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Advanced CT Scans Valuable To Check For Clogged ArteriesIn a development that researchers say is likely to quell concerns about the value of costly computed tomography scans to diagnose coronary artery blockages, researchers report solid evidence that the newer, more powerful 64-CT scans can easily and correctly identify people with major blood vessel disease and is nearly as accurate as invasive coronary angiography.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2008 | 10:00 pm Body Clock Linked To Diabetes And High Blood Sugar In New Genome-wide StudyDiabetes and high levels of blood sugar may be linked to abnormalities in a person's body clock and sleep patterns, according to a genome-wide association study published in the journal Nature Genetics.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2008 | 10:00 pm How Shift Workers Can Improve Job Performance And Implement Realistic Sleep ScheduleThe use of light exposure therapy, dark sunglasses and a strict sleep schedule can help night-shift workers create a "compromise circadian phase position," which may result in increased performance and alertness during night shifts while still allowing adequate nighttime sleep on days off.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2008 | 10:00 pm Interferon Needed For Cells To 'Remember' How To Defeat A VirusScientists have determined that the immune-system protein interferon plays a key role in "teaching" the immune system how to fight off repeated infections of the same virus.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2008 | 10:00 pm ESA Tests Laser To Measure Atmospheric Carbon DioxideA recent ESA campaign has demonstrated how a technique using lasers could be employed to measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The campaign supports one of the main objectives of the candidate Earth Explorer A-SCOPE mission.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2008 | 10:00 pm Shared Features Of Human Gut Microbial Communities: Variations Linked To ObesityResearchers have catalogued the microbial species in the guts of lean and obese female twins and their mothers, finding that each individual carries a unique collection of bacteria, although the communities are more similar among family members. However, when the scientists looked closer, they found the various collections of bacterial species carried a common set of genes that performed key functions to complement those performed by our human genes.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2008 | 10:00 pm Exposure To Second-Hand Smoke Reduced In New EstimateAs the connection between second-hand smoke and coronary heart disease (CHD) became clearer and legislation was passed to reduce such passive smoking, exposures have been reduced. Researchers have recalibrated the CHD Policy Model to better predict future trends in CHD.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2008 | 7:00 pm How Disease Disables Tomato Plant's 'Intruder Alarm'How a bacterium overcomes a tomato plant's defenses and causes disease, by sneakily disabling the plant's intruder detection systems, is revealed in new research in Current Biology.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2008 | 7:00 pm Physicists Set New Record For Quantum Memory Storage And RetrievalPhysicists have taken a significant step toward creation of quantum networks by establishing a new record for the length of time that quantum information can be stored in and retrieved from an ensemble of very cold atoms. Though the information remains usable for just milliseconds, even that short lifetime should be enough to allow transmission of data from one quantum repeater to another on an optical network.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2008 | 7:00 pm Genes For Nine Health Indicators: Population Study Finds Genetics CluesA new genome-wide study examines genetic variants associated with nine metabolic traits and is the first to draw out novel variants from a population unselected for current disease. The traits are indicators for common disease such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, blood pressure, inflammation and lipid levels.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2008 | 7:00 pm Video: The Space Tourism ExperienceVideo Exclusive: The Virgin Galactic space tourism experience. If you have $200,000 to spare, this is what Richard Branson sends youSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 8 Dec 2008 | 11:48 am Video: Branson's pledge to Virgin Galactic space touristsIf you are lucky enough to have $200,000 to spare and have signed up as one of Virgin Galactic's space tourists then this is the video Richard Branson will have sent you to whet your appetite. Virgin hopes to take its passengers to the edge of space in 2010 – if all goes well with testing of its new vehicles SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo. Later, the company wants to take space tourists into the heart of the aurora borealis for the first time. You can find our interview with Brian Binnie, the pilot who tested SpaceShipOne, here. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 8 Dec 2008 | 11:46 am China, Russia to send probes to Mars next yearBEIJING (Reuters) - China will team up with Russia to launch two satellite probes to take pictures of Mars and one of its small moons in October next year as it seeks to cement its place in the select ranks of global space powers.Source: Reuters: Science News | 8 Dec 2008 | 10:52 am Religious 'shun nanotechnology'People's attitudes to nanotechnology are influenced by religious and cultural beliefs, say scientists.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 8 Dec 2008 | 10:50 am Voices from PakistanThe child worker: Shakeel Ahmed, 13Ahmed began working in a surgical instrument workshop at eight years old. "I do not like this work, in fact I want to go to school but my father says that I should work," he says. Shakeel's three uncles and elder brother all work in the industry. He does all kinds of work including polishing and grinding. He and the other workers are paid on a piece rate for the instruments they make. If Shakeel works all day, he can earn about 170 rupees (£1.42). The work can be dangerous because the workshop does not provide protective equipment or clothing. "If anything breaks up, it can hit me, I need to work carefully otherwise it is very dangerous." Minor injuries in the workshop are common and Shakeel saw a major accident last year. "[A worker] was operating a polisher, the stone blade broke suddenly and it hit his head and it started to bleed, other workers caught him and carried him to hospital," he recalls. The adult worker: Nasir Bhatti, 49Bhatti has been working in the industry since he was nine years old. He says it is common for workers to get into debt with their employers, for example if they have a large expenditure or if the workshop does not have many orders. "Poor workers get into debt when they have some problem and they pay it back or it is deducted from their wages," he says. This can place workers in hoc to their employer and make it difficult for them to demand better conditions. He is paid a piece rate per item he makes and earns 250 to 300 rupees (£2.15 to £2.60) a day. Bhatti is sanguine about the risks of working in the workshop. "Every work is dangerous," he says. "We are used to it and we work very carefully." He has been injured "many times" but never seriously. "I have seen countless workers' injuries, this is part of our work," he says. This information about Shakeel Ahmed and Nasir Bhatti was provided by Liaquat Javed, of BRIC Pakistan (Backwards Rehabilitation and Improvement Commission), an NGO set up in 1997 that works to improve the conditions of workers in Pakistan. The NGO: Liaquat Javed, head of BRIC PakistanJaved says conditions in the handful of large surgical instrument factories are generally good, but much of the work is done by workers in small workshops with two to 20 workers. "The working conditions at home-based units are extremely bad and poor," he says. "There are no health and safety measures and no training. The wages are nominal ... the situation is very bad but workers have no option. If they will not work how will they earn a daily living?" These conditions are common in the industry. "If you walk the streets you will find countless workshops where you will see a horrible situation - child labourers, workers' faces full with metal dust and noise. The children operate polishers, grinders and at many units I saw the children working with chemicals without any gloves or masks. "Workers are not aware of their rights. They are illiterate, they have no unions and they are not allowed to make unions. Workers are deprived of education, health and justice." He believes that buyers such as the NHS have the most power to make changes by forcing their suppliers to take action. "In this horrible situation, buyers can play best role if they put demands to the suppliers. So the NHS can play very positive role," he says. The factory boss: Sheraz Safdir, chair of the Surgical Instruments Manufacturers AssociationSafdir admits that working conditions in the industry could be improved, but says child labour has been almost eliminated. "No more children are coming into this field," he says. "You can hardly find any children in the industry. The big companies don't have any children." The International Labour Organisation's estimate of 5,800 child labourers working in surgical instrument manufacture is out of date, says Safdir, adding that the industry is working to improve conditions for the workers. "We are regularly monitoring those workshops. We are also investing a lot of money in them for the betterment of their employees and for better working conditions." He accuses NGOs such as the ILO of talking up the child labour problem to obtain more charitable donations from abroad. "The trouble with these people is that if there is no child labour in the surgical industry, how are they going to get their funds from abroad? What are these NGOs going to work on? They are not giving the true picture to the world. They have their own interests." According to Safdir, there is currently a shortage of skilled labourers so some workers are demanding a golden handshake of £1,000 just to begin work at a factory. He says that for conditions to improve buyers such as the NHS will have to pay more for the products, but this extra money should be monitored to make sure that it benefits workers. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 8 Dec 2008 | 2:16 am Call to widen curbs on UK fishingCampaigners call for fishing to be banned in almost a third of UK seas to help damaged stocks recover.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 8 Dec 2008 | 1:47 am Endeavour delays return trip to Fla. until Tuesday (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 8 Dec 2008 | 12:38 am Science Weekly podcast: The mathematics of plants, puzzles, Virgin Galactic and a Posnan previewProfessor of mathematics Ian Stewart from the University of Warwick sets the Science Weekly pub quiz challenge (answers in a separate podcast). Prof Stewart also discusses the Fibonacci sequence, the mathematics of plants, and his new book Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities. We speak to Virgin Galactic's president Will Whitehorn about sending older people into space. Science correspondent David Adam looks ahead to the UN's climate change summit in Poznan, Poland. Plus, we analyse a body swap study and whether it could lead to a treatment for phantom limb pain. Nell Boase and James Randerson are also in the pod. WARNING: you will need a pen and paper for this podcast. Calculators are not permitted! Feel free to post your comments about the show on the blog below. You can also join our Facebook group, where you can scrawl your thoughts on our wall. Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 8 Dec 2008 | 12:16 am Scientists link sleep disorders to diabetesScientists have discovered a gene that links type 2 diabetes and sleep disorders, according to a study of more than 36,000 people. The finding, backed by two others published today, suggests a connection between diabetes and the way the body responds to the 24-hour cycle of light and dark. The new genetic research points to a gene involved in detecting melatonin - a hormone that is part of the body's internal body clock - and an increased risk of diabetes. Other genes have previously been linked to high levels of glucose in the blood, but the melatonin receptor is the first gene to be linked to both high blood sugar and increased risk of diabetes. "We have extremely strong, incontrovertible evidence that the gene encoding melatonin receptor 1B is associated with high fasting glucose levels and increased risk of type 2 diabetes," said Professor Mark McCarthy, of the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Oxford. According to the NHS, type 2 diabetes - frequently associated with obesity - affects approximately 2.3 million people in Britain and at least 500,000 more who are not aware they have the condition. The finding, which is published in Nature Genetics, comes from a so-called genome-wide association study. The researchers analysed the genomes of 36,610 people of European descent to look for changes associated with an increased risk of diabetes. They found that a mutation in the MTNR1B gene led to a modest 9% increase in type 2 diabetes risk per copy of the mutated gene present. The large numbers in the study allow the researchers to identify genes which have a small influence on disease. Two other genome-wide association studies in the same journal backed the finding. The findings will raise the possibility of genetic tests to identify people vulnerable to developing type 2 diabetes. Three more large genome-wide association studies published today in Nature Genetics have investigated genes involved in heart disease, insulin levels, blood pressure and cholesterol. Between them they identified 75 genetic changes associated with one of the traits of interest, of which 26 are new to science. "The power of studies such as ours lies in their ability to examine these traits for early life events, to reflect the genetic makeup of the wider population and to investigate the relationship between genetic variation and environment over time," says Professor Leena Peltonen, head of human genetics at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute an author of one of the papers. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 8 Dec 2008 | 12:09 am Alzheimer's link to cold sore bugScientists have discovered a link between the virus that causes cold sores and brain changes that occur with Alzheimer's disease. It is too early to say whether the virus causes the disease, but the researchers say it raises the possibility that standard anti-viral drugs could in future be used to treat the disease or prevent it from occurring. The researchers have found that herpes simplex virus type 1 is found within so-called amyloid plaques in the brains of people who died of Alzheimer's, suggesting that it may have a role in causing the damage. According to the NHS, Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia. It affects about 450,000 people. In over-65s, about one in 20 people are affected, rising to one in five over 80. The team at Manchester University has shown that in mice beta-amyloid, the main component of plaques, accumulates in the brain when the animals are infected with herpes simplex. In brains from people who died from the disease, they found that 90% of plaques contained the virus, with which most people are infected. It remains dormant in the nervous system, but in 20% to 40% it causes cold sores. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 8 Dec 2008 | 12:09 am Archaeologists dig into Greenham peace campThey may not rank with the Pyramids or Sutton Hoo, but the traces of one Britain's best-known protest camps are being sifted by a team of archaeologists. More than 600 artefacts have been catalogued at the skeletal remnants of Turquoise Gate camp, Greenham Common, as part of a project to tell the "full story" about the women's anti-nuclear campaign 25 years ago. Scouring woodland and scrub near the old cruise missile bunkers, which themselves have been given scheduled historic monument status, a team from Southampton University and English Heritage has already rewritten minor parts of history. One of the major finds at Turquoise, set up as a vegan offshoot from the large camp at nearby Blue Gate, has been a "significant number" of milk bottles. John Schofield, of English Heritage, who reports the survey results in the latest issue of British Archaeology magazine, says: "Were the women really all vegan, were they re-using old bottles, or were there children on site who needed milk?" Such issues are now being raised with veterans of the camp, some of whom acted as advisers on the dig and helped to rediscover a forgotten outpost of the protest. This was the previously unrecorded Emerald Gate camp, where a few women directly monitored Gama - the Ground-launched missiles Alert and Maintenance Area - the other side of the base's famous fence. The carefully hidden nook, with fragments of "bender" shelters and a fire pit, are compared in the survey to a long tradition of spying points in communities studied by archaeologists. Schofield says: "It reminded me of Lewis Binford's work on the Mask Site (in Arctic Alaska) where Nunamiut hunters watched and waited." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 8 Dec 2008 | 12:09 am Science Weekly Extra podcast: Professor Ian Stewart runs through the answers to the pub quiz maths challengeThis audio relates to questions set in part one of this week's programme. Listen to that podcast first! Professor of mathematics Ian Stewart from the University of Warwick reveals the solutions to the Science Weekly pub quiz challenge. Alok Jha, Nell Boase and Andy Duckworth are in the pod trying out the sums. Feel free to post your comments about the show on the blog below. You can also join our Facebook group, where you can scrawl your thoughts on our wall. Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 8 Dec 2008 | 12:05 am Top 10 Incredible Animal Videos: Readers' Choice
10. Chickens Policing Rabbits 9. The Great Beagle Escape 8. Dolphins Playing With Bubble Rings 7. Gibbon Taunts Baby Tigers 6. Lion Reunion 5. Hedgehog Eating a Carrot 4. Hamster Eats Popcorn on a Piano 3. Gin the Dancing Dog 2. Transformer Owl 1. Super Smart Dog Source: Wired: Wired Science | 7 Dec 2008 | 10:14 pm Compound lights up spreading cancer cellsWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new type of imaging compound can literally light up spreading cancer cells and may offer a way to track the deadly spread of the disease, Japanese and U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 7 Dec 2008 | 10:05 pm Some see energy future in old mill dams (AP)AP - More than 150 years after it helped power the industrial revolution, the waters of Mill Brook that spill over a series of dams past the old Armory may be called back into service.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Dec 2008 | 8:25 pm Shuttle's Piggy-Back Ride to Florida Could Happen Monday (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - The Space Shuttle Endeavour's piggy-back ride from California to Florida on a modified Boeing 747 could occur Monday, NASA announced this weekend. The flight had been tentatively slated for today.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Dec 2008 | 7:47 pm Native hunters: Climate is thinning caribou herds (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Dec 2008 | 4:26 pm Sudan confirms troop build-up in oil region (Reuters)Reuters - Sudan's government on Sunday confirmed it had moved troops to a volatile energy-rich central region, telling state media it wanted to halt "feverish attempts" to attack the area by Darfur rebels.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Dec 2008 | 11:52 am
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