Gastric cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men and the third leading cause of cancer death in women. By the time the disease is diagnosed, it is often in an advanced stage and the prognosis is poor, in particular when single tumor cells or micro-metastases have spread from the original tumor into the peritoneal cavity. Currently, there is no satisfactory treatment available for this stage of the disease. The present standard of care includes chemotherapy and external radiation, both of which involve severe side-effects due to their unspecific mode of action.

“The alpha-emitter coupled antibody d9MAB could for the first time enable a specific and effective treatment for this group of patients by delivering its cytotoxic payload precisely to gastric cancer cells. As a result, tumor cells are killed while healthy cells remain intact,” Howard Wachtler, CEO of Actinium Pharmaceuticals commented.

The therapeutic potential of this approach gained further support from studies in a mouse model of peritoneal tumor cell spread demonstrating that treatment with 213Bi-d9MAb leads to a substantial increase of mean survival relative to untreated controls.

“I am pleased that the ingenious work of GSF scientists was protected early with the help of a patent which enabled Ascenion to find a professional partner to progress the development of a new drug against gastric cancer. Actinium is a recognized leader in alpha particle immunotherapy and an ideal partner to take the scientific results by GSF forward into the clinic,” said Christian Stein, CEO of Ascenion GmbH.

Paper: Huber R. et al; Locoregional Radioimmunotherapy of Intraperitoneal Tumor Cell Dissemination Using a Tumor-specific Monoclonal Antibody, Clinical Cancer Research,Vol. 9: 3922s–3928s, 2003 (Suppl.)

Contact for Ascenion:

Dr. Anja Zimmermann , Analyst
T: +49 (0)89 318814-16
E: zimmermann@ascenion.de

Dr. Peter Ruile, Chief Operating Officer
T: +49 (0)89 318814-14
E: ruile@ascenion.de

Contact for Actinium Pharmaceuticals:

Howard S. Wachtler, President and CEO
T: +1 973 377 0713
E: hwachtler@actiniumpharmaceuticals.com

Dragan Cicic , MD , Medical Director
T: + 1 973 377 5382
E: dcicic@actiniumpharmaceuticals.com

Ascenion GmbH
Ascenion is an intellectual property asset management company with a strong life-science focus. Ascenion supports and advises scientists and research institutions with regard to the protection and exploitation of their intellectual property (patents), and mediates and negotiates license agreements between research institutions and industry. Among Ascenion′s particular strengths are start-up coaching and active investment management. Ascenion is a 100% subsidiary of the Life-Science Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Research and the exclusive commercialization partner for eight life-science research institutions of Helmholtz and Leibniz Association. Ascenion′s headquarters are in Munich , with further offices in Berlin , Braunschweig and Neuherberg. More information at www.ascenion.de

Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is engaged in the development and commercialization of alpha particle immunotherapeutics based on its unique patent position for the utilization of actinium-225 and bismuth-213. It has facilities in Florham Park , New Jersey and Oak Ridge , Tennessee .

Further information:
GSF – National research Center for Environment and Health
Department of Public Relations
Ph.: 0049-89-3187-2460
Fax 0049-89-3187-3324
E-Mail: oea@gsf.de

It took more than 500 scientists and seven years of research, but the first global earthquake hazard map is now complete. How come it took seven whole years? Well, for starters, the scientists had to contend with forces much greater than earthquakes. Try politics.

The above image shows the pattern of major fault lines throughout the Americas.

Unveiled in San Francisco at the American Geophysical Union, the map shows that about 15 per cent of the Earth’s land is in zones of high or very high hazard – which the researchers define as a 10 per cent chance or greater of violent shaking over the next 50 years. Less than half of the planet’s land is considered a low hazard. But coming up with the numbers once the data were in was the easy part, explains the co-ordinator of the international effort, Domenico Giardini of the Swiss Seismological Service in Zurich.

“The standards by which hazard is done is completely different from country to country. It depends on when it was done, what philosophy they adopted, the quality of data that was available. It was this lack of standards that until now has stalled any effort to look at the global seismic risk in a homogenous way,” says Giardini.

Giardini recalls particular problems. “There were political boundary problems. For example in the Near East, the difficulty of having Syria, Israel and then Jordan and Egypt working together was very difficult,” says Giardini, who also remembers that India and China had never worked together, nor had Turkey, Iran and the former Soviet Union. He recalls the difficulty that grew from the international set of criteria that had to be used – which meant scientists from some countries, in order to comply with the new global standard, had to recalculate their seismological data. “It was very difficult originally, this is why the project lasted so long,” he says, adding that once a consensus was reached and once the scientists got used to working together, “things started to fly.”

Researchers were surprised to learn how high the hazard of earthquakes is throughout the African Rift.

Much as you would expect, the map – which specifically predicts the probability of peak ground acceleration, or an earthquake that most likely damages low-rise buildings – highlights some infamous ground-shaking hotspots, such as southern California, Hawaii and Turkey. But, since for some countries this was the first-ever seismological hazard assessment, the map highlights some new earthquake zones. In Africa, for example – for which there was little data – the hazard is much higher than researchers would have thought. And finding that data was a little harder than they might of thought as well.

In the eastern part of Africa, along the African Rift, much of the historic seismic activity had occurred in unpopulated and undeveloped places. Giardini explains that the hazards we are familiar with are a measure of our memory. Unlike in heavily populated cities, though, memory is short in these kinds of barren regions. In the end, researchers had to go as far away as England to find historic data on past earthquakes in the African Rift. Similarly, some researchers even looked in the Bible to find out the history of earthquakes in the Middle East.

With the new map, which was launched by the International Lithosphere Program with support from the United Nations’ International Decade for Natural Disasters, every country now has information on its own hazardous zones. According to Giardini, the map will be useful for engineers, urban planners and insurers to help regulate codes of design and construction. What the map does not measure, however, is risk from earthquakes.

Seismologists make a distinction between hazard, which is the probability of ground shaking, and risk, which is the probability of damage or of casualties – a multiplication of the hazard by the vulnerability of the building. So Giardini cautions that just because you may live in a high hazard region is no reason to start packing your bags – after all, he says, there are very few completely safe places to live. Instead, cities can limit the impact of an earthquake.

“Now a society can live with earthquakes as it can live with volcanoes, but it has to be prepared for that. So in itself, the hazard can be high, but not necessarily the risk. If you live in a well-built house and your infrastructure is up to standards, then you can live with earthquakes,” says Giardini, who adds, that the difficult part is getting the entire world to achieve this.

How do you cope, working when it’s that cold? The answer, according to Auld, is one familiar to many Canadians: dress for it.

BAS scientists recorded weather conditions every three hours throughout the Antarctic winter (Photo courtesy BAS)

“Snow boots, thick and thin pairs of socks, thermal underwear, t-shirt,” Auld lists as the normal first layer worn. “Light fleece, thick fleece (moleskin trousers were preferred to fleece tracksuit bottoms). The outer layer depended on the weather. A thick cotton ventile top and bottoms for windy weather, a thick protective VR jacket and trousers for manual work, or a duvet style ‘doo suit’ for cold skidoo trips. Hat, fleece headover, thin and thick pairs of gloves, goggles (clear lens for winter, dark for summer), and sunscreen.”

Auld was at Halley’s base as part of an atmospheric study, setting up experiments to look at atmospheric chemistry, glaciology and meteorology, collecting snow and air samples and recording the weather every three hours. Working in a team of three, Auld and her colleagues covered the 24-hour shift.

And it could get really cold.

Close quarters can be more of a challenge to researchers than cold air

“The coldest temperature recorded while I was south was negative 51.2 Celcius,” Auld recalls. “The only work I did at this temperature was a quick trip to the meteorological station to record the temperature and check all instruments were working! Below -40C I found it becomes painful to breathe as the moisture on the hairs of my nose and mouth froze instantly. To help avoid this I wore a neoprene face mask (very kinky!).”

So what’s negative 51.2 feel like with the windchill factored in? Warmer.

“Unlike more normal conditions where there is a decrease in temperature with height, in the Antarctic winter the opposite is true,” explains Auld. “It is colder at the surface than maybe 500 metres above it, [because] snow is, obviously, always cold and cools the surface air above it. Furthur away from the ground there is less cooling effect. So the coldest conditions are when it is calm and clear. When fronts or depressions pass over the base, they bring strong winds which mix up the atmosphere allowing the warmer air above to reach the surface. So even in the middle of winter, with 40 knots of wind, it may bring the temperature up to -10 celcius.”

Auld insists that on a sunny day, you could work in a T-shirt and shorts so long as you keep moving. But for three months out of the year the Sun never rises in Antarctica at all. During those cold, sunless months, the scientists would find their way by the light of the Moon and the stars — or torches on cloudy days.

Despite everything, Antarctica is the perfect laboratory (Photo courtesy BAS)

“Base work was kept to an absolute minimum, with full preparation for the winter months completed in autumn,” Auld says. “Chefs and radio operators had little need to go outside, while the meteorologists, upper atmospheric engineers and vehicle mechanic were required to walk to work everyday. Other [people doing] jobs such as steel erector and field guide were occasionally required to complete grueling tasks in adverse conditions.”

However, their refuge stayed toasty. The heavily-insulated timber and steel living quarters were powered by generators, and kept at a comfortable 20 degrees C. It consisted of a kitchen, dining room, lounge (with TV, small bar and pool table!) library, dark room and computer room, and small pit bedrooms, and was built on stilts five meters off the ground, to prevent being buried in drifting snow.

But even though temperatures inside the rooms were usually a comfortable 20 degrees Celsius, the atmosphere could be frostier than outside.

“The daily challenge of living in isolation with the same 15 people for 10 months of the year, three of which are in darkness, is the biggest challenge I faced,” Auld says. “Coping with the frustrations of personality clashes, even if the clash is between others, and little personal space can leave you feeling surprisingly lonely. And yet I find I have met some of my best friends while ‘south.’”

And there were opportunities to “get away from it all” and visit the penguins.

“We had a small caboose that slept two or four, situated just one kilometre away from the base that people used for weekend retreats,” Auld explains. “On top of this our main relaxation was the field training trips where we would skidoo out to camp and then trek around the area looking for climbing areas, and visit the penguins. And darkroom photography development was also extremely popular.”

Sometimes nature itself was all it took to coax the staff out into the cold.

“The aurora could be guaranteed to get everyone outside, whatever the weather or time of night,” Auld says.

Could anyone survive work as an Antarctic researcher? Auld admits that she’s not too fussy about temperature, so long as it’s sunny, and she has the right gear to enjoy some type of sporting activity in whatever environment she’s in — so she may be more adaptable to the work.

“I found that walking to and from work every day reminded me just how fragile and quite frankly, odd, this world is,” says Auld. “The diversity of landscape and of people the world over is truly fantastic. I was constantly busy when working in the Antarctic and I enjoyed the reality of working to survive, having to think where you’re water is coming from daily, whether there’s enough fuel to last the cold spell.”

And for a scientist, it may be the most perfect of work spaces.

“I have heard numerous people say it, and I have to agree, that the Antarctic is the perfect laboratory,” Auld points out. “For my area of research it is about as controlled a situation as can be found. It is remote, flat, dark, and cold, with little if any anthropogenic impact. What more could anyone ask for?

The High Atlas has the highest peaks in North Africa, including Mount Toubkal, which exceeds 4000 m altitude. Despite high temperatures of summer, these peaks remain snow cover for most of the year.

The Tellien Atlas and Saharan Atlas in Algeria are located (visible to the east of the Upper and Middle Atlas). The Atlas Tellien stretches along the Mediterranean coast and receives substantial rainfall which he was sheltering many fertile valleys. It extends to Tunisia (not shown here).

South Algérien, below the Saharan Atlas (south of the Atlas Tellien) does so receives no precipitation and is part of the Sahara desert (which covers the lower part of the image).

Other elements are also visible in the image, including the Mediterranean Sea (top right) and the Atlantic Ocean (left), connected by the Straits of Gibraltar and the southern tip of Spain ( in the upper left).

This image was taken on 30 January 2009 by the camera Meris (Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) Envisat working in full resolution mode, which allows to distinguish details of 300 m to the ground.

Welcome to Issue #1

As a long-time admirer of The Universe in the Classroom, a publication of the
Astronomical Society of the Pacific, I feel especially privileged to welcome you to this first issue of The Earth in the Classroom.

We hope to contribute to the Earth sciences in the same way that The Universe in the Classroom has contributed to astronomy. Our goal is to help you stay up-to-date on some of the most fascinating topics on Earth, under the ground and in our planet’s atmosphere.

Our first topic for The Earth in the Classroom is an important one. In choosing
it, we asked the same question of a variety of scientists: "What issue currently
under discussion by scientists in your field most needs the public’s support and
understanding?" Unlike threats to biological diversity in tropical rain forests
around the globe, the various threats to biodiversity in Earth’s oceans aren’t
yet common knowledge. But human activities are affecting the oceans in ways that
are extremely harmful. We hope that this publication will be a step in the
direction of more public awareness of some of these potentially devastating
activities.

Welcome to The Earth in the Classroom !

If you are a student or teacher and would like to be on the mailing list for
the printed versions of Earth in the Classroom and Universe in the Classroom,
e-mail your name and mailing address to:
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Read the latest

Universe in the Classroom from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. This
booklet is distributed in conjunction with the Earth in the Classroom booklets.

ALIEN INVASIONS,
Pt. 1
 

Earth is an ocean planet, 71% covered by water. The Pacific Ocean alone is
big enough that all the world’s dry land could snuggle within its shores. If you
consider living creatures and plants, the sea’s significance to Earth becomes
even more dramatic. The average depth of the biosphere on land is tiny, in
contrast to the inhabited realm of the sea. On land, the biosphere — the part
of Earth that sustains life — is only about 20 meters thick from tops of trees
to the bottoms of tree roots. In the sea, the biosphere is 4,000 meters thick.
That means that the permanently inhabited volume of Earth’s biosphere is 99.8%
marine.

The sea serves as a protector and provider for humankind. For thousands of
years, coastal settlers have extracted the rich bounty of finfish and shellfish,
even seaweed. The sea has been, and continues to be, a promising source of
medicines. Coral reefs, mangrove habitats, and barrier islands form buffers to
protect coastal lands from the relentless pounding of ocean waves.

When facing an expanse of ocean that stretches as far as the eye can see,
it’s easy to get the mistaken idea that the sea is too vast and too wild ever to
be altered by human activities. And yet today, with more than five billion
people living on Earth, human activities are having an unprecedented impact on
the diversity of life in the sea.

Overfishing has resulted in a severe worldwide depletion of many fish stocks.
Physical alteration of the marine environment, such as the destruction of
mangroves and salt marshes, disrupt the natural patterns of life. Runoff from
urban areas, fertilizer, sewage, and industrial wastes flow into streams and
rivers, and eventually end up in the sea. Chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) released
into the atmosphere eat away at the protective stratospheric ozone layer,
allowing biologically-damaging ultraviolet radiation to penetrate toward the
Earth’s surface. The effects of more incoming ultraviolet radiation are complex,
but a number of marine organisms may be sensitive, including phytoplankton — at
the base of the food chain for many creatures — and possibly also organisms
higher on the food chain.

These threats to sea life are all worrisome and important. But there’s yet
another immediate threat to the sea’s natural communities of plants and animals,
and to the preservation of endangered species. This threat primarily affects
coastal waters and their natural ecosystems, rather than the sea at large. It
moves by sea, however; it is riding the waves at this moment in sea-going ships,
designed to transport cargo from one part of the world to another.

In recent years, the public eye has been turned to the devastation of island
ecosystems such as New Zealand and Hawaii, due to the introduction of
non-indigenous land species. Finding no natural predators, these species can
wreck havoc on existing biological communities. Similar invasions of marine
species haven’t been as well studied, but scientists are now beginning to
recognize the scope of the problem. The recognition is dawning that some marine
species, while an integral and even beneficial part of the chain of life in
their own home waters, can represent an alien invasion in faraway bays, harbors
and estuaries. The movement of these species from one part of the ocean to
another has the potential to be devastating to marine ecosystems throughout the
world.

The Black Sea Invasion

In 1982, a creature native to the western Atlantic Ocean coast was found
thousands of miles away from home, in the waters of the Black Sea in Europe. By
1988, these invaders had reproduced to such great numbers that they were able to
inflict severe damage on the local fishing industry. Feeding voraciously on
zooplankton, fish eggs and larvae, they reduced fish stocks and deprived native
marine creatures of food. They also clogged fishing nets, reducing even more the
already-depleted commercial fish catch.

In the Azov Sea, a smaller body of water connected to the Black Sea, the
anchovy fishery was virtually destroyed, along with other commercially valuable
fish stocks. In 1992, the invaders appeared in sections of the eastern
Mediterranean, another body of water connected to the Black Sea, in
ominous-looking dense concentrations. The animals are still spreading, and will
likely colonize other productive estuarine regions in the near future.

The animal that has caused such havoc is a soft, delicate, milky-transparent
creature with beautiful iridescent features, measuring up to four inches long. A
member of the comb jelly phylum, it is called "Mnemiopsis leidyi", also known as
the sea walnut. Mnemiopsis leidyi, indigenous to the western Atlantic, typically
resides offshore from Woods Hole, Massachusetts, to southern Argentina, although
it has occasionally been found in the deep ocean.

This comb jelly can survive in a fairly wide range of environmental
conditions. It is even quite tolerant of pollutants. Its favored habitat,
however, is brackish waters with high levels of particulate material. Such
conditions exist in the warm temperate waters of bays and estuaries. In addition
to consuming the eggs and larvae of fish, Mnemiopsis leidyi also feeds on
planktonic crustaceans and the larvae of marine animals like clams and mussels.
It is an eating machine. Even after its stomach is full, it will continue to
regurgitate undigested food to make room for more captured prey.

The Mnemiopsis leidyi population remains under control in its native marine
habitats, where it’s kept in check by natural predators and limitations on food.
In the Chesapeake Bay, Mnemiopsis leidyi is part of a stable marine community.
Why, then, has it caused such damage in the Black Sea?

Over millions of years, the process of evolution has resulted in a stable
ecosystem where all species in a given ecosystem interact in harmony with each
other. Mnemiopsis found lots to eat in the Black Sea, and no significant
predators. In this region of the world, thousands of miles from home, the
population of Mnemiopsis exploded out of control.

Ocean-going Stowaways

How did Mnemiopsis leidyi get to Europe? The colonization of animal and plant
species is a part of the natural history of life on Earth. Gradual geological
activity can create land bridges that allow species to spread. Land barriers
that separate seas can be gradually and naturally removed, allowing species to
intermingle. Some animals and plants, carried by ocean currents and winds,
alight on land to create a new community of living things.

But Mnemiopsis didn’t reach the Black Sea by riding thousands of miles on
ocean currents. If they had, the comb jellies would have come to inhabit the
many estuaries of northern and western Europe, long before reaching southern
waters. They also would have had to enter the Mediterranean Sea before reaching
the Black and Azov Seas. This wasn’t the case. It was the Black Sea that was
first colonized by Mnemiopsis leidyi.

The answer to this mystery lies in the shipping industry. Since the earliest
days of seafaring exploration, human beings have been instrumental in
transporting marine animals and plants, either intentionally or by accident, to
places where they do not historically belong. For example, the ships of Viking
explorers, arriving in North America long before Christopher Columbus, no doubt
carried barnacles, mollusks, worms and algae on their hulls.

Now anti-fouling paints have reduced the number of marine hitchhikers that
cling to the outside of ships. But, in recent years, the ballast water of ships
has become one of the most widespread means of dispersal for marine organisms.
Ships at sea are actually only partially afloat in the water. Much of the lower
ship is submerged below the waves to maintain the stability of the entire
vessel. In order to ride low in the water, a ship uses heavy cargo to weigh it
down. But if the ship is empty, or if there isn’t enough cargo to maintain
stability, the ship must take on water.

This water is stored in ballast tanks, and sometimes in cargo holds, and
weighs the ship down to make it more stable at sea. A ship with an empty cargo
hold, for example, will take on ballast water at a harbor. This water contains
plankton and other sea creatures. When a ship reaches its destination, this
ballast water is dumped out, and any stowaway marine organisms are introduced to
a new environment. It is now believed that Mnemiopsis leidyi arrived to the
Black and Azov Seas in this manner, in the ballast water of ocean-going ships.

Ballast water has been used by ships since the 1880s. However, since the 1970s,
the number of alien species spread by ballast water has increased dramatically.
The reasons for this increase are not well understood. It is likely that the
odds for survival for creatures in ballast water has increased because modern
ships are bigger and faster. Some scientists have also suggested that polluted
and nutrient-rich waters have weakened the health of these ecosystems, making
them more vulnerable to invasion. Meanwhile, others have argued the reverse;
they suggest that cleaner coastal waters have an increased susceptibility to
alien marine invasions.

In 1993, marine ecologists James Carlton at Williams College, Mystic Seaport,
Connecticut, and Jonathan B. Geller at the University of North Carolina at
Wilmington, announced the results of a U.S. Coast Guard/ Sea Grant study. They
examined creatures in ballast water from 159 ships docked at the Coos Bay harbor
in Oregon. The ships originated from 25 ports in Japan, with voyages averaging
about 2 weeks in duration. In all, Carlton and Geller found 367 different kinds
of marine creatures, mostly in their larval stage. They included shrimp, crabs,
sea anemones, sea urchins, starfish, barnacles, jellyfish, snails, clams, fish,
worms and many microscopic organisms.

This work has prompted Carlton to speak of "a conveyor belt of marine
organisms wrapping around the world." He points out that there are several
thousand species in motion right at this moment, in the ballast waters of ships.

ALIEN
INVASIONS, Pt. 2

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The Colonization of San
Francisco Bay

In the United States, one of the ecosystems most severely affected by
biological invasions can be found in California. San Francisco Bay, an estuary
protected from the harsh elements of the Pacific Ocean, has been quietly robbed
of its unique identity over the past hundred and thirty years. It was once rich
fishing waters for prized catch such as oysters, shrimp, Pacific salmon and
Dungeness crab. Today, the natives of the bay are greatly outnumbered by more
recent arrivals.

The bay has endured a number of assaults. In 1862, massive flooding brought a
week-long torrent of freshwater that most likely changed the ecology of the bay.
Seven years later, with the completion of the transcontinental railroad, trains
brought live oysters to the bay for cultivation. The oysters were unable to
adapt to their new home, but other organisms that traveled with the oyster
clusters thrived. As California’s population grew, and demands on the land
increased, agriculture runoff and industrial pollution introduced harmful
chemicals into the bay waters. Then came more alien invaders.

San Francisco is a thriving international port, receiving shipments from
locations around the world, including stowaway organisms in ballast water. In
1985, a species of clam native to Asia appeared in the upper region of the bay.
These clams, while still in their larval form, most likely hitched a ride in the
ballast tank of a freighter. Today, the floor of the bay is carpeted with these
creatures, with more than 10,000 clams per square meter in some places.

To complicate an already complex situation, another invader was found in
southern San Francisco Bay in 1990. The European green crab, a small but
voracious crab with a hearty appetite for clams and mussels, has since spread
throughout the bay. Could it control the prolific reproduction of the Asian
clam? And what will be the impact on native shellfish and other invertebrates?

There are now more than 200 non-indigenous species of organisms in the San
Francisco Bay. Sea slugs from New Zealand and jellyfish from the Black Sea are
just a few of the recent arrivals that have joined the alien menagerie in the
bay. There is a biological roulette game in progress with an outcome that has
affected, and will continue to affect, the ecology of the entire bay.

San Francisco Bay is not the only American body of water now inhabited by
alien invaders. Inland waters have been found to be vulnerable as well.
Non-indigenous zebra mussels in the Great Lakes have cost millions of dollars in
damage, clogging intake pipes of utilities and industries, devastating native
clam populations, and severely disrupting the freshwater lake ecosystems. By the
year 2000, the price tag for dealing with the mussel will reach hundreds of
millions of dollars. These one-inch-long invaders first appeared in the
mid-1980s, transported from the Black Sea in the ballast water of ships. Despite
precautions, they are still spreading, making their way into the major waterways
of North America.

Solutions?

Whether it’s Mnemiopsis leidyi in the Black Sea, the European green crab in
San Francisco Bay, or zebra mussels in the Great Lakes, biological pollution is
difficult to control because it is self-replicating.

Scientists have been considering several different ways to rid the Black and
Azov Seas of the unwelcome comb jellies. Pesticides, parasites and introduced
diseases are not feasible because they could affect other native species.
Introducing predators that feed on Mnemiopsis has its risks. For example, a
Chesapeake Bay jellyfish that preys on comb jellies can inflict severe stings on
swimmers. Turtles and seabirds would be very difficult to introduce to the Black
Sea. Fish that prey on Mnemiopsis leidyi are most likely to succeed, but it
should be a species that prefers feeding on comb jellies, is a commercially
useful species, and is capable of surviving in the Black and Azov Seas.

Although the introduction of non-indigenous organisms is already widespread
around the world, it is not too late to reduce or eliminate future occurrences.

One proposed solution is to exchange ballast water in mid-ocean. If ballast
water from harbors that are rich in organisms is dumped in mid-ocean, there is
very little chance for these shallow-water creatures to survive the high seas.
In turn, mid-ocean creatures would most likely perish when released in the
shallow waters of a harbor. Exchanging ballast water in mid-ocean, however, can
be dangerous, and thus other options are also needed. The destruction of
stowaway organisms by filtering or sterilizing ballast water, or by other means,
is now under consideration.

In 1991, the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted
guidelines for reducing the introduction of unwanted non-indigenous species.
Among their recommendations is that ships avoid taking on ballast water in
shallow waters rich in organisms, and in places infected by toxic marine algae
blooms. Ship captains are being asked to keep accurate records of locations
where ballast water intake and discharge are performed. If feasible, exchanging
ballast water in the high seas is recommended. These guidelines, however, are
currently voluntary and ignored by many countries. The IMO is now considering
whether ballast water regulations should be added to their rules for
international pollution control.

A Homogenized World?

The sheltered waters of bays and estuaries provide a nurturing habitat for a
large variety of marine species. Each place hosts a unique combination of plants
and animals not found anywhere else. When organisms with aggressive
characteristics are introduced from elsewhere, more than just the native biota
are affected. For people who depend on the sea for their livelihood, the
economic consequences can also be devastating.

If the introduction of non-indigenous species continues unchecked, it will
someday create a world where bays and estuaries everywhere, with similar
temperatures and salinities, will have the same assemblages of plants and
animals. Native species evolved over millions of years will be smothered to make
way for a few hardy species. This could result, as James Carlton has described
it, in "a homogenized world."

But, some would ask, why does that matter?

Many places may become like San Francisco Bay, which is now 200 species
"richer" in non-indigenous species than it was just over a century ago In San
Francisco Bay, no native species are known to have become extinct, and yet
something else important is gone forever. That is the opportunity to understand
the natural workings and critical balances of one of our nation’s largest
estuaries. And with that loss may come another: the possibility of restoring the
once-valuable native fisheries in this part of the world.

In other regions, according to James Carlton, "at the rate of invasions now
occurring, we may yet lose native species entirely. Accidental marine invasions
do have the potential to alter our seascapes beyond recognition. Thus future
generations may be deprived of the gifts that nature has bestowed."

Author-

Deborah Byrd

Science, nature, people, intelligence, hope, sustainability. Deborah Byrd –
founder and president of EarthSky and editor-in-chief of this website – writes
frequently about 21st century issues including population, health and the human
world. She has set a goal for EarthSky of reaching a billion people around the
world with the words and insights of scientists. A science communicator and
educator for 30+ years, Byrd has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting
and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her
honor

It has already been shown that during a sudden drop in temperature, the process of transcription (producing RNA from DNA) and translation (protein production from mRNA) are strongly affected. However, low temperature, protein family CSpA (cold shock protein) are more numerous. These proteins called “cold adaptation” are from the translation of a dozen genes. These are protein “chaperone” DNA and RNA, they bind to nucleic acids and thus facilitate the most fundamental processes (transcription, translation, degradation of RNA, assembly of ribosomes …).



Researchers Laboratory Architecture and responsiveness of the NRAs (CNRS), University of Camerino (Italy) and the University of Düsseldorf (Germany) showed that the structure of the messenger RNA (mRNA) that encodes the major protein response to cold, CSPA, was able to “feel” temperature. They noted that the nascent mRNA adopts a structure that is unstable and transient high temperature, but is stabilized at low temperature. This structure favors translation at low temperature, revealing the molecular mechanism by which the protein CSpA is produced in large quantities in response to stress.



This study highlights a novel molecular mechanism where the mRNA structure adapts itself to the temperature. The changing structure of the mRNA without the intervention of proteins can be regarded as a primitive mechanism of regulation The mRNA then carries out a key function in gene regulation, particularly in adaptive processes. The discovery of these new regulatory macromolecules opens the way for new strategies to inhibit bacterial growth.

“The spectrum of a planet is like a fingerprint. It provides essential information on the chemical constituents of the atmosphere of a planet,” said Markus Janson, first author of the article presenting the new findings. “With this information we can better understand how planets formed, and in the future, we should be able to find indications of the presence of life.”

This team of researchers has obtained the spectrum of a giant planet orbiting a very young and bright star HR 8799. The system is about 130 light years of Earth This star has a mass equal to 1.5 solar masses and hosts a planetary system that resembles an enlarged model of our own solar system Three giant planetary companions, mass between 7 and 10 times the mass of Jupiter, were detected in 2008 by another team of researchers. The distance between these planets to their stars is between 20 and 70 times the Earth-Sun distance and the system also has two belts of smaller objects, like the asteroid belt and the Kuiper Belt of our solar system.



“Of the three planets, our target was the middle one, which is about ten times more massive than Jupiter and has a temperature about 800 degrees Celsius, “said Carolina Bergfors, a member of the team. “After more than five hours of time breaks, we were able to identify the spectrum of the star of light although its brightest star. ”



This is the first time that the spectrum of an exoplanet orbiting a normal star, almost like the sun, was obtained directly. Previously, only the spectra obtained have need of pointing a space telescope on an exoplanet in the process to pass directly behind its host star – a “solar eclipse Exoplanetary “- and then the spectrum could be extracted by comparing the light from the star before and after. However, this method can be used if the orientation of the orbit of the exoplanet is perfectly straight, which is true only for a small fraction of all systems Exoplanetary. The new spectrum, for its part, was obtained from the ground, using the VLT – the Very Large Telescope – the ESO with observations direct that do not depend on the orientation of the orbit.



Since the host star is thousands of times brighter than the planet, obtaining the spectrum is truly remarkable. “It’s like trying to see what a candle is made by observing two miles away when it is next to a dazzling lamp 300 watt,” says Markus Janson.



This discovery was possible thanks to the infrared instrument NACO, installed on the VLT and depends largely on the extraordinary ability of the adaptive optics system (3) of this instrument. Images and spectra more precise giant exoplanets are expected with the next-generation instrument SPHERE, which will be installed at the VLT in 2011, and with the European giant telescope.



The newest data show that the atmosphere surrounding the planet is still poorly understood. “The characteristics observed in the spectrum are not compatible with the existing theoretical models,” says Wolfgang Brandner, a co-author of the article. “We need take into account a more detailed description of atmospheric dust clouds or accept that the The atmosphere has a chemical composition different from what was previously assumed. ”



Astronomers hope to soon have the “fingerprints” of two other giant planets, so they can compare, for the first time, the spectra of three planets belonging to the same system. “This will undoubtedly provide valuable information about the processes that lead to the formation of planetary systems like ours” concluded Markus Janson.



Notes:


(1) As demonstrated by all the rainbows, white light can be decomposed into different colors. Astronomers artificially decompose the light of distant objects that are in these different colors (or wavelengths). However, where there are five or six colors of the rainbow, astronomers get hundreds of finely nuanced colors, producing a spectrum – a recording of different amounts of light emitted by an object in each narrow band of color. The details of the spectrum – the more light emitted in certain colors and less in others – provide information on the chemical composition of matter producing light. This ability to record spectra spectroscopy is a tool significant research in astronomy.

(2) In 2004, using the NACO instrument on the VLT astronomers have obtained images and spectra of an object of 5 Jupiter masses around a brown dwarf – a “star unfinished. We think that these two objects were probably formed together – as a small binary star, whereas the companion to be formed in the disk around the brown dwarf, like a star-planet system (See eso0428, eso0515 and eso0619).



(3) ground-based telescopes suffer from the effect of blurring due to atmospheric turbulence. This turbulence causes the twinkling stars that delights the poets but frustrates the astronomers, because it blurs the subtle details in images. However, the techniques of adaptive optics, this major disruption can be corrected so that the telescopes provide images that are theoretically as accurate as possible, ie, approaching conditions in space. The adaptive optics systems operate using deformable mirrors controlled by computer that neutralize the distortions caused by atmospheric turbulence. The principle is based on optical corrections computed in real time to a very high speed (several hundred times per second) from image data obtained by a detector wavefront (a camera special) which control light from a reference star.

The name “eel” in French refers to several species of fish body elongated in the genus Anguilla. Fish are catadromous, meaning they spend most of their lives in freshwater, but to travel thousands of miles to reach their spawning (breeding ground), which is located in the Ocean. Until now, the reason for this behavior is still very mysterious.

Researchers have obtained sequences of mitochondrial genomes [1] of 56 species belonging to the order Anguilliformes, which includes eels, but also Congress, the eels … They then compared these sequences with each other to establish a phylogenetic tree representing the genetic proximity of different species studied. They found that species of the genus Anguilla are part of a monophyletic group (ie, a group of species consisting of a common ancestor and all its descendants) with 47 other species, which have in common live in subtropical or tropical sea, at depths between 200 m and 3000 m. The researchers conclude that the group’s common ancestor probably lived in this type of environment. The freshwater eels have adapted to a different environment, but would then still retains the reproductive behavior of this ancestor.

It is useful to understand the life cycle of eels because many species have some economic importance (in Japan under the name of unagi, it is a very active ingredient in the kitchen) and now see their population decline is worrying.

The epicenter, unfortunately, is only twenty kilometers from the capital, Port-au-Prince. According to the PTWC (Pacific Tsunami Warning Center), which depends on the NOAA, the magnitude was 7.1, or 7.0 according to the USGS, high energy, which corresponds to an earthquake called “major”. It is the same as that of the earthquake that rocked Sumatra September 30, 2009. The undersea earthquake that caused the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean himself had reached 9.3.

Two aftershocks of magnitudes 5.9 and 5.5. The island of Santo Domingo, which is also the Dominican Republic, had not experienced such an event for 200 years.

A vegetation type woodland with palm trees, hackberry trees and figs: This was the environment of Ardipithecus ramidus, this distant relative of Homo sapiens (modern man) who lived in Ethiopia there are 4.4 million years. This is the conclusion of a French team that has been published in a special issue of Science magazine devoted to Ardipithecus, involving no fewer than 47 scientists (paleontologists, paleoanthropologists, biochemists, geologists, and paleobotanists) the world wide. The objective of these experts? Describe the morphology and habitat of a possible first representatives of the human lineage. Exits to contradict the supposed link between locomotion and environment.

The fossils of this hominid were unearthed in the Valley of the Awash River. Afar language, ardi means “soil” or “root”. Ardipithecus ramidus is “the root of terrestrial great apes. Racine, for his age closer to the separation between the lines of that of chimpanzees and humans, it is located approximately six million years. Ardipithecus could well have been one of the fathers of Australopithecus, the family of hominids that gave birth to the genus Homo. In other words, if Ardipithecus was not our grandfather, he was at least a close cousin.

The first fossils of Ardipithecus were extracted from their matrix sediment in 1994. The time including harvest more of bones and develop methods of plant analysis unpublished, it will therefore taken thirteen years to paleoanthropology and environmental studies to speak. The results? Ardipithecus was both bipedal and arboreal. If he used his four limbs to move in the trees, once landed, he stood and evolved in the midst of a semi-wooded.

“The scarcity of pollen in sediments has stimulated our work on the fragments of fossilized wood, seeds and finally the small silica particles produced by plants is called phytoliths,” describes Doris Barboni, who co-led with Raymonde Bonnefille analytical work to plant European Center for Research and Teaching of Environmental Geosciences (Cerege) in Aix-en-Provence. To identify the species origin of fossil phytoliths, palaeobotanists collaborated with researchers from the Center of bio-archeology and ecology (CBAE), including Laurent Bremond, and the University Paris-Ouest-La Defense, Nanterre, who visited several times since 1994 to Africa to collect samples from different vegetation types at the end comparison.

Identification of seeds of Celtis (hackberry belongs Mediterranean) and the presence of fig wood and palm indicate a seasonal climate. On the other hand, the significant presence of grasses has been documented by pollen and phytoliths. Two types of landscapes woodland – where the sun reaches the ground – can match this combination of vegetation or trees were grouped into wood pierced with grassy clearings, or the grass grew up in a sparse forest. What hypothesis prefer? The analysis does not say.

However, they point the abundance of trees, estimated between 40 and 65% of plant cover, a figure that will reverse the supposed link between environment and mode of locomotion. Indeed, the theory is that the dominant bipedalism is the result of an adjustment to the conversion of a middle of a wooded savannah open, the presence of tall grass forcing primates to recover. Ardipithecus shows that bipedalism may very well thrive in a landscape semi-wooded. But then what would have been the engine recovery, point starting the long walk evolving into humans? A 4 million years apart, Ardipithecus has just relaunched the debate