An astronomy team reported the first atmospheric analysis of a "Super-Earth" planet only a few times larger than our planet. 
The Nature journal results suggest the planet, GJ 1214b, has an atmosphere either dominated by hydrogen clouds, or else stuffed with steam. GJ 1214b circles a star about 40 light years away, where one light year is about 5.9 trillion miles. Led by Jacob Bean of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the results are the first atmospheric analysis of a "transit" planet, detectable through the small drop in starlight it causes as it eclipses its star, of this small size, only about 2.6 times wider than Earth and about 6.5 times heavier.
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This week's United Nations' conference on climate change in Cancun, Mexico may or may not actually accomplish anything about climate change. But crop breeders in India have already created varieties of vital plants for farmers in areas likely to be strongly affected by increasingly erratic weather patterns.
On the theory that it's better to be safe than sorry, researchers at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India, have developed climate change-ready cultivars of dryland crops such as pearl millet, sorghum, chickpea, pigeonpea and peanuts.
These crops, crucial for farmers in the dryland tropics, already had some natural advantages to withstand climate change. The breeders brought those to the fore.
Pearl millet and sorghum are can survive in soils with high levels of salt, a frequent byproduct of water level changes. Also, some of the pearl millet varieties developed by ICRISAT can flower and set seed at temperatures over 107 degrees, which aren't uncommon in areas like Western Rajasthan and Gujarat in India.
New cultivars of quick-growing peanuts are drought tolerant and farmers are already planning them in favor of older varieties that aren't.
For longer dry seasons, which means a shorter growing season, ICRISAT has developed chickpea varieties that are extra-early (85 to 90 days to maturity) and super-early (75 to 80 days). They've also identified chickpea lines with high heat tolerance, so the protein-rich beans can be grown in areas where there are heat waves during the pod filling stage, when the plant is heat sensitive.
In a release, ICRISAT notes that with "a combination of climate change-ready varieties plus improved agronomic practices, dryland farmers will be able to overcome the adverse impacts of a warmer world."
ICRISAT is an international non-profit organization that has been doing agricultural research for farmers in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa since 1972. Its headquarters are in Hyderabad, India. It also has regional hubs in Niger and Kenya and offices in Mali, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi. It belongs to the Consortium of Centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural.
By Elizabeth Weise
What lurks beneath Yosemite National Park? A newly-discovered pseudoscorpion, biologists report. 
The little critter, less than half-an-inch long, turned up in surveys of Yosemite's granite caves, the researchers report. A description of the venomous bug, Parobisium yosemite, appears in the latest Occasional Papers, Museum of Texas Tech University journal. Pseudoscorpions are tiny members of the spider family that look like scorpions but are tiny in size and lack a stinging tail.
The harmless-to-people, newly-discovered pseudoscorpion first turned up several years ago in a survey in Yosemite's Indian Cave by Austin-based researcher Jean Krejca. Parobisium yosemite is the second pseudoscorpion species found in Yosemite's caves.
By Dan Vergano
The world's lakes are warming because of climate change, according to a study published last week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.
In the first worldwide survey of how lake temperatures are changing due to greenhouse gas emissions, scientists report that the Earth's largest lakes have warmed at an average rate of 0.81 degree (F) per decade during the past 25 years. Some lakes warmed as much as 1.8 degrees per decade.
The warming trend was global.
NASA scientists Philipp Schneider and Simon Hook used thermal infrared imagery from satellites to measure the surface temperatures of 167 large lakes worldwide.
In the USA, the warming was slightly higher in the Southwest than in the Great Lakes.
The largest and most consistent area of warming was northern Europe. The warming trend was slightly weaker in southeastern Europe, near the Black and Caspian seas and Kazakhstan. The trends increased slightly in Siberia, Mongolia and northern China.
"Our analysis provides a new, independent data source for assessing the impact of climate change over land around the world," says Schneider. "The results have implications for lake ecosystems, which can be adversely affected by even small water temperature changes."
Fresh water lakes make up only a tiny fraction of the water on Earth, when compared to the oceans: Oceans hold 97 percent of surface water, glaciers and polar ice caps 2.4 percent, and other land surface water such as rivers, lakes and ponds 0.6 percent.
According to the study, even small changes in water temperature can result in algal blooms that can make a lake toxic to fish or result in the introduction of non-native species that change the lake's natural ecosystem.
By Doyle Rice
Human social interactions get a fascinating visual representation in a computer-generated video by scientists in the United Kingdom. The shifting, jumping social networksjitterbug about, waxing and waning and almost seem to play tug-a-war with individuals who change their interests.
"It was fascinating to see how the cliques could form without any one person organizing everything," Seth Bullock, one of the authors, said in a release. "We saw individuals moving from one clique to another. Over time some cliques disappeared while new ones were established".
The researchers, from Royal Holloway, University of London, the University of Southampton and the Institute of Zoology at the Zoological Society of London, were interested in the fact that even though humans change friends over time, we often form cliques that can persist for years or lifetimes.
Using computer models, they created groups of individuals, some of whom shared interests and some of whom didn't. The groups 'rewire their edges' and end up in relatively stable groupings. Though if one individual then changed their interests or politics, they suddenly acquired a new group of friends. For awhile their two cliques almost seem to fight over them before they achieve a stable equilibrium.
The results, the researchers believe, can help scientists understand how many social and biological systems maintain stable community structures despite ever-shifting members.
The study, 'Stability in flux: community structure in dynamic networks', is in this week's edition of the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
By Elizabeth Weise
Saturn's mystery moon, Enceladus, looks warmer and more fractured by geysers than previously suspected, report NASA scientists.
In an Aug. 13 flyby of the small moon, some 313 miles wide, the international Cassini spacecraft team captured heat measurements of the "tiger stripe" rifts lining the frozen mini-world's southern regions.
Read more »Additional high-resolution spectrometer maps of one end of the tiger stripes Alexandria Sulcus and Cairo Sulcus reveal never-before-seen warm fractures that branch off like split ends from the main tiger stripe trenches. They also show an intriguing warm spot isolated from other active surface fissures, says a Jet Propulsion Lab statement.
Depressed patients pick out sad faces easily, psychologists report, but have trouble with happiness or more subtle emotions.
In the current Journal of Abnormal Psychology, a team led by Jackie Gollan of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, tested 200 images of facial expressions on 44 depressed and 44 untroubled volunteers.
"Accurate recognition of facial expressions is a critical skill for adaptive social cognition, particularly given the extent to which human facial expressions convey intention and emotion," begins the study. "An impaired ability to recognize emotional stimuli may lead to misinterpretation of emotional cues that would normally guide behavior, thereby generating changes in mood and functioning."
Read more »Could musk oxen save the planet? A Russian scientist is working to recreate Ice Age conditions by "rewilding" -- reintroducing -- native beasts such as musk oxen, reindeer and moose to Siberia. He hopes the move will help slow global warming. Check out this video:
Richard Goldman, the San Francisco philanthropist who foundered the Goldman Environmental Prize with his wife Rhoda, has died.
Goldman, 90, passed away peacefully at his home in San Francisco on Nov. 29, the Goldman Environmental Prize office announced.
The Goldmans established the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1990. It awards $150,000 to six grassroots environmental heroes each year, one from each of the world's inhabited regions. The award is often called "the green Nobel." Since it began the prize has awarded $13.2 million to 139 recipients from 79 countries. It is headquartered in San Francisco.
By Elizabeth Weise
Birdwatchers hiking into a remote area of the Peruvian cloud forest were treated this fall to the sight of one of the rarest birds in the world, the Peruvian Long-whiskered Owlet. Birding groups observed the tiny creature multiple times between Sept. 21 and Nov. 8, according to staff at the Abra Patricia Reserve in northern Peru.
The five-inch-tall owl's scientific name is Xenoglaux loweryi, which means "strange owl."
The owlet was only discovered in 1976, and for 26 years there were no confirmed sightings at all. But eco-tourist birding groups from the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Holland, Costa Rica, and Sweden saw the owlet near the Owlet Ecolodge at the Abra Patricia Reserve multiple times. Reserve rangers discovered a new Owlet territory in July.
The species' habitat has been protected there by American Bird Conservancy and the Peruvian conservation organization Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos.
"We are now starting to understand more about its habits and hopefully in the future more people will be able to see this, one of the ultimate birds for any birder," Sara Lara, International Programs Director for American Bird Conservancy, said in a release.
Seeing the owlets isn't a given. To protect the owlets' habitat and keep them from being disturbed, only six birders at a time are allowed in, accompanied by reserve rangers at all times. If owlets do not respond to taped playback of an owl calling after two attempts, visitors are moved on to a different territory.
The Long-whiskered Owlet is ranked as endangered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature criteria. Its range is believed to be just 73 square miles. High rates of deforestation in the area threaten its remaining habitat.
By Elizabeth Weise
If you couldn't make it to Ecuador to see the Tungarahua (Throat of Fire) volcano erupt beginning on Nov. 26, 2010, Benjamin Bernard of the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement in Quito made, these short, time-lapse videos to give a sense of what it was like. Bernard works with the Tungurahua Volcano Observatory.
Here's a night-time view of the eruption, in two minutes. "The incandescence you can see in the night shot is not a lava flow but the trace of the hot blocks left on a 30 seccond exposure shot. You don't see it during the day because of the light contrast but it is the same activity during the day and during the night," Bernard said in an email.
Here's the same volcano during the day. Lots of smoke, no incandescence but still pretty amazing.
M. Bernard, who's also something of a music aficionado, suggests listening to the song "Hold On" by Angus & Julia Stone while watching the second video. "The rhythm of the drums of this song fit fairly well to the increasingly accelerated pace of the volcano," he says on his blog.
By Elizabeth Weise
Environmental and fisheries groups got a little good news about protecting several over-fished shark species, but bad news about tuna, at an important European meeting this weekend.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas spent the week meeting in Paris. On Saturday the group voted to adopt measure to protect two shark species, but fell far short of what U.S. and other countries had hoped for the highly-prized Atlantic bluefin tuna.
The United States and multiple conservation and fisheries organizations had urged the group to protect the tuna's spawning grounds, limit catches and put in place effective management to allow the much-diminished species to rebuild.
The Pew Environment Group called the measures "cosmetic" efforts to promote enforcement and compliance.
At her introductory remarks at the Paris meeting, the head of the U.S.'s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Jane Lubchenco, said "Today we have a choice to make: Will we choose sustainability or status quo? Will we continue down the path we are on, or chose a different direction? I believe in a future where fishermen and fish thrive. The world is watching. The world is waiting. Let's rise to the challenge."
That challenge was not risen to, Susan Lieberman, Pew's director of international policy, said in a release.
"The inability of ICCAT member governments to make significant decisions to improve the health of Atlantic bluefin tuna and shark populations reflects the failure of a system that was set up largely by fishing countries on behalf of fishing interests,"
An attempt to give Atlantic bluefin tuna breathing room in March was scuttled when attempts to list it under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (called CITES), supported by the United States and the European Union, failed.
Japan, which consumes a large amount of bluefin tuna as sushi and sashimi, had lobbied against the CITES listing.
A series of articles by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed much mismanagement of the bluefin populations by ICCATT and a billion dollar black market in the economically valuable fish.
By Elizabeth Weise
A pair of mouse studies point to avenues for treating aging and one its most dreaded ailments, Alzheimer's disease.
Released Sunday by the journal, Nature, both studies used mouse models of human disease to look for treatments.
In the first study, a team led by Mariela Jaskelioff of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, reports they reversed "multi-system degeneration", better known as aging, in mice, by treating them with a drug designed to restore the protective "telomeres" capping their chromosomes:
Read more »"As noted, age-associated compromise in mammalian brain function is associated with extensive accumulation of DNA damage and progressive reduction in neurogenesis and myelination. Indeed, many aspects of this central nervous system decline are accelerated and worsened in the setting of telomere dysfunction. Our data establish that telomerase reactivation in adult mice with telomere dysfunction can restore SVZ (subventricular) neurogenesis and, consistent with its role in sustaining new olfactory bulb neurons, can ameliorate odour detection with improved performance in innate odour avoidance tests. These results are consistent with previous studies showing that prolonged inhibition of neurogenesis in the SVZ has a negative effect on odour detection thresholds. In conclusion, this unprecedented reversal of age-related decline in the central nervous system and other organs vital to adult mammalian health justify exploration of telomere rejuvenation strategies for age-associated diseases, particularly those driven by accumulating genotoxic stress," they conclude.
Federal research funding cuts of 5-10%, or more, look likely for the next two years, says a former federal science official and science publisher.
"The consequences would be severe," says Science magazine executive publisher Alan Leshner, in an editorial. "The science and engineering community must mobilize now to stave off these funding cuts, which could be decided very soon."
The U.S. government invests about $150 billion annually into research, with the majority going to the Defense Department, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Cuts to research funding would most curtail research by young investigators at the the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and other agencies, Leshner says, putting grant application success rates below 10%:
Read more »Science journals unleash tip sheets on reporters weekly, describing potentially newsworthy results from their upcoming studies.
Here's a look back at some of the week's past tip sheet items that some prominent journals liked, with the results described in their own words.
Monday:
Journal of Experimental Medicine
1. Skin cells from humans can be revamped into pro-clotting cells called platelets, according to a study published on Nov. 22 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Patients with diseases causing thrombocytopenia -- platelet deficiency -- often require repeated transfusions with platelets obtained from healthy donors.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Read more »1. Muslims face religious discrimination in France Muslim immigrants in France must overcome religious discrimination to find jobs, researchers find.
2. A greener revolution for Africa - Diversified cereal cropping could help enhance sustainable food security in Africa, according to a study.
3. Blast waves' effects on the human brain. The United States military's Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH) may do little to protect soldiers from blast-induced brain injury, according to a report.
4. Social interactions lead to bigger brains - Mammal brains get bigger over time in response to increasingly complex social interactions, according to a study.
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