Science Tuesday - Maya, Global Warming, Births, Sex, Trees, and Biodiesel

Symbols on the Wall Push Maya Writing Back by Years
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, January 10, 2006


A vertical column of 10 glyphic words, uncovered last year in ruins in Guatemala, is unreadable even by the most expert scholars, but they know what it means - that Maya writing is older than they once thought.

Archaeologists reported last week that the script sample, discovered at San Bartolo, in northeastern Guatemala, is clear evidence that the Maya were writing more than 2,300 years ago. This is a few centuries earlier than previous well-dated Maya writing and 600 years before the civilization's classic period, when a decipherable writing system became widespread.
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A Conversation with Kerry Emanuel: With Findings on Storms, Centrist Recasts Warming Debate
By CLAUDIA DREIFUS, The New York Times, January 10, 2006


For decades, Kerry Emanuel, the meteorologist and hurricane specialist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was known as a cautious centrist on questions of global warming and hurricane ferocity.

Professor Emanuel asserted often that no firm link had been established between warming and the intensity and frequency of hurricanes.

But in August, two weeks before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, Professor Emanuel wrote in the journal Nature that he had discovered statistical evidence that hurricanes were indeed affected by global warming. He linked the increased intensity of storms to the heating of the oceans.

"His paper has had a fantastic impact on the policy debate," said Stephen Schneider, a climatologist at Stanford. "Emanuel's this conservative, apolitical guy, and he's saying, 'Global warming is real.' "

On a recent visit to New York, Professor Emanuel, who is 50, said, "It's been quite a ride since the Nature article." He added, "But it's a really bad thing for a scientist to have an immovable, intractable position."
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Q & A: Baby Boom
By C. CLAIBORNE RAY, The New York Times, January 10, 2006


Q. What time of year are most babies born in America? Why?

A. July and August recently traded first and second places among the most common birth months, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. But statisticians would probably caution against finding a strong trend, because the variation between months is not wide and because links between seasonal timing and possible causes are not clear.
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The Consumer: When the Pill Arouses That Urge for Abstinence
By MARY DUENWALD, The New York Times, January 10, 2006


It is no secret that some women who take birth control pills lose interest in sex. They have been reporting this side effect to their doctors since oral contraceptives came into wide use 40 years ago.

"Little by little, my boyfriend and I started noticing that I was just never in the mood. Never," said Cody, a 27-year-old San Francisco woman, who asked that her last name not be used for reasons of privacy.

Some studies have also indicated that the pill can decrease the frequency of some women's sexual thoughts, make becoming aroused more difficult, or decrease lubrication, making sex painful.

Yet the possibility that there may be a link between oral contraceptives and desire will surprise many women. Few doctors bring it up when they prescribe the pill, and package inserts do not mention it.
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New Uses for Glut of Small Logs From Thinning of Forests
By JIM ROBBINS, The New York Times, January 10, 2006


DARBY, Mont. - Five years ago, intense forest fires around this logging and tourist town burned more than 350,000 acres of forest. Today huge swaths of charred trees cover the mountainsides.

Partly in response to these fires and others on national forest land elsewhere in the West, President Bush introduced the Healthy Forest Initiative in 2002 to reduce the wildfire threat to towns surrounded by publicly owned forests. As work crews thin stands of trees, as called for in the initiative, one result has been a glut of logs smaller than eight inches in diameter.

Until recently, most small trees were collected in piles and burned, but now businesses and the Forest Service have begun looking for uses for the tiny trees.
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Pataki Wants Drivers to Fill Up With Ethanol or Biodiesel
By DANNY HAKIM, The New York Times, January 7, 2006


ALBANY, Jan. 6 - Some 200,000 New Yorkers own vehicles that can run on corn-based ethanol instead of gasoline. But many have no idea that their Ford Explorers, Chevy Impalas or Nissan Titans can use this type of fuel, which some view as a way to liberate Americans from Middle Eastern oil.

In any case, the closest station carrying ethanol is in Ottawa, as the Northeast is the one region of the United States that uniformly does not offer ethanol to the public.

But Gov. George E. Pataki wants to change that and make ethanol and biodiesel, two controversial alternative fuels, available in the 27 service areas on the New York State Thruway and in 100 more stations throughout the state as early as this year, in a first small step toward reducing the state's petroleum consumption. The governor is also proposing incentives to bring refineries that produce ethanol into the state.
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