【每日阅读训练第四期——速度越障8系列】【8-10】科技

h14zpsn

速度1 ：



Internet Billionaire Ponies Up More Cash for Physics Prizes


Tech investor Yuri Milner, who shook the physics world two months ago by dishing out $27 million to the nine inaugural awardees of his Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation’s namesake award, has just sweetened the pot.
Milner’s organization today announced the addition of a new award, the Physics Frontiers Prize, which will place three individuals in the running for the $3-million Fundamental Physics Prize and bestow $300,000 on those who do not win it. This latest program, plus the $100,000 New Horizons in Physics Prize for young researchers, makes three big-money awards that the Milner Foundation promises to bestow.
The prizes are meant to recognize major achievements in fundamental physics—primarily theoretical physics, if the first batch of Fundamental Physics Prize laureates is any indication—with a preference for recent advances.
In a prepared statement, the organization said that the first crop of three Physics Frontiers Prize laureates would be announced by the end of the year. They will automatically become nominees for the multimillion-dollar Fundamental Physics Prize, which will be awarded in the first three months of 2013. Milner’s foundation intends to announce up to three winners of the first New Horizons in Physics Prize by December as well.
The graphic below shows how Milner’s cash awards (starred) compare with the other big-money accolades in the field. Money isn’t everything—and no award may ever match the prestige attached to a Nobel Prize—but dollar figures at least allow a quantitative means of comparing different prizes.
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速度2：
U.S. Drought 2012: Pick Your Poison

The drought that has kept much of the nation in its grip this summer brings a host of additional downstream worries for growers already struggling with reduced yields.
Cattle are being poisoned by cyanide-laced weeds in Arkansas. Across the Midwestwater-soluble fertilizers are concentrating in soils and plants, making them harmful rather than productive. And in Missouri, samples suggest that more than half the corn crop isn't fit for human consumption, thanks to unusually high levels of a carcinogenic toxin.
For farmers coping with the worst drought to hit the United States in decades, it's another chapter in an unfolding disaster that shows no sign of abating. And with climate projections showing more frequent summer droughts in heavy farming areas, these elevated drought-related poisons add to the challenges growers face in a changing climate.
"I've been talking to veterinarians and other folks in Iowa since June, and I'd estimate somewhere around 150 cattle have died from toxic nitrate doses," said Steve Ensley, a toxicologist at Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine.
The annual tally is usually less than five, he said.
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速度3：
Concentrated nitrate


With nitrate, drought spurs high levels because plants take up nitrogen, applied as a fertilizer, but cannot convert it into useful compounds due to a lack of water.
"If the plant doesn't go through photosynthesis because it doesn't have the water to, the nitrate just stays in the plants," Ensley said.
Nitrate isn't toxic to animals. But microorganisms in the environment convert it to a compound that, at high levels, inhibits oxygen flow in animals, resulting in difficulty breathing, weight loss, lack of appetite, sometimes death.
For humans, nitrate brings two main health issues: blue baby syndrome and digestive tract cancers [pdf].
But the danger to humans is through drinking water. Nitrogen fertilizer not sucked up by plants often washes into streams and lakes. This summer's dryness has sent less nitrogen-laced runoff into Midwest streams, Ensley said.  
But the leaching could just be delayed.
"It's probably still in the soil," Ensley said. "When it rains, there's definitely the potential for some heavy runoffs."
Drought stress also causes increased cyanide compounds in weeds that cattle like to eat, as is the case in Arkansas where more than 50 cattle have died this season.
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速度4：
Pervading worry


Extended drought can often induce a highly toxic and cancer-causing toxin – aflatoxin, a fungal-byproduct. With the corn harvest underway, aflatoxin worry is pervading the farming community.
"We don't know how bad it'll be yet," said Don Parrish, senior director of regulatory relations at the American Farm Bureau Federation. "But the conditions certainly exist."
Several fungi, or molds, can grow on drought-stressed grain, and several of these produce byproducts are toxic to animals and humans. The most common of these fungi, Aspergillus flavus, consumes the starch inside corn kernels and produces a byproduct named aflatoxin. This fungus also contaminates peanuts, cottonseed, pecans and grain sorghum.  The disease causes olive green, moldy growth.
Drought doesn't cause the fungus, but the dryness allows for cracks in the shell protecting the kernels, allowing fungus to get to the grain.
"We've had an increase in aflatoxin all over the state," said Ron Heiniger, professor of crop science at North Carolina State University.  "We had the prolonged heat stress, and then recent rainfall.... It's just blowing up."
Ensley said Iowa officials recently started testing for aflatoxin in milk from Iowa dairies; other Midwest states are already feeling the heat.
"There have been (corn) loads in southern Illinois, and northern parts of Missouri with high contamination levels.... A lot [is] getting rejected by grain buyers,” said Allen Wrather, a professor of Plant Sciences at the University of Missouri's College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.
The Missouri Department of Agriculture has found aflatoxin at levels over 20 parts per billion – the legal limit for corn intended for humans or dairy cattle – in 58 percent of samples so far this season. Last season, only 8 percent of the crop was above that mark.
The Illinois Department of Agriculture already had 56 corn samples this season test for aflatoxin over the 20 ppb threshold There were only six samples over that limit in all of 2011.
While carcinogenic to humans, aflatoxin is also toxic to many animals.
"igs and cows can handle it a little bit better," Wrather said. But it will kill chicken, cats and dogs if it gets into their food, he added.  
The U.S. Department of Agriculture regulates aflatoxin and sets strict contamination limits. Corn destined for humans and dairy cattle has the 20 ppb limit, whereas corn for beef cattle can contain concentrations up to 300 ppb.


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速度5：
Desperate times


But Heiniger said the desperate times are causing desperate measures in his state.
"There's a lack of grain on the market, and, therefore, a lack of vigilance on testing grain by grain buyers," he said. "I'm seeing a lot of grain that would be rejected in a normal year being bought to blend with other grain or be ground up to mitigate the toxic compounds in it."
The true impact of aflatoxin will be known in a few weeks, Parrish said. So far only 39 percent of the U.S. corn crop has been harvested, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Climate scientists warn that these problems won't soon disappear. This year's drought has shown little sign of slacking, and climate modelers expect more of the same: This year's extreme weather may be closer to the future norm, scientists say.
"In the Midwest, as you go ... toward the south and west – places like Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska – the future looks warmer and drier," said Jeff Andresen, an assistant professor at Michigan State University who specializes in applied climatology. These, he added, are "not very optimistic predictions for agriculture."
Parrish, of the American Farm Bureau Federation, is optimistic farmers can mitigate drought-stressed crops and excess nitrate runoff.
But for many farmers, the year has been a bust. The nitrate and aflatoxin worries pile onto a growing season already marred with low production. Through September, the Corn Belt was still "slightly" or "abnormally" dry in most areas, according to the USDA. Compared to 2011, corn and soybean yields are down 13 and 14 percent, respectively.  
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越障：

Mobile Lab Set to Study Clouds' Influence on Weather and Climate


Some new cargo is officially sailing today between Los Angeles and Honolulu, part of an atmospheric research expedition to understand how clouds influence weatherpatterns around the world.
The 892-foot Spirit, a container ship owned by Horizon Lines, is now home to a Department of Energy mobile laboratory designed to study the atmosphere. It is the second time the department is conducting such an experiment in the hopes of getting better data on clouds to improve global climate models.
"This is going to be the longest study of its type that's ever been done," said Ernie Lewis, the principal investigator and an atmospheric scientist in the environmental sciences department at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The project, known as MAGIC, will run until September 2013, with collaborators across the country including Argonne National Laboratory and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The project's name reflects its history and the amalgamation of experiments now on the high seas. MAGIC stands for Marine ARM GPCI Investigation of Clouds. ARM stands for Atmospheric Radiation Measurement. GPCI stands for GCSS Pacific Cross-section Intercomparison. GCSS stands for GEWEX Clouds Systems Study. And GEWEX is the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment.
Basically, the instruments measure the atmosphere -- particularly clouds -- from the bottom up, tracking how they form and disperse. Using radars, spectrometers and laser detection systems crammed into the three 20-foot shipping containers that constitute the second ARM Mobile Facility (AMF2), the equipment will track black carbon, aerosols, cloud stacks, ozone, light transmission, wind speeds and temperatures. Two on-board technicians will also launch weather balloons and monitor more than 50 instruments. Lewis said the data could help modelers develop a better picture of the global climate.
Clouds are especially important in understanding how the atmosphere behaves. They reflect sunlight back into space, trap heat and carry moisture, all of which can have contradictory impacts. Varieties like puffy, cottony cumulus clouds; wavy stratocumulus clouds; and tall, thundering cumulonimbus clouds behave differently as well.
In this case, researchers are investigating low marine boundary layer clouds over the Pacific Ocean. "We don't have a good understanding about how clouds and white clouds form the way they do, especially in that region," Lewis said. "To get this understanding, we need more than just a global view; we need a very detailed measurement."
Getting 'closer to the action'
Joao Teixeira, a researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who worked on AMF2, explained that most of the existing global climate models do not have the resolution to interpret clouds. Many break the atmosphere into 100-kilometer-by-100-kilometer boxes, too large to reflect how clouds form.
"The fundamental question is really how do you represent the small-scale processes that you cannot explicitly model," he said, adding that clouds are a major source of uncertainty in climate projections.
As the global climate changes, the clouds may also subtly shift, creating different feedbacks and mechanisms in models. "You're not going to have a whole new type of cloud. They will be vaguely the same but occupy different regions," Teixeira said.
AMF2 will also help validate measurements from other sources, like satellites and aircraft. Teixeira said measurements from above clouds often have to use proxies to find out information like temperature and wind speed. Comparing these data with measurements from the sea upward could give scientists a better understanding of the variables at play.
Tracking these parameters at sea also helps fill another critical information void. Most atmospheric measuring stations are on land, but water covers two-thirds of the planet, where air circulation and moisture behave differently. MAGIC gives researchers a narrow but important window to the skies over the ocean that they can extrapolate to other parts of the world.
"This is allowing you to have much more local measurement, much closer to where the action is," Teixeira said.
'A deployment of opportunity'
But getting a seafaring lab to work on the waves without compromising measurements is a unique challenge. "We've had to adjust some of the baseline instrumentation," said Michael Ritsche, technical operations manager for AMF2, based at Argonne. He explained that scientists had to calibrate and adjust detectors to compensate for the boat's movements.
"A lot of sensors like to be straight, they like to be vertical," he said. To keep the hardware pointed the right way, researchers mounted some instruments on stabilized platforms while making software adjustments for others. The salty sea spray can degrade and corrode metals, which can wear out sensors, so technicians will have to keep a close eye on their performance.
Managing the logistics also required some ingenuity. Out on the high seas, if something breaks, it cannot be fixed until the Spirit returns to port, which is about every two weeks. In addition, the scientists have a narrow window of only two days to download their data and check their instruments while the ship loads up in Los Angeles.
"This is a cargo ship. We're just coming along for the ride," Ritsche said. "This is a deployment of opportunity. It moves back and forth whether we're on it or not."
Still, the arrangement offers some advantages. "For a fraction of the cost, we are able to do the same type of research you would be able to with an actual research vessel," said Nikki Hickmon, a meteorologist at Argonne.
Once the Spirit returns to port, researchers will have their first data batch. This mission's success could spur further sea-based climate studies to give scientists a better view into the planet's atmospheric future.
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fightfor700

谢谢小罗伯特文章分享……


1:57 / 1:34 / 1:40 / 2:54 / 2:13

越障：未记时，边读边做的笔记。
1, 背景介绍：new cargo, LA-Honolulu, clouds influence weather patterns. container, Horizon Line, 2nd experiment. longest study - 2013 Sep. why name MAGIC.
2, 具体做什么：measure atmosphere, via clouds, from bottom up. details. clouds are important for understanding atmosphere. this time, low marine boundary  layer clouds of PO.
3, 现有研究有啥不足和此次研究的优势：existing climate module does not have the resolution to interpret clouds, especially small scale. also measure clouds from above. combine above and sea, new vision.
4, 挑战: working on the wave not easy. logistics difficult. time limited. yet has advantage, cargo ship, cheap.

hi1177

辛苦鸟~

kathy0911

今天的阅读非常有趣呢！比个赞！ 感谢楼主

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ENJ0Y

谢谢lz.....

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4.2 说一种新的观测系统，通过观测云的变化来测量对天气的影响，接下来详述了该系统相比以前的系统有什么优势，同时仍具有一些挑战。

miffyhui

Speed 1    1    11    246    208
Speed 2          53    181    205
Speed 3          55    192    209
Speed 4    1    52    392    210
Speed 5    1      7    264    236

3‘33“

追梦CY

谢谢楼主！
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idealibt

天数    日期    第四期    内容    字数    时间
6    10月2日    8-10    速度1    246    1“24
6    10月2日    8-10    速度2    181    0“59
6    10月2日    8-10    速度3    192    1“08
6    10月2日    8-10    速度4    392    1“19
6    10月2日    8-10    速度5    264    1“02
6    10月2日    8-10    越障    911    3“50

越障部分内容回忆:
Scientists are doing research about how cloud effect weather and climate in a ship, which will last a long time on the high seas.
Clouds are of crucial importance for knowing more about atmosphere, however, it is pretty difficult to obtain precise info about climate, those people utilize various instruments while satellites and aircraft offer some help.

spencerX

谢谢lz~越障很精彩

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Raintam

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