Guilty but Green

For the fourth time running, India ranked first in National Geographic Society's Greendex study.

Photo by Nomad Tales/Flickr via Creative Commons

In perhaps no other place in the world are the streets as crowded as in New Delhi. Streams of cars, bikes, people, and even animals impossibly weave through one another. For thousands of years, New Delhi and the cities that preceded it have been sustained by the sacred water of the Ganges and her tributaries. But as India continues to develop into one of the world's leading economies, the stress of a fast-growing population and increased urbanization has rendered the Ganges polluted almost beyond use. India’s air pollution is among the worst in the world. Garbage is heaped in streets and often left uncollected for weeks, or longer.

The sight and even more, the stench of inescapable pollution may well be why, when asked as part of Greendex study (a survey that ranks the environmental sustainability of 14 industrialized and developing countries) Indians were most likely to claim that they “feel guilty about the impact [they] have on the environment.” As anyone who has forgotten to roll the trash to the curb for a week or two can tell you, the tangibility of one's own waste accumulating unchecked can become a bit overwhelming. Further still, it's incredible how little trash one manages to make when the can is already full.

In India, 64 percent of those surveyed didn’t eat beef at all.

The 2012 Greendex study, conducted by the National Geographic Society, captures this “full-can” phenomenon on a larger scale: The guiltier a country feels about its environmental impact, the greener its behavior. It is no surprise then that India, the country that feels the most guilt of the 14 surveyed, is also ranked first in the Greendex study for the fourth time running. In fact, developing countries such as India, China, and Brazil, though often portrayed as contributing more than their fair share of pollution to support their growing economies, are consistently ranked higher in terms of sustainable behavior than the established industrial countries of North America and Europe, despite the developed countries’ longer history of environmental regulations. In part because people in developing countries tangibly experience environmental problems such as water and air pollution, they adopt more sustainable behavior. Americans, who reported the least guilt about their impact on the environment, were ranked dead last in the most recent Greendex study—for the fourth time in a row. (You can learn your own Greendex score at National Geographic's Greendex Calculator.)

Of course, there is more to environmentally sustainable behavior than feeling accountable for one's impact. Greendex scores are determined on the basis of 65 measures in four main categories of consumption: housing, transportation, food, and goods. The indices cover everything from the purchase of bottled water to whether one owns a second home. Many of these measures fit under the big umbrella of energy consumption. For example, participants were asked if they washed their clothes in cold water; walked, biked, or drove to work; heated or cooled their homes; and whether they purchased energy-saving appliances. India leads the rest of the countries in the Greendex in three of the big four categories, coming in third to China and Hungary in the category of transportation alone.

Indians hold an especially strong lead in the category of food consumption, in part because of their cultural distaste for consuming beef. In fact, 64 percent of those surveyed in India claimed they didn't eat it at all. (The next lowest score isn’t even close: Among Hungarians, only 12 percent claimed no beef consumption.) Indian consumption of chicken and seafood is among the lowest of countries surveyed as well. A large percentage of Indians are vegetarians either by choice or by circumstance. More and more studies have revealed harmful effects of livestock farming, such as water contamination from fecal matter and a nearly 20 percent contribution of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. It has become clear that meatless diets can have a big impact on the environment, and these consumption measures contribute greatly to India’s sustainability ranking. In addition, Indians frequently eat locally grown food, and even more so, food that they have personally cultivated.

Although India remains the reigning Greendex champ, the country suffered losses in every category but housing since 2010, most notably in the categories of goods consumption and transportation. Indians are also among the likeliest of those surveyed to say that they aspire to own a big house and the most likely to say they desire a luxury car. These attitudes about consumption correlate with the growing middle class in India. Like many of us with some disposable income, Indians are now more likely to purchase new goods rather than repair old ones, and because luxury cars and large houses are obvious status symbols, it's natural for those who hope for new wealth to dream of making such purchases. The growing middle classes in China and Brazil also demonstrate a relatively high desire for luxury cars and large houses. At the same time, increases in wealth sometimes translate to the purchase of more costly energy-saving appliances and cars, and many Indians are opting for the extra investment in these types of big-ticket items. It is still too soon to tell whether responsible purchasing will be enough to offset the effects of an increased number of middle-class Indian consumers.

India is poised to move solidly into the category of “developed” rather than “developing” countries, and it's up to the people of India to decide what that means. Sadly, the average wealth of a country's citizen is as negatively correlated to environmentally sustainable behavior as guilt is: The more easily we meet our individual needs, the less likely we are to consider our impact on the world around us. India could become a powerful example for the rest of the world if it is able to break that trend and strike the balance between economic growth and environmental responsibility.

Thanks to Pankaj Jain of the University of North Texas, author of Dharma and Ecology of Hindu Communties.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/energy_around_the_world/2013/11/india_is_polluted_but_the_greenest_country_in_a_national_geographic_society.html
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UMMS researchers answer century old question about 3D structure of mitotic chromosomes

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University of Massachusetts Medical School

New evidence shows that chromosomes assemble into linearly organized, compressed chromatin loops during the metaphase stage of cell division

WORCESTER, MA Using three dimensional modeling techniques, advanced computer simulation and next generation sequencing technology, faculty at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have resolved a long-standing debate that has consumed scientists ever since chromosomes were first observed under the light microscope by Walther Flemming in 1878.

In an article that appears in the online edition of Science, UMMS Professor Job Dekker, PhD, and colleagues show new evidence for a general principal of condensed, mitotic chromosome organization and structure that is highly adaptable and common to all cells. This new insight into how chromosomes are disassembled and reassembled during cell division will allow researchers to begin answering basic questions about epigenetic inheritance, as well as human disease such as chromosome disorders and cancer.

"Over the last several decades there have been conflicting theories for how the DNA is organized inside these chromosomes," said Dr. Dekker, co-director of the Program in Systems Biology at UMMS and senior author of the Science study. "We now have a model that incorporates this seemingly contradictory data and points to a single and simple process for condensed chromosome organization across all cell types. With this knowledge, we can begin asking very specific questions about how inheritance works and what happens when the process goes awry."

One of the most widely recognized biological structures in the cell, the tightly wound and elongated chromosome with its classic X-shaped structure can be easily discerned under a microscope and has been a common image in text books and popular scientific literature for decades. Despite this prevalence, technical limitations in microscopic studies have led to competing models for how the DNA is organized inside these chromosomes.

In its normal state, a cell's DNA is distributed in the cell nucleus over a relatively large area. Previous work from Dekker and colleagues had shown that points of interaction along the chromosome influence gene expression and are the reason why different cell types are organized differently in three dimensions. But in order to separate and be distributed successfully to each daughter cell, the chromosomes need to be tightly condensed and neatly packaged for transport and transmission to daughter cells.

One set of theories posed that the long DNA molecules are coiled up hierarchically into successively thicker fibers to ultimately form the sausage-like mitotic chromosomes. An alternate set of models proposed that the DNA forms a series of loops that are then attached to a linear axial structure that forms the backbone of the chromosome.

Different lines of experimental evidence supported both models, preventing ruling either theory in or out. In order to isolate the 3D structure of the chromosome during metaphase, the authors used a combination of chromosome conformation capture technologies (3C, 5C and Hi-C) developed by the Dekker lab over the last decade to map the points of contact along the mitotic chromosome in different cell types synchronized to divide at the same time. The complex sets of data this yielded provided the backbone for understanding the three dimensional structure and spatial organization of these chromosomes.

Next, Dekker and the team, led by Leonid Mirny, PhD, associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, developed sophisticated computer simulations using polymer models of the DNA molecule for the two competing theories for mitotic chromosome organization. Plugging each model into the simulation, Dekker, Mirny and colleagues found that their chromosome conformation capture data was inconsistent with the classical, hierarchical model. Instead, they found that during metaphase the chromosome was being packaged in a two phase process. In the first phase, chromatin loops of 80,000 to 120,000 DNA base pairs form, radiating out from a scaffold and compacting the chromosome linearly. This was followed by axial compression of the chromosome, much like a spring being compressed, resulting in a neat, tightly folded package.

"Each cell type, whether blood, skin or liver cell, has a unique structure and organization that is closely tied to gene expression and function," said Dekker. "When the cell begins to divide that structure is disassembled. The specific patterns or organization tied to cell type are stripped away and the universal mitotic chromosome is formed. The process results in each cell being condensed and repackaged in a way that is common across cells types and points to a fundamental process of cell biology."

"When you look at the condensed chromosome it appears to be highly organized," said Dekker. "But the truth is that the process is very variable and adaptable because these chromatin loops form randomly along the chromosomes, which makes the process incredibly robust and adaptable."

Natalia Naumova, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at UMMS and one of the lead authors of the study said, "We didn't expect that the chromosome would be organized this way. This stochastic process, which is locally random, results more globally in a high degree of stability and robustness, which is needed for cells to divide successfully."

The next step for Dekker, Mirny and their teams is to determine what, precisely, is guiding the disassembling and reassembling of the chromosome. "Because most transcription largely ceases in mitosis, and many proteins dissociate from the chromosome, something has to be responsible for reassembling chromosomes after cell division according to their cell type. Understanding the organization of the mitotic chromosome will help to understand how things go wrong in disease caused by chromosome disorder such as cancer or Down syndrome."

###

About the University of Massachusetts Medical School

The University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), one of five campuses of the University system, is comprised of the School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Graduate School of Nursing, a thriving research enterprise and an innovative public service initiative, Commonwealth Medicine. Its mission is to advance the health of the people of the Commonwealth through pioneering education, research, public service and health care delivery with its clinical partner, UMass Memorial Health Care. In doing so, it has built a reputation as a world-class research institution and as a leader in primary care education. The Medical School attracts more than $240 million annually in research funding, placing it among the top 50 medical schools in the nation. In 2006, UMMS's Craig C. Mello, PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the Blais University Chair in Molecular Medicine, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with colleague Andrew Z. Fire, PhD, of Stanford University, for their discoveries related to RNA interference (RNAi). The 2013 opening of the Albert Sherman Center ushered in a new era of biomedical research and education on campus. Designed to maximize collaboration across fields, the Sherman Center is home to scientists pursuing novel research in emerging scientific fields with the goal of translating new discoveries into innovative therapies for human diseases.

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

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Contact: Jim Fessenden
james.fessenden@umassmed.edu
508-856-2000
University of Massachusetts Medical School

New evidence shows that chromosomes assemble into linearly organized, compressed chromatin loops during the metaphase stage of cell division

WORCESTER, MA Using three dimensional modeling techniques, advanced computer simulation and next generation sequencing technology, faculty at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have resolved a long-standing debate that has consumed scientists ever since chromosomes were first observed under the light microscope by Walther Flemming in 1878.

In an article that appears in the online edition of Science, UMMS Professor Job Dekker, PhD, and colleagues show new evidence for a general principal of condensed, mitotic chromosome organization and structure that is highly adaptable and common to all cells. This new insight into how chromosomes are disassembled and reassembled during cell division will allow researchers to begin answering basic questions about epigenetic inheritance, as well as human disease such as chromosome disorders and cancer.

"Over the last several decades there have been conflicting theories for how the DNA is organized inside these chromosomes," said Dr. Dekker, co-director of the Program in Systems Biology at UMMS and senior author of the Science study. "We now have a model that incorporates this seemingly contradictory data and points to a single and simple process for condensed chromosome organization across all cell types. With this knowledge, we can begin asking very specific questions about how inheritance works and what happens when the process goes awry."

One of the most widely recognized biological structures in the cell, the tightly wound and elongated chromosome with its classic X-shaped structure can be easily discerned under a microscope and has been a common image in text books and popular scientific literature for decades. Despite this prevalence, technical limitations in microscopic studies have led to competing models for how the DNA is organized inside these chromosomes.

In its normal state, a cell's DNA is distributed in the cell nucleus over a relatively large area. Previous work from Dekker and colleagues had shown that points of interaction along the chromosome influence gene expression and are the reason why different cell types are organized differently in three dimensions. But in order to separate and be distributed successfully to each daughter cell, the chromosomes need to be tightly condensed and neatly packaged for transport and transmission to daughter cells.

One set of theories posed that the long DNA molecules are coiled up hierarchically into successively thicker fibers to ultimately form the sausage-like mitotic chromosomes. An alternate set of models proposed that the DNA forms a series of loops that are then attached to a linear axial structure that forms the backbone of the chromosome.

Different lines of experimental evidence supported both models, preventing ruling either theory in or out. In order to isolate the 3D structure of the chromosome during metaphase, the authors used a combination of chromosome conformation capture technologies (3C, 5C and Hi-C) developed by the Dekker lab over the last decade to map the points of contact along the mitotic chromosome in different cell types synchronized to divide at the same time. The complex sets of data this yielded provided the backbone for understanding the three dimensional structure and spatial organization of these chromosomes.

Next, Dekker and the team, led by Leonid Mirny, PhD, associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, developed sophisticated computer simulations using polymer models of the DNA molecule for the two competing theories for mitotic chromosome organization. Plugging each model into the simulation, Dekker, Mirny and colleagues found that their chromosome conformation capture data was inconsistent with the classical, hierarchical model. Instead, they found that during metaphase the chromosome was being packaged in a two phase process. In the first phase, chromatin loops of 80,000 to 120,000 DNA base pairs form, radiating out from a scaffold and compacting the chromosome linearly. This was followed by axial compression of the chromosome, much like a spring being compressed, resulting in a neat, tightly folded package.

"Each cell type, whether blood, skin or liver cell, has a unique structure and organization that is closely tied to gene expression and function," said Dekker. "When the cell begins to divide that structure is disassembled. The specific patterns or organization tied to cell type are stripped away and the universal mitotic chromosome is formed. The process results in each cell being condensed and repackaged in a way that is common across cells types and points to a fundamental process of cell biology."

"When you look at the condensed chromosome it appears to be highly organized," said Dekker. "But the truth is that the process is very variable and adaptable because these chromatin loops form randomly along the chromosomes, which makes the process incredibly robust and adaptable."

Natalia Naumova, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at UMMS and one of the lead authors of the study said, "We didn't expect that the chromosome would be organized this way. This stochastic process, which is locally random, results more globally in a high degree of stability and robustness, which is needed for cells to divide successfully."

The next step for Dekker, Mirny and their teams is to determine what, precisely, is guiding the disassembling and reassembling of the chromosome. "Because most transcription largely ceases in mitosis, and many proteins dissociate from the chromosome, something has to be responsible for reassembling chromosomes after cell division according to their cell type. Understanding the organization of the mitotic chromosome will help to understand how things go wrong in disease caused by chromosome disorder such as cancer or Down syndrome."

###

About the University of Massachusetts Medical School

The University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), one of five campuses of the University system, is comprised of the School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Graduate School of Nursing, a thriving research enterprise and an innovative public service initiative, Commonwealth Medicine. Its mission is to advance the health of the people of the Commonwealth through pioneering education, research, public service and health care delivery with its clinical partner, UMass Memorial Health Care. In doing so, it has built a reputation as a world-class research institution and as a leader in primary care education. The Medical School attracts more than $240 million annually in research funding, placing it among the top 50 medical schools in the nation. In 2006, UMMS's Craig C. Mello, PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the Blais University Chair in Molecular Medicine, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with colleague Andrew Z. Fire, PhD, of Stanford University, for their discoveries related to RNA interference (RNAi). The 2013 opening of the Albert Sherman Center ushered in a new era of biomedical research and education on campus. Designed to maximize collaboration across fields, the Sherman Center is home to scientists pursuing novel research in emerging scientific fields with the goal of translating new discoveries into innovative therapies for human diseases.

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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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-11/uomm-ura110713.php
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Nvidia's Tegra 4i certified for AT&T, first products due in early 2014

Nvidia's Tegra 4i processor, the first of its chips with integrated support for LTE cellular data, is on course to appear in products early next year, the company's CEO said Thursday.

The Tegra 4i is smaller than the current Tegra 4 and aimed at mainstream, midmarket phones. Despite its integrated LTE modem, it's not as powerful as the Tegra 4, which is aimed at high-end phones and devices such as tablets and gaming handhelds.

Speaking to reporters and analysts on a conference call, CEO Jen Hsun Huang said the Tegra 4i has been certified by AT&T, the number-two wireless carrier in the U.S., and that products should be appearing soon.

"We are excited about that," he said of the AT&T certification. Nvidia expects the first products with the chip to be announced in the first quarter of 2014 and to ship sometime in the second quarter.

However, he left the door open to confusion by adding that the rollout "will likely be global, but not U.S."

"You really need to have CDMA in the U.S. to be successful, so we're not targeting the U.S. with respect to phones," Huang said. "We're targeting outside of the U.S."

A spokesperson for Nvidia declined to clarify the CEO's remarks.

AT&T's network isn't based on CDMA, so it could still offer phones or tablets running the new chip. Huang may have meant the impact of Tegra 4i phones will be limited in the U.S. because of their incompatibility with the networks of Verizon and Sprint.

He didn't give a detailed timeframe for the devices, but it's likely some will be unveiled at January's International CES in Las Vegas or February's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Tegra is an important part of Nvidia's product line-up and is playing an instrumental role in helping the company expand into new business areas. Chief among these is automotive, which already accounts for about a quarter of Nvidia's Tegra business, said Huang.

During the quarter from August to October, the company's Tegra business more than doubled from the previous quarter thanks to demand for the Tegra 4.

The chip was used in 15 mobile devices, including Nvidia's own Shield gaming handheld and Microsoft's Surface RT tablet.

The Shield is an Android-based gaming device that looks like an oversize game console controller, but also packs its own display. Huang said Nvidia developed the Shield to help grow the Android gaming market.

"We have to create devices that enable great gaming on Android to happen," he said. "Our investments are modest, our expectations are modest and our distribution is modest. We're going to let the market tell us how they like it, and we'll take it from there."

Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is martyn_williams@idg.com

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Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service.
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Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2062040/nvidias-tegra-4i-certified-for-atandt-first-products-due-in-early-2014.html#tk.rss_all
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New SD card format is speedy enough for 4K video

Outside of a few smartphones, 4K video capture has largely been limited to pro-level hardware; the SD cards in regular cameras frequently can't handle so many pixels at once. That won't be a problem in the near future, as the SD Association has just unveiled an Ultra High Speed Class 3 (U3) card ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/FQ9qGceDTk4/
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When is a comet not a comet?

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Contact: Nicky Guttridge
nguttrid@partner.eso.org
44-751-231-8322
ESA/Hubble Information Centre

Hubble astronomers observe bizarre 6-tailed asteroid

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed a unique and baffling object in the asteroid belt that looks like a rotating lawn sprinkler or badminton shuttlecock. While this object is on an asteroid-like orbit, it looks like a comet, and is sending out tails of dust into space.

Normal asteroids appear as tiny points of light. But this asteroid, designated P/2013 P5, has six comet-like tails of dust radiating from it like the spokes on a wheel. It was first spotted in August of this year as an unusually fuzzy-looking object by astronomers using the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii [1].

Because nothing like this has ever been seen before, astronomers are scratching their heads to find an adequate explanation for its mysterious appearance.

The multiple tails were discovered in Hubble images taken on 10 September 2013. When Hubble returned to the asteroid on 23 September, its appearance had totally changed. It looked as if the entire structure had swung around.

"We were literally dumbfounded when we saw it," said lead investigator David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles, USA. "Even more amazingly, its tail structures change dramatically in just 13 days as it belches out dust. That also caught us by surprise. It's hard to believe we're looking at an asteroid."

One explanation for the odd appearance is that the asteroid's rotation rate increased to the point where its surface started flying apart, ejecting dust in episodic eruptions that started last spring. The team rules out an asteroid impact because a lot of dust would have been blasted into space all at once, whereas P5 has ejected dust intermittently over a period of at least five months [2].

Careful modelling by team member Jessica Agarwal of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Lindau, Germany, showed that the tails could have been formed by a series of impulsive dust-ejection events [3]. Radiation pressure from the Sun smears out the dust into streamers. "Given our observations and modelling, we infer that P/2013 P5 might be losing dust as it rotates at high speed," says Agarwal. "The Sun then drags this dust into the distinct tails we're seeing."

The asteroid could possibly have been spun up to a high speed as pressure from the Sun's light exerted a torque on the body. If the asteroid's spin rate became fast enough, Jewitt said, the asteroid's weak gravity would no longer be able to hold it together. Dust might avalanche down towards the equator, and maybe shatter and fall off, eventually drifting into space to make a tail. So far, only a small fraction of the main mass, perhaps 100 to 1000 tonnes of dust, has been lost. The asteroid is thousands of times more massive, with a radius of up to 240 metres.

Follow-up observations may show whether the dust leaves the asteroid in the equatorial plane, which would be quite strong evidence for a rotational breakup. Astronomers will also try to measure the asteroid's true spin rate.

Jewitt's interpretation implies that rotational breakup may be a common phenomenon in the asteroid belt; it may even be the main way in which small asteroids "die" [4]. "In astronomy, where you find one, you eventually find a whole bunch more," Jewitt said. "This is just an amazing object to us, and almost certainly the first of many more to come."

The paper from Jewitt's team appears online in the 7 November issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

###

Notes

[1] The comet was discovered by Micheli et al. on 27 August 2013. It was spotted in observations from 18 August 2013. The discovery was announced in a Minor Planet Electronic Circular.

[2] Agarwal calculated that the first ejection event occurred on 15 April, and the last one on 4 September 2013. Other eruptions occurred on 18 July, 24 July, 8 August, and 26 August 2013.

[3] A less likely option is that this emission is a result of water ice sublimating. Water ice can survive within the asteroid belt, although only at the outskirts or if buried deep enough within a large enough asteroid to be shielded. However, P5 is likely made of metamorphic rocks, making it incapable of holding ice in the same way that comets do. This, coupled with P5's orbit and its very small size, makes it very unlikely that its mass loss would be due to ice sublimation.

[4] This is not the first time that Hubble has observed a strange asteroid. In 2010, Hubble spotted a strange X-shaped asteroid (heic1016 - http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1016/). However, unlike P/2013 P5, this was thought to have been formed by a collision. Later that year astronomers observed asteroid (596) Scheila, an object with a tail that was surrounded by a C-shaped cloud of dust (opo1113a -
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo1113a/). Again, this asteroid was thought to be the result of a collision between Scheila and a much smaller body -- only the second time that such an event has been spotted.

Notes for editors

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

The international team of astronomers in the Hubble study consists of D. Jewitt (UCLA, USA), J. Agarwal (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany), H. Weaver (The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, USA), M. Mutchler (STScI, USA), and S. Larson (University of Arizona, USA). The paper, entitled "The Extraordinary Multi-Tailed Main-Belt Comet P/2013 P5", is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

More information

Image credit: NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (University of California, Los Angeles), J. Agarwal (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research), H. Weaver (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory), M. Mutchler (STScI), and S. Larson (University of Arizona)

Links

Contacts

David Jewitt

University of California at Los Angeles

Los Angeles, USA

Tel: +1-310-825-2521

Email: jewitt@ucla.edu

Nicky Guttridge

ESA/Hubble, Public Information Officer

Garching bei Mnchen, Germany

Tel: +49-89-3200-6855

Cell: +44 7512 318322

Email: nguttrid@partner.eso.org

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

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Contact: Nicky Guttridge
nguttrid@partner.eso.org
44-751-231-8322
ESA/Hubble Information Centre

Hubble astronomers observe bizarre 6-tailed asteroid

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed a unique and baffling object in the asteroid belt that looks like a rotating lawn sprinkler or badminton shuttlecock. While this object is on an asteroid-like orbit, it looks like a comet, and is sending out tails of dust into space.

Normal asteroids appear as tiny points of light. But this asteroid, designated P/2013 P5, has six comet-like tails of dust radiating from it like the spokes on a wheel. It was first spotted in August of this year as an unusually fuzzy-looking object by astronomers using the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii [1].

Because nothing like this has ever been seen before, astronomers are scratching their heads to find an adequate explanation for its mysterious appearance.

The multiple tails were discovered in Hubble images taken on 10 September 2013. When Hubble returned to the asteroid on 23 September, its appearance had totally changed. It looked as if the entire structure had swung around.

"We were literally dumbfounded when we saw it," said lead investigator David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles, USA. "Even more amazingly, its tail structures change dramatically in just 13 days as it belches out dust. That also caught us by surprise. It's hard to believe we're looking at an asteroid."

One explanation for the odd appearance is that the asteroid's rotation rate increased to the point where its surface started flying apart, ejecting dust in episodic eruptions that started last spring. The team rules out an asteroid impact because a lot of dust would have been blasted into space all at once, whereas P5 has ejected dust intermittently over a period of at least five months [2].

Careful modelling by team member Jessica Agarwal of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Lindau, Germany, showed that the tails could have been formed by a series of impulsive dust-ejection events [3]. Radiation pressure from the Sun smears out the dust into streamers. "Given our observations and modelling, we infer that P/2013 P5 might be losing dust as it rotates at high speed," says Agarwal. "The Sun then drags this dust into the distinct tails we're seeing."

The asteroid could possibly have been spun up to a high speed as pressure from the Sun's light exerted a torque on the body. If the asteroid's spin rate became fast enough, Jewitt said, the asteroid's weak gravity would no longer be able to hold it together. Dust might avalanche down towards the equator, and maybe shatter and fall off, eventually drifting into space to make a tail. So far, only a small fraction of the main mass, perhaps 100 to 1000 tonnes of dust, has been lost. The asteroid is thousands of times more massive, with a radius of up to 240 metres.

Follow-up observations may show whether the dust leaves the asteroid in the equatorial plane, which would be quite strong evidence for a rotational breakup. Astronomers will also try to measure the asteroid's true spin rate.

Jewitt's interpretation implies that rotational breakup may be a common phenomenon in the asteroid belt; it may even be the main way in which small asteroids "die" [4]. "In astronomy, where you find one, you eventually find a whole bunch more," Jewitt said. "This is just an amazing object to us, and almost certainly the first of many more to come."

The paper from Jewitt's team appears online in the 7 November issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

###

Notes

[1] The comet was discovered by Micheli et al. on 27 August 2013. It was spotted in observations from 18 August 2013. The discovery was announced in a Minor Planet Electronic Circular.

[2] Agarwal calculated that the first ejection event occurred on 15 April, and the last one on 4 September 2013. Other eruptions occurred on 18 July, 24 July, 8 August, and 26 August 2013.

[3] A less likely option is that this emission is a result of water ice sublimating. Water ice can survive within the asteroid belt, although only at the outskirts or if buried deep enough within a large enough asteroid to be shielded. However, P5 is likely made of metamorphic rocks, making it incapable of holding ice in the same way that comets do. This, coupled with P5's orbit and its very small size, makes it very unlikely that its mass loss would be due to ice sublimation.

[4] This is not the first time that Hubble has observed a strange asteroid. In 2010, Hubble spotted a strange X-shaped asteroid (heic1016 - http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1016/). However, unlike P/2013 P5, this was thought to have been formed by a collision. Later that year astronomers observed asteroid (596) Scheila, an object with a tail that was surrounded by a C-shaped cloud of dust (opo1113a -
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo1113a/). Again, this asteroid was thought to be the result of a collision between Scheila and a much smaller body -- only the second time that such an event has been spotted.

Notes for editors

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

The international team of astronomers in the Hubble study consists of D. Jewitt (UCLA, USA), J. Agarwal (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany), H. Weaver (The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, USA), M. Mutchler (STScI, USA), and S. Larson (University of Arizona, USA). The paper, entitled "The Extraordinary Multi-Tailed Main-Belt Comet P/2013 P5", is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

More information

Image credit: NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (University of California, Los Angeles), J. Agarwal (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research), H. Weaver (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory), M. Mutchler (STScI), and S. Larson (University of Arizona)

Links

Contacts

David Jewitt

University of California at Los Angeles

Los Angeles, USA

Tel: +1-310-825-2521

Email: jewitt@ucla.edu

Nicky Guttridge

ESA/Hubble, Public Information Officer

Garching bei Mnchen, Germany

Tel: +49-89-3200-6855

Cell: +44 7512 318322

Email: nguttrid@partner.eso.org

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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-11/eic-wia110713.php
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Players divided regarding Dolphins' Martin

Miami Dolphins coach Joe Philbin talks to the media during a news conference after practice at the Dolphins training center in Davie, Fla., Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013. NFL officials launched an investigation to try and determine who knew what and when about the troubled relationship between offensive lineman Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

Miami Dolphins coach Joe Philbin talks to the media during a news conference after practice at the Dolphins training center in Davie, Fla., Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013. NFL officials launched an investigation to try and determine who knew what and when about the troubled relationship between offensive lineman Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

Miami Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland, left, stands with head trainer Kevin O'Neill, right, during the NFL football team's practice Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013, in Davie, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

DAVIE, Fla. (AP) — In a culture that fosters conflict, Jonathan Martin sought to avoid it.

Upset by treatment he considered abusive, the Miami Dolphins tackle let the situation fester for months before leaving the team last week. Martin's agent then complained to the Dolphins, who suspended guard Richie Incognito.

The NFL is investigating whether Incognito harassed or bullied Martin, and whether their teammates and the organization mishandled the matter.

But pro football is a macho world, and some players believe Martin should have responded more firmly.

"Is Incognito wrong? Absolutely. He's 100 percent wrong," New York Giants safety Antrel Rolle said. "No individual should have to go through that, especially in their workplace.

"But at the same time, Jonathan Martin is a 6-4, 320-pound man. I mean, at some point and time you need to stand your ground as an individual. Am I saying go attack, go fight him? No. I think we all understand we can stand our ground without anything being physical."

Dolphins players have robustly defended Incognito, long considered among the NFL's dirtiest players. He's now a notorious national villain, but teammates praise his leadership and loyalty.

They've been less passionate in their support of Martin, saying he and Incognito behaved like best friends.

"They did a lot of stuff together," tackle Tyson Clabo said. "So if he had a problem with the way he was treating him, he had a funny way of showing it."

Martin is with his family in California to undergo counseling for emotional issues.

A senior partner in a New York law firm was appointed by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to investigate possible misconduct and prepare a report. DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFL Players Association, said Thursday that he continues to be in touch with those involved.

"The NFLPA has taken steps to ensure that every one of our affected members is represented," Smith said in a statement. "It is our duty as a union to learn the full facts, protect the interests of players involved and hold management accountable to the highest standards of fairness and transparency."

Martin is the son of Harvard graduates, and his great grandfather graduated from the school in 1924. Martin attended Stanford, where he majored in the classics and protected Andrew Luck's blind side.

Martin was taken by the Dolphins in the second round of the 2012 draft. But while he has been a starter since the first game of his rookie season, he developed a reputation in the NFL for lacking toughness.

That impression might have been reinforced by the way he handled his issues with Incognito, current and former teammates acknowledge.

"A lot of people might look at Jonathan Martin and think that he's soft because he stepped away from the game, and say, 'Why don't you just fight him?'" said Seattle Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin, who played with Martin at Stanford. "Well, if you look at it with common sense and being logical, what options did Jonathan Martin have?

"He could fight Richie Incognito. He could go and tell on the players, which we know in the football locker room doesn't go over too well. Or he could remove himself from the situation and let the proper channels take care of itself. And I think he made the intelligent, smart choice without putting himself or Richie Incognito's physical abilities in danger."

Incognito's harassment of Martin included text messages that were racist and threatening, two people familiar with the situation have told The Associated Press. Incognito is white, while Martin is biracial.

Two other people familiar with the situation have said Martin talked of quitting football earlier in his pro career before leaving the Dolphins. One person said Martin considered giving up the sport because of the way he was being treated by other offensive linemen on the team. The person added that Martin now wants to continue his football career.

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AP Sports Writers Tim Booth in Seattle and Tom Canavan in East Rutherford, N.J., contributed to this report.

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AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

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Biography Of Director Bob Fosse Razzles, Dazzles And Delights

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

On September 23rd, 1987, opening night of a Sweet Charity revival in Washington D.C., Bob Fosse and his ex-wife and collaborator Gwen Verdon gave the cast a final pep-talk, then left the National Theater to get a bite to eat. They turned right, and about a block away, unknown to the gathering audience, or the cast, Fosse collapsed on the sidewalk. Newspapers the next morning said he died at 7:23 PM.

I was inside that theater. I later calculated what was happening at 7:23. It was a quintessential Fosse moment: a stage-wide bar rising from the floor, a line of dance hall hostesses draping themselves over it, bait for big spenders. Here you can listen to him stage the movie version a few years later.

I had seen a lot of Fosse shows by that time — Damn Yankees, Pippin, Dancin', Chicago — and I had read enough about him to know what was autobiographical in his movie, All That Jazz.

So I cracked open Sam Wasson's 700-page biography figuring I knew the score. Hell, knew the score and the steps: those artfully slumped shoulders, knocked knees, and pigeon-toes. The bowler hats and black vests worn without shirts, like the one Liza Minnelli sported in the number that introduced her in Cabaret on screen, leading a chorus that kneeled and stomped and sprawled, and used hard-backed chairs for everything but sitting.

But I didn't know the details Sam Wasson gets at about how Fosse taught choreography that often made dancers seem all elbows and knees. First to Gwen Verdon, who was his muse before she was his wife, and then, with her help, to the dancers in all his shows.

In one dance the chorus girls all had to extend a foot while leaning back and shooting their arms down at their sides. Fosse gave them an image to help them see exactly how he wanted it: "Ladies," he said, "it's like a man is holding out a fur coat for you and you have to drop your arms in."

"Other directors" writes Wasson, "might give their dancers images for every scene. Bob... had one for just about every step. These were the lines the dancers' bodies had to speak."

That, I submit, is lovely writing, as is his description of Cabaret as a film "about the bejeweling of horror [that] coruscated with Fosse's private sequins." You can lift samples just like those from virtually every page of this book.

You'll also learn how the director's dark stage imagery mirrored his own life — the wife and girlfriends he cheated on, the down-and-dirty burlesque houses he grew up in, the amphetamines that kept him going, and the barbiturates that calmed him when he lost confidence in his own "razzle-dazzle."

Wasson pictures him as harder on himself than he was on his dancers. In one year, he won a directing triple crown for which no one else had ever even been nominated — An Emmy for Liza With A Z, An Oscar for Cabaret, and a Tony for Pippin. And his reaction was utter depression. But out of that depression came Chicago...a musical vaudeville that looked great at the Tony Awards in 1976.

The revival is about to enter its 14th year on Broadway.

Sam Wasson's book, Fosse, is filled with the kind of inside detail that comes of substantial research, and vivid descriptions that turn the research into a sort of movie in your head. All the way from little Bobby Fosse's elementary school disappointment when the spotlight faded on him, right through to the moment when Gwen Verdon, the love of his life, cradled Fosse's head on her lap on a DC sidewalk just blocks from an audience he was at that very moment, razzle-dazzling to beat the band.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/11/07/243726400/biography-of-director-bob-fosse-razzles-dazzles-and-delights?ft=1&f=1032
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