Jan. 3, 2013 ? After extensive analyses by a team of scientists led by Carl Agee at the University of New Mexico, researchers have identified a new class of Martian meteorite that likely originated from Mars's crust. It is also the only meteoritic sample dated to 2.1 billion years ago, the early era of the most recent geologic epoch on Mars, an epoch called the Amazonian. The meteorite was found to contain an order of magnitude more water than any other Martian meteorite.
Researchers from the Carnegie Institution (Andrew Steele, Marilyn Fogel, Roxane Bowden, and Mihaela Glamoclija) studied carbon in the meteorite and have shown that organic carbon (macromolecular) similar to that seen in other Martian meteorites is also found in this meteorite.
The research is published in the January 3, 2013, issue of Science Express.
The unique meteorite, dubbed Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034, has some similarities to, but is very different from other Martian meteorites known as SNC (for three members of the group: Shergotty, Nakhla, and Chassigny). SNC meteorites currently number 110. And so far they are the only meteoritic samples from Mars that scientists have been able to study. However, their point of origin on the Red Planet is not known. In fact, recent data from lander and orbiter missions suggest that they are a mismatch for the Martian crust.
As co-author Andrew Steele, who led the carbon analysis at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory explained: "The texture of the NWA meteorite is not like any of the SNC meteorites. It is made of cemented fragments of basalt, rock that forms from rapidly cooled lava, dominated with feldspar and pyroxene, most likely from volcanic activity. This composition is common for lunar samples, but not from other Martian meteorites. This unusual meteorite's chemistry suggests it came from the Martian crust. It is the first link thus far of any meteorite to the crust. Our carbon analysis also showed the presence of macromolecular organic carbon in feldspar grains associated with iron oxides, hinting that perhaps there is a different non-biological process at work than that explaining the presence of macromolecular carbon in other Martian meteorites."
Lead author Agee, of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico, remarked: "The basaltic rock in this meteorite is consistent with the crust or upper mantle of Mars based on findings from recent Martian rovers and orbiters. Our analysis of the oxygen isotopes shows that NWA 7034 is not like any other meteorites or planetary samples. The chemistry is consistent with a surface origin and an interaction with the Martian atmosphere. The abundance of water, some 6000 parts per million, suggests that the meteorite interacted with the Martian surface some 2.1 billion years ago."
"Perhaps most exciting, is that the high water content could mean there was an interaction of the rocks with surface water either from volcanic magma, or from fluids from impacting comets during that time," said Steele. "It is the richest Martian meteorite geochemically and further analyses are bound to unleash more surprises."
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Carnegie Institution.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Carl B. Agee, Nicole V. Wilson, Francis M. McCubbin, Karen Ziegler, Victor J. Polyak, Zachary D. Sharp, Yemane Asmerom, Morgan H. Nunn, Robina Shaheen, Mark H. Thiemens, Andrew Steele, Marilyn L. Fogel, Roxane Bowden, Mihaela Glamoclija, Zhisheng Zhang, and Stephen M. Elardo. Unique Meteorite from Early Amazonian Mars: Water-Rich Basaltic Breccia Northwest Africa 7034. Science, Jan 3, 2013 DOI: 10.1126/science.1228858
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
The quote above is from painter Chuck Close, who says he's never had "painter's block" in his life. The "just show up and get to work" motto is a great creed to live by, especially if you want to be prolific and creative.
Brain Pickings highlights an interview with Chuck Close published in Inside the Painter's Studio:
Inspiration is for amateurs - the rest of us just show up and get to work. And the belief that things will grow out of the activity itself and that you will - through work - bump into other possibilities and kick open other doors that you would never have dreamt of if you were just sitting around looking for a great ?art [idea].' And the belief that process, in a sense, is liberating and that you don't have to reinvent the wheel every day. Today, you know what you'll do, you could be doing what you were doing yesterday, and tomorrow you are gonna do what you [did] today, and at least for a certain period of time you can just work. If you hang in there, you will get somewhere.
Close's attitude reminds me of another inspirational quote from Pablo Picasso: "Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working."
For more on Close's work ethic and thoughts on creativity, head over to Brain Pickings.
Chuck Close on Creativity, Work Ethic, and Problem-Solving vs. Problem-Creating | Brain Pickings
Today the syllabub is?rather an unfamiliar dessert but?from the 17th and early 20th centuries it was a pudding staple. It has gone through some minor changes along its way but its essence has remained the same. Originally milk was sweetened and mixed with cider sack ? a sweet fortified beer not unlike sherry ? and left to curdle and treated as a drink served hot or cold. At the same time at more solid version was being made with cream and wine and spirits. More recently less alcohol and more cream was used producing a dessert that could stand in a cool place that would remain delicious, soft and fully whipped ? this was known as an ?everlasting syllabub?.
Detail of The Sense of Taste?by Philip Mercier (1680-1760) showing a salver of syllabubs
The word syllabub comes from the name Sille, an area in the Champagne region of France that made the eponymously named wine, and the word bub, an Elizabethan slang word meaning a bubbling drink, hence Sille bub?? wine mixed with a frothy cream. In fact it was a case of the frothier the better, and the best way to achieve this is to spray milk straight from the udder (which has a natural froth) into the wine, this kind of syllabub was also called ?Hatted Kit? and a recipe appears for it in Elizabeth Raffald?s 1769 book The Experienced English Housewife:
?To make a Syllabub under the cow
Put a bottle of strong beer and a pint of cider into a punch bowl, grate in a small nutmeg and sweeten it to your taste. Then milk as much milk from the cow as will make a strong froth and the ale look clear. Let it stand an hour, then strew over it a few currants well washed, picked, and plumped before the fire. Then send it to the table.?
?Elizabeth Raffald
Charles II found this sort of syllabub so delicious that he kept cows at the palace in case he got a hankering for some Hatted Kit ? he would walk up to one and squirt some milk into his flagon of wine, sack or cider.
If you are a tee-totaller, don?t worry because Sir Kenholm?Digby, writing in 1669, gives recipes for syllabubs flavoured with plum juice, cherry syrups and Seville orange.
By the 19th?century, the syllabub was generally made from whipping cream together with sweetened wine. The wine was flavoured with lemon and fortified with a little brandy, and it is a recipe for one of these everlasting syllabubs that I give below. It comes from Elizabeth David?s 1969 pamphlet Syllabubs and Fruit Fools (which can be found in her book An Omelette and a Glass of Wine).
Elizabeth David?s Everlasting Syllabub with Almond Biscuits
The ingredients of a syllabub, we find, are simple and sumptuous. The skill demanded for its confection is minimal, the presentation is basic and elegant.
Elizabeth David
These syllabubs were the original topping to trifles before plain whipped cream took over. They are often served with jellies or with sweet biscuits so I?ve given a recipe for some simple crisp almond biscuits too.
The most important ingredient here is the wine; you can use any sweet or dessert wine, by personal favourite being a nice Muscat. I managed to get hold of an excellent and very reasonably-priced organic free-trade one from Case Solved Wines in Manchester.
This recipe makes between 4 and 6 servings
Ingredients for the syllabub
8 tbs sweet or dessert wine
2 tbs brandy
pared rind of one lemon
60g (2 oz) sugar
300ml (? pint) double cream
freshly grated nutmeg
The day before you want to serve the syllabub, mix the wine and brandy in a bowl, add the lemon peel and steep overnight.
Next day, strain the wine into a large bowl and stir in the sugar until dissolved. Pour in the cream and whisk until thick. Be careful not to over-whip the cream. Spoon into glasses and scatter a few raspings of nutmeg over them.
For the biscuits:
100g?(4oz) butter
50g?(2oz) caster sugar
150g (6 oz) plain flour
50g (2 oz) ground almonds
Cream the butter and sugar together and then mix in the flour, and finally the almonds. Bring the mixture together with your hand to form a dough ? it?ll be very ?short?, i.e. crumbly, but it will come together ? don?t be tempted to add any water or milk because it will result in a biscuit that is not crisp, and you don?t want that. Roll out the mixture to the thickness of a pound coin (about 3mm) and cut into rounds.
Bake for 8-10 minutes at 200?C (400?F) until tinged with golden brown. Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight tub.
Best evidence yet that dinosaurs used feathers for courtshipPublic release date: 4-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Brian Murphy brian.murphy@ualberta.ca 780-492-6041 University of Alberta
(Edmonton) A University of Alberta researcher's examination of fossilized dinosaur tail bones has led to a breakthrough finding: some feathered dinosaurs used tail plumage to attract mates, much like modern-day peacocks and turkeys.
U of A Paleontology researcher Scott Persons followed a chain of fossil evidence that started with a peculiar fusing together of vertebrae at the tip of the tail of four different species of dinosaurs, some separated in time and evolution by 45 million years.
Persons says the final vertebrae in the tails of a group of dinosaurs called oviraptors were fused together forming a ridged, blade-like structure. "The structure is called a pygostyle" says Persons. "Among modern animals only birds have them."
Researchers say fossils of Similicaudiptery, an early oviraptor, reveals feathers radiating from the fused bones at the tail tip. Similicaudiptery was not known to be a flying dinosaur and Persons contends its tail feathers evolved as a means of waving its feathered tail fans.
No direct fossil evidence of feathers has been found with the fossils of the oviraptors that followed Similicaudiptery, but Persons says there is still strong evidence they had a feathered tail.
Persons reasons that because the later oviraptor had the same tail structure as the feathered Similicaudipteryx, the tails of later oviraptors' still served the same purpose, waving feathered tail fans.
Persons says the hypothesis of oviraptor tail waving is supported by both the bone and muscle structure of the tail.
Individual vertebrae at the base of an oviraptor's tail were short and numerous, indicating great flexibility. Based on dissections of modern reptile and bird tails, Persons reconstruction of the dinosaur's tail muscles revealed oviraptors had what it took to really shake their tail feathers.
Large muscles extended far down the tail and had a sufficient number of broad connection points to the vertebrae to propel oviraptor's tail feathers vigorously from side to side and up and down.
Oviraptors were two-legged dinosaurs that had already gone through major diversifications from the iconic, meat eating dinosaur family. Oviraptors were plant eaters that roamed parts of China, Mongolia, and Alberta during the Cretaceous period, the final age of the dinosaur.
"By this time a variety of dinosaurs used feathers for flight and insulation from the cold, "said Persons. "This shows that by the Late Cretaceous dinosaurs were doing everything with feathers that modern birds do now," said Persons.
In addition to feathered-tail waving, oviraptors also had prominent bone crests on their head, which Persons says the dinosaur also may have used in mating displays.
"Between the crested head and feathered-tail shaking, oviraptors had a propensity for visual exhibitionism," said Persons.
###
Persons, a U of A PhD candidate in paleontology was the lead researcher on the paper which was published Jan. 4 in the international journal
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Best evidence yet that dinosaurs used feathers for courtshipPublic release date: 4-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Brian Murphy brian.murphy@ualberta.ca 780-492-6041 University of Alberta
(Edmonton) A University of Alberta researcher's examination of fossilized dinosaur tail bones has led to a breakthrough finding: some feathered dinosaurs used tail plumage to attract mates, much like modern-day peacocks and turkeys.
U of A Paleontology researcher Scott Persons followed a chain of fossil evidence that started with a peculiar fusing together of vertebrae at the tip of the tail of four different species of dinosaurs, some separated in time and evolution by 45 million years.
Persons says the final vertebrae in the tails of a group of dinosaurs called oviraptors were fused together forming a ridged, blade-like structure. "The structure is called a pygostyle" says Persons. "Among modern animals only birds have them."
Researchers say fossils of Similicaudiptery, an early oviraptor, reveals feathers radiating from the fused bones at the tail tip. Similicaudiptery was not known to be a flying dinosaur and Persons contends its tail feathers evolved as a means of waving its feathered tail fans.
No direct fossil evidence of feathers has been found with the fossils of the oviraptors that followed Similicaudiptery, but Persons says there is still strong evidence they had a feathered tail.
Persons reasons that because the later oviraptor had the same tail structure as the feathered Similicaudipteryx, the tails of later oviraptors' still served the same purpose, waving feathered tail fans.
Persons says the hypothesis of oviraptor tail waving is supported by both the bone and muscle structure of the tail.
Individual vertebrae at the base of an oviraptor's tail were short and numerous, indicating great flexibility. Based on dissections of modern reptile and bird tails, Persons reconstruction of the dinosaur's tail muscles revealed oviraptors had what it took to really shake their tail feathers.
Large muscles extended far down the tail and had a sufficient number of broad connection points to the vertebrae to propel oviraptor's tail feathers vigorously from side to side and up and down.
Oviraptors were two-legged dinosaurs that had already gone through major diversifications from the iconic, meat eating dinosaur family. Oviraptors were plant eaters that roamed parts of China, Mongolia, and Alberta during the Cretaceous period, the final age of the dinosaur.
"By this time a variety of dinosaurs used feathers for flight and insulation from the cold, "said Persons. "This shows that by the Late Cretaceous dinosaurs were doing everything with feathers that modern birds do now," said Persons.
In addition to feathered-tail waving, oviraptors also had prominent bone crests on their head, which Persons says the dinosaur also may have used in mating displays.
"Between the crested head and feathered-tail shaking, oviraptors had a propensity for visual exhibitionism," said Persons.
###
Persons, a U of A PhD candidate in paleontology was the lead researcher on the paper which was published Jan. 4 in the international journal
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI)? The new St. Louis city police chief says he?s in favor of much stronger gun control laws.
St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch has said he favors armed guards and guns in schools after the Connecticut school massacre.?
But Chief Sam Dotson, who took over the police chief?s job in the city Tuesday, is in favor of much tougher gun laws.
?More guns is never the answer. We have to find ways to take guns off of the street. There?s no room in society for assault rifles. There?s no room in society for high-capacity magazines. I understand the second amendment issues, but we have to find ways to get guns off of the streets and out of the hands of criminals,? said Chief Dotson.
Chief Dotson also says he favors a civilian review board, where a panel of civilians could review and question police disciplinary decisions.
Some progressives have blasted President Barack Obama for letting payroll taxes rise. Critics argue that the economy will suffer because the president and Congress have allowed the temporary tax break to expire.
Yet there's a body of economic research analyzing the difference between permanent and temporary tax cuts that suggests these fears are overblown.
According to several economics papers, permanent tax cuts boost the economy more than temporary tax cuts. That's because people tend to save the money from a temporary tax cut or use it to pay down debt. In other words, they treat it as a one-time windfall and don't change their spending decisions in response. Because they don't use much of that money to buy goods and services, they don't boost other people's paychecks or spur hiring.
The "fiscal cliff" deal gives middle-class Americans just such a permanent tax break. Obama and Congress have made the Bush income tax cuts -- which have been temporary since 2001 -- permanent for couples' income below $450,000 and individuals' income below $400,000. For income above those levels, the Bush tax cuts have expired. Congressional Republicans had fought to make the Bush tax cuts permanent for all income levels, although House GOP leaders proposed letting the payroll tax cut expire.
Joel Slemrod, an economics professor and tax expert at the University of Michigan, told The Huffington Post that people "probably spend a third or less" of temporary tax cuts. A paper he co-wrote found that only 13 percent of households said they would spend most of the 2009 Making Work Pay tax credit, a temporary stimulus measure similar to the payroll tax cut.
"It had a modest impact," Slemrod said. "Not zero."
A separate paper co-written by Slemrod found that people on average spent only one-third of a 2008 tax rebate, which "provided only a modest stimulus." (That's open for debate. Another study found that Americans on average spent the majority of the 2008 tax rebate.)
Three in four Americans said in 2001 and 2002 that they would save most of a tax rebate or use it to pay down debt, according to yet another study co-written by Slemrod.
If temporary tax cuts don't increase consumer spending very much, they can't help hiring much either. A temporary payroll tax cut in Finland did not boost job growth or wages, according to a 2011 study.
Economic research has found that permanent tax cuts are more effective. A temporary tax change has only half the economic impact of a permanent tax change, according to a study by Princeton economist Alan Blinder. Permanent tax cuts on average increase spending 10 times more than temporary tax cuts, according to a study in Japan. And according to a recent paper analyzing U.S. tax changes between 1950 and 2005, permanent tax changes generally boost economic output more than temporary changes.
Looking forward, Slemrod said that the distinction between temporary and permanent tax cuts may no longer be meaningful. "There are so many tax policy changes it may be that nobody thinks that a tax policy change is permanent," he said.
Obama seems to think that tax cuts can boost the economy. One-third of his 2009 stimulus package consisted of tax cuts. Now, by signing off on a deal to make most of the Bush tax cuts permanent, the president may have sought to provide another stimulus.
The quote above is from painter Chuck Close, who says he's never had "painter's block" in his life. The "just show up and get to work" motto is a great creed to live by, especially if you want to be prolific and creative. 
?Elizabeth Raffald
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uZ2g8iiDmDKexsi7cCL0YS_1gDj9vt-I-lEa8D-gAUVYSpGoRmMw4IvFuMSLmUgn5VLvf9TJHD9N5Zq68E2Tf4Um8PT7kh447Sfqhv2RM=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 4-Jan-2013
Share ]