Investigators are now swabbing dog cheeks. A dog DNA database–similar to the one the FBI keeps for criminals–may help to deter dog-fighting.

Dog-fighting is a federal crime and a felony offense in every U.S. state, but it’s difficult to detect and stop. Officers rarely catch fighters in the act, and the industry, as a multimillion-dollar business, makes money not only from gambling on the violent and often fatal matches, but also from breeding and selling champion dogs.

The New York Times reports that some dogs sell for as high as $50,000 dollars. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals estimates that there could be tens of thousands of people involved in dog fighting in the United States.

So where does the genetics come in?

Selective, champion breeding means that many fighting dogs come from traceable bloodlines. Enter dog DNA. A veterinary genetics lab at the University of California-Davis maintains the database, called The Canine CODIS, which can help investigators connect one dog to known fighters’ bloodlines.

“People are not generally going to the pound and buying pit bulls to fight—these dogs are from established bloodlines,” said Tim Rickey, senior director of field investigations and response for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. “And if a suspected dog fighter’s animal matches one of those bloodlines, that would be a key piece of evidence.” [The New York Times]

The first DNA for the database came from a the largest dog-fighting crackdown in U.S. history, which took place last July after an 18-month investigation and involved a total of around 400 different animals from seven different states. The project’s members believe that this new database will not only help states get more convictions, but also help investigators discover how the crime spreads–hopefully allowing them to save and rehabilitate more dogs.

“[The DNA] will put that dog, and by extension its owner, at the scene of a dog fight,” said Beth Wictum, director of the forensic unit of the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory…. “This will give us a window into the world of dog fighting, and we can see how these bloodlines are carried from state to state.” [The Kansas City Star]

The database is a collaboration between the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, The Humane Society of Missouri, and the Louisiana SPCA. Wictum believes that this DNA can bring justice for executed fighting dogs found abandoned on roadsides and animals severely malformed from abuse.

“When these cases come to trial, it’s important to make your strongest case,” [Wictum] adds. “DNA evidence not only establishes links between owners, breeders, and dog fighting sites, it tells a story. We can tie blood spatter on pit walls and clothing, or blood trails found outside of the pit, to a specific dog and tell his story for him. We become the voice for those victims.” [ASPCA]

Related content:
80beats: Dogs Think Like Babies, While Wolves Think for Themselves
80beats: Will Dog Cloning Become Mainstream as the Price Drops?
80beats: Where Did Dogs First Become Man’s Best Friend?
80beats: Revealed: The Genetic Secret of the Dachshund’s Stubby Legs
80beats: Wolves Have Dogs to Thank for Their Dark Fur

Image: flickr / audreyjm529

Would you eat honey called Dulles Delight? LAX Natural? LaGuardia Lip-Smackers? Some Germans are enjoying Düsseldorf Natural, honey made from airport-dwelling bees. The Düsseldorf International Airport and 7 other airports have employed bees as “biodetectives”: inspectors test the bees’ honey for pollutants as an indirect way to monitor airport air quality.

As The New York Times reports, these bees come from a long line of other insect inspectors–including aquatic bugs for testing water quality. Though the airports still use more-traditional sensors to test for air pollutants, in 2006 they added these buzzing mini-inspectors to their testing fleet.

The German Orga Lab tests the honey, made from around 200,000 bees, twice a year for contaminants such as hydrocarbons and heavy metals. They hope to monitor changes over long stretches of time to see if the bees can pick up air quality differences.

Martin Bunkowski, an environmental engineer for the Association of German Airports, told The New York Times that the project is appealing because the insects’ job seems clear.

“It’s a very clear message for the public because it is easy to understand,” Bunkowski said.

Currently, the Düsseldorf honey is looking good–contaminants were far below official limits, and the honey was comparable in quality to that harvested in more scenic locales. Most importantly, since the local bee club gives the honey out for no charge, the sweet stuff is effectively duty free.

Related content:
80beats: How Ancient Beekeepers Made Israel the Land of (Milk and) Honey: Imported Bees
80beats: Honeybees Get High on Cocaine And Dance, Dance, Dance
DISCOVER: The Baffling Bee Die-Off Continues
DISCOVER: Who Killed All Those Honeybees? We Did
DISCOVER: The Alluring and Alien Sights of a Bee in Ultra Close-up (photo gallery)

Image: flickr /cygnus921

Really interesting trailer for a movie which is premised on a “secret history” where a group of Nazis flee to the far side of the moon at the end of World War II, and are returning imminently in the near future from their exile.

Wired has the back story of how this group of film makers generated broad-based funding for their project. Of course they’re Finnish….

Last week, I began writing about the relationship between energy and food - a topic that I intend to explore in detail over the coming months. That post dealt with limited micronutrients in other parts of the world, but just because they are more readily available here in the US does not mean that our children are getting what they need. Today the Food Research and Action Center--an anti-hunger group that tracks summer meal programs--released a report called Hunger Doesn’t Take A Vacation (pdf) which looks at national trends. Using data from the Agriculture Department and state nutrition officials, they show that regional governments around the country are not adequately funded to feed low-income kids during the summer. The states most in trouble are California, Louisiana, South Carolina, Kentucky, Hawaii and Utah. Consider: In 2009, 73,000 fewer children participated in summer meal programs than in 2008--even though the number of those in need skyrocketed due to our troubled economy. Among the students who ate free or reduced-cost lunches during the regular school term, just 16 percent were fed adequately when out of school. Back in 2001, that figure was 21 percent. In other words, a lot more children in the United States will ...

Hurricane predictors warned us this season could be a bad one, and could bring unknown consequences for the ongoing BP oil spill. We may soon find out what those consequences are, as Tropical Storm Alex moves toward the Gulf and may reach hurricane status today.

More Delays

Supposing Alex reaches the spill, it might not be all bad.

Waves churned up by Alex — as high as 12 feet — could help break up the patches of oil scattered across the sea. The higher-than-normal winds that radiate far from the storm also could help the crude evaporate faster. “The oil isn’t in one solid sheet. It’s all broken up into patches anyway. It will actually work to break those patches down,” said Piers Chapman, chairman of the oceanography department at Texas A&M University [AP].

But while the storm conceivably could help in the long term, in the short term it might mean delays and frustration—skimming boats stuck in port because of dangerous waters, and perhaps all that containment boom proving ineffective in such turbulent seas. If responders have to remove the equipment and replace it later, that could waste a lot of time. Admiral Thad Allen of the Coast Guard says he doesn’t expect Alex to affect the relief well operations, though hurricanes can prove unpredictable.

Backups for Backups

Speaking of the relief wells, they’re getting closer. The New York Times reports that the first has drawn within 1,000 vertical feet of intercepting the well, and the second is right behind. But since the relief well was a backup plan to all the other efforts that failed, BP’s Kent Wells says the company is now developing a backup to its backup, lest that fail as well.

The backup plan would involve continuing to collect the oil through several systems at the wellhead and pumping it through a subsea pipeline to an existing production platform at least several miles away. Mr. Wells said several platforms had been identified as possibilities, although no decisions had been made [The New York Times].

Wanted: Bird Habitat. Will Pay.

While BP crafts another in its long line of possible solutions, the federal government came up with an answer of its own to the oiled bird problem: If they’re running out of oil-free habitat, we’ll just create more habitat. Under a program called the Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative, the Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service will pay farmers to flood some of their fields.

Landowners would be expected to flood fields and promote the growth of vegetation favored by migratory birds, or to enhance existing wetlands on their properties, for three to five years, said NRCS spokeswoman Chris Coulon. Rice fields and fish farms are particularly suited to the initiative [Los Angeles Times].

The government allocated $20 million for this, though we shall see just how many farmers want to take the money and flood out their land.

Recent posts on the BP oil spill:
80beats: This Hurricane Season Looks Rough. What If One Hits the Oil Spill?
80beats: Is Louisiana’s Oil-Blocking Sand Berm Project Doomed?
80beats: Will Methane Gas in Gulf Waters Create a Massive Dead Zone?
80beats: From Marsh Grass to Manatees: The Next Wave of Life Endangered by BP’s Oil
80beats: BP to Kevin Costner: We’ll Take 32 of Your Oil Clean-up Machines

Image: NASA, Tropical Storm Alex

Perhaps you think Steve exaggerated the resolution of the band new iPhone 4. Perhaps you’re peeved that the phone’s reception can disappear, depending on how you hold it. Perhaps you’re afraid of dropping it and shattering its sleek face.

Perhaps you just want to know: Will it blend?

We showed the (successful) attempt to blend the iPad in April. Now the blender company Blendtec–which has also destroyed glow-sticks and various Guitar Hero iterations–has tried the same with Apple’s newest toy:

Mmm…black powder, cameos, and not-so-subtle references to Gizmodo.

Those with a flare for the dramatic might prefer to scorch their iPhone using a 64-inch Fresnel lens, as shown on the blog DVICE.

Too impatient for blending or burning? This video, seen on The Telegraph website, shows what happens when iPhone 4 meets sniper rifle.

Now it’s time to go home and hug your iPad.

Related content:
Discoblog: Will The iPad Blend? Watch and Find Out.
Discoblog: So, a Guy Walks Into a Bar… and Discovers Apple’s Latest iPhone
Bad Astronomy: Resolving the iPhone resolution
80beats: The iPhone 4: Snappy Visuals and Shiny New Video Chats
Discoblog: Weird iPhone Apps (our growing compendium of the oddest apps out there)

[Warning: comic book nerdiness ensues. Be ye fairly warned, says I.]

I received an odd message from my friend Deric Hughes (who is totally cool and writes for "Warehouse 13" and is not a nerd at all, nossir) on Twitter. It said:

THIS was inside the latest issue of Ultimate Avengers2. I think Nick Fury paid you a special visit.

"THIS" was a blurry picture, but clear enough to show me that I had to immediately go to my local comic book store (Time Warp, cool place) and buy myself a copy of issue 4 of Avengers 2. Why? Here’s why:

HOLY FRAK MY NAME IS IN BLACK WIDOW’S PHONE BOOK!!

OK, backing up a bit:

In this part of the story, Black Widow (translation for the non-comic-book nerds^*: she was played by Scarlett Johansson in Iron Man 2) is recounting how she and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson in Iron Man 2) used to be a couple. She noticed something odd in her phone book one day: some of her friends and family had red dots next to their names. That last panel shows her phone book, with, for some reason, my name in it.

OK? OK. Now, there are several avenues my thinking is taking here.

1) Perhaps the writer, Mark Millar, is familiar with my writing. However, as cool as that is, it is perhaps eclipsed by the idea that…

2) I’m in Black Widow’s phone book. Now why would that be? I don’t know; perhaps she has a history of sudden astronomical emergencies and has me in speed dial as a lifeline. Or perhaps there are um, other reasons. I don’t feel a lengthy explanation is necessary here. However, I’ll note that while I don’t know if this book will in any way lead to this story getting up on the Big Screen, you never know.

3) I noticed there are no red dots by my name. [SPOILER ALERT!] In the story, people with dots by their name had been paid a visit by Fury. And the adjective generally associated with such a visit is conjugal.

4) … and it’s perhaps more relevant to say that there’s no red dot by my name yet. And there are two more issues in this story’s series.

Hmmmm.

Happily, I have a potential pathway to enlightenment here: Comic Con. I’ll be attending in late July, and perhaps someone there will be able to clear this up. I’ll seek out Mark Millar, of course, since that’s a good path to an explanation.

But maybe there’s a more direct route.

Black Widow, hon, if you’re reading this: you obviously have my number. Let’s work this out.

Perhaps it’s a fitting tribute. The Japanese–designers of some of the world’s most ingenious robots–can now watch a traditional art form get a robotic makeover. As described in a paper published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, MIT and Harvard researchers have made self-folding origami that can mold itself into a boat or an airplane.

Why? Origami is just a first step; researchers picture the “shape-shifting” robots used for everything from “smart” cups that could change from grande to venti based on how much coffee you need to a “Swiss army knife” that will bend to its user’s will, forming a variety of tools.

Study coauthor Robert Wood, an electrical engineering professor at Harvard, described the work as a proof of concept for future application.

“Imagine foregoing all the tools in your toolbox and instead using a stack of self-folding sheets to produce the tools and structures you need for a particular job,” says Wood. [New Scientist]

The square sheet is a little larger than 1.5 inches wide and about 2 hundredths of an inch thick. To make the square, researchers attached fiberglass triangular sections with flexible silicone rubber–the places where the sections join are the equivalent of origami folds. Strips of metal alloy along the joints that contract and expand when heated and cooled (as current runs through them) serve as the folding robot’s muscles.

When the alloy strips reached 178 degrees F, they bent, taking the whole sheet with them. The sheets folded into a variety of shapes in a matter of a few seconds, and magnetic closures helped them stay in place. Eventually, the 32-tile sheets folded into boats and airplanes. [MIT computer scientist Daniela] Rus says the key was figuring out algorithms for folding. It was like learning origami. [Popular Science]

One might picture “programmable matter” like this in the depths of space. Perhaps it could have been handy as a folding solar sail like the one on the Japanese Ikaros solar-sail project? Given other morphing robots, might we also see folding robots crawl under doors in search and rescue attempts? In fact, perhaps the least of its benefits will be folding paper, where we, humans, continue to rule:

The researchers note that although the algorithms produce a workable folding pattern to make a given shape, human experts are often able to design a more efficient scheme. “It doesn’t know how to get creative, and sometimes human origamists can see a few moves ahead, like a chess player,” Rus says. “You see patterns that are not obvious to a computer program that does a step-by-step process.” [Scientific American]

Related content:
80beats: Huge Mirrors, DNA Robots, & Brain Communication Win 2010 Kavli Prizes
80beats: Pioneering Deep-Sea Robot Is Lost to a Watery Grave
80beats: Sunken Oil Rig Now Leaking Crude; Robots Head to the Rescue
80beats: To Win the Evolutionary Race, Robots Learn to Deceive
80beats: “DNA Origami” May Allow Chip Makers to Keep Up With Moore’s Law

Video: Robert Wood, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Daniella Rus, MIT/CSAIL.

Coming soon: Salmon that grow to full size in half the time?

With all sorts of genetically modified crops on the market and in the grocery store in the United States, genetically modified animals have been the next step waiting to happen. The New York Times reports that salmon could be the first up: This year the Food and Drug Administration will weigh approval of a GM salmon created by the company AquaBounty, which could be the first GM animal eaten by Americans.

It is an Atlantic salmon that contains a growth hormone gene from a Chinook salmon as well as a genetic on-switch from the ocean pout, a distant relative of the salmon. Normally, salmon do not make growth hormone in cold weather. But the pout’s on-switch keeps production of the hormone going year round. The result is salmon that can grow to market size in 16 to 18 months instead of three years, though the company says the modified salmon will not end up any bigger than a conventional fish [The New York Times].

AquaBounty tried to assure everyone that it would not be creating grotesque gigantic superfish, but rather would harvest the salmon once they’ve reached “normal” size in a hurry. But those who aren’t placated by assurances have no other option at the moment: The FDA says it is reviewing the safety of GM animals the same way it would new drugs for animals, and that means silence during the process.

“There is no opportunity for anyone from the outside to see the data or criticize it,” said Margaret Mellon, director of the food and environment program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. When consumer groups were invited to discuss biotechnology policy with top F.D.A. officials last month, Ms. Mellon said she warned the officials that approval of the salmon would generate “a firestorm of negative response” [The New York Times].

The AquAdvantage Salmon, as AquaBounty calls its Incredible Hulk of a fish, wouldn’t hit shelves for at least two to three years if it garners FDA approval. The question on many minds, though, is whether shoppers should be notified that their salmon is GM. Right now, the FDA’s presumed answer is no. Other GM products aren’t labeled unless the modification changes their nutritional content.

One thing is clear: If our eating habits don’t change, we need to do something to save salmon.

Demand has put a lot of pressure on fish populations, with no end in sight. Is a genetically altered salmon (sterile females only; raised on inland farms, not in ocean pens) part of the answer? [Dallas Morning News].

Maybe. But, as DISCOVER noted last year, even normal farmed fish that escape can harm wild populations. It’s a good thing these new ones will all be sterile so they can’t interbreed, but they seem prime candidates for unexpected consequences.

Follow DISCOVER on Twitter.

Related Content:
DISCOVER: The Gift of Salmon
DISCOVER: Fish Farming Threatens Wild Salmon
80beats: Controversial Study Says Dams Aren’t Killing Off the Pacific Salmon
80beats: California’s Water Management Threatens Salmon With Extinction
80beats: Are Fish Farms the Answer to World Hunger or a Blight on the Oceans?
80beats: Biotech Potato Wins European Approval; May Signal a Larger Shift in GM Crops

Image: Wikimedia Commons

At Argentina’s Sanagasta Geological Park, there is a volcanic nursery for giants. It’s a site that is strewn with the fossilised eggs of giant dinosaurs – sauropods. Each of their 80 or so egg clusters sits next to a geyser, a hot vent or other volcanically heated sites. This is no coincidence – eggs need moisture and heat to incubate properly and big eggs are particularly demanding. These dinosaurs were using the planet to keep their babies warm.

Argentina is a haven for any palaeontologist looking for dinosaur eggs. Different provinces have yielded several large nesting sites. Most belonged to the giant sauropods and some even contain eggs with fossilised embryos inside. The sites have told us much about how dinosaurs looked after their young and even what ate baby dinosaurs but until now, scientists have largely ignored the question of why these particular sites were such inviting locations for expectant dinosaurs.

Enter Gerald Grellet-Tinner & Lucas Fiorelli. They were the duo who discovered the Sanagasta egg clutches in a valley heavy with geothermal activity. The area is littered with geysers and vents, each around 4 metres high and at least 15 metres wide. Today, they are surrounded by characteristic crystals and minerals, as well as traces of fossilised mud. These signs tell us that all of these structures were already active during the Cretaceous period although they (like the dinosaurs whose eggs they incubated) are long extinct.

The eggs themselves told Grellet-Tinner and Fiorelli that they were buried in heavily moist soil. For a start, each egg clutch sites within 3 metres of one of these geothermal structures. The shells have an extensive network of pores. These give them a spongy appearance in cross-section (see below), and they suggest that the eggs were buried in soil that was saturated in water. On the shell’s outer surface, each pore sits between small, rounded nodules that prevent sediment from clogging them up.

Each huge egg measured around 21 centimetres in diameter. Their shells are almost a centimetre thick and their fragments have been preserved well enough that they could be reassembled into a whole. They are so big and thick that they must have been laid by very large animal indeed, probably one of the giant sauropods. Unfortunately, no skeletons have actually been found so Grellet-Tinner and Fiorelli can’t tell us what species laid these eggs. Whatever they were, they clearly laid their eggs in the valley repeatedly and en masse, forming a long-lasting relationship with this special place.

It’s not surprising that at least some extinct dinosaurs did this because some of their living relatives – birds – use the same strategy. The megapodes – a group of birds including brush turkeys and mallee fowl – all bury their eggs in soil that they maintain at specific temperatures, kicking soil on and off an incubation mound and taking the temperature with their sensitive beaks. The rare Polynesian megapode probably comes closest –in its home at Niuafo Island, Tonga, it buries its eggs at nesting sites on that are heated by volcanoes. It’s a strategy that has clearly been around for millions of years.

Reference: Nature Communications http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1031

All images courtesy of Gerald Grellet-Tinner/Lucas Fiorelli

More on dinosaur reproduction:

• Duck-billed dinosaur defended itself by outgrowing predators
• Dinosaur daddies took care of their young alone
• Sanajeh, the snake the ate baby dinosaurs
• Dramatic restructuring of dinosaur feathers revealed by two youngsters of same species

If you haven’t heard about the site Fake Science, then go there now. They/he/she post(s) retro posters with great drawings and well, fake science adages on them. The one shown here is from Thursday, and is typical. It’s really funny, and I always look forward to the next one!

Morning Edition has a strange story today about the exploration of one neuroscientist of his own family’s history, specifically its psychological and neurological quirks. To not put too fine a point on it, the scientist in question finds out that he has a history of violence in his family, and, that he carries a genetic variant implicated in violent behavior under particular conditions, as well as telling neurological patterns found among psychopaths. Here’s the relevant section:

After learning his violent family history, he examined the images and compared them with the brains of psychopaths. His wife’s scan was normal. His mother: normal. His siblings: normal. His children: normal.

“And I took a look at my own PET scan and saw something disturbing that I did not talk about,” he says.

What he didn’t want to reveal was that his orbital cortex looks inactive.

“If you look at the PET scan, I look just like one of those killers.”

Fallon cautions that this is a young field. Scientists are just beginning to study this area of the brain — much less the brains of criminals. Still, he says the evidence is accumulating that some people’s brains predispose them toward violence and that psychopathic tendencies may be passed down from one generation to another.

The Three Ingredients

And that brings us to the next part of Jim Fallon’s family experiment. Along with brain scans, Fallon also tested each family member’s DNA for genes that are associated with violence. He looked at 12 genes related to aggression and violence and zeroed in on the MAO-A gene (monoamine oxidase A). This gene, which has been the target of considerable research, is also known as the “warrior gene” because it regulates serotonin in the brain. Serotonin affects your mood — think Prozac — and many scientists believe that if you have a certain version of the warrior gene, your brain won’t respond to the calming effects of serotonin.

Fallon calls up another slide on his computer. It has a list of family members’ names, and next to them, the results of the genotyping. Everyone in his family has the low-aggression variant of the MAO-A gene, except for one person.

“You see that? I’m 100 percent. I have the pattern, the risky pattern,” he says, then pauses. “In a sense, I’m a born killer.”

Fallon is being a bit dramatic for effect obviously, but as I said to Eric Michael Johnson this is like finding out you have a history of alcoholism in the family, as well as a genetic variant which results in the less efficient metabolization of alcohol. You know what you know, and you know what you have to do to not put yourself in a position where your predispositions could mix with a dangerous set of choices.

Going back to this example and being more practical, what if behavior genomics and neuroscience advance to the point where you can find out the odds of your child having issues with impulse control, heightened aggression, and reduced independent ethical judgement (e.g., guilt as opposed to shame) are all greater than than expectation. All things being equal the research is telling you that instead of having a 0.1% chance of landing in jail for violent crime, your offspring has a 5% chance. There are all sorts of things you might do, and choices you might make. If, for example, you yourself know that guilt is just something you aren’t heavily gifted with, and that gets you intro trouble in the long term (as you make a sequence of ‘rational’ unethical choices on a regular basis), you might choose a profession which is very transparent so that you don’t have to make ethical decisions on a regular basis where short term self-interest is in conflict with long term self-interest & socialized conceptions of right & wrong. Go into finance if you can do math. Become a lawyer if you can’t.

Update: The American Academy paper is now live. Download it here. My Washington Post piece is receiving a truly unexpected blog critique. It is basically being criticized for being relatively brief, and not getting into that much detail. In other words, it is being criticized for being what it is by definition--a short newspaper commentary. Thus Orac, PZ Myers, and Evil Monkey all fault the piece for not providing more on solutions. The irony is that the byline of the Post piece mentions that I've done a more in depth paper on all this for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. And that 15 page paper, in turn, is based on a reading of hundreds of pages of transcripts for four expert workshops put together by the Academy. There is more talk of solutions in the transcripts than the paper, and more in the paper than in the Post piece...and so on. As you'd expect. In any event, the paper releases today, whereupon it will be available at this link. Thus far, the link isn't working, but it should pretty soon. So for those who want more detail, please download the paper. Or, if you prefer, criticize the Post piece and then download the paper! [Note: ...