Scientific Results From Challenger Deep

Jane J. Lee

The spotlight is shining once again on the deepest ecosystems in the ocean—Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench (map) and the New Britain Trench near Papua New Guinea. At a presentation today at the American Geophysical Union's conference in San Francisco, attendees got a glimpse into these mysterious ecosystems nearly 7 miles (11 kilometers) down, the former visited by filmmaker James Cameron during a historic dive earlier this year.

Watch a video interview with Cameron on exploring deep-sea trenches.

Microbiologist Douglas Bartlett with the University of California, San Diego described crustaceans called amphipods—oceanic cousins to pill bugs—that were collected from the New Britain Trench and grow to enormous sizes five miles (eight kilometers) down. Normally less than an inch (one to two centimeters) long in other deep-sea areas, the amphipods collected on the expedition measured 7 inches (17 centimeters). (Related: "Deep-Sea, Shrimp-like Creatures Survive by Eating Wood.")

Bartlett also noted that sea cucumbers, some of which may be new species, dominated many of the areas the team sampled in the New Britain Trench. The expedition visited this area before the dive to Challenger Deep.

Marine geologist Patricia Fryer with the University of Hawaii described some of the deepest seeps yet discovered. These seeps, where water heated by chemical reactions in the rocks percolates up through the seafloor and into the ocean, could offer hints of how life originated on Earth.

And astrobiologist Kevin Hand with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, spoke about how life in these stygian ecosystems, powered by chemical reactions, could parallel the evolution of life on other planets.

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John McAfee Seeks Asylum, Thanks God for 'Sanity'

Eccentric software tycoon John McAfee, wanted for questioning in the shooting death of his neighbor, has made his escape from Belize to Guatemala, where he told ABC News he will be seeking asylum.

"Thank God I am in a place where there is some sanity," McAfee said. "I chose Guatemala carefully."

McAfee, 67, has been on the run from police in the Central American country of Belize since the Nov. 10 murder of his neighbor, fellow American expatriate Greg Faull. Investigators said that McAfee was not a suspect in the death of the former developer, who was found shot in the head in his house on the resort island of San Pedro, but that they wanted to question him.

McAfee has been hiding from police ever since – a tactic his new lawyer, Telesforo Guerra, says was necessary.

"You don't have to believe what the police say," Guerra told ABC News. "Even though they say he is not a suspect they were trying to capture him." Guerra is Guatemala's former Attorney General, and, says McAfee, the uncle of McAfee's 20-year-old girlfriend, Samantha.

McAfee says the government raided his beachfront home and threatened Samantha's family.

"Fifteen armed soldiers come in and personally kidnap my housekeeper, threaten Sam's father with torture and haul away half a million dollars of my s___," claimed McAfee. "If they're not after me, then why all these raids? There've been eight raids!"

Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images

John McAfee Interview: Software Millionaire on the Run Watch Video

John McAfee: Software Millionaire Not Officially a Suspect Watch Video

Anti-Virus Pioneer John McAfee Hiding in Belize: Police Watch Video

McAfee will hold a press conference at 3 p.m. Eastern Time in Guatemala City to announce his asylum bid. He has offered to answer questions from Belizean law enforcement over the phone, and denies any involvement in Faull's death.

For three weeks, McAfee has been on the run, blogging about his flight, flinging accusations at the Belize government and demanding the release of several friends who have been arrested. He zipped around in speedboats and vans, dyed his hair and beard black and said he'd been sleeping in a bug-infested bed.

Over the weekend, a post on his blog claimed that he had been detained on the Belizean/Mexico border.

On Monday, a follow-up post said that the "John McAfee" taken into custody was actually a "double" who was carrying a North Korean passport with McAfee's name.

That post claimed that McAfee had already escaped Belize and was on the run with Samantha and two reporters from Vice Magazine.

McAfee did not reveal his location in that post, and a spokesperson for Belize's National Security Ministry, Raphael Martinez, told ABC News on Monday that no one by McAfee's name was ever detained at the border and that Belizean security officials believed McAfee was still in their country.

However, a photo posted by Vice Magazine on Monday with their article, "We Are With John McAfee Right Now, Suckers," apparently had been taken on an iPhone 4S and had location information embedded in it which revealed the exact coordinates where the photo was taken - in the Rio Dulce National Park in Guatemala – as reported by Wired.com.

A subsequent blog post on McAfee's site confirmed that the photo had mistakenly revealed his location, and said that Monday was "chaotic due to the accidental release of my exact co-ordinates by an unseasoned technician at Vice headquarters."

"We made it to safety in spite of this handicap," the post reads. "I had to cancel numerous interviews with the press yesterday because of this and I apologize to all of those affected."

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Today on New Scientist: 4 December 2012

'Magnetic highway' found at solar system's edge

NASA's Voyager 1 has detected a zone where charged particles can race along magnetic field lines linking the solar system with interstellar space

Back-to-basics money shot shows a cent's battle scars

The euro has taken a bit of a battering of late - and not just in the financial markets. See how a 1-cent coin looks through a powerful microscope

Battling nature in your backyard

Your yard is the new frontier as wildlife returns to the suburbs. In Nature Wars, Jim Sterba calls for a shift from conservation to culling to win back territory

Why words are as painful as sticks and stones

Rejection and heartbreak can have effects every bit as physical as cuts and bruises, and understanding why could change your life

How to create stunning paintings using physics alone

Attention, Pollock wannabes - watch different colours of paint interact to produce abstract images thanks to fluid dynamics

2012 Flash Fiction shortlist: S3xD0ll

From scores of science-inspired stories, our judge has narrowed down a fantastic shortlist. Story two of five: S3xD0ll by Kevlin Henney

Green shoots are growing in oil-rich Texas

Texas has a reputation as the fossil fuel and climate change denial capital of the US, but George Marshall found that things are quietly changing

Heavy hydrogen excess hints at Martian vapour loss

NASA's Curiosity rover has found an unusually high proportion of heavy hydrogen in the Martian soil that may help pin down how Mars lost its atmosphere

Curiosity finds carbon - but is it from Mars?

The NASA rover's first chemical analysis of Martian soil has revealed a carbon compound of uncertain origins

Leech cocoon preserves 200-million-year-old fossil

Move over amber. When it comes to preserving soft-bodied animals through the ages, there's a newcomer in town: fossilised leech "cocoons"

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Fugitive McAfee seeks asylum in Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY: American Internet pioneer John McAfee, wanted for questioning over the murder of his neighbor last month in Belize, is seeking political asylum in Guatemala, his lawyer said Tuesday.

McAfee, 67, amassed huge wealth as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur in the 1990s, designing the hugely popular anti-virus software that bears his name and remains a leading industry product to this day.

In a plotline worthy of a Hollywood thriller, the multi-millionaire went on the run from his home on the idyllic Belize paradise island of Ambergris Caye hours after neighbour Gregory Faull was murdered on November 11.

With his 20-year-old girlfriend Sam Vanegas in tow, he managed to cross the border into Guatemala over the weekend and has secured the services of star lawyer Telesforo Guerra, a former Guatemalan attorney general.

"I have to manage his political asylum," Guerra told AFP after meeting McAfee early Tuesday at a hotel in Guatemala City.

McAfee "is persecuted in Belize, persecuted politically because he stopped financing the government. They accuse him of a common crime. So what I have to obtain is an authorization of asylum," the lawyer said.

Asked whether McAfee fears being assassinated, Guerra said: "Yes, he fears for his life, because after having helped and supported the current government in Belize, they now want more and more money, which they pocket and don't invest."

McAfee, who maintains his innocence, has left a confusing and often contradictory trail of information about his life on the run on his blog, whoismcafee.com.

"It was not easy to exit Belize and required many supporters in many countries," he wrote on Tuesday.

"I am in Guatemala and will be meeting with Guatemalan officials this morning. If all goes well I will do a press conference tomorrow (Wednesday)," he added.

Before fleeing south into Guatemala, he put out a false report saying he had been captured near the northern Mexican border and claimed to have sent a "double" with a North Korean passport to Mexico as another decoy.

Internet users tracked a photo from a magazine on Monday to Guatemala, but McAfee initially claimed to have encrypted it to throw police off the scent.

"I apologize for all of the misdirections over the past few days," McAfee, who is travelling with two reporters from Vice magazine, wrote on Tuesday.

"Yesterday was chaotic due to the accidental release of my exact co-ordinates by an unseasoned technician at Vice headquarters," he said.

"We made it to safety in spite of this handicap. I had to cancel numerous interviews with the press yesterday because of this and I apologize to all of those affected."

Vice magazine put out an article Tuesday with a photo showing Guerra and McAfee having breakfast and claiming that Sam, McAfee's partner on the lam, was actually the lawyer's niece.

"I have known Samantha for a year and a half. She is a remarkable young woman. I love her very much and we are getting married," McAfee is quoted as telling Guerra.

"Unfortunately you will have a potential criminal in the family. My apologies for that, and I will do the best I can to make it up to you," he added, reportedly prompting an amused response from Guerra.

Police say Faull, a 52-year-old Florida expatriate, was discovered by his housekeeper with a 9-mm slug in his head lying in a pool of his own blood.

Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow has described McAfee as "bonkers," saying he is only wanted for questioning as a "person of interest" in the case and urging him to give himself up.

Prior to his murder, Faull had led neighbours in writing a letter to the mayor complaining that McAfee's "vicious" dogs and aggressive security guards were scaring tourists and residents alike.

McAfee shot dead four of his dogs before fleeing, claiming they had been poisoned, possibly by Faull.

Police said the dogs were exhumed last week and ballistics experts are seeing if the slugs match up with the one found in Faull's head.

McAfee decamped to Belize in 2009 after losing an estimated $96 million of his $100 million fortune due to bad investments and the financial crisis.

According to profiles in The New York Times and tech magazine Wired, his lifestyle became increasingly extreme as he descended into a drug-fuelled existence centred on young prostitutes.

McAfee was briefly incarcerated in April after police found him living with a 17-year-old girl and discovered an arsenal of seven pump-action shotguns, one single-action shotgun, and two 9-mm pistols.

- AFP/fa

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Massive day-one update won't be bundled in Wii U until 2013

The
Wii U's massive update that runs after booting the hardware won't be bundled in the console for at least a few months.

Speaking to Gamasutra in an interview published today, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said that the out-of-the-box update will be pushed out over the Web for the next few months. After that, Nintendo will install it in its
Wii U hardware before shipping consoles to store shelves.

When the Wii U launched last month, gamers were surprised to find that they needed to download a massive update delivering many of the features -- online services and Wii backwards compatibility, among others -- that were expected to be available without any such patch. Although debate rages over the size of the update, it takes about an hour or more, depending on connection speeds, to fully download onto the device.

"Nintendo developers want to make sure that the very best product is available to consumers," Fils-Aime said in the interview. "That creates a dynamic where our developers are working on elements until the very last point possible. That's why the system update was required on Day One - and this is quite similar to what's happened with other consumer electronic products."

Fils-Aime's boss, Nintendo chief executive Satoru Iwata, had a bit of a different take on the update. In an interview with IGN last week, Iwata apologized for the update, saying it's not something he would have liked to have seen happen.

"Personally I think that users should be able to use all the functions of a console video game machine as soon as they open the box," Iwata told IGN in an interview published last week. "So I feel very sorry for the fact that purchasers of Wii U have to experience a network update which takes such a long time, and that there are the services which were not available at the hardware's launch."

The Wii U's most conspicuous omission was TVii, a feature allowing owners to interact with their television programming from the GamePad. That feature is expected to launch this month.

Despite that and the long update, Nintendo isn't having any trouble selling its Wii U. In an interview with CNET last week, Fils-Aime said that the console is selling out as soon as it hits store shelves.

"Wii U is essentially sold out of retail and we are doing our best to continually replenish stock," Fils-Aime said. "Retailers are also doing their best to get the product to store shelves. But as soon as product hits retail, they're selling out immediately."

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Pictures We Love: Best of November

Photograph by Qais Usyan, AFP/Getty Images

The family of a five-year-old Afghan girl, victim of an alleged rape by a 22-year-old man, sits at her hospital bedside in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, on November 12. News agencies reported that the assailant, a neighbor, was later detained by police.

(Read about the continued struggle of women in Afghanistan in National Geographic magazine.)

Why We Love It

"The perspective and stark lighting reinforce how small and defenseless this little girl is—her body engulfed by the bed and blankets, with only her feet showing. The bedframe appears to trap her and her family, just as they are trapped in this cycle of violence."—Monica Corcoran, senior photo editor

"This image has a symbolic quality. The light draws our attention immediately to the girl. We see, however, nothing to identify her. It could be any girl who is lying there. Her family at her bedside and their facial expressions indicate that rape affects not only the victim. Overall, this image shows the universality of human suffering."—Amina El Banayosy, photo intern

Published December 4, 2012

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Alaska Serial Killer Buried Murder Kits Across US

Israel Keyes, the Alaskan man whoconfessed to seven murders before killing himself in a jail cell, told police that he traveled the country to find victims and buried caches of weapons, money and tools for disposing of bodies to use in future crimes.

The FBI also released an ominous list of 35 trips Keyes made around the U.S., Mexico and Canada over the last eight years.

Keyes, 34, the owner of an Anchorage construction company, was in jail charged with the February murder of Samantha Koenig, 18. While in jail he had been confessing to at least seven other killings in Washington, New York and Vermont. He was found dead in his Alaska jail cell on Sunday in an apparent suicide.

Investigators are now piecing together a deadly puzzle that is uncovering a macabre lifestyle of Keyes traveling to kill simply because he "liked to do it," prosecutors said.

"In a series of interviews with law enforcement, Keyes described significant planning and preparation for his murders, reflecting a meticulous and organized approach to the crimes," the Anchorage FBI office said in a statement.

The FBI has released a timeline of Keyes' travels that showed nearly three dozen trips between 2004 and 2012. The destinations of the trips are vague, described only by U.S. region in most cases, but span the entire country, including Hawaii. There are also trips to Canada and Mexico listed.

"Keyes also admitted traveling to various locations to leave supplies he planned to use in a future crime. Keyes buried caches throughout the United States," the FBI said.

Missing Alaska Barista Had Past Restraining Order Watch Video

Authorities have already recovered two caches, one in Alaska and one in New York, that contained money, weapons and items for disposing of bodies. Keyes indicated that there were other supply boxes buried across the country.

He funded his travel with the proceeds from bank robberies, authorities said.

"Investigators believe that Keyes did not know any of his victims prior to their abductions," the FBI said. "He described several remote locations that he frequented to look for victims--parks, campgrounds, trailheads, cemeteries, boating areas, etc."

Keyes told authorities that his victims received little if any media attention when they disappeared. Authorities said that "based on his own research," Keyes said that one of his victims had been recovered, but the death was ruled accidental. Investigators said they have not identified the victim or location of that alleged crime.

Before his death, Keyes indicated that, in addition to Koenig and a Vermont couple, he killed four people in Washington State and one person in New York, but did not give the victims' names, authorities said.

"It was not unusual for Keyes to fly into an airport, rent a car, and drive hundreds of miles to his final destination," the FBI said.

That is precisely what Keyes did in the murder of Bill and Lorraine Currier in Essex, Vt., last year. He flew from Alaska to Chicago in June 2011. He rented a car in Chicago and drove to Vermont where he spent three days looking for his next victims and planning the slaying.

"When [Keyes] left Alaska, he left with the specific purpose of kidnapping and murdering someone," Chittenden County State Attorney T. J. Donovan said at the press conference. "He was specifically looking for a house that had an attached garage, no car in the driveway, no children, no dog."

The Curriers, unfortunately, fit all of Keyes' criteria. He spent three days in Vermont before striking. He even took out a three-day fishing license and fished before the slayings.

Keyes abducted the couple from their home and murdered them in an abandoned barn he had located before breaking into the Curriers' home. After binding the couple with plastic cuffs, the beat the husband with a shovel and then shot him. The wife was raped and strangled.

"By all accounts, [the Curriers] were friendly, peaceful, good people who encountered a force of pure evil acting at random," an investigator said at today's news conference. Authorities called the ongoing investigation a "huge case, national in scope."

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Today on New Scientist: 3 December 2012

Screening athletes for heart problems much too pricey

The cost of screening all US athletes for heart abnormalities could reach $10 million per life saved - providing defibrillators everywhere may be better

Beyond boiling, bubbles vanish when the heat is up

See what happens inside a kettle when liquid overheats, creating a boiling crisis

2012 Flash Fiction shortlist: Digital Eyes

From scores of science-inspired stories, our judge has narrowed down a fantastic shortlist. Story one of five: Digital Eyes by Tamara Rogers

3D print yourself something big, piece by piece

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North Korean rocket launch will heighten missile fears

Despite doubts over its capabilities, North Korea intends to launch a long-range rocket this month, heightening tensions with its neighbours

Before the big bang: something or nothing

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Algerian oases: Earth with its living skin pulled away

These Algerian oases start looking like footprints on a beach as they stretch out toward the horizon, but the water's underground, not up ahead

Dyson patents the tap that also dries your hands

Why should washrooms have more sinks than hand dryers? A novel patent answers that thorny question

Personality disorder revamp ends in 'horrible waste'

Patients will be the losers as the American Psychiatric Association fails to endorse a new way of diagnosing debilitating personality problems

Elon Musk: Mars base will open the way to other stars

The SpaceX founder says he'd like to "die on Mars". Why the obsession with going to the Red Planet?

Tiny tug of war in cells underpins life

The minuscule forces that allow cells to divide in a teeny tug of war have been measured for the first time

Weaver ants help flowers get the best pollinator

The Singapore rhododendron is the first flower found to recruit ants to chase small bee varieties - which make poor pollinators - away

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US calls Israel to 'reconsider' settlements decision

WASHINGTON: The United States called on Israel Monday to "reconsider" a decision to allow 3,000 more homes for Jewish settlers in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

"We urge Israeli leaders to reconsider these unilateral decisions and exercise restraint as these actions are counter-productive and make it harder to resume direct negotiations," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

His comments came amid intensifying international pressure on Israel in the wake of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision last week.

The areas opened for settlement construction included E1, a corridor east of Jerusalem where Jewish settlements would effectively split the occupied West Bank, further complicating the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state.

The State Department warned in an earlier statement that the E1 area "is particularly sensitive and construction there would be especially damaging to efforts to achieve a two-state solution."

Israel announced the decision on settlements after the UN General Assembly voted to upgrade the Palestinian status to a UN observer state, over vehement Israeli and US objections.

A source in Netanyahu's office said Israel would not bend to the international pressure.

- AFP/fa

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Real-life Pixar lamp wants to play hide-and-seek

The Pinokio lamp plays hide-and-seek.

(Credit:
Video screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)

When I see a cute critter like Fizzgig or an Ewok in a movie, I want to take it home with me. I get the same feeling when I see Pixar's sweet Luxo Jr. lamp mascot. It's like a little metal puppy you want to hold on your lap and take care of.

The sprightly lamp has now hopped out of the screen and into the real world thanks to a project created at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand by Adam Ben-Dror, Joss Doggett, and Shanshan Zhou. This lamp is black, rather than white like Luxo Jr. The project is called Pinokio and the lamp is imaginatively named "Lamp."

Pinokio uses six servos, a Webcam, and Arduino to track human faces, play hide-and-seek, hear sounds, and try really hard to get your attention.

The project's description includes this explanation: "Pinokio is an exploration into the expressive and behavioural potentials of robotic computing." That may sound a little dry, but what it really means is that humans don't require fluffy fur and a heartbeat to get all mushy about something.

The lamp's movements and ability to interact with people imbues the cold metal gadget with a puppy-like charm. Pinokio's hide-and-seek skills are on par with a baby's, which somehow makes the lamp even more adorable.

I would love to have a Pinokio on my desk, but I'm afraid I would feel guilty if I neglected it. Plus, my cats would get jealous.

(Via io9)

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