UT graduate student discovers new species of ant in Amazon
After four extensive months in the Amazon rainforest, UT graduate student Christian Rabeling discovered a new species of ant, a lineage believed to be linked to the oldest ants in the world.
The blind, subterranean predatory ant, named Martialis heureka, is the first new subfamily of living ants discovered since 1923. It is believed to be a descendant of the first ants to ever evolve from wasps more than 120 million years ago.
The two- to three-millimeter-long ant has no eyes and large mandibles, which are pairs of appendages near the ant’s mouth.
Rabeling, a grad student in the ecology, evolution and behavior program, said he collected the ant in 2003 from leaf litter in Brazil while investigating fungus. Rabeling said the discovery was accidental.
“One night as I was about to leave and organize my things, I saw the ant and noticed it was kind of strange,” he said. “When I looked at it under a microscope, I couldn’t identify it.”
Rabeling said there are more than 12,000 different species of ants and new ones are discovered frequently.
Rabeling’s research is featured in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a multidisciplinary scientific serial that publishes research reports, commentaries and reviews.
Rabeling’s co-authors, who assisted with the ant’s discovery, include German museum biologist Manfred Verhaagh, Brazilian ecologist Marcos Garcia and UT graduate student Jeremy Brown.
“You can never plan on these things,” Rabeling said about the discovery. “I feel really lucky.”
— Erika Jaramillo
Research team finds carbon material has energy potential
Graphene, a carbon material, has the potential to store a vast but unknown amount of renewable electrical energy, according to new research conducted by a UT research team.
The discovery offers an alternative to the existing options for electrical energy, such as batteries and ultracapacitors, which use a different type of carbon and provide little or no energy storage potential.
Rodney Ruoff, a UT research professor of mechanical engineering led a team including a graduate student and two postdoctoral fellows to face U.S. Department of Energy’s challenge to focus on and develop storage capabilities for alternative energy, such as wind and solar power.
“This is a method of storing electrical charge to be coupled with other sources, like wind and sun,” Ruoff said. “By being able to store energy, we can see the implementation of wind and sun energy.”
There still exists some uncertainties, according to Ruoff. He said it is still not possible to say whether or not their discovery will render any existing technologies obsolete, as more work must be done. But Ruoff and his team intend to continue their research. Ruoff said new material takes about 20 years to be put on the market, but he predicts that if the new carbon material can be made cheaper and in larger quantities, it may be utilized in less than a decade or so.
“What sparked our interest was the realization that as we think of the carbon material that we were using and what’s used now, there could some added benefits with ours,” he said.
Their findings will be published in the Oct. 8 issue of Nano Letters, a journal of the American Chemical Society.
— Roberto A. Cervantes
Hurricane Ike death toll rises as affected areas begin to recover
HOUSTON — At least six more deaths were blamed on Hurricane Ike, the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office said Tuesday, bringing the storm’s death toll to 48.
Seventeen deaths have been in Texas.
The latest cases bring to the total deaths reported in Harris County to nine. Five were attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning caused by improper use of gasoline-powered portable generators. Two died in fires where evidence showed candles were in use because the power was out.
Among the latest reported deaths were men fatally injured while trimming trees damaged by the storm.
A 61-year-old man fell from a 20-foot ladder while cutting branches in Harris County. Another man, 59, was hit by a tree limb while he was cutting trees in his Montgomery County yard. The Harris County coroner handles cases for the adjacent suburban county to the north.
Carbon monoxide was the most common killer and the common cause was generators found inside the houses or garages.
Victims ranged in age from 4 to 54, including two men, age 20 and 32, found dead in the same Houston house Monday where a generator had been running in the kitchen.
“Portable gas generators are dangerous if used improperly,” medical examiner’s office spokeswoman Beverly Begay said. “It’s like parking in your garage and closing the garage door and leaving your truck or car running. It’s still going to emit fumes and also be odorless fumes as well.”
In the fire fatalities, a 58-year-old woman died at her home in Tomball where investigators found evidence of multiple candles around the house. And a 53-year-old in Houston died in a fire where several candles had been lit in her bedroom.
-- The Associated Press
Dell’s shares fall as company makes announcment to investors
SAN FRANCISCO — Hurting from price cuts and an expensive restructuring, Dell Inc. rattled investors Tuesday with another warning, this time that corporate spending on technology is weakening further.
By most measures, the technology sector has been chugging along fine, which is why Dell’s announcement caused uncertainty about whether the problem is specific to Dell or indicates broader problems in the market.
The revelation caused Dell’s shares to fall $2.01, 11 percent, to $15.98 — their lowest level since September 2001 — and dragged down other technology companies’ stocks, including Sun Microsystems Inc., whose shares fell 4 percent, and IBM Corp., whose shares dipped in early trading but rebounded.
A big part of Dell’s problems stem from its poor competitive position in growth markets outside the U.S., and are not necessarily representative of troubles that will hit other companies as severely, analysts said.
While Dell rivals like Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM Corp. are also feeling the downturn, they’re able to absorb it better because of their broader geographic reach, higher-profit products and breadth of offerings including services and software.
-- AP
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