Rupp breezes in the rain; top sprinters advance

Galen Rupp reacts after finishing the men's 10,000m finals at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials Friday, June 22, 2012, in Eugene, Ore. Rupp finished first, Matt Tegenkamp second and DathanRitzenhein third. The three will represent the U.S. in the London Olympics. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Galen Rupp reacts after finishing the men's 10,000m finals at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials Friday, June 22, 2012, in Eugene, Ore. Rupp finished first, Matt Tegenkamp second and DathanRitzenhein third. The three will represent the U.S. in the London Olympics. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Lolo Jones clears a hurdle in front of Kori Carter during a women's 100m hurdles preliminary at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials Friday, June 22, 2012, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Sanya Richards-Ross leads the way in the women's 400m preliminary at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials Friday, June 22, 2012, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Ashton Eaton reacts after his long jump during the decathlon competition at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials Friday, June 22, 2012, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Manteo Mitchell crosses the finish line during a men's 400m preliminary at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials Friday, June 22, 2012, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) ? With water ponding on the track and the finish line in plain sight, 10,000-meter runner Galen Rupp waved to the crowd, smiled and stuck out his tongue.

Catching a bit of rain. And soon, he'll be catching a plane to London.

Running in the pouring rain Friday, Rupp still set an Olympic trials record, finishing in 27 minutes, 25.33 seconds to make his second Olympics.

His was the most impressive performance on opening day in rainy Eugene, save possibly for the effort decathlete Ashton Eaton put in. Eaton made it through the first five events on pace to break a 20-year-old American record held by Dan O'Brien.

While the long-distance runners and decathletes were grinding, the sprinters used Day 1 to warm up ? not a bad idea considering the wet chill that gripped Hayward Field all day long.

Sanya Richards-Ross, LaShawn Merritt, Allyson Felix and Carmelita Jeter all made it through their opening heats with minimal problems.

"Other than it messing up my hair, it's OK," Richards-Ross said after running her first 400-meter qualifier in 51.69 seconds.

Merritt, the defending Olympic champion at 400 meters, took to the rain-slickened track, sidestepped a runner who slipped and fell in the lane next to him and finished in 45.36 seconds, the best time in the men's heats.

"I saw him and I had to do a little step more toward the inside of my lane, where I should've been in the first place," Merritt said.

Jeremy Wariner, the 2004 Olympic champion, also advanced to the semifinals, though his race wasn't quite such a breeze. He finished third in his heat in a time of 45.84.

"Just clearing the cobwebs out," Wariner said. "I worked my turn pretty well. I saved a lot for the homestretch."

David Neville, the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist, finished last in his heat and won't go to London unless he is chosen for the relay team.

The 400 runners have semifinals Saturday, with finals scheduled for Sunday.

In the women's 100, Felix and Jeter each won their heats easily.

"It was OK. Just wanted to make it safely to the next round," Felix said. "I feel like tomorrow will be better. Always good to get that first one out of the way."

In the women's 100 hurdles, Dawn Harper, the defending Olympic champion, won her heat in 12.79 seconds ? a victory she earned even though she didn't have the ideal, track-grabbing spikes in her shoes.

"I actually change spikes" when it rains, she said. "Usually, the pointier ones grab the track. It was on my mind out there because I had the older ones in."

Jones also qualified but not by much. She finished third in her heat for the last automatic qualifying spot after running 13.01. Her race was delayed when Shericka Ward false started.

"I felt really good, but it was a bad race," Jones said. "After the false start, I just relaxed a little bit too much."

Meet organizers scrubbed women's pole vault preliminaries, meaning all 29 athletes, including 2008 Olympic silver medalist Jenn Suhr, will move to finals Sunday.

In the decathlon, Eaton was ahead of a world-record pace for two events. His shot put throw of 46 feet, 7 3/4 inches slowed him down, but he still ended the day with 4,728 points ? 322 ahead of Trey Hardee and 17 ahead of the pace O'Brien's was on when he set the record of 8891.

"This is the culmination of a lot of hard work my team has put in," Eaton said.

Eaton, an Oregon native, also finished the day by running in the pouring rain, finishing the 400 meters in 46.70 seconds. He looked very much at home.

As did Rupp, who will be joined on the 10K team by Matt Tegenkamp (27:33.94) and Dathan Ritzenhein (27:36.09).

Most of the rest were simply trying to make the best of it, glad to advance on a murky day, knowing that under U.S. rules, the top three qualify ? no excuses or second chances, even for the best of the best.

"You have to adapt to what the weather is, how the track is," Merritt said. "Know what you're doing before you get out there. You know the weather, the wind, and the track is slippery. It's all about going in with a plan and executing."

Associated Press

nick diaz sheryl sandberg superbowl recipes super bowl kick off chili recipes carlos condit diaz vs condit

Grb2 holds powerful molecular signaling pathway in check

Friday, June 22, 2012

Once considered merely a passive link between proteins that matter, Grb2 - pronounced "grab2" - actually lives up to its nickname with its controlling grip on an important cell signaling pathway, scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in the June 22 issue of Cell.

"Grb2 is a switch that controls normal signaling through the fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR)," said the paper's senior author, John Ladbury, Ph.D., professor in MD Anderson's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

"Perhaps the best way to think about it is that Grb2 controls cell homeostasis (stable state) before a growth factor binds to FGFR, activating this molecular pathway," Ladbury said.

In addition to discovering a fundamental aspect of FGFR signaling, the researchers' discovery points to a potential explanation of why genomic alterations found in breast, bladder and gastric cancers and melanoma might promote cancer formation and growth, Ladbury noted.

FGFR has a docking station to receive growth factors on the cell surface, and another internal region that passes the growth factor signal on to proteins inside the cell by attaching phosphate groups to them.

FGFR employs phosphorylation to regulate a number of important processes, including the cell cycle, cell proliferation and migration. When some of these pathways become overactive, they can contribute to cancer growth and survival.

Like "a car idling in neutral" ready to go

Grb2's full name reflects its location: growth factor receptor-bound protein 2. In the great rush of molecular signaling pathway mapping in the 1990s, Ladbury noted that Grb2 was labeled an "adaptor protein," one that has no activity of its own apart from connecting to other proteins.

Mapping ran way ahead of figuring out each protein's function in a signaling pathway, Ladbury said, and scientists are still catching up in that area.

"When you think about it, why would a cell bother to produce a protein that plays only a passive role linking one protein to another?" Ladbury said. He and his colleagues found that's simply not the case with Grb2.

They demonstrated that Grb2 binds to the internal signaling region of FGFR, preventing the receptor from activating other pathways while at the same time allowing a baseline level of phosphorylation of FGFR that isn't strong enough to initiate a signal by recruiting other proteins. This baseline phosphorylation occurs without a growth factor activating the receptor and only happens if Grb2 is bound to FGFR.

"You can think of this like a car that's idling in neutral," Ladbury said. "Its engine is running but it's not going anywhere. "

But it is primed for action, and the team found that this idling version of FGFR is more likely to attract an external growth factor that triggers full signaling. They also found when the growth factor FGF docks at the receptor and activates it:

• FGFR then attaches a phosphate group to the Grb2 that was holding it in check.
• Phosphorylated Grb2 disconnects from the receptor.
• With its internal signaling domain now clear of Grb2, FGFR can change the shape of the domain so it can signal to other proteins by phosphorylating them.

"The growth factor essentially slots that idling car into gear, and off it goes," Ladbury said. Having FGFR warming up before activation appears to be a more efficient way for a cell to activate the pathway than starting from a state of zero phosphorylation.

There's reason to believe this mechanism may apply to other tyrosine kinase receptor proteins, a class of receptors including FGFR that activate signaling cascades by phosphorylating other proteins, Ladbury noted. Additional research will be required to sort out that possibility.

Potential role in cancer suppression

Their findings provide a possible mechanism to explain why genomic deletions found in bladder and gastric cancer and point mutations in melanoma might promote those cancers.

In each case, the portion of the gene that encodes FGFR's internal signaling domain is affected. If that domain is abnormal, Grb2 would not be able to bind it."That could lead to the FGFR pathway being turned on constantly," Ladbury said.

FGFR launches the MAPK signaling pathway, which is known to promote cancer when abnormally activated. Ladbury and colleagues have identified a potential tumor-suppressing role for Grb2.

The team developed and confirmed the relationship between Grb2 and FGFR via cell biology experiments, biophysics and structural analysis."I'm extremely proud of this group, which can cover all of those bases and provide a full explanation of a system," Ladbury noted.

The Ladbury group continues to investigate:

• Whether cancer cells are predisposed to have abnormal levels of Grb2 , which would affect the control of FGFR signaling.
• How disruption of the cycle of Grb2 binding and release leads to cancer.
• The mechanism by which Grb2 is phosphorylated by FGFR.

###

University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center: http://www.mdanderson.org

Thanks to University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 33 time(s).

cabin in the woods the legend of korra three stooges the three stooges the bee gees legend of korra woodward

Penn State child sex abuse case goes to jury

Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky leaves the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., Thursday, June 21, 2012. Jurors in the case began deliberations Thursday. Sandusky is charged with 48 counts of child sexual abuse involving 10 boys over a period of 15 years. The case is now in the hands of the jury. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky leaves the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., Thursday, June 21, 2012. Jurors in the case began deliberations Thursday. Sandusky is charged with 48 counts of child sexual abuse involving 10 boys over a period of 15 years. The case is now in the hands of the jury. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Jerry Sandusky arrives at the courthouse Thursday, June 21, 2012, for closing arguments of his sexual abuse trial, at the Centre County Courthouse, in Bellefonte, Pa. Sandusky is charged with 51 counts of child sexual abuse involving 10 boys over a period of 15 years. (AP Photo/Centre Daily Times, Nabil K. Mark)

Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky arrives at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., Thursday, June 21, 2012. Sandusky is charged with 51 counts of child sexual abuse involving 10 boys over a period of 15 years. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky arrives at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., Thursday, June 21, 2012. Sandusky is charged with 51 counts of child sexual abuse involving 10 boys over a period of 15 years. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky's wife Dorothy Sandusky arrives at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., Thursday, June 21, 2012. Jerry Sandusky is charged with 51 counts of child sexual abuse involving 10 boys over a period of 15 years. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) ? Jerry Sandusky was either a "predatory pedophile" who lured young boys to Penn State with gifts and access to big-time football, or a victim of now-grown men who lied to get a payout, attorneys argued Thursday as the former coach's child sex abuse case went to a jury.

As jurors deliberated into the evening, one of Sandusky's adopted sons came forward for the first time to say that his father had abused him. Matt Sandusky, 33, was prepared to testify for prosecutors at the trial, his attorneys said in a statement. The statement didn't specify what the alleged abuse was.

The elder Sandusky, who faces life in prison if convicted of 48 counts of abuse of 10 boys over 15 years, was smiling and chuckling to himself as prosecutors wrapped up closing arguments. His wife, Dottie, leaned forward in her seat with a concerned look, resting her chin in her hands.

The former assistant football coach was arrested last November in a scandal that led to the firing of beloved head coach Joe Paterno, who died of cancer in January, and the departure of the university's president.

The jury deliberated for more than eight hours Thursday before stopping at about 9:30 p.m.

Earlier in the evening, the panel asked the judge if they could rehear testimony from two witnesses: Mike McQueary, a onetime graduate assistant who reported seeing Sandusky assault a boy in a campus shower, and Dr. Jonathan Dranov, who testified that McQueary gave him a different account of what he saw.

They'll have a chance to listen again to that testimony, and restart deliberations, Friday.

Prosecutors said Sandusky was "a serial, predatory pedophile" who used gifts and the pageantry of Penn State's vaunted football program to attract and abuse vulnerable boys who came from troubled homes.

"What you should do is come out and say to the defendant that he molested and abused and give them back their souls," Senior Deputy Attorney General Joseph McGettigan III told jurors. "I give them to you. Acknowledge and give them justice."

During his closing argument, McGettigan put up smiling pictures of eight accusers when they were children; all testified at trial that Sandusky molested them.

Standing behind Sandusky, McGettigan implored the jury to convict him

"He molested and abused and hurt these children horribly," McGettigan said. "He knows he did it, and you know he did it. Find him guilty of everything."

Defense attorney Joseph Amendola argued that the 68-year-old Sandusky was targeted by investigators who coached accusers into making false claims about a generous man whose charity gave them much-needed love.

"They went after him, and I submit to you they were going to get him hell or high water, even if they had to coach witnesses," Amendola said in a sometimes angry closing argument.

The closing arguments came after seven days of testimony, some of it graphically describing alleged abuse suffered at the hands of Sandusky, including touching in showers, fondling and in some cases forced oral or anal sex. One alleged victim ? a foster child at the time ? testified that Sandusky threatened him, telling him he would never see his family again if he disclosed the assaults.

Prosecutors said Sandusky met his victims through The Second Mile, a charity he founded for at-risk youth.

Eight young men testified that they were abused by Sandusky, and jurors also heard about two other alleged victims through other witnesses, including another former coach.

Sandusky has repeatedly denied the allegations, but he didn't testify during the trial.

But Amendola said the accusers' stories didn't make sense, since they also included frequent visits to Sandusky's home, trips to football games and other activities.

"Folks, you have to use your common sense," Amendola said. "Jerry Sandusky took these kids everywhere. Is that what a pedophile does? ... Does he parade these kids around?"

McGettigan countered with Sandusky's own words in a November interview with NBC's Bob Costas, in which he struggled to give direct answers to questions.

Asked if he was sexually attracted to boys, Sandusky said: "Sexually attracted, you know, I, I enjoy young people. I, I love to be around them. ... No, I'm not sexually attracted to young boys."

"I would think that the automatic response, if someone asks you if you're a criminal, a pedophile, a child molester, or anything along those lines, would be: 'You're crazy. No. Are you nuts?'" McGettigan said.

The jury, which includes nine people with ties to Penn State, had begun deliberating when Matt Sandusky's attorneys issued a statement alleging that Sandusky abused one of his five adopted sons.

"During the trial, Matt Sandusky contacted us and requested our advice and assistance in arranging a meeting with prosecutors to disclose for the first time in this case that he is a victim of Jerry Sandusky's abuse," Andrew Shubin and Justine Andronici said in the statement. "At Matt's request, we immediately arranged a meeting between him and the prosecutors and investigators.

"This has been an extremely painful experience for Matt and he has asked us to convey his request that the media respect his privacy. There will be no further comment."

Karl Rominger, one of Jerry Sandusky's lawyers, declined comment. Matt Sandusky's lawyers and prosecutors didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Matt Sandusky went to live with Sandusky and his wife as a foster child and was adopted by them as an adult.

Shortly after Jerry Sandusky's arrest, Matt Sandusky's ex-wife went to court to keep her former father-in-law away from their three young children. Jill Jones successfully obtained a restraining order forbidding the children from sleeping over at their grandparents' home.

Around the same time, details emerged that Matt Sandusky had attempted suicide just four months after first going to live with the couple in 1995. He had come into the home through The Second Mile.

During testimony last week, an accuser known as Victim 4 said Matt Sandusky was living at the Sandusky home at the time he stayed there overnight and testified that Jerry Sandusky came into the shower with the two boys and "started pumping his hand full of soap." Matt Sandusky shut off the shower and left, appearing nervous, the witness said.

Earlier Thursday, the judge in the case threw out three of the 51 child sex abuse charges against Sandusky.

Cleland found that one count of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and one count of aggravated indecent assault involving the accuser known as Victim 4 weren't supported by the evidence. Another charge of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse involving another boy was dismissed because Cleland said it duplicated another count.

Meanwhile, a man with a civil lawsuit pending against Jerry Sandusky spoke out Thursday.

Travis Weaver is named as John Doe in the lawsuit filed in Philadelphia in November, but his lawyer, Jeff Anderson, said Thursday he was ready to make his name public.

In an interview with NBC's "Rock Center with Brian Williams" airing Thursday night, the 30-year-old Weaver said Sandusky abused him more than 100 times over four years starting in 1992, when he was 10

Associated Press

ann arbor news ides of march elizabeth smart nick young south dakota state long beach state beasley

Facebook will change ad service to settle lawsuit

[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

[ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

jason wu for target underwood buffalo wings superbowl kick off time 2012 new york giants hot wings recipe 7 layer dip recipe

LG launches 'Quick Voice' on its phones in Korea, goes head to head with S Voice and Siri

After Apple and Samsung have made their Siri and S Voice features keystones of recent smartphone releases, it wasn't long before other manufacturers jumped in and now it's LG's turn with Quick Voice for its Android phones (we'll see how Apple responds to that). Just announced in Korea and rolling out soon for various members of the Optimus family like the Vu and LTE II, it brings natural voice recognition to commonly used functions like searching, setting up appointments or pulling up videos on YouTube. For Korean users it's even tuned to check dates on the lunar calendar, although there's no word yet on when or if it will arrive elsewhere.

LG launches 'Quick Voice' on its phones in Korea, goes head to head with S Voice and Siri originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jun 2012 23:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  LG Korea  | Email this | Comments

breitbart dead db cooper fafsa branson missouri davy jones dead monkees last train to clarksville

The evidence for sea-level rises in North Carolina

Continue reading page |1 |2

In one US state, it is now illegal for sea level rise to speed up. Although climate models predict that sea level rise will accelerate over the coming decades, North Carolina's state senate has passed a bill saying that its Division of Coastal Management cannot "include scenarios of accelerated rates of sea level rise".

The lobby group supporting the bill, NC-20, has released a number of statements arguing that "the point of the bill is to conform rulemaking to actual scientific evidence". It says there is no indication that sea level rise has accelerated over the last few decades.

New Scientist looks at the evidence.

Are sea levels rising? ?
This is an easy one: yes. Levels have been rising since at least the middle of the 19th century, and over the 20th century they rose on average 1.7 millimetres per year. The rise was first reported in 1941 by oceanographer Beno Gutenberg.

Two sources of data confirm this: tide gauges and satellites. The data from tide gauges goes back more than 100 years, though it becomes increasingly patchy the further back you look. Satellites with altimeters only came online around 20 years ago, but unlike tide gauges, which are limited to coastlines, they cover much of the ocean.

Much of the rise is caused by water expanding as it warms up. Melting glaciers and crumbling ice sheets are also contributing, as is humanity's overuse of groundwater.

Is sea level rise accelerating?
This is a harder question to answer, because older records are incomplete. "It's a hot debate," says Simon Holgate of the National Oceanography Centre in Liverpool, UK. Some papers claim that the rise has accelerated over the 20th century, while others (often using the same data) say it hasn't.

"The overall sense of the community is that there's a small acceleration, but there is a lot of noise in the signal," Holgate says.

The best dataset is thought to be one compiled by John Church of CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research in Australia, and colleagues. According to a widely-cited 2006 paper, sea level rise has been accelerating at 0.013 mm/y² since 1870 (Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: 10.1029/2005GL024826). A more recent paper, from 2011, found a smaller acceleration of 0.009 mm/y² using data that goes back to 1860 (Surveys in Geophysics, DOI: 10.1007/s10712-011-9119-1).

By the end of the 20th century, sea level rise had accelerated to 3mm/y, compared to earlier rates around 1mm/y. But Holgate has found that some tide gauges recorded similar high rates much earlier in the century. That means it's hard to be sure that the current rates are truly out of the ordinary (Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: 10.1029/2006GL028492).

Another confounding factor is that the satellite data shows that sea level rise has slowed in the last decade. That's because strong El Ni?o events can temporarily slow down sea level rise, Holgate says. A powerful El Ni?o increases rainfall, effectively moving water from the ocean to the land. The water then takes a couple of years to get back into the ocean. Sea level rise visibly slowed in 2006 and 2010, in the aftermath of El Ni?o events. Such slowdowns are only temporary, and don't affect the long-term trend.

What is the evidence that sea level rise isn't accelerating?
Some studies have found no evidence of acceleration, and NC-20 cites these in its literature.

One was published last year by Robert Dean of the University of Florida, Gainesville. Dean looked at 57 US tide gauges whose records go back at least 60 years, and re-analysed other datasets. His conclusion: sea level rise has slowed down since 1930 (Journal of Coastal Research, DOI: 10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-10-00157.1).

Why did Dean get such different results? According to Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, it's because he started his analysis at 1930, rather than using the full dataset going back to 1870. Global temperatures cooled slightly around 1940, so sea level rise stopped accelerating. As a result, starting the analysis in 1930 gives a misleading answer.

"It's a cherry-picked date," Rahmstorf says. "If you use any other date, you see an acceleration."

Why does the acceleration matter?
If sea levels continued rising at the 20th-century rate of 1.7 mm/y, the entire 21st century would see a rise of just 17 centimetres. Such a small rise isn't without its problems, but humanity could cope.

But most predictions show much larger rises. The 2006 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted a rise of 19 to 59 centimetres by 2100, but this was known to be a lower end estimate because it didn't include the effect of melting ice caps. Ice physics were poorly modelled at the time.

We understand ice better now, but the uncertainties are still massive. Holgate says the rise could be as much as 1.5 metres by 2100, but he says that is "an extreme upper end". The linear rise mandated by North Carolina is the lowest possible, he says.

Continue reading page |1 |2

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

Have your say

Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.

Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article

Subscribe now to comment.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

google earnings pat burrell hilary rosen grilled cheese allen west north korea missile nerlens noel

Wingnut Blogger Outraged at My Implication of Racism, While Commenters Spew Racism (Little green footballs)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

spice katy perry mike starr ufc 141 fight card gli joseph gordon levitt katy perry russell brand