Italian seismologists ordered to prison for not warning of quake risk

ROME -- A court found six scientists and an official guilty of manslaughter Monday for failing to properly warn residents in the central Italy city of L’Aquila about the risk of an impending earthquake that killed more than 300 people in 2009.

The three-judge court handed down a prison sentence of six years for each of the defendants, more than the four years requested by the prosecution in a case that many thought should never have gone to court because of the virtual impossibility of predicting an earthquake.

The verdict, which was watched with interest by seismologists and public administrators in other parts of the world marked by frequent seismic activity, including Los Angeles, immediately drew criticism from scientists who said that it would have a chilling effect on experts called on to assess emergencies.

Tremors of varying magnitude had plagued the area around L’Aquila for months before an 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck April 6, 2009, and devastated the city and surrounding villages across a wide area.

Prosecutors said that the men, six members of the Major Risks Commission and an official with the Civil Protection Agency, gave the already-frightened residents “inexact, incomplete and contradictory information” after meeting to evaluate the situation six days before the temblor hit.

General warns of dramatic increase in cyber-attacks on U.S. firms

ASPEN, Colo.  -- Computer  intrusions by hackers, criminals and nations against U.S. infrastructure increased seventeenfold from 2009 to 2011, the nation’s chief cyber defender says, and it’s only a matter of time before such an attack causes physical damage.

Gen. Keith Alexander, who heads  the National Security Agency and the U.S. Cyber Command, revealed the statistics in a rare public interview Thursday at the Aspen Security Forum, a gathering of national security officials. He called for passage of legislation being debated by the Senate that would set up a voluntary system for companies to shore up their computer defenses.

The NSA eavesdrops on communications around the world, and it also monitors cyber-attacks. U.S. Cyber Command is responsible for offensive cyber operations.

Alexander did not say how many attacks happen each year against critical infrastructure, such as electrical, water, chemical and nuclear plants. Such intrusions are typically designed  to probe defenses and lay the groundwork for a destructive attack.  Many plants and factories are run by networked industrial control systems, so an attacker who seizes control of such a system could wreak havoc.

Echoing remarks he has made before, Alexander said the U.S. lacks sufficient defenses against cyber-attacks. On a scale of 1 to 10, he said, American preparedness for a large-scale cyber-attack is “around a 3.”

He said he was particularly worried about attacks that could shut down parts of the electrical grid or compromise public water systems.

“Destructive cyber-attacks against critical infrastructure are coming,” Alexander said.

Alexander said the military had yet to work out rules of engagement for responding to cyber-attacks, and he pointed out that neither of his agencies have the authority to defend against a cyber-attack on a private company, even if that company owns crucial infrastructure.  The pending bill would fix that, he said.

Some business groups oppose the bill as intrusive, and some civil liberties groups say it compromises privacy.

Alexander pointedly refused to comment on Stuxnet, a cyber-attack on Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities that has been reported to have been the work of the U.S. and Israeli intelligence.  He also pushed back against the notion that the uptick in attacks on the U.S. is related to Stuxnet, which was first discovered in June 2010.

Alexander repeated his view that computer-based espionage against the industrialized world amounted to “the biggest transfer of wealth in history” because “adversaries have gone into our companies and taken intellectual property.”

He cited one estimate by the security firm McAfee that the losses from such spying add up to a trillion dollars. But, he said, "we don’t know. And which is more alarming:  that it’s really large, or we don’t even know how large it is? … What other countries are doing are stealing the next generation of [our] capabilities.”

Alexander didn’t name the countries, but China and Russia have  been cited by government officials as the biggest culprits, a charge they deny.

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Photo: NBC correspondent Pete Williams, left, interviews Gen. Keith Alexander  on  on cyber-security. Credit: Aspen Daily News 

Girly science ad gets European Commission grief [Video]

The European Commission is getting grief over a flashy ad meant to get girls excited about science that looks more like a lipstick commercial. The teaser video, "Science: It’s a girl thing!" is pegged to a European Commission campaign to bring more women into the field, which skews heavily toward men.

But for many galled viewers, the feminist goal was drowned out by the stereotypically girly images of women giggling and strutting in skirts, jumbled in with bubbling flasks.

The perky video bounces between shots of nail polish and petri dishes, sunglasses and goggles over a techno beat; it even swaps out the "i" in "science" with a tube of lipstick. Appalled scientists said the video was a sexist bit of advertising based on the idea that only fashion could get girls interested in test tubes.

"It's as if Disney channel male execs do ‘science Barbie,'" geologist and blogger Sharon Hill tweeted in disgust. "Terrible."

Ben Goldacre, author of the Guardian's "Bad Science" column, joked, "The EU have funded a campaign to make women in science wear shorter skirts."

Could the ad be "a fiendish ploy to highlight the stereotyping of women and scientists?" University of Bristol climate scientist Tamsin Edwards quizzed the campaign through Twitter.

The "Commission doesn't really do irony," European Commission spokesman for science Michael Jennings replied. "Hope was to get young people onto site. That seems to be happening!"

Quite. Though the outpouring of attention may have brought more attention to the campaign, the girly video caused such an outcry that the European Commission eventually pulled it from YouTube -- only to find that Internet users had already copied it elsewhere.

"An epic fail, and waste of public money," one YouTube viewer commented. "Pity, really."

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Video: A YouTube copy of the European Commission teaser ad, "Science: It's a girl thing!"

South Korea school textbooks drop evolution examples

SEOUL -- Some major science textbook publishers for South Korea's secondary schools have deleted examples of Darwinism, bowing to petitions by a group that calls evolution "an unconfirmed theory."

Of the seven major science textbook publishers in South Korea, three have agreed to remove or revise references to the evolution of horses, and six publishers  deleted or changed chapters related to avian evolution.

The decision was made after the Society for Textbook Revision, or STR, filed petitions in December and March with South Korea's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology  against the inclusion of the information.

Since its formation in 2009, the STR has continuously  challenged the teaching of the evolution in South Korea.

"We are an academic research society that aims to delete the errors [relating to] evolution, which is an unconfirmed theory," STR President Lee Gwang-won said. "It is important to revise the textbooks and teach the students that evolution is just one of the theories, as it affects how students form their view of the world. "

Lee denied his organization is affiliated with Christian groups or creationist scientists. But  Han Jungyeol, spokesman for the Korea Assn. for Creation Research, told the science journal Nature that the STR is an independent offshoot of his association.

South Korean academics expressed confusion over the publishers' decision, assigning some blame to the government's education ministry because it forwarded the petitions to the publishers without any academic reviews or expert consultation.

"It is hard to believe that such a one-sided petition was easily accepted like this," said Choe Jae-cheon, a scientist at Ewha Woman's University in Seoul. "The education ministry included 'science and technology' in their name, but it is not paying enough attention to the importance of rightful science education."

One of the publishers that revised its texts,  Kyohaksa, was quoted by local media as saying the fact that there was an apparent scientific controversy over the issue prompted its decision.

But Jang Dayk, a scientist at Seoul National University, said the publishers' position was not acceptable. He said the scientific community had ignored the STR up to now "because it was unworthy to confront them. The quality of their argument is sophomoric and based on distorted information."

But the latest move by textbook publishers, Dayk said,  has galvanized the scientific community, pushing it to act.  "We have formed a task force and will put out a statement to halt the textbook revision."

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Renowned South African scientist Phillip Tobias dies at 86

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Phillip Tobias, renowned South African paleoanthropologist and expert on early man and hominids, died Thursday in Johannesburg after a long illness. He was 86.

In 2005, turning 80, he wrote of a life enriched by "serendipity, coincidence, synchronism, eureka moments."

"You go to search for something -- an odd tree -- and you find something else, something that may prove to be even more important than that which you had set out to examine! This is the essence of serendipity," he wrote, describing a 1945 visit to a cave in Limpopo to see a twisted yellowwood tree when he was 20 years old.

Kneeling in the sandy soil to get a better look at the tree, he felt something hard and pulled out an ancient stone tool.

He launched an archaeological dig in the cave, which he later named Mwulu's Cave. It became a significant site, casting light on the earliest artistic activity by predecessors of humans. Some 3,000 stone tools were excavated from the place.

World's most powerful radio telescope to be shared by 3 nations

REPORTING FROM JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- South African politicians and scientists were jubilant Friday after a decision was announced to locate the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radio telescope in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

But their joy was tinged with disappointment that South Africa's bid for the entire project did not succeed. The decision was nonetheless seen as a major boost for South African science.

"The SKA will transform our view of the universe; with it we will see back to the moments after the Big Bang and discover previously unexplored parts of the cosmos.” said Dr. Michiel van Haarlem, interim director general of the SKA Organization, in a statement after the announcement of the decision in Amsterdam.

The $2-billion project will involve several thousand high-, mid- and low-frequency receiving dishes set over a huge geographical area in remote areas where there is little interference from mobile phone, radio, television and other signals. Combining all the signals from the SKA will form the equivalent of a radio telescope with a one-square kilometer dish, and will be 50 times more sensitive than any in existence, according to the SKA Organization.

The likelihood of the sites remaining quiet radio zones in the future was a key factor in their choice. The South African location is in the Karoo, in the country's southwest. But dishes will be located across southern Africa and as far north as Ghana. The Australian location is a remote area of Western Australia with dishes to be located in other parts of the continent and in New Zealand.

According to the SKA Organization, astronomers will be able to  glimpse the formation and evolution of the first stars, and investigate the nature of gravity and whether there is life beyond Earth.

South African media had earlier been confident the entire project, which will be the world's most powerful radio telescope, would go to South Africa.

South African Minister for Science and Technology Naledi Pandor said Friday the decision to split the project was unexpected. She said experts on the SKA advisory committee had agreed Africa was the best site.

"We had hoped the unambiguous recommendation of the [advisory committee] would be accepted as the most sound scientific outcome," Pandor said in a statement Friday. "We accept the compromise in the interest of science and as acknowledgement of the sterling work done by our scientists and the excellent SKA project team."

The organization is a global science and engineering project including Britain, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, China, Canada, the Netherlands and Italy, with India an associate member.

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Photo: An artist's impression shows satellite dishes of the future Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radio telescope. Credit: Swinburne Astronomy Productions / AFP

Mexicans get earthquake-alert app for BlackBerrys

 

MEXICO CITY --  The local government is giving away an app for BlackBerrys that will send out an alert when a major earthquake is about to hit this capital city of 20 million people.

BlackBerry users with the application will receive a warning up to 50 seconds in advance, depending on where the epicenter is located, before the quake reaches Mexico City, Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said as he unveiled the new alert system (link in Spanish).

Those are critical seconds, Ebrard said, that will allow "both individuals and the government to take actions to protect people."

Until now, the only advance-alert system available here had been developed by Mexico's National Autonomous University and was provided to a limited number of subscribers, including several government agencies. Employees at some of those agencies reported having enough time to escape their buildings ahead of the March 20 magnitude 7.4 quake that badly rocked the city but caused only minor damage.

In that shaker, as in many that Mexico gets, the epicenter was in the southern state of Guerrero, allowing time for the alert to be raised.

Ebrard said his government's goal is to install in the coming weeks up to 6,800 alarms in public streets that will convey the warning to a broader public.

"We want to have the most complete seismic-alert system that there is," Ebrard said.

"We did not have this in 1985," he added, alluding to the catastrophic jolt that destroyed parts of the capital and killed more than 10,000 people. "If we had, then surely thousands of lives would have been saved."

Mexico City, with its sprawling and often haphazard construction, is especially vulnerable to severe damage because parts of it sit on soft soil or landfill that acts like jelly when a tremor hits.

City officials say the app is available free of charge on this website: www.caepccm.df.gob.mx/appalertasismica. They also said the system, for moderate and strong quakes, will emit a sound and a vibration, even when the BlackBerry is in silent or standby mode. 

We'll let you know how it works.

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Photo: Workers repair subway lines after the March 20 earthquake rattled Mexico City. Credit: Associated Press

 

 

'Faster-than-light neutrino' scientist steps down

The leader of an experiment that was said to have shown subatomic particles traveling faster than the speed of light has resigned from his post, according to Italy's National Institute of Nuclear Physics.

Antonio Ereditato stepped down as chief of the OPERA experiment (the oscillation project with emulsion-racking apparatus) at the Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy. The lab took the physics world by storm last September when researchers working on the experiment announced that they had clocked neutrinos, a type of subatomic particle, apparently traveling faster than the speed of light.

Ereditato's decision, announced by the institute on Friday, was quickly followed by the resignation of another OPERA leader, Dario Autiero, according to Science News. Both departures followed a vote of no-confidence by leaders of groups within the collaboration.

If proved to be true, the experiment's results would turn a century of physics on its head, since Albert Einstein in 1905 put forth in his special theory of relativity that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light.

"If you have particles traveling faster than the speed of light, you can in principle go back in time. So you can be your own grandmother," Stephen Parke, a theoretical particle physicist at Fermilab in Batavia, Ill., told The Times back when the results were made public. "As you can imagine, that causes some problems."

The findings were viewed with shock and then skepticism. Even Ereditato expressed caution, and urged colleagues to double-check the results. Papers positing all range of errors and theories flooded in.

Last month, another Gran Sasso experimental group known as ICARUS (imaging cosmic and rare underground signal) found that neutrinos traveling the same subterranean path did not break the speed of light.

The ICARUS results came just weeks after the OPERA experiment announced that there may have been communication problems between a GPS unit and the computer that clocked the neutrinos' speeds.

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Photo: A scientist looks at the OPERA experiment at Italy's Gran Sasso Laboratory on Nov. 14, 2011. Credit: Alberto Pizzoli / AFP/Getty Images 

Mexico City residents to mega-quakes: We can handle it

This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details.

REPORTING FROM MEXICO CITY -- It's true that sometimes Mexico City can look and feel like the Hollywood set for a movie about the apocalypse. On Tuesday, riding through another big quake, it proved that it's a city that can take a punch.

And what a punch it was.

Tuesday's big earthquake was reported as the largest recorded in Mexico since the devastating 1985 earthquake, which left more than 10,000 people dead. It was a one-minute temblor that made the iconic Angel of Independence monument sway as if drunk and sent crisply dressed office workers rushing into the streets.

Yet remarkably, not a life was lost in the event.

There were only 11 recorded injuries nationwide, authorities said Tuesday night. Some structural damage was reported in the city and in the southern states of Oaxaca and Guerrero, nearer the epicenter. But otherwise, there were no major collapses.

The most dramatic images came from the northern Mexico City borough of Azcapotzalco, where a  concrete footbridge fell on a microbus and crushed its midsection.

In a stroke of what some here call "chilango good luck," referring to a common nickname for Mexico City residents, the bus was empty of passengers. The driver, Raul Hernandez, escaped with only a bloody cut across his nose.

Albert Einstein online archive puts a genius at our fingertips

It’s the ultimate resource to Albert Einstein, the mighty brain behind E=mc2, and now it's all online.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has expanded its vast online Einstein catalog. The enhanced website “sheds light on every aspect of Einstein’s life and on his times,” the first half of the 20th century, the director of the university’s Einstein Center told The Times on Monday.

And it’s not only science, but also personal correspondence that may make readers consider Einstein in a new light.

With 80,000 documents "now listed, categorized, cross-linked and cross-referenced online," according to professor Hanoch Gutfreund, readers have a “panoramic view of the scope of topics and issues in which Einstein was involved.”

There’s a letter to Einstein's 24-year-old mistress, among other lovers; a postcard to his sick mother; even mail about his wild hairdo.

Einstein kept a missive from a 6-year-old girl that reads, in part: "I saw your picture in the paper. I think you ought to have your hair cut, so you can look better."

There also is a 1929 letter to the editor of an Arab newspaper suggesting a solution to the Jewish-Arab conflict: a “secret council” of Jews and Arabs that would hold regular meetings and debate shared issues.

Einstein, who received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1921, died in 1955 and bequeathed all his writings and intellectual heritage to the university. Einstein founded the school in 1918 with a group of individuals including the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud; Jewish philosopher Martin Buber; and Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel.

There’s also a California angle to the enhanced website.

It links up with the Caltech Einstein Papers Project. About 2,000 documents, Gutfreund said, can be seen “in high resolution and linked to the transcribed, annotated and translated version, which appears in the EPP.”

The online project is part of a longer-term effort by Hebrew University, along with Caltech and Princeton, to document scientific history by publishing “The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein,” a massive undertaking.

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Photo: A small statue of Albert Einstein sits in his private library at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. On Monday, the university unveiled its enhanced website, where original documents can be accessed. Credit: Menahem Kahana / AFP/Getty Images