News: global warming reducing carbon sequesting of forests

An international study has discovered that warmer autumn temperatures are reducing the ability of Northern forests to sequester carbon dioxide. Normally, carbon dioxide is sequestered in the spring and released in the fall, but warmer fall temperatures have increased the fall carbon dioxide release without an equivalent rate of increase in spring sequestering. As a result, Northern forests are locked in a feedback loop with global warming in which rising global temperatures make the forests less effective in countering those rising temperatures.

News: Quadrantid shower makes appearance Friday

The early hours of Friday morning (4 January) should provide an entertaining show as the Quadrantid meteor shower returns. For North America, maximum activity is expected at 1:40 am EST. This is a "tight" shower because they were formed from a comet within the last 500 years so you have only one one night to see it. At peak activity you should be able to observe an average of one meteor each minute. Europeans will have a much more entertaining show with as many as two meteors per minute visible at the peak.

News: New citation index launched

SCImago has released a new citation ranking tool  (http://www.scimagojr.com/). The tool uses an approach similar to PageRank by examining both the number of citations arising from a journal and the number of citation links between journals. The ranking tool uses the Scopus journal database rather than the Thompson database that has traditionally been used to assess citations.

Tech: US airports use SPOT checks

Airport security personnel in the US are being asked to be more friendly with passengers, but not for the reasons you might think. The friendly conversation is part of a SPOT (Screening Passengers by Observation Technique) assessment in which they watch for microfacial expressions of fear, anger surprise, or contempt. Observing any of these expressions could have you escorted to a secondary screening area where you submit to a pat-down, X-ray, or other more invasive search methods. In the past year, more than 70,000 people have been deferred with approximately 700 being arrested when it was discovered that they were, in fact, breaking the law. Found on Slashdot.

Photo-Chronicle of Zoey

Cat lovers will enjoy this photo-chronicle of Zoey, an abandoned kitten's first six months with the people who found her. Starving and missing an eye, the owners nursed her back to health.

News: California sues the EPA over tailpipe emissions

California and fifteen other states are suing the US Environmental Protection Agency because want to be able to set far more stringent emission standards than advocated by the US government. The EPA wants to avoid a pathwork of environmental standards, while California says that they the proposed standards are not sufficient to address the problems they are experiencing as a result of current emission levels.

News: Northwest Territories ponder wind power solution

Tech: 19th century neurosurgical tools

German early 19th century neurosurgical tools. Found on "Retrospectacle", courtesy of ScienceBlogs