Parkside professor takes lead in naming dinosaur

From Journal Times: Parkside professor takes lead in naming dinosaur
SOMERS — The Cretaceous was hot and is hot again.

It was hot about 75 million years ago when a small dinosaur roamed what is now Utah. A team led by a University of Wisconsin-Parkside professor named this new species, which is one of the best specimens of its kind from North America before mammals rose to prominence and humans trod the earth.

It took about a year to name the new creature, said Lindsay Zanno. She is a 34-year-old assistant professor of biological sciences at Parkside and research associate at the Field Museum in Chicago. She is also the lead author of the Public Library of Science paper which named Talos sampsoni.

Talos was about the size of a big German shepherd, 80 pounds in weight and 5 to 6 feet long. And it was covered with feathers. The feathers are known from related dinosaurs found in China. Specimens there have been much better preserved, Zanno said, and one was an almost complete skeleton found in a sleeping position with its head tucked under its wing just like a modern bird.

Some of the Chinese specimens even have the remnants of feathers which scientists have been able to analyze to determine color, said Hans Sues, 55, a curator at the National Museum of Natural History, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

BIG FAMILY

What makes Talos such an exciting find is that it contradicts the idea that dinosaurs of the western, interior United States were uniform, Sues said. It is likely, in fact, that this part of the western U.S. was once a hotbed of dinosaur diversity.

"The world was very different than it is today," Zanno said. "There were no polar ice caps and global temperature was high. The oceans were expanding; they were basically flooding onto the continent and creating these very shallow seas."

In North America a shallow sea about 1,800 miles long stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada and divided the continent into East America and West America, Zanno said. So Talos was essentially in a coastal environment that would have been lush, hot and humid. But the seas would also have been pressing against the beginnings of the Rocky Mountains and isolating the animals in this area.

"So there's a very dynamic evolution going on on the continent during this time. And we think that contributed to really high diversity and many different species living there because of the complex interaction because sea and the mountain. I mean, this area is one of the most diverse areas for dinosaurs anywhere in the world. We have a phenomenal number of dinosaur species from this one ‘island,'" Zanno said.

The large eyes of this group of dinosaurs give another clue to their lives, Sues said. They were probably chasing prey at dusk or during early evening, he said. There would have been plenty to eat: smaller dinosaurs, babies of larger animals, eggs, lizards, frogs, salamanders, even insects.

But diet is hard to pin down, Zanno said. Talos probably ate meat and some plants.

AND BRAINS, TOO

This group of animals also had, for dinosaurs, very large brains compared to the size of their bodies. They would not have been as intelligent as a comparable mammal, Sues said, but somewhere in the range between and ostrich and an eagle.

"Neither are intellectually brilliant, but they're certainly capable of complex behaviors," he said.

There is evidence on the Talos skeleton of a rough life. One of its toes was injured, perhaps from a fracture or perhaps a bite, but certainly from some high-risk activity, Zanno said. It lived with that injury for a few months to a year before dying at between age 4 and 6. Like trees, she said, scientists can determine a dinosaur's age by looking at a cross-section of fossilized bone and counting the growth rings.

Much as we may think of dinosaurs as fierce predators, Zanno said, it's important to remember these were living, breathing, complex creatures.

"Something like Talos would have been fierce only when he needed to be," she said. "I think all in all an animal like Talos would have strived not to be seen. And certainly when you're running around in an environment filled with tyrannosaurs, you want to strive not to be seen."

These tyrannosaurs were not the T. rex, still about 10 million years in the future from Talos, but dinosaurs of the same family weighing 2,000 to 4,000 pounds - enough to see a German shepherd-sized dinosaur as dinner.

LIMITED BONES
For all that Zanno and her team learned about Talos, it comes from only part of the animal. The group had the hips and legs and feet, some vertebrae and two forearm bones. And this makes it the best specimen found so far in North America.

The reason is that Talos was a small animal. The bones of a dead Talos would have been scattered by scavengers. And the bones themselves are like those of modern birds: thin-walled and hollow, meaning they could be easily broken or crushed.

Despite all the impediments to recognizing specimens from millions of years ago, dinosaurs are out of their ice age. New species are being announced every few weeks, Sues said, and instead of a few hundred species scientists now believe there were probably thousands of species of dinosaurs.

Far from being a fossilized field, the study of dinosaurs is picking up speed. That is why, in this time of polar ice, the Cretaceous is hot again.

Americans Have No Idea Who Today's Scientists Are

From the Atlantic Wire: Americans Have No Idea Who Today's Scientists Are
Embedded in a New York Times story today on groups calling for scientists to take a more active role in public life is a statistic that caught our eye: When asked to name a scientist, 47 percent of Americans picked Albert Einstein, who has been dead for 56 years. The second most well-known scientist? Yeah, we're not sure either--23 percent answered "I don't know." Another survey revealed that only 4 percent of Americans could name a living scientist. (Stephen Hawking! Come on, people.)

The Times summoned these stats to illustrate the disconnect between the realms of science and politics. Several groups in the U.S. are prodding scientists, who are generally well-informed on energy and global warming and other heavily debated topics in politics, to speak out in their areas of expertise and even run for political office. Only a handful of members of the U.S. House of Representatives--31 of 435--are "technically trained" in a field of science, according to The Times.

Your Daughter's Science Role Model: A Cartoon Space Chimp

From The Atlantic Wire: Your Daughter's Science Role Model: A Cartoon Space Chimp
There's a reason girls and science don't mix: there's a role model shortage, especially in children's movies. The lack of ladies in STEM (science, technology engineering and math) fields is "troubling," reports The Washington Post's Anna Holmes. "According to a report released last month by the Department of Commerce, although females fill almost half of the jobs in the American economy, less than 25 percent of jobs in STEM fields are held by women." One reason ladies might shy away from geekier professions, argues Holmes, "there were no depictions of female characters involved in any sort of STEM career in children’s movies." That's not quite true: the study Holmes cites out of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media found three. So what exactly do these precious few role models look like?

Your daughter gets two choices: Astronaut or zany lab scientist. The study found three movies that have female characters in STEM jobs: Space Chimps, Horton Hears a Who and Fly Me to the Moon. Both Space Chimps and Fly Me to the Moon are movies about cartoon astronauts. One of the main monkeys in Space Chimps is indeed a girl chimp named Luna She's surrounded by boys, but she has a leading role, unlike Fly Me to the Moon in which all the main space-venturing bugs are boys. There is one lady bug though, Nadia, a soviet hottie who saves the bugs from space-crash death.

Beyond space travel, Horton Hears a Who features Dr. Mary Lou Larou, which the Suess Wiki describes as "a bit scatterbrained at times but also the "smartest of the staff at Who University." If your daughter is scared of heights or has more down to earth career goals, she might aspire to academia.

And that's it, those are all of the options. Not only was that it for STEM professions, but you can forget about medicine, business, law or politics. The study found zero women in any of those professions in children's films.

Fossil hunter Mary Anning celebrated in Lyme Regis

From BBC News: Fossil hunter Mary Anning celebrated in Lyme Regis

It is 200 years since a young girl made a landmark discovery in Dorset.

In 1811, Lyme Regis fossil hunter Mary Anning - aged just 12 - and her older brother Joseph unearthed the 2m (6.5ft) long skull of an ichthyosaur.

Anning spent a year extracting the dinosaur fossil from 205 million-year-old Blue Lias cliffs on the beach.

It remains one of the most famous geological finds on the Jurassic Coast, yet Anning was never credited as a scientist.


The ichthyosaur fossil is on display in Lyme Regis until the end of September Her life is being celebrated on 24 September during Mary Anning Day: 200 Years Of Discovery at Lyme Regis Museum.

But perhaps her most remarkable legacy is that her pioneering work still motivates many of today's experts.

Geologist Paddy Howe, from Lyme Regis, said: "Mary Anning had a huge amount of determination and is a great inspiration to me.

"To make the discoveries she did she must have been out in some terrible storms, and after landslides when the cliffs had been disturbed."

Born in 1799, Mary Anning, who is thought to have inspired the tongue-twister "She sells sea shells", was a self educated, working class woman from the "poor side" of town.

Her other discoveries included fossilised dinosaur faeces known as coprolites.

However, her sex and social class, in a society dominated by wealthy men, prevented her from fully participating in the scientific community of early 19th Century Britain.

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Mary Goodwin, curator of Lyme Regis Museum which is built on the site of Anning's birthplace, said: "You were nothing in those days until you had your name published on a scientific paper."

A tool thought to have been used to extract fossils from the cliffs by Anning is housed at the museum, along with her notebook from the 1830s.

The book is filled with quotes and poems that were important to her.

Ms Goodwin said: "The book shines a light on her as a person, as opposed to the fossils she discovered.

"Although she never married or had children, the book suggests she had a romantic side."

American novelist Tracy Chevalier, who has written a fictional book based on facts about Anning, said: "There's evidence to suggest Mary had a romantic relationship that ended badly, but no one knows with whom.


One of Anning's discoveries was fossilised dinosaur faeces "Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas James Birch organised an auction of specimens he had purchased from the Anning family in 1820 which raised £400.

"That was an awful lot of money in those days and he donated it back to the Anning family.

"I think that was a huge romantic gesture."

Anning also had a firm friendship with fossil collector Elizabeth Philpot.

Ms Chevalier said: "Elizabeth was a middle class woman and for the pair to be friends was most unusual.

"In other circumstances Mary would most likely have been a servant to Elizabeth, not a friend."

Anning survived a lightning strike as a baby which killed three other people.

Ms Chevalier said: "She was a sickly baby but became a lively and intelligent child and adult, which many people attributed to the lightning strike.

"She was an incredible woman."

Anning died of breast cancer in 1847, aged 47.

Girl Scouts: Girls invited to science education evening

I'm a couple days late with this story - so anyone in Indiana has already missed it. However, it illustrates a point - if you're the mother of a young girl, or a young girl yourself (and I know I number those among my readers) check out the girl scouts in your area and see if they have a program to encourage girls to study the sciences. If they don't - and you're a parent, why not become a girl scout or brownie leader and do it yourself. (Always understanding that volunteers are so scarce these days that they'll latch on to you quickly and never let you go!)

Exploring archeology, discovering how to become a color scientist, learning about fingerprint types and even exploring a worm's life all will be part of an exploration evening offered for girls Thursday at the Townsend Community Center in Richmond.

Girls in grades kindergarten to six are invited by the Girl Scouts to the free event, which will be 5:30-7 p.m. at the Townsend center, 855 N. 12th St.

In addition to the exploration and education programs, girls and their families can learn about Girl Scout programs. Girls may register for Girl Scouts during the event by paying $12 membership dues. Financial assistance is available.

Girl Scouts offers a comprehensive program for girls in kindergarten through 12th grade. The Girl Scout leadership development program helps girls learn to discover their own values, connect with their peers and adults, and take action to improve their communities.

The 15 benefits of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience range from girls learning how to resolve a conflict to identifying and addressing a community need. According to the Girl Scout Research Institute , two-thirds of girls want to be leaders, but only one girl in five believes she has the skills to lead.

"Girl Scouts helps every girl discover the leader she can be, and connect with others to have an effect on her world," said Sherri Becker, membership development manager who has worked in the Richmond area. "We know how girls learn to lead. Girls Scouts has pioneered the first national system of outcomes measurement for girls' leadership development. This helps our adult volunteers, our funders, and the girls themselves see how they are succeeding."

For more information about Girl Scout membership, contact Becker at (877) 474-2248, ext. 6877; email sbecker@girlscoutsindiana.org; or visit the website www.girlscoutsindiana.org.

Girl Scouts of Central Indiana serves more than 41,000 girls in 45 counties across central Indiana.

Science is golden when the plot is hot

From Sydney Morning Herald: Science is golden when the plot is hot
JO CHANDLER hung out of a Hercules aircraft and wept at the beauty of the Antarctic below - which was not a good idea, as her tears turned to ice. Elizabeth Finkel spent a year figuring out how to tell stories about chromosomes. Jane McCredie found herself standing on a street corner, looking at passers-by, waiting to meet a stranger who once was female but now was male.

The Melbourne Writers Festival session was billed as ''Writing in Lab Coats'' but science writing as portrayed by these journalists was anything but clinical. Whether writing about climate change (Age journalist Chandler's Feeling the Heat), micro-organisms (Finkel's Stem Cells) or gender bending (McCredie's Making Girls and Boys), all the writers found themselves on a thrilling journey in which the biggest challenge was to communicate to the reader exactly what was going on.

Popular science writing is huge internationally: think of the success of people such as Carl Sagan, Dava Sobel, Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Dawkins and Simon Winchester in bringing apparently dry and difficult subjects to wondrous and exciting life. Science is one area where journalism is much in demand - The Guardian in Britain is running a competition to find new science writers.
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But with some celebrated exceptions, there hasn't been much Australian science writing in book form. It's astonishing that only now are we seeing such pieces in an anthology. In November, New South will publish The Best Australian Science Writing 2011, edited by Stephen Pincock, with a foreword by Peter Doherty and work from authors as diverse as Tim Flannery, Germaine Greer, Anna Funder and Paul Davies.

Science writing is becoming more celebrated but also more contentious. ABC science journalist Natasha Mitchell, who chaired the festival panel, said science writers were becoming part of the story themselves and sometimes copped ''incredible aggression and vitriol'' from those who disagreed with them: ''I've had colleagues who've been very damaged by the crap they're getting.''

The writers had all struggled with how to present complex and controversial issues. Chandler said she decided to put herself into the story of climate change as ''a confused, anxious, sometimes distressed person'', speaking with scientists on the front line as a war correspondent would.

Finkel, who has worked as a research scientist, decided the way through a mass of facts and figures was to look for stories. She wanted to avoid ending up in a corner, being combative: ''That's not what my voice should be; I have to be like the judge in the courtroom.''

McCredie thought it was important to tell personal stories, especially ones that weren't stereotypical about the sexes. She kept questioning herself: what authority did she have as a non-scientist to write about scientific questions?

''I decided the only authority I could ever have is as a journalist and as a woman. I see myself as a friend of science rather than a participant. And like any friend, sometimes I have to be critical.''

But difficult as it is to strike a balance and transform a mass of facts into a gripping story, all agreed that writing about science was marvellous and essential. The human genome project had catapulted us into a new universe; we were asking fundamental questions about what it meant to be a girl or boy; and climate change was an epic adventure story of men and women trying to figure out the planet.

Gillibrand seeks to empower women in business

From Buffalo News.com: Gillibrand seeks to empower women in business

Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand called for a revival of the "Rosie the Riveter" campaign Friday to galvanize women to become economically empowered during a round-table discussion with local female business owners and entrepreneurs.

The junior senator from New York said she would sponsor a bill for a $6,000 tax credit to reduce the high cost of day care -- a major impediment for women aspiring to own a business or advance in their careers.

About 40 people attended the discussion held at Sweet_ness 7 Cafe on Grant Street, a West Side woman-owned business.

"Right now we need our generation of Rosie the Riveters," Gillibrand said, refering to the icon of the women who worked in the factories during World War II. "Our economy, our country needs women on the front lines of job growth and innovation."

But women continue to be hindered by lower pay, fewer opportunities in the workforce and family obligations, she said.

"My goal through these round-tables is to solicit your feedback for solutions to help empower and create economic opportunities for New York's women," she said, "and provide valuable resources for advancement in today's economy."

Women in attendance came from both the public and private sectors and spoke of the need for more training and funding for women in high-tech industries.

"Women shouldn't feel limited to certain fields," said Marnie LaVigne, director of business development for New York State Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, adding that careers in science and technology should be encouraged and backed by policies that provide financing.

Norma Nowak, whose research made significant contributions to the Human Genome Project, said she hit a financial road block when she decided to launch a business.

"She's a woman scientist, so who was going to listen to her?" LaVigne said. But with assistance from the bioinformatics center, Nowak's started Empire Genomics four years ago and last year, its revenues reached $1 million.

Access to grants and subsidies for businesses were also a hot topic, especially for companies that are too old to be eligible for start-up assistance. Joy Kuebler, owner of Joy Kuebler Landscaping and Architecture, said that she has maxed out personal loans and that it is increasingly difficult with low funds to operate and compete with larger firms.

"We are very much trying to play with the big boys," she said.

Bernice Radile, an energy consultant who said she's the only female engineer at her job, supported the idea of a 21st century Rosie the Riveter.

"We have to band together in this," the 25-year-old said. "It's intimidating being the only woman all day long."

"It's the same thing in Congress," Gillibrand said.

The women agreed to help re-create the campaign used during World War II to attract women to the workforce. Gillibrand said women are an untapped resource, and once gender inequities are addressed, they can lead the country's economic rebirth.

"As we continue on a path to economic recovery, women must play a critical role in fueling the country's economic strength and competitiveness and rebuilding our middle class."