Underwater photographer Keith Ellenbogen photographed the Atlantic bluefin tuna both inside and outside of the massive underwater cages used by purse seiner fishing boats on a recent expedition with the watchdog non-profit Oceana. On this expedition, the crew on board the Marviva Med documented the impact of bottom trawling and driftnets on marine ecosystems, and identified marine areas that need protection. Ellenbogen says, “Each year, as they have done for thousands of years, bluefin tuna migrate to the Mediterranean Sea to reproduce. At this moment, I felt a sense of urgency as I observed populations much smaller than expected. I imagined what life must have been like only a few years ago when tuna were abundant, swimming free, and able to reach their true, glorious size.”

The Atlantic bluefin can live 40 years, grow to 15 feet in length and weigh up to 1,400 lbs. They are warm-blooded and able to stabilize their body temperature as they migrate across the Atlantic Ocean, and have been recorded swimming at speeds of up to 55 mph; the word “tuna” comes from the Greek word “to rush.” Bluefin are sought after for the high prices they fetch on the international sushi market: individual Atlantic bluefin tuna have been sold for more than $100,000. Scientists and conservationists fear the Atlantic bluefin tuna is especially vulnerable to extinction due to overfishing, given its low reproduction rate and late maturity, at 3-5 years.

Ellenbogen and a team of scientists observed the tuna being caught by large purse seiner fishing boats from Turkey, France, Spain, and Italy among other countries, with some illegally using spotter planes to locate the fish. The tuna are transferred from fishing nets underwater to cages approximately 300 feet in diameter and 80 feet deep where they are towed slowly (at a speed of about 2 knots) to coastal destinations a couple of days or even weeks away, where they are fattened and then sold to market.

Images courtesy Oceana/Kieth Ellenbogen

Bluefin tuna in a tuna cage, Malta, Marviva Med expedition, June 2008

As a younger stronger particle smasher, the Large Hadron Collider can turn even baby steps into new records. Over this past weekend, the LHC beat another personal best–colliding its most protons yet at 10,000 particle collisions per second (about double its earlier rate). Physicists believe this is a crucial step on the collider’s hunt for new physics.

In November of 2009, the LHC collided its first protons as it started its quest to find the suspected mass-giving particle known as the Higgs Boson. The collider is still running at half of its designed maximum energy, but after this weekend, the number of particles per bunch traveling in the ring is just what physicists had planned. This is essential, says CERN physicist John Ellis:

“Protons are complicated particles, they’ve got quarks, [and other small particles], and colliding them is like colliding two garbage cans and watching carrots come out…. The more collisions we get, the closer we get to supersymmetry, dark matter, the Higgs boson and other types of new physics.” [BBC]

Here are some basics:

Energy: The LHC is already the worlds “most powerful” collider. Power is a measure of energy doled out over time and the LHC can collide its protons with an energy of 7 TeV (3.5 TeV per beam). Second place is the Tevatron collider at Fermi Lab near Chicago. The Tevatron can collide its particles at 2 TeV (1 TeV per beam). LHC researchers hope to get to their designed max of 14 TeV by 2013.

Luminosity: When it comes to getting the goods (i.e. new physics) out of colliding protons, it’s not only how much energy the particles have, but also how often you can get those particles to smack into each other. That’s what physicists call luminosity. This weekend, the LHC achieved 10,000 particle collisions per second. Though the Tevatron has had higher luminosities, LHC physicists are working to beat their personal record from this weekend. Researchers at the LHC will also now work to make the weekend’s number of collisions an easier feat, making higher luminosities a routine matter.

Bunches and Intensity: To increase the number of collisions per second, you need a highly focused beam made of many particles traveling together (particle accelerators use magnets to steer and focus the particles in a beam). The weekend was the first time that physicists accelerated the number of particles per bunch they originally hoped for when they designed the machine: each bunch consisted of as many as 100 billion protons. LHC researchers hope to increase the number of bunches in a beam to 2,808 by 2016.

Such landmark records spur the competition between the two colliders.

“It’s clear that the LHC is the new boy in town, but in two years running we’re going to put Fermilab out of business,” operation group leader Mike Lamont told BBC News. [BBC]

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Image: CERN

What struck down ancient Egypt’s King Tutankhamen at the tender age of 19?

Just this winter, Egyptian researchers seemed to think they had a definitive answer. After years of genetic tests and CT scans, they concluded that royal incest had produced a sickly boy with a bone disorder, and argued that a malaria-bearing parasite finished him off. But now a team of German researchers is arguing that the observations actually point to death from the inherited blood disorder sickle cell disease (SCD).

People with SCD carry a mutation in the gene for haemoglobin which causes their red blood cells to become rigid and sickle-shaped. A single copy of the sickle-cell gene confers increased immunity to malaria, so it tends to be common in areas where the infection is endemic – such as ancient Egypt. People with two copies of the gene suffer severe anaemia and often die young. [New Scientist]

In a letter to the Journal of the American Medical Association, the German scientists argue that the bone damage seen in the investigation of Tut’s mummy was likely the result of sickle cell disease, as the sickle-shaped cells can block blood flow through capillaries and therefore keep oxygen from reaching bone tissue. They also argue that malaria is more likely to kill young children in areas where the disease is endemic; those who survive to their teenaged years typically have a degree of immunity.

The German researchers, who hail from the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, are eager to follow up on their theory.

According to the German researchers, the Egyptian researchers could have tested Tut’s DNA for the genetic blood disorder. “To confirm sickle cell disease or the genetic trait would take just 60 minutes and is easy – we wonder why the authors haven’t done that so far,” said [study coauthor] Christian Meyer. [LiveScience]

The Egyptian researchers say they’re interested in the new theory, and will investigate it in due time. For now, the mystery that began with the boy king’s death around 1324 B.C. will linger on.

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Image: Wikimedia

Players complaining about the new ball: It’s one of the traditions that returned like clockwork with this World Cup, along with egregious diving, English misery, and American fans perking up when the team performs and then swearing off soccer for another four years when USA crashes out.

But while equipment discontent typically fades as the tournament enters its final stages, anger toward World Cup 2010’s Jabulani ball won’t subside. So Caltech scientists decided to find out for themselves: They took the ball into their lab’s wind tunnel to see if it’s really so bad.

If you’ve spent any time kicking around a soccer ball, you’ll remember that it isn’t a perfect sphere, but rather is made of geometric panels with grooves in between. But while a traditional ball contains 32 panels, the Jabulani contains only 8, which made the team led by Beverly McKeon suspect there could be something to the complaints about its erratic behavior.

Consider the history of the golf ball, which was smooth back in the mid-1800s. “The Scots learned the hard way,” McKeon said. The addition of dimples made for a rougher surface but a narrower wake and less drag, which contributed to straighter, longer trajectories. To some degree, the Jabulani represents a shift in the opposite direction, even with tiny ridges covering its skin. Caltech’s study suggests that it starts with a smooth — or laminar — airflow, shifts to something more turbulent, then shifts back again [Los Angeles Times].

The scientists say those shifts they saw in the lab (see video here) could be responsible for the odd reactions we’ve seen from goalkeepers in this World Cup, like English ‘keeper Robert Green’s notorious misplay against the United States.

“So as the goalkeeper sees the ball coming, it suddenly seems to change its trajectory,” McKeon said. “It’s like putting the brakes on, but putting them on unevenly” [Los Angeles Times].

Altitude also could be adding to the Jabulani’s misbehavior. That’s the defense coming from Erik Van Leeuwen of Adidas, the ball’s manufacturer.

Six of the 10 World Cup stadiums are above 1,200 meters (3,937 feet), where the air is thinner. That may be affecting the Jabulani’s movement, Van Leeuwen said. A ball kicked at altitude travels 5 percent faster than one kicked in Durban, which is at sea level, he said [Bloomberg].

FIFA, soccer’s governing body, says it’s aware of the concerns about Jabulani. But for at least the rest of this tournament, players are going to have to get used to it—or blame the ball if they lose.

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Image: Adidas

Here’s the situation: You spot Roman attack ships headed for your shores. Do you order your troops to ready the cannons? Or–in an ancient MacGyver move–do you use a parabolic mirror, focusing the sun’s rays to set the ships on fire? Though the latter is clearly more suave, recent research has shown that the 212 B.C. legend about Archimedes’ mirror defense is unlikely: He probably pulled out the big guns instead.

Cesar Rossi, a mechanical engineer at the University of Naples in Italy, figured out the numbers. A steam cannon–like the ones Leonardo da Vinci drew in the 1400s–could use less than a tenth of a cup of water to fire a hollow clay ball, at 134 miles per hour, to hit a target 492 feet away. For comparison, an 1854 American Civil War Howitzer cannon could fire a ball about ten times farther–a little less than a mile.

Rossi presented this research at the International World Conference in Syracuse, Italy (the site of the historic Roman attack on the Greek colony) earlier this month. He told LiveScience that after looking at both the historical references to the battle and the feasibility of using the mirrors on moving ships, that the cannons were “much more reasonable than the use of burning mirrors.” The hollow clay cannon balls could have been filled with a mix of incendiary chemicals that would have set the ships afire on impact, Rossi suggests.

In 2005, MIT students recreated the mirror defense and managed to set a wooden “ship” ablaze. On the roof of a Cambridge parking garage, they scorched the ship, but their test required ideal weather conditions and a stationary target. Rossi hopes to team up with other researchers to create his own reenactment using the steam cannons.

Cannons or mirrors, Archimedes couldn’t save Syracuse–and the Romans’ success meant Archimedes’ end.

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Image: Wikimedia / Giulio Parigi, 1600