CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A fungus targeting white pine forests has mutated and poses new threats more than a century after it first hit the United States, American and Canadian scientists said Thursday.
A mutant form of white pine blister rust was discovered by Cornell University researcher Kerik Cox in 2011 in Connecticut. After two years of study, scientists now believe a large number of host plants — called ribes (pronounced RYE'-beez) — previously thought to be immune to the fungus are susceptible. Ribes include valuable niche crops like black currants and gooseberries that are used in products from jam to vodka.
Spores from infected ribes are carried by wind to the pines where the fungus invades the tree, eventually killing it.
"This is a problem both for the forest industry and for growers (of ribes)," said Isabel Munck, a plant pathologist for the U.S. Forest Service based in Durham, N.H. She estimates up to half the plants previously thought to be immune have been found to be infected.
When the fungus first hit in 1909 and spread outward from New York state, a massive eradication effort including a federal ban on planting ribes, helped stem the destruction. Still, within 13 years, about half the pines in New Hampshire were infected by the fungus, which is native to Asia and is believed to have hitchhiked here on an infected pine seedling from Europe.
Philippe Tanguay, a molecular forest pathologist with the Canadian Forest Service, said a genetic fingerprint of the new discovery determined it was a mutation of an existing strain of blister rust and not a new strain.
Several states, including New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts, still ban the planting of certain varieties of currants and other ribes. In light of the 2011 discovery, New Hampshire will add the previously immune plants to the banned list, and Munck said other states may follow.
There are other treatments including fungicides used on ribes, pruning of infected pine branches or removal of trees, she said.
It's a worry in timbering states like New Hampshire and Maine and in Canada.
"Pine is still the king in New Hampshire," said Kyle Lombard, the state's forest health program manager. "We grow and cut more pine in New Hampshire than any other tree species."
Eastern white pine is native to eastern North America. It ranges as far north as the Canadian Maritimes, westward to the Great Lakes and as far south as Mississippi. Munck said scientists are just getting a handle on the mutation and part of the early effort will focus on outreach to other states.
Contact: Kim Martineau kmartine@ldeo.columbia.edu 646-717-0134 The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Parts of pacific warming 15 times faster than in past 10,000 years
A recent slowdown in global warming has led some skeptics to renew their claims that industrial carbon emissions are not causing a century-long rise in Earth's surface temperatures. But rather than letting humans off the hook, a new study in the leading journal Science adds support to the idea that the oceans are taking up some of the excess heat, at least for the moment. In a reconstruction of Pacific Ocean temperatures in the last 10,000 years, researchers have found that its middle depths have warmed 15 times faster in the last 60 years than they did during apparent natural warming cycles in the previous 10,000.
"We're experimenting by putting all this heat in the ocean without quite knowing how it's going to come back out and affect climate," said study coauthor Braddock Linsley, a climate scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "It's not so much the magnitude of the change, but the rate of change."
In its latest report, released in September, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted the recent slowdown in the rate of global warming. While global temperatures rose by about one-fifth of a degree Fahrenheit per decade from the 1950s through 1990s, warming slowed to just half that rate after the record hot year of 1998. The IPCC has attributed the pause to natural climate fluctuations caused by volcanic eruptions, changes in solar intensity, and the movement of heat through the ocean. Many scientists note that 1998 was an exceptionally hot year even by modern standards, and so any average rise using it as a starting point would downplay the longer-term warming trend.
The IPCC scientists agree that much of the heat that humans have put into the atmosphere since the 1970s through greenhouse gas emissions probably has been absorbed by the ocean. However, the findings in Science put this idea into a long-term context, and suggest that the oceans may be storing even more of the effects of human emissions than scientists have so far realized. "We may have underestimated the efficiency of the oceans as a storehouse for heat and energy," said study lead author, Yair Rosenthal, a climate scientist at Rutgers University. "It may buy us some time how much time, I don't really know. But it's not going to stop climate change."
Ocean heat is typically measured from buoys dispersed throughout the ocean, and with instruments lowered from ships, with reliable records at least in some places going back to the 1960s. To look back farther in time, scientists have developed ways to analyze the chemistry of ancient marine life to reconstruct the climates in which they lived. In a 2003 expedition to Indonesia, the researchers collected cores of sediment from the seas where water from the Pacific flows into the Indian Ocean. By measuring the levels of magnesium to calcium in the shells of Hyalinea balthica, a one-celled organism buried in those sediments, the researchers estimated the temperature of the middle-depth waters where H. Balthica lived, from about 1,500 to 3,000 feet down. The temperature record there reflects middle-depth temperatures throughout the western Pacific, the researchers say, since the waters around Indonesia originate from the mid-depths of the North and South Pacific.
Though the climate of the last 10,000 years has been thought to be relatively stable, the researchers found that the Pacific intermediate depths have generally been cooling during that time, though with various ups and downs. From about 7,000 years ago until the start of the Medieval Warm Period in northern Europe, at about 1100, the water cooled gradually, by almost 1 degree C, or almost 2 degrees F. The rate of cooling then picked up during the so-called Little Ice Age that followed, dropping another 1 degree C, or 2 degrees F, until about 1600. The authors attribute the cooling from 7,000 years ago until the Medieval Warm Period to changes in Earth's orientation toward the sun, which affected how much sunlight fell on both poles. In 1600 or so, temperatures started gradually going back up. Then, over the last 60 years, water column temperatures, averaged from the surface to 2,200 feet, increased 0.18 degrees C, or .32 degrees F. That might seem small in the scheme of things, but it's a rate of warming 15 times faster than at any period in the last 10,000 years, said Linsley.
One explanation for the recent slowdown in global warming is that a prolonged La Nia-like cooling of eastern Pacific surface waters has helped to offset the global rise in temperatures from greenhouse gases. In a study in the journal Nature in August, climate modelers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography showed that La Nia cooling in the Pacific seemed to suppress global average temperatures during northern hemisphere winters but allowed temperatures to rise during northern hemisphere summers, explaining last year's record U.S. heat wave and the ongoing loss of Arctic sea ice.
When the La Nia cycle switches, and the Pacific reverts to a warmer than usual El Nio phase, global temperatures may likely shoot up again, along with the rate of warming. "With global warming you don't see a gradual warming from one year to the next," said Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., who was not involved in the research. "It's more like a staircase. You trot along with nothing much happening for 10 years and then suddenly you have a jump and things never go back to the previous level again."
The study's long-term perspective suggests that the recent pause in global warming may just reflect random variations in heat going between atmosphere and ocean, with little long-term importance, says Drew Shindell, a climate scientist with joint appointments at Columbia's Earth Institute and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and a lead author on the latest IPCC report. "Surface temperature is only one indicator of climate change," he said. "Looking at the total energy stored by the climate system or multiple indicators--glacier melting, water vapor in the atmosphere, snow cover, and so onmay be more useful than looking at surface temperature alone."
The study's third author, Delia Oppo, is a climate scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
###
The study, "Pacific Ocean Heat Content During the Past 10,000 Years," is available from the authors, or Science, scipak@aaas.org.
Kim Martineau Science Writer Lamont-Doherty kmartine@ldeo.columbia.edu 646-717-0134
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Is global heating hiding out in the oceans?
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
31-Oct-2013
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Contact: Kim Martineau kmartine@ldeo.columbia.edu 646-717-0134 The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Parts of pacific warming 15 times faster than in past 10,000 years
A recent slowdown in global warming has led some skeptics to renew their claims that industrial carbon emissions are not causing a century-long rise in Earth's surface temperatures. But rather than letting humans off the hook, a new study in the leading journal Science adds support to the idea that the oceans are taking up some of the excess heat, at least for the moment. In a reconstruction of Pacific Ocean temperatures in the last 10,000 years, researchers have found that its middle depths have warmed 15 times faster in the last 60 years than they did during apparent natural warming cycles in the previous 10,000.
"We're experimenting by putting all this heat in the ocean without quite knowing how it's going to come back out and affect climate," said study coauthor Braddock Linsley, a climate scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "It's not so much the magnitude of the change, but the rate of change."
In its latest report, released in September, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted the recent slowdown in the rate of global warming. While global temperatures rose by about one-fifth of a degree Fahrenheit per decade from the 1950s through 1990s, warming slowed to just half that rate after the record hot year of 1998. The IPCC has attributed the pause to natural climate fluctuations caused by volcanic eruptions, changes in solar intensity, and the movement of heat through the ocean. Many scientists note that 1998 was an exceptionally hot year even by modern standards, and so any average rise using it as a starting point would downplay the longer-term warming trend.
The IPCC scientists agree that much of the heat that humans have put into the atmosphere since the 1970s through greenhouse gas emissions probably has been absorbed by the ocean. However, the findings in Science put this idea into a long-term context, and suggest that the oceans may be storing even more of the effects of human emissions than scientists have so far realized. "We may have underestimated the efficiency of the oceans as a storehouse for heat and energy," said study lead author, Yair Rosenthal, a climate scientist at Rutgers University. "It may buy us some time how much time, I don't really know. But it's not going to stop climate change."
Ocean heat is typically measured from buoys dispersed throughout the ocean, and with instruments lowered from ships, with reliable records at least in some places going back to the 1960s. To look back farther in time, scientists have developed ways to analyze the chemistry of ancient marine life to reconstruct the climates in which they lived. In a 2003 expedition to Indonesia, the researchers collected cores of sediment from the seas where water from the Pacific flows into the Indian Ocean. By measuring the levels of magnesium to calcium in the shells of Hyalinea balthica, a one-celled organism buried in those sediments, the researchers estimated the temperature of the middle-depth waters where H. Balthica lived, from about 1,500 to 3,000 feet down. The temperature record there reflects middle-depth temperatures throughout the western Pacific, the researchers say, since the waters around Indonesia originate from the mid-depths of the North and South Pacific.
Though the climate of the last 10,000 years has been thought to be relatively stable, the researchers found that the Pacific intermediate depths have generally been cooling during that time, though with various ups and downs. From about 7,000 years ago until the start of the Medieval Warm Period in northern Europe, at about 1100, the water cooled gradually, by almost 1 degree C, or almost 2 degrees F. The rate of cooling then picked up during the so-called Little Ice Age that followed, dropping another 1 degree C, or 2 degrees F, until about 1600. The authors attribute the cooling from 7,000 years ago until the Medieval Warm Period to changes in Earth's orientation toward the sun, which affected how much sunlight fell on both poles. In 1600 or so, temperatures started gradually going back up. Then, over the last 60 years, water column temperatures, averaged from the surface to 2,200 feet, increased 0.18 degrees C, or .32 degrees F. That might seem small in the scheme of things, but it's a rate of warming 15 times faster than at any period in the last 10,000 years, said Linsley.
One explanation for the recent slowdown in global warming is that a prolonged La Nia-like cooling of eastern Pacific surface waters has helped to offset the global rise in temperatures from greenhouse gases. In a study in the journal Nature in August, climate modelers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography showed that La Nia cooling in the Pacific seemed to suppress global average temperatures during northern hemisphere winters but allowed temperatures to rise during northern hemisphere summers, explaining last year's record U.S. heat wave and the ongoing loss of Arctic sea ice.
When the La Nia cycle switches, and the Pacific reverts to a warmer than usual El Nio phase, global temperatures may likely shoot up again, along with the rate of warming. "With global warming you don't see a gradual warming from one year to the next," said Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., who was not involved in the research. "It's more like a staircase. You trot along with nothing much happening for 10 years and then suddenly you have a jump and things never go back to the previous level again."
The study's long-term perspective suggests that the recent pause in global warming may just reflect random variations in heat going between atmosphere and ocean, with little long-term importance, says Drew Shindell, a climate scientist with joint appointments at Columbia's Earth Institute and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and a lead author on the latest IPCC report. "Surface temperature is only one indicator of climate change," he said. "Looking at the total energy stored by the climate system or multiple indicators--glacier melting, water vapor in the atmosphere, snow cover, and so onmay be more useful than looking at surface temperature alone."
The study's third author, Delia Oppo, is a climate scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
###
The study, "Pacific Ocean Heat Content During the Past 10,000 Years," is available from the authors, or Science, scipak@aaas.org.
Kim Martineau Science Writer Lamont-Doherty kmartine@ldeo.columbia.edu 646-717-0134
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Could a milky way supernova be visible from Earth in next 50 years?
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
31-Oct-2013
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Contact: Pam Frost Gorder Gorder.1@osu.edu 614-292-9475 Ohio State University
Advances in cameras, new strategies for detection make it possible
COLUMBUS, OhioAstronomers at The Ohio State University have calculated the odds that, sometime during the next 50 years, a supernova occurring in our home galaxy will be visible from Earth.
The good news: they've calculated the odds to be nearly 100 percent that such a supernova would be visible to telescopes in the form of infrared radiation.
The bad news: the odds are much lowerdipping to 20 percent or lessthat the shining stellar spectacle would be visible to the naked eye in the nighttime sky.
Yet, all this is great news to astronomers, who, unlike the rest of us, have high-powered infrared cameras to point at the sky at a moment's notice. For them, this study suggests that they have a solid chance of doing something that's never been done before: detect a supernova fast enough to witness what happens at the very beginning of a star's demise. A massive star "goes supernova" at the moment when it's used up all its nuclear fuel and its core collapses, just before it explodes violently and throws off most of its mass into space.
"We see all these stars go supernova in other galaxies, and we don't fully understand how it happens. We think we know, we say we know, but that's not actually 100 percent true," said Christopher Kochanek, professor of astronomy at Ohio State and the Ohio Eminent Scholar in Observational Cosmology. "Today, technologies have advanced to the point that we can learn enormously more about supernovae if we can catch the next one in our galaxy and study it with all our available tools."
The results will appear in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
First through calculations and then through computer models, generations of astronomers have worked out the physics of supernovae based on all available data, and today's best models appear to match what they see in the skies. But actually witnessing a supernovathat is, for instance, actually measuring the changes in infrared radiation from start to finish while one was happeningcould prove or disprove those ideas.
Kochanek explained how technology is making the study of Milky Way supernovae possible. Astronomers now have sensitive detectors for neutrinos (particles emitted from the core of a collapsing star) and gravitational waves (created by the vibrations of the star's core) which can find any supernova occurring in our galaxy. The question is whether we can actually see light from the supernova because we live in a galaxy filled with dustsoot particles that Kochanek likened to those seen in diesel truck exhaustthat absorb the light and might hide a supernova from our view.
"Every few days, we have the chance to observe supernovae happening outside of our galaxy," said doctoral student Scott Adams. "But there's only so much you can learn from those, whereas a galactic supernova would show us so much more. Our neutrino detectors and gravitational wave detectors are only sensitive enough to take measurements inside our galaxy, where we believe that a supernova happens only once or twice a century."
Adams continued: "Despite the ease with which astronomers find supernovae occurring outside our galaxy, it wasn't obvious before that it would be possible to get complete observations of a supernova occurring within our galaxy. Soot dims the optical light from stars near the center of the galaxy by a factor of nearly a trillion by the time it gets to us. Fortunately, infrared light is not affected by this soot as much and is only dimmed by a factor of 20."
By balancing all these factors, the astronomers determined that they have nearly a 100 percent chance of catching a prized Milky Way supernova during the next 50 years. Adams summarized the findings in an online video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzuzFivr8ng.
The astronomers' plan takes advantage of the fact that supernovae issue neutrinos immediately after the explosion starts, but don't brighten in infrared or visible light until minutes, hours, or even days later.
So, in the ideal scenario, neutrino detectors such as Super-Kamiokande (Super-K) in Japan would sound the alert the moment they detect neutrinos, and indicate the direction the particles were coming from. Then infrared detectors could target the location almost immediately, thus catching the supernova before the brightening begins. Gravitational wave observatories would do the same.
But given that not all neutrinos come from supernovaesome come from nuclear reactors, Earth's atmosphere or the sunhow could a detector know the difference? A supernova would cause short bursts of neutrinos to be detected within a few seconds of each other. But rare glitches in the electronics can do the same thing, explained John Beacom, professor of physics and astronomy and director of the Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics at Ohio State.
"We need some way to tell immediately that a burst is due to a supernova," Beacom said.
He and colleague Mark Vagins, an American neutrino expert working at Super-K, pointed out a decade ago how this could be done. Now Vagins and others have built a scale model of a special kind of neutrino detector in a new underground cave in Japan.
As coauthors on the Astrophysical Journal paper, Vagins and Beacom described the new detector, which they call EGADS for "Evaluating Gadolinium's Action on Detector Systems." At 200 tons, EGADS is much smaller than the 50,000-ton Super-K, but both consist of a tank of ultra-pure water.
In the case of EGADS, the water is spiked with a tiny amount of the element gadolinium, which helps register supernova neutrinos in a special way. When a neutrino from a Milky Way supernova enters the tank, it can collide with the water molecules and release energy, along with some neutrons. Gadolinium has a great affinity for neutrons, and will absorb them and then re-emit energy of its own. The result would be one detection signal followed by another a tiny fraction of a second latera "heartbeat" signal inside the tank for each detected neutrino.
Vagins and Beacom hope that EGADS' unmistakable heartbeat signal will enable neutrino detector teams to make more timely and confident announcements about supernova neutrino detections.
Vagins said that the experiment is going well so far, and he and the rest of the Super-K scientists may decide to add gadolinium to the tank as early as 2016. Because of its larger size, Super-K would also be able to measure the direction of the neutrinos. So the possibility of using Super-K to pinpoint a Milky Way supernova is on the rise.
For those of us who would hope to see a Milky Way supernova with our own eyes, however, the chances are lower and depend on our latitude on Earth. The last time it happened was in 1604, when Johannes Kepler spotted one some 20,000 light years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. He was in northern Italy at the time.
Could such a sighting happen again in the next half-century?
Adams did the math: the probability of a galactic supernova being visible with the unaided eye from somewhere on Earth within the next 50 years is approximately 20-50 percent, with people in the southern hemisphere getting the best of those odds, since they can see more of our galaxy in the night sky. The odds worsen as you go north; in Columbus, Ohio, for example, the chance could dip as low as 10 percent.
And Adams placed the odds that Ohioans would spy a truly dazzling supernovalike the one in 1604 that outshone all other stars in the skyat only around 5 percent.
"The odds of seeing a spectacular display aren't in our favor, but it is still an exciting possibility!" he concluded.
"With only one or two happening a century, the chance of a Milky Way supernova is small, but it would be a tragedy to miss it, and this work is designed to improve the chances of being ready for the scientific event of a lifetime," Beacom concluded.
###
Contacts:
Christopher Kochanek, (614) 292-5954; Kochanek.1@osu.edu
John Beacom, (614) 247-8102; Beacom.7@osu.edu
Scott Adams, (614) 292-7881; Adams.1433@osu.edu
Written by Pam Frost Gorder, (614) 292-9475; Gorder.1@osu.edu
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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.
Could a milky way supernova be visible from Earth in next 50 years?
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
31-Oct-2013
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Contact: Pam Frost Gorder Gorder.1@osu.edu 614-292-9475 Ohio State University
Advances in cameras, new strategies for detection make it possible
COLUMBUS, OhioAstronomers at The Ohio State University have calculated the odds that, sometime during the next 50 years, a supernova occurring in our home galaxy will be visible from Earth.
The good news: they've calculated the odds to be nearly 100 percent that such a supernova would be visible to telescopes in the form of infrared radiation.
The bad news: the odds are much lowerdipping to 20 percent or lessthat the shining stellar spectacle would be visible to the naked eye in the nighttime sky.
Yet, all this is great news to astronomers, who, unlike the rest of us, have high-powered infrared cameras to point at the sky at a moment's notice. For them, this study suggests that they have a solid chance of doing something that's never been done before: detect a supernova fast enough to witness what happens at the very beginning of a star's demise. A massive star "goes supernova" at the moment when it's used up all its nuclear fuel and its core collapses, just before it explodes violently and throws off most of its mass into space.
"We see all these stars go supernova in other galaxies, and we don't fully understand how it happens. We think we know, we say we know, but that's not actually 100 percent true," said Christopher Kochanek, professor of astronomy at Ohio State and the Ohio Eminent Scholar in Observational Cosmology. "Today, technologies have advanced to the point that we can learn enormously more about supernovae if we can catch the next one in our galaxy and study it with all our available tools."
The results will appear in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
First through calculations and then through computer models, generations of astronomers have worked out the physics of supernovae based on all available data, and today's best models appear to match what they see in the skies. But actually witnessing a supernovathat is, for instance, actually measuring the changes in infrared radiation from start to finish while one was happeningcould prove or disprove those ideas.
Kochanek explained how technology is making the study of Milky Way supernovae possible. Astronomers now have sensitive detectors for neutrinos (particles emitted from the core of a collapsing star) and gravitational waves (created by the vibrations of the star's core) which can find any supernova occurring in our galaxy. The question is whether we can actually see light from the supernova because we live in a galaxy filled with dustsoot particles that Kochanek likened to those seen in diesel truck exhaustthat absorb the light and might hide a supernova from our view.
"Every few days, we have the chance to observe supernovae happening outside of our galaxy," said doctoral student Scott Adams. "But there's only so much you can learn from those, whereas a galactic supernova would show us so much more. Our neutrino detectors and gravitational wave detectors are only sensitive enough to take measurements inside our galaxy, where we believe that a supernova happens only once or twice a century."
Adams continued: "Despite the ease with which astronomers find supernovae occurring outside our galaxy, it wasn't obvious before that it would be possible to get complete observations of a supernova occurring within our galaxy. Soot dims the optical light from stars near the center of the galaxy by a factor of nearly a trillion by the time it gets to us. Fortunately, infrared light is not affected by this soot as much and is only dimmed by a factor of 20."
By balancing all these factors, the astronomers determined that they have nearly a 100 percent chance of catching a prized Milky Way supernova during the next 50 years. Adams summarized the findings in an online video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzuzFivr8ng.
The astronomers' plan takes advantage of the fact that supernovae issue neutrinos immediately after the explosion starts, but don't brighten in infrared or visible light until minutes, hours, or even days later.
So, in the ideal scenario, neutrino detectors such as Super-Kamiokande (Super-K) in Japan would sound the alert the moment they detect neutrinos, and indicate the direction the particles were coming from. Then infrared detectors could target the location almost immediately, thus catching the supernova before the brightening begins. Gravitational wave observatories would do the same.
But given that not all neutrinos come from supernovaesome come from nuclear reactors, Earth's atmosphere or the sunhow could a detector know the difference? A supernova would cause short bursts of neutrinos to be detected within a few seconds of each other. But rare glitches in the electronics can do the same thing, explained John Beacom, professor of physics and astronomy and director of the Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics at Ohio State.
"We need some way to tell immediately that a burst is due to a supernova," Beacom said.
He and colleague Mark Vagins, an American neutrino expert working at Super-K, pointed out a decade ago how this could be done. Now Vagins and others have built a scale model of a special kind of neutrino detector in a new underground cave in Japan.
As coauthors on the Astrophysical Journal paper, Vagins and Beacom described the new detector, which they call EGADS for "Evaluating Gadolinium's Action on Detector Systems." At 200 tons, EGADS is much smaller than the 50,000-ton Super-K, but both consist of a tank of ultra-pure water.
In the case of EGADS, the water is spiked with a tiny amount of the element gadolinium, which helps register supernova neutrinos in a special way. When a neutrino from a Milky Way supernova enters the tank, it can collide with the water molecules and release energy, along with some neutrons. Gadolinium has a great affinity for neutrons, and will absorb them and then re-emit energy of its own. The result would be one detection signal followed by another a tiny fraction of a second latera "heartbeat" signal inside the tank for each detected neutrino.
Vagins and Beacom hope that EGADS' unmistakable heartbeat signal will enable neutrino detector teams to make more timely and confident announcements about supernova neutrino detections.
Vagins said that the experiment is going well so far, and he and the rest of the Super-K scientists may decide to add gadolinium to the tank as early as 2016. Because of its larger size, Super-K would also be able to measure the direction of the neutrinos. So the possibility of using Super-K to pinpoint a Milky Way supernova is on the rise.
For those of us who would hope to see a Milky Way supernova with our own eyes, however, the chances are lower and depend on our latitude on Earth. The last time it happened was in 1604, when Johannes Kepler spotted one some 20,000 light years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. He was in northern Italy at the time.
Could such a sighting happen again in the next half-century?
Adams did the math: the probability of a galactic supernova being visible with the unaided eye from somewhere on Earth within the next 50 years is approximately 20-50 percent, with people in the southern hemisphere getting the best of those odds, since they can see more of our galaxy in the night sky. The odds worsen as you go north; in Columbus, Ohio, for example, the chance could dip as low as 10 percent.
And Adams placed the odds that Ohioans would spy a truly dazzling supernovalike the one in 1604 that outshone all other stars in the skyat only around 5 percent.
"The odds of seeing a spectacular display aren't in our favor, but it is still an exciting possibility!" he concluded.
"With only one or two happening a century, the chance of a Milky Way supernova is small, but it would be a tragedy to miss it, and this work is designed to improve the chances of being ready for the scientific event of a lifetime," Beacom concluded.
###
Contacts:
Christopher Kochanek, (614) 292-5954; Kochanek.1@osu.edu
John Beacom, (614) 247-8102; Beacom.7@osu.edu
Scott Adams, (614) 292-7881; Adams.1433@osu.edu
Written by Pam Frost Gorder, (614) 292-9475; Gorder.1@osu.edu
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| 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.
Rene, Peter, and Richard discuss whether you should upgrade your iPad, what the alternatives are, which model is best for you, and options for color, capacity, carrier, AppleCare+, and more!
Two years ago, NASA engineer Mark Rober blew YouTube's mind with a video of his Halloween costume: a hole in his chest. Or at least it looked like a hole in his chest. In fact, it was an optical illusion made possible by two iPads, a little duct tape and a lot of ingenuity. Well, you won't believe what he's been up to since then.
Making electrical contact along 1-D edge of 2-D materials
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
31-Oct-2013
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Contact: Ellis Simon esimon@ccny.cuny.edu 212-650-6460 City College of New York
As postdoc at Columbia, CCNY physicist Cory Dean and colleagues devised new method that addresses graphene's contamination problem
Dr. Cory Dean, assistant professor of physics at The City College of New York, is the lead author of a paper published today in the journal Science that demonstrates it is possible for an atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) material to have electrical contact along its one-dimensional (1D) edge. The contact architecture offers a new assembly technique for layered materials that prevents contamination at interfaces.
Professor Dean conducted the research as a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University, working with Professor of Electrical Engineering Ken Shepard and Professor of Mechanical Engineering James Hone, the paper's co-authors. The new method, which was developed using graphene as the two-dimensional model, resulted in the cleanest graphene produced to date.
"Two-dimensional materials such as graphene, which are just one atom thick, can have their electrical properties externally modified," Professor Dean said. "However, because the materials are extremely sensitive to the environment, any external contamination quickly degrades performance."
The need to protect the material from contamination while still allowing electrical access has been a roadblock to development of graphene-based technologies, he added. "By making contact only to the 1D edge of graphene, we have developed a fundamentally new way to bridge our 3D world to this fascinating 2D world without disturbing its inherent properties. This virtually eliminates external contamination and finally allows graphene to show its true potential in electronic devices."
"Our novel edge-contact geometry provides more efficient contact than the conventional geometry without the need for further complex processing," added Professor Shepard. "There are now many more possibilities in the pursuit of both device applications and the pure physics of clean systems."
The researchers fully encapsulated the 2D graphene layer in a sandwich of thin insulating boron nitride crystals. To do this, they employed a new technique in which the top boron nitride crystal was used to sequentially pick up the other layers in the stack. "This technique completely eliminated any contamination between layers," Professor Dean noted.
Once they created the stack, they etched it to expose the edge of the graphene layer. Then they evaporated metal onto the edge to create the electrical contact. By making contact along the edge, the team realized a 1D interface between the 2D active layer and 3D metal electrode.
Even though electrons entered only at the 1D atomic edge of the graphene sheet, the contact resistance was remarkably low, reaching 100 ohms per micron of contact widtha value smaller than what is typically achieved for contacts at the graphene top surface.
Continuing their collaboration, the team is now working on applying these techniques to develop new hybrid materials by mechanical assembly and edge contact. They plan to draw from the full suite of available 2D layered materials, including graphene, boron nitride, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), transition metal oxides (TMOs), and topological insulators (TIs).
"With so much current research focused on developing new devices by integrating layered 2D systems, potential applications are incredible, from vertically structured transistors, tunneling based devices and sensors, photoactive hybrid materials, to flexible and transparent electronics," added Professor Hone.
###
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided low-cost, high-quality education for New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. More than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in: the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture; the School of Education; the Grove School of Engineering; the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, and the Colin L. Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership.
Set on a striking, 35-acre hilltop campus in upper Manhattan, CCNY has produced more Nobel laureates than any other public institution in the United States. The College has been touted as one of America's Top Colleges by Forbes, one of the Best Colleges in the United States as well as one of the Best Value Colleges by the Princeton Review, and ranks among U.S. News' top regional universities. For additional information, visit http://www.ccny.cuny.edu.
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Making electrical contact along 1-D edge of 2-D materials
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
31-Oct-2013
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Contact: Ellis Simon esimon@ccny.cuny.edu 212-650-6460 City College of New York
As postdoc at Columbia, CCNY physicist Cory Dean and colleagues devised new method that addresses graphene's contamination problem
Dr. Cory Dean, assistant professor of physics at The City College of New York, is the lead author of a paper published today in the journal Science that demonstrates it is possible for an atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) material to have electrical contact along its one-dimensional (1D) edge. The contact architecture offers a new assembly technique for layered materials that prevents contamination at interfaces.
Professor Dean conducted the research as a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University, working with Professor of Electrical Engineering Ken Shepard and Professor of Mechanical Engineering James Hone, the paper's co-authors. The new method, which was developed using graphene as the two-dimensional model, resulted in the cleanest graphene produced to date.
"Two-dimensional materials such as graphene, which are just one atom thick, can have their electrical properties externally modified," Professor Dean said. "However, because the materials are extremely sensitive to the environment, any external contamination quickly degrades performance."
The need to protect the material from contamination while still allowing electrical access has been a roadblock to development of graphene-based technologies, he added. "By making contact only to the 1D edge of graphene, we have developed a fundamentally new way to bridge our 3D world to this fascinating 2D world without disturbing its inherent properties. This virtually eliminates external contamination and finally allows graphene to show its true potential in electronic devices."
"Our novel edge-contact geometry provides more efficient contact than the conventional geometry without the need for further complex processing," added Professor Shepard. "There are now many more possibilities in the pursuit of both device applications and the pure physics of clean systems."
The researchers fully encapsulated the 2D graphene layer in a sandwich of thin insulating boron nitride crystals. To do this, they employed a new technique in which the top boron nitride crystal was used to sequentially pick up the other layers in the stack. "This technique completely eliminated any contamination between layers," Professor Dean noted.
Once they created the stack, they etched it to expose the edge of the graphene layer. Then they evaporated metal onto the edge to create the electrical contact. By making contact along the edge, the team realized a 1D interface between the 2D active layer and 3D metal electrode.
Even though electrons entered only at the 1D atomic edge of the graphene sheet, the contact resistance was remarkably low, reaching 100 ohms per micron of contact widtha value smaller than what is typically achieved for contacts at the graphene top surface.
Continuing their collaboration, the team is now working on applying these techniques to develop new hybrid materials by mechanical assembly and edge contact. They plan to draw from the full suite of available 2D layered materials, including graphene, boron nitride, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), transition metal oxides (TMOs), and topological insulators (TIs).
"With so much current research focused on developing new devices by integrating layered 2D systems, potential applications are incredible, from vertically structured transistors, tunneling based devices and sensors, photoactive hybrid materials, to flexible and transparent electronics," added Professor Hone.
###
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided low-cost, high-quality education for New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. More than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in: the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture; the School of Education; the Grove School of Engineering; the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, and the Colin L. Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership.
Set on a striking, 35-acre hilltop campus in upper Manhattan, CCNY has produced more Nobel laureates than any other public institution in the United States. The College has been touted as one of America's Top Colleges by Forbes, one of the Best Colleges in the United States as well as one of the Best Value Colleges by the Princeton Review, and ranks among U.S. News' top regional universities. For additional information, visit http://www.ccny.cuny.edu.
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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.
Faithful Luis Castillo dressed as a traditional Mexican "Catrina" poses during Day of the Dead celebrations at Mexico's National Autonomous University in Mexico City, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Known as the "Catrina," the figure of a skeleton wearing an elegant broad-brimmed hat was first done as a satirical engraving by artist Jose Guadalupe Posada somewhere between 1910 and his death on Jan. 20, 1913. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
Faithful Luis Castillo dressed as a traditional Mexican "Catrina" poses during Day of the Dead celebrations at Mexico's National Autonomous University in Mexico City, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Known as the "Catrina," the figure of a skeleton wearing an elegant broad-brimmed hat was first done as a satirical engraving by artist Jose Guadalupe Posada somewhere between 1910 and his death on Jan. 20, 1913. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
Artists decorate a traditional Mexican "Catrina" as part of the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico City's Zocalo, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Mexicans celebrate Day of the Dead to honor deceased loved ones, a tradition that coincides with All Saints Day and All Souls Day on Nov. 1 and 2. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
A traditional Mexican "Catrina" sits at Mexico's National Autonomous University during Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico City, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Known as the "Catrina," the figure of a skeleton wearing an elegant broad-brimmed hat was first done as a satirical engraving by artist Jose Guadalupe Posada somewhere between 1910 and his death on Jan. 20, 1913. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
Women with their faces painted as a traditional Mexican "Catrina" pose during Day of the Dead celebrations at Mexico's National Autonomous University in Mexico City, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Known as the "Catrina," the figure of a skeleton wearing an elegant broad-brimmed hat was first done as a satirical engraving by artist Jose Guadalupe Posada somewhere between 1910 and his death on Jan. 20, 1913. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
An artist paints a traditional Mexican "Catrina" as part of the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico City's Zocalo, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Mexicans celebrate Day of the Dead to honor deceased loved ones, a tradition that coincides with All Saints Day and All Souls Day on Nov. 1 and 2. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
MEXICO CITY (AP) — She's been a fixture at Day of the Dead fiestas for a century, and Mexico's elegant and classy "Skeleton Lady" is even inspiring some movie and rock stars in the U.S. to don Halloween costumes based on the macabre figure.
As Mexico's capital marks the 100th anniversary of the death of the artist who created "Catrina," dozens of video bloggers are offering tips on how to nail her pale skull look.
Jose Guadalupe Posada, the cartoonist who created Catrina, is being honored by Mexico City with giant replicas of his illustrations and a display of skeleton statues for the Day of the Dead offering that opens on the capital's main plaza Thursday. Such offerings traditionally consist of an altar with flowers, food and a photo of a departed loved one.
The Skeleton Lady in her elegant broad-brimmed hat first appeared in a satirical engraving that Posada did sometime between 1910 and his death on Jan. 20, 1913. He wanted to mock those who pretended to be of a higher class, even if it meant starving, and going painfully thin, or without flesh. She became the most famous of Posada's illustrations, with later sketches dressing her in classy Victorian-era garments with a high neckline.
As Halloween celebrations make inroads in Mexico, the spooky and sexy Catrina look is spreading a Mexican touch to the north. Singer Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas sported a sexy Catrina outfit with a red-and-black shawl and headpiece and published a photo on her Instagram account. Sandra Bullock was caught by photographers in Los Angeles wearing Mexican-style skull makeup and a black dress.
While it's often called "Mexican Candy Skull" makeup, the Catrina touches of elegant scarves and veiled hats stem from the Skeleton Lady. Dozens of tutorials popped up in the last month on YouTube showing how to darken circles around the eyes and draw colorful shapes on the cheeks to create a frightening, yet festive look.
At some online costume stores in the Unites States, short-skirted and tight-bodice "muerta" or "sugar-skull" costumes are on sale.
The Catrina is also trendy among young women in Mexico. Makeup studios and salons apply the complex face paint for as much as 1,000 pesos (about $80) for Halloween as Mexicans increasingly mix the U.S. festival with the Day of the Dead, which traditionally didn't involve dressing up.
For Andrew Chesnut, author of "Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint" and a professor of Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, the Catrina's rise in the U.S. is part of the increasing Mexican and Latin American influence in the United States.
"She is kind of a perfect example of integrating both traditions and not seeing any contradiction or problems with that," Chesnut said. He said more and more U.S. families, not only of Mexican descent, are setting up altars and celebrating Day of the Dead.
The Catrina went through a couple of incarnations before becoming a scary sex symbol.
Posada created her to poke fun at "people who pretended to be European, but weren't," said Mercedes Sierra, a visual arts professor at Mexico's National Autonomous University.
Most Mexicans are of Indian descent, but given long-standing racism, many tried to look European with their clothing or makeup. So Posada created the elegantly dressed skeleton — "skeleton" being Mexican slang for someone so poor they couldn't eat.
Even though he mocked people with pretentions, Posada said that drawing her as a skeleton was also a way to reject social stratification.
"Death is democratic. At the end, regardless of whether you are white, dark, rich or poor, we all end up as skeletons," Posada said at the time.
In the mid-1940s, Mexican artist Diego Rivera put Posada and the Skeleton Lady in the central position of his mural "Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central," which depicted iconic figures from Mexican arts and history.
It was Rivera who gave the figure the name "Catrina."
___
Adriana Gomez Licon on Twitter: http://twitter.com/agomezlicon
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, center, walks with Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., right, and Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, before their meeting. Earlier, the prime minister met with Vice President Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, center, walks with Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., right, and Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, before their meeting. Earlier, the prime minister met with Vice President Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki listens during a meeting with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., and the committee's ranking Democrat Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, left, talks with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., right, during a luncheon meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, left, is greeted by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., center, and the committee's ranking Democrat Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, during a luncheon meeting. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bloody resurgence of al-Qaida in Iraq is prompting Baghdad to ask the U.S. for more weapons, training and manpower, two years after pushing American troops out of the country.
The request will be discussed during a White House meeting Friday between Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Barack Obama in what Baghdad hopes will be a fresh start in a complicated relationship that has been marked both by victories and frustrations for each side.
Al-Maliki will discuss Iraq's plight in a public speech Thursday at the U.S. Institute for Peace in Washington.
"We know we have major challenges of our own capabilities being up to the standard. They currently are not," Lukman Faily, the Iraqi ambassador to the U.S., told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. "We need to gear up, to deal with that threat more seriously. We need support and we need help."
He added, "We have said to the Americans we'd be more than happy to discuss all the options short of boots on the ground."
"Boots on the ground" means military forces. The U.S. withdrew all but a few hundred of its troops from Iraq in December 2011 after Baghdad refused to renew a security agreement to extend legal immunity for Americans forces, which would have let more stay.
At the time, the withdrawal was hailed as a victory for the Obama administration, which campaigned on ending the Iraq war and had little appetite for pushing Baghdad into a new security agreement. But within months, violence began creeping up in the capital and across the country as Sunni Muslim insurgents, angered by a widespread belief that Sunnis have been sidelined by the Shiite-led government, lashed out, with no U.S. troops to keep them in check.
More than 5,000 Iraqis have been killed in attacks since April, and suicide bombers launched 38 strikes in the last month alone.
Al-Maliki is expected to ask Obama for new assistance to bolster its military and fight al-Qaida. Faily said that could include everything from speeding up the delivery of U.S. aircraft, missiles, interceptors and other weapons, to improving national intelligence systems. And when asked, he did not rule out the possibility of asking the U.S. to send military special forces or additional CIA advisers to Iraq to help train and assist counterterror troops.
If the U.S. does not commit to providing the weapons or other aid quickly, "we will go elsewhere," Faily said. That means Iraq will step up diplomacy with nations like China or Russia that would be more than happy to increase their influence in Baghdad at U.S. expense.
The two leaders also will discuss how Iraq can improve its fractious government, which so often is divided among sectarian or ethnic lines, to give it more confidence with a bitter and traumatized public.
The ambassador said no new security agreement would be needed to give immunity to additional U.S. advisers or trainers in Iraq — the main sticking point that led to U.S. withdrawal. And he said Iraq would pay for the additional weapons or other assistance.
A senior Obama administration official said Wednesday that U.S. officials were not planning to send U.S. trainers to Iraq and that Baghdad had not asked for them. The administration official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters by name.
U.S. officials were prepared to help Iraq with an across-the-board approach that did not focus just on military or security gaps, the administration official said. The aid under consideration might include more weapons for Iraqi troops who do not have necessary equipment to battle al-Qaida insurgents, he said.
Administration officials consider the insurgency, which has rebranded itself as the Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant, a major and increasing threat both to Iraq and the U.S., the official said.
U.S. and Iraqi officials see a possible solution in trying to persuade insurgents to join forces with Iraqi troops and move away from al-Qaida, following a pattern set by so-called Awakening Councils in western Iraq that marked a turning point in the war. Faily said much of the additional aid — including weapons and training — would go toward this effort.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who opposed the U.S. troop withdrawal in 2011, said Iraq likely would not get the aid until al-Maliki, a Shiite, makes strides in making the government more inclusive to Sunnis.
"If he expects the kind of assistance that he's asking for, we need a strategy and we need to know exactly how that's going to be employed, and we need to see some changes in Iraq," McCain said Wednesday after a tense meeting on Capitol Hill with al-Maliki. "The situation is deteriorating and it's unraveling, and he's got to turn it around."
Al-Maliki's plea for aid is somewhat ironic, given that he refused to budge in 2011 on letting U.S. troops stay in Iraq with legal immunity Washington said they must have to defend themselves in the volatile country. But it was a fiercely unpopular political position in Iraq, which was unable to prosecute Blackwater Worldwide security contractors who opened fire in a Baghdad square in 2007, killing at least 13 passersby.
James F. Jeffrey, who was the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad when the U.S. troops left, called it a "turnabout" by al-Maliki. He said Iraq desperately needs teams of U.S. advisers, trainers, intelligence and counterterror experts to beat back al-Qaida.
"We have those people," said Jeffrey, who retired from the State Department after leaving Baghdad last year. "We had plans to get them in after 2011. They can be under embassy privileges and immunities. They will cost the American people almost nothing. They will, by and large, not be in any more danger than our State Department civilians. And they could mean all the difference between losing an Iraq that 4,500 Americans gave their lives for."
Nearly 4,500 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq between the 2003 invasion and the 2011 withdrawal. More than 100,000 Iraqi were killed in that time.
___
Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP
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Got a burning question for Prudie? She'll be online at Washingtonpost.com to chat with readers each Monday at noon. Submit your questions and comments here before or during the live discussion.
Dear Prudence, A few months ago at work a young, handsome intern started talking to me. He was flirtatious and would act thrilled to see me. He would do this when other people were around, even other supervisors. I admit that I was flattered, but I’m a divorced woman 20 years his senior and in a relationship, so I didn't take it seriously. All I did to respond to him was smile and exchange small talk. I recently found out that he isn't flirting, he is making a joke of me. I was told by a friend that he was talking about me at an event in front of other employees, including a supervisor, and they were all having a laugh at my expense. This also explains the times when I would walk into the cafeteria and this intern and some co-workers would start smirking at me and cracking up. I am a bit overweight and not all that attractive, so perhaps this makes me a good target. He’s continuing his overtures and I simply respond “Hello” with a flat smile and go on my way. My friend told me to beware because she was afraid that this young man might get me into trouble. I am concerned that he could file a complaint against me and I don't know what to do. How should I handle this situation?
Dear Not, If only I could file a complaint against him. It would actually be a class action suit against all the sadistic snot-nosed little punks like him who try to bring misery to the innocent people in his path. As you describe, he was flirtatiously friendly and you responded with smiles and a few banal exchanges. In Saudi Arabia that might get you flogged, but you have nothing to worry about as far as any action being taken against you. The behavior of this young sociopath is disturbing, but even more outrageous is that he seems to have enlisted much of the office in his evil little games. Perhaps he fancies himself a would-be Neil LaBute and is working on a variation on The Shape of Things. I hope he’s on his way out soon, but in the meantime you have to live with him and the colleagues who have been part of this charade. Once you found out what he was up to, you were absolutely right to revert to cool cordiality and monosyllables. So from now on, if he comes over to flirt, look blankly at him and say, “Brad, I don’t have time to chat.” When you see him coming down the hall, you can focus your eyes on the middle distance and not even notice him. If you have to acknowledge him, nod, or if you must, exchange the minimum words necessary, and keep your face expressionless. With your spiteful colleagues, just continue to keep your dignity. Your office sounds like a den of rhesus macaque monkeys. You might want to start looking around for a place to work where the culture has advanced beyond middle school cafeteria bullying.
Dear Prudence: Chintzy Travel Companions
Dear Prudence, I have a dear friend who has been staying in a city a few hours from home so that she can receive treatment for late-stage cancer. She has planned a 9th birthday party for her son "Billy," and a bunch of his friends are scheduled to go to the city, participate in some activities, and stay in a hotel. Her husband will drive and I offered to help out and bring the kids who won't fit in her husband's car. My 8-year-old son has been friends with Billy for a long time, but lately Billy either ignores my son or lashes out verbally and physically. This child has always had a few issues, but in this time of stress these have become more pronounced. I explained to my son that Billy is having a rough time and we are committed to go, and we really need to help my friend, whom he adores. Now it turns out only three kids are going, and my friend has told me I’m not needed to drive or chaperone. I am relieved because my husband is working that weekend, we have another child, and my car is falling apart. My son wants to know why he has to go since I’m no longer going. I want to protect my friend's positive attitude and not worry her about her child. So do I tell my son he has to suck it up and go anyway? Do I tell my friend my child is just not into hers? Do I tell a white lie to my friend and say my kid’s been taken ill? I’m stumped.
Dear Blues, This is such a gut-wrenching situation and even the most serene child would be torn apart knowing his mother was gravely ill and might not make it. Billy may have some underlying problems, but it is understandable that he would lash out at other kids whose mothers are home and healthy. That doesn’t make his behavior acceptable; it makes it something that needs to be addressed. I’m hoping you have an open line of communication with your friend’s husband. So please gently bring up with him the need for Billy to have some counseling with someone who has expertise in childhood loss. You don’t have to discuss Billy’s overall issues, you just have to say that what’s going on in his life is so overwhelming that he needs a safe place to discuss his feelings. You also need to keep your son safe. It’s great to teach him empathy and compassion, but the lesson won’t sink in if his experience of it is being abused by another kid. Given all the circumstances, I think this is one of those cases in which a little white lie makes life easier for everyone. You can tell your friend your son is coming down with something and you don’t want to run the risk of him spreading it to her son and then to her.
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