clipped from www.nationalparkstraveler.com

Did Gusty Winds Cause a Fatal Climbing Accident at Grand Teton National Park?

Investigators may never know for sure why 58-year old George Gardner, a climbing guide with nearly three decades of experience, fell to his death while free soloing a route in Grand Teton National Park that was well within his capabilities. The only thing they know for sure is that the free solo climbing like George Gardner was doing leaves no appreciable margin for error or misfortune.

In its pure form, free soloing requires that a climber go it alone and forego the normal protective measures. He or she relies only on physical strength, climbing skill, and mental discipline to prevent a lethal fall. This leaves no appreciable room for error or misfortune.

investigators have shown a keen interest in records obtained from a weather station installed at the Lower Saddle base camp.

These records reveal that a “substantial and atypical” wind gust of 60 mph occurred at 6:00 pm on the day of the accident

clipped from www.sciencedaily.com

Licking Your Wounds: Scientists Isolate Compound In Human Saliva That Speeds Wound Healing

ScienceDaily (July 24, 2008) — A report by scientists from The Netherlands identifies a compound in human saliva that greatly speeds wound healing. This research may offer hope to people suffering from chronic wounds related to diabetes and other disorders, as well as traumatic injuries and burns. In addition, because the compounds can be mass produced, they have the potential to become as common as antibiotic creams and rubbing alcohol.

Specifically, scientists found that histatin, a small protein in saliva previously only believed to kill bacteria was responsible for the healing.

Then they made an artificial wound in the cell layer in each dish, by scratching a small piece of the cells away.

After 16 hours the scientists noticed that the saliva treated "wound" was almost completely closed.

clipped from www.pcmag.com

ASUS' Big Development

by John C. Dvorak

The ASUS sneak attack. The most interesting story the media is downplaying is the ASUS announcement that it will have a ROM boot chip on all its motherboards, which will boot Linux instantly on start-up. When you flick the switch the machine is instantly on. (It's about time.) Of course, you will have to press another button for the machine to load Windows.

This development is important, since 90 percent of the time all a user wants to do is surf the Web. Often when leaving for a trip, I forget to check the weather. To do so, I would have to start up my computer, wait forever for it to boot, then go online. This way, I just flip it on, and boom—I get a browser and the info and I'm done.

It's an extremely subversive ploy for a number of reasons. First of all, it gets people used to Linux, gives them a pain-free experience, and provides quick rewards. Second, it shows users that—most of the time—this is all they need.

clipped from www.sciencedaily.com

Lionfish Decimating Tropical Fish Populations, Threatening Coral Reefs

ScienceDaily (July 21, 2008) — The invasion of predatory lionfish in the Caribbean region poses yet another major threat there to coral reef ecosystems -- a new study has found that within a short period after the entry of lionfish into an area, the survival of other reef fishes is slashed by about 80 percent.

Aside from the rapid and immediate mortality of marine life, the loss of herbivorous fish also sets the stage for seaweeds to potentially overwhelm the coral reefs and disrupt the delicate ecological balance in which they exist, according to scientists from Oregon State University.

"This is a new and voracious predator on these coral reefs and it's undergoing a population explosion," Hixon said

Lionfish are carnivores that can eat other fish up to two-thirds their own length, while they are protected from other predators by long, poisonous spines.

"We have to figure out something

Hixon said

clipped from www.sciencedaily.com

Regular Walking Protects The Masai -- Who Eat High Fat Diet -- From Cardiovascular Disease

ScienceDaily (July 20, 2008) — Scientists have long been puzzled by how the Masai can avoid cardiovascular disease despite having a diet rich in animal fats. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet believe that their secret is in their regular walking.

There is strong evidence that the high consumption of animal fats increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Many scientists have therefore been surprised that the nomadic Masai of Kenya and Tanzania are seldom afflicted by the disease, despite having a diet that is rich in animal fats and deficient in carbohydrates.

What sets the Masai lifestyle apart is also a very high degree of physical activity.

According to the team, most Westerners would have to walk roughly 20 km a day to achieve the Masai level of energy expenditure.

Masai are protected by their high physical activity rather than by some unknown genetic factor.

clipped from dsc.discovery.com

Web-Crawling Program ID's Disease Outbreaks

Eric Bland, Discovery News

July 18, 2008 -- Scientists are searching within the virtual world and finding real viruses.

Every hour, HealthMap, an infectious disease-tracking Web site, culls through news Web sites, public health list servs, the World Health Organization's online pages, and other Web sites in six different languages to pinpoint outbreaks of disease that real-world doctors can then act on.

"We were originally thinking about how we could expand disease surveillance and pick up outbreaks earlier than traditional methods," said John Brownstein of Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston, who created HealthMap in September of 2006 with Clark Friefeld, a software developer at Harvard Medical School.

So far the program identifies about 95 percent of all disease outbreaks, sometimes days before the World Health Organization or the Centers of Disease Control announce them.

clipped from dsc.discovery.com

"This will definitely save lives," said Larry Madoff