NASA's Spirit rover has detected silica-rich deposits on Mars, researchers reported in a study that provides the data and analysis underlying this discovery.

Extensive deposits of nearly pure silica – either as quartz or opal – are typically signs of geochemical processes that involve water.

The findings lend support to the idea that relatively large amounts of liquid water once existed on Mars.

University of Alberta Educational Psychology PhD student Lindsey Leenaars has completed a study that assessed what types of high school students are being indirectly victimized. This includes being involved in emotionally damaging scenarios such as receiving hurtful anonymous notes, being socially excluded, or having rumours spread about them, including threats of physical harm.

Leenaars analyzed data that was collected in Ontario in 2003. More than 2,300 students aged 12–18 filled out an anonymous questionnaire asking them questions, including how they rate their attractiveness, their sexual activity, their friendships and school social problems.

Leenaars found the females who viewed themselves as attractive had a 35 per cent increased chance of being indirectly victimized. Conversely, for males who perceived themselves as good looking, their risk of being bullied decreased by 25 per cent. Leenaars also found older teens (aged 16–18) were at a 35 per cent increased risk of being victimized if they were sexually active.

Leenaars says this information could be used to raise awareness amongst parents, teachers and counselors. She adds it would also be helpful when schools are working on a variety of anti-bullying programs to include all students, not just those who may be traditionally perceived as victims.

“The findings have important implications for the development of interventions designed to reduce peer victimization, in that victims of indirect aggression may represent a broad group.”

Studies reveal that in the dog-eat-dog, look-out-for-No. 1, highly competitive business world, only the aggressive, risk-taking alpha male can expect to succeed as an entrepreneur. That statement may sound sexist, but it represents a commonly held gender stereotype. A team led by a University of Missouri researcher found that these stereotypes influence whether or not men and women decide to pursue entrepreneurship as a viable career option.

“Perception may limit both men and women in the decision to become entrepreneurs,” said Daniel Turban, professor and chair of the Department of Management in the Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business. “One sex is not inherently more qualified than the other; unfortunately, the underlying societal stereotypes associating entrepreneurship with masculine characteristics may influence people’s intentions to pursue entrepreneurial careers. An interesting result of our study is that both men and women reported similar intentions when entrepreneurship was presented as gender neutral. This suggests that common gender stereotypes can be nullified.”

Although entrepreneurship is a masculine-stereotyped domain, Turban said many of the characteristics believed to be important to entrepreneurial success also are traditionally feminine. For example, caring and nurturing, building relationships with others, and humility are typically attributed to females, but also characterize good entrepreneurship.

Turban, along with Vishal Gupta, of Binghamton University and Nachiket Bhawe, of the University of Minnesota, asked undergraduate business students to read mock news articles about entrepreneurship, answer a comprehensive question, and complete a scale about entrepreneurial intentions. In the control article, there was no mention of gender or gender differences in entrepreneurship. In other articles, the masculine and feminine stereotypes were subtly presented or directly emphasized.

“When the masculine stereotype of entrepreneurship was subtly presented, men had higher entrepreneurial intentions than women, and both men and women were similar to the control group. Those results suggest that entrepreneurship is typically stereotyped as a masculine career option,” Turban said. “However, when masculine characteristics were strongly linked with entrepreneurship, a condition people might expect to favor men, we found that women had higher entrepreneurial intention scores while men had lower.”

Turban said one reason for the persistence of gender differences in male-type careers, like entrepreneurship, may be that common masculine stereotypes associated with this role are not openly discussed in society. Men and women are subconsciously influenced by widely held stereotypes. Turban said that if the goal is to attract more women to entrepreneurship, it may be more desirable to describe entrepreneurship as gender neutral.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota’s Bell Museum of Natural History and Pennsylvania’s Villanova University have discovered a new family of gecko, the charismatic large-eyed lizard popularized by car insurance commercials.

Scientists have long been interested in geckos and their evolution because they are key biodiversity indicators and are found on nearly every continent. Researchers are also interested in the gecko because of the animal’s sticky toe pads, which allow them to scale rough and smooth surfaces -- a characteristic that may have human application in medicine, emergency rescue service and military industries.

Graduate students Tony Gamble from the University of Minnesota and Aaron Bauer from Villanova sequenced DNA from 44 species of gecko and used this genetic data to reconstruct the animals’ family tree. The resulting new classification is different from previous classifications, which are based solely on foot structure.

“A classification based solely on foot structure will track selective pressure on the feet and not represent actual evolutionary history,” said Gamble, who believes his discovery will add to a more accurate gecko family tree that, in turn, will allow scientists to better understand how sticky toe pads have evolved.

The researchers have named the new family “Phyllodactylidae,” referring to the leaf-shaped toes of many of the species in this group (phyllo meaning “leaf:” dactyl meaning “toe”). The new family consists of 103 species found in semiarid and tropical regions of North Africa, the Middle East, North and South America and the Caribbean.

There are only four specimens of the Yangtze giant softshell turtle left on Earth—one in the wild and three in captivity. In order to save this species from extinction, conservation partners from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA), working in conjunction with partners from two Chinese zoos and the China Zoo Society, recently paired two of them. A still reproductive, more than 80-year-old, female, living in China’s Changsha Zoo has been introduced to the only known male in China, a more than 100-year-old living more than 600 miles away at the Suzhou Zoo.

The Bronx Zoo-based WCS and the Fort Worth Zoo-based TSA coordinated the critically important move; TSA provided much of the funding, animal reproduction and technical expertise while WCS provided veterinary and logistical support and coordination with wildlife partners in China and New York. Other project partners include Ocean Park and Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, both in Hong Kong.

On Monday, May 5, turtle biologists, veterinarians, and zoo staff from partner organizations convened at the Changsha Zoo to collect and transport the female to the Suzhou Zoo where she joined her new mate to potentially save their entire species. The move was coordinated to coincide with the female’s reproductive cycle.

“This is a story of hope for a species truly on the brink,” said Colin Poole, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Asia Programs. “We are extremely grateful to our conservation partners both in China and here in the U.S. who made this historic move possible. Now that the turtles are together, we are optimistic that they will successfully breed.”

"I hate to call this a desperation move, but it really was. With only one female known worldwide, and given that we have lost three captive specimens over the past two years, what choice did we have" The risks related to moving her were certainly there, but doing nothing was much riskier," said Rick Hudson, TSA co-chair and Fort Worth Zoo conservation biologist.

Listed at the top of the World Conservation Union’s Red List, the Yangtze giant softshell turtle is the most critically endangered turtle in the world. Its status in the wild has long been recognized as grim, but extinction risk now is believed higher than ever. Much of its demise has been attributed to pollution, over-harvesting for Asian food markets and habitat alteration. Biologists saw no other alternative but to save the species by any means necessary. Still, the risks were high—relocating an animal this age can be highly stressful for it and research shows that breeding attempts by males can become aggressive. However, since the female has arrived safely and is settling well into her new habitat at the Suzhou Zoo, biologists are optimistic for breeding success.

The number of humpback whales in the North Pacific Ocean has increased since international and federal protections were enacted in the 1960s and 70s, according to a new study funded primarily by NOAA and conducted by more than 400 whale researchers throughout the Pacific region.

However, some isolated populations of humpbacks, especially those in the Western Pacific Ocean, have not recovered at the same rate and still suffer low numbers.

The new research reveals that the overall population of humpbacks has rebounded to approximately 18,000 to 20,000 animals. The population of humpback whales in the North Pacific, at least half of whom migrate between Alaska and Hawaii, numbered less than 1,500 in 1966 when international whaling for this species was banned. In the 1970s, federal laws including the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act provided additional protection.

“NOAA is proud to have played a key role in initiating and funding this study,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “It is only through this type of international cooperation that we can gauge our success and measure what additional work needs to be accomplished to protect highly migratory marine mammals.”

The results of this new report come from SPLASH (Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance and Status of Humpbacks), an international effort involving more than 50 organizations. Launched in 2004, the project determined whale migratory patterns and estimated population sizes by using a library of 18,000 photographs of whale flukes to identify 8,000 individual whales.

Cascadia Research in Olympia, Wash., the central coordinator for the SPLASH project, matched photographs from six different feeding and breeding areas. By matching whale flukes photographed in their feeding areas with those photographed in the wintering areas, researchers were able to determine the patterns of individual whale movements, as well as estimate the sizes of different populations.

In addition to whale fluke photographs, SPLASH researchers collected more than 6,000 biopsy samples for studies of genetics and pollutants, along with thousands of additional photographs to determine how levels of scarring from line entanglement and ship strikes vary among regions. The samples, which are yet to be analyzed, will provide valuable insights into the complex population structure and current threats to further recovery.

While scientists have long understood that lipid droplets contribute to fat build up in cells, the genes involved in droplet biology have been a focus of extensive research.

In a study published in Nature, scientists in the laboratories of Drs. Robert V. Farese, Jr., of Gladstone and UCSF, and Peter Walter, of UCSF, devised a genetic screen to identify genes responsible for fat storage in cell of fruit flies, and potentially other species.

“For some time, we have been studying the enzymes that make fats,” said Dr. Farese, senior investigator. “But clearly, we need to know a lot more about the most basic processes that regulate cellular fat storage to be able to make progress on some very serious human diseases.”

To identify novel genes involved in fat storage, GICD scientist Dr. Yi Guo, and Dr. Tobias Walter, formerly of Dr. Walter’s laboratory and now of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Germany, initiated a major discovery project, in which they used RNAi screens to individually inactivate all the genes in cells from fruit flies. Basic cellular processes in humans are highly conserved in cells from fruit flies, so the results should mostly be applicable to human biology. Drs. Guo and Walther completed the initial survey and have now begun to study in detail the genes that have the most striking effects on fat storage in cells.

Surprisingly, they found that ~1.5% of all genes function in lipid-droplet formation and regulation. These genes proved to be determinants of the size and number of lipid droplets in cells. Several of these genes were investigated in detail and shown to profoundly affect droplet morphology and lipid utilization. When the individual genes were deleted, the resulting cells could be separated into five distinct phenotypic classes, based on the number and appearance of the lipid droplets.

The most interesting genes will be advanced into functional studies in flies and mice. These new studies promise two major outcomes: significant advances in understanding the processes that regulate fat metabolism in cells and novel therapeutic targets for treating diseases, such as obesity and diabetes. Additionally, the findings have implications for engineering plants and microorganisms to maximize seed oil production and biofuels, respectively.

“With this screen completed, the work turns now to many fascinating questions,” said Dr. Guo. “How are lipid droplets formed" What regulates their size, numbers, and cellular locations" Do they help to traffic lipids within the cell" How does this cell biology relate to physiology and disease" These are early days in this area of biology, and the field is wide open.”

A particular type of shorebird (Phalarope) exploits the physical properties of water to transport water droplets to its mouth and feed on the tiny creatures contained within, researchers say.

Because of the shape of its beak, the bird cannot suck the water all the way up to its mouth. What it does instead is quickly open and close its beak many times like a pair of tweezers, and the water actually moves up the long beak — against the pull of gravity — and all the way to the phalarope's mouth.

This action is made possible because of something called "surface tension." It is the first time that scientists have documented this particular way of eating.

That could change, however, with a non-melt consolidation process being developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and industry partners. The new processing technique could reduce the amount of energy required and the cost to make titanium parts from powders by up to 50 percent, making it feasible to use titanium alloys for brake rotors, artificial joint replacements and, of significant interest now, armor for military vehicles.

"We recently exhibited the new low-cost titanium alloy door made by ORNL for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, which is a next-generation combat vehicle," said Bill Peter, a researcher in ORNL's Materials Science and Technology Division. "By using a titanium alloy for the door, BAE Systems was able to reduce the weight of its vehicle yet at the same time decrease the threat of armor-piercing rounds."

The lightweight titanium alloy also improves the operation of the door and increases mobility of the vehicle, making it even more useful to the military.

Peter noted that the non-melt approach, which includes roll compaction for directly fabricating sheets from powder, press and sinter techniques to produce net shape components and extrusion, offers many advantages over traditional melt processing.

"Instead of using conventional melt processing to produce products from titanium powder, with the new method the powders remain in their solid form during the entire procedure," Peter said. "This saves a tremendous amount of energy required for processing, greatly reduces the amount of scrap and allows for new alloys and engineered composites."

While powder metallurgy has been used to produce components for many years, titanium products have not widely been fabricated using these methods because of the high cost of conventional titanium powders. Now, however, new low-cost titanium powders are enabling ORNL, International Titanium Powders, Ametek and BAE Systems to develop these technologies for titanium.

In coming years, researchers expect lightweight corrosion-resistant titanium alloys to make their way into many other products, including automobiles, which will benefit from the decreased weight and will be able to deliver improved fuel economy.

The Early Autism Study, led by Mel Rutherford, associate professor of psychology in the Faculty of Science, has been using eye tracker technology that measures eye direction while the babies look at faces, eyes, and bouncing balls on a computer screen.

Rutherford presented her peer-reviewed research at the 7th Annual International Meeting for Autism Research in London.

“What’s important about this study is that now we can distinguish between a group of siblings with autism from a group with no autism – at nine months and 12 months,” says Rutherford. “I can do this in 10 minutes, and it is objective, meaning that the only measure is eye direction; it’s not influenced by a clinician’s report or by intuition. Nobody’s been able to distinguish between these groups at so early an age.”

Currently, the earliest diagnostic test for autism is reliable around the age of two, and most children in Ontario are diagnosed around age three or four. The earlier the diagnosis the better the overall prognosis, says Rutherford.

“There is an urgent need for a quick, reliable and objective screening tool to aid in diagnosing autism much earlier than is presently possible,” she says. “Developing a tool for the early detection of autism would have profound effects on people with autism, their parents, family members, and future generations of those at risk of developing autism.”

The Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason 2 is a partnership of NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the French Space Agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). The mission will extend into the next decade the continuous record of sea-surface height measurements started in 1992 by the NASA-French Space Agency's TOPEX/Poseidon mission and extended by the NASA-French Space Agency Jason 1 mission in 2001.

The satellite will continue monitoring trends in sea-level rise, one of the most important consequences and indicators of global climate change. Measurements from TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason 1 have shown that mean sea level has risen by about three millimeters (0.12 inches) a year since 1993, twice the rate estimated from tide gauges in the past century. But 15 years of data are not sufficient to determine long-term trends.

"OSTM/Jason 2 will help create the first multi-decadal global record for understanding the vital roles of the ocean in climate change," said OSTM/Jason 2 project scientist Lee-Lueng Fu of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Data from the new mission will allow us to continue monitoring global sea-level change, a field of study where current predictive models have a large degree of uncertainty."

Developed and proven through the joint efforts of NASA and the French Space Agency, high-precision ocean altimetry measures the height of the sea surface relative to Earth's center to within about 3.3 centimeters (1.3 inches). These measurements, also known as ocean surface topography, provide information on the speed and direction of ocean currents. Because sea surface height is strongly influenced by the amount of heat in the ocean, it also is an indicator of ocean heat storage in most places. Combining ocean current and heat storage data is key to understanding global climate variations.

OSTM/Jason 2 marks the transition of high-precision altimetry data collection to the world's weather and climate forecasting agencies. Scientists soon will be able to forecast how ocean circulation will change from one season to the next and how that circulation is linked to climate change and weather patterns.

"What began as an investment by NASA and CNES in research tools for studying the ocean has matured into a proven technique that will now be routinely used by the world's weather and climate agencies to make better forecasts," said Michael Freilich, director of the Earth Science Division in NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "People in coastal areas will benefit from improved near-real-time data on ocean conditions, while people everywhere will benefit from better seasonal predictions resulting from the increased understanding of Earth system processes enabled by these measurements."

OSTM/Jason 2 will ride to space aboard a NASA-provided United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket, entering orbit about 10 to 15 kilometers (six to nine miles) below the 1,336-kilometer-high (830-mile-high) orbit of Jason 1. OSTM/Jason 2 will use its thrusters to raise itself into the same orbital altitude as Jason 1 and move in close behind its predecessor.

The two spacecraft will fly in formation, making nearly simultaneous measurements. For six to nine months after launch, scientists will verify the instruments are calibrated precisely. OSTM/Jason 2 then will continue Jason 1's former flight path, and Jason 1 will move into a parallel ground track midway between two of the OSTM/Jason 2 ground tracks. This tandem mission will double the amount of data collected, further improving tide models in coastal and shallow seas and helping researchers better understand ocean currents and eddies. OSTM/Jason 2's mission is designed to last at least three years.

The OSTM/Jason 2 spacecraft, provided by the French Space Agency, carries five primary instruments similar to those on Jason 1. Its main instrument is the Poseidon 3 altimeter, also provided by the French Space Agency. NASA's Advanced Microwave Radiometer measures atmospheric water vapor, which can distort the altimeter measurements. Three location systems combine to precisely measure the satellite's position in orbit: NASA's Laser Retroreflector Array and Global Positioning System Payload, and the French Space Agency's Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite instrument. Instrument improvements since Jason 1 will allow scientists to monitor ocean coastal regions with increased accuracy, nearly 50 percent closer than in the past. Three experimental instruments round out the payload: the French Space Agency's Environment Characterization and Modelisation-2 and Time Transfer by Laser Link, and Japan's Light Particle Telescope.

JPL manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. After on-orbit spacecraft commissioning, CNES will hand over mission operations and control to NOAA. NOAA and EUMETSAT will generate, archive and distribute data products.

Small primates like squirrel monkeys and lemurs expend no more energy climbing than they do walking, according to a new study.

On the other hand, the energy required for a primate to walk in a straight line actually decreases as the primate's size increases, which implies that it makes more sense for larger primates to stay on the ground while, metabolically, it does not matter if smaller primates walk or climb.

The findings may explain the evolutionary edge that encouraged the tiny ancestors of modern humans, apes and monkeys to climb into the trees about 65 million years ago and stay there.

For their experiment, researchers designed and built a novel climbing treadmill -- essentially a loop of rope around two pulleys -- to measure the animals' efforts. As the animals moved at their highest sustainable speed, sensors measured oxygen level changes within a chamber to derive the primates' energy consumption.