Martian rock from Sahara desert unlike others

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Scientists are abuzz about a coal-colored rock from Mars that landed in the Sahara desert: A yearlong analysis revealed it's quite different from other Martian meteorites.

Not only is it older than most, it also contains more water. The baseball-size meteorite, estimated to be 2 billion years old, is strikingly similar to the volcanic rocks examined by the NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity on the Martian surface.

"Here we have a piece of Mars that I can hold in my hands. That's really exciting," said Carl Agee, director of the Institute of Meteoritics and curator at the University of New Mexico who led the study published online Thursday in the journal Science.

Most space rocks that fall to Earth as meteorites come from the asteroid belt, but a number can be traced to the moon and Mars.

Scientists believe an asteroid or some other large object struck Mars, dislodging rocks and sending them into space. Occasionally, some plummet through Earth's atmosphere.

Short of sending a spacecraft or astronaut to the red planet to haul back rocks, Martian meteorites are the next best thing for scientists seeking to better understand how Earth's neighbor transformed from a tropical environment to a frigid desert.

About 65 Martian rocks have been recovered on Earth, mostly in Antarctica or the Sahara. The oldest dates back 4.5 billion years to a time when Mars was warmer and wetter. About half a dozen Martian meteorites are 1.3 billion years old and the rest are 600 million years or younger.

The latest meteorite NWA 7034 ? nicknamed "Black Beauty"? was donated to the University of New Mexico by an American who bought it from a Moroccan meteorite dealer last year.

Researchers performed a battery of tests on the meteorite and based on its chemical signature confirmed that it was blasted to Earth from Mars. At 2.1 billion years old, it's the second-oldest known Martian meteorite that formed from a volcanic eruption.

There's also evidence that it was altered by water. Though the amount released during testing at high temperatures was small ? 6,000 parts per million ? it was still much more than other Martian meteorites. Scientists said this suggested there was interaction with water near the surface during a time when the planet was mostly dry and dusty.

More tests are under way to determine how long the rock floated in space and how long it had been sitting in the Sahara.

University of Alberta meteorite expert Chris Herd said the find was welcome since most Martian rocks that rain on Earth tend to be younger. And the latest find does not appear to be too contaminated, he said.

"It's fairly fresh. It hasn't been subjected to a whole lot of weathering," said Herd, who had no role in the research.

___

Online:

Science: http://www.sciencemag.org

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Follow Alicia Chang at http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/martian-rock-sahara-desert-unlike-others-202521387.html

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US still faces political fights on spending, debt

The lights of the U.S. Capitol remain lit into the night as the House continues to work on the "fiscal cliff" legislation proposed by the Senate, in Washington, on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The lights of the U.S. Capitol remain lit into the night as the House continues to work on the "fiscal cliff" legislation proposed by the Senate, in Washington, on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden leave the podium after Obama made a statement regarding the passage of the fiscal cliff bill in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A last-minute deal will keep the U.S. from driving off the so-called "fiscal cliff," but higher taxes and continued political fighting in Washington threaten to shake the fragile economy well into 2013.

A bill passed by Congress late Tuesday averts widespread tax increases and delays deep spending cuts that had threatened to return the country to recession. World stocks went up in response.

Many economists were disappointed that Congress and the White House couldn't reach agreement on a broader deal to significantly reduce the deficit over the next 10 years. That could have boosted business and consumer confidence and accelerated growth.

"Nothing really has been fixed," said Joseph LaVorgna, an economist at Deutsche Bank. "There are much bigger philosophical issues that we aren't even addressing yet."

Lawmakers postponed tough decisions on government spending, giving themselves a reprieve from cuts that were scheduled to start taking effect automatically Jan. 1. That just sets the stage for more hard bargaining later. Spending cuts could hurt growth even more.

Another standoff is likely to arrive as early as February, when Congress will need to raise the $16.4 trillion federal borrowing limit so the government can keep paying its bills. House Republicans, who objected strongly to the latest fiscal deal Tuesday before the chamber finally voted to approve it, probably won't agree to raise the debt limit without offsetting spending cuts that Democrats are sure to resist.

President Barack Obama warned Republicans late Tuesday that "if Congress refuses to give the United States government the ability to pay these bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic, far worse than the impact of a fiscal cliff."

Meanwhile, the economy doesn't have much growth to give. Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo, predicts it will expand just 1.5 percent in 2013, down from a weak 2.2 percent in 2012. Unemployment stands at 7.7 percent.

Ben Schwartz, chief market strategist for Lightspeed Financial, said unemployment was still likely to edge up and retail sales growth was likely to be weaker than last year.

"Regardless of a deal getting done, people on Wall Street are not going to run around giving high fives" in celebration, Schwartz said. "The federal government is obviously dysfunctional, to say the least."

The months-long political standoff over fiscal policy has already taken its toll, adding uncertainty that has discouraged consumers from spending and businesses from hiring and investing.

The fiscal cliff, with its Jan. 1 deadline to reach a deal over taxes and spending, was created to force Democrats and Republicans to compromise, and it barely succeeded. Without a deal, more than $500 billion in tax increases would hit the economy in 2013 alone, along with $109 billion in cuts from the military and domestic spending programs.

Negotiations to avert catastrophe have highlighted once again how far apart the two parties are on taxes (Republicans don't want to raise them) and spending (Democrats are reluctant to cut government programs).

"What induces the two sides to stop fighting and start compromising?" asked Ethan Harris, co-head of global economics at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Political gridlock has been rattling financial markets and shaking consumer and business confidence the past two years.

After a fight over raising the debt limit last year, the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's yanked the U.S. government's blue-chip AAA bond rating because it feared that America's dysfunctional political system couldn't deliver a credible plan to reduce the federal government's debt. S&P warned that "the differences between political parties have proven to be extraordinarily difficult to bridge."

The Dow Jones industrials dropped 635 points in panicked selling the first day of trading after the S&P announcement.

Outside Washington, the economy has been getting some good news. Europe's financial crisis appears to have eased. And the U.S. real estate market finally appears to be recovering from the housing bust.

But partisan divide has left businesses and consumers wondering what's going to happen to their taxes and to federal contracts.

Companies have plenty of cash. But they reduced spending on industrial equipment, computers and software from July to September, the first quarterly drop since mid-2009 when the economy was still in recession. And hiring has been stuck at a modest level of about 150,000 new jobs per month this year.

Consumer confidence fell in December for the second straight month, according to a survey by the Conference Board, which blamed the drop on worries about the fiscal cliff. The uncertainty is also believed to have hurt holiday shopping, which grew at the slowest pace this year since 2008.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-02-Fiscal%20Cliff-Economy/id-b0c7fb4ba0124da8825e386a53dfc2e1

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Column: 7 things to know about teenage drinking (and how to deal ...

Posted on January 2, 2013, 12:01 pm.

From TheJournal.ie

AS THE PARENT of teenage girls I am aware of the dangers of teenage drinking.

However, as I journey through the minefield that is parenting teens, I am more and more convinced that the strength of my relationship with them is ultimately the only real control I have over my teens.

I cannot force them to do what I want and I simply alienate them from me, so what is the alternative?

1. The importance of the parent ?and relationships in the family

If the focus is on establishing a good relationship, good communication, some boundaries and setting a good example it will make a difference. If I give them the facts of drinking at an early age, give reasons not to drink and provide ways to avoid dangerous situations, it will help them to identify fun alternatives to drinking and encourage a healthy lifestyle.

Knowing their friends? parents and keeping tabs on their activities is also important, in early/middle teen years especially.

2. Parents? own drinking

We have one of the worst incidences of underage binge drinking in the EU, and there can be a link to parents? attitude to their own drinking. Many teenagers when questioned say ?they can hardly lecture me? and this can have an influence on their attitude to drink.

Do we drink to excess? And if so, what message are we sending out to our teens? They are more likely to do what we do ? not do what we say. Awareness of our drinking (frequency/quantity) is important.

3. When do teens start drinking?

Headstrong, the National Centre for Youth Mental Health, recently reported that for school-age teens problems are most pronounced in third and fifth year. Third year was identified as the most vulnerable period.

Fifteen-year-old students are facing the Junior Cert, and it is the stage when most start drinking. The studies show that about half this age group are regular drinkers. Yet, almost half do not drink ? so what can we do to aid our young people in resisting peer pressure??What can parents do to help?

The bottom line is to have a strong parent-child relationship, where you believe and trust in your child. Teens are more likely to delay drinking when they have a close, supportive tie with a parent who has had good communication with them around this issue. A good relationship with you is likely to influence your child to try to live up to your expectations. Warm and positive parenting ensures a child?s self esteem and encourages a feeling of being happy with themselves.

4. Peer pressure

A good relationship with your teen makes it easier for them to withstand peer pressure. But the opposite is also true: when the relationship between parent and teen is full of conflict or distant, the teen is more likely to use alcohol.

Firm but appropriate expectations, backed up with explanations help them make sensible choices. If there is a history of alcoholism in the family, your child needs to know that for them, drinking carries extra risk.

5. Good communication is vital

Establish open communication ? do not preach, lecture, advise or moralise. Instead, encourage conversation by listening without interruption (something I find a challenge) by asking open ended questions like ?What do you think about teen drinking?? Why does he/she think teenagers drink?

If you listen without interrupting, he/she will feel heard and respected, and you may learn something. Control your emotions. You may hear something you do not like, but take a few deep breaths and acknowledge your feelings in an honest way. Make every conversation a ?win-win? experience ? if you show respect for your teen?s viewpoint, he/she will be more likely to show respect for yours.

6. Educate them on the dangers of alcohol

Give your child some facts about alcohol and good reasons not to drink. You want your child to avoid alcohol and establish consequences for breaking rules. Your values count with your child, even if they do not show it. They have probably witnessed other young people drunk and making a fool of themselves; say you want them to maintain self respect. Drinking can be dangerous. A leading cause of teen injuries and death is drink driving.

7. Teen drinking is dangerous

Alcohol lowers your inhibitions. Many drink as it makes them feel more relaxed and confident, but also makes people more vulnerable to sexual assault and unprotected sex. Underage drinking is illegal ? the parents of your child?s friends may no longer permit them to associate with your child. Anyone can develop a serious alcohol problem, including a teenager.

Brainstorm difficult situations. Say ?if you find yourself anywhere you are not comfortable, you can call me and I will pick you up immediately ? and there will be no punishment?.

Sheila O?Malley runs?Practical Parenting,?which gives help, support and training to parents. She offers one day courses which run monthly, parenting talks for schools and companies, talks on cyber bullying and in?house corporate talks/workshops for working parents? groups.

Source: http://alcoholireland.ie/2013/column-7-things-to-know-about-teenage-drinking-and-how-to-deal-with-it/

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New design for basic component of computer chips: Researchers demonstrate record-setting p-type transistor

Jan. 2, 2013 ? Almost all computer chips use two types of transistors: one called p-type, for positive, and one called n-type, for negative. Improving the performance of the chip as a whole requires parallel improvements in both types.

At the IEEE's International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in December, researchers from MIT's Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) presented a p-type transistor with the highest "carrier mobility" yet measured. By that standard, the device is twice as fast as previous experimental p-type transistors and almost four times as fast as the best commercial p-type transistors.

Like other experimental high-performance transistors, the new device derives its speed from its use of a material other than silicon: in this case, germanium. Alloys of germanium are already found in commercial chips, so germanium transistors could be easier to integrate into existing chip-manufacturing processes than transistors made from more exotic materials.

The new transistor also features what's called a trigate design, which could solve some of the problems that plague computer circuits at extremely small sizes (and which Intel has already introduced in its most advanced chip lines). For all these reasons, the new device offers a tantalizing path forward for the microchip industry -- one that could help sustain the rapid increases in computing power, known as Moore's Law, that consumers have come to expect.

Pluses and minuses

A transistor is basically a switch: In one position, it allows charged particles to flow through it; in the other position, it doesn't. In an n-type transistor, the particles -- or charge carriers -- are electrons, and their flow produces an ordinary electrical current.

In a p-type transistor, on the other hand, the charge carriers are positively charged "holes." A p-type semiconductor doesn't have enough electrons to balance out the positive charges of its atoms; as electrons hop back and forth between atoms, trying futilely to keep them electrically balanced, holes flow through the semiconductor, in much the way waves propagate across water molecules that locally move back and forth by very small distances.

"Carrier mobility" measures how quickly charge carriers -- whether positive or negative -- move in the presence of an electric field. Increased mobility can translate into either faster transistor switching speeds, at a fixed voltage, or lower voltage for the same switching speed.

For decades, each logic element in a computer chip has consisted of complementary n-type and p-type transistors whose clever arrangement drastically reduces the chip's power consumption. In general, it's easier to improve carrier mobility in n-type transistors; the MTL researchers' new device demonstrates that p-type transistors should be able to keep up.

Handling the strain

Judy Hoyt, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science; her graduate students Winston Chern, lead author on the new paper, and James T. Teherani; Pouya Hashemi, who was an MIT postdoc at the time and is now with IBM; Dimitri Antoniadis, the Ray and Maria Stata Professor of Electrical Engineering; and colleagues at MIT and the University of British Columbia achieved their record-setting hole mobility by "straining" the germanium in their transistor -- forcing its atoms closer together than they'd ordinarily find comfortable. To do that, they grew the germanium on top of several different layers of silicon and a silicon-germanium composite. The germanium atoms naturally try to line up with the atoms of the layers beneath them, which compresses them together.

"It's kind of a unique set of material structures that we had to do, and that was actually fabricated here, in the MTL," Hoyt says. "That's what enables us to explore these materials at the limits. You can't buy them at this point."

"These high-strain layers want to break," Teherani adds. "We're particularly successful at growing these high-strain layers and keeping them strained without defects." Indeed, Hoyt is one of the pioneers of strained-silicon transistors, a technology found today in almost all commercial computer chips. At last year's IEDM, she and Eugene Fitzgerald, the Flemings-SMA Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, received the IEEE's Andrew S. Grove Award for outstanding contributions to solid-state devices and technology. The award announcement cited Hoyt's "groundbreaking contributions involving strained-silicon semiconductor materials."

Gatekeeping

Another crucial aspect of the new transistor is its trigate design. If a transistor is a switch, throwing the switch means applying a charge to the transistor's "gate." In a conventional transistor, the gate sits on top of the "channel," through which the charge carriers flow. As transistors have grown smaller, their gates have shrunk, too. But at smaller sizes, that type of lockstep miniaturization won't work: Gates will become too small to reliably switch transistors off.

In the trigate design, the channels rise above the surface of the chip, like boxcars sitting in a train yard. To increase its surface area, the gate is wrapped around the channel's three exposed sides -- hence the term "trigate." By demonstrating that they can achieve high hole mobility in trigate transistors, Hoyt and her team have also shown that their approach will remain useful in the chips of the future.

The MIT researchers' work was supported by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Semiconductor Research Corporation.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS. The original article was written by Larry Hardesty.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/computers_math/information_technology/~3/HmsytkKtU_M/130102161815.htm

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1 dead after rogue wave washes couple out to sea

By NBCBayArea.com

A New Year's Day walk along a beach north of San Francisco ended tragically on Tuesday when a man died after he and his wife were swept out to sea.

Three hours into the search, the Coast Guard located the man. The Marin County sheriff's office said while "life saving measures" were attempted, they were unable to revive him and he died.?

The man's wife and their dog were able to make it back to shore in Point Reyes, Calif., after also getting swept out into the cold water.

Read more news on NBCBayArea.com

The incident was reported at 1 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET) on New Year's Day. ?Witnesses said the three were walking along the rocks when they were hit by a rogue wave.

The Coast Guard sent a helicopter and a boat to aid in the search for the man, who is reportedly 59 years old. They located him around 4 p.m. (7 p.m. ET)

The National Park Service and Marin County Fire also helped in the search. ?

The victim's identity was not immediately released.

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/02/16297351-one-dead-after-rogue-wave-washes-couple-out-to-sea-north-of-san-francisco?lite

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Senate's "fiscal cliff" bill adds $4 trillion to deficits: CBO

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday said Senate-passed legislation to avert the "fiscal cliff" would add nearly $4 trillion to federal deficits over a decade, largely because it would extend low tax rates for almost all Americans.

The congressional scorekeeper's analysis was released as a number of Republicans in the House of Representatives voiced opposition to the bill, and considered amending it with deeper spending cuts.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and others complained the bill's spending cuts would do little to curb trillion-dollar deficits.

Senate-passed plan extends decade-old Bush-era tax rates for individuals earning up to $400,000 and couples earning up to $450,000 - nearly 99 percent of U.S. taxpayers.

But the non-partisan CBO compared the Senate plan's revenue and expenditure changes to laws that are currently in force, which call for $600 billion in tax hikes and automatic spending cuts in 2013 alone - effectively a dive off the fiscal cliff.

With Congress feverishly working to avoid the fiscal cliff in recent weeks, many Washington policymakers had viewed the current-law budget "baseline" as unlikely to be maintained.

Compared to an alternative CBO scenario in which Congress extends all expiring tax provisions and turns off automatic spending cuts slated to start taking effect this week, the Senate plan achieves minimal deficit reduction in the early years.

Over 10 years, deficits under the Senate plan would be $3.75 trillion less than permanently extending all of the tax and spending policies in the alternative scenario. That is largely because the CBO expects that remaining on an unsustainable fiscal path would severely constrict economic growth later in the decade, holding back revenue growth and keeping outlays higher.

FISCAL 2013 EFFECTS

By going over the fiscal cliff, the CBO had previously forecast that the higher taxes and lower spending would slash the fiscal 2013 U.S. budget deficit by more than half, to $641 billion from $1.1 trillion the prior year.

But in its analysis of the Senate-passed plan, the CBO said fiscal 2013 revenues would be $280 billion lower and spending $50 billion higher, resulting in a $330 billion deficit increase, for a total deficit of around $971 billion.

Under the CBO's keep-taxes-unchanged scenario, the deficit would be $1.04 trillion for fiscal 2013.

None of the CBO's analyses takes into consideration possible future spending cuts and reforms to federal health care and retirement programs that Congress might make in a new budget battle emerging around mid-February over the next increase in the U.S. debt limit.

(Reporting By Kim Dixon and David Lawder; Editing by David Gregorio and Vicki Allen)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cbo-says-senates-fiscal-cliff-bill-adds-4-193928294.html

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