Why the Haiti quake killed so many 3 Alive and Well 5 ESA satellite senses Earth's pull 7 Natural Variability Led to Extra-Cold 2008, Research Finds 10 Severity of H1N1 Influenza Linked to Presence of Streptococcus Pneumoniae 11 Handful of Iron Beads Offer Clues to Solve Mystery of Ancient Iron Forges 13 Researchers Demonstrate Nanoscale X-Ray Imaging of Bacterial Cells 15 New Acoustic Tools May Reduce Ship Strikes on Whales 17 Transcription Factors Guide Differences in Human and Chimp Brain Function 19 New Target for Lymphoma Therapy 21 Shuttles Vital but Vulnerable Heme Molecule Across Biological Membranes 23 Evolution Experiments With Flowers 26 Scientists Discover a Controller of Brain Circuitry 27 Mobilizing the Repair Squad: Critical Protein Helps Mend Damaged DNA 29 Born in Beauty: Proplyds in the Orion Nebula 31 Nanoscale Changes in Collagen Are a Tipoff to Bone Health 33 Mapping Nutrient Distributions Over The Atlantic Ocean 35 Brain Scans Show Distinctive Patterns in People With Generalized Anxiety Disorder 37 Protein Structure Reveals How Plants Respond To Water Shortages 39 Perfectly Proportioned: Evenly Distributed Powder Density For Manufacturing Parts 41 First Molars Provide Insight Into Evolution of Great Apes, Humans 43 Lighting Can Influence How Wine Tastes 45 Superatoms Mimic Elements: Research Gives New Perspective on Periodic Table 46 The Body Electric 48 Devil cancer source 'identified' 51 DNA analysed from early European 53 'Lifeless' prions can 'evolve' 56 Final Moments of Bee Landing Tactics Revealed 59 It's Never Too Late to Quit Smoking and Save Your Vision 61 Fast Pace of Glacier Melt in the 1940s: Lower Aerosol Pollution 62 New Molecule Identified in DNA Damage Response 64 Window Opens Into Moon's Past Volcanism 66 Looking Back in Time 12 Billion Years With Instruments on Herschel Space Observatory 67 Biofilms: Researchers Discover New Ways to Treat Chronic Infections 69 A Facial Expression Is Worth a Thousand Words 71 Lithium-Air Batteries Could Displace Gasoline in Future Cars 73 Marseillevirus -- A New Member of the Giant Viruses 75 No Rise of Airborne Fraction of Carbon Dioxide in Past 160 Years, New Research Finds 77 Body's Own Veins Provide Superior Material for Aortic Grafts 78 Making College ‘Relevant’ 80 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila Ten Master’s of the New Universe 83 Learning to Listen 84 Wanted: ‘Cyber Ninjas’ 87 A Step Beyond Anthropology 88 Skills to Fix Failing Schools 91 The Business of Zeroing In 95 The Interactive Entrepreneur 97 How to Train the Aging Brain 98 Listening to Braille 101 Phys Ed: How Little Exercise Can You Get Away With? 105 The Naked and the Conflicted 107 Many ignorant on 'waist fat' risk 112 Long-term fitness 'fights ageing' 114 Biosensors offer brain insights 116 Mind Reading 118 Teen depression 'linked to sleep' 121 Unreliable evidence? Time to open up DNA databases 123 Chimp's dance suggests a mental grasp of fire 126 Kepler telescope spots 'Styrofoam' planet 127 When men shouldn't be in want of a wife 129 You won't find consciousness in the brain 130 Chilling out in the coldest place on Earth 133 Cellphone radiation is good for Alzheimer's mice 134 Supermassive black holes – the fathers of galaxies 136 Get ready for China's domination of science 140 Gene rice on its way in China 142 Twirling Battery Provides Instant Energy for a Dead Cellphone 143 Spiraling Skyscraper Pod City For a Future London 144 Tracks record oldest land-walkers 145 Elegant Solutions in Eco Dream Home 147 Are American Kids Crazy or What? 150 Arctic tern's epic journey mapped 152 'Wet computer' project kicks off 154 Big bum and thighs 'are healthy' 156 Concern over prostate cancer test 158 Neanderthal 'make-up' discovered 160 Coloured lasers may curb epilepsy 162 Food industry is 'too secretive' 164 Coral reefs are evolution hotspot 166 Mind chemical 'controls choice' 168 Respect for elders 'may be universal' in primates 170 Brain 'entanglement' could explain memories 172 'Most beautiful' math structure appears in lab for first time 174 How to make a liquid invisibility cloak 176 Electron-spotting could explain warm superconductors 178 World's communications network due an energy diet 179 Artificial leaf could make green hydrogen 181 2010 preview: Tooth-mounted hearing aid for the masses 183 Egg white provides a puncture repair kit for fetuses 184 The Apparatgeist calls 185 Five emotions you never knew you had 190 Poor neighbourhoods can kill 195 Circumcision: there goes the microbial neighbourhood 199 Jim Al-Khalili: Islam's House of Wisdom will rise again 200 2 Infoteca’s E-Journal No.99 January 2010 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila Why the Haiti quake killed so many • 13:18 19 January 2010 by Kate Ravilious Better buildings could have saved lives (Image: Thony Belizaire/AFP/Getty Images) Last week's earthquake in Haiti has been described by the United Nations as the worst humanitarian crisis in decades, with estimates of the number of dead ranging from 50,000 to 200,000. The UN blames the fact that the quake hit a densely populated capital city, knocking out many of the agencies that would have dealt with disaster relief. Geologists speaking to New Scientist explained some of the other reasons why the quake was so bad, and warned that more quakes may come, because not all the pent-up seismic energy was released in the tragedy. First, the quake was "shallow source" and so allowed less warning time to get out of buildings than deep quakes. And Port au Prince is built not on solid rock but on soil, which collapses when shaken. Finally, building standards were not adequate for major earthquakes. If a similar quake occurred in California, the death toll would almost certainly have been much lower. "Better buildings would have saved lives," says Chuck DeMets, a tectonic geologist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Tale of two quakes A comparison with two very similar earthquakes backs up this assertion. Both occurred in densely populated regions, but they had very different outcomes. In 1988, the Spitak magnitude-6.9 earthquake in Armenia took more than 25,000 lives. By contrast the magnitude-7.1 Loma Prieta earthquake in 3 Infoteca’s E-Journal No.99 January 2010 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila California in 1989 caused only 63 deaths. "The difference in the numbers of fatalities illustrates the huge effect that high building standards can have in saving people's lives," says DeMets. The multi-storey concrete buildings that made up much of Port-au-Prince proved to be death traps when the earthquake struck. "The buildings were brittle and had no flexibility, breaking catastrophically when the earthquake struck," says Ian Main, a seismologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK. And the disaster was compounded by the earthquake's shallow source. "With deep earthquakes the primary waves arrive first, giving you a bit of warning before the shear waves [responsible for shaking the ground from side to side] arrive," says Uri ten Brink, an expert on earthquakes in the Caribbean from the US Geological Survey in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. In Haiti the epicentre was so close to the surface that the primary and shear waves arrived almost at the same time. Design and survive So what kind of buildings can withstand this kind of shake? "Engineers use more flexible materials with a built-in capacity to absorb damage, much as car bonnets are now designed to crumple, leaving the interior intact," explains Main. "This might include base-isolation shock absorbers on the first floor, to help resist or minimise dynamic shear and twisting motions." Retrofitting conventional buildings to make them earthquake-proof is expensive, but constructing new buildings to be shake-proof is not. "Seismic-resistant buildings cost a few per cent more in building materials and need a little extra designer time, but they are not a great deal more expensive than ordinary buildings," says Main. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18406-why-the-haiti-quake-killed-so- many.html?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=dn18406 4 Infoteca’s E-Journal No.99 January 2010 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila Alive and Well December 28, 2009 By Mary B. Marcy The liberal arts are higher education’s answer to Broadway, that "fabulous invalid" whose demise is predicted with both certainty and regularity. Claims that the liberal arts are in jeopardy have taken on increased urgency in the current economic climate. As students swell the ranks of community colleges, the presumption is that readily identifiable and employable skills rather than broad and deep learning are the primary focus of their educational ambitions. But in the case of the liberal arts, conventional wisdom is at odds with what experience and current data suggest. For example, the benchmark freshmen surveys conducted each year by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute show an increasing appetite for the kind of educational experience typically associated with the liberal arts. In 2008, for the first time since 1982, more than 50 percent of first year students identified “developing a meaningful philosophy of life” as an important or very important goal of their college experience. Similarly, the venerable pollster John Zogby has found that a growing segment -- including but not limited to the traditional college age population -- of United States citizens believes living a "meaningful life" is central to the realization of the American dream. And despite dire predictions, enrollment at most liberal arts colleges, including my own, has risen during this difficult economic year. There are likely two reasons for this gap between conventional wisdom and student decision making.