By Pallab Ghosh
Pterosaurs soared gracefully along coastlines
New research shows that ancient flying reptiles called pterosaurs were adapted to fly in a slow, controlled manner in gentle tropical breezes.
The conclusions are drawn from the first detailed aerodynamic study of the wings, which suggests they did not evolve to fly fast and powerfully in stormy winds.
The research, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, may also explain how the creatures were able to become the largest flying animals ever known.
By landing slowly, the pterosaurs could avoid injury and grow to much larger sizes than modern day birds. However, the trade-off for their large size was a vulnerability to strong winds.
Also known as pterodactyls, these creatures lived at the time of the dinosaurs. Some species are thought to have had wingspans of up to 10m.
Although there is a wealth of information about the bones of these creatures – no one really knows how they flew.
But a fresh look at the problem by a 62 year-old former engineer in Bristol working on a PhD thesis suggests that they glided gently on tropical breezes, soared by hillsides and coastlines and floated on thermal air currents.
Colin Palmer had a simple idea that hadn’t occurred to more eminent palaeontologists: To build models of pterosaur wings and put them into a wind tunnel.
“”If you are a pterosaur coming into land the last thing you want to do is bump into a rock”
Colin Palmer Bristol University
“I come at this as an engineer rather than a palaeontologist,” Mr Palmer told BBC News.
“Palaeontologists have done amazing work in understanding the anatomy of these animals and that gave me a huge amount of data to build on. But as an engineer and experimentalist my first reaction was I want to do some (modelling) and find out what’s going on.”
The results from the PhD study have been so impressive that they been published in one of the Royal Society’s prestigious scientific journals.
The front edge of the Pterosaur wing is bone. Mr Palmer found in his wind tunnel experiments that that this caused drag making it aerodynamically less efficient than the wings of birds – which use feathers to create a smoother leading edge.
Happy landings
Mr Palmer reasoned that pterosaurs flew in a slow, controlled way, in particular when they came in to land. That would be important to pterosaurs because they had very thin bones which, according to Mr Palmer, could break on landing.
Colin Palmer brought an engineering perspective to the pterosaur problem
“If you are a pterosaur coming into land the last thing you want to do is bump into a rock so you want to land slowly and under control”.
It’s thought that these creatures controlled their flight by adjusting the curvature of their wings,. This enabled them to generate lift and so fly under control at lower speeds.
The wind tunnel results show that pterosaur wings were able to provide them with the soft landing that their large, fragile bodies needed.
“This is the first time this has been done,” says Mr Palmer. “Previously data has been taken from the aerodynamic literature and adapted it as best they could to make predictions of pterosaur flight performance. Now for the first time we’ve got data from (models of pterosaur wings).
Some palaeontologists had suggested that pterosaurs might have flown like modern day albatrosses which fly very fast and efficiently in strong winds.
Albatrosses make use of a technique called dynamic soaring where they make use of the strong winds and wind gradients in the southern ocean. In order to do that you have to fly very fast and very efficiently – neither of which pterosaurs were capable, according to the wind tunnel data.
Instead it shows they were much better adapted to flying in at gentle breezes of the tropics and using the lift you get from rising air currents as they come from the sea on to the land and also the thermal lift you get in tropical areas.
The nearest present day analogy in birds is frigate birds in the tropics make use of thermal lift over the sea.
Mr Palmer commented: “Since the bones of pterosaurs were thin-walled and thus highly susceptible to impact damage, the low-speed landing capability would have made an important contribution to avoiding injury and so helped to enable pterosaurs to attain much larger sizes than extant birds.
“The trade-off would have been an extreme vulnerability to strong winds and turbulence, both in flight and on the ground, like that experienced by modern-day paragliders.”
Mr Palmer says he’s surprised and pleased that his first time effort at academic research has been a hit.
“I work with a really good bunch of people who have given me the confidence to come to this late in life. It’s very exciting for me.
“It’s just a different approach. And I think this cross disciplinary work is very important because it brings in new insights based on new perspectives.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The Pentagon said Taliban forces are exploiting Afghan perceptions Nato troops will soon pull out
The Pentagon has said progress in the Afghan conflict has been “uneven” with only modest gains against the Taliban insurgency.
In a report to Congress, the US military said that Nato co-operation with Pakistan’s military had improved.
The Pentagon also reported “modest gains” in security, governance, and development in key areas.
But Taliban safe havens along the Pakistan border remained a problem, the twice-yearly briefing stated.
The Pentagon said violence in Afghanistan had reached an all-time high, with combat incidents up 300% since 2007. But the report cited evidence Nato counter-insurgency efforts had “localised” effects in areas of Helmand and Kandahar provinces.
The Pentagon also said Taliban fighters were exploiting moves among Nato countries to withdraw combat forces.
Canada is due to pull its combat forces out in 2011, and President Barack Obama has also said he will begin removing US troops in July 2011.
“The Taliban’s strength lies in the Afghan population’s perception that coalition forces will soon leave, giving credence to the belief that a Taliban victory is inevitable,” the report stated.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
England’s school system is among the world’s least equal, says Mr Gove
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More than 400 English secondary schools could be redesignated “failing” under government plans to raise the “floor standard” used to measure performance.
It will apply when fewer than 35% of pupils get five GCSEs graded A* to C, Education Secretary Michael Gove said.
Currently, the level is 30%. Based on 2009 data, it would affect 439 schools. However, those below the standard but “making good progress” will get leeway.
More top headteachers will also get incentives to run failing schools.
The measures are to be unveiled on Wednesday as part of the government’s White Paper on education. It will also set out plans to move back towards single, final GCSE exams, slim down the national curriculum and overhaul school funding.
Mr Gove told the BBC the government had a duty to intervene when schools were failing.
“We’re going to ensure that we have new floor standards, tighter than ever, so that schools which don’t give students an adequate education – both primary and secondary schools – are taken over, the existing management team is removed, and a new team is put in place, in order to ensure that those schools succeed.”
The education secretary has already indicated he intends to force weak schools to become academies and will increase the number of top head teachers helping struggling schools from 393 to 1,000 by 2014.
Mr Gove said ministers would work to end what he called “one of the most unequal school systems in the world”.
“One of the most stunning statistics that tells us so much about our education system is the fact that out of 80,000 children eligible for free school meals last year, just 40 made it to Oxbridge,” he said.
“One of the missions of this coalition government is to make opportunity more equal and to ensure that the current two-tier education system ends.”
Other measures expected to be detailed in the White Paper are:
Greater powers for teachers to search for banned items and hand out no-notice detentions, while clarifying rights to restrain pupils physicallyAnonymity for teachers being investigated for inappropriate behaviour, to protect teachers from malicious allegationsScrapping rules limiting head teachers’ ability to observe teachers’ lessons to three-hours each yearReform of teacher training, including the introduction of special teaching schools modelled on existing teaching hospitalsMore assessment of teacher training applicants, including tests of character and emotional intelligenceOverhaul league tables to stop schools using vocational exams to boost their GCSE-level scoresRank the proportion of pupils gaining the new baccalaureate – meaning they have obtained at least grade C in maths, English, a language, one science and one humanities subjectA new reading text for six-year-olds
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The Irish prime minister has come under increasing pressure to call an election
There was no challenge to the Irish Prime Minister’s leadership at a meeting of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party on Tuesday night.
It had been expected rebel members of the party would call on Brian Cowen to quit ahead of a budget announcement on 7 December.
However, no challenge to his leadership was made at the meeting.
It is now likely Mr Cowen will continue to lead the Irish government, at least until the budget is passed.
Meanwhile, RTE has reported that the EU and IMF have extended 85bn euros (£72bn) of emergency loans to Ireland.
The package would see the level of capital in the Irish banks being increased from 8% to 12% in “a move to bolster confidence of depositors in the financial system”.
Dublin is expected to publish a four-year austerity plan on Wednesday amid fears the government could fall.
A number of backbench MPs, including Cork’s Noel O’Flynn, expressed their unhappiness with Mr Cowen’s leadership and called on him to step down.
However others, including Galway TD Noel Treacy, defended Mr Cowen, who told TDs that he would remain on as leader to see through the publication of the four year plan, the budget and the duration of the IMF talks.
It is now unlikely that Mr Cowen will face a challenge to his leadership until after the budget.
Several government ministers have indicated their interest in the position including Tourism Minister Mary Hanafin.
But no challenge was made at Tuesday’s meeting despite claims from back-benchers that it would be a “bare knuckle” affair.
Opposition parties have called on Mr Cowen to step down and have also urged him to bring the budget announcement forward from December 7 to next week.
Addressing the Dail (parliament), on Tuesday Mr Cowen he insisted there was no intention on his part to cling on to power.
Rather, he said the government had to wait for November’s tax returns to ensure its figures were up to date.
On Sunday, EU member states and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to provide loans to Ireland in an attempt to bring an end to the crisis surrounding the Irish Republic’s debts.
Four-year plan
The Taoiseach has already tried to persuade opposition leaders to delay an election until the 2011 budget has been put into effect.
In that case, parliament is unlikely to vote on the budget until January, meaning an election could not take place until February or March.
Analysis
There is no guarantee that Brian Cowen will have the budget passed and that is causing some concern in Brussels, privately and publicly, from European Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn.
He has made it very clear that he expects Dublin to pass its budget next month because if the Irish Republic is going to receive 80bn or 90bn euros from its international friends it has to be seen to be cost-cutting at home.
It is almost a case of no budget, no bail-out.
Mr Cowen argued that it was necessary first to put forward Wednesday’s four-year financial plan in which proposals for 15bn euros in savings will be announced.
The government is likely to reduce social welfare benefits and the minimum wage in an attempt to cut the 2011 budget by 6bn euros.
“My sole motivation is to ensure that the four-year plan is published, as agreed with the people with whom we are dealing, and that a budget is passed by the House,” he said.
Brian Hayes, Fine Gael’s shadow finance minister, told the BBC that the opposition wanted to see the budget as soon as possible.
“The important thing, to bring real confidence back to this country, is ultimately for a change of government, a swift general election, and that those who led us into the mire, namely Fianna Fail over the past 14 years, will then be put into opposition,” he said.
Mr Cowen announced on Monday that a general election would be held early next year. He was speaking after his government’s junior coalition partner, the Green Party, called for an election in January.
But Fine Gael and the Labour Party called for an election as soon as possible and one party, Sinn Fein, has tabled a no-confidence vote.
Mr Cowen, leader of Fianna Fail, heads a coalition with a three-seat majority and faces a by-election on Thursday which it is expected to lose.
Late on Monday, the Mr Cowen phoned Fine Gael leader Mr Kenny and Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore.
“I predict murder at the parliamentary party [meeting]”
Unnamed backbencher in Brian Cowen’s Fianna Fail party
Formally, Mr Cowen offered to make available to them the financial advice underpinning the proposed budget, the Irish Times reports.
But the phone calls signalled a first move in a strategy to persuade the opposition to let the budget pass, the paper says.
It is understood that both Mr Kenny and Mr Gilmore told Mr Cowen they wanted to see an immediate dissolution of the Dail with an election before, rather than after, the budget.
What went wrong in the Irish Republic
The 1990s were good for the Irish Republic’s economy, with low unemployment, high economic growth and strong exports creating the Celtic Tiger economy. Lots of multi-national companies set up in the Republic to take advantage of low tax rates.
At the beginning of 1999, Ireland adopted the euro as its currency, which meant its interest rates were set by the European Central Bank and suddenly borrowing money became much cheaper.
Cheap and easy lending and rising immigration fuelled a construction and house price boom. The government began to rely more on property-related taxes while the banks borrowed from abroad to fund the housing boom.
All this left Ireland ill-equipped to deal with the credit crunch. The construction sector was hit hard, house prices collapsed, the banks had a desperate funding crisis and the government was receiving much too little tax revenue.
The economy has shrunk and the government has bailed out the banks. A series of cost-cutting budgets have cut spending, benefits and public sector wages and raised taxes. But there are still doubts about future government funding.
The main concern for the Republic’s economy is its banks, most of which are now controlled by the government. They have had to borrow at least 83bn euros (£71bn) from the European Central Bank because other banks will not lend to them.
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According to the lead story in Tuesday’s Irish Independent, Mr Cowen’s days as Fianna Fail leader were “numbered despite his pledge to limp on in power”.
“I predict murder at the parliamentary party [meeting],” one unnamed backbencher told the paper.
“There’ll be war there. I know there will.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
