Police: Braces may have saved Pontiac man's life

Police: Braces may have saved Pontiac man's life
7/11/2008, 7:12 p.m. EDT
The Associated Press

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — They may not be the most popular accessory for teenagers, but one man's braces may have saved his life when he was shot in the face.

Eighteen-year-old Anthony Pittman was shot in the mouth Wednesday night during a gun battle in Pontiac.

Police say the bullet, fired from a .45 caliber weapon, was fragmented by Pittman's braces, which may have saved his life.

US judge blocks gas drilling in Michigan forest

The Associated Press

US judge blocks gas drilling in Michigan forest

By JOHN FLESHER

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A federal judge has overturned a decision by the U.S. Forest Service to allow oil and gas drilling near a forest and a river in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula.

U.S. District Judge David Lawson of Detroit ruled Thursday the agency had acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" in 2005 by giving Savoy Energy LP of Traverse City a permit to drill an exploratory well near the Au Sable River's south branch.

The proposed wellhead would be located in the Huron-Manistee National Forest about three-tenths of a mile from the Mason Tract, a 4,679-acre wilderness area prized by anglers and other outdoor recreationists.

Forest supervisor Leanne Marten said when approving Savoy's application that the project wouldn't significantly harm the environment and the company would be required to keep noise to a minimum.

But the judge ruled the Forest Service didn't consider how degrading the area could harm tourism, and said the agency did a "woefully inadequate" job of evaluating how the drilling might affect the Kirtland's warbler, an endangered songbird that nests in the area.

Two environmental groups, the Sierra Club and Anglers of the Au Sable, sued the government to halt the drilling. Joining the suit was Tim Mason, whose grandfather, auto executive George Mason, donated the original 1,200 acres to the state upon his death in 1954 and asked that it be maintained as wilderness.

"The ruling supports what my grandfather's vision was. It's a victory," said Mason, a Woodstock, Ill., businessman.

Huron-Manistee spokesman Ken Arbogast referred a request for comment to the U.S. Department of Justice, which represented the Forest Service in court. Andrew Ames, a spokesman for the department, said its attorneys were studying Lawson's ruling and had not decided whether to appeal.

A message seeking comment was left with Savoy.

Leaders of the environmental groups urged the company and the government to look for other places to explore for oil and gas.

"We've said from the beginning we didn't want to stop them from drilling," said Marvin Roberson, a forest policy specialist with the Sierra Club. "We want them to drill from a place that won't be harmful to the old-growth forest or the recreational experience."

Although the Mason Tract is state property, the federal government owns rights to minerals beneath it and leased production rights to Savoy. In 2003, the company filed for a permit to drill into one of its lease holdings.

The plan was to clear about 3.5 acres of forest for a well site on federal land, then drill beneath the Mason Tract at an angle. If enough gas or oil was found, the company intended to install a pipeline and build a production facility about a mile east of the well.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved the project shortly after the Forest Service granted the permit. But it has been on hold since Lawson issued an order in December 2005 blocking the company from clearing land to get started.

Honeybee Mystery Could Hurt Food Supply

Honeybee Mystery Could Hurt Food Supply
Where have all the honeybees gone? Millions are disappearing all over the world and scientists don't know why.

Honey Bee Mystery

A revealing profile piece on the disappearing honey bee crisis.

Fossil feathers reveal their hues

The origins of the stripes seen in the feathers have long been debated

The complex coloured plumage of extinct birds which once soared over the heads of dinosaurs could soon be revealed.

Scientists have shown they are able to interpret the colour patterns seen in 100-million-year-old fossil feathers.

Writing in the journal Biology Letters, US researchers reveal how ancient feathers found in Brazil displayed "striking" bands of black and white.

Previously, fossil experts could only guess at the range of hues exhibited by ancient birds and some dinosaurs.

"It solves a conundrum," explained Professor Mike Benton of the University of Bristol, commenting on the work.

Behavioural clues

The team from Yale University analysed fossil feathers from Brazil and Denmark, along with the plumage of modern birds.

The fossil feathers had an obvious striped pattern but its origin had long been debated, according to Professor Benton.

"The banding looks so life-like that it can't be geological in origin - it has to be biological," he said.

The melanosomes could reveal a range of different colours

"But then how do you square that with the well-known fact that the majority of organic molecules decay in thousands of years?"

Microscopic analysis of the dark bands showed they displayed a distinctive granular texture, made from thousands of tiny, densely-packed flattened spheres.

Researchers had previously interpreted these as fossilised bacteria, preserved as the feathers decomposed.

But analysis of modern birds' feathers showed a similar structure.

"There are particular cells that cluster into the dark areas of modern birds called melanosomes," explained Professor Benton.

"Somehow [the melanosomes] are retained and replaced during the preservation process and hence you preserve a very life like representation of the colour banding [in the fossils]."

Lighter areas in the fossils did not show the same textures, leading the team to conclude that the feathers once displayed distinct black and white stripes.

But studies of other modern birds have shown that other colours are marked by distinct arrangements of melanosomes, raising the possibility of reconstructing more ornate plumage.

The Yale team believe it could identify brown, red, buff and even iridescent colours. The technique may be applied to other creatures to reveal the colour of fur or even eyes, the team believes.

The findings could shed light on the lives of some extinct creatures.

Genetic clues

"It allows you in certain cases to combine this knowledge with other information to paint quite a remarkable picture of behaviour," Professor Benton said.

For example, it could give researchers clues about courtship displays and mating behaviours.

"It might give you a very clear handle on an aspect of the ecology that people would have thought impossible to divine for an ancient fossil," said Professor Benton.

Scientists have previously used genetic techniques to reveal the colours of extinct species.

In 2006, researchers showed that some woolly mammoths would have sported dark brown coats, while others had pale ginger or blond hair.

The information was gleaned by analysis of genetic material extracted from a 43,000-year-old woolly mammoth bone from Siberia.

The same technique has been difficult to apply to creatures as old as the dinosaurs because of the lack of well-preserved genetic material.

Solar dyes give a guiding light

By Matt McGrath BBC science correspondent

Current solar plants need large mobile mirrors to produce energy

A new way of capturing the energy from the Sun could increase the power generated by solar panels tenfold, a team of American scientists has shown.

The new technique involves coating glass with a specific mixture of transparent dyes which redirect light to photovoltaic cells in the frame.

The technology, outlined in the journal Science, could be used to convert glass buildings into vast energy plants.

The technology could be in production within three years, the team said.

See how new solar panel technology works

"It makes sense to coat the side of [very tall] buildings with these new panes," Professor Marc Baldo, one of the researchers on the team, told BBC News. "It's not far fetched at all."

Colour trick

The most advanced attempts to generate large amounts of electricity via the Sun require the use of a solar concentrator.

These are often bulky mobile mirrors that work by tracking the progress of the Sun and concentrating its beams on the cell at its heart.

But there are downsides to this technology: the cells at the centre have to be constantly cooled, and each concentrator requires a large amount of space to avoid shadowing its neighbour.

The technology collects and focuses different colours of sunlight

The new technology does away with the need for mirrors and mobility.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) team has found a way to coat panes of glass or plastic with a mixture of several dyes that essentially do the same job.

"What we have is a piece of glass, with a very thin layer of paint or dye on top," explained Professor Baldo.

"The light comes in and hits the dye and which absorbs it and re-emits the light, but now it's inside the glass so it bounces along there until it gets to the edge. So you only need to mount the solar cells around the edge."

The idea was first developed in the 1970s but was abandoned because much of the light energy was lost en route to the cell.

But using its expertise in optical techniques and a specific mixture of dyes, the MIT team has found a way to make the light travel much farther without losing as much energy along the way.

Window future

"When you do this there is a little bit of energy loss with the dye," said Professor Baldo.

"The main benefit is with the cost. You use a far smaller amount of solar cells. For the same area of solar cells, you get much more electricity."

Existing solar installations could also benefit from the new concentrator, he said.

"You could take this new kind of glass and put it on top of an existing solar cell so the cell still generates electricity but this glass pane with the dye on top captures a certain part of the spectrum and converts it more efficiently than the solar cell would do on its own."

The MIT team believes it could improve existing panels by 50%.

In addition, the system is simple to manufacture, requiring little more than to coat glass or plastic with the combination of dyes. It could be in production within three years, the researchers believe.

If that becomes a reality, one obvious application, they said, was converting windows into energy plants.

"The coated glass would let through about 10% of the Sun to light up the room, and the remainder would be captured and funnelled to the edges to solar cells to generate electricity," said Professor Baldo.

"It would look like smoked glass because of the dyes."

HOW NEW SOLAR PANEL TECHNOLOGY WORKS 1. First solar concentrator coated with transparent dyes absorbs sunlight and transmits it to glass panel edge 2. High voltage solar cells on edge of glass capture sunlight. 3. Low voltage solar cells trap light escaping through first panel. 4. The first panel can also be used alone as a window pane. In the future, glass buildings could produce their own electrical energy.

Flagstaff man mad at wasted gas nabs stop signs

FLAGSTAFF - Police in Flagstaff say a man angry because new stop signs were causing him to waste gas went on a late-night theft spree and removed several of the signs.

Police reports say a witness who spotted a group of men stealing the signs called them early Wednesday. Responding officers found a car matching the witness description outside a nearby apartment, and they spotted a pile of nut and bolts on the floor of the home.

When a man answered the door, it hit a stack of metal stop sign posts.

Police reports say the man told them he was angry at the new stop signs, which were installed in his neighborhood after complaints of speeding. They recovered 10 signs.

The man and two companions were booked into jail on felony theft and felony endangerment charges.