Has the Earth's sixth mass extinction already arrived?

Palaeontologists characterize mass extinctions as times when the Earth loses more than three-quarters of its species in a geologically short interval, as has happened only five times in the past 540?million years or so. Biologists now suggest that a sixth mass extinction may be under way, given the known species losses over the past few centuries and millennia. Here we review how differences between fossil and modern data and the addition of recently available palaeontological information influence our understanding of the current extinction crisis. Our results confirm that current extinction rates are higher than would be expected from the fossil record, highlighting the need for effective conservation measures.     

Geochemistry: does U-Pb date Earth's core formation?

Constraining the timing of the formation of Earth's core, which defines the birth of our planet, is essential for understanding the early evolution of Earth-like planets. Wood and Halliday and Halliday discuss the apparent discrepancy between the U-Pb (60-80 Myr) and Hf-W clocks (30 Myr) in determining the timescale of Earth's accretion and core formation. We find that the information the authors present is at times contradictory (for example, compare Fig. 1 in ref. 1 with Fig. 1 in ref. 2) and confusing and could suggest that the U-Pb clock constrains core formation better than the Hf-W system. Here we point out the limitations of the U-Pb system and show that the U-Pb age cannot be used to argue for protracted accretion and/or core formation (>50 Myr) because this clock only records the processes that occurred during the last 1% of Earth's accretion and core formation in the Wood and Halliday mechanism.     

Spin transition of iron in magnesiowüstite in the Earth's lower mantle

Iron is the most abundant transition-metal element in the mantle and therefore plays an important role in the geochemistry and geodynamics of the Earth's interior. Pressure-induced electronic spin transitions of iron occur in magnesiowüstite, silicate perovskite and post-perovskite. Here we have studied the spin states of iron in magnesiowüstite and the isolated effects of the electronic transitions on the elasticity of magnesiowüstite with in situ X-ray emission spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction to pressures of the lowermost mantle. An observed high-spin to low-spin transition of iron in magnesiowüstite results in an abnormal compressional behaviour between the high-spin and the low-spin states. The high-pressure, low-spin state exhibits a much higher bulk modulus and bulk sound velocity than the low-pressure, high-spin state; the bulk modulus jumps by approximately 35 percent and bulk sound velocity increases by approximately 15 percent across the transition in (Mg0.83,Fe0.17)O. Although no significant density change is observed across the electronic transition, the jump in the sound velocities and the bulk modulus across the transition provides an additional explanation for the seismic wave heterogeneity in the lowermost mantle. The transition also affects current interpretations of the geophysical and geochemical models using extrapolated or calculated thermal equation-of-state data without considering the effects of the electronic transition.     

Zircon U-Pb dating for the earliest Neoproterozoic mafic magmatism in the southern margin of the North China Block

Geological records of Neoproterozoic magmaticevents have recently been identified in the central Phanerozoic orogenic belts of China[1]. In regions of east Qinling orogen[2], Dabie-Sulu orogen[3], north Qaidam Basin orogen[4―6], and southwest Tarim Basin…     

Vermicular fossils in the Early Cambrian Xidashan Formation in the Quruqtagh region of Xinjiang, China

Large amounts of vermicular fossils and a minor amount of sponge animal fossils have been found in the Early Cambrian Xidashan Formation in the region of Quruqtagh, Xinjiang. Vermicular fossils are generally more than 50 mm long and 0.3?1.4 mm wide; their wrinkled lamellae are microfine with 3?10 pieces within the length of every each millimeter. The fossils are considered to be Sabellidites cambriensis Sokolov (1965). The Xidashan Formation is the highest stratum in which Sabellidites occur, as has been so far reported.     

A new discovery of macroscopic fossils from the Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation in the Yangtze Gorges area

The Ediacaran section in the Yangtze Gorges area, South China, is one of the most important in the worldand contains abundant fossils[1-4]. The earliest discov- ery of macrofossils in 1984, including macroscopic algal fossils from the uppermost Doushantuo…     

Studies of the first lithiation of graphite materials by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

Recently, lithium-ion batteries have attracted inten- sive research interests, especially with respect to the complex interfacial reactions between electrolyte and electrode. Carbonaceous materials are most widely em- ployed as negative materials for lith…     

Ecology: the proximate cause of frog declines?

Pounds et al. argue that global warming contributes to amphibian declines by encouraging outbreaks of the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Although our findings agree with the climate-linked epidemic hypothesis, this pathogen is probably not the only proximate factor in such cases: in the Trasimeno Lake area of Umbria in central Italy, for example, the water frog Rana lessonae first declined in the late 1990s, yet chytridiomycosis was not observed until 2003 (refs 5, 6). Here we show that the chytrid was common there throughout 1999-2002, in a previously unknown form that did not cause disease. We therefore think that the focus by Pounds et al. on a single pathogen is hard to justify because the host-parasite ecology is at present so poorly understood.     

Progress in the study of molecular organized assemblies by dielectric relaxation spectroscopy

Because dielectric spectroscopy covers a great many problems in physical and chemical systems occurring in an extremely wide frequency range, the study of this method plays an important role in physical chemistry. As an effective tool to detect inner properties of substance systems, the dielectric spectroscopy method is widely used in chemical systems and has been dramatically developed in recent decade. This review paper describes the applications of the dielectric spectroscopy in the chemical field, and main concentrations are focused on the micelle, microemulsion and other so-called molecular organized assemblies. Some dielectric principles and models proposed for these systems are introduced. In addition, recent technical developments in dielectric spectroscopy and developing trend of this method in other chemical systems are reviewed.     

THz time-domain spectroscopy of amino acids

The optical characteristics of four kinds of amino acids （tyrosine, arginine, histidine and glutamine） filled with nitrogen at room temperature were studied by THz time-domain spectroscopy （THz-TDS）. Well-resolved absorption and refractive spectrums between 0.I and 2.8 THz were obtained based on the physical model for extracting the optical parameters of materials in THz range. The results not only fill up the spectra gap of amino acids in far-infrared range, supply data for amino acid molecular identification and conformation analysis, but also demonstrate significantly potential to promote the research and application of biological materials in bio-chemical and medical fields by THz-TDS.     

Raman and FTIR spectroscopy of natural oxalates： Implications for the evidence of life on Mars

Evidence for the existence of primitive life forms such as lichens and fungi can be based upon the formarion of oxalates. Oxalates are most readily detected using Raman spectroscopy. A comparative study of a suite of natural oxalates including weddellite, whewellite, moolooite,humboldtine, glushinskite, natroxalate and oxammite has been undertaken using Raman spectroscopy. The minerals are characterised by the Raman position of the CO stretching vibration which is cation sensitive. The band is observed at 1468 cm^-1 for weddellite, 1489 cm^-1 for moolooite, 1471cm^-1 for glushinskite and 1456 cm^-1 for natroxalate. Except for oxammite, the infrared and Raman spectra are mutually exclusive indicating the minerals are bidentate. Differences are also observed in the water OH stretching bands of the minerals. The significance of this work rests with the ability of Raman spectroscopy to identify oxalates which often occur as a film on a host rock. As such Raman spectroscopy has the potential to identify the existence or pre-existence of life forms on planets such as Mars.     

Discovery of the budding phosphatized globular fossils from the Neoproterozoic Doushantuo Formation at Weng’an, Guizhou Province, China

There is much debate on biological affinities of the phosphatized globular fossils from the Neoproterozoic Doushantuo phosphorites at Weng’an, Guizhou Province. Here we report for the first time the budding structures of some of these globular fossils, which have previously been interpreted as the resting eggs and early cleavage embryos of metazoans. The budding structures are similar to the germinating tubes of the spore and zygote of living algae, suggesting that some globular fossils from the Doushantuo phosphorites bear affinity with algae. The present new information indicated various biological affinity of the phosphatized globular fossils from the Doushantuo phosphorites.     

Shift visual cryptography scheme of two secret images

A new visual cryptography scheme of two secret images, which is named the shift visual cryptography of two secret images, is given. The compound function family of a general construction model is also introduced. The uniqueness and validity of this model are proved, and the minimum rows and columns for realizing the scheme are obtained. Compared with visual cryptography of one secret image, the shift visual cryptography scheme can share two secret images with the same size of pixels expansion without losing the contrast. It has randomness and various forms, and furthermore, we can also visually recover two secret images even if the two shares are different in form and color.     

Analysis of color distortion and optimum fusion for remote sensing images using the statistical property of wavelet decomposition

IHS （Intensity, Hue and Saturation） transform is one of the most commonly used tusion algonthm. But the matching error causes spectral distortion and degradation in processing of image fusion with IHS method. A study on IHS fusion indicates that the color distortion can＇t be avoided. Meanwhile, the statistical property of wavelet coefficient with wavelet decomposition reflects those significant features, such as edges, lines and regions. So, a united optimal fusion method, which uses the statistical property and IHS transform on pixel and feature levels, is proposed. That is, the high frequency of intensity component Ⅰ is fused on feature level with multi-resolution wavelet in IHS space. And the low frequency of intensity component Ⅰ is fused on pixel level with optimal weight coefficients. Spectral information and spatial resolution are two performance indexes of optimal weight coefficients. Experiment results with QuickBird data of Shanghai show that it is a practical and effective method.