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Monsoon rains dampen Himalayan tremors
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In brief – Research news and discovery THEY say that wisdom grows with age. Perhaps it is also accompanied by the ability to look on the brighter side of life. A study of adults over 65 suggests that they experience fewer negative emotions than younger people when anticipating losses. Gregory Larkin of Stanford University, California, and his colleagues gave a group of adults aged over 65 and a group of 19 to were less negative about the prospect of making a loss. Specifically, older adults showed less neural activity in the insula and caudate regions of the brain, which are thought to have roles in processing certain emotions. Positive responses to potential gain remained the same regardless of age (Nature Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1038/nn1894). “This could be an adaptive process occurring over an individual’s lifetime, helping to reduce anxiety as they get older,” says Larkin. 27-year-olds a task in which they had to respond to a cue to either win money or avoid losing it. Their brain activity was monitored during the exercise using functional MRI, and participants also reported their own feelings towards a potential loss or gain. In both the self-reported response tests and the analysis of neural activity, the older people Older people are better losers EVEN honeybees are vulnerable to hackers. Hives normally run a tight security detail, but the small hive beetle Aethina tumida still slips past the defences. How they do it has been a mystery since they were first discovered infesting hives and killing off bees in the US and Australia in 1998. Now a study led by Baldwyn Torto of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya, has found that the beetles turn European honeybees’ alarm pheromones against them. The beetles are highly sensitive to isopentyl acetate and detect it in the low levels bees produce under moderate stress (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0702813104). The beetles carry a strain of yeast that produces the same alarm chemical. When levels of the chemical in the hive go up, worker bees become disoriented and yet more beetles arrive for dinner. Beetlemania DUCKS’ backs are celebrated for their water-repellent properties, and to keep them that way the birds use their bills to apply waxes from the “preen gland”. Being glossy and waterproof comes at a cost, however. The waxes, usually mono-esters, are smelly and could be scented from afar by predators. Birds are especially vulnerable when incubating eggs, so to cut the risk certain waders and ducks switch their preen oils to less volatile di-esters, which are harder to sniff out. Jeroen Reneerkens’s team at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands found that in species where one sex incubates, only that sex makes the switch; where both sexes incubate, both switch. The work, suggesting that di-esters are costlier to make, will appear in Ibis. How to stay safe and waterproof SOUTH Asia’s monsoons dump so much rain on the Himalayas that the water’s sheer weight seems to suppress seismic activity along the mountain range. This is one of two theories put forward by Laurent Bollinger of the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) to explain why earthquakes of magnitude 4 or greater in Nepal (based on a local scale) were 63 per cent less frequent during the monsoons than during winter. Bollinger and his colleagues discovered this by looking at records of quakes that shook Nepal between 1995 and 2005. The likelihood of this variation occurring by chance is less than 1 per cent, he says. The team also found that each year, the tremors were fewest when the rainfall was heaviest. The tremors are caused by Earth’s tectonic plates sliding under one another. The extra weight of the rainfall on the upper plate could suppress such sliding, says Bollinger. (Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: 10.1029/2006GL029192). The alternative theory is that the rains trickle down through fissures in the rock and reach the subduction zone about 10 kilometres below the surface. This could lubricate the plates, increasing the chances of quakes about six months after the monsoons. “Our data does not allow us to distinguish between these two theories at the moment,” Bollinger says. GALEN ROWELL/CORBIS Monsoon rains dampen Himalayan tremors 20 | NewScientist | 5 May 2007 www.newscientist.com
Transcript of Monsoon rains dampen Himalayan tremors
In brief– Research news and discovery
THEY say that wisdom grows
with age. Perhaps it is also
accompanied by the ability to
look on the brighter side of life.
A study of adults over 65 suggests
that they experience fewer
negative emotions than younger
people when anticipating losses.
Gregory Larkin of Stanford
University, California, and his
colleagues gave a group of adults
aged over 65 and a group of 19 to
were less negative about the
prospect of making a loss.
Specifically, older adults showed
less neural activity in the insula
and caudate regions of the brain,
which are thought to have roles
in processing certain emotions.
Positive responses to potential
gain remained the same regardless
of age (Nature Neuroscience,
DOI: 10.1038/nn1894). “This could
be an adaptive process occurring
over an individual’s lifetime,
helping to reduce anxiety as
they get older,” says Larkin.
27-year-olds a task in which they
had to respond to a cue to either
win money or avoid losing it.
Their brain activity was
monitored during the exercise
using functional MRI, and
participants also reported their
own feelings towards a potential
loss or gain.
In both the self-reported
response tests and the analysis of
neural activity, the older people
Older people are better losers
EVEN honeybees are vulnerable to
hackers. Hives normally run a
tight security detail, but the small
hive beetle Aethina tumida still
slips past the defences. How they
do it has been a mystery since
they were first discovered
infesting hives and killing off bees
in the US and Australia in 1998.
Now a study led by Baldwyn
Torto of the International Centre
of Insect Physiology and Ecology,
Nairobi, Kenya, has found that the
beetles turn European honeybees’
alarm pheromones against them.
The beetles are highly sensitive to
isopentyl acetate and detect it in
the low levels bees produce under
moderate stress (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0702813104).
The beetles carry a strain of
yeast that produces the same
alarm chemical. When levels
of the chemical in the hive go
up, worker bees become
disoriented and yet more beetles
arrive for dinner.
Beetlemania
DUCKS’ backs are celebrated for
their water-repellent properties,
and to keep them that way the
birds use their bills to apply waxes
from the “preen gland”. Being
glossy and waterproof comes at a
cost, however. The waxes, usually
mono-esters, are smelly and could
be scented from afar by predators.
Birds are especially vulnerable
when incubating eggs, so to cut
the risk certain waders and ducks
switch their preen oils to less
volatile di-esters, which are harder
to sniff out. Jeroen Reneerkens’s
team at the University of
Groningen in the Netherlands
found that in species where
one sex incubates, only that sex
makes the switch; where both
sexes incubate, both switch. The
work, suggesting that di-esters are
costlier to make, will appear in Ibis.
How to stay safe and waterproof
SOUTH Asia’s monsoons dump so much rain on the
Himalayas that the water’s sheer weight seems to suppress
seismic activity along the mountain range.
This is one of two theories put forward by Laurent
Bollinger of the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) to
explain why earthquakes of magnitude 4 or greater in
Nepal (based on a local scale) were 63 per cent less frequent
during the monsoons than during winter. Bollinger and his
colleagues discovered this by looking at records of quakes
that shook Nepal between 1995 and 2005. The likelihood of
this variation occurring by chance is less than 1 per cent,
he says. The team also found that each year, the tremors
were fewest when the rainfall was heaviest.
The tremors are caused by Earth’s tectonic plates sliding
under one another. The extra weight of the rainfall on the
upper plate could suppress such sliding, says Bollinger.
(Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: 10.1029/2006GL029192).
The alternative theory is that the rains trickle down
through fissures in the rock and reach the subduction
zone about 10 kilometres below the surface. This could
lubricate the plates, increasing the chances of quakes
about six months after the monsoons. “Our data does
not allow us to distinguish between these two theories
at the moment,” Bollinger says.
GALE
N RO
WEL
L/CO
RBIS
Monsoon rains dampen Himalayan tremors
20 | NewScientist | 5 May 2007 www.newscientist.com
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