How irises 'reveal personalities'

Patterns in the iris can give away the secrets of your personality

It may be possible to read a person's personality through their eyes, Swedish researchers have said.

They have detected patterns which show warm-heartedness and trust or neuroticism and impulsiveness.

The team from Orebro University read pits and lines in the irises of 428 people.

Experts said the study in Biological Psychology showed that at least some aspects of personality were determined by genetics.

Close-up pictures were taken of the study participants' irises, and they also filled out a questionnaire about their personalities.

The researchers looked at crypts (pits) and contraction furrows (lines curving around the outer edge of the iris), which are formed when pupils dilate.

It was found that those with more crypts were likely to be tender, warm and trusting, while those with more furrows were more likely to be neurotic, impulsive and give in to cravings.

'Trajectories'

The researchers suggest that a neurodevelopmental gene called PAX6 could also play a major role.

It is known to help control the development of the iris in an embryo.

Previous research has also shown that a mutation of PAX6 is linked to impulsiveness and poor social skills.

The team, led by Dr Matt Larsson a behavioural scientist, said: "These findings support the notion that people with different iris configurations tend to develop along different trajectories in regards to personality.

"Differences in the iris can be used as a biomarker that reflects differences between people."

Dr George Fieldman, principal lecturer in psychology at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, said: "This is very interesting. It shows that some aspects of personality have a genetic base and to identify them in the eye in this fascinating way is significant.

"It is surprising that this is possible. But it seems that the old aphorism that 'the eyes are the window to the soul' has some genetic basis."

He said it opened up the possibility that security services could one day use the technique to analyse people.

Airports, including Heathrow, Manchester and Gatwick are already testing iris scanning to identify people - but are not to check personality traits.

But Dr Fieldman added: "Security services would have to use such technologies with some caution. You would not want to arrest somebody on the basis of their iris."

source: bbc.co.uk

Politicians sign new climate pact

The climate debate is over, said US presidential candidate John McCain

Leading international politicians have reached a new agreement on tackling climate change, at a Washington summit.

Delegates agreed that developing countries would also have to meet targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, as well as rich countries.

The informal meeting also agreed that a global market should be formed to cap and trade carbon dioxide emissions.

The non-binding declaration is seen as vital in influencing a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, correspondents say.

The forum's closing statement said man-made climate change was now "beyond doubt".

"Climate change is a global issue and there is an obligation on us all to take action, in line with our capabilities and historic responsibilities," said the statement from the Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment (Globe).

'Tipping point'

The two-day meeting brought together legislators from countries including the Group of Eight rich nations, plus Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.

Climate science: what's new? Hard bargaining for deal Send us your comments

The BBC's environment analyst Roger Harrabin was at the meeting and says that although the declaration carries no formal weight, it indicates a real change in mood.

The legislators agreed that developing countries had to face targets on greenhouse gas emissions, in the same way rich countries do.

They said they wanted a successor to the Kyoto Protocol - which expires in 2012 - in place by 2009.

US senator Joe Lieberman forecast that the US Congress would enact a law on cutting emissions by the end of next year, possibly this year.

And presidential candidate John McCain, who is co-sponsoring climate legislation with Mr Lieberman, was emphatic on the need for new initiatives.

"I am convinced that we have reached the tipping point and that the Congress of the United States will act, with the agreement of the administration," he told the forum.

But Dr John Holdren, the head of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), said President George W Bush needed to appreciate that the US economy would not suffer unnecessarily if emission were capped.

"The economic damage from not addressing climate change is much larger than the economic cost of addressing it," he said.

Canada re-opens Kyoto row

Meanwhile, the Canadian parliament moved to force the government to meet its Kyoto Protocol target for reducing emissions.

The ruling Conservative party argues that meeting the target, of reducing emissions by 6% from 1990 levels by the period 2008-2012, is impossible.

The parliamentary vote gives the government 60 days to formulate a plan for getting back on track.

With United Nations climate negotiations in December failing to agree a timetable for mandating new cuts in emissions when the current Kyoto targets expire in 2012, the British-led Globe set up the Washington meeting in the hope of stimulating progress in a less formal setting.

The UN's panel on climate change said earlier this month that higher global temperatures caused by man-made pollution would melt polar ice, worsen floods and droughts and cause more devastating storms.

source: bbc.co.uk

New finds at Egypt's city of dead

A wooden statue is removed from the scribe's mud tomb

Archaeologists have been unveiling the latest discoveries from the Saqqara necropolis, or city of the dead, south of Egypt's capital, Cairo.

Two tombs dating from between 3,000 and 4,200 years ago are of a royal scribe and a butler.

Another find is of the sarcophagi of a priest and his female companion from the 12th dynasty (1991-1786 BC).

Saqqara holds a number of temples and tombs. Officials say perhaps only 30% of its treasures have been discovered.

Well-preserved

The tomb of the royal scribe dates to the period of the pharaoh Akhenaten, who was known for discarding Egypt's old gods.

His rule was between 1379 and 1362 BC, shortly before Tutankhamen.

A restoration worker with the butler's tomb at Saqqara

Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, said: "It doesn't look great because it was built from mud brick and not built of limestone, but I really believe that this tomb is very important."

The tomb's dark wooden door bears hieroglyphics of the scribe and his wife.

The second tomb belongs to a butler who died 3,350 years ago and contains well-preserved blue and orange paints with scenes of animals and rituals.

It is thought the discoveries show that nearby Memphis was still functioning as the capital, despite the official capital being Luxor in the south.

The second find was of the 4,000-year-old anthropoid, or humanlike, wooden coffins of the priest Sobek Hat and his female companion.

Their coffins are painted in light orange and have blue hieroglyphics. They have not yet been opened and the mummies inside remain intact.

The anthropoids were said to act as a substitute body for the dead.

source: bbc.co.uk

EU reaches deal on emissions cuts

The EU wants the rest of the developed world to follow its lead

EU environment ministers have agreed in principle to cut greenhouse emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020.

The ministers, meeting in Brussels, also agreed to seek a 30% cut worldwide if matched by other developed nations.

The proposals, outlined by the European Commission in January, are seen as a key measure to curb climate change.

The EU must still decide how to make cuts, allowing for a possible compromise with member states opposed to mandatory targets.

Hungary and Poland, who joined the EU in 2004, are said to have opposed the cuts.

Finland has also reportedly voiced opposition to the Commission's targets.

But German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said his country was prepared to go further and cut emissions by 40%.

"There will be some countries like Germany that will see a steeper reduction in greenhouse gases," he said, quoted by the Associated Press news agency.

Struggle for consensus

On Sunday, environment ministers from the UK, Spain and Slovenia urged the 27-member block to endorse the 30% target.

In an article for the BBC News website, they said that failure to act would threaten efforts to persuade nations such as the US and China to agree to cap emissions.

In January, Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas urged "the rest of the developed world to follow our lead, match our reductions and accelerate progress towards an international agreement on the global emission reductions".

However, international negotiations on the shape of the framework to replace the current Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, have struggled to reach a consensus.

A number of nations have voiced doubts about the effectiveness of national emission limits.

source: bbc.co.uk

Eskimo Nebula

In 1787, astronomer William Herschel discovered the Eskimo Nebula, which from the ground resembles a person's head surrounded by a parka hood. In 2000, the Hubble Space Telescope imaged the nebula that displays gas clouds so complex they are not fully understood. The Eskimo Nebula is clearly a planetary nebula, and the gas seen above composed the outer layers of a sun-like star only 10,000 years ago. The inner filaments visible above are being ejected by strong wind of particles from the central star. The outer disk contains unusual light-year long orange filaments.

Image credit: NASA/Andrew Fruchter (STScI)

Satellite could see shadow of extra dimensions

A satellite to be launched next year could see signs of extra dimensions in the afterglow of the big bang, a new study says.

Some theories – such as string theory – that attempt to unify all known forces into a single "theory of everything" posit the existence of extra spatial dimensions beyond the three familiar ones.

But string theory has proven stubbornly resistant to experimental tests (although some physicists say it could be tested in the Large Hadron Collider scheduled to open by the end of 2007).

Now, Gary Shiu and Bret Underwood, both physicists at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, US, say the shape of the extra dimensions could leave an imprint in the afterglow of the big bang. This glow, called the cosmic microwave background, reveals the structure of the universe about 370,000 years after the big bang.

They use a popular model of the universe's early growth called Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) inflation, which is inspired by string theory. It is one of a class of ideas called braneworld models, which state that our universe is like a sheet of paper floating in a higher dimensional space.

full story @ newscientist.com

The Big Bang and the Bucks Set to Collide in Inner Space

The International Linear Collider

At a news conference in Beijing, an international consortium of physicists released the first detailed design of what they believe will be the Next Big Thing in physics: a machine 20 miles long that will slam together electrons and their evil-twin opposites, positrons, to produce fireballs of energy recreating conditions when the universe was only a trillionth of a second old.

It would cost about $6.7 billion and 13,000 person-years of labor to build the machine, the group reported. And that does not include the cafeteria and parking.

In an e-mail interview before the announcement, Barry Barish, a physics professor at the California Institute of Technology and chairman of the design team, said, “The good thing is that we have developed a design that can address the challenging physics goals and meet the technical requirements, and we have worked very hard to cost-optimize it, yet it (not surprisingly) does remain expensive.” The design team includes 60 scientists from around the world.

The location of the announcement yesterday, the Institute for High Energy Physics in Beijing, underscores the growing role and ambition of Asia, particularly Japan and China, to become major players in high-energy physics, a field that has been dominated by the United States and Europe in the last century.

In its initial phase, the International Linear Collider would be 20 miles long and hurl electrons and their antimatter opposites, positrons, together with energies of 500 billion electron volts. Later the collider could be extended to 31 miles and a trillion electron volts.

The proposed machine, physicists say, is needed to complement the Large Hadron Collider now under construction at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, outside Geneva. That machine will be the world’s most powerful when it goes into operation this fall, eventually colliding beams of protons with 7 trillion electron volts of energy each. Physicists hope that by using it, they will detect a long-sought particle known as the Higgs boson, which is thought to endow all the other constituents of nature with mass. They hope, too, to discover new laws and forms of matter and even perhaps new dimensions of spacetime.

But protons are bags of smaller particles called quarks and gluons, and their collisions tend to be messy and wasteful. Because electrons and positrons have no innards, their collisions are cleaner, so they can be used to create and study with precision whatever new particles are found at CERN.

The hitch is that until the Hadron Collider proves its worth by actually finding something new, the governments of the world are unlikely to sign on to contribute a share of the billions needed for the new machine.

Particle accelerators derive their punch from Einstein’s equation of mass and energy. The more energy they can pack into their little fireballs, the farther back in time they can go, closer and closer to the Big Bang and perhaps ultimate truth about nature, allowing particles and laws that once ruled the cosmos, but have since vanished more completely than the dinosaurs, to briefly strut their stuff again. But as physicists have pushed inward and backward, their machines have gotten bigger and more expensive. Competitions between universities and laboratories turned into races between countries and then continents.

The Large Hadron Collider cost about $3.77 billion, according to CERN. But that total did not include the cost of digging the collider’s 18-mile-circumference tunnel, which had been used for a previous machine, the detectors, which cost upward of $1 billion, or most of the above-ground CERN complex, which has been a particle physics center for decades.

A proton collider that would have been bigger, the Superconducting SuperCollider, was canceled by the United States Congress in 1993. At the time its estimated cost had ballooned to $10.3 billion in 2007 dollars, according to Robin Staffin, associate director for high energy physics at the Department of Energy.

The International Linear Collider collaboration, led by a steering group that is headed by Shin-ichi Kurokawa, of Japan’s High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, consists of 1,000 scientists and engineers from 100 countries.

Physicists acknowledge that it could be years before the world commits to building the International Linear Collider, although jockeying for the costly privilege of playing its host has begun.

The committee priced three sites: near CERN in Switzerland, at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., and in the mountains of Japan, and found that so-called site-specific costs, like digging tunnels and shafts and supplying water and electricity, were nearly the same in each case, about $1.8 billion.

Shadow of a Martian Robot

What if you saw your shadow on Mars and it wasn't human? Then you might be the Opportunity rover currently exploring Mars. Opportunity and sister robot Spirit have been probing the red planet since early 2004, finding evidence of ancient water, and sending breathtaking images across the inner Solar System. Pictured above, Opportunity looks opposite the Sun into Endurance Crater and sees its own shadow. Two wheels are visible on the lower left and right, while the floor and walls of the unusual crater are visible in the background. Opportunity and Spirit have now spent over three years exploring the red world, find new clues into the wet ancient past of our Solar System's second most habitable planet.

Flame Nebula

Of course, the Flame Nebula is not on fire. Also known as NGC 2024, the nebula's suggestive reddish color is due to the glow of hydrogen atoms at the edge of the giant Orion molecular cloud complex some 1,500 light-years away. The hydrogen atoms have been ionized, or stripped of their electrons, and glow as the atoms and electrons recombine. But what ionizes the hydrogen atoms? In this close-up view, a dark lane of absorbing interstellar dust stands out in silhouette against the hydrogen glow and actually hides the true source of the Flame Nebula's energy from optical telescopes. Behind the dark lane lies a cluster of hot, young stars, seen at infrared wavelengths through the obscuring dust. A young, massive star in that cluster is the likely source of energetic ultraviolet radiation that ionizes the hydrogen gas in the Flame Nebula.