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Protein That Protects Against Alzheimer's?Research on the mechanisms involved in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, stroke, dementia, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis, to name a few, has taken a step forward thanks to the work of researchers who have successfully demonstrated the protective and reparative role of apolipoprotein D, or ApoD, in neurodegenerative diseases. Their discovery suggests interesting avenues for preventing and slowing the progression of this type of illness.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Jan 2009 | 1:00 am Ecstasy For Treatment Of Traumatic AnxietyTreatment with a pharmacological version of the drug ecstasy makes PSTD patients more receptive to psychotherapy, and contributes to lasting improvement. Now researchers explain why.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Jan 2009 | 1:00 am New Computer Program Enables Powerful Data Analysis On Small ComputersA powerful new tool that can extract features and patterns from enormously large and complex data sets has been developed. The tool -- a set of problem-solving calculations known as an algorithm -- is compact enough to run on computers with as little as two gigabytes of memory.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Jan 2009 | 1:00 am Smaller, Brighter Probe Tailored For Molecular Imaging And Tumor Targeting CreatedResearchers have developed a new generation of microscopic particles for molecular imaging, constituting one of the first promising nanoparticle platforms that may be readily adapted for tumor targeting and treatment in the clinic.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Jan 2009 | 1:00 am People Are More Suggestible Under Laughing GasThe pain-relieving effects of nitrous oxide -- laughing gas -- may be enhanced by suggestion or hypnosis, according to a new study. The study's findings -- that people are more suggestible under the gas -- mean that dental patients may benefit from being coached to relax while undergoing sedation.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Jan 2009 | 1:00 am Obesity: Reviving The Promise Of LeptinThe 1995 discovery of leptin, an appetite-suppressing hormone, generated great hopes for an effective obesity drug. But hopes dimmed when it was found that obese people are leptin-resistant. Now, researchers have, for the first time, re-sensitized the brain to leptin, using oral drugs that are already FDA-approved. In mice, this led to significant weight loss when combined with leptin treatment.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Jan 2009 | 1:00 am 'Stroke Belt' Deaths Tied To Non-traditional Risk FactorsA new report underscores the notion that stroke risks go beyond geographic and racial differences. Researchers report that non-traditional risk factors must explain the South's higher stroke death rate. What those factors are need further study, but clearly diabetes and hypertension play an important role, the study authors said.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm New Molecule In Blood-pressure Control System DiscoveredResearchers have discovered that the nerve cells controlling heart rate and blood pressure synthesize a molecule known to be critically important for proper nervous system growth. The finding could someday play a significant role in the prevention of sudden infant death syndrome and high blood pressure.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm Scientists Refute Argument Of Climate SkepticsScientists have investigated the frequency of warmer than average years between 1880 and 2006 for the first time. The result: the observed increase of warm years after 1990 is not a statistical accident.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm Molecular Imaging Enables Earlier, Individualized Treatment Of Thyroid CancerIn a study to determine the diagnostic value of molecular imaging in nodal staging of patients with thyroid cancer, researchers were able for the first time to accurately distinguish between cancerous cells in regional lymph nodes and normal residual thyroid tissue directly after surgery.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm Ants 'get aggressive with cheats'Worker ants in colonies with a queen are physically attacked by their peers if they try to reproduce, a study says.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Jan 2009 | 9:38 am Tests show algae toxin in some sick pelicans (AP)AP - A toxic chemical produced by algae has been detected in some sick California brown pelicans that are being found in record numbers along the West Coast, though researchers don't believe it's the primary cause of their widespread illness, wildlife experts said Friday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Jan 2009 | 5:56 am Rare 'dinky' bird migrates to US for first time (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Jan 2009 | 4:28 am Report: NASA inspector general not catching enough (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Jan 2009 | 2:32 am U.S. advisers back 1st drug from DNA-altered animalsROCKVILLE, Maryland (Reuters) - The first drug made using genetically engineered animals to near U.S. approval won key support on Friday from an advisory panel that judged it safe and effective despite concerns from groups worried about the genetic tinkering.Source: Reuters: Science News | 10 Jan 2009 | 1:21 am PETA: Spearfish school should be called Sea Kitten (AP)AP - The activist animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has asked school officials to change the name of Spearfish High School to "Sea Kitten High School." The new name would "reflect the gentle nature of its current marine namesake," the organization said in a letter to Steve Morford, Spearfish High School principal.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Jan 2009 | 1:09 am Science and ethics of embryo cancer screening is complexThe little girl born free of the BRCA1 gene that so often causes breast cancer is not a designer baby in the strict sense of the phrase. Her parents did not choose her hair colour, or select an aptitude for maths. But the birth breaks new ground because, for the first time, embryo selection was made for the purpose of reducing, not eliminating, the baby's chances of getting breast cancer when she grows up - and because the discarded embryos might also have become cancer-free women. Genes are not the only trigger for breast cancer. Women with the genes that have been the most strongly identified with the disease, BRCA1 and BRCA2, have a risk up to seven times higher than other women of developing breast and ovarian cancer, but some will remain cancer free. And some who get cancer will be cured. Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) involves testing a group of embryos derived from fertility treatment to ensure that the one returned to the womb does not carry unwanted the genes. In the past, scientists have used it to prevent babies being born who would certainly have suffered life-shortening diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease. These inherited diseases are caused by single defective genes. If the embryo has the faulty gene, which runs in the family, the baby will certainly develop the disease. There has been comparatively little controversy over selecting embryos free of such genes, where parents want it. But the selection of babies free of specific cancer genes is much more complex. In recognition of this, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which regulates IVF, including genetic testing on embryos, held a public consultation before deciding to grant permission for PGD to be carried out to screen for the breast cancer genes. Most people would be sympathetic to the technique being carried out in families where there is a long history of generations of women succumbing to breast or ovarian cancer - the genes can cause both - which results in daughters and granddaughters living in fear that the disease might happen to them. The baby born in London after screening has a reduced risk of breast cancer, because she does not carry the BRCA1 gene which runs through her father's family. But she could still get the disease. While genes have not yet been discovered that are as strongly implicated in breast and ovarian cancer as BRCA1 and BRCA2, there are many others, some identified and some not, that raise the risk of breast cancer. There are also a number of environmental risk factors, such as smoking, drinking too much alcohol, obesity and diet. The question now for ethicists will be how much further society wants to travel down the road of selecting babies free of specific genes that may, but also may not, cause disease. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 10 Jan 2009 | 12:06 am She may never get breast cancer - but girl's birth raises new doubts over designer babiesThe birth of the first British baby genetically screened before conception to be free of a breast cancer gene was hailed yesterday as a breakthrough by doctors but raised fresh questions about the ethics of creating so-called designer babies. The baby girl grew from an embryo screened to ensure that it did not contain the faulty BRCA1 gene, which would have meant she had a 50%-85% of developing breast cancer. While mother and daughter were said by a spokesman at University College hospital, London, to be doing "very well" following the birth at this week, medical experts and those involved in cancer research were considering the implications. Paul Serhal, medical director of the assisted conception unit at the hospital, said: "This little girl will not face the spectre of developing this genetic form of breast cancer or ovarian cancer in her adult life. "The parents will have been spared the risk of inflicting this disease on their daughter. The lasting legacy is the eradication of the transmission of this form of cancer that has blighted these families for generations." In June the mother, then 27, told how she decided to undergo the screening process after seeing all her husband's female relatives suffer the disease. The woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, said at the time: "We felt that, if there was a possibility of eliminating this for our children, then that was a route we had to go down." The technique, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), has already been used in the UK to free babies of inherited disorders such as cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease. But breast cancer is different because it does not inevitably affect a child from birth and may or may not develop later in life. There is also a chance it can be cured, if caught early enough. Permission to carry out PGD for breast cancer had to be obtained from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority by the London clinic which performed the procedure. Dr Sarah Cant, policy manager at Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said the decision to screen embryos to see whether they have a faulty breast cancer gene was a complex and very personal issue. "Women with a family history of breast cancer tell us that what might be right for one person may not be right for another. It's important for anyone affected to have appropriate information and support so they can make the right choice for them." Kath McLachlan, a clinical nurse specialist at the charity Breast Cancer Care, said it would give those carrying the faulty BRCA1 gene "another option" to consider when starting a family. She said: "However, there are many complex issues to take into account and the decision will finally come down to an individual's personal ethics. While the selection of an embryo through PGD can reduce a person's risk of developing breast cancer, the procedure cannot prevent a non-genetic form of the disease in later life. It is essential that anyone considering using the technique is offered comprehensive information, high-quality support and advice." Doctors at the private clinic at University College hospital conducted tests on 11 embryos by removing just one cell from each when they were three days old. Six embryos were found to carry the defective BRCA1 gene. Two embryos which were free of the gene were implanted, resulting in a single pregnancy. Faulty genes are responsible for between 5% and 10% of the 44,000 cases of breast cancer that occur in the UK each year. BRCA1 and its sister gene BRCA2 are the two most commonly involved. Women with a defective BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene are up to seven times more likely to develop breast cancer than those without the mutations. As the debate about the ethics involved in the procedure was renewed, the main objection from critics remains the charge that it opens the door to the creation of babies for parents who may want their off spring to be top of the class, excel in sport, and have hair, eyes and other physical characteristics that into a particular family's wish list. Alternatively, deaf or blind couples might want their disabilities passed on to their child. Some members of the deaf community who claim they belong to a "linguistic minority" are campaigning for the right to have hearing-impaired children. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 10 Jan 2009 | 12:06 am Bad science: A detoxer in denialObviously by now you can guess my views on detox: meaningless, symbolic, gimmicky, short-lived gestures with a built-in expiry date, when we could be reading about the NHS's surprisingly useful website to help you stop smoking (do it now: smokefree.nhs.uk). I'm not trying to bore you, but after a few months of concentrating on dodgy reporting in the media, I had forgotten how far out a proper fruitcake can get. Fate dealt me Nas Amir Ahmadi, managing director of Detox in a box, when I discussed detox with her on BBC Radio 4. My interest in Nas's work was first piqued when she began to deny quotes from her own website. What is the evidence that your detox regime will eradicate cadmium from my body? I asked. You must have the wrong website, doctor. Never heard of the idea, she said. But there it was, bright as day: "One of the most complex detoxification functions is against heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadminum [sic], nickel, arsenic, and aluminium [which isn't a heavy metal]." And so on. Nas says she made a mistake. No problem. In returning to the website to check, I had a look around. There were lots of exciting claims. Here are five. "Pumpkin seeds are a natural depression cure!", "Lemon helps maintain healthy teeth and bones", "Olives help delay the effects of ageing", "A teaspoon of cinnamon per day helps lower cholesterol!" and "Tuna helps lower blood pressure". I asked Nas if they had any evidence to back up these claims. No, she agreed. They do not have any "scientific evidence". Then she seemed to change her mind, and offered some. This included a study involving seven people, weak observational correlations, and so on. Some of the site, such as a page titled "Which Came First - Depression or Diabetes?", stuck out a mile. It was quite science-y, quite plausible, and quite interesting, a write-up of a proper research paper. Was this written by Detox in a box? No. They simply copied the entire text, verbatim, from a blogpost by a pharmacist named Jennifer Gibson, and passed it off as their own. This seems to be a rather clear example of plagiarism, more than 500 words from start to finish. The person running the Brainblogger website, where the piece was published, has described Detox in a box as "thieves". Detox in a box has not responded, but they have removed the page from their site. And interestingly, Nas's difficulty in recalling the claims about "cadminum" from her own website might also be explained by their original source. The entire sentence - "One of the most complex detoxification functions is against heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadminum, nickel, arsenic, and aluminium" - appears, verbatim, on another website, detox-guide.com, complete with that telltale misspelling of cadmium. Nas has explained to me that she is mystified why so many people from the world of science and medicine seem to be annoyed with her. Yup. It's a mystery. Please send your bad science to bad.science@guardian.co.uk guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 10 Jan 2009 | 12:03 am Special Delivery: Antibiotic Viruses Could Kill BacteriaResearchers discover the powerful molecular-scale motors that drive viruses. It's a major step to employing beneficial viruses to knock out dangerous diseases.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Jan 2009 | 9:55 pm "Green" billboard ready to light up Times Square (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Jan 2009 | 9:44 pm Heat may spark world food crisisHalf the world's population could face food crisis by 2100 as soaring temperatures cripple staple crops, scientists warn.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Jan 2009 | 9:29 pm The Magic of Mushroom Spores
High-speed video has revealed that the incredible variety of fantastic forms taken by fungal spores helps them catapult themselves into the air. For hundreds of years, scientists have described the spectrum of spore shapes — a different one for each of 15,000 known varieties of fungi, an assortment so astounding as to have sprung from the mind of Willy Wonka rather than Charles Darwin. But for all their observations, they've known relatively little about why spores took those shapes. Some mycologists suspected it was merely evolutionary noise. But the first comparative analysis of fungal spore form and reproductive dispersal shows that shapes are no evolutionary accident. "What people have done for 200 years is volume after volume of taxonomic work with descriptions of spore shape and size, without reference to why it's there. You've just got these weird and wonderful forms, but nothing about why," said botanist Nicholas Money of Miami University in Ohio. Money's team used high-speed video analysis to study spores thrown into the air by a biomechanical process as elegant as it is miniscule. A single bead of water condenses on a spore's surface; when the bead touches a film of water on another part of the spore, the bead pours into it, like raindrops merging on a windowshield. The resulting shift in weight distribution is so sudden and massive as to hurl the entire conglomeration — called the ballistospore — airborne. That process is part of the asexual reproduction of fungi, and the many different shapes may serve to help different species grow and reproduce in different conditions. A single mushroom can launch 31,000 ballistospores per second, adding up to some 2.7 billion spores per day. This process is already understood, but Money and his colleagues are among the first researchers to break it down in frame-by-frame resolution. What made their paper special, said Money, is their description of variation in this mechanism. They found that tiny changes in spore shape produced profound alterations in water droplet shape. Changes in water droplet shape then affected the the trajectory of dispersed spores. At one level, the findings are literally microscopic; at another, they're universal. "Mushrooms are masterpieces of natural engineering," said Money, "and we are just beginning to understand how they work." The research, published Thursday in Public Library of Science ONE, was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health. They are interested in using Money's insights to develop methods of fungal control. That, however, will be done by others; Money's focus is purely on the magic of mushroom biomechanics. Asked whether spore trajectories could be scaled up to thrown baseballs or other reader-friendly terms, Money replied that mushroom spores don't go far at all. "If the viscous drag of air acted upon a baseball with the same intensity that it impedes the flight of a mushroom spore, you would see the pitched ball slow after an arm's length of motion, stop dead, and fall vertically to the ground," he said. "In my seminars I refer to this flight path as the Wile E. Coyote trajectory." This makes sense, Money said, because it ensures that spores will fall cleanly downward from the densely packed gills where they originate. "Speaking technically, this is a ****ing beautiful mechanism," he said. Citation: "Adaptation of the Spore Discharge Mechanism in the Basidiomycota." By Jessica L. Stolze-Rybczynski, Yunluan Cui, M. Henry H. Stevens, Diana J. Davis, Mark W. F. Fischer and Nicholas P. Money. Public Library of Science ONE, Vol. 4 No. 1, Jan. 8 2009 Image: Plate detail from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, depicting Basimycetes / WikiMedia Commons Videos: 1. Ultrahigh-speed video clip (50,000 f.p.s.) showing ballistospore discharge in gilled mushroom of Armillaria tabescens / PLoS ONE 2. Ballistospore discharge in the stinking smut fungus Tilletia caries. Video captured at 24 frames per second; shows drop behavior before discharge / Nicholas Money, Miami University. 3. Spore release from cap of fairy ring mushroom captured with conventional digital camera in video mode / Nicholas Money, Miami University. See Also:
WiSci 2.0: Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and Del.icio.us feed; Wired Science on Facebook. Source: Wired: Wired Science | 9 Jan 2009 | 8:36 pm The Recession Could Make You FatExperts fear the recession could cause more U.S. residents to gain weight as they cut corners on food purchases.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Jan 2009 | 7:29 pm Iceland Pressed by Pro-Whaling GroupsWhaling groups in Iceland argue for the expansion of catch quotas.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 9 Jan 2009 | 7:24 pm Flashback: Images From the Week's NewsA look back at images from Discovery News, Jan. 5-9.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 9 Jan 2009 | 5:54 pm The Myths and Realities of Bipartisanship in D.C. (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - In a 1997 television interview with PBS, former House representative Lynn Martin was asked how important she considered bipartisanship to a government, and to the country. "Sometimes very important, sometimes not important at all. It's obviously flavor of the month right now in Washington because it sounds so nice," responded the Republican from Illinois. Perhaps she should have said flavor of the decade. As has been the case with many recent presidential elections, Barack Obama campaigned heartily last year on the promise of renewed bipartisanship in Washington. ...Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Jan 2009 | 5:54 pm The Myths and Realities of Bipartisanship in D.C.For all the election rhetoric, though, is today's government really so fractured?Source: Livescience.com | 9 Jan 2009 | 4:40 pm Zimbabwe troops 'eat elephants'A Zimbabwean wildlife campaigner tells the BBC that soldiers are being given elephant meat to eat, as the economic crisis deepens.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Jan 2009 | 4:40 pm Mosquitoes match wing beats before mating (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Jan 2009 | 4:01 pm Great White Tops List of Hardest-Biting SharksIt's head width, not overall size, that best predicts how hard a shark's bite will be.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 9 Jan 2009 | 3:54 pm U.N. Says 'No,' Climate Hackers Say, 'Yes We Can'
This story has been updated. A major Indian-German geoengineering expedition set sail this week for the Scotia Sea, flouting a U.N. ban on ocean iron fertilization experiments in hopes of garnering data about whether the process actually does take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and sequester it in the deep ocean, a technique that may help reverse global warming. The LOHAFEX experiment will spread 20-tons of iron sulphate particles over a 115-square-mile section of open ocean north of Antarctica — that's about 1.7 times the size of Washington, D.C. The initiative has drawn fire from environmental groups who point out that 200 countries agreed to the moratorium until more evidence was available about its efficacy. But that hasn't stopped the LOHAFEX team, composed of Alfred Wegener Institute and Indian National Institute of Oceanography scientists, who say they need to conduct experiments to get such data. “If the LOHAFEX iron dump goes ahead, it will be a clear defiance of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity,” Jim Thomas of ETC Group, said in a press release. It's becoming clear that when it comes to global warming reversal schemes, deciding who will control the global thermostat is as complex an issue as how such schemes could actually be accomplished. Ocean iron fertilization is considered one of the more promising options for global-scale geoengineering, which aims to slow or reverse the effects of climate change caused by man's burning of fossil fuels. While Thomas expressed outrage, Jamais Cascio, a futurist who has written about the geopolitical repercussions of geoengineering for the journal Foreign Policy, took a more measured tone. "ETC is right that we need international standards and safeguards for these experiments, and hopefully this attempt will spur action in that regard," Cascio said. "I think they're wrong, however, to suggest that any look at geoengineering is inherently problematic." Importantly, iron fertilization would deal directly with the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, as opposed to, say, blocking out some of the sun's rays with a global molecular parasol. By providing plankton with iron in water where iron is lacking, the marine creatures grow in tremendous numbers, incorporating carbon into their bodies. When the plankton die and sink, the carbon goes with down with their skeletons. It is unknown, however, how much of that carbon actually makes it deep into the ocean, where it would be sequestered for decades, not days. At a panel at meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science last year, marine geochemist Ken Buesseler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute said that somewhere between 2 and 50 percent of the carbon the plankton eat could actually make it to the depths of the ocean, which is basically like saying that we don't know if the process works. "The efficacy of iron-induced sequestration of atmospheric CO2 to the deep sea, however, remains poorly constrained," he summarized. "We do not yet understand the full range of intended and potential unintended biogeochemical and ecological impacts." "The fate of carbon from the bloom could not be adequately determined in earlier experiments," the LOHAFEX website reads. "LOHAFEX will now study the entire range of processes determining the partitioning of carbon between atmosphere and deep ocean in the experimental bloom." Cascio said that it's likely that further geoengineering experiments or actual efforts will be made. "This comes as absolutely no surprise to me," he said. "The confluence of desperation as we see climate disruption hit faster than anticipated, inaction on the carbon emission front, and the ease with which geoengineering can be undertaken means that this won't be the last time that a sub-national group tries something like this." Already, two ocean-iron-fertilization companies, Climos and Planktos, have been founded. They've met different fates, though. Last year, Planktos went belly up, while Climos pulled in $4 million in venture capital. UPDATE 11:10 am PST: Climos CEO, Dan Whaley, notes in our comments section that there was a clause included in an October resolution of a separate U.N. organization, parties to the London Convention, in which 88 countries voted to allow "legitimate scientific research" on ocean iron fertilization, without restrictions to coastal waters. It was under this ruling that the researchers proceeded.The full text of that resolution is available at Climos' website. See Also:
WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal's Twitter , Google Reader feed, and project site, Inventing Green: the lost history of American clean tech; Wired Science on Facebook. Source: Wired: Wired Science | 9 Jan 2009 | 3:46 pm Amazon Deforestation: Earth's Heart and Lungs DismemberedThe demand for beef means large swaths of the Brazilian Amazon are being bulldozed,but the government is making changes.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Jan 2009 | 3:20 pm Women Can Smell a Man's IntentionsAt least subconsciously, a woman can also tell a man's in the mood by the scent of his sweat.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Jan 2009 | 3:20 pm Canadian Trekkers Claim South Pole RecordCanadian trekkers subsisted on deep fried bacon and butter while setting an Antarctic record.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 9 Jan 2009 | 3:15 pm Shiny Urban Surfaces Trap Clueless CrittersReflective city streets can trap insects drawn to the glint of water.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 9 Jan 2009 | 2:44 pm Video: Buzzing: bees on drugsAustralian scientist Dr Andrew Baron doses honey bees with cocaine to study how their brains react to the drug, and possibly find a way to curb addiction in humansSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 9 Jan 2009 | 2:41 pm Study Finds Source of Self-Control, MaybeIs religion the opium of the masses or does it help us stay in line?Source: Livescience.com | 9 Jan 2009 | 2:40 pm Blacks Holes Came Before GalaxiesThe universe's chicken or the egg riddle has been solved: black holes predate galaxies.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 9 Jan 2009 | 2:27 pm Spirituality, Not Religion, Makes Kids HappyA study finds a link between happiness and spirituality among "tweens" and kids in mid-childhood.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Jan 2009 | 2:09 pm Smarter Men Have More SpermIntelligence could indicate a person has a lot of good genes and traits.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Jan 2009 | 2:03 pm Strange Rock Formations on Mars ExplainedScientists explain the how Martian rocks get arranged in a uniform fashion.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Jan 2009 | 2:01 pm Susan McCarthy: What happens when scientific data is dressed up in religious clothing, as in the Berkeley 'Atheon'?The Atheon is a temple of science. It's a shrine to rational wonder. It's conceptual art. To be coldly reductionist, it's four "stained glass" windows in a building you can't enter, and a "canon" unlikely to induce humming or foot-tapping. In December, it held a minuscule synod. The Atheon's creator, Jonathon Keats, is a conceptual artist with a longstanding interest in exploring science and religion as artistic elements, and a flair for publicity. He says the inspiration for creating the Atheon came at a 2006 conference called "Beyond Belief", at which luminary scientists like Neil deGrasse Tyson, Carolyn Porco, and Richard Dawkins extolled the sense of wonder and uplift derived from science as a replacement for religious awe. Keats mused on the idea of science replacing religion. "What would it look like, what would it feel like, what would it sound like?" He concluded that "there perhaps ought to be some sort of temple to science." He has also said, "The essence of religion is stained glass and song." (Keats, who says he is not religious, had a rather secular Jewish upbringing which included exposure to music he calls enormously beautiful and stained glass he calls "horrible ... truly ugly ... beyond words.") His opportunity came with a Californian museum's call for art proposals. The Judah L Magnes Museum had bought an old building, a once-grandiose secretarial school, which they intend to renovate over a few years. The public can't go in until remodelling is done, so the Magnes sought proposals for art work on the outside of the building. Keats, spotting the 14-foot-high cathedral windows in the building's auditorium, asked to make them Atheon windows. With grants from the museum and a UC Berkeley community fund, Keats had huge sheets of vinyl printed with pictures from NASA, glorious false-color images of the cosmic microwave background radiation – echoes of the universe's beginnings. These were stretched across the window (not actually gummed to the historic windows themselves) and at night are lit from within so passers-by can see them. "The windows are illuminated outwards", said chief curator Alla Efimova. "They provide light to the neighborhood. We feel it's kind of symbolic of the way a museum tries to share its experience." The windows are lovely by night, although there's something melancholy about beautiful views into a locked building. There is also a piece of music, which Keats characterizes as a canon, titled "Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?" I would not call it song. It is based on acoustic files created by astronomer Mark Whittle extrapolating what sound oscillations might have existed right after the Big Bang, when space was briefly full of gas. Whittle has described it as an ascending scream, going to a deep raspy roar, and ending in a deafening hiss. I suppose you could dance to it, if you had the right leotard, but it's not a leap-to-your-feet sort of number. I don't envision a choir belting it out. Keats has been doing conceptual art with considerable energy for about a decade. His works include a "Petri dish God" (accompanied by the intriguing claim that God is most closely related to the cyanobacteria), pornography for plants, and a silent ringtone based on John Cage's 4'33". The ringtone was his most controversial work, he says. Why? "I have no idea! It's the first time I've been called 'a retard' since second grade." He emphasises that the Atheon is not a satire. He calls it a thought experiment, an open source project. "The Atheon by no means is in the business of eliminating other religions," he says. "The Atheon as it now exists is a shell, a model, or even a scaffold." He proclaims that since the Atheon can be accessed online, it "can be encountered as a desktop shrine", but also says "This rather unimaginative artist's attempt at creating all of this is, in a sense, just a suggestion or a gesture or a set of gestures in a Potemkin sort of way." I asked about the gesture of the windows. "How do the windows make me feel? I can certainly see how the windows can inspire a state of awe," Keats said cautiously. "The visual impact is strong because it is coloured light at a large scale." He wants it to pose the question that occurred to him at the "Beyond Belief" conference, "What happens when scientific data is put in religious trappings, in religious clothing?" "I think that the Atheon can manifest in other places. I hope that the project will mutate," Keats said. "It's out of my control entirely." (He seemed undismayed by my suggestion that it could easily accommodate a torturing-the-infidel component.) "As an artist I am interested in exploring large ideas that are at play in our society, and science and religion are a large part of that." "To me, what's most interesting personally, is the way in which science might, by virtue of laying claim to the religious, by accentuating the miraculous – that science might undermine its own authority," he said. "Science may end up transforming itself into something akin to religion in the process of trying to co-opt religion." I remarked to the artist that religion has many aspects aside from wonder and awe, and that a successful Atheon might acquire some of these, including such mundane things as Sunday schools, bingo night, and collection plates. Had he thought about tithes? "I have collected no tithes. I have yet to figure out a way to make money making art," said Keats drily. "I wish I had thought of that. I wish you had talked to me before." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 9 Jan 2009 | 2:00 pm
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