Nature (Research
Highlights )Volume 485 (05/17/2012)
(1) Planet like asteroid
*The giant asteroid Vesta, 260km in diameter with a hard inner core, may hold the key to reveal how to survive big collisions in the universe.
Nature (News in focus )
(2) Message from the early Universe
*NASA’s spacecraft routinely spots high-energy radiation called GRB. This seems to be due to the collapse of a massive star’s core into a black hole. By analyzing GRB, we may be able to trace how the composition of the early universe evolved.
Nature (Letter )
(3) Thermal and electrical conductivity of iron at Earth’s core conditions
Doi: 10.1038/nature11031
Monica Pozzo, Chris Davies, David Gubbins & Dario Alfe
*The condition of the earth’s core influences plate tectonics and volcano etc. Heat flux at the core mantle boundary is controlled by electrical and thermal conductivity of iron. From their calculation using density function theory, heat flux at the core mantle boundary is higher than previous studies.
(4) Recent Northern Hemisphere tropical
expansion primarily driven by black carbon and tropospheric ozone
Doi: 10.1038/nature11097
Robert J. Allen, Stevem C. Sherwood,
Joel R. Norris & Charles S. Zender
*The width of the tropical belt is
increasing 2 to 5 degrees latitude since 1979. Recent GCM showed this trend can
be due to the direct heating of the troposphere by aerosols, mainly black
carbon and ozone. This expansion rate seems to be the fastest in June-August.
(5) Earth-like sand fluxes on Mars
Doi: 10.1038/nature11022
N.T. Bridges, F. Ayoub, J-P.
Avouac, S. Leprince, A. Lucas & S. Mattson
*Studying Mars’ surface meteorology,
especially dune migration, may help us understand the landscape modification on
Antarctica. Clear correlation between ripple migration and dune height was
confirmed.
Science (Perspective ) Volume 336 (05/18/2012)
(6) Climate change and violent conflict
Doi: 10.1126/science.1221339
Jurgen Scheffran et al.
* They approached climate change
from a different angle. The significant correlation between temperature and
civil war in Africa from 1981 to 2002 was reported. This relation is not robust
enough to be conclusive but should be more controllable than natural forces…
Science
(7) Aerobic Microbial Respiration in 86-Million year old deep
sea red clay
Doi: 10.1126/science.1219424
Hans Roy et al.
*Ocean sediment cores are alive! This study
reported the oxygen respiration rate was 0.001 micromoles of O2/liter/year
at 30 m depth within 86 million year old sediment. I thought Yamaguchi-san
would like this paper!
PNAS Volume 109 (05/15/2012)
(8) Greater India Basin hypothesis and a two
stage Cenozoic collision between India and Asia
Doi:
10.1073/pnas. 1117262109
Douwe J.
J. et al
*The collision between India and Asia was a
two-stage event: soft and hard collisions. The second collision around 23Ma
seemed to happen because of the Great India Basin’s subduction.
(9) Irregular topography at Earth’s inner
core boundary
Doi:
0.1073/pnas. 1116342109
Zhiyang
Dai, Wei Wang, and Lianxing Wen
*Understanding
the inner core boundary is essential for researching outer core convection.
They reported that the topography of the boundary exhibits significant
anomalies. The length variation can be from 2 to 6km.
