Blame it on the gorillas....

New research suggests that humans caught pubic lice or "crabs" from gorillas about 3.3 million years ago. No, not how you're thinking! It was likely from sleeping in gorilla nests or while killing and consuming their meat.
Humans can get two kinds of lice: Pediculus (head lice) or Pthirus (pubic lice). Chimps get Pediculus and gorillas get Pthirus. Though we diverged evolutionary fro our last common ancestors about 7 million years ago, it was not known until this research that early humans and gorillas spent time in the same locations. More info is in the newest issue of BMC Biology.
This info comes at the same time as research that suggests we diverged from chimps only 4 million years ago, not the 6-7 million previously thought.

OneGeology

This fun new website OneGeologyhas been started to create a digital 1:1 geological map with all information for all to access. It involves hundreds of scientists and organizations from over 55 countries across the world which will pull together everyone's geological survey information. Think of it like a Google Earth for below the surface of the planet.
P.S. Contrary to what this moronic reporter writes, we are GEOLOGISTS, NOT "rock scientists" and the majority of scientists do NOT believe that Carbon Capture and Storage is a good idea. Anyone who understand the carbon cycle knows that is not a long term solution for storing green house gases and stopping global climate change.

Al Gore announces Live Earth

Following on the heels of Live8 and LiveAid, Al Gore has announced plans for a worldwide 24 hour rock concert to raise awareness on Global Warming July 7th called LiveEarth.
According to the initial announcement the concert will take place over all 7 continents (with dramatic effects of a performance on a melting glacier in Antarctica perhaps?) and already announced to perform are U2 (of course), Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dave Matthews Band, Rolling Stones, Snoop Dogg, Faith Hill, Foo Fighters, Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow, Melissa Etheridge, John Mayer, Duran Duran, Korn, Pharrell, the Black Eyed Peas, Bon Jovi, Akon, Enrique Iglesias, Fall Out Boy, AFI, John Mayer, Damien Rice, Corrine Bailey Rae, Keane, Kelly Clarkson, Korn, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw.
Besides music performances there will be short films and educational presentations.
The event will be broadcast in over 120 countries (on NBC and 7 other cable networks in the US) and also webcast on MSN.
Locations listed as of now are Shanghai, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro, Washington D.C., London, Johannesburg, with the show ending in Kyoto.

US wants to block the Sun

Oh this may be my favorite piece of news ever....

Instead of working to bring changes to our lifestyle utilizing more environmentally friendly technology, the US government wants the world's scientists to develop technology to block sunlight to halt global warming.
They want to put money into researching techniques such as giant mirrors in space or reflective dust in the atmosphere. The government is lobbying for this "important insurance" to be recommended by a UN report on climate change.

I swear this is not a joke. We are run by complete morons.

Gray wolf brought to back from the brink of extinction only to head there again?

After years of being on the Endangered Species list the gray wolf is back and will likely be removed from the list shortly. Unfortunately, Idaho governor Butch Otter has said that as soon as they are removed from the list he will support public hunting of these animals. Currently there are ~650 gray wolves in Idaho. Otter says that he wants 550 of them to be killed, bringing the population to 100, the minimum required to stay off the list.
Perhaps the people of Idaho should start hunting otters instead.

Evolution back in Kansas

The Kansas state Board of Education have repealed science guidelines questioning evolution and instead replaced them with new guidelines that reflect mainstream scientific views of evolution.

Happy Darwin Day!!

Today is Darwin Day, an international recognition of science and humanity, Darwin's 198th birthday and the 148th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. Events are planned across the world in celebration. While it's not a federal holiday YET, we'd like to thank the governors of CT, IL, MO, NJ, and NY for recognizing it and giving us the day off tomorrow. (Ok so maybe the day off has something to do with some President's birthday but I'd like to think it's for Darwin instead. Really now who did more for the world, Lincoln or Darwin?!)

In case you still don't believe in plate tectonics...

Normally movement of plates that make up the outer layer of the early occurs at a slow rate, approximately 8-16mm/yr or about the rate that a fingernail grows. At the intersection of the African and Arabian plates, the movement has been much more drastic recently. Portions of the Ethiopian rift valley (a rift forms as continental plates move apart from each other creating a rift between the two) in September 2005 moved as much as 8 meters in less than a day! As the plates are moving apart, molten rock is filling the bottom of the gap creating new crust. In approximately 1 million years the Red Sea may flood this lowered area creating a new ocean basin.

Genetic diversity of bacteria in stomachs mirrors the early migration of modern humans

By analyzing strains of a common bacteria, H. pylori, found in the stomach of humans researchers have been able to trace and date migration of modern humans out of Africa and throughout the rest of the world. People in and around east Africa have the highest diversity of this species while the farther others live from east Africa, the lower the diversity is. This suggests that this bacteria originated in early humans.

Arctic seed vault

Work is beginning on a giant vault full of seeds for food crops in a mountain in the Arctic circle.
Built inside a mountain 80m above the high sea level mark (if all polar ice melts) and 18 degrees below freezing lies a vault of over 1.5 million varieties of agricultural seeds. This vault is designed and funded by Norway and the yearly cost will be covered by the Global Crop Diversity Trust. With the threat from Global Warming increasing this vault will act as a safety net for the words agricultural diversity.

"An Inconvenient Truth" restricted in Washington schools

For schools in Federal Way, Washington, "An Inconvenient Truth" has been restricted in the classroom. For a school teacher to show the movie they must first get approval from the Superintendent and must also show an opposing viewpoint.
This came about after parents who are also proponents of Creationism and do not want condoms in schools complained to school board members that "Condoms don't belong in school and neither does Al Gore."
Board member Dave Larson said, "We have to ensure that our school are not being used to politically indoctrinate anyone."

I would personally love to see what opposing scientific evidence they can come up with to teach the "opposing view" that does not involve politics. I believe there are still a handful of people who aren't convinced the Earth is not the center of the Universe. Perhaps we should require teaching the opposing view of that as well.

Exxon takes a step in the right direction

Exxon Mobil Corp. is finally stepping up to the plate and is talking with others in the industry about regulating green house gases. They have also stopped funding groups that are skeptical of Global Warming. Read more here.

Virgin announces new contest to combat greenhouse gases

Richard Brandon of the Virgin Group and Al Gore have announced a new challenge to scientists and inventors.
"The Virgin Earth Challenge is a prize of $25m for whoever can demonstrate to the judges' satisfaction a commercially viable design which results in the removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases so as to contribute materially to the stability of Earth’s climate. "
Good to see that some people are putting up the money to encourage people to work on this serious problem. There's nothing like $25 million to make a lot of people try to accomplish something!

Welcome!

I suppose the last thing I need is another blog but I figure this way I can move my science rants and ramblings over here and away from my personal journal.
I'll try to update several times a week with science news, the occasional update on my research, and likely many rants about the mass media's attempt at bringing their version of science to the general public.
Politics are more than likely to move into this blog many times.