Poisoned Lottery Winner's Kin Were Suspicious













Urooj Khan had just brought home his $425,000 lottery check when he unexpectedly died the following day. Now, certain members of Khan's family are speaking publicly about the mystery -- and his nephew told ABC News they knew something was not right.


"He was a healthy guy, you know?" said the nephew, Minhaj Khan said. "He worked so hard. He was always going about his business and, the thing is: After he won the lottery and the next day later he passes away -- it's awkward. It raises some eyebrows."


The medical examiner initially ruled Urooj Khan, 46, an immigrant from India who owned dry-cleaning businesses in Chicago, died July 20, 2012, of natural causes. But after a family member demanded more tests, authorities in November found a lethal amount of cyanide in his blood, turning the case into a homicide investigation.


"When we found out there was cyanide in his blood after the extensive toxicology reports, we had to believe that ... somebody had to kill him," Minhaj Khan said. "It had to happen, because where can you get cyanide?"


In Photos: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners


Authorities could be one step closer to learning what happened to Urooj Khan. A judge Friday approved an order to exhume his body at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago as early as Thursday to perform further tests.








Lottery Winner Murdered: Widow Questioned By Police Watch Video









Moments after the court hearing, Urooj Khan's sister, Meraj Khan, remembered her brother as the kind of person who would've shared his jackpot with anyone. Speaking at the Cook County Courthouse, she hoped the exhumation would help the investigation.


"It's very hard because I wanted my brother to rest in peace, but then we have to have justice served," she said, according to ABC News station WLS in Chicago. "So if that's what it takes for him to bring justice and peace, then that's what needs to be done."


Khan reportedly did not have a will. With the investigation moving forward, his family is waging a legal fight against his widow, Shabana Ansari, 32, over more than $1 million, including Urooj Khan's lottery winnings, as well as his business and real estate holdings.


Khan's brother filed a petition Wednesday to a judge asking Citibank to release information about Khan's assets to "ultimately ensure" that [Khan's] minor daughter from a prior marriage "receives her proper share."


Ansari may have tried to cash the jackpot check after Khan's death, according to court documents, which also showed Urooj Khan's family is questioning if the couple was ever even legally married.


Ansari, Urooj Khan's second wife, who still works at the couple's dry cleaning business, has insisted they were married legally.


She has told reporters the night before her husband died, she cooked a traditional Indian meal for him and their family, including Khan's daughter and Ansari's father. Not feeling well, Khan retired early, Ansari told the Chicago Sun-Times, falling asleep in a chair, waking up in agony, then collapsing in the middle of the night. She said she called 911.


"It has been an incredibly hard time," she told ABC News earlier this week. "We went from being the happiest the day we got the check. It was the best sleep I've had. And then the next day, everything was gone.


"I am cooperating with the investigation," Ansari told ABC News. "I want the truth to come out."


Ansari has not been named a suspect, but her attorney, Steven Kozicki, said investigators did question her for more than four hours.






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Largest structure challenges Einstein's smooth cosmos









































A collection of galaxies that is a whopping four billion light years long is the biggest cosmic structure ever seen. The group is roughly one-twentieth the diameter of the observable universe – big enough to challenge a principle dating back to Einstein, that, on large scales, the universe looks the same in every direction.












Roger Clowes of the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, UK, and colleagues discovered the structure using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the most comprehensive 3D map of the universe. They identified a cluster of 73 quasars, the brightly glowing cores found at the centre of some galaxies, far larger than any similar structure seen before.












Since 1982 astronomers have known that quasars tend to clump together in large quasar groups, or LQGs. "We look for quasars that have a certain separation from the next nearest quasar," says Clowes.












The newly discovered, and appropriately named, Huge-LQG (see black circles in image) happens to be in the same region of the sky as one of the earliest known quasar clusters, which Clowes helped find in 1991. That group contains 34 quasars and measures roughly one billion light years across (red crosses), so it is dwarfed by Huge-LQG.











Basic assumption












The discovery of Huge-LQG joins a collection of observations that seem to challenge the cosmological status quo. When Albert Einstein first applied his theory of general relativity to the universe as a whole, to make the calculations workable, he was forced to assume that one large part looks much like any other large part. This became known as the cosmological principle.













Still, a question remained: how large is a large part?












"As time went on, people did more and more surveys," says Clowes. "Each time they found structures the size of the new survey, and you began to wonder when it would all stop."












Previous calculations gave a value of one billion light years as the maximum possible size of a cluster. The 1991 LQG is at this supposed limit, but Huge-LQG smashes right through it. The researchers say this could undermine the cosmological principle, although it may simply mean that we need to revise upwards the size limit on large structures.











Dark flow












But other evidence, such as a controversial "stream" of galaxies that seem to be moving in the same direction, dubbed dark flow, is also poking holes in the uniformity of the universe.













The search for such large structures is key to furthering our understanding of the universe and creating new and improved cosmological models, says Subir Sarkar of the University of Oxford. "All of this suggests there is structure on scales at which the universe is supposed to be boring," he says.












But the cosmological principle is so ingrained that it is hard for researchers to shake. "People are maybe understandably reluctant to give up the thing, because it will make cosmology too bloody complicated," says Sarkar.












Journal reference: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, DOI: 10.1093/mnras/sts497


















































If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.




































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Turkey blames internal feud as France hunts Kurd killers






PARIS: Police on Friday hunted the assassins of three Kurdish activists shot dead in Paris as Turkey said an internal feud in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was most likely behind the slayings.

The PKK meanwhile warned that it would hold France responsible if the killers are not quickly found, as Ankara asked for increased security to safeguard its missions in France.

French judicial sources said the three female activists, including founding PKK member Sakine Cansiz, were each shot at least three times in the head, giving further credence to the theory of an execution-style hit.

Autopsies on the bodies revealed that one of the women had been shot four times in the head and the other two shot three times, the sources said. A police source said that 7.65 mm bullets were found, indicating the use of automatic pistols.

The killings came days after Turkish media reported Turkey and the PKK leadership had agreed a roadmap to end the three-decade old insurgency that has claimed more than 45,000 lives.

The PKK, which took up arms in 1984 for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey, is considered a terrorist organisation by Ankara and much of the international community.

Experts have suggested a number of potential motives for the killings, including an attack by Turkish extremists and internal feuding within the PKK.

The three were found dead on Thursday at the Kurdistan Information Centre in the French capital's 10th district, after last being seen alive at the centre at midday on Wednesday.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the slayings bore the hallmarks of an internal feud, noting that the victims appeared to have given the killer or killers access to the centre.

"The place was protected not by one lock but many coded locks," Anatolia news agency quoted Erdogan as telling reporters. "Those three people opened it (the door). I do not assume they would open it to people they didn't know."

But the Turkish leader also upheld his earlier suggestion that the slayings could be aimed at derailing peace talks between Ankara and the PKK's jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

"The killings could be the result of an internal feud or steps aimed at disrupting the steps we are taking with good intentions," Erdogan said.

Experts have said potential internal feuding could be linked to the peace process or to other PKK activities, in particular conflicts over money.

A French judicial source said police are currently running 21 investigations into potentially illegal fundraising by the PKK.

The group raises funds through a "revolutionary tax" on Kurdish expatriates that authorities in several countries have condemned as extortion.

The PKK's military wing, the People's Defence Forces (HPG), said in a statement on its website that France would be held to account if no progress is made in the investigation.

"France has a responsibility to immediately shed light on the massacre," it said. "Or it will be held responsible for the murder of our comrades."

The PKK accused Ankara of trying to shift the blame on Kurds for what it called a "well-organised and professional political murder."

A Turkish diplomatic source meanwhile said Ankara had asked France to boost security at its missions. "We alerted our representations in France and the rest of Europe to be careful," the source added.

There are around 150,000 Kurds in France, the vast majority of them of Turkish origin.

-AFP/ac



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4K TV, tablets, and timepieces at CES 2013 (week in review)



The Razer Edge gaming tablet




Forget about 3D TV -- this year's Consumer Electronics Show was all about 4K.


Sony got the ball rolling with the unveiling of new 55-inch and 65-inch 4K TVs, as well as the world's first 4K video distribution service, which offers native 4K movies from Sony Pictures and other 4K content creators. Additionally, the company also said it would be selling "4K mastered" Blu-ray discs this summer; they'll be standard 1080p resolution (not 4K), but supposedly look better than traditional Blu-rays.


The electronics giant unveiled a prototype 4K OLED TV at 56 inches, although little was said about it. Meanwhile, Panasonic displayed its own 4K OLED screen, which it claims is the world's biggest at less than half an inch thick. Panasonic also showed off a 4K tablet prototype that boasted a ridiculous 3,840x2,560-pixel resolution and 230 pixels per inch packed into a 20-inch IPS LED-backlit LCD display.


There were plenty -- plenty --of other stories at the Las Vegas show, but here's a brief roundup of some of the highlights:

•  Microsoft CEO crashes Qualcomm keynote at CES

•  Samsung shows off Youm flexible display

•  Scrappy Dish wows again at CES with TV anywhere push

•  Razer Edge gaming tablet becomes reality at CES

•  Actor, gadget fan Danny DeVito speaks with CNET at CES

•  Pebble watch is the smartest timepiece ever




More headlines

Amazon lets rip with AutoRip music service


When you buy an AutoRip-enabled CD, you automatically get the MP3 version for free, and those MP3 versions will be available via Amazon's Cloud Player.

•  Scoop: Amazon to launch auto rip, an effort to sex up CDs

Dish counters Sprint, makes $5.5B offer for Clearwire


The satellite TV provider's unsolicited offer for the wireless broadband company is more than 10 percent higher than Sprint's.

•  Sprint reportedly asks to partner with Dish

Google withdraws ITC patent claims against Microsoft


Motorola Mobility's parent drops two patents from its infringement case over video-coding patents used in Xboxes and smartphones.

•  Justice Department, Patent Office urge limiting sales bans

•  Sling Media sues Belkin, Monsoon for patent infringement

Iran said to be responsible for cyberattacks on U.S. banks


The massive wave of DDoS attacks that hit U.S. banks recently was thought to have been done by a fringe hacker group, however government officials now believe it was the work of Iran.

•  Iran develops software to control access to social networks

Congressman: Google FTC probe results were leaked illegally


News of the FTC's investigation into the search giant's business practices leaked a day before being made public. Now Rep. Darrell Issa is demanding an inquiry into the leaks.

•  Senator blasts leaks in FTC's Google investigation

•  Watchdog seeks FTC staff opinion on Google antitrust case

•  EU still unhappy with how Google shows search results

Microsoft to kill the Messenger on March 15


The tech titan plans to migrate users of the instant-messaging client to Skype, which it purchased in 2011.

•  Microsoft updates Skype for Windows with Outlook integration

T-Mobile rips up contract on unlimited data plan


In another example of its push into prepaid, the carrier is offering its unlimited plan without a contract.

•  T-Mobile expands iPhone-compatible 4G service, unveils HD voice

Netflix brings 3D, 'Super HD' video to some customers


The video streaming service adds a limited number of 3D movies to its library. The hitch? You can only access them if you've got an ISP that uses its Open Connect network.

•  Warner Bros. to bring 'Revolution,' 'Fringe' to Netflix

Google's Schmidt presses North Korean officials for open Web


The Web giant's executive chairman tells reporters that his private delegation warned officials that global Internet access is key to a developing economy.

•  In N. Korea, Google's Schmidt gets glimpse of Net


Also of note

•  Aereo to bring its TV service to 22 cities this year

•  Facebook invites media to event at HQ next week

•  Steve Ballmer bringing NBA's Kings to Seattle?

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Space Pictures This Week: Australia Burns, Pulsars Wobble

Image courtesy P. Kalas, U. California, and ESA/NASA

This new Hubble Space Telescope image of a nearby star, Fomalhaut, and its surrounding disc of debris have made astronomers sit up and take notice. That's because the picture, released January 8, reveals that the debris field—made of ice, dust, and rocks—is wider than previously thought, spanning an area 14 to 20 billion miles from the star.

Scientists have also used the image to calculate the path of a planet, Fomalhaut b, as it makes its away around the star. It turns out that the planet's 2,000-year elliptical orbit takes it three times closer to Fomalhaut than previously thought, and that its eccentric path could send it plowing through the rock and ice contained in the debris field.

The resulting collision, if it happens, could occur around the year 2032 and result in a show similar to what happened when the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter, astronomer Paul Kalas, of the University of California at Berkeley, said in a statement.

Published January 11, 2013

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Teen to Hero Teacher: 'I Don't Want to Shoot You'













A California teacher'sbrave conversation with a 16-year-old gunman who had opened fire on his classroom bullies allowed 28 other students to quickly escape what could have been a massacre.


Science teacher Ryan Heber calmly confronted the teenager after he shot and critically wounded a classmate, whom authorities say had bullied the boy for more than year at Taft Union High School.


"I don't want to shoot you," the teen gunman told Heber, who convinced the teen gunman to drop his weapon, a high power shotgun.


Responding to calls of shots fired, campus supervisor Kim Lee Fields arrived at the classroom and helped Heber talk the boy into giving up the weapon.


"This teacher and this counselor stood there face-to-face not knowing if he was going to shoot them," said Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood. "They probably expected the worst and hoped for the best, but they gave the students a chance to escape."


One student, who police say the shooter had targeted, was shot. He was airlifted to a hospital and remains in critical, but stable condition, Youngblood said. He is expected to undergo surgery today.


Two other students received minor injuries. One suffered hearing loss and another fell over a table while evacuating. Heber received a wound to his head from a stray pellet, police said.






Taft Midway Driller/Doug Keeler/AP Photo













Tennessee Teen Arrested Over School Shooting Threat Watch Video









Tragedy at Sandy Hook: The Search for Solutions Watch Video





Police said the teen, whose name has not been made public because he is a minor, began plotting on Wednesday night to kill two students he felt had bullied him.


Authorities believe the suspect found his older brother's gun and brought it into the just before 9 a.m. on Thursday and went to Heber's second-floor classroom where a first period science class with 20 students was taking place.


"He planned the event," Youngblood said. "Certainly he believed that the two people he targeted had bullied him, in his mind. Whether that occurred or not we don't know yet."


The gunman entered the classroom and shot one of his classmates. Heber immediately began trying to talk him into handing over the gun, and evacuating the other students through the classroom's backdoor.


"The heroics of these two people goes without saying. ... They could have just as easily ... tried to get out of the classroom and left students, and they didn't," the sheriff said. "They knew not to let him leave the classroom with that shotgun."


The gunman was found with several rounds of additional ammunition in his pockets.


Within one minute of the shooting, a 911 call was placed and police arrived on the scene. An announcement was made placing the school on lockdown and warning teachers and students that the precautions were "not a drill."


The school had recently announced new safety procedures following last month's deadly shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school in which 20 young children were killed. Six school staffers, including the principal, were killed as they tried to protect the children from gunman Adam Lanza.


The school employs an armed security guard, but he was not on campus Thursday morning.


Youngblood said the student would be charged with attempted murder, but the district attorney would decide if he was to be tried as an adult.


Some 900 students attend Taft Union High School, located in Taft, Calif., a rural community in southern California.



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Flesh-eating beetles turn dead parrot into skeleton



Sandrine Ceurstemont, editor, New Scientist TV






Even after death, this parrot retains its striking plumage. But its feathers and tissue disappear when subjected to flesh-eating beetles for about three weeks, leaving behind a grisly skeleton.



The video, captured by Brian McClave from Site-Eye Films in collaboration with Joanne Cooper from the Natural History Museum at Tring, UK, shows the process often used by museums to prepare a skeleton for their collections. Beetles are best for stripping a bird's flesh since chemical alternatives can eat into bone and change its structure. To speed up decomposition, specimens are usually defeathered before beetles are left to do their work.







Once the flesh is removed, bones are cleaned before a specimen is registered and added to a collection. Skeletons of modern birds are important for comparison with fossils, giving clues into how species evolved. They can also give insight into bone diseases and injuries.



The Natural History Museum has more than 18,000 bird skeletons, so far. "The beetles are always at work," says Cooper.



If you enjoyed this post, watch sea lice devour a pig from the inside out or see wild animals reduce an elephant to a pile of bones.





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Football: Adebayor included as Africa Cup squads named






JOHANNESBURG: Emmanuel Adebayor will play at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations after he was included in Togo's squad as the 16 sides finalised their 23-man squads.

Mahamadou Diarra will meanwhile miss the tournament, and a late-minute change left Brown Ideye thrilled and Nigeria team-mate Raheem Lawal devastated.

It was all part of the drama ahead of the January 19-February 10 tournament that will be played in five South African cities.

Tottenham striker and Togo captain Adebayor said last year he would shun the competition, citing security concerns after being part of the squad attacked in Angola ahead of the 2010 finals.

A player and an official were killed by separatists seeking independence for the oil-rich Cabinda enclave and Adebayor escaped injury by cowering under a bus seat.

As Tottenham, the Togo president and national football officials became involved in the saga, Adebayor refused to reveal his plans, and his inclusion became official only when the 23-man squad was named by coach Didier Six.

Perennial underachievers Togo are in the Rustenburg-based 'group of death' with title favourites Ivory Coast and other former champions Algeria and Tunisia and are given little hope of survival.

Mali, third last year and considered likely quarter-finalists after being drawn with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Niger, suffered a late setback when Fulham midfielder Diarra pulled out injured.

A recurring knee injury failed to heal, meaning the veteran will miss a second consecutive Cup of Nations, although the blow was cushioned by the return of another experienced midfielder, Mohamed Lamine Sissoko.

Turkey-based midfielder Lawal was included in a Nigerian squad leaked to the media a day before the final-squad deadline, only to be replaced by striker Ideye when it was officially announced.

Home-based players have traditionally been ignored by Super Eagles coaches, but Stephen Keshi has chosen six, including goalkeeper Chigozie Agbim and strikers Sunday Mba and Ejike Uzoenyi from Enugu Rangers.

Shock absentees from the 2012 tournament, Nigeria face defending champions Zambia and outsiders Burkina Faso and Ethiopia in Group C and are expected to make the knock-out phase at least.

Debutants Cape Verde made a couple of last-minute changes with injured midfielder Odair Fortes and unavailable striker Ze Luis replaced by Portugal-based pair Platini and Rambe.

Cape Verde face hosts South Africa in the January 19 opening fixture at the 90,000-seat Soccer City stadium in Soweto and also confront former champions Morocco and Angola in the first round.

- AFP/de



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Cheap iPhone could reach half a billion potential customers, says analyst



How many customers would a cheap iPhone grab?

How many customers would a cheap iPhone grab?



(Credit:
CNET)


A cheaper iPhone could tap into a world of potential sales of 580 million units, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.


Rumors have been flying lately that Apple will introduce a low-cost iPhone to reach out to developing markets and offer more competition to
Android. Assuming the rumors even prove true, Munster feels such a phone would provide a huge boost to Apple's market share.


"We believe that the high-end smartphone market (above $400 USD off contract) for [calendar year 2013] will be about 320 million units, of which we believe Apple will capture 50 percent market share," Munster said in an investors note out today. "We believe this means Apple is missing the other 65 percent of the market, or 580 million units, given its current product lineup without the lower priced phone."


As a result, the analyst thinks Apple will unveil a low-cost iPhone this year to address that missing 65 percent not served by its current iPhone lineup, representing 580 million potential units.


A cheap iPhone will hurt gross margins over the next few years, but the overall impact is likely to be less than 1 percent, Munster said. Even with the effect on margins, the analyst sees this as a prime opportunity for Apple. A lower-price iPhone will help Apple reach sales growth of 22 percent this year and 23 percent next year.


"We believe the opportunity for Apple is too large to miss as the low-end market is growing significantly faster than the high-end smartphone market," Munster added.


The analyst expects the low-cost iPhone to offer a lower-quality screen and case and potentially a slower processor than the current lineup.


What about the price?


A Bloomberg report out yesterday estimated a price range for the phone of $99 to $149. Munster believes Apple will sell the phone for as much $199, but at an off-contract price. At that level, the cheaper iPhone's core competition would be Android phones that sell for $99 to $199.


However, the price could be higher depending on the amount of storage offered.


"While we are assuming a $200 ASP (average selling price) for the lower priced phone, we also note that Apple may have multiple storage sizes like the current iPhone lineup, which could result in ASPs higher than the base level," Munster said. "If this were the case, it may blunt some of the effect on margins given the higher storage devices would carry a slightly better margin profile."



Rumors of a cheap iPhone revved up this week after both the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg claimed that Apple is prepping to launch such a device this year.


In December, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said he thinks a low-cost iPhone is on the agenda for this summer with a price of $200 to $250. Last week, Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Mawston added his voice, saying he believes Apple will unveil an "iPhone Mini" but not until next year at the earliest.


And what is Apple's response?


Phil Schiller, the company's senior VP of marketing, has more or less quashed the rumors. In a translation of an interview with the Shanghai Evening News yesterday, Schiller said that Apple will "not develop cheap smartphones in order to grab market share away."


(Schiller comment via 9to5Mac)


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Embryonic Sharks Freeze to Avoid Detection

Jane J. Lee


Although shark pups are born with all the equipment they'll ever need to defend themselves and hunt down food, developing embryos still stuck in their egg cases are vulnerable to predators. But a new study finds that even these baby sharks can detect a potential predator, and play possum to avoid being eaten.

Every living thing gives off a weak electrical field. Sharks can sense this with a series of pores—called the ampullae of Lorenzini—on their heads and around their eyes, and some species rely on this electrosensory ability to find food buried in the seafloor. (See pictures of electroreceptive fish.)

Two previous studies on the spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) and the clearnose skate (Raja eglanteria)—a relative of sharks—found similar freezing behavior in their young. But new research by shark biologist and doctoral student Ryan Kempster at the University of Western Australia has given scientists a more thorough understanding of this behavior.

It all started because Kempster wanted to build a better shark repellent. Since he needed to know how sharks respond to electrical fields, Kempster decided to use embryos. "It's very hard to test this in the field because you need to get repeated responses," he said. And you can't always get the same shark to cooperate multiple times. "But we could use embryos because they're contained within an egg case."

Cloaking Themselves

So Kempster got his hands on 11 brownbanded bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium punctatum) embryos and tested their reactions to the simulated weak electrical field of a predator. (Popular pictures: Bamboo shark swallowed whole—by another shark.)

In a study published today in the journal PLoS One, Kempster and his colleagues report that all of the embryonic bamboo sharks, once they reached later stages of development, reacted to the electrical field by ceasing gill movements (essentially, holding their breath), curling their tails around their bodies, and freezing.

A bamboo shark embryo normally beats its tail to move fresh seawater in and out of its egg case. But that generates odor cues and small water currents that can give away its position. The beating of its gills as it breathes also generates an electrical field that predators can use to find it.

"So it cloaks itself," said neuroecologist Joseph Sisneros, at the University of Washington in Seattle, who was not involved in the study. "[The embryo] shuts down any odor cues, water movement, and its own electrical signal."

Sisneros, who conducted the previous clearnose skate work, is delighted to see that this shark species also reacts to external electrical fields and said it would be great to see whether this is something all shark, skate, and ray embryos do.

Marine biologist Stephen Kajiura, at Florida Atlantic University, is curious to know how well the simulated electrical fields compare to the bamboo shark's natural predators—the experimental field was on the higher end of the range normally given off.

"[But] they did a good job with [the study]," Kajiura said. "They certainly did a more thorough study than anyone else has done."

Electrifying Protection?

In addition to the freezing behavior he recorded in the bamboo shark embryos, Kempster found that the shark pups remembered the electrical field signal when it was presented again within 40 minutes and that they wouldn't respond as strongly to subsequent exposures as they did initially.

This is important for developing shark repellents, he said, since some of them use electrical fields to ward off the animals. "So if you were using a shark repellent, you would need to change the current over a 20- to 30-minute period so the shark doesn't get used to that field."

Kempster envisions using electrical fields to not only keep humans safe but to protect sharks as well. Shark populations have been on the decline for decades, due partly to ending up as bycatch, or accidental catches, in the nets and on the longlines of fishers targeting other animals.

A 2006 study estimated that as much as 70 percent of landings, by weight, in the Spanish surface longline fleet were sharks, while a 2007 report found that eight million sharks are hooked each year off the coast of southern Africa. (Read about the global fisheries crisis in National Geographic magazine.)

"If we can produce something effective, it could be used in the fishing industry to reduce shark bycatch," Kempster said. "In [America] at the moment, they're doing quite a lot of work trying to produce electromagnetic fish hooks." The eventual hope is that if these hooks repel the sharks, they won't accidentally end up on longlines.


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