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Traditional Risk Assessment Tools Do Not Accurately Predict Coronary Heart DiseaseThe Framingham and National Cholesterol Education Program tools do not accurately predict coronary heart disease, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 5:00 am Rats Say: Manhattan Rules!If you leave it up to the rats, New York City beats New Orleans any day. Researchers have invented a novel way to test urban designers’ city plans. Instead of using humans as guinea pigs, the scientists went to their nearby zoo and enlisted lab rats to determine the functionality of theoretical and existing plans.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm Tiny Insect Develops Long-term MemoryIf a specific butterfly anti-sex scent is coupled with a pleasant experience, then parasitic wasps are able to develop long-term memory and respond to this scent that they do not instinctively recognize. After successfully ‘hitch-hiking’ with a mated female cabbage white butterfly and parasitizing her eggs, the parasitic wasps are able to remember the route and navigate it again.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm Cell's Inactive State Is Critical For Effectiveness Of Cancer TreatmentA new study sheds light on a little understood biological process called quiescence, which enables blood-forming stem cells to exist in a dormant or inactive state in which they are not growing or dividing. According to the study's findings, researchers identified the genetic pathway used to maintain a cell's quiescence, a state that allows bone marrow cells to escape the lethal effects of standard cancer treatments.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm Toward A Long-sought Saliva Test For AutismResearchers are reporting discovery of abnormal proteins in the saliva of autism patients that could eventually provide a clue for the molecular basis of this severe developmental disorder and could be used as a biomarker for a subgroup of patients with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm Girls Twice As Likely As Boys To Remain Victims Of Bullying, Study FindsGirls targeted by bullies at primary school are two and a half times more likely to remain victims than boys, according to new research.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm Structure Of Key Ebola Protein DiscoveredScientists are a step closer to finding a way to counter the Ebola virus. They have recently solved the structure from a key part of the Ebola protein known as VP35.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm Findings Turn Events In Early TB Infection On Their Head, May Lead To New TherapyMasses of immune cells that form as a hallmark of tuberculosis have long been thought to be the body's way of trying to protect itself by literally walling off the bacteria. But a new study in the journal Cell offers evidence that the TB bacteria actually sends signals that encourage the growth of those organized granuloma structures, and for good reason.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jan 2009 | 4:00 pm Workers Exposed To Lead Show More Cognitive Problems Later In LifeBoth the developing brain and the aging brain can suffer from lead exposure. For older people, a buildup of lead from earlier exposure may be enough to result in greater cognitive problems after age 55, according to a follow-up study of adults exposed to lead at work.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jan 2009 | 4:00 pm Hair Of Tasmanian Tiger Yields Genes Of Extinct SpeciesAll the genes that the exotic Tasmanian Tiger inherited only from its mother will be revealed in a new article. The research marks the first successful sequencing of genes from this carnivorous marsupial, which looked like a large tiger-striped dog and became extinct in 1936. The research also opens the door to the widespread, nondestructive use of museum specimens to learn why mammals become extinct and how extinctions might be prevented.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jan 2009 | 4:00 pm Ann Robinson: I welcome scientific breakthroughs, but the prenatal test for autism raises a lot of questionsThe "designer baby" debate is in full swing thanks to news of a possible prenatal test for autism.
So says the Guardian. The idea is that this may form the basis of a test of amniotic fluid to detect those foetuses most at risk of developing autism. But it's hard to tell from the reports just how far off a reliable test is. The study, published in the British Journal of Psychology, is viewable on subscription only. If I were pregnant, I would want to know the following about any prenatal test. 1. Is it testing for a condition that will mean my child won't be able to have good quality of life? For some testable conditions, like Tay-Sachs disease (TSD), that's an easy one to answer. Babies with TSD become blind, progressively weaker and die by the age of four. I'd have that test. Autism is different. Charlotte Moore, mother of three boys, two of whom have autism, writes:
2. Is the test reliable? 3. Is the test safe? The test under discussion involves amniocentesis – putting a needle into the pregnant uterus to sample the amniotic fluid. It carries around a 1 in 200 risk of causing miscarriage. So it's not entirely risk-free. 4. Is there a point in knowing the answer? And it is now possible to use IVF techniques to select embryos that don't carry genes that hugely increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. I wouldn't hesitate in having those tests if I were at increased risk. But with autism, the picture is complicated. Will any future test really predict for certain that the child will develop autism? How will we be able to tell whether a child will be hugely impaired or only have minimal communication problems? Each new test needs to be considered on its own merits. So I'd say big thumbs up to the breast cancer gene breakthrough, big question mark over a possible autism test. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 13 Jan 2009 | 12:30 pm Astrium buys up Surrey SatelliteUK satellite maker SSTL is bought up by Europe's biggest space company, EADS Astrium, in a deal approved by the EC.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Jan 2009 | 12:11 pm Bird Watching: Contrasting fortunes of Britain's ringed ploversTwo closely related species of wading bird have experienced contrasting fortunes lately thanks to the effects of human interference. That's according to the results of a survey just released by the British Trust for Ornithology. The ringed plover, and its smaller relative the little ringed plover, are small, ground-nesting waders which can prove quite tricky to tell apart. Until 1938 that wasn't a problem: little ringed plovers didn't even breed in the UK. But the years following the second world war saw a mass colonisation of the species, thanks to the boom in housing and road-building. Construction needed gravel; and gravel needed to be dug. Bizarrely, the little ringed plover – a bird which had evolved to nest on the shingle banks of rivers – was able to take advantage of this by nesting in working gravel quarries, a habit which continues to this day. I have a real soft spot for LRPs, as birders call them. Growing up on the outskirts of west London I was slap-bang in the middle of their breeding heartland. I can still recall the thrill I felt when as a teenager, I stumbled across a breeding pair in the giant basin of what would become the Queen Mother Reservoir, at Datchet. To the roar of Heathrow-bound aircraft overhead, and through the shimmering heat-haze of a June day, I watched as these acrobatic birds performed their aerial flights of fancy. I wasn't the only one to be struck by these newcomers to our shores. The late Kenneth Allsop, one of the greatest natural history writers and broadcasters of his generation, was so thrilled by their arrival that, as a cub reporter, he wrote a novel about them. Long out of print, Adventure Lit Their Star remains one of my favourite reads.
The good news is that in the 60 years since the book was published, little ringed plovers have gone from strength to strength. The BTO survey reveals that numbers have almost doubled since the last survey in 1984, up from about 620 to more than 1,100 breeding pairs. The ringed plover, in stark contrast, has suffered a major drop: from more than 8,500 breeding pairs in 1984 to just over 5,400 today. Most British ringed plovers nest in Scotland, with the highest density on the windswept machair of the Outer Hebrides. Until recently this was one of the most productive habitats for breeding waders on Earth – until, in the 1970s, someone let two pairs of hedgehogs go on the islands, since when numbers of birds have fallen dramatically due to predation. Ringed plovers do have another breeding habitat – shingle and sandy beaches – which are under even more pressure from holidaymakers and dog-walkers. No wonder they are in such rapid decline. The one ray of light is that in recent years ringed plovers have begun to join their smaller cousins and breed at inland sites, where they are usually less prone to disturbance. I've seen them on farmland in East Anglia and even at my old local patch, a nature reserve next to Kempton Park racecourse in Surrey – a location they share with the little ringed plovers. Hearing about the little ringed plovers' success makes me look forward to spring, when they return from their winter quarters in Africa, and can be seen once again dancing in the air over the gravel-pits of the London suburbs… guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 13 Jan 2009 | 11:54 am Ukraine admits blocking Europe gas transit, blames Russia (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jan 2009 | 11:52 am Protesters buy up Heathrow landLand earmarked for the construction of Heathrow's third runway is bought by anti-expansion protesters.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Jan 2009 | 11:51 am Euro MPs back pesticide controlsStricter EU rules on pesticides are expected that could threaten UK food production and push up prices, warn farmers.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Jan 2009 | 11:39 am Finger length may be guide to your earning powerThe length of a man's fingers may predict his success in the city, research findings suggest.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Jan 2009 | 11:11 am Dino feathers 'were for display'The earliest dinosaur feathers were probably used for visual display, says a team of scientists from China.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Jan 2009 | 9:44 am Genetic secrets from Tassie tigerScientists study the genetics of the extinct Tasmanian tiger, using DNA extracted from preserved hair.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Jan 2009 | 9:30 am Zoos, aquariums face the ax in NY, elsewhere (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jan 2009 | 9:10 am Fresh floods in Fiji as heavy rain falls again (AP)AP - Heavy rain sparked fresh flash floods Tuesday in Fiji, where thousands of people huddled in emergency shelters and scores of homes were inundated by a brown tide of rising water.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jan 2009 | 5:17 am Dinosaur Wore Primitive Down Coat (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - The evolution of the flashy down coat has been traced back to 125 million-year-old dinosaur fossils.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jan 2009 | 2:43 am Finger length may predict financial success (AP)AP - The length of a man's ring finger may predict his success as a financial trader. Researchers at the University of Cambridge in England report that men with longer ring fingers, compared to their index fingers, tended to be more successful in the frantic high-frequency trading in the London financial district.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jan 2009 | 2:30 am Battle linesYears of argument due over Heathrow expansionSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Jan 2009 | 1:52 am Groups sue EPA, want tougher ship discharge rules (AP)AP - Environmentalists sued the federal government Monday over new rules that critics say do too little to prevent cargo ships from dumping invasive species into the nation's waterways.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jan 2009 | 1:32 am Nigeria's gas flaring under fireEnergy companies miss deadline for ending gas flaring, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions from Africa.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Jan 2009 | 12:10 am Response: The classification of ecstasy is not a black-and-white issueResponse: How we tackle our drug problem should be the government's first priority, says Neil McKeganeySource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 13 Jan 2009 | 12:04 am Interview: Harriet Swain talks to prizewinning physicist Athene DonaldAthene Donald was never the kind of child who liked taking radios to pieces. But she did like to know how things worked - "a more intellectual making sense". And she was only a couple of years into secondary school when she found something that offered the answers. "As soon as I was taught physics I thought, 'this is wonderful'," she says. Now professor of experimental physics in Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory, she has just become a laureate in the For Women in Science awards, set up by L'Oreal, the cosmetics company, and Unesco on the premise that "the world needs science and science needs women". One laureate is chosen per continent each year, and Donald is only the second British scientist to be chosen in the programme's 10-year history. What caught the judges' attention was her work "in unravelling the mysteries of the physics of messy materials". Her expertise lies in developing techniques to study "soft" materials, from plastics and cement to starch and ice-cream. Recently, she has turned her attention to the way protein molecules stick together, which could help reveal what causes Alzheimer's disease, and is also studying how cells adhere to surfaces, which has implications for the development of hip replacements and prosthetic limbs. Donald is not your usual kind of cosmetics company public face. She is intense and direct, and wary of the media attention that has followed the L'Oreal award, although prepared to endure it for the cause of science - and women in science. Her work reflects this pragmatic attitude. It is a physics that has a clear, practical end, rather than the kind that wrestles with the deep philosophical questions involved in the big bang or the intricacies of atoms. Electron microscopy, in the form that her department has pioneered - environmental scanning electron microscopy - is all about getting better images of materials in their natural state so that their structures are easier to interpret. She is, she says, very good at seeing patterns and thinks of her molecules in an anthropomorphic kind of way, in terms of how they are behaving. "Another phrase for the kind of physics I do is mesoscopic," says Donald. "I'm not terribly interested in individual molecules - and then there is the engineering and macroscopic end - but the mesoscopic is where you've got many molecules, and the manyness matters." Bridging the gap Manyness matters to Donald's work in another way, too, because it is so interdisciplinary. Her work on Alzheimer's has involved talking to clinical neuroscientists and biologists to try to bridge the gap between the kind of experiments physicists are doing and what may be useful in a medical context. When she was researching starch, she worked with plant breeders, biochemists and industry to get a better understanding of what was happening. Much of her time has been spent identifying the right people to talk to in the right disciplinary area. This interdisciplinarity raised eyebrows at first, she says, but has since become much more common. A new building has just opened in Cambridge to house the Physics of Medicine initiative, which is designed to create an environment in which researchers in the physical, life and clinical sciences can mix freely and share ideas. Donald is the initiative's director. "I suppose my basic philosophy is trying to use physics to solve problems that physicists traditionally have not solved," she says. She started her PhD at Cambridge, studying metals, and followed her husband, a mathematician, to Cornell University to do a postdoctorate, which she hated. "I was the first woman postdoc they'd had, and I don't think my professor was very able to deal with that," she says. "And I think the project bored me. So yes, it was awful. I hope that makes me more understanding of students who have problems, because it's easy to assume that if I'm successful I must always have been successful - and it certainly wasn't true." Her breakthrough came when she decided to do a second postdoctorate, studying plastics with Ed Kramer, who became an inspiration and a mentor. She returned to Cambridge when her husband was awarded a research fellowship there, and got a research fellowship herself, followed by a lectureship, replacing someone who had set up a grant in food physics. Through that, she got into starch. By the time their second child was born, it became clear that her career was the one taking off. Her husband put his on the back burner, continuing to work as a mathematician but without a salaried job. In the early days, the children went to nursery three days a week and Donald and her husband covered the other four days evenly between them. "These days one would say, 'I'm going to work x days a week', and just declare it, but that wasn't at that point available, and so we shared it - and I worked odd hours and nobody noticed," says Donald. What she did try to avoid was travelling. She says that probably affected her international profile, but benefited her relationship with students. As director of WiSeti, Cambridge University's Women in Science, Engineering and Technology Initiative, Donald is trying to pass on the message that it is possible to work part-time and still get promoted. Neither of Donald's parents went to university, and there was no family tradition of studying science. Her father was an accountant and her mother was a housewife until her 40s, when she began part-time interviewing for the Greater London Council and ran an Oxfam shop. Yet it never occurred to Donald at Camden school for girls that she shouldn't study physics or that her gender might make it difficult. She recalls being invited to a party at Harrow public school just before her first year at Girton College, and the boys asking her what she did. When she told them she was going to Cambridge to read physics, they ran a mile. Overwhelmingly male At Cambridge her peers were overwhelmingly male. "You had to think, 'OK, I'm the only girl in this room, I'll get on with it'," she says. She believes that the difficulties for women scientists often come later, "when you're not simply doing the science, when other things come into play". She is loth to generalise about gender characteristics but says women often do have a more consensus-building approach and that differences in approach can become apparent on, for example, appointment committees. "That is why most appointment committees now say you've got to have at least one woman. But if you are the one woman, and say, 'Well, actually, I think that's rather good', you don't necessarily get listened to." From being the only woman in the room at a conference, Donald now finds that about 10% of fellow delegates are female. But female physicists are still rare. She says although there is little overt discrimination, "I think there are subtle things that it's very hard to get to the bottom of". Some of these things are to do with assumptions made, sometimes unconsciously, about women scientists, and she believes people must be made to realise that they may hold preconceived notions - and that these notions may be wrong. But they are also to do with women's feelings of isolation or lack of confidence. While nobody is questioning their ability to do the science, she argues, there may be "softer" issues about how effective they are in a committee meeting full of men, or how they handle a hostile conference hall. Then there is the problem of getting girls to study physics in the first place. One answer, she says, is more role models, which is why prizes such as the L'Oreal laureate are so important. She is keen to see more young scientists spending time in schools and sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm. The media can also play a part, not only through dramas such as Silent Witness, which have had a huge impact on the number of women wanting to study forensic science, but on showing the variety of things that science can do. Donald suggests that teenage girls are often more career orientated than boys, and if they don't understand what a science degree can lead to, they won't do science. One obstacle is the poor quality of much science teaching. As a bright child, Donald could go to her physics teacher, who had studied the subject to degree level, and ask her anything she didn't understand, and she would be able to answer. Now, many physics teachers do not have a degree in the subject. Nor is maths teaching always of a high enough standard, says Donald. This not only discourages some girls from pursuing the subject to university level but also makes the lives of physics lecturers harder. "It means we can't start from a position you would have done 10 or 20 years ago," she says. Donald now divides most of her time between teaching and committees; her days in the lab are largely over. This is partly because the kind of equipment she works with is so sophisticated that you really need to work with it every day to be any good with it. But it is also partly because she didn't want to spend her time delving deeper and deeper into the study of starch, which had become her area of expertise. "I reached a point where it was absolutely clear to me that I wasn't doing anything innovative, and it wasn't therefore exciting," she says. "It is important to know when to stop." Curriculum vitaeAge 55 Job Professor of experimental physics, Cambridge University Likes being able to cycle to work and not being dependent on a car Dislikes the fact that if a scientist doesn't know Shakespeare they may be derided, but it is acceptable for an arts graduate to plead ignorance of science Married to Matthew Donald, a mathematician, with two children guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 13 Jan 2009 | 12:04 am Former occupant of Rutherford's nuclear laboratory becomes latest to develop cancerThe rooms in Manchester University's Rutherford building, used at the start of the 20th century by Ernest Rutherford for nuclear experiments, as well as the rooms directly below them, are proving desperately unlucky places. Professor Tom Whiston, 70, is the latest former occupant of one of these rooms to develop terminal pancreatic cancer. Two of his former colleagues have died recently of pancreatic cancer: Dr Hugh Wagner, who died in 2007 aged 62, and Dr Arthur Reader, who died last year aged 69. In all three men, the illness progressed fast. "Pancreatic cancer is not a common form of cancer, and three cases is a startlingly high incidence," says Manchester solicitor Liz Graham, who is spearheading a campaign for an investigation into the building's history and represents Wagner's widow and other former occupants who are considering a claim against the university. Others in contact with the areas around Rutherford's laboratory have fallen victim to cancer. Dr John Clark died of a brain tumour, aged 62, in 1992. Like the others, the progress of his illness was swift, and his son, Olly Clark, believes his death may have been caused by radiation in the Rutherford building. A 56-year-old maintenance technician who worked there for 30 years, frequently drilling holes in the affected rooms, has developed thyroid cancer. In 1999, the rooms near and above and below Rutherford's former laboratories were discovered to be contaminated with nuclear materials and mercury. The staff who worked there did not find out until 2001, and then only by chance, when one of them found that his office had been labelled a radiation hazard zone. In 2002, another member of staff found a hazard warning notice on his office door. Radiation hotspots were marked on the carpet, directly below the chair he used at his desk. A detailed report by three other psychology lecturers who worked in or near the affected rooms claims that the university suspected as early as the 1970s that there was a potential radiation hazard. "The contamination may have contributed to the deaths of our colleagues," says the 294-page report by Dr John Churcher, Dr Don O'Boyle and Dr Neil Todd. All three occupied rooms now known to have been contaminated. Whiston occupied room G55 on the ground floor, which was the room in which Rutherford had his work bench, and was directly below Rutherford's second-floor office. A blue plaque on the wall commemorates Rutherford's work. Next door, in room G54, was Reader. Clark worked in room 1.54, the room directly above Whiston, from 1971 to 1987. Wagner worked in the room directly above that, 2.62, Rutherford's own office. All these rooms are now known to have been contaminated with nuclear materials and mercury. Unknown dangers When Rutherford worked in Manchester between 1907 and 1919, conducting his pioneering study of atomic structure, the dangers of the radioactive substances he was working with were not understood. But in 1934, Marie Curie, who discovered polonium and radium, died of leukaemia caused by her prolonged exposure. Her notebooks, which are in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, are still so radioactive that it is not safe to handle them. By the 1970s, when Manchester University moved the psychology department into the building, evidence from the after-effects of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima had shown the substances to be even more dangerous than originally thought. Graham believes the university should have discussed the dangers with staff as long ago as the 1970s, and wants the university to contact everyone who worked in the affected rooms in the 70s, 80s and 90s. "Unless the university goes out and looks for these people, they will not have any chance to make decisions about their lives," she says. She adds that early detection of pre-cancerous changes in the pancreas has been known to allow the patient to have the pancreas removed and to improve life expectancy. Whiston, who developed the first automated Braille system, says he wishes he had been told of the potential danger. In December, three months after his diagnosis, he told me: "I would like to have been informed as early as possible, because I would have retired earlier and written more books. I have three books on the go now. I did not know of the contamination until Arthur Reader's wife emailed me after he died. It would have been easy for the university to run a check and work out who was in the affected rooms, and then contact us. They could have found me - they knew I worked in that room." Reader's widow, Grace Reader, says: "If my husband had known his lifespan was ending, he would have written up the research he was doing. As it is, it consists of figures on a computer, which are of no use to anyone." Reader was working on artificial intelligence when he was diagnosed on his 69th birthday in September last year, and died within a few weeks. The day he was diagnosed, Grace Reader heard of the doubts about Wagner's death, and contacted Graham. Grace Reader now knows that her husband had earlier gone to his GP, believing he might have cancer. "If he had had this information, maybe his medical care would have been different." Manchester University declined to comment, because there is an investigation under way. The university has asked Professor David Coggon, an expert in the epidemiology of occupational and environmental causes of disease, who runs the faculty of occupational medicine at Southampton University, to look into the matter. Coggon thinks it is unnecessary to contact all past occupants of the rooms. "There is no specific advice you would give people," he says. "You could tell people that contamination has occurred, that an investigation is in progress. We don't at the moment think there is a case for screening everyone - you can screen for cervical or breast cancer, but not for pancreatic cancer. And it is very difficult to contact people; their addresses change. It would be a detailed, time-consuming and expensive exercise, and not justified at this stage." Graham insists it is not that difficult. "You might be talking about a fairly small number of people, if it was confined to the people who occupied rooms we know to have been contaminated," she says. Once Coggon's report is complete, if the conclusions justify it, he would then be in favour of seeking everyone out, he says. As for Whiston, Coggon says: "If I had spoken to him before his diagnosis, I would not have advised him that he was at risk of pancreatic cancer. I do not know that anyone is at an increased risk of anything." Open mind Coggon adds: "The evidence so far does not indicate high risk of exposure." Three cases of pancreatic cancer, he says, is "an anomaly" rather than an indication that the three people had all been exposed to the same contamination. "Pancreatic cancer is not a disease you would expect as a consequence of the exposure. For exposure to radon, you would expect lung cancer, and for mercury, kidney disease." However, the report by the three psychologists cites scientific studies indicating "a possible association between pancreatic cancer and cumulative exposure to radon", and Coggon says: "I have not closed my mind on it." He hopes to complete his investigation before the end of the year, and the relatives of Wagner, Reader and Clark await the report impatiently. Grace Reader believes that by investigating her husband's case, she may be helping others. The university has assured staff currently working in the building that it is now safe, but she says: "If I worked there, I would be dubious. My husband was told that it was safe." Three lossesDr Hugh Wagner Dr Arthur Reader Dr John Clark Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 13 Jan 2009 | 12:04 am Extinct Tasmanian "tiger" DNA has clues to demiseWASHINGTON (Reuters) - DNA taken from the hair of two extinct Tasmanian "tigers" suggests the Australian marsupials last seen 70 years ago may have become too inbred to survive as a species, researchers reported on Monday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 12 Jan 2009 | 10:53 pm As humans hunt, their prey gets smaller: studyWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hunting and gathering has a profound impact on animals and plants, driving an evolutionary process that makes them become smaller and reproduce earlier, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 12 Jan 2009 | 10:05 pm Dinosaur Wore Primitive Down CoatBird-like dinosaur sported the most primitive feathers known to date.Source: Livescience.com | 12 Jan 2009 | 10:00 pm Super-Predators: Humans Force Rapid Evolution of AnimalsActing as super-predators, humans are forcing rapid changes to body size and reproductive abilities in some species.Source: Livescience.com | 12 Jan 2009 | 10:00 pm The Next Step with Richard HartJoin Richard Hart and his crew across the US and around the world as they get their hands - and camera lenses - on fascinating and disruptive technologies.Source: Livescience.com | 12 Jan 2009 | 9:52 pm When Cell Phones and Microscopes Hook Up...Diagnosing disease in developing nations is made easier with this $99 innovation that snaps a field microscope onto a cell phone so doctors and medical libraries far away can assist the healer on the ground.Source: Livescience.com | 12 Jan 2009 | 9:47 pm Link found between lack of sleep and susceptibility to coldsGetting a good night's sleep of at least seven to eight mostly unbroken hours can protect against the common cold, scientists have found. It's a common assumption that sleep is good for health. Sleeping badly and being tired is thought to undermine our immunity to viruses. But there has been little real evidence to make a link between poor sleep and susceptibility to the common cold until now. In today's edition of the medical journal Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers report that they deliberately infected 153 healthy men and women, average age 37, with cold viruses to find out the relationship between sleeping habits and susceptibility to colds. The scientists found that those who slept for less than seven to eight hours a night were about three times more likely to get a cold than longer sleepers. Those who slept less well – spending less than 92% of their time in bed actually asleep – were five and a half times more likely to get a cold than others. Researchers chronicled the volunteers' sleep patterns, by phoning them every day for two weeks to ask about the previous night's rest. They asked what time the volunteer went to bed the night before and what time they got out of bed in the morning. Then they asked how much time they spent awake in bed either because they had trouble falling asleep or because they woke up and could not get back to sleep. They also recorded whether the volunteer got up in the night to read or watch television and if they felt rested in the morning. The researchers worked out from the answers how much time people spent asleep per night on average and also measured what they called "sleep efficiency" – the length of time asleep divided by the amount of time spent in bed. A few days later, each volunteer was quarantined for 24 hours and underwent medical screening and tests to ensure they were cold-free. Then they were given nasal drops containing a substantial dose of cold virus. "Our findings on risk for the common cold suggest that there is a substantial risk associated with getting less than seven hours of sleep per night," says Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, who carried out the study with his colleagues. The link between sleep patterns and ill-health has also been explored in studies of coronary heart disease, which found that the lowest death rates and least illness was found in people who got seven to eight hours sleep a night. Some of the studies on heart disease and death rates suggested it was also risky to sleep for too long, but this study on the common cold found nothing of the sort: people who slept longer had better health. The discrepancy could be because of the older age group in heart disease studies and because long sleep is sometimes associated with depression. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 12 Jan 2009 | 9:05 pm Evasive Maneuvers - Butterflies Are Free (And Here's Why)Special hind wings let butterflies turn faster than predators. But even if they're caught, butterflies are "mostly wrapper and very little candy."Source: Livescience.com | 12 Jan 2009 | 9:01 pm Dementia looks different in diabetic brain: studyCHICAGO (Reuters) - People with diabetes who develop dementia have different types of brain changes than others with dementia, a finding that could change the way drug companies think about treatments for Alzheimer's, U.S. researchers said on Monday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 12 Jan 2009 | 9:00 pm Earliest Feathers for Show, Not FlightA dino fossil suggests the earliest feathers were designed to impress, not fly.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Jan 2009 | 9:00 pm Tasmanian Tiger's Mysterious Die-Off ExplainedThe extinction of the Tasmanian tiger has long been a mystery -- until now.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Jan 2009 | 9:00 pm 'Green greed'Can a Green New Deal revive the global economy?Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 12 Jan 2009 | 7:45 pm Fruit Flies Put Evolution in ReverseWill a modern organism in an ancient setting evolve in reverse? Not exactly.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm Effort to Remove Species Creates More ProblemsTrying to remove rabbits from an island reveals hazards of tinkering with ecosystems.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Jan 2009 | 6:07 pm Yvonne Roberts: Do-it-yourself creation – will it be any fun?The birth of the first British baby genetically screened before conception to be free of a breast cancer gene means that the tailor-made child (blue eyes; high IQ, anyone?) is undoubtedly round the corner – rapidly followed by a life customised by science to meet our personal "needs". We'll have pills to shift a shovel-load of fat; potions to make the woman of your dreams fall for you, however unlikely the match; and drinks to give you the longevity of Peter Pan. Genetic screening will take cosmetic surgery on apace and permit a pick 'n' mix customised existence for those who like to be "just so". But even for the non-believer, what will do-it-yourself creation do to the soul? Will it be any fun? What has begun as an understandable attempt to improve the chances of survival – the presence of the faulty BRCA1 gene means a 50-85% increase in the risk of developing breast cancer – will almost inevitably end in the attempt to avoid as many of the pains and challenges of life, and boost advantages to the max. Last week, for instance, came news that scientists were racing to unlock the "love drug". Oxytocin, known as the "cuddle hormone", makes it easier to read other people's emotions. An oxytocin spray already allegedly eases marital squabbles – a love pill to slip into the drink of a potential spouse that has hitherto proved resistant to Cupid's arrow can't be far away. Taking control of one's destiny has to be the ultimate consumer high. Order up love; artificially stimulate desire (Viagra); eat as much as you like and take yet another potion to cut down the weight – end the obesity crisis, if not an epidemic in greed, depression and misplaced emotions. But when so much is handed to us on a scientific plate, where's the challenge and the change and the unpredictability of normal life that tempers and weathers the heart and hones the capacity for resilience? If all the valleys of despair and loss are erased by laboratory techniques and genetic screening; if the lessons learned from broken romances and frustrated hopes and dreams are no longer available, paradoxically won't life be reduced to a monotonous landscape peopled by spoilt narcissistic brats? Desire that is unrequited; goals that have to be realised by toil and sweat and self-denial; needs that remain unmet; failure that has to be negotiated: they are all part of what makes achievement sweeter, maturity more appreciated, longevity in love treasured and the authentic, as opposed to pill-induced, connections with others stronger. Creepily, 10 or 20 or 30 years from now, the phrase, "a self-made man" could mean something very different. Give me the old-fashioned stuff. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 12 Jan 2009 | 5:18 pm Soot-stained Snow Melts SoonerSooty snow enters warming, melting cycle that hastens spring snowmelt.Source: Livescience.com | 12 Jan 2009 | 5:12 pm Recession Could Spur Traffic CitationsThe sour economy could get you a speeding ticket.Source: Livescience.com | 12 Jan 2009 | 5:08 pm Big Bird Left Big DroppingsFossilized poop sheds light on diets of extinct giant birds.Source: Livescience.com | 12 Jan 2009 | 4:53 pm Special Delivery: Antibiotic Viruses Could Kill BacteriaResearchers discover powerful molecular-scale motors driving viruses; a major step to to employing beneficial viruses to knock out dangerous diseases. Read StorySource: Livescience.com | 12 Jan 2009 | 4:52 pm Satellite Firm Faces New Lawsuit Faulting Losses (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - A new lawsuit, a failed acquisition bid and the loss of its anchor Israeli Ministry of Defense operating partner are the latest complications confronting ImageSat International (ISI) and its Eros satellite program.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Jan 2009 | 4:31 pm Rabbits play while the cats are away - and penguins sufferRemoval of cats from an island near Antarctica has caused rabbit numbers to soar, devastating wildlife including penguins.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 12 Jan 2009 | 4:15 pm Web 'Smell' Site Points Readers to Global ScentsA Japanese Web site pinpoints more than 160 scents around the world.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Jan 2009 | 3:34 pm Yellowstone Quakes Shake Loose Eruption FearsA swarm of quakes at Yellowstone is a reminder of the giant volcano below.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Jan 2009 | 3:34 pm Let's hope President Obama listens to his science advisersThe president-elect has gathered a formidable team of scientists around him, but will he listen if their message doesn't match his objectives? The way the Bush administration occasionally misrepresented science to suit its political goals is well documented, but it is too soon to say whether science and evidence-based policies will flourish under Obama. However, the president-elect has so far given scientists reason for hope. In announcing his list of advisers, Obama emphasised the need to listen to scientists, "especially when it is inconvenient". His most senior appointee reflects this thinking. John Holdren, professor of environmental policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University will replace the long-serving John Marburger as presidential science adviser. In a Second Life interview at the 2007 Bali climate change conference, Holdren called America's failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions "the biggest obstacle to moving forward on the climate issue in the world today".
In another interview, Holdren explains why he objects to the term "global warming" because it suggests, among other simplifications, that only temperatures will change as levels of greenhouse gases build up in the atmosphere. A striking aspect of this interview is Holdren's view on how bad the our climate change predicament has already become. "Most people, even most scientists, continue to underestimate how far down the path to climate catastrophe we've already travelled," he says. Two scientists who are likely to have a strong voice within the administration are leading geneticists Harold Varmus, a former director of the US National Institutes of Health, and Eric Lander at MIT, who will become co-chairs of the president's council of advisers on science and technology. Obama's other appointments are also encouraging. Jane Lubchenco, a marine biologist at Oregon State University has been invited to become head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the government agency that studies the climate and monitors the health of marine ecosystems. If confirmed by Senate, she will be the first woman to hold the position. Lubchenco is a vociferous advocate for action against climate change. In 2006, she said: "The bottom line is that the scientific evidence from 2005 and early 2006 is powerful and conclusive. If society wishes to avoid catastrophic disruption of our lives, the time for action is now. Individual citizens are powerful agents of change, but communities, businesses, the state and the federal government will need to do their part." Obama has made it clear that America's dependence on fossil fuels will come under close scrutiny during his term, and the new energy secretary, Nobel prizewinning physicist Steven Chu, will be expected to come up with some progressive solutions to the problem. Chu is currently director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. When asked to say a few words about his appointment to Obama's team, Chu quoted the words of William Faulkner at a Nobel banquet in 1950: "I believe that man will not merely endure; he will prevail. He is immortal, because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion, and sacrifice, and endurance." Against a backdrop of financial gloom and continuing climate concerns, this optimism in the run-up to Obama's inauguration is welcome. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 12 Jan 2009 | 3:33 pm Bed Bugs Resist PesticidesA study shows that some big-city bed bugs are developing resistance to pesticides.Source: Livescience.com | 12 Jan 2009 | 3:27 pm Macquarie Island faces an 'ecosystem meltdown' after conservation efforts backfire, scientists warnIt is a cautionary tale of recklessness, good intentions and the ecological mayhem that can result when people interfere with the delicate balance of Mother Nature: scientists today catalogued the unfortunate series of biological events caused by human meddling and alien species that has devastated the once pristine sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island. Lessons must be learnt on all sides, the scientists say, because well-intentioned attempts by conservation experts to fix the island have so far made the situation worse. Life across almost half the island, a World Heritage site, has been affected, and experts are now weighing up a £11m rescue plan. Dana Bergstrom, of the Australian Antarctic Division said: "The big lesson is to question all assumptions made in managing and removing alien species from special areas, because there could be unintended consequences." Things began to go wrong on Macquarie Island, halfway between Australia and Antarctica, soon after it was discovered in 1810. The island's fur seals, elephant seals and penguins were killed for fur and blubber, but it was the rats and mice that jumped from the sealing ships that started the problem. Cats were quickly introduced to keep the rodents from precious food stores. Rabbits followed some 60 years later, as part of a tradition to leave the animals on islands to give shipwrecked sailors something to eat. Given easy prey, cats feasted on the hapless rabbits and feline numbers quickly grew. The island then lost two endemic flightless birds, a rail and a parakeet. Meanwhile, the rabbits bred rapidly and nibbled the island's precious vegetation. By the 1970s, some 130,000 rabbits were causing so much damage that the notorious disease myxomatosis was the latest foreign body introduced to Macquarie, which took the rabbit population down to under 20,000 within a decade. "The island's vegetation then began to recover," Bergstrom says. But what was good for the vegetation proved bad for the island's wildlife. With fewer rabbits around, the established cats turned instead to local burrowing birds. By 1985, conservationists deemed it necessary to shoot the cats. The last cat was killed in 2000, but the conservationists were horrified to see rabbit populations soar. Myxomatosis failed to keep numbers down, and the newly strong rabbit population quickly reversed decades of vegetation recovery. In 2006, the resurgent rabbits were even blamed for a massive landslip that wiped out much of an important penguin colony. Writing in the Journal of Applied Ecology, Bergstrom's team describes how the rabbits have now stripped some 40% of the island bare. "When rabbits first move into coastal areas, the lush slopes are often turned into bare earth," she says. "Often a weed grass called Poa annua establishes, and the bare areas then turn into what looks like nicely mowed golf courses, mowed by rabbits." The scientists say the chain of events at Macquarie is a rare example of a "trophic cascade", the knock-on effects of changes in one species abundance. The next stage could be an "ecosystem meltdown". The Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service intends to fix the island once and for all, and has drawn up plans to eradicate all 130,000 rabbits, along with the estimated 36,000 rats and 103,000 mice that live there. The move could yet provoke more unexpected side effects, Bergstrom says. "This is the largest island on which this type of eradication program will have been attempted." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 12 Jan 2009 | 3:15 pm Greenland Meltdown? Not NecessarilyGreenland's shrinking glaciers may be leading to a state where melting actually subsides.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Jan 2009 | 2:34 pm Mystery Light Puzzles AstronomersIn a routine search for supernovae, astronomers spy a bright light they can't explain.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Jan 2009 | 2:03 pm Leo Hickman on the carbon cost of GooglingCan two Google searches really produce as much carbon dioxide as boiling enough water in an electric kettle for a cup of tea? That's what Alex Wissner-Gross, an environmental fellow at Harvard University, is claiming. "Google operates huge data centres around the world that consume a great deal of power," says Wissner-Gross in forthcoming research about the environmental impact of computing, which calculates that every Google search produces 7g of CO2. "Google are very efficient, but their primary concern is to make searches fast and that means they have a lot of extra capacity that burns energy." It should probably be noted at this point that Wissner-Gross is also the co-founder of Enernetics, and its associated website www.CO2stats.com, which, according to the Boston Business Journal, allows "websites to get analysis of how energy-efficient they are and sells carbon offsets to help them reach a neutral status". So let's first congratulate Wissner-Gross on getting himself and his company talked about all over the internet, including here. But does his claim stack up? Without any published data to hand it's hard to tell. All Google is saying is that it is takes the issue seriously, but that "the energy used per Google search is minimal". It adds: ""In the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than we will use to answer your query." (If this is true, it surely makes a mockery of Wissner-Gross's claims as there's no way an average computer uses as much power as an electric kettle when it's boiling water.) So let's do some crude sums based on what we know and what is being claimed. Google receives millions of search queries every day from all over the world. Estimates vary about quite how many queries it receives, but they seem to range from 200m up to 500m. Let's, for the sake of argument, take the top figure as a worst-case scenario. If Wissner-Gross is correct then 3,500 tonnes of CO2 (500m x 0.000007 tonnes) are emitted every day through all of us performing Google searches. Or put another way, 1.28m tonnes a year. That's about the same as Laos emits each year, the 151st biggest emitting country in the world. I'm torn between thinking that this sounds like an awful lot – "Shock: Google emits as much as a country!" – or whether it doesn't sound too bad, given, for right or wrong, how integral Google now is to many of our lives. What is certain is that the environmental impact of information technology as a whole is considerable and ever rising. A widely quoted figure is that the global ICT sector produces as much CO2 each year as the global aviation industry – about 2-3% of total global emissions. It is helpful, therefore, that Wissner-Gross's claim is at least providing a needed spur to debating the ICT sector's impact, and how best to reduce it. Ultimately, though, I suspect this particularly quotable nugget will have little impact on the searching habits of internet users. Nor should it, really. We can each monitor how much electricity our own computers use – and aim to keep it at a minimum – but it can only ever be Google's responsibility about how much power its servers and related hardware use. Perhaps there's even an argument for saying that internet searches have helped to reduce net emissions by greatly reducing the need to make physical journeys in search of information, say, a trip to the local library or bookshop? (NB: At least one cup of tea was consumed during the making of this blog.) guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 12 Jan 2009 | 1:28 pm 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 | 12 Jan 2009 | 12:58 pm
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