Negative Blogs

Tories may be born not made, claims a study that suggests people with right
wing views have a larger area of the brain associated with fear.

The brains of MPs and students were examined Photo: CORBIS

By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent

5:00PM GMT 28 Dec 2010

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Scientists have found that people with conservative views have brains with
larger amygdalas, almond shaped areas in the centre of the brain often
associated with anxiety and emotions.

On the otherhand, they have a smaller anterior cingulate, an area at the front
of the brain associated with courage and looking on the bright side of life.

The “exciting” correlation was found by scientists at University College
London who scanned the brains of two members of parliament and a number of
students.

They found that the size of the two areas of the brain directly related to the
political views of the volunteers.

However as they were all adults it was hard to say whether their brains had
been born that way or had developed through experience.

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Article extracted from telegraph.co.uk

Two groups of scientists are suggesting a sliver of hope for the future of polar bears in a warming world.

A study published online Wednesday rejects the often used concept of a “tipping point,” or point of no return, when it comes to sea ice and the big bear that has become the symbol of climate-change woes. The study optimistically suggests that if the world dramatically changed its steadily increasing emissions of greenhouse gases, a total loss of critical summer sea ice for the bears could be averted.

Another research group projects that even if global warming doesn’t slow — a more likely near-future scenario — a thin, icy refuge for the bears would still remain between Greenland and Canada.

A grim future for polar bears is one of the most tangible and poignant outcomes of global warming. Four years ago, federal researchers reported that two-thirds of the world’s polar bear habitat could vanish by mid-century. Other experts foresee an irreversible ice-free Arctic in the next few years as more likely.

The new study, which challenges the idea of a tipping point, says rapid ice loss could still happen, but there’s a chance that the threatened bears aren’t quite doomed.

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“There is something that can be done to save polar bears,” said lead author Steven Amstrup, the former senior polar bear scientist for the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska. “The problem is not irreversible.”

His research, published in Nature, shows there’s a steady relationship between greenhouse gas emissions, sea ice and polar bear habitat. As emissions rise, sea ice and polar bear habitat decline. But unlike previous research, there’s no drop-off tipping point in Amstrup’s models.

Essentially until all sea ice is gone permanently in the summer there is still a chance to prevent the worst-case, if global warming is stopped in time, Amstrup’s research shows.

“Such a tipping point would mean that future reductions in greenhouse gas emissions would do little to save the polar bear,” said Amstrup, who is now chief scientist for the conservation group Polar Bears International. “It seems clear that if people and leaders think that there’s nothing they can do, they will do nothing.”

Some experts called Amstrup too optimistic, but said his computer models made sense.

“I wouldn’t say that we can rule out a tipping point, but it does show that a tipping point isn’t inevitable,” said Walt Meier, a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo.

But that all hinges on reducing greenhouse gas emissions — carbon dioxide and other pollution from the burning of fossil fuels, said Mark Serreze, director of the center. “Time is running out. Humankind needs to make a choice,” he said.

Time has already run out, said Henry Jacoby, a management professor at MIT and founder of its MIT Global Change Joint Program.

Jacoby examined the computer models Amstrup used in his paper and said it is based on a “world that’s already long gone.” The two scenarios of emission reductions are points that the world has already passed or will pass in the next few years, Jacoby said.

After the global recession led to a one-year dip in carbon dioxide emissions, they are soaring again, according to a recent study. And vague international agreements made in Cancun last week and in Copenhagen last year don’t do enough, Jacoby said.

“Even given the pledges on the table, we don’t come close to what these guys use in their hopeful scenario,” he said.

Study co-author Eric DeWeaver of the National Science Foundation called the scenarios he used “plausible.”

But DeWeaver and Amstrup agree the polar bear is in deep trouble if emissions continue to rise as they are now.

A second study was to be presented Thursday at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco. That research considers a future in which global warming continues at the same pace.

And it shows that a belt from the northern archipelago of Canada to the northern tip of Greenland will likely still have ice because of various winds and currents.

The sea ice forms off Siberia in an area that’s called “the ice factory” and is blown to this belt, which is like an “ice cube tray,” said Robert Newton of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University.

That “sea ice refuge” will be good for polar bears and should continue for decades to come, maybe even into the next century, he said.

Just how many polar bears could live there still has to be figured out, according to the research by Newton and Stephanie Pfirman of Barnard College.

Amstrup’s study doesn’t downplay the nature of global warming and its effect on polar bears, especially if emissions increase.

“The changes that are occurring in the Arctic are going on at a much more rapid rate than elsewhere in the world,” Amstrup said. “So the changes that are occurring and affecting polar bears really foreshadow much more significant changes that are likely to occur worldwide.”

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Article extracted from usatoday.com

United States students are continuing to trail behind their peers in a pack of higher performing nations, according to results from a key international assessment.

Scores from the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment to be released Tuesday show 15-year-old students in the U.S. performing about average in reading and science, and below average in math. Out of 34 countries, the U.S. ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math.

Those scores are all higher than those from 2003 and 2006, but far behind the highest scoring countries, including South Korea, Finland and Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai in China and Canada.

“This is an absolute wake-up call for America,” U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in an interview with The Associated Press. “The results are extraordinarily challenging to us and we have to deal with the brutal truth. We have to get much more serious about investing in education.”

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The PISA exam is one of a handful of tests that compare educational levels across nations, and is considered to be the most comprehensive. The test focuses on how well students are able to apply their knowledge in math, reading and science to real-life situations. Some 470,000 students took the test in 2009 in 65 countries and educational systems, from poor, underdeveloped nations to the most wealthy.

Student performance on international assessments is considered especially relevant as today’s high school graduates enter a global job market, where highly skilled workers are in increasing demand.

The United States’ mediocre scores on the PISA exam have repeatedly been highlighted by the Obama administration and others pushing for education reform. A number of countries have made significant improvements in recent years, while the U.S. has made only incremental advancements.

Between 1995 and 2008, for example, the United States slipped from ranking second in college graduation rates to 13th, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Paris-based organization that develops and administers the PISA exam. Of 34 OECD countries, only 8 have a lower high school graduation rate.

Responding to the grim figures, President Obama has set a goal for the U.S. to have the highest proportion of students graduating from college in 2020.

“We live in a globally competitive knowledge based economy, and our children today are at a competitive disadvantage with children from other countries,” Duncan said. “That is absolutely unfair to our children and that puts our country’s long term economic prosperity absolutely at risk.”

The impact of improving math, reading and science scores could be radical: A recent OECD study with Stanford University projected that if the U.S. boosted its average PISA scores by 25 points over the next 20 years, there would be a gain of $41 trillion in the U.S. economy over the lifetime of the generation born in 2010.

The 2009 exam had an extra focus on reading, and looked at how factors such as family background, equity of resources, and governance influence educational outcomes.

The top performers in reading were South Korea, Finland, Hong Kong and Shanghai in China, Singapore, Canada, New Zealand, Japan and Australia.

The gap between the highest performing countries and the United States is stark — students in Shanghai, for example, had an average score of 556 points in reading, 56 points higher than the 500-point average reached by United States students. Shanghai students also posted the highest score in math, with an average of 600 points, 113 points higher than the 487 point U.S. average.

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria cited ongoing evaluations, an emphasis on the importance of education, and a curriculum that is relevant to everyday life as reasons for the Chinese success.

“They don’t only produce children who know the matters by heart,” Gurria said. “They’re educated to understand and face the challenges of real life.”

He noted that the Chinese scores were strong in all three subject areas.

“That speaks about who is going to be leading tomorrow,” Gurria said.

The Shanghai and Hong Kong results are certainly unrepresentative of China as a whole — additional results from other regions will be release next year, but Andreas Schleicher, head of the Indicators and Analysis Division at the OECD said he didn’t expect much variation.

The report also notes that the GDP per capita in Shanghai is well below the OECD average — highlighting another finding of the study: Low national income does not necessarily signify poor educational performance. South Korea, another top performer, also has a GDP below the OECD average.

“While national income and educational achievement are still related, PISA shows that two countries with similar levels of prosperity can produce very different results,” Gurria said. “This shows that an image of a world divided neatly into rich and well-educated countries and poor and badly education countries is now out of date.”

The United States spends more per student, on average, than other countries. In the 2009 PISA study, only Luxembourg spent more per student. The report notes that countries like Estonia and Poland perform at about the same level as the United States, while spending less than half the amount per student.

“I think we have to invest in reform, not in the status quo,” Duncan said.

The PISA study does not look to draw cause-and-effect relationships, but does highlight some findings about what the top performing countries tend to have in common.

Schleicher noted that some of the top systems are centralized, while others are very decentralized. There was also much variation in class sizes, with some of the best performers finding success in putting quality teachers in larger classes. But in each case, teachers are subject to evaluations and have a high standing in society. Also, schools have a degree of autonomy in determining their curriculum — but are also held accountable.

“In other words, autonomy without accountability would be a very bad outcome,” he said.

He said many of the things the United States is doing, such as developing common academic standards and smarter assessment systems, are important, positive changes.

“What we have seen from other countries doing similar things is those initiatives do pay off in the longer term,” Schleicher said.

The study found that the best school systems were also the most equitable, meaning students from disadvantaged backgrounds were just as likely to do well academically. In the U.S., 17% of the variation in student performance was found to be related to a pupil’s background — compared to 9%, for example, in Canada.

The report notes that Canadian 15-year-olds, on average, perform more than one school year ahead in math than 15-year-olds in the United States, and more than a half year ahead in reading and science. Canada, like the U.S., has a decentralized education system.

“Canada’s experiences raise questions about why the United States has so far not equaled the performance of it northern neighbour,” the report states.

Mexico had the lowest reading score among OECD member countries, with an average of 425 points — the equivalent of more than two school years behind the highest member score. Among all 2009 participants, there was a gap of 242 points between the highest and lowest reading scores — equal to more than six years of schooling.

Mexico was commended for reducing the number of low performers in reading, and for improving math scores.

Gurria said the report’s overall message is that, “Even in this crisis and even with the expenditure cuts, keep on supporting the education but also look at what successful systems have in common. They all can be very different but they have in common a number of features that can really make for better systems.”

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Article extracted from usatoday.com

Endeavour and six astronauts rocketed into orbit Monday on what’s likely the last nighttime launch for the shuttle program, hauling a new room and observation deck for the International Space Station.

The space shuttle took flight before dawn, igniting the sky with a brilliant flash seen for miles around. The weather finally cooperated: Thick, low clouds that had delayed a first launch attempt Sunday returned, but then cleared away just in time.

“Looks like the weather came together tonight,” launch director Mike Leinbach told the astronauts right before liftoff. “It’s time to go fly.”

“We’ll see you in a couple weeks,” replied commander George Zamka. He repeated: “It’s time to go fly.”

There are just four more missions scheduled this year before the shuttles are retired.

“For the last night launch, it treated us well,” Leinbach said.

Endeavour’s destination — the space station, home to five men — was soaring over Romania at the time of liftoff. The shuttle is set to arrive at the station early Wednesday.

Zamka and his crew will deliver and install Tranquility, a new room that will eventually house life-support equipment, exercise machines and a toilet, as well as a seven-windowed dome. The lookout has the biggest window ever sent into space, a circle 31 inches across.

It will be the last major construction job at the space station. No more big pieces like that are left to fly.

Both the new room and dome — together exceeding $400 million — were supplied by the European Space Agency.

NASA began fueling Endeavour on Sunday night just as the Super Bowl was kicking off to the south in Miami. The shuttle crew did not watch the game — neither did the launch team — but it was beamed up to the space station in case anyone there wanted to watch it.

Endeavour’s launch also was broadcast to the space station residents, who got to watch it live.

Launch manager Mike Moses said he got “evil glares” in the control center for making his team report to work on Super Bowl night. He noted that the shuttle’s fuel tank was made in New Orleans. “They were at least happy with the results of the game,” he said with a smile.

The coin used in the opening toss flew to the space station in November, aboard Atlantis.

Monday morning’s countdown ended up being uneventful, except for a last-minute run to the launch pad. Astronaut Stephen Robinson forgot the binder holding all his flight data files, and the emergency red team had to rush it out to him, just before he climbed aboard. The launch team couldn’t resist some gentle teasing.

A quick look at the launch video showed a couple pieces of foam insulation breaking off Endeavour’s external fuel tank, but none appeared to strike the shuttle, officials said.

The 13-day mission comes at an agonizing time for NASA. Exactly one week ago, the space agency finally got its marching orders from President Barack Obama: Ditch the back-to-the-moon Constellation program and its Ares rockets, and pack on the research for an as-yet-unspecified rocket and destination.

NASA’s boss, ex-astronaut Charles Bolden, favors Mars. But he, too, is waiting to hear how everything will play out.

The space station came out a winner in the Obama plan. The president’s budget would keep the outpost flying until at least 2020, a major extension.

The spectacle of the night launch illuminating the sky attracted a crowd, including some members of Congress, federal big shots and European space leaders.

Endeavour shot through some thin clouds on its way into orbit, and its bright flame was visible from the launch site for seven minutes. By then, the shuttle already was up near Cape Hatteras, N.C., said Leinbach.

“We’re going to cherish this,” he said at the traditional post-launch news conference.

Within 15 minutes of taking off, the astronauts were enjoying “a beautiful sunrise” from orbit, with the moon as a backdrop. “Wish you could be here,” Zamka called down.

The four remaining shuttle flights to the station — in March, May, July and September — have daytime departures, at least for now. A significant delay could bump any of the launches into darkness. NASA has Obama’s permission to bump a mission or two into 2011 if safety needs arise.

Given all the changes coming, the mood around the launching site was bittersweet.

The manager in charge of preparing Endeavour for launch, Dana Hutcherson, said everyone was excited to be part of the first launch of the new year.

“But let’s face it, our KSC (Kennedy) team is going to have a challenging year ahead of us as the space shuttle is ending,” she said. “It’s not going to be easy for us.”

Three spacewalks are planned during Endeavour’s flight to hook up the new station compartments, beginning Thursday. The shuttle crew — five men and one woman, all Americans — will team up with the station residents to get the job done. Aboard the station are two Americans, two Russians and one Japanese.

Bolden sees that same blend of nations in NASA’s future exploration efforts, whatever they are. Hard money training.