Iranian official signals no early scaling back in nuclear work

By Alissa de Carbonnel

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Iran will press ahead with its uranium enrichment program, its nuclear energy chief said on Friday, signaling no immediate change of course despite the victory of a relative moderate in the June 14 presidential election.

But once Hassan Rouhani takes office in early August, Tehran's current hardline team in nuclear talks with six world powers, led by Saeed Jalili who was a rival election candidate, is likely to be overhauled. Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani's tenure as head of Iran's atomic energy agency may be in jeopardy as well.

Speaking in Russia, Abbasi-Davani said that production of nuclear fuel would "continue in line with our declared goals. The enrichment linked to fuel production will also not change".

Speaking through an interpreter to reporters at a nuclear energy conference in St Petersburg, he said work at Iran's underground Fordow plant - which the West wants Iran to close - would also continue. Iran refines uranium at Fordow to a level that is relatively close to the threshold needed for atom bombs.

Iran says it is enriching uranium only to fuel a planned network of nuclear power stations, and for medical purposes.

But refined uranium also provides the fissile material for nuclear bombs if processed further, which the West fears may be Tehran's ultimate goal given that Tehran has a history of hiding some nuclear activity from U.N. anti-proliferation inspectors.

Abbasi-Davani said Iran's only existing nuclear power plant - which has suffered repeated delays - had been "brought back online" three days ago and was working at 1,000-megawatt capacity. A U.N. nuclear agency report said in May that the Russian-built Bushehr plant was shut down, giving no reason.

"Thankfully in the last days, no concrete defects with the plant have been reported to me," Abbasi-Davani said.

Hopes for a resolution to the nuclear dispute were boosted this month with the election as president of Rouhani, who has promised a more conciliatory approach to foreign relations than confrontational predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

NO FORDOW CLOSURE

As chief nuclear negotiator under reformist President Mohammed Khatami from 2003 to 2005, Rouhani struck a deal with European Union powers under which Iran temporarily suspended uranium enrichment-related activities. They were resumed after Ahmadinejad was elected in 2005 and have been sharply expanded.

Jalili, the current chief negotiator, has espoused a "no compromises" stance that was derided even by other conservatives in the election campaign for failing to yield any progress in talks, triggering ever more punishing sanctions against Iran.

Asked whether there would be any change in Iranian policy after Rouhani's election and whether it could suspend 20 percent enrichment, Abbasi-Davani said Iran's nuclear program was aimed at producing electricity and medical isotopes only.

"In line with these two goals of course the production of energy will not stop," he said. Fordow is under the monitoring of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, he said. "We will of course continue our work at this centre."

Iran's theocratic supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday the nuclear stand-off could easily be resolved if the West were to stop being so stubborn.

While accusing the West of being more interested in regime change than ending the dispute, Khamenei did express a desire to resolve an issue which has led to ever tighter and more damaging sanctions on Iran's oil sector and the wider economy.

But analysts say it remains uncertain whether Iran with Rohani as president will be more amenable to the demands of world powers that it halt its most sensitive enrichment, to a fissile concentration of 20 percent, and stop work at Fordow.

The hardline Khamenei wields ultimate control over Iranian nuclear policy, although the president has important influence.

Abbasi-Davani also said Iran would soon give to the Vienna-based IAEA a list of planned nuclear reactor sites. He spoke in front of a model of the Bushehr reactor at the Islamic state's stand at the nuclear industry fair in St Petersburg.

(Additional reporting by Marcus George; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iranian-official-signals-no-scaling-back-nuclear-activity-114645824.html

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Social networks shape monkey 'culture' too

June 27, 2013 ? Of course Twitter and Facebook are all the rage, but the power of social networks didn't start just in the digital age. A new study on squirrel monkeys reported in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, on June 27 finds that monkeys with the strongest social networks catch on fastest to the latest in foraging crazes. They are monkey trendsters.

The researchers, led by Andrew Whiten of the University of St Andrews, made the discovery by combining social network analysis with more traditional social learning experiments. By bringing the two together, they offer what they say is the first demonstration of how social networks may shape the spread of new cultural techniques. It's an approach they hope to see adopted in studies of other social animals.

"Our study shows that innovations do not just spread randomly in primate groups but, as in humans, are shaped by the monkeys' social networks," Whiten said.

Whiten, along with Nicolas Claidi?re, Emily Messer, and William Hoppitt, traced the monkeys' social networks by recording which monkeys spent time together in the vicinity of "artificial fruits" that could be manipulated to extract tempting food rewards. Sophisticated statistical analysis of those data revealed the monkeys' social networks, with some individuals situated at the heart of the network and others more on the outside. The researchers rated each of the monkeys on their "centrality," or social status in the network, with the highest ratings going to monkeys with the most connections to other well-connected individuals.

The artificial fruits could be opened in two different ways, either by lifting a little hatch on the front or by pivoting it from side to side. The researchers trained the alpha male in one group of monkeys on the lift technique, while the leader in another group was trained on the pivot method. They then sent them back to their groups and watched to see how those two methods would catch on in the two groups.

More central monkeys with the strongest social ties picked up the new methods more successfully, the researchers found. They were also more likely than peripheral monkeys to learn the method demonstrated by their trained alpha leaders.

Whiten said the squirrel monkeys are a good species for these studies because of their natural inquisitiveness. They also lead rather intense social lives.

The researchers now hope to extend their studies to focus on the squirrel monkeys in different contexts -- while foraging, moving, and resting, for example -- and how those contexts might influence the spread of innovations. They suspect they might even find evidence for different monkey subcultures.

"If there are subgroups within the network, then what appear to be mixed behaviors at the group level could in fact be different behaviors for different subgroups -- what could be called subcultures," Whiten said.

Current Biology, "Diffusion dynamics of socially learned foraging techniques in squirrel monkeys."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/DnyTUDuVShw/130627125152.htm

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Viral Video: Museum?s Mummy Statue Moves

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Source: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/06/24/video-mummy-statue-moves-at-museum/

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The Adorable Mini-Sports Car Has Gotten a Remarkable Upgrade

As you may or may not remember, a few years ago we posted photos of these incredible, half-scale sports cars that?despite being called "children's cars"?are more badass than any car any adult could ever hope to own. And although the junior cars' visionary, Nathan Redfearn, was getting ready to shut down production, the beautiful, tiny, and fully-functional cars struck a chord with so many people that they were able to keep going?much to our benefit. And now they're even getting an awesome new upgrade.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/hKrvnwoLyZY/the-adorable-mini-sports-car-has-gotten-a-remarkable-up-563566055

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Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine: Stanford's Research Provides Hope for Patients With Narcolepsy

Julie Flygare and Dr. Emmanuel Mignot at the SLEEP 2013 meeting in Baltimore.

On a recent trip to San Francisco, I boarded a train headed south to Palo Alto to visit the Stanford Center for Narcolepsy. As the train whizzed through the Bay Area, I reflected on my long and unexpected journey to arrive at this point.

In 2005, I awoke one night to a burglar breaking into my apartment. I'd recently graduated from Brown University and moved into my first "grown up" apartment with a friend in Boston. On this evening, a man in a dark brown hoodie approached me with his arms stretched out toward my neck. I squirmed to get away, but couldn't move. My body was unresponsive, as if wearing a straitjacket.

A few minutes later, I could move again and sat up abruptly, my heart racing with adrenaline pumping. Where was the intruder now? The apartment was silent and all the windows and doors were securely locked. I went back to sleep, confused.

Later that year, I was laughing with a friend about a joke when my knees buckled slightly, as if someone had poked behind my knees. The weakness felt dramatic inside but passed quickly before I was sure what had happened.

This strange momentary weakness began happening every few weeks and started affecting my arms and neck as well. More emotions brought it on -- like annoyance, sexual pleasure, and surprise.

In the fall of 2006, I entered law school, excited for the academic challenges ahead. Before long, I was struggling more than I'd imagined, unable to stay awake in class and while studying at night. Where was my strong willpower?

One morning toward the end of my first year of law school, I awoke in my school's parking lot, unable to recall arriving there. I'd driven just 15 minutes in the morning after getting nine hours to sleep.

"Maybe I have a sleep problem," I said to myself for the first time.

By this time, burglars and other realistic night visitors invaded my sleep regularly. My body continued collapsing with emotions and had gotten worse. Now, I was falling to the ground for a minute or two, paralyzed and unable to speak or move, but remaining conscious and aware of my surroundings.

After multiple primary care doctors missed my diagnosis, I randomly mentioned my knee-buckling laughter to a sports medicine therapist who thought she'd heard of something like that called "cataplexy." At home, I Googled "cataplexy" and discovered it was defined as sudden muscle weakness often triggered by emotion. This described my knee-buckling laughter precisely.

I learned that cataplexy was a symptom of narcolepsy. Other symptoms included excessive daytime sleepiness, hypnagogic hallucinations, and sleep paralysis. Excessive daytime sleepiness offered a possible explanation for my difficulties staying awake. My realistic nighttime burglar experiences sounded a lot like hypnagogic hallucinations and sleep paralysis.

Soon thereafter, I visited a narcolepsy specialist and in September of 2007, at the age of 24, I was officially diagnosed with "narcolepsy with cataplexy," a neurological sleep disorder affecting one in 2,000 Americans and 3 million people worldwide, according to the Narcolepsy Network.

Adjusting to narcolepsy in law school wasn't easy. The treatments improved my symptoms but did not erase them. The medications' side effects left me nauseated and sick in other ways. A few months after the diagnosis, I reached an all-time low, realizing narcolepsy was a serious illness I would face every day of my life. There was no cure.

A half year later, I sat in the silent law school library reading a New York Times article about a researcher named Dr. Emmanuel Mignot, Director of Stanford University's Center for Narcolepsy. Dr. Mignot was unraveling the mysteries of narcolepsy and the possible autoimmune pathology.

The article described: "Dr. Mignot is optimistic about cracking the immune-system connection in narcolepsy soon. 'I don't care actually even if it's going to take a long time,' he said. 'I'm ready to cross deserts.'"

In the article, another doctor states that Dr. Mignot was ideally suited for this work, describing, "This is what is good about Mignot. He is relentless."

Goosebumps raised on my arms as I read this description of Dr. Mignot, a relentless researcher crossing deserts for narcolepsy. That day in the library, I vowed to do my part to help Dr. Mignot build a brighter future for narcolepsy. Although not a scientist, I was determined to make a contribution.

After graduating from law school, I moved to Washington, D.C. to write a memoir and advocate for narcolepsy research on Capitol Hill. I also ran the Boston Marathon in 2010 to raise funds for Dr. Mignot's research.

A few years later, while visiting San Francisco, I made the journey to Palo Alto to finally meet the man behind the magic, the Wizard of Narcolepsy.

Arriving at the Center for Narcolepsy's lab, I gave blood for research purposes and met various researchers exploring the mysteries of sleep and narcolepsy. The scientists patiently translated their work to me. Although some terms went over my head, coming together was joyful, a celebration of our mutual passion for the future of sleep and narcolepsy research.

Last but not least, I had the honor of meeting Dr. Mignot in person. He enthusiastically described his research priorities for the coming years.

"I have some crazy ideas too," he said with a smile and sparkle in his eye.

I couldn't help but chuckle. Dr. Mignot having "some crazy ideas" was great news.

As a person with narcolepsy, I face adversity daily. On hard days, I take solace in knowing that the Wizard of Narcolepsy and his fellow researchers at Stanford are working tirelessly and making progress. Their science is our hope.

Julie Flygare, JD is a leading narcolepsy spokesperson and author of Wide Awake and Dreaming: A Memoir of Narcolepsy. She writes the popular REM Runner blog, organizes the National Sleep Walk, and serves on NIH's Sleep Disorder Research Advisory Board. She is also a patient of the Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine. This Center is the birthplace of sleep medicine and includes research, clinical, and educational programs that have advanced the field and improved patient care for decades. To learn more, visit us at: http://sleep.stanford.edu/.

Sources:

Narcolepsy Network. Accessed: June 17, 2013.

Narcolepsy Fact Sheet. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Accessed: June 17, 2013.

For more from the Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine, click here.

For more on sleep, click here.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stanford-center-for-sleep-sciences-and-medicine/living-with-narcolepsy_b_3412263.html

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