JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The father of Bristol Palin's son is seeking at least equal custody.
Levi Johnston filed a petition for custody last month saying he wants 4-year-old Tripp to be in his mother's and father's lives equally.
The couple had agreed in 2010 that Palin would have primary physical custody and the two would share legal custody, according to Thomas Van Flein, Palin's attorney at that time. Johnston was given visitation and had agreed to pay child support.
Palin's current attorney, John Tiemessen, said that as of Oct. 15, the Child Support Services Division reported that Johnston owed about $66,000 in back support.
Palin and Johnston were thrust into the national spotlight as expectant, unwed teenagers in 2008, when Palin's mother, Sarah Palin, was tapped as the Republican vice presidential candidate.
Johnston and Bristol Palin had an on-off relationship before splitting for good. He has since married and has a daughter.
Bristol Palin has appeared in several reality series, including one for Lifetime that documented her life as a single mom.
Honoring the most stylish men in the industry, Hollywood’s hottest stars stepped out for the 15th Annual GQ Men of the Year Gala in Berlin this evening (November 7).
David Beckham scored the ultimate title of the night, snagging the most stylish hunk from the hip publication.
“Like no other athlete, David Beckham represents style and fashion influence. With his trendsetting and sometimes daring appearances he has created a bridge between the world of design, models, and photographers, and the world of world-class sports, and brought glamour back to a male sport,” says José RedondoVega, editor-in-chief of GQ Germany.
Kylie was also honored at the event, scoring the “Gentlewoman of the Year” award. Of the choice, Jose explained, “Kylie Minogue has managed to become the dream woman and icon for several generations. She is the embodiment of a pop icon and has reinvented herself for each decade. And yet Kylie Minogue the person never disappears behind an artificial facade. It is precisely the ease of her music that makes it so profound.”
New book on mitochondria from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
7-Nov-2013
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Contact: Robert Redmond rredmond@cshl.edu 516-422-4101 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Mitochondria are intracellular organelles that power the cell by metabolizing glucose and other energy sources to generate ATP. They are also critical in programmed cell death, and dysfunction of mitochondrial components is implicated in numerous muscle and neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson's disease.
Mitochondria from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press contains contributions examining the evolution and normal function of mitochondria in cells, as well as their roles in various pathologies.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Chef Roy Choi was named Food and Wine Magazine's Best New Chef in 2010.
Bobby Fisher/Courtesy of Harper Collins
Chef Roy Choi was named Food and Wine Magazine's Best New Chef in 2010.
Bobby Fisher/Courtesy of Harper Collins
Roy Choi is a chef who's celebrated for food that isn't fancy. He's one of the founders of the food truck movement, where instead of hot dogs or ice cream, more unusual, gourmet dishes are prepared and sold. His Kogi trucks specialize in tacos filled with Korean barbecue.
Choi was born in South Korea in 1970 and moved to Los Angeles with his parents at the age of 2. His parents owned a Korean restaurant near Anaheim for a few years when he was a child. He tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that his mother had some serious cooking talent.
"She had flavor in her fingertips," he says. "She had this connection and this innate ability to capture flavor in the moment and people felt it. Because our lives were so based around food, when someone is good at food, everyone notices and it's a big deal."
Customers line up at one of Roy Choi's Kogi BBQ food trucks near the campus of UCLA.
Matt Sayles/AP
Customers line up at one of Roy Choi's Kogi BBQ food trucks near the campus of UCLA.
Matt Sayles/AP
Choi's new book, L.A.Son: My Life, My City, My Food, is part memoir, part cookbook.
Interview Highlights
On what Korean tacos represent for him
The Korean taco was a phenomenon. ... It just came out of us, we didn't really think about it. The flavor, in a way, didn't exist before, but it was a mash up of everything we had gone through in our lives.
It became a voice for a certain part of Los Angeles and a certain part of immigration and a certain part of life that wasn't really out there in the universe. We all knew it and we all grew up with it, and it was all around us, but the taco kind of pulled it together. It was like a lint roller; it just put everything onto one thing. And then when you ate it, it all of a sudden made sense.
As I was putting it together, it was all of the pieces of my life coming together. It was almost like an avalanche. So it was growing up; it was being around low-riding; it was growing up in Korea, the immigration, being around the American school system; all the snack food and junk food that I've eaten; all of the tacos that I've eaten. It was all of these things. Then I really wanted to make it feel like Los Angeles, so I felt like it had to be just like a street taco in L.A.
On his Hawaiian restaurant, A-Frame, which is housed in an old IHOP
It's my love for the Hawaiian Islands, but it's not a tiki restaurant: It's really taking the feeling of "aloha." So we put people together, it's all communal seating, so strangers get to sit together. ... You eat everything with your hands and it's like a backyard barbecue.
... I wasn't always the most professional looking/acting dude in the world, so I'd go into restaurants, get treated not that well, kind of like crap. So what happened was I thought, "OK, if I ever make a restaurant, as soon as anyone opens that door, no matter where you're from, I want you to feel like we've been waiting for you."
That's a real personal place. ... A lot of Asian-Americans, growing up, we kind of live double lives. We had our refrigerators at home and the way we ate at home, and then we went to school and we couldn't really show that food because it was real stinky and stuff like that.
When you're going through that whole puberty/teenage angst ... you don't want to show that. Chego was my vision to show that food, to open the refrigerator, to show it to the world, and then make these rice bowls that were under $10. So it was also a platform to create great, delicious, healthy fast food that's affordable.
On growing up in Orange County and the cultural differences between his family and his friends
I was doomed because everyone had peroxide in their hair and they were coming from ski trips on Mammoth Mountain and snorkeling trips in the Cayman Islands, listening to Depeche Mode and The Cure, and I had never seen anything like that before. It wasn't really my rhythm.
“ A lot of Asian-Americans, growing up, we kind of live double lives. We had our refrigerators at home and the way we ate at home, and then we went to school and we couldn't really show that food because it was real stinky ...
I did the best I could. I was doomed because there weren't that many Asians and girls weren't really feeling me, but I was also doomed because if we get down to the food, the food was different for me too. I was embarrassed to show the food [we were eating] because everywhere I went, it was so different. Youngsters are mean to each other sometimes so I'd bring friends over and they'd look at my food and they'd be like, "Ew, what is that?"
... When you bring a bunch of rich friends from Orange Country over to your house and your whole house is surrounded by dead salted fish, it was tough.
... I loved it at the time. When I say the word "embarrassed" it's not that I was embarrassed and that I tried to shy away from it or that I tried to put it into the dirt and hope that it never came out again; it's just I didn't have the language to really stick up for it at that time.
On his addictions
Gambling hit me at like 22, 21. And it was three years of the darkest time of my life, but it started out just all fireworks and pom-poms, you know?
It was an amazing ride for the first year, I mean tens of thousands of dollars in shoeboxes ... just ballin' crazy. ... And then I started losing. And when you start losing in gambling, then you start chasing it. ... I lost all my friends; I lost all my family; I stole from my family ... sold everything I had.
... I'm addicted to feeding people right now. It's a good thing. I don't know how long this is gonna last right now, so I'm living it up and really focusing and putting everything I got into it. I'm putting my back into it.
Sure to please fans across the nation, “The Voice” season 5 top 12 was unveiled on tonight's (November 7) special results show. Turning up the hype with a fantastic red carpet event, the team leaders rolled out in style in Universal Studios Hollywood.
Posing for a handful of individual snapshots, and later taking a feature "family photo," together, Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton, Adam Levine and Cee Lo Green all showed up for the event, each of them bringing their own flare, both to the photos, and to the show.
According to the episode results, The two contestants from each team who received the most votes were automatically safe, but the bottom three experienced different fates.
Blake Shelton’s team saved Ray Boudreaux, instead of Shelbie Z and Nic Hawk, while Christina Aguilera’s team, Olivia Henken and Stephanie Anne Johnson were eliminated to save Josh Logan.
Adam Levine’s team, held onto Will Champlin, losing Preston Pohl and Grey. Finally, Cee Lo Green’s team said good-bye to Tamara Chauniece and Amber Nicole, keeping Kat Robichaud.
GENEVA (AP) — Iran's chief nuclear negotiator signaled progress at talks with six powers Thursday on a deal to cap some of his country's atomic programs in exchange for limited relief from sanctions stifling Iran's economy, saying the six had accepted Tehran's proposals on how to proceed.
U.S. officials said Secretary of State John Kerry will fly to Geneva on Friday to participate in the nuclear negotiations — a last minute decision that suggests a deal could be imminent.
Any such agreement would only be the start of a long process to reduce Iran's potential nuclear threat with no guarantee of ultimate success.
Yet even a limited accord would mark a breakthrough after nearly a decade of mostly inconclusive talks focused on limiting, if not eliminating, Iranian atomic programs that could be turned from producing energy into making weapons.
Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araghchi, told Iranian state TV that the six — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — "clearly said that they accept the proposed framework by Iran." He later told CNN that he thinks negotiators at the table are now "ready to start drafting" an accord that outlines specific steps to be taken.
Though Araghchi described the negotiations as "very difficult," he told Iranian state TV that he expected agreement on details by Friday, the last scheduled round of the current talks.
The upbeat comments suggested that negotiators in Geneva were moving from broad discussions over a nuclear deal to details meant to limit Tehran's ability to make atomic weapons. In return, Iran would start getting relief from sanctions that have hit its economy hard.
The U.S. officials said Kerry will travel to the Geneva talks after a brief stop in Israel, where he will hold a third meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Kerry has not been formally invited by the Europeans to join the talks.
The talks are primarily focused on the size and output of Iran's enrichment program, which can create both reactor fuel and weapons-grade material suitable for a nuclear bomb. Iran insists it is pursuing only nuclear energy, medical treatments and research.
International negotiators representing the six powers declined to comment on Araghchi's statement. Bur White House spokesman Jay Carney elaborated on what the U.S. calls a "first step" of a strategy meant to ultimately contain Iran's ability to use its nuclear program to make weapons.
An initial agreement would "address Iran's most advanced nuclear activities; increase transparency so Iran will not be able to use the cover of talks to advance its program; and create time and space as we negotiate a comprehensive agreement," Carney told reporters in Washington.
The six would consider "limited, targeted and reversible relief that does not affect our core sanctions," he said, alluding to penalties crippling Tehran's oil exports. If Iran reneges, said Carney, "the temporary, modest relief would be terminated, and we would be in a position to ratchet up the pressure even further by adding new sanctions."
He described any temporary, initial relief of sanctions as likely "more financial rather than technical." Diplomats have previously said initial sanction rollbacks could free Iranian funds in overseas accounts and allow trade in gold and petrochemicals.
Warily watching from the sidelines, Israel warned against a partial agreement that foresees lifting sanctions now instead of waiting for a rigorous final accord that eliminates any possibility of Iran making nuclear weapons.
At a meeting with U.S. legislators in Jerusalem, Netanyahu spoke of "the deal of the century for Iran." While divulging no details, he said the proposed first step at Geneva "will relieve all the (sanctions) pressure inside Iran."
The last round of talks three weeks ago reached agreement on a framework of possible discussion points, and the two sides kicked off Thursday's round focused on getting to that first step.
The talks concern the size and output of Iran's enrichment program, which can create both reactor fuel and weapons-grade material suitable for a nuclear bomb. Iran insists it is pursuing only nuclear energy, medical treatments and research, but the United States and its allies fear that Iran could turn this material into the fissile core of nuclear warheads.
Thursday's meeting ended about an hour after it began, followed by bilateral meetings, including one between the U.S and Iranian delegations. European Union spokesman Michael Mann said the talks were "making progress."
Before the morning round, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with top EU diplomat Catherine Ashton, who is convening the meeting. Asked afterward about the chances of agreement on initial steps this week, Zarif told reporters: "If everyone tries their best, we may have one."
After nearly a decade of deadlock, Iran seems more amenable to making concessions to the six countries. Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, has indicated he could cut back on the nuclear program in exchange for an easing of sanctions.
Despite the seemingly calmer political backdrop, issues remain.
Iranian hardliners, want a meaningful — and quick — reduction of the sanctions in exchange for any concessions, while some U.S. lawmakers want significant rollbacks in Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for any loosening of actions.
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Associated Press Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report. AP writers Josef Federman in Jerusalem, Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington, and Nasser Karimi in Tehran also contributed.
Jennifer Aniston quietly revealed a new, considerably shorter hairstyle on Monday, Nov. 4, but people everywhere are buzzing about her dramatic makeover! Aniston's hair colorist, Michael Canale, told reporters more about her transformation.
The 44-year-old star's new style -- a messier version of the bob parted to the side and stopping at her jaw line -- was actually the result of a bad Brazillian blowout, Aniston revealed to Elle in an interview. "My hair did not react really well to it," Justin Theroux's fiancee said of the straightening treatment. She also told Vogue, "I'm always one of those girls who does a big old chop just to get it really healthy, to repair all the [damage from] hair coloring and stuff like that."
Therefore the challenges for Aniston's longtime colorist Canale (who, like stylist Chris McMillan, has been handling the Friends star's hair since her iconic "Rachel" days) were infusing Aniston's already chemically-damaged locks with a color that would revive it back to a healthy and glossy state, and finding an appropriate hue to complement her new cut.
Canale explains: "First, I had to remove the warm colors from the top section of her hair, and I really made a point to emphasize extra blonde around her face and along the sides, about a quarter inch in from the hairline so it blended fluently with the rest of her hair." Then the expert opted for a "baby blonde color as opposed to the sandy blonde color that she came in with" for two reasons: "To maintain felinity and accentuate her natural beauty," he says in the release.
Finally, the celebrity color guru added "paper-thin highlights all-over," which creates "a gorgeous, natural-looking sheen." Canale explains, "It also ensures you aren’t over-bleaching hair that’s already parched." And voila! Hot hair for one of the most high profile stars in the world. (See more photos of her new cut and color at x17online.)
The results seem to be working well for Aniston, who explained to Vogue, "I did it! I feel great. I feel lighter. It's simple, it's really simple, that's for sure."
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Thousands of people evacuated villages in the central Philippines on Thursday before one of the year's strongest typhoons strikes the region, including a province devastated by an earthquake last month.
Typhoon Haiyan intensified and accelerated as it moved closer to the country with sustained winds of 225 kilometers (140 miles) per hour and ferocious gusts of 260 kph (162 mph). It could further strengthen and pick up speed as it moves over the Pacific Ocean before slamming into the eastern province of Samar early Friday, government forecaster Buddy Javier said.
As of 9 p.m., the eye of the typhoon was 338 kilometers (211 miles) southeast of Eastern Samar province's Guiuan township. The storm was moving at 39 kph (24 mph), up from its earlier speed of 33 kph (20 mph).
The storm was not expected to directly hit Manila further north. The lowest alert in a four-level typhoon warning system was issued in the flood-prone capital area, meaning it could experience winds of up to 60 kph (37 mph) and rain.
The U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii said it was the strongest tropical cyclone in the world this year. Cyclone Phailin, which hit eastern India on Oct. 12, packed sustained winds of up to 222 kph (138 mph) and stronger gusts.
President Benigno Aquino III warned people to leave high-risk areas, including 100 coastal communities where forecasters said the storm surge could reach up to 7 meters (23 feet). He urged seafarers to stay in port.
Aquino also assured the public of war-like preparations: three C-130 air force cargo planes and 32 military helicopters and planes on standby, along with 20 navy ships.
"No typhoon can bring Filipinos to their knees if we'll be united," he said in a televised address.
Governors and mayors supervised the evacuation of landslide- and flood-prone communities in several provinces where the typhoon is expected to pass, said Eduardo del Rosario, head of the government's main disaster-response agency. School classes and plane flights were canceled in many areas.
Aquino ordered officials to aim for zero casualties, a goal often not met in an archipelago lashed by about 20 tropical storms each year, most of them deadly and destructive. Haiyan is the 24th such storm to hit the Philippines this year.
Edgardo Chatto, governor of Bohol island province in the central Philippines, where an earthquake in October killed more than 200 people, said soldiers, police and rescue units were helping displaced residents, including thousands staying in small tents, move to shelters. Bohol is not forecast to receive a direct hit but is expected to be battered by strong winds and rain, government forecaster Jori Loiz said.
"My worst fear is that the eye of this typhoon will hit us. I hope we will be spared," Chatto told The Associated Press by telephone.
Gov. Roger Mercado of landslide-prone Southern Leyte province said more than 6,000 residents had been evacuated to shelters, government and emergency personnel had been put on alert, and relief goods have been packed for distribution.
"All we are doing now is we are praying, praying hard," he told ABS-CBN News Channel.
Mayor Emiliana Villacarillo of Eastern Samar's Dolores township said residents of her town did not want to be evacuated because the weather was fine on Thursday but "we forced them and hauled them to evacuation centers."
Haiyan is forecast to barrel through the country's central region Friday and Saturday before blowing toward the South China Sea over the weekend, heading toward Vietnam.
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Associated Press writers Oliver Teves and Teresa Cerojano contributed to this report.
FILE - In this May 31, 2002 file photo, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat pauses during the weekly Muslim Friday prayers in his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Al-Jazeera is reporting that a team of Swiss scientists has found moderate evidence that longtime Palestinian leader Arafat died of poisoning. The Arab satellite channel published a copy of what it said was the scientists' report on its website on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)
FILE - In this May 31, 2002 file photo, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat pauses during the weekly Muslim Friday prayers in his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Al-Jazeera is reporting that a team of Swiss scientists has found moderate evidence that longtime Palestinian leader Arafat died of poisoning. The Arab satellite channel published a copy of what it said was the scientists' report on its website on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)
Swiss professor Francois Bochud, left, director of the Chuv Radiophysics Institute, IRA, and Swiss professor Patrice Mangin, right, director of the University Center of Legal Medicine in Lausanne, CURML, speak on a forensics report concerning the late President Yasser Arafat during a press conference at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, CHUV, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Thurday, Nov. 7, 2013. Swiss, French and Russian teams took samples of the remains after exhuming Arafat's body in Ramallah, and submitted results to the Palestinian Authority on Nov. 5. (AP Photo/Keystone, Laurent Gillieron)
Swiss professor Francois Bochud, left, director of the Chuv Radiophysics Institute, IRA, and Swiss professor Patrice Mangin, right, director of the University Center of Legal Medicine in Lausanne, CURML, pose with a forensics report concerning the late President Yasser Arafat during a press conference on of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, CHUV, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Thurday, Nov. 7, 2013. Swiss, French and Russian teams took samples of the remains after exhuming Arafat's body in Ramallah, and submitted results to the Palestinian Authority on Nov. 5. (AP Photo/Keystone, Laurent Gillieron)
A forensics report concerning the late President Yasser Arafat is presented during a press conference of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, CHUV, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Thurday, Nov. 7, 2013. Swiss, French and Russian teams took samples of the remains after exhuming Arafat's body in Ramallah, and submitted results to the Palestinian Authority on Nov. 5. (AP Photo/Keystone, Laurent Gillieron)
Palestinian Hanadi Kharma, paints a mural depicting the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Nablus, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. Swiss scientists have found evidence suggesting Yasser Arafat may have been poisoned with a radioactive substance, a TV station reported on Wednesday, prompting new allegations by his widow that the Palestinian leader was the victim of a "shocking" crime. (AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Yasser Arafat's mysterious 2004 death turned into a whodunit Thursday after Swiss scientists who examined his remains said the Palestinian leader was probably poisoned with radioactive polonium.
Yet hard proof remains elusive, and nine years on, tracking down anyone who might have slipped minuscule amounts of the lethal substance into Arafat's food or drink could be difficult.
A new investigation could also prove embarrassing — and not just for Israel, which the Palestinians have long accused of poisoning their leader and which has denied any role.
The Palestinians themselves could come under renewed scrutiny, since Arafat was holed up in his Israeli-besieged West Bank compound in the months before his death, surrounded by advisers, staff and bodyguards.
Arafat died at a French military hospital on Nov. 11, 2004, at age 75, a month after suddenly falling violently ill at his compound. At the time, French doctors said he died of a stroke and had a blood-clotting problem, but records were inconclusive about what caused that condition.
The Swiss scientists said that they found elevated traces of polonium-210 and lead in Arafat's remains that could not have occurred naturally, and that the timeframe of Arafat's illness and death was consistent with poisoning from ingesting polonium.
"Our results reasonably support the poisoning theory," Francois Bochud, director of Switzerland's Institute of Radiation Physics, which carried out the investigation, said at a news conference.
Bochud and Patrice Mangin, director of the Lausanne University Hospital's forensics center, said they tested and ruled out innocent explanations, such as accidental poisoning.
"I think we can eliminate this possibility because, as you can imagine, you cannot find polonium everywhere. It's a very rare toxic substance," Mangin told The Associated Press.
Palestinian officials, including Arafat's successor, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, had no comment on the substance of the report but promised a continued investigation.
The findings are certain to revive Palestinian allegations against Israel, a nuclear power. Polonium can be a byproduct of the chemical processing of uranium, but usually is made artificially in a nuclear reactor or a particle accelerator.
Arafat's widow, Suha, called on the Palestinian leadership to seek justice for her husband, saying, "It's clear this is a crime."
Speaking by phone from the Qatari capital Doha, she did not mention Israel but argued that only countries with nuclear capabilities have access to polonium.
Israel has repeatedly denied a role in Arafat's death and did so again Thursday. Paul Hirschson, a Foreign Ministry official, dismissed the claim as "hogwash."
"We couldn't be bothered to" kill him, Hirschson said. "If anyone remembers the political reality at the time, Arafat was completely isolated. His own people were barely speaking to him. There's no logical reason for Israel to have wanted to do something like this."
In his final years, Arafat was being accused by Israel and the U.S. of condoning and even encouraging Palestinian attacks against Israelis instead of working for a peace deal. In late 2004, Israeli tanks no longer surrounded his compound, but Arafat was afraid to leave for fear of not being allowed to return.
Shortly after his death, the Palestinians launched their own investigation, questioning dozens of people in Arafat's compound, including staff, bodyguards and officials, but no suspects emerged.
Security around Arafat was easily breached toward the end of his life. Aides have described him as impulsive, unable to resist tasting gifts of chocolate or trying out medicines brought by visitors from abroad.
The investigation was dormant until the satellite TV station Al-Jazeera persuaded Arafat's widow last year to hand over a bag with her husband's underwear, headscarves and other belongings. After finding traces of polonium in biological stains on the clothing, investigators dug up his grave in his Ramallah compound earlier this year to take bone and soil samples.
Investigators noted Thursday that they could not account for the chain of custody of the items that were in the bag, leaving open the possibility of tampering.
However, the latest findings are largely based on Arafat's remains and burial soil, and in this case, tampering appears highly improbable, Bochud said.
"I think this can really be ruled out because it was really difficult to access the body," he said. "When we opened the tomb, we were all together."
Polonium-210 is the same substance that killed KGB agent-turned-Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.
"It's quite difficult to understand why (Arafat) might have had any polonium, if he was just in his headquarters in Ramallah," said Alastair Hay, a professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds who was not involved in the investigation.
"He wasn't somebody who was moving in and out of atomic energy plants or dealing with radioactive isotopes."
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John Heilprin reported from Lausanne, Switzerland. Associated Press writers Daniel Estrin in Jerusalem and Lori Hinnant in Paris and AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng in London contributed to this report.
Why do we believe people can predict the future? Usually because we remember the hits and forget the misses. Or in some cases, the misses are hidden from us. Like in my favorite "psychic" scam ever, which also happens to be the plot of a classic 1957 Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, "Mail Order Prophet."
FILE - In this Friday, Sept. 27, 2013 file photo, Malala Yousafzai addresses students and faculty after receiving the 2013 Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. A militant commander and an intelligence official say the Pakistani Taliban have chosen the man who planned the attack on teenage activist Malala Yousafzai as the group's new leader. (AP Photo/Jessica Rinaldi, File)
FILE - In this Friday, Sept. 27, 2013 file photo, Malala Yousafzai addresses students and faculty after receiving the 2013 Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. A militant commander and an intelligence official say the Pakistani Taliban have chosen the man who planned the attack on teenage activist Malala Yousafzai as the group's new leader. (AP Photo/Jessica Rinaldi, File)
People watch a news report on TV about newly selected leader of Pakistani Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah at a coffee shop in Islamabad, Pakistan, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. The ruthless commander behind the attack on teenage activist Malala Yousafzai as well as a series of bombings and beheadings was chosen Thursday as the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, nearly a week after a U.S. drone strike killed the previous chief. The Arabic on the TV news report reads, "On April 21, 2011, fourteen troops were killed in an attack on a checkpoint in Dir." (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — The ruthless commander behind the attack on teenage activist Malala Yousafzai as well as a series of bombings and beheadings was chosen Thursday as the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, nearly a week after a U.S. drone strike killed the previous chief.
The militant group ruled out peace talks with the government, accusing Pakistan of working with the U.S. in the Nov. 1 drone strike. Islamabad denied the allegation and accused Washington of sabotaging its attempt to strike a deal with the Taliban to end years of violence.
Mullah Fazlullah was unanimously appointed the new leader by the Taliban's leadership council, or shura, after several days of deliberation, said the council's head, Asmatullah Shaheen Bhitani. Militants fired AK-47 assault rifles and anti-aircraft guns into the air to celebrate.
The previous chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed by the drone in the North Waziristan tribal area near the Afghan border. He was known for a bloody campaign that killed thousands of Pakistani civilians and security personnel, a deadly attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan and was believed to be behind the failed bombing in New York's Times square in 2010. The U.S. had put a $5 million bounty on his head,
Mehsud's killing had outraged Pakistani officials. The government said the drone strike came a day before it planned to send a delegation of clerics to invite the Pakistani Taliban to hold peace talks, although many analysts doubted a deal was likely.
Bhitani, the Taliban shura leader, said the group would not join peace talks with the government, accusing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of selling out the group when he met with President Barack Obama in Washington on Oct. 23.
"We will take revenge on Pakistan for the martyrdom of Hakimullah," Bhitani told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location in North Waziristan, where the shura met.
The Pakistani government did not immediately respond to request for comment on the Taliban comments or the appointment of Fazlullah.
Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said he asked the U.S. ambassador in Islamabad, Richard Olson, not to carry out any drone attacks while Islamabad was pursuing peace talks with domestic Taliban militants.
The Pakistani Taliban withdrew an offer to hold talks in May after their deputy leader was killed in a U.S. drone strike but warmed to negotiations again after Sharif took office in June. It's unclear if the government will be able to coax the militants back to the table again, especially since Fazlullah is known to be such a hard-liner.
Pakistani officials have criticized the drone strikes in public, saying they violate the country's sovereignty and kill too many civilians. But the government is known to have secretly supported at least some of the attacks, especially when they targeted enemies of the state.
The Pakistani Taliban is an umbrella organization of militant groups formed in 2007 to overthrow the government and install a hard-line form of Islamic law. Based in the country's remote tribal region, the group also wants Pakistan to end its support for the U.S. fight in Afghanistan. The Afghan and Pakistani Taliban are allies but have generally directed their attacks on opposite sides of the border.
Fazlullah, believed to be in his late 30s, served as the Pakistani Taliban's leader in the northwest Swat Valley but is now believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. He rose to prominence through radio broadcasts demanding the imposition of Islamic law, earning him the nickname "Mullah Radio."
His group began infiltrating the valley in 2007 and spread fear among residents by beheading opponents, blowing up schools, holding public floggings, forcing men to grow beards and preventing women from going to markets.
The military invaded Swat in 2009 after a peace deal with the militants fell apart. The offensive pushed most of the fighters out of the valley, and Fazlullah escaped to Afghanistan. But periodic attacks continue in Swat.
Fazlullah and his group carried out the attack on Malala, who was shot in the head while on her way home from school in October 2012. She was targeted after speaking out against the Taliban over its interpretation of Islam, which limits girls' access to education.
The shooting sparked international outrage, and Malala was flown to the United Kingdom, where she underwent surgery to repair the damage to her skull.
She has since become an even more vocal critic of the Taliban and advocate for girls' education, earning her international acclaim, including the European Parliament's Sakharov Award, its top human rights prize. On her 16th birthday, she delivered a speech at the United Nations in New York. She was considered a front-runner for this year's Nobel Peace Prize and met with Obama at the White House.
Malala's representatives said she declined to comment on Fazlullah's appointment. Attempts to reach her father also were unsuccessful.
Fazlullah also claimed responsibility for the deaths of a Pakistani army general and two other soldiers in a roadside bombing near the Afghan border in September. The killings outraged the military and raised questions about whether the Taliban had any real interest in negotiating peace.
Imtiaz Gul, head of the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies, said Fazlullah became the Pakistani army's "enemy No. 1" after the attack on the general.
Fazlullah is the first leader of the Pakistani Taliban not to come from the Mehsud tribe based in South Waziristan. The group's first leader, Baitullah Mehsud, also was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2009.
Some Mehsud commanders were unhappy with the decision to appoint Fazlullah but eventually agreed under pressure from some of the group's senior members, said a Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to journalists.
Khalid Haqqani was chosen as the new deputy leader of the Pakistani Taliban, said Bhitani, the head of the shura. The new deputy is from the northwest Pakistani district of Swabi and bears no apparent relation to the Afghan Haqqani network that is fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
___
Abbot reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana and Asif Shahzad contributed to this report from Islamabad.
Solar activity playing a minimal role in global warming, research suggests
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
7-Nov-2013
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Contact: Michael Bishop michael.bishop@iop.org 01-179-301-032 Institute of Physics
Changes in solar activity have contributed no more than 10 per cent to global warming in the twentieth century, a new study has found.
The findings, made by Professor Terry Sloan at the University of Lancaster and Professor Sir Arnold Wolfendale at the University of Durham, find that neither changes in the activity of the Sun, nor its impact in blocking cosmic rays, can be a significant contributor to global warming.
The results have been published today, 8 November, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters.
Changes in the amount of energy from the Sun reaching the Earth have previously been proposed as a driver of increasing global temperatures, as has the Sun's ability to block cosmic rays. It has been proposed that cosmic rays may have a role in cooling the Earth by encouraging clouds to form, which subsequently reflect the Sun's rays back into space.
According to this proposal, in periods of high activity the Sun blocks some of the cosmic rays from entering the Earth's atmosphere, so that fewer clouds form and the Earth's surface temperatures rise.
In an attempt to quantify the effect that solar activitywhether directly or through cosmic raysmay have had on global temperatures in the twentieth century, Sloan and Wolfendale compared data on the rate of cosmic rays entering the atmosphere, which can be used as a proxy for solar activity, with the record of global temperatures going back to 1955.
They found a small correlation between cosmic rays and global temperatures occurring every 22 years; however, the changing cosmic ray rate lagged behind the change in temperatures by between one and two years, suggesting that the cause may not be down to cosmic rays and cloud formation, but may be due to the direct effects of the Sun.
By comparing the small oscillations in cosmic ray rate, which was taken from data from two neutron monitors, and temperature with the overall trends in both since 1955, Sloan and Wolfendale found that less than 14 per cent of the global warming seen during this period could be attributable to solar activity.
Furthermore, the researchers reviewed their own previous studies and surveyed the relevant literature to find other evidence of a link between solar activity and increasing global temperatures existing. Their findings indicated that overall, the contribution of changing solar activity, either directly or through cosmic rays, was even less cannot have contributed more than 10 per cent to global warming in the twentieth century.
They concluded that the paleontological evidence, derived from carbon and oxygen isotopes, was "weak and confused" and that a more-up-to-date study linking cosmic rays with low-level cloud cover was flawed because the correlation only occurred in certain regions rather than the entire globe.
Sloan and Wolfendale also discussed the results from the CLOUD experiment at CERN, where researchers are looking at ways in which cosmic rays can ionize, or charge, aerosols in the atmosphere, which can then influence how clouds are formed. They also examined instances where real-world events produced large-scale ionization in the atmosphere.
Events such as the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and nuclear weapons testing would have been expected to have affected aerosol production in the atmosphere, but no such effects could be seen.
Professor Sloan said: "Our paper reviews our work to try and find a connection between cosmic rays and cloud formation with changes in global temperature.
"We conclude that the level of contribution of changing solar activity is less than 10 per cent of the measured global warming observed in the twentieth century. As a result of this and other work, the IPCC state that no robust association between changes in cosmic rays and cloudiness has been identified."
From Friday 8 November, this paper can be downloaded from http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/4/045022/article
###
Notes to Editors
Contact
1. For further information, a full draft of the journal paper or contact with one of the researchers, contact IOP Press Officer, Michael Bishop:
Tel: 0117 930 1032
E-mail: michael.bishop@iop.org
For more information on how to use the embargoed material above, please refer to our embargo policy.
IOP Publishing Journalist Area
2. The IOP Publishing Journalist Area gives journalists access to embargoed press releases, advanced copies of papers, supplementary images and videos. In addition to this, a weekly news digest is uploaded into the Journalist Area every Friday, highlighting a selection of newsworthy papers set to be published in the following week.
Login details also give free access to IOPscience, IOP Publishing's journal platform.
To apply for a free subscription to this service, please email Michael Bishop, IOP Press Officer, michael.bishop@iop.org, with your name, organisation, address and a preferred username.
Cosmic rays, solar activity and the climate
3. The published version of the paper 'Cosmic rays, solar activity and the climate' (T Sloan and A W Wolfendale 2013 Environ. Res. Lett. 8 045022) will be freely available online from Friday 8 November. It will be available at http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/4/045022/article
Environmental Research Letters
4. Environmental Research Letters is an open access journal that covers all of environmental science, providing a coherent and integrated approach including research articles, perspectives and editorials.
IOP Publishing
5. IOP Publishing provides a range of journals, magazines, websites and services that enable researchers and research organisations to reach the widest possible audience for their research.
We combine the culture of a learned society with global reach and highly efficient and effective publishing systems and processes. With offices in the UK, US, Germany, China and Japan, and staff in many other locations including Mexico and Russia, we serve researchers in the physical and related sciences in all parts of the world.
IOP Publishing is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Institute of Physics. The Institute is a leading scientific society promoting physics and bringing physicists together for the benefit of all. Any profits generated by IOP Publishing are used by the Institute to support science and scientists in both the developed and developing world. Go to ioppublishing.org.
The Institute of Physics
6. The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific society. We are a charitable organisation with a worldwide membership of more than 50,000, working together to advance physics education, research and application. We engage with policymakers and the general public to develop awareness and understanding of the value of physics and, through IOP Publishing, we are world leaders in professional scientific communications. Go to http://www.iop.org.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Solar activity playing a minimal role in global warming, research suggests
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
7-Nov-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Michael Bishop michael.bishop@iop.org 01-179-301-032 Institute of Physics
Changes in solar activity have contributed no more than 10 per cent to global warming in the twentieth century, a new study has found.
The findings, made by Professor Terry Sloan at the University of Lancaster and Professor Sir Arnold Wolfendale at the University of Durham, find that neither changes in the activity of the Sun, nor its impact in blocking cosmic rays, can be a significant contributor to global warming.
The results have been published today, 8 November, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters.
Changes in the amount of energy from the Sun reaching the Earth have previously been proposed as a driver of increasing global temperatures, as has the Sun's ability to block cosmic rays. It has been proposed that cosmic rays may have a role in cooling the Earth by encouraging clouds to form, which subsequently reflect the Sun's rays back into space.
According to this proposal, in periods of high activity the Sun blocks some of the cosmic rays from entering the Earth's atmosphere, so that fewer clouds form and the Earth's surface temperatures rise.
In an attempt to quantify the effect that solar activitywhether directly or through cosmic raysmay have had on global temperatures in the twentieth century, Sloan and Wolfendale compared data on the rate of cosmic rays entering the atmosphere, which can be used as a proxy for solar activity, with the record of global temperatures going back to 1955.
They found a small correlation between cosmic rays and global temperatures occurring every 22 years; however, the changing cosmic ray rate lagged behind the change in temperatures by between one and two years, suggesting that the cause may not be down to cosmic rays and cloud formation, but may be due to the direct effects of the Sun.
By comparing the small oscillations in cosmic ray rate, which was taken from data from two neutron monitors, and temperature with the overall trends in both since 1955, Sloan and Wolfendale found that less than 14 per cent of the global warming seen during this period could be attributable to solar activity.
Furthermore, the researchers reviewed their own previous studies and surveyed the relevant literature to find other evidence of a link between solar activity and increasing global temperatures existing. Their findings indicated that overall, the contribution of changing solar activity, either directly or through cosmic rays, was even less cannot have contributed more than 10 per cent to global warming in the twentieth century.
They concluded that the paleontological evidence, derived from carbon and oxygen isotopes, was "weak and confused" and that a more-up-to-date study linking cosmic rays with low-level cloud cover was flawed because the correlation only occurred in certain regions rather than the entire globe.
Sloan and Wolfendale also discussed the results from the CLOUD experiment at CERN, where researchers are looking at ways in which cosmic rays can ionize, or charge, aerosols in the atmosphere, which can then influence how clouds are formed. They also examined instances where real-world events produced large-scale ionization in the atmosphere.
Events such as the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and nuclear weapons testing would have been expected to have affected aerosol production in the atmosphere, but no such effects could be seen.
Professor Sloan said: "Our paper reviews our work to try and find a connection between cosmic rays and cloud formation with changes in global temperature.
"We conclude that the level of contribution of changing solar activity is less than 10 per cent of the measured global warming observed in the twentieth century. As a result of this and other work, the IPCC state that no robust association between changes in cosmic rays and cloudiness has been identified."
From Friday 8 November, this paper can be downloaded from http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/4/045022/article
###
Notes to Editors
Contact
1. For further information, a full draft of the journal paper or contact with one of the researchers, contact IOP Press Officer, Michael Bishop:
Tel: 0117 930 1032
E-mail: michael.bishop@iop.org
For more information on how to use the embargoed material above, please refer to our embargo policy.
IOP Publishing Journalist Area
2. The IOP Publishing Journalist Area gives journalists access to embargoed press releases, advanced copies of papers, supplementary images and videos. In addition to this, a weekly news digest is uploaded into the Journalist Area every Friday, highlighting a selection of newsworthy papers set to be published in the following week.
Login details also give free access to IOPscience, IOP Publishing's journal platform.
To apply for a free subscription to this service, please email Michael Bishop, IOP Press Officer, michael.bishop@iop.org, with your name, organisation, address and a preferred username.
Cosmic rays, solar activity and the climate
3. The published version of the paper 'Cosmic rays, solar activity and the climate' (T Sloan and A W Wolfendale 2013 Environ. Res. Lett. 8 045022) will be freely available online from Friday 8 November. It will be available at http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/4/045022/article
Environmental Research Letters
4. Environmental Research Letters is an open access journal that covers all of environmental science, providing a coherent and integrated approach including research articles, perspectives and editorials.
IOP Publishing
5. IOP Publishing provides a range of journals, magazines, websites and services that enable researchers and research organisations to reach the widest possible audience for their research.
We combine the culture of a learned society with global reach and highly efficient and effective publishing systems and processes. With offices in the UK, US, Germany, China and Japan, and staff in many other locations including Mexico and Russia, we serve researchers in the physical and related sciences in all parts of the world.
IOP Publishing is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Institute of Physics. The Institute is a leading scientific society promoting physics and bringing physicists together for the benefit of all. Any profits generated by IOP Publishing are used by the Institute to support science and scientists in both the developed and developing world. Go to ioppublishing.org.
The Institute of Physics
6. The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific society. We are a charitable organisation with a worldwide membership of more than 50,000, working together to advance physics education, research and application. We engage with policymakers and the general public to develop awareness and understanding of the value of physics and, through IOP Publishing, we are world leaders in professional scientific communications. Go to http://www.iop.org.
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
The U.S. Congress should take action to slow a skyrocketing number of "deceptive" patent infringement demand letters sent from patent licensing firms to small businesses, witnesses told a Senate committee.
During the past 18 months, PAEs (patent assertion entities), those firms with patent licensing as their primary business model, have been flooding U.S. businesses with letters alleging patent infringement, threatening lawsuits and demanding settlements in the tens of thousands of dollars, witnesses told the consumer protection subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Thursday.
In many cases, the patent demand letters have accused recipients of infringing "every-day technology" such as online shopping carts and Wi-Fi routers, said Julie Samuels, a senior staff attorney at the Electric Frontier Foundation. "These letters really had nothing to do with patent law," she said. "They merely used the guise of patent law to conduct, frankly, run-of-the-mill extortion."
The PAE demand letters often don't identity the owner of the patent or the patent the letter recipient is alleged to have infringed, said Mark Chandler, general counsel at Cisco Systems. Some PAEs are "charlatans, dressed up as innovators," he said.
"This is all about fraud," said Jon Bruning, attorney general in Nebraska. "This is about extortion. This is about fear. For little companies ... it's their life or death. For some guy who invested his last $100,000, this letter will take him down."
Chandler called on Congress to take action to rein in PAEs, often called patent trolls. Congress should require PAEs that send more than 10 demand letters to submit those letters to a proposed online registry run by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and lawmakers should require PAEs to identity the alleged infringing technology in the letters, he said.
PAEs should also be required to disclose the names of the patent owners and to disclose all previous licensing agreements covering the patents, including any commitments to license the patents on fair and reasonable terms, he said.
No PAEs appeared at the hearing, but some committee Republicans and witness Adam Mossoff, an intellectual property professor at the George Mason University School of Law, questioned the need for changes in patent law. Complaints about PAE demand letters are "anecdotal," Mossoff said, and there's little evidence of major harms to innovation or to consumers.
Patent licensing is a legitimate business that's been around for over a century in a U.S. patent system that has helped create a huge innovation-based economy, Mossoff added. "Systemic changes to the patent system should not be based on rhetoric, anecdotes, invalid studies and incorrect claims about the historical and economic significance of patent licensing," he said. "If there ever was a case where caution was called for, this is it."
With both acting and singing on her plate, Selena Gomez has a lot of promotion to do and she helped keep herself in the spotlight by covering the latest issue of Flaunt magazine.
Sporting a sassy bob haircut in a shoot styled by Ilaria Urbinati and photographed by Amanda de Cadenet, the "Spring Breakers" star opens up about her future, fame, personal life, and more.
Check out highlights from her interview below and view the full article at Flaunt.
On criticism from Lorde: "[Lorde is] not supporting other women. That’s my honest opinion, that’s what I would say to her if I saw her. I actually covered her song in all of my shows that I’ve done so far. I’m not sure if I’m going to continue that."
On her ten-year plan: "Oh, God. I don't know. I hope that I'm really happy by 30. I'm hoping I'm super satisfied with who I am."
On taking more control of her music: "I started realizing when I set foot on stage that I didn’t know if what I was singing [is] what I should be singing."
A fish that pushes in the wrong direction solves a mystery of animal locomotion
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
7-Nov-2013
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Contact: Tanya Klein 973-596-3433 New Jersey Institute of Technology
For nearly 20 years, Professor Eric Fortune has studied glass knifefish, a species of three-inch long electric fish that lives in the Amazon Basin. In his laboratory he tries to understand how their tiny brains control complex electrical behaviors. But he could not help but be intrigued by the special "ribbon fin" that knifefish use to swim back and forth. The fin oscillates at both ends, allowing the fish to move forward or backward. Biologists have long wondered why an animal would produce seemingly wasteful forces that directly oppose each other while not aiding its movement.
But in the Nov. 4-8 online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Fortune and a multi-disciplinary team of researchers report that these opposing forces are anything but wasteful. Rather, they allow animals to increase both stability and maneuverability, a feat that is often described as impossible in engineering textbooks.
"I read a Navy flight training manual that had a full page dedicated to the inherent tradeoff between stability and maneuverability, says Fortune, an associate professor of biology at NJIT. "Apparently the knifefish didn't read that manual, since the opposing forces surprisingly make the fish simultaneously more stable and more maneuverable."
When an animal or vehicle is stable, it resists changes in direction. On the other hand, if it is maneuverable, it has the ability to quickly change course. Generally, engineers assume that a system can rely on one property or the otherbut not both. Yet some animals prove an exception to the rule.
"Animals are a lot more clever with their mechanics than we often realize," said Noah Cowan, a professor of mechanical engineering at The Johns Hopkins University and the senior author of the multi-disciplinary research team. "By using just a little extra energy to control the opposing forces, animals seem to increase both stability and maneuverability when they swim, run or fly."
And Fortune suspects that the study will inspire young engineers to approach mechanical design in novel ways. "Despite the fact that the knifefish break a traditional rule of engineering," says Fortune, "they nevertheless achieve better locomotor performance than current robotic systems."
To conduct its study, the team used a combination of careful observations of the fish, mathematical modeling and an analysis of a swimming robot. Working in his NJIT lab with students and in collaboration with his colleagues at Johns Hopkins, Fortune used slow-motion video to film the fish to study its fin movements: What the videos revealed was startlingly counterintuitive.
"It is immediately obvious in the slow-motion videos is that the fish constantly move their fins to produce opposing forces," says Fortune. "One region of their fin pushes water forward, while the other region pushes the water backward. This arrangement is rather counter-intuitive, like two propellers fighting against each other."
A mathematical model designed by Shahin Sefati, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins and a lead author of the research project, showed that this odd arrangement generates stabilizing forces. But the model also suggested that the opposing forces simultaneously improved the ability of the animal to change its velocity, thereby making the animal more maneuverable. The team then tested this model using a robot in the laboratory of Malcolm MacIver at Northwestern University; the robot mimicked the fish's fin movements.
One exciting implication of study is its possible application to robotics systems, including the design of sophisticated robots and aircraft. Designers and engineers might make simple changes to propulsion systems, such as tilting engines or motors so that some of the thrusts oppose each other. Such an arrangement might waste some energy, but this cost may be more than offset by making a robot or aircraft simpler to operate and thus safer.
Fortune joined the NJIT faculty last year as part of a university initiative to increase interdisciplinary research.
"This study is a good example of how engineers can look to nature with the tools of biology to inspire new approaches to solving fundamental design challenges in engineering," says Fortune. "In the other direction, biologists benefit from the application of the analytic tools and quantitative approaches that are routine in engineering. NJIT, with its focus on interdisciplinary research, is just the ecosystem we need to translate these ideas into new technologies."
###
NJIT, New Jersey's science and technology university, enrolls approximately 10,000 students pursuing bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in 120 programs. The university consists of six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, College of Architecture and Design, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, College of Computing Sciences and Albert Dorman Honors College. U.S. News & World Report's 2012 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges ranked NJIT in the top tier of national research universities. NJIT is internationally recognized for being at the edge in knowledge in architecture, applied mathematics, wireless communications and networking, solar physics, advanced engineered particulate materials, nanotechnology, neural engineering and e-learning. Many courses and certificate programs, as well as graduate degrees, are available online through the Division of Continuing Professional Education.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
A fish that pushes in the wrong direction solves a mystery of animal locomotion
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
7-Nov-2013
[
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]
Share
Contact: Tanya Klein 973-596-3433 New Jersey Institute of Technology
For nearly 20 years, Professor Eric Fortune has studied glass knifefish, a species of three-inch long electric fish that lives in the Amazon Basin. In his laboratory he tries to understand how their tiny brains control complex electrical behaviors. But he could not help but be intrigued by the special "ribbon fin" that knifefish use to swim back and forth. The fin oscillates at both ends, allowing the fish to move forward or backward. Biologists have long wondered why an animal would produce seemingly wasteful forces that directly oppose each other while not aiding its movement.
But in the Nov. 4-8 online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Fortune and a multi-disciplinary team of researchers report that these opposing forces are anything but wasteful. Rather, they allow animals to increase both stability and maneuverability, a feat that is often described as impossible in engineering textbooks.
"I read a Navy flight training manual that had a full page dedicated to the inherent tradeoff between stability and maneuverability, says Fortune, an associate professor of biology at NJIT. "Apparently the knifefish didn't read that manual, since the opposing forces surprisingly make the fish simultaneously more stable and more maneuverable."
When an animal or vehicle is stable, it resists changes in direction. On the other hand, if it is maneuverable, it has the ability to quickly change course. Generally, engineers assume that a system can rely on one property or the otherbut not both. Yet some animals prove an exception to the rule.
"Animals are a lot more clever with their mechanics than we often realize," said Noah Cowan, a professor of mechanical engineering at The Johns Hopkins University and the senior author of the multi-disciplinary research team. "By using just a little extra energy to control the opposing forces, animals seem to increase both stability and maneuverability when they swim, run or fly."
And Fortune suspects that the study will inspire young engineers to approach mechanical design in novel ways. "Despite the fact that the knifefish break a traditional rule of engineering," says Fortune, "they nevertheless achieve better locomotor performance than current robotic systems."
To conduct its study, the team used a combination of careful observations of the fish, mathematical modeling and an analysis of a swimming robot. Working in his NJIT lab with students and in collaboration with his colleagues at Johns Hopkins, Fortune used slow-motion video to film the fish to study its fin movements: What the videos revealed was startlingly counterintuitive.
"It is immediately obvious in the slow-motion videos is that the fish constantly move their fins to produce opposing forces," says Fortune. "One region of their fin pushes water forward, while the other region pushes the water backward. This arrangement is rather counter-intuitive, like two propellers fighting against each other."
A mathematical model designed by Shahin Sefati, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins and a lead author of the research project, showed that this odd arrangement generates stabilizing forces. But the model also suggested that the opposing forces simultaneously improved the ability of the animal to change its velocity, thereby making the animal more maneuverable. The team then tested this model using a robot in the laboratory of Malcolm MacIver at Northwestern University; the robot mimicked the fish's fin movements.
One exciting implication of study is its possible application to robotics systems, including the design of sophisticated robots and aircraft. Designers and engineers might make simple changes to propulsion systems, such as tilting engines or motors so that some of the thrusts oppose each other. Such an arrangement might waste some energy, but this cost may be more than offset by making a robot or aircraft simpler to operate and thus safer.
Fortune joined the NJIT faculty last year as part of a university initiative to increase interdisciplinary research.
"This study is a good example of how engineers can look to nature with the tools of biology to inspire new approaches to solving fundamental design challenges in engineering," says Fortune. "In the other direction, biologists benefit from the application of the analytic tools and quantitative approaches that are routine in engineering. NJIT, with its focus on interdisciplinary research, is just the ecosystem we need to translate these ideas into new technologies."
###
NJIT, New Jersey's science and technology university, enrolls approximately 10,000 students pursuing bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in 120 programs. The university consists of six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, College of Architecture and Design, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, College of Computing Sciences and Albert Dorman Honors College. U.S. News & World Report's 2012 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges ranked NJIT in the top tier of national research universities. NJIT is internationally recognized for being at the edge in knowledge in architecture, applied mathematics, wireless communications and networking, solar physics, advanced engineered particulate materials, nanotechnology, neural engineering and e-learning. Many courses and certificate programs, as well as graduate degrees, are available online through the Division of Continuing Professional Education.
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