The rag-worm has two cells that work together as “proto-eyes”: one pigment cell and one light-sensitive cell. First, the pigment cell absorbs light and casts a shadow over the photoreceptor cell. The shape of the shadow varies according to the position of the light source. The photoreceptor cell then converts this light signal into electricity, sending it in a signal along a nerve that connects to a band of cells endowed with thin hairs, called cilia, that beat to displace water [AFP]. So although the worm sees no images, it can sense the difference between light and dark and swim in the right direction.

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Researchers can’t yet determine which answer is correct, but say the dark matter explanation is more exciting. Dark matter is one of astrophysics’ greatest enigmas. It is thought to be five times more common than visible matter, but there is no proof of what it is made of. The existence of dark matter has largely been inferred from its gravitational effects, such as the fact that most galaxies have enough mass to remain as well-defined objects despite having too little visible matter to account for the necessary gravity [National Geographic News]. If the research balloon did detect the signature of dark matter through the particles left over from collisions, it would be the closest researchers have ever gotten to seeing the mysterious stuff.

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The genome of the woolly mammoth is halfway sequenced and science-fiction fanatics are once again talking about resurrecting extinct species–except this time, the scientists are talking too. Researchers at Pennsylvania State University extracted DNA from the hair of two woolly mammoths found in the permafrost of Siberia; one lived about 20,000 years ago, the other about 60,000 years ago. Reporting in Nature [subscription required], the researchers say they have already sequenced more than three billion base pairs of the mammoth genome, and they say there should be no technical obstacles to sequencing the complete genome. “It’s a technical breakthrough,” says ancient-DNA expert Hendrik N. Poinar [Scientific American].

Access to clumps of preserved mammoth hair was essential to the researchers’ success. The tough keratin that makes up the hair encased the mammoth’s DNA and separated it from any alien fragments, keeping these samples more pure [New Scientist]. Horns and feathers are also made of keratin, broadening the prospects of sequencing other extinct species from museum specimens.

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President George W. Bush famously pledged to tackle global warming when campaigning for the presidency in 2000, but backtracked when in office, saying that the science had not yet been settled. In contrast, Obama made clear that he had no intention of retreating from his campaign promises despite the worsening economic climate, and said that the science is beyond dispute. “Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all,” Obama said. “Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high, the consequences too serious” [San Francisco Chronicle].

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Pickens, a racehorse breeder and lifelong animal lover, said she was horrified when she learned about the problem. “There’s got to be a way to bypass [the BLM] — why does it have to be Washington to solve the problem?” said Pickens, who, along with her husband, airlifted 800 cats and dogs stranded by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and brought them to California for adoption [Washington Post]. Pickens approached BLM officials and suggested an alternative: She would buy 1 million acres of rangeland somewhere in the West, and convert it into a permanent retirement home for the roughly 30,000 homeless and unwanted horses.

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The mishap occurred during the first of four spacewalks scheduled to be completed during the visit from the Endeavour space shuttle crew. The tool kit made its escape while Stefanyshyn-Piper and her colleague Steve Bowen were greasing a rotary joint on the station’s giant starboard solar array system. The joint has been unable to automatically point the solar wings toward the Sun for maximum energy production for over a year. Just as she was finishing up the job, the tool bag became untethered from a larger kit case and floated away along with a pair of grease guns, wipes and a putty knife. She reached out, but to no avail [BBC News].

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The 30-year-old patient, Claudia Castillo, had failing airways and severe shortness of breath due to a bout with tuberculosis. By March of this year, Castillo’s condition had deteriorated to the point where she was unable to care for her children. Removing a lung was one treatment option, which would have allowed her to live, but seriously impaired her quality of life [Forbes.com]. She opted instead for this experimental treatment, in which doctors took a piece of trachea from an organ donor and transformed it into a structure that now appears native to her body.

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The Mars Odyssey orbiter identified the mineral deposits using a gamma-ray spectrometer, which can detect elements a third of a metre below Mars’s surface. It found enriched potassium, thorium and iron, lying in shoreline-type patterns, where researchers already suspected water used to lie [Canwest News Service]. Until now, however, their suspicions were mainly based on geographical features such as smooth plains surrounded by higher, more rugged terrain. The new data, to be published in Planetary and Space Science, shows minerals heavily concentrated in the soil below the proposed shoreline and less concentrated above, suggesting erosion of sediments into a large body of water. But study coauthor James Dohm says the new evidence isn’t a smoking gun: “It’s consistent with this ocean potential - it doesn’t confirm it, necessarily,” Dohm said. “I think it’s a significant piece of the puzzle” [Tucson Citizen].

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Shu, who is the president of a high-tech company called AMAC International Inc., pled guilty to two counts of violating the federal Arms Control Act and one count of bribing Chinese officials, and faces up to 25 years of jail time and fines of up to $2.5 million. Sentencing in the case is scheduled for April 6, 2009.

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Sulfur dioxide is pushed out of volcanoes as the magma rises within, and is routinely measured by scientists from afar. However, measuring carbon dioxide can provide a better early warning system, says McGonigle. “The gases are telegrams for the earth’s interior, especially the CO2 which is released 10 kilometres deep and which comes out a long time before the magma gets to the surface,” he said [Telegraph]. Carbon dioxide is released from rising magma weeks or months before an eruption, which would give nearby residents ample time to evacuate.

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The group of 13 individuals includes adults aged 25 to 60 and children under the age of 9, and researchers believe that they were massacred. Says study coauthor Alistair Pike: “They were definitely murdered, there are big holes in their heads, fingers and wrists are broken.” At least five of the individuals show the effects of a violent attack, one even had the tip of a stone weapon embedded in a vertebra [BBC News].

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One-quarter of the 700,000 U.S. troops who took part in Operation Desert Storm have reported symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome, according to the report, which fails to identify any cure for the malady. It also notes that few veterans afflicted with Gulf War illness have recovered over time [CNN]. The report calls for at least $60 million in new federally funded research on the syndrome and potential treatments.

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A controversial proposal to switch the U.K.’s current system of voluntary organ donation to a system of “presumed consent” was rejected by the UK Organ Donation Taskforce, which said the change would not increase organ donations and could damage patient-doctor as well as donor-recipient relations. Presumed consent would designate everyone as an organ donor unless the individual or the family of the deceased opted out; the current system is just the opposite, harvesting organs only from people who opt in to organ donation.

The task force advised against the switch supported by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the British Medical Association (BMA), and several physician groups. Nevertheless, Brown continues to support a presumed consent system. “While they are not recommending the introduction of a presumed consent system, as I have done, I am not ruling out a further change in the law,” he said [The Guardian].

The U.K. has one of Europe’s lowest rates of organ donation. Of an estimated 8,000 people on waiting lists for organ transplants, only about 3,000 receive transplants every year, and 1,000 die while waiting for a transplant. Vivienne Nathanson, the BMA’s Head of Science and Ethics, said presumed consent was not a panacea, but was likely to result in a 10 to 15 per cent increase in donated organs, if sufficient surgeons, intensive care beds and transplant coordinators were put in place. She said it would also encourage families to discuss their views, and make their wishes clear before death: “We know that the majority of the population want to be organ donors, but only 25 per cent are on the register” [Times Online].

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The startup of the LHC on September 10th may win an award for anticlimax of the year: Physicists talked for months about the mysteries of physics that the particle collider would reveal, while nervous laypeople worried that when engineers flipped the switch on the machine it would create a miniature black hole that could destroy the earth. But instead of either of these scenarios coming true, the LHC broke within two weeks before getting a chance to perform any experiments.

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Researchers discovered only recently that inaccessible subglacial lakes in Antarctica periodically shed huge quantities of water. Data collected by a satellite launched in 2003 … revealed a complex network of subglacial plumbing in which water periodically cascades from one hidden reservoir to another [AFP]. The water in the lakes remains liquid, despite being buried beneath a mile of ice in some places, due to warmth from the underlying rock. Now, researchers have shown that these hidden floods affect the thick mountains of ice above.

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