Scientists Take Charles Darwin on the Road 3 New Life for Crematories’ Waste Heat 10 Crazy Weather and Climate: Do Dots Connect? 12 Solutions to Water Supply Woes Surface in the West 16 Pricing Carbon to Reduce Emissions, Create Dividends 19 Plugging High-Speed Rail Into Germany’s Power Grid 22 Comet Theory Comes Crashing to Earth 24 Sensory Deprivation Boosts Musicians’ Skill Level 30 Obesity Virus, Fat Chickens and Life’s Mysteries 32 Particle Trap Paves Way for Personalized Medicine 37 Children Learn Language in Moments of Insight, Not Gradually 39 Ants Give New Evidence for Interaction Networks 42 World Record in Ultra-Rapid Data Transmission 46 Just Four Percent of Galaxies Have Neighbors Like the Milky Way 48 Mummies Tell History of a 'Modern' Plague 51 Black Holes Spin Faster and Faster 53 Gulf Currents Primed Bacteria to Degrade Oil Spill 55 Human Brain's Most Ubiquitous Cell Cultivated in Lab Dish 57 Movement Without Muscles: Zoologists on Trail of Evolution of Body Contractions 59 Novel Artificial Material Could Facilitate Wireless Power 61 Hubble Views the Star That Changed the Universe 63 Mushroom Compound Suppresses Prostate Tumors 67 Natural Product Shows Pain-Killing Properties 69 Weight Gain Between First and Second Pregnancies Increases Woman's Diabetes Risk 71 New Device Could Reduce Surgical Scarring 73 'Surrogates' Aid Design of Complex Parts and Controlling Video Games 76 Violence Doesn't Add to Children's Enjoyment of TV Shows, Movies 78 Seeing an Atomic Thickness 80 New Beamline Allows Researchers to Study Variety of Materials 82 Chicken Wing Sauce and Trigonometry Brought to Bear on CSI Enigma 84 Breast Cancer Linked to Obesity Gene, New Research Suggests 86 Just Four Percent of Galaxies Have Neighbors Like the Milky Way 87 OCD: Compulsions Lead to Obsessions, Not the Other Way Around 89 Shave Biopsy Is a Safe and Acceptable Method for Initial Evaluation of Melanoma 91 Pre-Meal Dietary Supplement Can Help Overcome Fat and Sugar Problems 92 U.S. Honey Bee Losses at 30% for 2010-2011 Winter 94 Multiple Stop Points in Genes Are More Important Than Thought 96 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila Scientists Explore Hidden World of Ancient Maritime Maya 98 Platform Developed to Monitor Hematopoietic Stem Cells 100 Changes in Vegetation Determine How Animals Migrate 102 New Green Technology for Hydrogen Production 104 Younger Doctors Prescribe More Drugs to Reduce Heart Risk 106 A New Program for Neural Stem Cells 108 Oceanic Land Crab Extinction Linked to Colonization of Hawaii 110 Evolutionary Conservation of Fat Metabolism Pathways 112 Freedom in the Swamp: Unearthing the Secret History of the Great Dismal Swamp 115 Cover Crop Seeder Pulls Triple Duty for Small Farms 118 New Nanoscale Imaging May Lead to New Treatments for Multiple Sclerosis 120 Mechanism Behind Compound's Effects on Skin Inflammation and Cancer Progression 122 Out of Africa: How the Fruit Fly Made Its Way in the World 124 Engineers Scale Up Process That Could Improve Economics of Ethanol Production 126 Octopuses Make Some Pretty Good Moves 128 When Doctors Are Called to the Rescue in Midflight 130 On Your Marks, Get Set, Measure Heart Health 134 A Muse in the Machine: Click. Create. 136 An Architect’s Fear That Preservation Distorts 139 A Graphic Memoir That Earns the Designation 141 Where Dissidents Are the Prey, and Horror Is a Weapon 144 The Parisian Experience of American Pioneers 147 Oh, the Stuff Those Lions Guard 149 Lingodroid Robots Invent Their Own Spoken Language 152 Future Computers May Be DNA-Based 154 The MIT factor: celebrating 150 years of maverick genius 156 Paperwork Explosion 162 Milky Way faces midlife crisis 165 Solar system's big bully leaves others looking flat 167 Linguists break into Skype conversations 168 Robo-Jeeves finds and folds your crumpled shirts 170 Twitter forces rethink on English privacy law 172 Gene for tooth enamel could prevent decay 173 Mind-reading scan identifies simple thoughts 174 Common drug combo increases diabetes risk 176 Genes, germs and the origins of politics 178 Rewriting the textbooks: Hydrogen bonds in a bind 183 Rewriting the textbooks: Confusion over nuclear fission 185 Unbreakable: Beale's buried treasure 187 Ultracold measurements reveal shape of the electron 186 African land grab could lead to future water conflicts 189 People in threatened societies are more conformist 191 Novel design could help probe explore frozen environs on Earth and beyond. 192 Quantum effects brought to light 194 Surreptitious sleep states uncovered 196 Is FutureGen betting on the wrong rock? 198 New drug targets raise hopes for hepatitis C cure 200 2 Infoteca’s E-Journal No. 159 June 2011 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila Scientists Take Charles Darwin on the Road A posse of evolutionary scientists traveled to the heart of America to share their excitement about science on the birthday of Charles Darwin. This is their story. By Craig McClain Pictured, Charles Darwin's famous finches. A team of stalwart scientists fanned out across the country to participate in the Darwin Day Road Show, offering them an opportunity to share their excitement about science to students and faculty around the country. (Wikipedia.org). “I want to send our scientists to rural schools and communities around the U.S. to talk about evolution for Darwin Day 2011.” Jory Weintraub’s words hung undigested in the silent air of the management meeting at our North Carolina center last July. “You want to send our scientists where?” I jested. “On purpose?” In my two years overseeing the daily operations of the science group at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, or NESCent, I have come to expect inventive programs from Weintraub, my counterpart in our education and outreach group. Core to our mission is innovation, a challenge we were tasked with by the National Science Foundation when they created the center to promote the synthesis of information and concepts on outstanding questions in evolutionary science. 3 Infoteca’s E-Journal No. 159 June 2011 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila Craig McClain speaks to students in the Perkins High School gym in Grant, Neb. (Craig McClain) This time, however, his idea caught me somewhat off guard. And yet, a half year later, I found myself in rural Nebraska alongside Gregor Yanega, a NESCent biologist who works on hummingbird evolution. The temperature is 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and we, Team Nebraska, were not quite sure what to expect. On our way to Nebraska, Yanega and I bumped into a scientific colleague at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. When we spoke of our Darwin Day activities, he responded with similar bemusement, a cocked eyebrow, and a variation of my original question to Weintraub. From scientific colleagues to my family in rural Arkansas, the general response fell between incredulity and curiosity. This is because all of us know that despite no shortage of evidence of evolution in the world around us, the concept remains controversial. Just under half of Americans believe the theory of evolution is not supported by any confirmed facts. A recent poll found that 42 percent of the public also believes the theory of evolution conflicts with their religious views. A new study also suggests that many public high school biology teachers may be overly cautious in advocating for evolutionary biology in the classroom. Their caution arises because they do not feel they understand it well enough to teach it properly, or they are trying to avoid a controversial topic, or in some cases because they do not “believe” in evolution themselves. The discord goes beyond just evolution and extends to science as a whole. Even some political movements are now setting anti-science agendas. So perhaps unsurprisingly, Darwin Day celebrations often only occur at universities, museums, science centers and other s afe havens. In rural American primary schools, and even urban schools, the concept of the Darwin Day Road Show, as we came to call our program, was unprecedented. Dramatic as it sounds, it was, and is, an experiment with risks for the superintendents, principals and teachers who invited us into their schools and for the scientists who ventured into the unknown. Despite these reasons explaining why a cautious evolutionary biologist would not want to venture into the heartland of America when called upon, NESCent scientists overwhelmingly volunteered to participate and share their research. Being from a rural Arkansas town, I jumped at the opportunity to participate and convey my passion about science and evolutionary biology to an audience often not exposed to it. Honestly, how often does a marine biologist from a landlocked Southern state have the chance to visit Western Nebraska and talk about the thing he loves? 4 Infoteca’s E-Journal No. 159 June 2011 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila Other NESCent scientists brought additional motivations. Jenny McGuire, who examines the evolution of fossil mammals, visited a Virginia county school just 15 miles from her own hometown. “I saw it as a fun A church along on highway 61 near Grant, Neb. (Craig McClain) homecoming, a chance to inform the public about science and how to be good scientific citizens.” Another member of Team Virginia, Jennifer Verdolin, who studies the evolution of communication and sociality in prairie dogs, volunteered because it was “outside of the bounds of what we typically do for science outreach.” A third team — John Logsdon, a biology professor at the University of Iowa and former NESCent sabbatical fellow with expertise on the evolution of sex, and Julie Meachen, a NESCent fellow examining the evolution of large carnivores like the saber-tooth cat — represented Team Iowa.