TUESDAY, JULY 13, 2010


KLMNO Post Carbon 6www.washingtonpost.com/postcarbon Adapted from The Post’s climate change blog.


Penn State investigation of ‘Climate-gate’ clears professor


A Pennsylvania State University investigative committee has cleared a climate scientist of ethical misconduct in connection with an exchange of e-mails about global warming known as “Climate-gate.” Michael Mann, a meteorology professor at Penn State, came under fire after hackers broke into the server of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit in Britain and published thousands of e-mails and documents the center’s staff had sent to other climate researchers. Mann is best known as the author of the “hockey-stick”


graph, which shows a rapid, recent rise in the Earth’s temperature. His work has long been under attack by global-warming skeptics. But the criticism became more heated after an e-mail between scientists referring to a statistical “trick” used in Mann’s research surfaced among the leaked correspondence. Both Mann and the author of the e-mail said that the e-mail was taken out of context and that the research data are solid. The Penn State panel, which launched its probe Nov. 30, dismissed three of the allegations as not credible but continued to examine whether Mann “seriously deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for proposing, conducting, or reporting research or other scholarly activities.” On Thursday it concluded that he had not.


While the panel called Mann’s decision to share “unpublished manuscripts with third parties, without first having received express consent from the authors of such manuscripts . . . careless and inappropriate,” it unanimously concluded “that there is no substance to the allegation” that Mann engaged in academic misconduct. Mann’s professional conduct is also being questioned in Virginia, where Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) has said he is investigating whether Mann committed fraud when he sought and spent five public grants for his research while working at the University of Virginia. Cuccinelli is seeking to subpoena the university for information on those grants. The university is challenging the request, arguing that the attorney general is intruding on Mann’s academic freedom. — Juliet Eilperin


SCIENCE NEWS


From the Psychology of Music journal, a clue to why some guys get dates


Single ladies, listen up: Your willingness to give a guy your digits may have more to do with the music in the air than with his looks or his line. Count on the French to try to prove that scientifically. Single French women were more likely to accept the ad-


vances of an average-looking man after listening to a romantic song, according to Lubomir Lamy, an associate professor of so- cial psychology at the University of Paris-South, and his col- leagues at the University of Brittany-South. Their findings were published in the journal Psychology of Music. “The general purpose of this study,” Lamy wrote in an e-mail, “was to demonstrate that women in- duced with the idea of love are more easily at- tracted to other people.” Lamy and his co-authors invited female undergraduates, ages 18 to 20, to participate in what they were told was a taste-testing of organic cookies. The women were told they would talk about the edible products with another participant. One hundred eighty- three women signed up; the researchers eliminated those who were romantically at- tached or who did not consider themselves heterosexual. Then they scheduled the re- maining 87 bachelorettes for their tests. When each woman arrived, she sat alone in a waiting room as music played in the background: either Francis Cabrel’s ro- mantic “Je L’Aime à Mourir” (“I Love Him to Death”) or Vin- cent Delerm’s more neutral “L’Heure du Thé” (“Tea Time”). After three minutes, she was led into the “experiment room,” where a young man was seated. The two then spent a few min- utes sampling cookies and answering questions. When the pseudo market research was done, the young man made his move: “My name is Antoine . . . I think you are very nice and I was wondering if you would give me your phone number.” “Antoine,” who’d been chosen for this role because a panel


had rated him as average-looking, had instructions on how to act, when to pause, gaze and smile. He performed the same scene with each participant, the researchers said. Fifty-two percent of the women who met him after having heard the Cabrel song gave a phone number. Of the women who had gotten an earful of “Tea Time,” just 28 percent did. “The results indicate that participants primed with the idea of love consider more favorably an attempt to seduce them,” Lamy said.


—Leslie Tamura SCIENCE SCAN CLIMATE CHANGE


Taking a look ahead LOVELETTERSTOTHEFUTURE.COM


On this Web site created by Greenpeace International, peo- ple can send climate-change-related messages to future gener- ations with video, photo or text. The clever site won a Webby award last month in the “Green” category. The best 100 mes- sages were sealed in a time capsule at the Copenhagen cli- mate-change conference in December, but people are still en- couraged to submit letters for the next time capsule (no date set). Samples: “I hope your New Orleans is more than what I knew it to be.” “I love climbing mountains . . . I take pictures of flowers . . . I wait for the sunrise . . . Oh how I wish you can still see and experience these.” “Sorry u missed the polar bears.”


ASTRONOMY


Getting stars in your eyes “THE PRACTICAL ASTRONOMER” (DK PUBLISHING, $19.95) Stargazers who wants to take their hobby to the next level would be wise to pick up “The Practical Astronomer,” a beginner’s guide for understanding the solar system and beyond. The full-color book starts with


the basics — the big bang and the life cycle of a star, for exam- ple — and then gives illustrated, step-by-step instructions for setting up binoculars and telescopes. It also includes a de- tailed atlas of the night sky month by month, and star charts, keyed to different latitudes, to help neophyte astronomers dif- ferentiate among the major constellations. Astronomy is the rare scientific field where amateurs can really contribute: Just ask Caroline Moore of Warwick, N.Y., who in 2009, at age 14, became the youngest person to discover a supernova.


— Rachel Saslow BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES PRIMATOLOGIST JANE GOODALL began her groundbreaking research into chimpanzee


behavior on July 14, 1960: 50 years ago tomorrow. She was a 26-year-old with no scientific experience or college degree. British authorities balked at the idea of having Goodall stay alone in the wilderness around Lake Tanganyika, in what is now Tanzania, so her mother went with her. During Goodall’s six-month sojourn in the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve, now


Gombe National Park, Goodall saw a chimp strip leaves off twigs to fashion tools for fish- ing termites from a nest. Until then, scientists thought that humans were the only crea- tures that created and used tools. This was just the first of many Goodall discoveries that have redefined the relationship between humans and other animals. In 1994, Goodall started the Lake Tanganyika Catchment Reforestation and Education


(TACARE, pronounced “take care”) project. It works with local communities to improve their people’s lives — by providing necessities from health care to lavatories — while reha- bilitating the environment with tree nurseries and better farming techniques. A U.N. Mes- senger of Peace and founder of the Arlington-based Jane Goodall Institute, Goodall spoke with us on the phone from Rome, where she was in the middle of a whirlwind travel sched- ule to mark the anniversary of her work.


— Rachel Saslow


Does it feel like 50 years since you started your chim- panzee research? It seems hard to believe it’s been half a century. And yet it doesn’t seem like yesterday, ei- ther, unless I’m actually there up on a peak or by a waterfall and I can capture how I felt back then. And how was that? That everything is so new and


BIGSTOCKPHOTO


exciting and you never know what’s going to happen. It was an amazing time of discovery and exploration and living a dream. Was your mom with you for the full six months? No, she came for four months and then the government decid- ed that I might be crazy, but I was okay. She missed the great discov- ery of [chimpanzee] toolmaking


and tool-using. I would have liked to share that with her. I could tell the Africans, but it wasn’t that exciting to them. Did you know immediately


that you had made a major dis- covery?


I only knew because [biologist


and naturalist] George Schaller was there just before, and he told me if I saw tool-using it would make the whole thing worth- while.


When you first presented


your research in the 1960s, some scientists accused you of anthropomorphizing chimpan- zees because of the nature of your findings and because you assigned them names rather than numbers. Is there a dan- ger in anthropomorphizing


them? The danger lies in the other di-


rection. Of course, we can’t attri- bute all human emotions and feelings to animals, that’s ridicu- lous. If we’re in doubt, we should give the animal the benefit of the doubt. They’re continually sur- prising [to] people. What advice would you give


your 26-year-old self? My mother used to say, “If you want something, you find a way to do it.” That’s what I tell all the kids when I meet them today. How has Gombe changed since 1960? It has totally changed. About in 1992, I flew over the entire area of Gombe and the surroundings and was utterly shocked to see how total the deforestation out-


FIELD OF INQUIRY INTERVIEWS WITH PEOPLE IN SCIENCE


“


It seems hard to believe it’s been half a century. And yet it doesn’t seem like yesterday, either.”


Science


E3


GOODALL CIRCA 1960: HUGO VAN LAWICK/ JANE GOODALL INSTITUTE


side the tiny national park was. There were more people there than the land could support. Aren’t some of the people there as a result of your re- search? How do you feel about that? It’s quite disruptive, but it’s a


national park and the tourists need to come. It’s all right if there’s only a few of them. I was so spoiled — I had the forests and the chimpanzees all to myself and now you go out and see a group of chimps and there’s al- ways a couple of tourists with a guide. It’s not an isolated place any- more. If we hadn’t started the TA- CARE program, there would be no hope of the chimps’ surviving. Because of TACARE, people have allowed trees to grow in as a buff- er zone around the park. How many chimps are left there compared to 50 years ago?


Around 100. There used to be 150 in three communities, so we lost one community. Mainly, they used to spend a lot of time out of the park and now there’s no habi- tat outside. And refugees from the Congo settled there, and they eat chimps. How often do you visit Gombe


now? I get there twice a year, but it’s


very brief, just a few days to visit the TACARE projects and the youth program Roots and Shoots. Do you miss research? I loved collecting and analyz-


ing data. I can’t do either now. I can make sure that Gombe goes on.


Some people still say, “Why are you spending so much time with youth?” I could kill myself trying to save chimps and forests, but if children don’t grow up to be bet- ter stewards of the environment than we are, then what’s the point? What’s some of the most ex- citing research coming out of there now? What I’m most fascinated by is


DNA analysis. We never used to know who fathers are, and now that we can, one can look for any bond between a male and his bio- logical offspring. It’s important if you’re interested in heredity and how humans inherit character. Nature and nurture, questions like that.


Particles may have come from asteroid


tokyo — In what may be the world’s first collection of samples from an asteroid, a small amount of fine particles has been detected in a capsule brought back to Earth by the space probe Hayabusa, ac- cording to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). JAXA plans to analyze the par- ticles to determine whether they are from the asteroid Itokawa, which orbits the sun between Earth and Mars and which Haya- busa visited during its seven-year journey. It is believed the capsule originally contained several hun- dred particles from Earth, so it will take some time for the space agency to determine exactly what Hayabusa brought back. JAXA plans to use an electron microscope, infrared rays and other means to exclude material from Earth and closely analyze whatever particles remain. The results of the analysis are expec- ted to come out in August or later. The examinations conducted so


far have shown that the capsule does not contain particles bigger than one millimeter and that it contains a very small amount of gas. If particles from Itokawa are found, they are expected to pro- vide important clues to under- standing how the solar system de- veloped.


—Yomiuri Shimbun HEALTH & SCIENCE


The changing natural world at our doorsteps. URBAN JUNGLE


A small reward for neglect


In early July, green foxtail flower heads are prominent in unmowed lawns and weedy flowerbeds.


If it’s too hot to work in the yard or you simply have more pressing concerns, you can still spare a brief moment to taste the fruits of summer indolence. Collect the treat by grabbing onto a foxtail flower and giving it a pull. The flower stalk will squeak out of its sheath, exposing a sweet, succulent tip on which to chew.


PULL


Join the crowd


The grass is native to Eurasia, growing best in disturbed areas. It’s popular with wildlife. Seeds are eaten by sparrows, doves, blackbirds and mallards. House mice like them, too. Stink bugs and aphids suck the sweet juices. Least skipper caterpillars, flea beetles and grasshoppers eat the leaves.


Setaria viridis CHEW SOURCE: USDA; www.illinoiswildflowers.info PATTERSON CLARK/THE WASHINGTON POST clarkp@washpost.com


Editor: Frances Stead Sellers • Assistant Editors: Margaret Shapiro, Nancy Szokan • Art Director: Brad Walters • Editorial Aides: Charity Brown, Rachel Saslow • To Contact Us: health-science@washpost.com · 202-334-5031 · The Washington Post, Health, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 • Advertising Information: Shawn Mckenna-Deane, 202-334-5750


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54