Seismic scan of Etna reveals an eruption in the making
1
In brief – Research news and discovery BODYBUILDERS can become obsessed with their diet, often to the point of consuming sports supplements at precise times. Now a study has found that timing is indeed important. Consuming protein supplements immediately before and after weight training builds more muscle compared with taking them at other times. What’s more, the volunteers in the the morning and last thing at night. After 10 weeks, those who had taken supplements close to training had gained 2 to 3 kilograms of muscle, compared with 1 to 1.5 kilograms in the control group. Cribb presented the findings this week at the Fresh Science symposium in Melbourne. A number of previous studies have hinted that more amino acids are assimilated by muscle when protein supplements are taken just after training. study only trained at moderate intensity, suggesting that similar gains are within reach even of an average gym user. Paul Cribb and Alan Hayes of Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia, got eight men to take widely available sports supplements just before and after weight training. A control group of nine men took the supplements first thing in Scoff protein with your workout MEN reluctant to father a child in this lifetime may like to consider giving cryopreservation a try. Baby mice have been produced using sperm from animals that had been dead for 15 years, a research team is claiming. The technique could potentially be used to bring back extinct species, such as woolly mammoths, that have been preserved in permafrost, by injecting their sperm into oocytes obtained from females of closely related species. Atsuo Ogura of the RIKEN Bioresource Center in Tsukuba, Japan, kept the dead male mice in temperatures below -20 °C before thawing them in water at room temperature (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0605755103). Though the defrosted sperm are not really alive, “they maintain their genetic integrity”, Ogura says – meaning that their DNA can be injected into the egg. Birth after death THE Chinese tallow tree is invading the US Gulf coast forests, replacing the region’s native hardwoods. The tree’s advance is a direct consequence of the ecological disruption caused by hurricanes Rita and Katrina. Around 13.6 million cubic metres of hardwood, mainly sugarberry, oak, elm and sweetgum, were blown down in the 2005 storms. The tallow tree, an ornamental species introduced by Benjamin Franklin in 1772, can quickly grow to 10 metres and is resilient to many pests. It is now rapidly taking over gaps in the forests understorey, US Geological Survey biologist Stephen Faulkner told the Ecological Society of America meeting in Memphis, Tennessee, last week. Forests face Chinese invader MOUNT ETNA just got a full-body scan. While nothing serious was diagnosed this time around, similar scans might give warning of a future volcanic eruption. The Sicilian volcano is almost always bubbling with activity, but despite this thousands of people live safely on its slopes. In 2002, however, there was an unusually violent eruption that geophysicists believe was caused by gas-rich magma rising within the volcano. Now a team led by Domenico Patanè at Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Catania, Sicily, has used seismic data to peek inside the volcano. From variations in the seismic waves from local earthquakes that passed through Mount Etna before and after the 2002 outburst they were able to build up a 3D picture showing magma rising within the volcano a few months before the eruption (Science, vol 313, p 821). “We used a technique similar to a medical CAT scan,” Patanè says. The monitoring exercise was helped by the existence of a dense grid of seismic stations around the volcano. Patanè hopes that such networks will be placed around other volcanoes too. “This could be a powerful tool for forecasting highly explosive eruptions,” he says. SCIENCE 16 | NewScientist | 19 August 2006 www.newscientist.com Seismic scan of Etna reveals an eruption in the making
Transcript of Seismic scan of Etna reveals an eruption in the making
In brief–Research news and discovery
BODYBUILDERS can become
obsessed with their diet, often to
the point of consuming sports
supplements at precise times.
Now a study has found that
timing is indeed important.
Consuming protein supplements
immediately before and after
weight training builds more
muscle compared with taking
them at other times. What’s
more, the volunteers in the
the morning and last thing at
night. After 10 weeks, those
who had taken supplements
close to training had gained
2 to 3 kilograms of muscle,
compared with 1 to 1.5 kilograms
in the control group.
Cribb presented the findings
this week at the Fresh Science
symposium in Melbourne.
A number of previous studies
have hinted that more amino
acids are assimilated by muscle
when protein supplements are
taken just after training.
study only trained at moderate
intensity, suggesting that similar
gains are within reach even of an
average gym user.
Paul Cribb and Alan Hayes
of Victoria University in
Melbourne, Australia, got eight
men to take widely available
sports supplements just before
and after weight training. A
control group of nine men took
the supplements first thing in
Scoff protein with your workout
MEN reluctant to father a child in
this lifetime may like to consider
giving cryopreservation a try.
Baby mice have been produced
using sperm from animals that
had been dead for 15 years, a
research team is claiming.
The technique could
potentially be used to bring back
extinct species, such as woolly
mammoths, that have been
preserved in permafrost , by
injecting their sperm into oocytes
obtained from females of closely
related species.
Atsuo Ogura of the RIKEN
Bioresource Center in Tsukuba,
Japan, kept the dead male mice in
temperatures below -20 °C before
thawing them in water at room
temperature (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0605755103).
Though the defrosted sperm are
not really alive, “they maintain
their genetic integrity”, Ogura
says – meaning that their DNA can
be injected into the egg.
Birth after death
THE Chinese tallow tree is
invading the US Gulf coast forests,
replacing the region’s native
hardwoods. The tree’s advance is a
direct consequence of the
ecological disruption caused by
hurricanes Rita and Katrina.
Around 13.6 million cubic
metres of hardwood, mainly
sugarberry, oak, elm and
sweetgum, were blown down in
the 2005 storms.
The tallow tree, an ornamental
species introduced by Benjamin
Franklin in 1772, can quickly grow
to 10 metres and is resilient to
many pests. It is now rapidly
taking over gaps in the forests
understorey, US Geological
Survey biologist Stephen Faulkner
told the Ecological Society of
America meeting in Memphis,
Tennessee, last week.
Forests face Chinese invaderMOUNT ETNA just got a full-body scan. While nothing
serious was diagnosed this time around, similar scans
might give warning of a future volcanic eruption.
The Sicilian volcano is almost always bubbling with
activity, but despite this thousands of people live safely on
its slopes. In 2002, however, there was an unusually
violent eruption that geophysicists believe was caused by
gas-rich magma rising within the volcano.
Now a team led by Domenico Patanè at Italy’s National
Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Catania, Sicily,
has used seismic data to peek inside the volcano. From
variations in the seismic waves from local earthquakes that
passed through Mount Etna before and after the 2002
outburst they were able to build up a 3D picture showing
magma rising within the volcano a few months before the
eruption (Science, vol 313, p 821). “We used a technique
similar to a medical CAT scan,” Patanè says.
The monitoring exercise was helped by the existence of
a dense grid of seismic stations around the volcano. Patanè
hopes that such networks will be placed around other
volcanoes too. “This could be a powerful tool for
forecasting highly explosive eruptions,” he says.
SCIE
NCE
16 | NewScientist | 19 August 2006 www.newscientist.com
Seismic scan of Etna reveals an eruption in the making
