deep chlorophyll maximum layers where microscopic photosynthetic organisms accumulate, and from deeper waters.
Charlie Smith descrive invece il delta del Mekong, dove vivono circa 20 milioni di persone e che sta “affondando”
Among the culprits: levees that prevent sediment from spilling out of rivers and collecting in the delta, and some 1 million wells drilled since the 1980s for drinking and agriculture. If groundwater depletion continues at present rates, researchers estimate, the delta could sink by nearly a meter by midcentury. Now, an alliance of Vietnamese and Dutch scientists is trying to get ahead of the problem. They met in Vietnam recently to launch the Rise and Fall project, a $1 million, 5-year effort to better understand what’s driving Mekong delta subsidence and develop strategies to reverse it…
*
Bert Wouters et al. ricalcolano con i rilevamenti satellitari la fusione dei ghiacciai che “ancorano” la calotta, sulle coste della penisola Antartica e dintorni: dal 2009, circa 56 gigatonnellate/anno, molto superiori alle perdite calcolate in precedenza. Anomalie in rosso con il margine di incertezza, perdita di massa in blu e nel riquadro in blu e in rosso.
Tonf! Il pio Pennetta è svenuto di nuovo.
*
Prima che 22 passi s’illuda, avviso che “The new shape of fusion” riguarda la Tokamak Energy, un’azienda inglese che costruisce prototipi di un nuovo reattore, con generosi finanziamenti privati:
Next year, the company will put together a slightly larger machine able to produce twice the magnetic field of NSTX-U. The next step—investors permitting—will be a machine slightly smaller than Princeton’s but with three times the magnetic field. Company CEO David Kingham thinks that will be enough to beat ITER to the prize: a net gain of energy. “We want to get fusion gain in 5 years. That’s the challenge,” he says.
“It’s a high-risk approach,” Wilson says. “They’re buying their lottery ticket. If they win, it’ll be great. If they don’t, they’ll likely disappear. Even if it doesn’t work, we’ll learn from it; it will accelerate the fusion program.” It’s a spirit familiar to everyone trying to reshape the future of fusion.
*
Una proteina presente nel sangue di topi giovani che ringiovanisce i topi vecchi dopo trasfusione mi pareva un po’ troppo bella per esser vera. Jocelyn Kaiser racconta l’ennesimo esperimento biomed messo in discussione:
In several high-profile papers, two last year in Science, a Harvard University team reported that the protein declines in older animals, and that replacing it rebuilds muscles, the brain, and the heart. But work described this week by a team at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, challenges GDF11’s rejuvenating powers.
The Novartis group does not question that young blood renews old mice. But they say the Harvard group’s explanation is wrong. Their paper, in Cell Metabolism, casts doubt on the assays used in the earlier research and suggests that GDF11 actually inhibits muscle regeneration.
*
Della serie troppo bella per esser vera, la ricerca pubblicata su Science in dicembre secondo la quale gli elettori etero contattati da militanti gay diventavano più favorevoli a pari diritti per i gay era inventata, e il secondo autore ne ha chiesto la ritrattazione. (Dettagli dello studente e di due prof che hanno tentato di replicarla). Il falsificatore aveva appena ricevuto il Pi Sigma Alpha Award for Best Paper, dalla Midwest Political Science Association ed era già stato assunto all’università di Princeton che forse cambierà idea:
As you’ve correctly noted, at this time the individual is not a Princeton University employee. We will review all available information and determine next steps.
Replica dell’assunto:
I’m gathering evidence and relevant information so I can provide a single comprehensive response. I will do so at my earliest opportunity
Versione umoristica. (h/t Retraction Watch)
***
Breaking news tubes
Della serie “faked data”. Mentre Airbus Bill Gates, Siemens NASA Toyota dilettanti allo sbaraglio si preparano febbrilmente a replicare le repliche fallite del tubo a FuF di Parkhomov – il falsificatore di dati che ha copiato il tubo a FuF di Andrea Rossi – un volonteroso ha ricapitolato i primi fallimenti più quello annunciato dall’ing. Abundo, stufo dei propri fallimenti con l’Hydrobetatron e la cella Celani.
Presso la multinazionale di Rossi & Fabiani nel condominio di Miami Beach, soprannominato “fabbrica del cliente di Industrial Heat”, intanto
Ing. Michelangelo De Meo:
Thank you for your information.
In this period of tests and R&D on the 1 MW E-Cat installed in the factory of the Customer of Industrial Heat and on the Hot Cat set up here in the control computers container of the above mentioned 1 MW E-Cat I do not have publishable news.
A.R.