Sweet scent doubles as repellent for flower eaters

A FLOWER'S delicate fragrance is not just a come-hither call to insect pollinators. Some scent molecules act as deterrents to drive away blossom-munching predators.

Ian Baldwin of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, and colleagues genetically modified petunia plants to silence genes responsible for producing specific scent molecules. They then tested how these altered plants fared in the presence of flower-eating beetles and crickets.

When the production of the scent molecules benzyl benzoate or isoeugenol was blocked, the insects ate several times more of the flowers than they did when they were presented with petunias that hadn't been genetically altered.

To confirm whether it was indeed the scent putting off the insects, the researchers placed vials of isoeugenol or benzyl benzoate next to the genetically modified petunias. Sure enough, the presence of the chemical was enough to deter the insects (Ecology Letters, doi.org/jv7).

The study is the first to demonstrate that scent chemicals are used by flowers to discourage and attract insects. The complex scents of other flower species probably also include repellent as well as attractive chemical signals, says team member Thomas Colquhoun of the University of Florida in Gainsville.

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HPB introduces first centre for promoting healthy lifestyles

SINGAPORE: Singapore's Health Promotion Board on Sunday introduced its first Healthy Lifestyle Centre (HLC) - aimed at making it easier to deliver healthy lifestyle messages to residents at the community level.

Launched at Hong Kah North, the concept will be piloted in all 18 constituencies of the South-West district over the next three years before going islandwide.

South West CDC Mayor and Minister of State for Health, Dr Amy Khor said one of the important pre-requisites for setting up a healthy lifestyle centre is that the constituency concerned must have a Health Promoting Residents' Committee (RC).

"It would be helpful to residents as it would really provide them with convenience in terms of it being a lot more accessible as it is within the RC itself so they can come for consultation and regular follow up," said Dr Khor.

"We would be more than happy to roll out the Healthy Lifestyle Centres to those constituencies which are ready. They should have the Health Promoting RC first so that we can ride on the Health Promoting RC and set up these Healthy Lifestyle Centres."

The centre will educate residents on the benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle and equip them with the knowledge and skills to do so.

It will provide referrals and facilitate follow-up for individuals who may require them.

Dr Khor said the centre will be managed by allied health professionals.

Dr Khor said: "The allied health professionals will be able to provide residents with one-to-one consultation, personal advice, taking into consideration their health conditions and customise intervention programmes in terms of the exercise that they could do, nutrition, diet, as well as how to keep mentally well and active. This would further help to encourage the residents to adopt and continue maintain their healthy lifestyles."

- CNA/xq

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Did Twitter's founder reveal its would-be Instagram killer?

Photos tweeted today by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey may have been generated using the service's rumored photo filters.

(Credit:
Jack Dorsey)

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey may have dropped the first public proof that Twitter is getting ready to release its own photo filtering feature, a tool it hopes could help in its increasingly tense battle with Instagram.

A report published today by All Things D suggested that informed sources have said that Twitter plans to launch its photo filtering tool before year's end. A series of black-and-white photos tweeted by Dorsey today appear to have been created using Twitter's own photo hosting service, pic.twitter.com. That would mean that Dorsey, who has largely relinquished his operational role at Twitter, and who is the founder and CEO of mobile payments startup Square, may well have been using the rumored new tool.

As All Things D wrote:

Twitter is making a big push to release a series of photo filters to be used inside the official Twitter app before the end of the year, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The goal is to release the camera filters in an application update in time for the holiday season, these sources say. The new version of the app is currently in testing, which may be why we're seeing Twitter chairman Jack Dorsey post so many black-and-white filtered photos of his Square employees (not to mention the wing of his plane at takeoff, posted just this Saturday morning).

The New York Times first reported the rumors of Twitter's photo-filtering initiative last month.

If the All Things D and New York Times reports are correct, it would be the latest salvo in the escalating war between Twitter and Instagram. Earlier this week, Instagram deactivated Twitter Card integration, a step that resulted in Instagram photos showing up poorly cropped in tweets. The goal, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom said, was to get more of his company's users utilizing the service on the Web. But it was also clear Instagram wants to wean its users off of Twitter.

Twitter did not respond to a request for comment this evening.

It appears that executives at Twitter are eager to push out major new features by year's end. In several speeches, CEO Dick Costolo has said that he is intent on making users' entire tweet histories available by the end of the year. And if the All Things D report is true, the company also wants its photo filtering tools in users' hands by New Year's. "Why push it out before the new year? Perhaps Twitter wants a cut of the inevitable jump in photos we'll see as everyone goes home for the holidays," All Things D wrote. "Instagram, for instance, saw more than 200 Thanksgiving-related photos posted to its service every second on Thanksgiving Day alone, and ten million Thanksgiving photos posted overall that day."

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Plants Grow Fine Without Gravity

When researchers sent plants to the International Space Station in 2010, the flora wasn't meant to be decorative. Instead, the seeds of these small, white flowers—called Arabidopsis thaliana—were the subject of an experiment to study how plant roots developed in a weightless environment.

Gravity is an important influence on root growth, but the scientists found that their space plants didn't need it to flourish. The research team from the University of Florida in Gainesville thinks this ability is related to a plant's inherent ability to orient itself as it grows. Seeds germinated on the International Space Station sprouted roots that behaved like they would on Earth—growing away from the seed to seek nutrients and water in exactly the same pattern observed with gravity. (Related: "Beyond Gravity.")

Since the flowers were orbiting some 220 miles (350 kilometers) above the Earth at the time, the NASA-funded experiment suggests that plants still retain an earthy instinct when they don't have gravity as a guide.

"The role of gravity in plant growth and development in terrestrial environments is well understood," said plant geneticist and study co-author Anna-Lisa Paul, with the University of Florida in Gainesville. "What is less well understood is how plants respond when you remove gravity." (See a video about plant growth.)

The new study revealed that "features of plant growth we thought were a result of gravity acting on plant cells and organs do not actually require gravity," she added.

Paul and her collaborator Robert Ferl, a plant biologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, monitored their plants from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida using images sent from the space station every six hours.

Root Growth

Grown on a nutrient-rich gel in clear petri plates, the space flowers showed familiar root growth patterns such as "skewing," where roots slant progressively as they branch out.

"When we saw the first pictures come back from orbit and saw that we had most of the skewing phenomenon we were quite surprised," Paul said.

Researchers have always thought that skewing was the result of gravity's effects on how the root tip interacts with the surfaces it encounters as it grows, she added. But Paul and Ferl suspect that in the absence of gravity, other cues take over that enable the plant to direct its roots away from the seed and light-seeking shoot. Those cues could include moisture, nutrients, and light avoidance.

"Bottom line is that although plants 'know' that they are in a novel environment, they ultimately do just fine," Paul said.

The finding further boosts the prospect of cultivating food plants in space and, eventually, on other planets.

"There's really no impediment to growing plants in microgravity, such as on a long-term mission to Mars, or in reduced-gravity environments such as in specialized greenhouses on Mars or the moon," Paul said. (Related: "Alien Trees Would Bloom Black on Worlds With Double Stars.")

The study findings appear in the latest issue of the journal BMC Plant Biology.

Read More..

Gay Marriage: Will Justices Follow Popular Opinion?

The Supreme Court's announcement that it would hear two cases challenging laws prohibiting same-sex marriage has reinvigorated one of the most hotly contentious social debates in American history, a debate that has been fueled by a dramatic change in attitudes.

With some states taking significant steps towards legalizing gay marriage, the hearings come at a critical moment.

This week in Washington State, hundreds of same-sex couples lined up to collect marriage licenses after Gov. Christine Gregoire announced the passing of a voter-approved law legalizing gay marriage.

"For the past 20 years we've been saying just one more step. Just one more fight. Just one more law. But now we can stop saying 'Just one more.' This is it. We are here. We did it," Gregoire told a group of Referendum 74 supporters during the law's certification.

Washington is just the most recent of several states to pass legislation legalizing same-sex marriage, signifying a significant departure from previous thinking on the controversial subject.

READ: Court to Take Up Same-Sex Marriage

A study by the Pew Research Center on changing attitudes on gay marriage showed that in 2001 57 percent of Americans opposed same-sex marriage, while 35 percent of Americans supported it.

The same poll shows that today opinions have greatly shifted to reflect slightly more support for same-sex marriage than opposition -- with 48 percent of Americans in favor and 43 percent opposed.

In fact, just two years ago, 48 percent of Americans opposed same-sex marriage while only 42 percent supported it -- indicating that opinions have changed dramatically in the last couple of years alone.

David Paul Morris/Getty Images

Supreme Court Set to Tackle Same-Sex Marriage Watch Video

Gay Marriage: Supreme Court to Examine Marriage Equality Watch Video

Marijuana, Gay Marriage Win in 2012 Election Results Watch Video

Check Out Same-Sex Marriage Status in the U.S. State By State

It's hard to imagine that only 16 years ago, the fervent gay marriage debate led to the conception of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union solely held between a man and a woman.

While debating the Defense of Marriage Act in September 1996, former Sen. Robert Byrd said: "If same-sex marriage is accepted, then the announcement will be official: America will have said that children do not need a mother and a father. Two mothers or two fathers will be OK. It'll be just as good. This would be a catastrophe."

Even a few short years ago a newly-elected President Obama did not support the legalization of gay marriage. It wasn't until earlier this year, at the end of hiss first term and with the impending election in sight, that the president told ABC's Robin Roberts the he'd "been going through an evolution on this issue."

Obama went on to attribute his shift in stance to the influence of his daughters.

"You know, Malia and Sasha, they've got friends whose parents are same-sex couples. It wouldn't dawn on them that somehow their friends' parents would be treated differently," he said. "That's the kind of thing that prompts -- a change in perspective."

Obama isn't the only one to experience an evolution in thinking on the matter of gay marriage. Attitudes towards same-sex marriage have shifted dramatically over the past decade across the board, particularly in the past few years.

Gone are the days when a majority of people opposed same-sex marriage; the days when gay politicians and supporters of same-sex marriage could not get elected.

Get more pure politics at ABCNews.com/Politics and a lighter take on the news at OTUSNews.com

Today, nine states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex unions -- a number likely considered inconceivable just a few short years ago. And yet, the same-sex marriage debate still begs for the answering of a question: Will this newfound public opinion, largely driven by young people, women and Democrats, have an effect on the Supreme Court's ultimate decision on the matter?

"I think (gay marriage is) just not a big deal for a lot of young people," Elizabeth Wydra of the Constitutional Accountability Center says. "The justices are human beings so they're not completely immune to public opinion. ... I think the real question for them is going to be do they want to be on the wrong side of history?"

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Storytelling software learns how to tell a good tale

"MY, WHAT a big mouth you have, Grandma," says Little Red Riding Hood, with just a hint of suspicion. The wolf sneezes. "Bless you," says the little girl.

Sound odd? That's because this snippet of Little Red Riding Hood was written not by a person but by a piece of software called Xapagy. It may not seem like much, but it demonstrates a first step towards computers that can invent stories. It also signals a new approach to designing a more human-like artificial intelligence.

Lotzi Bölöni of the University of Central Florida first fed Xapagy stories, which had been manually translated into a language the system can understand. But instead of using these stories to build rigid logic rules for future actions, as most AI systems would, Xapagy keeps them just as they are - a series of interconnected events.

When it comes across words in new stories, it looks for familiar connections in its memory. If it finds any, it uses them to predict what will happen next and then tells the story. The trick is that each word can have many different associations in Xapagy's memory, depending on the stories it has read. When it doesn't find any clear connections, it just substitutes in its own word that makes grammatical sense, like the sneezing wolf, and continues the story in a way that makes narrative sense (arxiv.org/abs/1211.5643).

"The idea of an architecture based on narrative is clever," says Stan Franklin of the University of Memphis, who developed the famous AI system LIDA. "It might lead to learning about narrative, an important topic in cognition."

Xapagy works in a mix of English and a computer language called Xapi, which allows for easier communication between the two. The sentence, "My, what a big mouth you have Grandma" translates as "mouth - of - 'Grandma'/ wh is-a / big?" in Xapi.

Currently, Bölöni must translate all material for Xapagy to learn by hand, a major bottleneck in giving it a big enough memory to be able to tell rich, interesting stories. Once it can build up a large enough back catalogue of stories, Bölöni expects Xapagy will be able to think up entirely new stories on its own.

AI researcher Andrew Nuxoll at the University of Portland in Oregon says Xapagy is "entirely unique".

Most AI systems form rigid logical rules based on their observations of the world. This can be limiting, as it prevents robots and computers from tackling unfamiliar tasks. "If Bölöni is successful, it would result in a much more flexible way of learning," Nuxoll says.

Bölöni's work is a step towards human-like AI, Nuxoll adds. "I am confident that when we do create such a brain it will have a capacity to remember, learn and re-learn from its past."

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

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Anger over Japan minister's N Korea rocket gaffe

TOKYO: A Japanese minister has come under fire from the opposition for saying North Korea should "waste no time" in holding its planned rocket launch so he can campaign in earnest for the upcoming election.

Pyongyang announced last week that it would launch a rocket -- ostensibly aimed at placing a satellite in orbit -- between December 10 and 22, prompting neighbouring countries to guard against a suspected long-range missile flight.

On a visit to his constituency in Osaka on Friday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said government duties were limiting his time to campaign as a candidate for the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), ahead of the general election on December 16.

Asked by reporters when he would come home again to put his campaign in full swing, he replied: "Basically, it depends on when the North Korean missile goes up. It will be great if they waste no time and send it up on Monday."

Opposition parties have taken advantage of his apparent gaffe to step up their attack on the centre-left party, widely criticised for being incompetent during its three years in power.

They demanded Fujimura's resignation, saying his duty was to help stop North Korea from launching a rocket.

"We cannot defend Japan with such a chief cabinet secretary. We aim to regain power," former prime minister Shinzo Abe, head of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party, said on Saturday in a campaign speech in northern Japan.

While Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has been touring the country to boost the DPJ's chances in the uphill election battle, Fujimura has stayed in the capital to perform his role as the premier's right-hand man and chief spokesman.

Fujimura was quick to try and control the damage by saying later on Friday: "I want to apologise if a lack of explanation gave a false impression."

He said he had wanted to emphasise his wish to talk with people in his constituency in person and as much as possible.

Japan has ordered its military to shoot down a North Korean rocket if it threatens the nation's territory, readying surface-to-air missiles in Tokyo and Okinawa, and deploying Aegis warships in neighbouring waters.

- AFP/xq

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Apple and Google making joint bid for Kodak patents, report says

Apple and Google might be opponents competing for smartphone and
tablet customers, but according to a Bloomberg report they have joined forces to acquire Eastman Kodak's 1,000 imaging patents for more than $500 million. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the possible alliance in August. Previously, the Journal reported that Apple and Google were each leading separate consortiums to purchase the patents in the range of $150 million to $250 million.

Eastman Kodak, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January, needs to sell the patents to help pay down a $950 million loan from Citigroup. The company said that it expects to exit bankruptcy in 2013. Court documents earlier this year revealed that the company valued its patent portfolio in the range of $2.6 billion.

Read: Foss Patents: Rumors of Apple-Google alliance to buy Kodak patents show smartphone giants' auction fatigue

Apple and Google were on opposite sides in another contest for high-stakes technology patents. In July 2011, a consortium of technology companies comprising Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion, and Sony bought some 6,000 patents and patent applications from Nortel Networks for $4.5 billion. Rivals Google and Intel reportedly began the bidding for the intellectual property, which included patents and patent applications for wireless, wireless 4G, data networking, optical, voice, Internet, and semiconductor technologies, at $900 million.

The digital imaging patents, which are relevant to cameras, smartphones and other devices, could help both Apple and Google who are engaged in numerous patent disputes. Apple has been embroiled in patent disputes with Samsung and other Google
Android-based vendors. The joint effort to procure the patents could auger a less litigious atmosphere in the future.

Don Reisinger and Steven Musil contributed to this report.

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Plants Grow Fine Without Gravity

When researchers sent plants to the International Space Station in 2010, the flora wasn't meant to be decorative. Instead, the seeds of these small, white flowers—called Arabidopsis thaliana—were the subject of an experiment to study how plant roots developed in a weightless environment.

Gravity is an important influence on root growth, but the scientists found that their space plants didn't need it to flourish. The research team from the University of Florida in Gainesville thinks this ability is related to a plant's inherent ability to orient itself as it grows. Seeds germinated on the International Space Station sprouted roots that behaved like they would on Earth—growing away from the seed to seek nutrients and water in exactly the same pattern observed with gravity. (Related: "Beyond Gravity.")

Since the flowers were orbiting some 220 miles (350 kilometers) above the Earth at the time, the NASA-funded experiment suggests that plants still retain an earthy instinct when they don't have gravity as a guide.

"The role of gravity in plant growth and development in terrestrial environments is well understood," said plant geneticist and study co-author Anna-Lisa Paul, with the University of Florida in Gainesville. "What is less well understood is how plants respond when you remove gravity." (See a video about plant growth.)

The new study revealed that "features of plant growth we thought were a result of gravity acting on plant cells and organs do not actually require gravity," she added.

Paul and her collaborator Robert Ferl, a plant biologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, monitored their plants from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida using images sent from the space station every six hours.

Root Growth

Grown on a nutrient-rich gel in clear petri plates, the space flowers showed familiar root growth patterns such as "skewing," where roots slant progressively as they branch out.

"When we saw the first pictures come back from orbit and saw that we had most of the skewing phenomenon we were quite surprised," Paul said.

Researchers have always thought that skewing was the result of gravity's effects on how the root tip interacts with the surfaces it encounters as it grows, she added. But Paul and Ferl suspect that in the absence of gravity, other cues take over that enable the plant to direct its roots away from the seed and light-seeking shoot. Those cues could include moisture, nutrients, and light avoidance.

"Bottom line is that although plants 'know' that they are in a novel environment, they ultimately do just fine," Paul said.

The finding further boosts the prospect of cultivating food plants in space and, eventually, on other planets.

"There's really no impediment to growing plants in microgravity, such as on a long-term mission to Mars, or in reduced-gravity environments such as in specialized greenhouses on Mars or the moon," Paul said. (Related: "Alien Trees Would Bloom Black on Worlds With Double Stars.")

The study findings appear in the latest issue of the journal BMC Plant Biology.

Read More..

Federal Agencies Brace for Deep Cuts Post-'Cliff'

Dec 7, 2012 4:22pm

Toby Jorrin/AFP/Getty Images

With the “fiscal cliff” quickly approaching, federal agencies are stepping up preparations for deep automatic budget cuts that will kick in Jan. 2 unless the White House and Congress can reach a deal.

The Office of Management and Budget told ABC News that a memo went out to federal agencies earlier this week seeking “additional information and analysis” in order to finalize spending cuts required if we go off the cliff.

The agencies are considering which workers to furlough, projects to put on hold and offices that will have to close.

The request follows the administration’s release of a 400-page report in September that outlined the budget areas to be impacted by the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts and what percentages they would be slashed.

READ MORE: White House Details ‘Doomsday’ Budget Cuts

Billions of dollars could be slashed from defense operations and maintenance programs. Medicare would take a two-percent hit, trimming millions in payouts to health care providers. Scientific research programs would be gutted. Aid for the poor and needy would be sharply curtailed.

The report also detailed operations that would be exempt from any cuts, including active-duty military operations, nuclear watchdogs, homeland security officials, veterans care and other critical areas.

READ: Pentagon Begins Planning for ‘Cliff’ Cuts

Asked about the agency preparations underway, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday that OMB “must take certain steps to ensure the administration is ready to issue such an order should Congress fail to act.”

“Earlier this week, OMB issued a request to federal agencies for additional information to finalize calculations on the spending reductions that would be required,” Carney said.

“This action should not be read … as a change in the administration’s commitment to reach an agreement and avoid sequestration.  OMB is simply ensuring that the administration is prepared, should it become necessary to issue such an order,” he said. “OMB will continue to consult with agencies and will provide additional guidance as needed.  This is just acting responsibly because of the potential for this happening.”

Get more pure politics at ABCNews.com/Politics and a lighter take on the news at OTUSNews.com.

More ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Coverage From Today:

SHOWS: World News

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