Papa pipefish's pregnancy good for young's immunity

MALE pipefish pregnancy may suit the females, but it's a real boon for their offspring.

In human fetuses, antibodies from the mother's egg and others that pass across the placenta help build its developing immune system. Sperm are too small to carry antibodies, so males aren't thought to contribute.

Not so in pipefish, where the male carries the pregnancy. To see if the immune priming might come from both the mother's egg and via the father's placenta-like structure, Olivia Roth at the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany and colleagues exposed lab-grown male and female broad-nosed pipefish to dead bacteria. The fish were then left to mate and the resulting offspring were later also exposed.

The young had the strongest immune response if both parents had been exposed to the bacteria, suggesting both provided antibodies (The American Naturalist, doi.org/jrq).

Pipefish may not be the only fathers that help build their offspring's immune system. Pigeons of both sexes have been shown to "lactate" antibody-rich "milk" in their crops for their chicks.

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.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

Read More..

Motor Racing: Hamilton on pole, Vettel strikes crucial blow

SAO PAULO: Lewis Hamilton oozed with pride on Saturday after making sure he will start his 110th and final race for McLaren from pole position in Sunday's season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix.

On a tense afternoon, in changing weather conditions, Hamilton and team-mate Jenson Button upstaged title fighters Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso by locking out the front row of the grid.

Hamilton produced a dramatic and supremely fast final qualifying lap to outstrip all his rivals and maintain his end-of-season domination as McLaren delivered their fourth lockout of the year.

The dazzling performance from the two McLaren men left championship contenders, defending champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull down in fourth, and his title rival, two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, eighth.

Vettel, who has a 13-point lead over the Spaniard going into the final race of the season, can become the sport's youngest triple champion on Sunday.

In his final session for the team before leaving to join Mercedes next year, 27-year-old Hamilton clocked a fastest lap of one minute and 12.458 seconds to outpace fellow-Briton Button by one-tenth of a second.

"I am grateful to be able to put the car on the front row and to have a one-two for McLaren in my last qualifying is just great. The team did a fantastic job," said Hamilton.

"What a great feeling it is. What a great weekend so far and I hope we can push tomorrow. It is great to be one-two with Jenson Button. I am expecting a difficult race. I have always started from fourth or, once, 18th."

Both Vettel and Alonso were out-qualified by their team-mates, Mark Webber, who was third for Red Bull, and Felipe Massa, who was fifth-fastest on his home track for Ferrari.

"It was not quick enough and I know I could have done a little better," admitted Vettel.

"But let's wait and see what happens tomorrow. Q3 was not perfect. It was not enough. I am keen to go back and look at the data and see where I was as I was not quick enough.

"All in all we are in good shape and we have been competitive and we will see what we can do tomorrow."

A cagey Alonso, who may have run in a set-up that may suit Sunday's forecast wet weather better than the dry, said: "It is more or less what I expected... We didn't gamble and only made minimal changes."

Vettel will secure the title and become the youngest triple champion in F1 history if he finishes in the top four, no matter where Alonso finishes.

By contrast, Alonso must win with Vettel outside the top four to take his own third title, if both drivers finish.

Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali gave nothing away.

"We will see. For sure it is not the perfect position to start the race, but a lot of concentration and working hard and we will see what the outcome is in the race. Anything is possible then, it will be an interesting Sunday."

Button said: "I'm happy to be on the front row. The last couple of races have been tricky in qualifying. As Lewis said, it's nice to both be on the front row for his last race for the team."

Looking ahead to a possible wet race at Interlagos, he added: "It is tough to drive here in the wet, you get a lot of rivers on the hill. Lewis and I will have some fun because there are two people with more pressure than us."

Pastor Maldonado was sixth for Williams ahead of Nico Hulkenberg of Force India with Kimi Raikkonen taking ninth spot on the grid for Lotus ahead of Nico Rosberg of Mercedes.

Rosberg's team-mate and German compatriot, seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, heading into retirement after his final race on Sunday, was down in 14th place, but hinting that he too may also have run in a 'wet' set up.

Hamilton's pole was his first in Brazil, his seventh this year and the 26th of his career and helped the team to a record 67th front row lockout in Formula One.

-AFP/ac

Read More..

Nokia's soon-to-be-ex camera chief heading to car company

The Nokia 808 PureView features a 41-megapixel camera.

(Credit:
Josh Miller/CNET)

How does one switch from developing smartphone cameras to working on
cars? Maybe it's that they both have to do with going mobile?

Damian Dinning, head of imaging and photography for Nokia for almost a decade, told mobile-photography blog PureView Club (which is, of course, focused on Nokia's PureView technology) that he's leaving the phone maker and heading to Jaguar Land Rover. Dinning said staying on at Nokia would've required a move to Finland, which wouldn't have jibed with his family situation.

PureView, you may recall, is the technology involved with Nokia's 808 PureView phone, which was released earlier this year sporting a 41-megapixel camera.

Perhaps Dinning's "career change" shouldn't be all that surprising. Technology, after all, has become an ever-more hybridized affair, with cars that feature in-dash screens and rear-mounted cameras. Dinning told PureView club that he'll be "driving future innovations in the exciting new field of Connected Car." He also said he felt confident he was leaving Nokia's imaging team in good shape. Dinning wraps things up at Nokia at the end of the month.

Read More..

Distant Dwarf Planet Secrets Revealed

Orbiting at the frozen edges of our solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake is finally coming out of the shadows as astronomers get their best view yet of Pluto's little sibling.

Discovered in 2005, Makemake—pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh after a Polynesian creation god—is one of five Pluto-like objects that prompted a redefining of the term "planet" and the creation of a new group of dwarf planets in 2006. (Related: "Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule.")

Just like the slightly larger Pluto, this icy world circles our sun beyond Neptune. Researchers expected Makemake to also have a global atmosphere—but new evidence reveals that isn't the case.

Staring at a Star

An international team of astronomers was able for the first time to probe Makemake's physical characteristics using the European Southern Observatory's three most powerful telescopes in Chile. The researchers observed the change in light given off by a distant star as the dwarf planet passed in front of it. (Learn how scientists found Makemake.)

"These events are extremely difficult to predict and observe, but they are the only means of obtaining accurate knowledge of important properties of dwarf planets," said Jose Luis Ortiz, lead author of this new study and an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, in Spain.

It's like trying to study a coin from a distance of 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more, Ortiz added.

Ortiz and his team knew Makemake didn't have an atmosphere when light from the background star abruptly dimmed and brightened as the chilly world drifted across its face.

"The light went off very abruptly from all the sites we observed the event so this means this world cannot have a substantial and global atmosphere like that of its sibling Pluto," Ortiz said.

If Makemake had an atmosphere, light from the star would gradually decrease and increase as the dwarf planet passed in front.

Coming Into Focus

The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake—not only limiting the possibility of an atmosphere but also determining the planet's size and surface more accurately.

"We think Makemake is a sphere flattened slightly at both poles and mostly covered with very white ices—mainly of methane," said Ortiz.

"But there are also indications for some organic material at least at some places; this material is usually very red and we think in a small percentage of the surface, the terrain is quite dark," he added.

Why Makemake lacks a global atmosphere remains a big mystery, but Ortiz does have a theory. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the sun heats this volatile material, it turns straight into a gas, creating Pluto's atmosphere.

Makemake lacks nitrogen ice on its surface, so there is nothing for the sun to heat into a gas to provide an atmosphere.

The dwarf planet has less mass, and a weaker gravitational field, than Pluto, said Ortiz. This means that over eons of time, Makemake may not have been able to hang on to its nitrogen.

Methane ice will also transform into a gas when heated. But since the dwarf planet is nearly at its furthest distance from the sun, Ortiz believes that Makemake's surface methane is still frozen. (Learn about orbital planes.)

And even if the methane were to transform into a gas, any resulting atmosphere would cover, at most, only ten percent of the planet, said Ortiz.

The new results are detailed today in the journal Nature.

Read More..

'Honey Trap' Professor Convicted of Drug Smuggling

A court in Argentina has convicted an Oxford educated University of North Carolina professor of attempting to smuggle four pounds of cocaine into the United States.

Paul Frampton, a 68-year-old esteemed professor of physics and astronomy, says he thought he was flying to South America to meet with a bikini model but ended up getting caught in what they call a "honey trap."

Frampton flew to Bolivia from North Carolina earlier this year after communicating with someone who claimed to be Denise Milani, winner of Miss Bikini World 2007. She never showed up.

Instead, Frampton says he was met by a man who gave him a suitcase, identifying himself as an intermediary for Milani, and instructing him to take it to her in Argentina.

PHOTOS: Sex, Spies and Scandal

Once there, he says he could not find her and decided to board a plane home, with that suitcase in hand. Police opened it up at the airport and found more than four pounds of cocaine inside.

"He has a high IQ, is well-known and very distinguished in the field of physics and other scientific areas, but when it comes to common sense he scored a zero," said former DC homicide investigator Rod Wheeler.

The Argentinean court sentenced Frampton to serve four years and eight months in custody after prosecutors there presented evidence of text messages they say Frampton sent to the person he thought was the model, saying, "I'm worried about the sniffer dogs," and "I'm looking after your special little suitcase."

READ: UNC Professor Held in Argentina on Drug Charges Wants Raise From University

The University of North Carolina has cut off Frampton's salary in a move that prompted dozens of his colleagues at the university to sign a letter of protest to administrators.

"As more information about his case becomes available ... it becomes more and more obvious that Paul was the innocent, although very gullible, victim of a scam," the joint letter said.

Many wrote separate letters of reference on a website they created to support the embattled professor, who is hoping to serve his time under house arrest in Argentina at a friend's apartment.

From prison Frampton has said, "It does seem unfair that an innocent scam victim is treated as a professional drug smuggler."

Frampton's Argentinean lawyer told ABC News she would have no comment until having a chance to review the judge's complete ruling, which she expects to be released early next week.

However, it appears this is not the first time Frampton has been in hot water over a woman.

The Telegraph, a London based paper that serves Great Britain , reported that friends say he once met another woman online and flew to China to marry her. This time, the woman was real, but after seeing Frampton, she reportedly canceled the wedding.

If you have a story you would like told you can email correspondent Mark Greenblatt at mark.p.greenblatt@abc.com.

Read More..