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wednesday, january 28, 2004
Team questions cause of ice age
By Bocca Evanhoe
bevanhoe@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
From the sky comes a blinding flash of light. The sky darkens into a murky tea color, the air turns cold and acid rains from the sky. Creatures on land and in the sea die by the thousands.
No, it's not something on the Sci-Fi Channel; it's a cosmic extinction that may have happened millions of years ago, according to a new theory from a research team at the University of Kansas.
Fossil records show that two-thirds of the Earth's species died in a mass extinction 440 million years ago. For decades, scientists have attributed the extinction to an ice age. But the research team, led by Adrian Melott, has a different idea about what may have happened.
"We realized there was this pattern sitting there, staring us in the face," said Melott, professor of physics and astronomy.
The team proposed that a high energy beam called a gamma-ray burst, or GRB, blasted from deep space and irradiated the earth. High energy gamma ray beams come from giant, dying stars called supernovae.
In Melott's theory, the GRB may have unleashed a chain reac
Larry Martin, team member and curator of invertebrate paleontology at the University's Natural History Museum, said that the idea that gamma-ray bursts have probably occurred in Earth's history has been around for about five years. Martin also said that the University's team was the first to introduce a theory that could be applied to a recorded extinction.
tion in the atmosphere, destroying the ozone layer and resulting in the second largest extinction in Earth's history.
The gamma ray theory may turn out to be an important key to understanding evolution of life on Earth, Martin said.
According to the team's theory, the kick could have been a GRB within 10,000 light years of Earth, which unleashed a blinding flash of light and a lot of heat upon impact.
"Early life took a long time to amount to much," Martin said. "It might be that every time life made a real run for it, it got a kick."
When the earth's atmosphere absorbed the energy, molecules of nitrogen and oxygen in the ozone layer blasted apart and recombined into a nasty mix of nitrous oxides — the chemicals that lead to smog and acid rain.
direct results," Martin said. "But the nitric oxide stuff gets blown around, so it'd get to us eventually."
"Ifa GRB went off on the other side of the earth, say China, they'd get the flash of light, the
The thick layer of brown smog-like gas that formed high up in the atmosphere from the nitric oxides blocked sunlight and cooled the planet, possibly triggering the ice age mentioned in earlier theories.
But that's not all. With the ozone layer destroyed, ultraviolet light would have penetrated Earth's surface at levels 50 times greater than today.
Melott said that the penetration of UV light onto land and sea was the key to the theory. Ultraviolet light "fades" as it goes deeper into water, the same way a flashlight beam does. So creatures that live or reproduce in shallow water were more likely to become extinct than those living in deeper waters.
That's exactly the pattern that Bruce Lieberman, associate professor of geology, observed in the fossil record. He noted higher extinction rates for shallow-water dwellers like trilobites — the hard-shelled precursors to crabs and insects — and plankton.
The research is based on a NASA computer model of a simulated supernova explosion on Earth's atmosphere. Melott and others presented the theory at the January meeting of the American
Astronomical Society.
The theory, which is already creating a splash in the scientific community, will not be published in the International Journal of Astrobiology until later this semester. However, the hypothesis has already been reported in international publications such as New Scientist, Nature, and CNN.com.
Claude Laird, team member and adjunct assistant professor of physics and astronomy, said that the hypothesis has been met with a healthy amount of skepticism, mostly because of the lack of quantitative data.
"We don't have a smoking gun, but we wanted to get this out for other scientists to chew on," Laird said. "Like most theories, ours generated a normal amount of controversy. It'll either stand the test of time or it won't."
Melott said that the greatest result of the research, from a scientific perspective, was a greater understanding of the Earth's life history.
The team will continue to work with NASA to make more specific computer models. Lieberman and Martin will look more closely at fossil records to find other creatures that match the pattern of extinction.
Edited by Paul Kramer
Auto dealers worry about state sale
TOPEKA — Someauto dealers worry that the state's plan to unload hundreds of underused vehicles will hurt the used-car market in northeast Kansas.
Forbes Field from Feb. 5 to Feb.
19. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius
announced in November that the state would sell off the vehicles and purchase far fewer new ones to help save $8.6 million.
market in the region for two or three months.
More than 700 state-owned cars, trucks and vans will be available for sale to the public at
around the state was too great," he said. "So we decided to keep them centralized in one spot."
Though the Kansas Department of Administration was aware of the car dealers' concerns, agency spokesman Caleb Asher said the state had to sell the vehicles in the most efficient way possible.
R. R. Anderson, owner of Anderson RV Sales in Topeka and a longtime car dealer, estimated the state sale will hurt the used car
"The cost of taking them
While state law requires dealers to sell vehicles with a warranty, the state is selling the vehicles "as is."
A complete listing of vehicles is posted on the Kansas Department of Administration Web site.
In a separate phone call to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Stonecipher told the governor he did not even know about the study cited in the article.
"Mr. Stonecipher expressly said that he has not seen, reviewed or approved any plans to sell or close the Boeing Wichita facility since his return as CEO of Boeing," Tiahrt said. "He stated the future of Boeing will always include Wichita."
The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Stonecipher said he was "blind-sided" by a weekend story in The Seattle Times reporting the Chicago-based company is considering the sale of its 75-year-old manufacturing facility in Wichita, said Rep. Todd Tiddt (R-I'am).
Stonecipher's comments came on a conference call with Tiahrt and Republican Sens. Sam Brownback and Pats Roberts. Tiahrt said.
WICHITA — Boeing Co. chief executive Harry Stonecipher reassured Kansas politicians yesterday his company's future will always include Wichita.
"He was very positive and very clear about the fact the Boeing Wichita plant is a very strategic part of the Boeing operation," Sebelius said. "He sees the plant as quite productive. ... I was very relieved to hear his positive reassurances, which he made over and over again."
Boeing not selling Wichita factory
The company had steadfastly refused to confirm or deny the story, in which The Times cited an internal Boeing planning document.
Brownback said he would not categorize Stonecipher's comments as a categorical denial of the Times' story. Brownback said there are frequently ongoing studies on restructuring going on at
the company.
Asked why the company waited until yesterday to dispel rumors of a sale, Tihart said the company apparently has a policy of neither confirming or denying such stories. He said Jeff Turner, general manager of Boeing's Wichita facility, also initially gave him the same response.
"As a standard matter of policy in dealing with all news media, especially financial media, we never comment on rumors about sales, acquisitions and/or mergers," said Doug Kenneth, a spokesman for Boeing in Washington, D.C.
Stonecipher was scheduled to arrive in Wichita on last night for a previously scheduled visit to the plant.
Dick Ziegler, a spokesman for Boeing in Wichita, said Stonecipher was coming to the plant look at its programs and visit with its leadership. He will not be available to the media.
The Wichita facility makes sections of all Boeing jetliners, except the 717, including the entire fuselage of the 737 and 757 models. The modification work on the company's refueling tankers is also done at the facility, as is work on a military airborne laser program. The Wichita plant also has been picked to build the forward section of Boeing's proposed 7E7 jetliner.
"Stonecipher pointed out you can't build a Boeing plane without Boeing Wichita." Tiahart said.
Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was happy to hear Stonecipher say that any kind of plan for restructuring in Wichita would not involve the company's defense business there.
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