Release of 'Verizon iPhone' set for early February

 

The original iPhone 4

In a Tuesday media event, Verizon Wireless announced it had reached an agreement with Apple Inc. and would begin selling a CDMA version of the iPhone 4 beginning early February. The move means the end of rival company AT&T's status as the only official US carrier of the iPhone, a status it held since the first iPhone debuted in 2007.

The press conference, held in New York City, was hosted by Verizon's president, Lowell McAdam, Apple's chief operating officer, Tim Cook, and Verizon Wireless' chief executive officer, Dan Mead. Neither Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg nor Apple CEO Steve Jobs attended the conference. During the event, McAdam said, "If the press writes something long enough and hard enough, it eventually comes true. We're bringing the fruit of our labor with a giant partner, and that's Apple." Such a partnership had been rumored for years, and the amount of speculation grew over the past few months.

iPhone 4 pre-orders for current Verizon users begin February 3, and a public release is scheduled for February 10. The "Verizon iPhone," as it has been dubbed for months, has been altered from the original iPhone 4 so it can utilize Verizon's 3G CDMA (code division multiple access) network. This means, however, that Verizon iPhone users will not be able to use the company's 4GLTE (long term evolution) network, and will thus be unable to make calls and access the Internet at the same time. Cook told the audience that the LTE hardware was not ready yet, saying, "The first generation LTE chip sets force some design compromises, some of which we would not make. Secondly—and most importantly—Verizon Wireless customers have told us they want the iPhone now." However, Verizon's iPhone 4 allows the user to create a personal Wi-Fi hotspot, which means up to five other wireless devices can connect to the Internet through the phone.

Pricing was announced as US$199 for a 16 GB version and US$299 for a 32 GB version, both requiring two-year contracts—the same cost for an AT&T iPhone 4. However, Verizon said it would not mention the cost of data plans at this time, with Mead saying, "We talked about the device pricing, but we're not going to talk about the pricing for the network for that connectivity."

Tobacco attracts predators with chemicals in response to caterpillars, a study finds

Tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta) on a bell pepper plant.

 

Ian Baldwin, of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, and colleagues have discovered a multi-step protective mechanism of tobacco plants against Manduca sexta caterpillars. In response to a chemical in the caterpillars' larvae, the plants release an odorous substance into air to attract another species of insects, called "big-eyed bugs" (Geocoris). These carnivores come to the scene and attack the caterpillars. The response is triggered within 24 hours, which is a relatively short period of time. The discovery occurred as a result of field studies in a nature preserve in southwestern Utah.

The phenomenon starts with the recognition of the caterpillars by the plant. As a PhD student in the Department of Molecular Ecology Silke Allmann explained, "The plant cannot see its attacker, but plants can sense the digestive substances that attacking larvae have in their oral secretions when these substances come into contact with the leaves." To test that, the scientists coated some of caterpillars' eggs on two groups of tobacco plants and glued them. On one of the groups, the glue was mixed with caterpillars' split. The latter got more attention of the attackers, getting 25% of eggs destroyed against 8% for the other group.

Allmann supposed that "The simplest assumption is that the larval oral secretions contain a special enzyme, probably an isomerase, which rearranges the Z:E ratio of the aldehyde in favor of (E)-2-hexenal." The researchers heated the oral secretion to destroy the enzyme, and applied it to wounded leaves. No plant response related to the studied process was observed, confirming the hypothesis.

(E)-2-hexenal is a strong antibiotic agent. The food consumed by a caterpillar typically includes hundreds of microorganisms together with leaf tissue, which are mostly unneeded and killed by the above-mentioned substance quickly. Because of this important role of this substance, the caterpillars can't change their metabolism easily enough to prevent the subsequent events from happening.

To find out what happens after a caterpillar's presence is noted by the plant, Silke Allmann, a graduate student in Baldwin's group, examined the green leafy volatiles (GLVs), the substances responsible for the smell of fresh-cut plant parts. These substances are released into air if a plant is damaged. As the study released, the tobacco plant GLVs typically have a major share of Z isomers with very small amount of E isomers present. But the shares are distributed equally during a caterpillar attack. In a study with varying amount of different isomers present, E isomers turned out to be the ones attracting the predators to come to the scene and to attack the caterpillars.

What is surprising, Silke Allmann found that the caterpillars are the direct stimulus of this change: caterpillar saliva converts the Z-isomers of the GLV molecules to E-isomers. Prof. Ian Baldwin commented, "That's where it got really weird. Why would a caterpillar do this to itself?" He suggested that the E-GLVs could have anti-biotic effect in the caterpillar's digestive system.

The speed of the triggered reaction is relatively fast, it taking about one hour for the GLV isomers ratio change, and about 24 hours for the predators to be attracted by the substance released into the air. As Prof. Ian Baldwin, who was leading the research, said, "Other indirect defense mechanisms of plants require the activation of new metabolic pathways for the release of odorant signals, and these responses are much slower."

The multi-step intricate approach involved is attracting the attention of scientists, who are looking forward to its application in agriculture. Baldwin noted that "in effect, the caterpillar calls the police on itself", and suggested to genetically modify crops to release similar signals to defend themselves against pests.

NCAA Football: USC banned from bowl games for two seasons, wins vacated

 

The Los Angeles Coliseum, home stadium for the USC football team.

 

The University of Southern California's football team was heavily penalized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) yesterday due to several major rules violations involving former player and Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush. The team was banned from participating in all NCAA bowl games for the 2010 and 2011 seasons, as well as was vacated of all wins during the 2004 and 2005 seasons. The team will likely also be stripped of their national title from the 2004 season and will lose ten football scholarships per year for the 2010, 2011, and 2012 seasons.

The NCAA also criticized the university for ineffective monitoring of its student-athletes. "The general campus environment surrounding the violations troubled the committee. At least at the time of the football violations, there was relatively little effective monitoring of, among others, football locker rooms and sidelines, and there existed a general post-game locker room environment that made compliance efforts difficult," said part of the NCAA's report.

The rules violations, which were investigated by the NCAA over a four-year period, involved the team's alleged "improper benefits," given to Bush, as well as Bush's contact with an agent, which is illegal under NCAA rules until a player has left the sports program. It is also possible that this will result in the loss of Bush's Heisman Trophy. The NCAA report ordered USC to not be in contact with Bush for the current time.

"We acknowledge that violations occurred and we take full responsibility for them. However, we sharply disagree with many of the findings in the NCAA Committee on Infractions Report. Further, we feel the penalties imposed are too severe for the violations identified in the report," stated Todd Dickey, the senior vice president of administration at USC.

Meanwhile, Reggie Bush (who now plays for the NFL's New Orleans Saints) also released a statement. "I am disappointed by the decision and disagree with the NCAA's findings. If the University decides to appeal, I will continue to cooperate with the NCAA and USC, as I did during the investigation. In the meantime, I will continue to focus on making a positive impact for the University and for the community where I live," said Bush. Bush denies all of the allegations brought against him and the university by the NCAA.

The report also included punishments for the men's basketball team, which was accused of violating the NCAA's recruiting policy on former player O.J. Mayo. The women's tennis team was also fined for allowing an unidentified student to use a university-owned credit card to place $7,000 in unauthorized phone calls.