Nanotechnology Provides New Generation Of Orthopedic, Dental And Cardiovascular Prostheses

Scientists have discovered a process to produce new metal surfaces that promise to lead to superior medical implants that will improve healing and allow the human body to better accept metal prostheses.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 4:00 pm

Repeat Pregnancies Among Teenagers On The Increase

An expert in health services is calling for urgent action to improve contraceptive advice and services to reduce the growing number of repeat teenage pregnancies in the United Kingdom.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 4:00 pm

Daily School Recess Improves Classroom Behavior

All work and no play may impede learning, health and social development. A large study of shows that school children who receive more recess behave better and are likely to learn more.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 4:00 pm

Climate Change Largely Irreversible For Next 1,000 Years, NOAA Reports

A new scientific study led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reaches a powerful conclusion about the climate change caused by future increases of carbon dioxide: to a large extent, there's no going back.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 4:00 pm

Getting Diabetes Before 65 More Than Doubles Risk For Alzheimer's Disease

Diabetics have a significantly greater risk of dementia, reveals important new data from an ongoing study of twins. The risk of dementia is especially strong if the onset of diabetes occurs in middle age, according to the study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 4:00 pm

Early Mammograms May Have Net Harm in Some BRCA Mutation Carriers

The risk of radiation-induced breast cancer may outweigh the benefits of mammography in women under the age of 30 who carry a mutation in BRCA1 or BRCA2, according to a mathematical modeling study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 4:00 pm

EU calls for global carbon market

The European Commission wants to build a global carbon trading market as part of a plan to tackle climate change.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Jan 2009 | 1:25 pm

Cell Type That Limits Stroke Damage Identified

Medical researchers have demonstrated the existence of a type of cells that limits brain damage after a stroke.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 1:00 pm

More Than 100 Gene Variations Linked With Response To Leukemia Treatment

Scientists have discovered in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia scores of inherited genetic variations that clinicians might be able to use as guideposts for designing more effective chemotherapy for this cancer.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 1:00 pm

Natural Selection Not The Only Process That Drives Evolution?

Why have some of our genes evolved rapidly? It is widely believed that Darwinian natural selection is responsible, but new research suggests that a separate neutral (nonadaptive) process has made a significant contribution to human evolution.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 1:00 pm

White Eyed Birds Diversify Across A Hemispheric Range Faster Than Any Other Bird

New molecular research shows that white eye birds (family Zosteropidae) form new species at a faster rate than any other known bird. Remarkably, unlike other rapid diversifications, which are generally confined in geography, white eyes diversified across multiple continents and far-flung islands. These birds were dubbed "Great Speciators" for this ability to rapidly form new species with little geographic limitation, and both thought that some intrinsic trait drove the extreme, observed patterns.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 1:00 pm

Snowy owls swoop southward, delighting birders (AP)

AP - Biologists say an increase in snowy owl sightings in the South suggests that the arctic species did so well in its northern breeding grounds last year that competition is driving the young ones to warmer climates.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 12:34 pm

Science: so what?

Pallab Ghosh on a new bid to revamp science's image
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Jan 2009 | 12:07 pm

Rare 1,800-year-old figurine found in Jerusalem (AP)

AP - An 1,800-year-old figurine believed to have originated from the eastern stretches of the Roman Empire has been discovered by archaeologists outside the walls of the old city, the Israeli Antiquities Authority said. The 2-inch marble bust depicts the head of a man with a short curly beard and almond-shaped eyes who may portray a boxer, the authority said.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 11:07 am

Stop thinking of science as 'too difficult', plead campaigners

People in the UK must stop thinking of science as too difficult and scientists as elitist, the science minister Lord Drayson said today.

He has enlisted the help of celebrities – including authors Terry Pratchett and Bill Bryson, and the celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal – to change attitudes towards the subject.

They will meet ministers in Downing Street today to launch the government's Science: So What? So Everything campaign.

He said: "Continued success in science and technology is vital to our future – and yet there is still a perception among many of our people that science is too clever for them or elitist in some way."

The UK was second only to the US in its scientific discoveries and inventions, noted Drayson. "We must challenge myths like these if we are to build a prosperous, science-literate society, able to tackle the difficult issues that modern science presents and work them through to create the jobs and growth of the future."

Ministers believe 2.9m jobs could be created in science and technology fields by 2017.

A government-commissioned poll of 2,100 adults this month found 48% expected science to find a cure for cancer and 38% expected crops to be invented that survive drought, both within 30 years. Some 26% argued that science had more of an impact on their lives than politics, family and religion. But only 3% said scientists were the group of people that had the most effect on their lives.

Diana Garnham, chief executive of the Science Council, said the UK needed to "get away from the elitist, geeky image" that science suffers from.

"Research shows [young people] aren't persuaded by arguments that they will earn more if they get into science," she said.

George Monbiot, a Guardian commentator and environmental campaigner, said the government's campaign should not promote one group's interests. "The conflation of improving the country's scientific literacy with the promoting of industrial interests of a particular group is dishonest and I hope this won't happen with this campaign," he said.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 28 Jan 2009 | 10:55 am

Health and safety chair undergoes baptism of fire in the name of better school science experiments

There are less extreme ways to spark teenagers' interest in science but the setting alight of Judith Hackitt proved a hit with bored-looking pupils in a hot science lab in a southeast London school yesterday.

The year 11 audience at Bacon's college in Rotherhithe looked on in amazement as Hackitt, the chair of the Health and Safety Executive, scooped up bubbles produced by pumping methane gas through washing-up liquid, then smiled nervously as they were set aflame in her hands.

Eilis Kempley found the injury-free demonstration of combustion "really interesting and exciting".

"It showed that stuff we do in class that's boring can be made more interesting," she said. "We don't normally do stuff that involves explosions. When you see an explosion like that, you want to know why it happens and find out more about the science."

Fellow pupil, Mwari Barahira, said: "It taught us more about what we have already learnt but when you see that [experiment] you want to learn more."

Hackitt agreed to have her hands burnt to prove that health and safety laws rules should not curb more exciting chemistry lessons in schools.

"I'm a chemical engineer and loved science at school because of the experiments. They capture the imagination and get pupils to see how exciting the subject is. That's what you need if you're going to go on into science.

"The HSE is so often accused of getting in the way of people doing things and I wanted to endorse this very safe way of doing science."

The "flaming hands" demonstration is one of 10 designed by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) to help teachers make lessons more exciting.

Julie Pollard, manager of the campaign at IChemE, came up with the idea after hearing the schools minister, Jim Knight, calls for more "flash bang" science in the classroom.

"When I looked into it, teachers were under a misconception these experiments were banned or they were worried about safety – others thought they weren't relevant to the curriculum," she said. "I wanted to show that you can do these experiments safely and they are relevant."

So far, 8,500 teachers have downloaded the instruction sheets, containing experiments on which have been cleared by the school science service, Cleapss, to carry out in the classroom.

Patrick Moloney, a science teacher at Bacon's college, said: "There's a perception you aren't allowed to do these experiments because of the mid-1990s compensation culture and everybody's worried about being sued. I quite enjoy doing things like this but I'm never sure what we can or can't do and now I have a much clearer idea.

"'Flash bang' experiments show the pupils that science is more than just looking at text books. It grabs them and engages them in the lesson, which makes my job easier."

Dr David Brown, IChemE's chief executive, who was also set on fire, said the demonstration was far more likely to stick in pupils' minds than learning it from a textbook.

"Ensuring school science lessons are interesting, memorable and fun will encourage more schoolchildren to stick with science," he said.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 28 Jan 2009 | 10:27 am

Top doctor admits she made up the condition 'cello scrotum'

A top doctor has admitted her part in hoodwinking a leading medical journal after inventing a medical condition called "cello scrotum".
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Jan 2009 | 7:33 am

Plastic chemical may stay in body longer: study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A controversial chemical used in many plastic products may remain in the body longer than previously thought, and people may be ingesting it from sources other than food, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 5:21 am

In Kids, Genes May Affect Leukemia Treatment (HealthDay)

HealthDay - TUESDAY, Jan. 27 (HealthDay News) -- Genetic variations appear to affect the way children respond to treatment for lymphoblastic leukemia, researchers report.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 4:48 am

Iceland raises quota for whale hunts (AP)

AP - Iceland raised it quota on whale hunting Tuesday to 250 a year, a dramatic increase over past levels.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 4:25 am

Give your cows a name... and watch their milk yield rise

Happy cows produce more milk, according to researchers at Newcastle University.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Jan 2009 | 2:48 am

Cows with Names Make More Milk (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Researchers in the UK say cows with names make 3.4 percent more milk in a year than cows that just feel, well, like cows.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 2:15 am

Cows with Names Make More Milk

Researchers in the UK say cows with names make 3.4 percent more milk in a year than regular cows.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Jan 2009 | 2:05 am

Scars Reveal How Triceratops Fought

It's the iconic dinosaur battle, seared into every kid's imagination from picture books and cartoons:  Tyrannosaurus rex lunges, mouth agape, and Triceratops parries with its horns and bony neck frill. This scene probably did unfold in North American forests 65 million years ago, but new research suggests Triceratops also used its headgear in fights against its own species.

Paleontologists have proposed this idea before. It makes sense, given that other animals with horns or antlers, such as deer, use them against their own kind in battles for dominance or mating rights. The new study, published Wednesday in the journal PLoS ONE, documented wounds on Triceratops fossils, backing the idea up with hard data for the first time.

"Most previous studies have looked at one or two individual specimens," said lead author Andrew Farke of the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology in Claremont, California. "Our study is the first one to look into this in depth. The purpose is to move beyond the speculation and put some hard numbers on the biology."

Piecing together the behavior of extinct species is one of the trickier aspects of paleontology. Drawing on behavior of living animals, deducing capabilities from bone structure and biomechanical computer simulations, studying the paleoenvironment, inferring behavior from the poses of fossilized skeletons and extrapolating relationships from the proximity of fossils to one another still leaves a lot to the imagination. But in some cases, as with the Triceratops skulls, an animal's behavior leaves a discernible trace behind on the fossils.

The researchers examined skull specimens of two dinosaurs, Triceratops and Centrosaurus. Triceratops lived between 68 million and 65 million years ago, and Centrosaurus last walked the earth 75 million years ago. They're relatives, but their heads differed greatly. Triceratops had one big horn above each eye and one small one on its nose. Centrosaurus had a big nasal horn and one small bump over each eye.

Analysis of more than 400 data points revealed that Triceratops had many more wounds on one part of its frill than Centrosaurus did. Predatory attacks cannot explain the difference, the scientists argue, as both dinosaurs lived in similar habitats and faced similar predators (mainly T. rex and its cousins). And if disease were to blame, the damage would not have been so localized.

The most likely explanation, they say: Triceratops was banging heads with its own species in a way that Centrosaurus was not.

"The overall pattern says these injuries were caused by the horns of other animals," Farke said.  Further, according to the authors, the frill damage is consistent with models of combat in Triceratops.

The researchers are not arguing that combat was the only purpose of Triceratops' horns and frill, however. 

"I like to use the analogy of a Swiss Army knife," Farke said. "They could have been used for a variety of purposes, such as defense, combat, and display."

The ancestors of Triceratops had thin, enlarged frills and no oversized horns. This suggests the frill originally had a signaling function, say the authors, as well as a role in the attachment of jaw muscles.  After big brow horns evolved, combat likely followed, spurring the frill to evolve to be thicker and tougher.

The new study shows how much scientists can learn by scrutinizing fossils for evidence of old wounds and illnesses.

"Studies like these really open the door to using paleopathology as an interpretive tool," said co-author Ewan Wolff of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Veterinary Medicine. "You can learn a lot about the biology and behavior of ancient animals."

And it's a reminder that big stories are often hidden in tiny details. The frill wounds didn't exactly jump off the bone — identifying them was painstaking work.

"They're little ridges in the bone, where the bone has healed," Wolff said. "Usually things that are fairly dramatic get studied. And the things that are a bit more subtle get missed."

Elizabeth Rega, associate professor of anatomy at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California, hailed the study for its large data set and proper use of statistical inference. 

"There's less arm-waving in this paper than in many other paleopathology studies," said Rega, who was not involved in the research. "The authors have done a good piece of work. It's an important paper for Triceratops studies. It's an important paper for paleopathology."

Rega said the study also generated further questions. "Why do the cheekbones show the same injury rates?  And why are their featured horn injuries oriented up and down, not front to back?"

Mark Goodwin, assistant director of the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California, Berkeley, was not entirely convinced by the authors' arguments.

"What they showed in their paper is evidence of differential pathologies, not evidence of combat," he said.  "As far as I can tell, there's no correlative evidence between combat and lesions on the dinosaur skulls."

Goodwin suggested that the difference in size and shape of the frill bones of Triceratops and Centrosaurus could also explain the lack of similar lesions.

"This can play a role in the kinds of pathologies that occur and affect their cause, whether from injury or infection or close encounters," he said. "The hard skin or keratin covering these bones may have been different, too."

Goodwin agreed that Triceratops headgear could have been used in combat, but in his view the evidence points more strongly to a display and visual-communication function.

For one thing, he said, the horns and other ornaments were on the face, where other Triceratops could see them easily. Also, Triceratops horns and frills changed substantially as the animals aged. The horns of juveniles, for example, curved backward, while those of adults curved toward the snout. In a previous study, Goodwin suggested this switch in horn orientation likely advertised the attainment of sexual maturity.

Citation: "Evidence of Combat in Triceratops."  By Andrew A. Farke, Ewan D. S. Wolff, Darren H. Tanke.  PLoS ONE Vol. 4, 28 January 2009.

See Also:

• Fancy Feathers Predated Flight in Dinosaur-Bird Hybrid
• Ancient Dinosaur Flesh Really Just Slime, Say Scientists
• The Rise of the Dinosaurs was Slow Going

Image: Copyright Lukas Panzarin, courtesy of Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 28 Jan 2009 | 1:22 am

Triceratops Horns Used in Battle (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - About 100 million years ago, Triceratops likely engaged in horn-to-horn battles with its kin, according to a new analysis of the scrapes, bruises and healing fractures preserved on fossils of the dinosaurs' bony headgear.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 1:10 am

Autonomous Robots Invade Retail Warehouses

Next time you order a new pair of skinny jeans from Gap.com, you should know that you are helping welcome in the hive-mind robot overlords of retail.

Warehouses run by Gap, as well as Zappos and Staples now use autonomous robots to pluck products from their shelves and send them to you.

All the robots are told is where products are located and where they need to go. From there, the robots, which look like massive orange Roombas, figure out the rest. They locate the stack of shelves with the needed product on it, slide beneath the stack to pick it up and then find their own routes from the stacks of stuff to human operators. And they manage to find just the right time to get themselves recharged for five minutes out of every hour.

"It's a major game-changer. There's no question about that. You can increase productivity immensely," said Michael Levans, editorial director for a group of supply-chain trade magazines like Logistics Management. "The Zappos guys claim that from the moment you put your order in and it is submitted to the time the box is on the dock and ready to be put on a truck is 12 minutes."

The robots, which in the largest distribution center currently number over 500, are built by a small company called Kiva Systems (no relation to the microfinance outfit). In total, they've installed more than 1,000 bots at a dozen warehouses and are growing quickly. By the end of this year, they expect single locations to have systems with 1,000 of the machines.

Dreamed up and executed by old M.I.T. buddies, these teams of retail robots presage an automated future in which multiagent robotic systems put computer science theories into practice.

"The basic technology will be the de facto way to run a warehouse," said Pete Wurman, the computer science Ph.D. who wrote the code that controls the robots. "We'll start to see these same techniques that become the de facto techniques in manufacturing."

While the humanoid robotic visions of the 1950s have never come to Jetsons-like fruition, less sexy robots have become indispensable parts of many industries and service professions. A recent report by the International Federation of Robotics found that 6.5 million robots serve humanity around the world. Still, most of them are standalone or primarily operated by human beings. Kiva robots are different: They're both autonomous and networked.

What that means for workers in the warehouse is that the Henry Ford-era distribution system of the conveyor belt has been broken into pieces and distributed across the entire operation. Any worker (sometimes called "pickers" in the industry jargon) can ask for anything from anywhere in the warehouse and ship it out.

"Every worker has random access to every product in the warehouse," Wurman said.

The system adjusts to the nature of the products and workers, too. In a typical setup, the humans are placed around the edges of the room. As the robots pick up loads of products and put them back, they adjust the warehouse for greater efficiency. More popular products end up around the edges of the warehouse while more obscure products, like those acid-washed bell bottoms, end up buried deep in the stacks. The self-tuning nature of the system creates big efficiencies.

"We find that it's two to four times more efficient [than the average warehouse]," said Wurman. "A big chunk of the benefit comes from the fact that we've eliminated all of the walking."

The success of Kiva Systems could help teams of autonomous robots gain ground outside the computer science lab.

"I could see some of the techniques that we are developing being applied outside the warehouse," Wurman said. "When we have autonomous automobiles, you could imagine they'll have similar types of coordination problems."

But autonomy won't work for all situations, Lonnie Freiburger, a robotics specialist with the U.S. Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development & Engineering Center. The military is looking more at "semi-autonomous" bots, rather than ones with relatively full control over their actions.

But Freiburger and the Kiva Systems engineers both agree that robots don't have to be humanoid to be useful. In fact, endowing them with characteristics humans don't have can be more useful than giving them eyes or opposable thumbs.

"Sure, it's nice to have robots that can do what the humans can do, but it's also nice to have robots to do what humans can't do," Freiburger said. "Humans have physical limitations but the robots don't necessarily have those limitations."

Unlike the Honda ASIMO, Kiva robots don't look anything like a human or try to perceive the world through humanlike senses. They don't use sophisticated visual sensors to navigate; instead, they know where they are by using a simple and cheap grid system that's stuck onto the floor of the warehouse.

That allows warehouse operators to switch off the lights and climate controls in the large areas of the warehouse that are patrolled solely by robots, cutting energy costs by as much as 50 percent over a standard warehouse. One marketing trick the company uses is to bring people out to the center of a warehouse and switch out the lights: The robots keep working around the people, cruising around in the dark.

While that may sound disconcerting, for now, at least, robots remain our underlings — fetching our underwear, delivering our jeans — not our overlords. At many sites, workers have begun to name their robots, complete with "Hello, My Name Is" name tags. From there, it's only a short step to playing fetch with your robot.

"One of our customers calls those name tags tattoos, and the robots are adopted by employees," said Mitch Rosenberg, Kiva Systems' VP of Marketing. "Your robot sends you a card on your birthday — this is a corporate sponsored thing, so I asked the management why they let them do it. They said, 'We do it because the employees get a lot of joy, a lot of happiness out of anthropomorphizing the robots and turning them into pets.'"

See Also:

• Neuroscience Art Show Shows EEG-Driven Robots, Beauty of Brain
• Video: Robots Take Over MIT Media Lab
• Arctic Exploring Robots Ready to Take a Dive
• I, Nanny: Robot Babysitters Pose Dilemma
• Space Symposium: On Mars, Expeditions will Need Better Robots
• Toy Robot Intended to Save Humans From Evil, Future Bots

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 | 28 Jan 2009 | 1:09 am

Triceratops Horns Used in Battle

Scrapes and bruises preserved on dinosaur bones suggest Triceratops was a fighter.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Jan 2009 | 1:02 am

New science could help solve climate crisis

LONDON (Reuters) - A new science that seeks to fight climate change using methods like giant space mirrors might not work on its own, but when combined with cuts in greenhouse gases it may help reverse global warming, a research report said.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 12:52 am

Grouse numbers in north falling

Black grouse populations on RSPB reserves in the south are increasing but declining in its northern stronghold.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Jan 2009 | 12:50 am

Salazar says limits needed on offshore drilling (AP)

AP - Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday the expansion of offshore oil drilling should be worked out with Congress as part of a broad energy blueprint and not independent action by his department.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jan 2009 | 12:31 am

Government touts science for all

An initiative aimed at reducing public perception of science as elitist is being launched by the UK government.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Jan 2009 | 12:07 am

Plantwatch: Despite the biting winds this winter, the first green shoots of spring are appearing

Despite the biting winds this winter, the first green shoots of spring are appearing. Sufficient mild weather across south and central England has spurred on snowdrops, their nodding white flowers sprouting on lawns and woodlands. Hazel catkins are swelling up, their sulphur-yellow pollen showering down like dust when they are blown around in the wind. And dog's mercury leaves are sprouting up in woods and hedgerows.

Also cheering on the coming spring are the buttercup-like flowers of winter aconite, sometimes called "choirboys" for the leafy ruffs that surround each flower. Originally from southern Europe, the flowers are often the first to bloom in mid-January, opening in sunshine and closing up at night or in gloomy conditions.

Another member of the buttercup family that can be seen in late January is the stinking hellebore growing on chalkland. Its rude name comes from the rotting smell when its leaves are crushed, but which is perfume to slugs and snails that flock to the plant and eat the cup-shaped green flowers. However, the slimy creatures also perform a useful dispersal service for the plant by carrying off its seeds.

Despite these early signs of spring, plantlife this month is way behind the past two years, when remarkable balmy warmth in January hastened on spring. This winter, so far, is more like years gone by, when January was actually cold.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 28 Jan 2009 | 12:01 am

Should lynx, beavers and wolves be reintroduced to the British countryside?

It's been over 400 years since a wild beaver roamed an English river, but freedom will probably be short-lived for the lone male still at large after escaping - along with two rapidly recaptured females - a few weeks ago from an enclosure in Devon.

Unlike some parts of Europe, where beavers have been reintroduced by being chucked out of the back of a van, the return of once-extinct wild animals to the British countryside is treated with Byzantine feasibility studies, public consultations, legal wrangling, interminable arguments and meticulous planning. For example, it has taken since 1994 to reach acceptance on beaver reintroduction to Knapdale Forest, in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, with the first releases due this spring.

Ecologist and beaver reintroduction specialist Derek Gow, from whose enclosure the three beavers escaped, says: "It has been a long and tortuous process, and the success of reintroductions of beavers will be because of the ability to manage the species and habitats. We are involved in a feasibility study with South West Water. Beavers could help water filtration, removing pollutants and conserving water supply to reservoirs. They are ideal for ecosystem engineering, and they bring real environmental benefits.

"That's how you sell the idea of reintroduction and persuade landowners. It's all very well talking about conservation in cosy meeting rooms, but any landowners think conservationists are a devious lot. If we can't engage with landowners and show them the benefits, reintroduction will be dead in the water. Nature conservationists have to get gritty and realistic."

Also preaching realism is Tim Coulton, professor of population biology at Imperial College London, although he's talking about probably the least realistic of the reintroduction targets: the wolf. "The reason for our report [a joint UK and Norway report on wolf reintroduction in Scotland for the Royal Society in 2007] was to look at the effect of wolves on the deer population of Scotland by simulating what had happened elsewhere. The debate on wolf reintroduction had been driven by anecdote and we wanted to inject some science to provide a more informed debate."

Coulton appreciates that the motivations of many who support animal reintroductions may be aesthetic or romantic, and he does not believe that, even with economic subsidies, there will be strong enough support from sheep farmers for the reintroduction of wolves. However, he does see reintroductions as an important means to an end. "We have to decide what we want from our open spaces - large fields or diverse ecosystems, tourism, water quality," he says. "Reintroductions can be a tool to achieve these ends. I suspect science rarely drives reintroductions, but it's the role of science to provide data for a debate and raise warnings, not to decide. That requires a wider public platform."

Steve Carver, senior lecturer in geography at Leeds University and a coordinator of the Wildlands Network, agrees. "Reintroductions must have grassroots support and cannot work as an authoritarian, top-down process," he argues. "The reintroduction of the white-tailed eagle on Mull [in Scotland] has developed an industry around wildlife watching. People need to see the benefits of re-wilded landscapes." He says different landscapes need different policies, with subsidies for restoring habitats.

The current reintroductions, and many of the candidates for a future return, do not require landscape-scale ecological restoration for their success. For example, the red kite has the highest population for 200 years in the UK. White-tailed eagles too can float over the existing landscape without its modification, while wild boar have introduced themselves to the English countryside very successfully, and great bustards like Ministry of Defence grassland and arable fields on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.

The most iconic candidate for reintroduction, the lynx, could also arrive without any landscape restoration. This big cat seems happy to live in broadleaved woodland or conifer plantations, and it is estimated that the Scottish Highlands could support a population of 400 lynx. Its selling point is that it would keep down roe deer numbers, as well as foxes, the notorious predators of ground-nesting birds.

Carver says: "The reintroduction of lynx will depend on the success of the beaver, so I'm hopeful that, within 10-15 years, they may be reintroduced. Personally, I'd be happy going to my grave knowing they were back."

Behind the reintroduction and the re-wilding agenda there is an important shift going on in the conservation world. "Traditional conservation has potentially seen its day," Carver claims. "The old guard was focused on sites and species, and managed reserves for one species, not the whole landscape. There's a reason for rarity. If we lose a few species, does it really matter if they're common in other locations? The new paradigm in conservation is about habitats, landscapes and whole ecosystems."

Facing a list of 1,149 priority wildlife species and 65 priority habitats that need concerted action to save them, the government's chances of fulfilling its commitment to stop the loss of biodiversity before 2010 is hopeless. A new target of 2020 is being proposed, but that is likely to be just as hopeless. As traditional conservation becomes more difficult, with less money available and less public support in the current financial climate, the reintroduction of charismatic fauna offers conservation bodies a chance to engage with the public in ways that obscure species of plants and invertebrates in isolated nature reserves unfortunately don't.

Defining moment

As well as this utilitarian approach to the value of animal reintroductions as economic tools, and the enhanced products and services of ecosystems, Andy Evans, head of the RSPB's terrestrial research section, says: "There is a moral imperative to correct anthropogenic harm and a moral obligation to maintain habitats, and to improve them from damage caused by, for example, agriculture. Conservation, which has always been scale-dependent, is facing a defining moment."

Ecologist and author Peter Taylor says: "The reintroduction of charismatic species is also a way of re-wilding the human mind, engaging people with nature on a deeper psychological level. But these reintroductions won't happen unless all the community is involved, including hunting, shooting, fishing and farming interests.

"This kind of conservation is not helped by the dead hand of computer simulations, government consultations and accounts of the lynx being good for eco-tourism. In early natural history, there was a spiritual connection with nature. As a scientist, I think we need to reclaim something lost from scientific conservation. The lynx, the beaver and wild boar have become iconic emblems for that."

Comeback contenders

Lynx
The Eurasian lynx, a secretive, powerful cat, is the most likely mammal predator to be reintroduced to the UK - although many say it is already here.

Beaver
Hunted to extinction here by the end of the 16th century. A proposal launched in 1994 to reintroduce it to Knapdale Forest, Scotland, was turned down in 2002 and again in 2005. A licence was granted in 2007 and the first beavers to return to Scotland will be released this spring.

White-tailed eagle
By 1916, this huge bird, sometimes called the sea eagle, became extinct here through persecution. It was reintroduced to Scotland from Scandinavia in 1975 and there are now 42 breeding territories there. A study is being carried out on proposals to reintroduce it to East Anglia.

Great bustard
Last year saw the first egg laid by a great bustard - the heaviest flying bird in the world - in the UK for 175 years. It was reintroduced to Salisbury Plain in a project that began in 2004 with eggs rescued from farmland in Russia.

Wild boar
After an absence of 400 years, they have reintroduced themselves by escaping from boar farms damaged in the 1987 storm. Now well-established in south-east England and the Forest of Dean.

Grey wolf
The last wolf in the UK was killed in Scotland in the 17th century. Experience in other countries shows that reintroduction would help to regenerate vegetation and woodland.

Large Blue butterfly
One of the most vulnerable butterflies in the world, it became extinct in the UK in 1975, but was reintroduced to Dartmoor in 2000 from Sweden.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 28 Jan 2009 | 12:01 am

All you need to know about having octuplets

1. How do octuplets happen?

Not easily. Human females are designed to release one egg per month - even a release of two eggs, which could lead to twins, is unusual (that, after all, is why women have just the two nipples - in species where multiple births are common, the females are better endowed with feeding equipment). For a woman to conceive eight babies naturally, she would need to release maybe four or five eggs (extremely unlikely), and all or most of the eggs, once fertilised, would have to go on to split to form twins or triplets (again, this would be mind-bogglingly rare).

What's more likely is for octuplets to be conceived as a result of fertility treatment, if a number of fertilised eggs were returned to the womb and these went on to split into two or three babies. (This couldn't happen in the UK, because a maximum of two fertilised eggs only can be returned to the womb - but that rule doesn't apply in the US.) Yet another possibility would be if a woman who was taking fertility drugs to stimulate egg production had unprotected sex - which is how Mandy Allwood, who got pregnant with octuplets in 1996 but then miscarried, conceived hers.

As far as the unidentified new mother from Los Angeles who gave birth to octuplets this week is concerned, we are none the wiser - the hospital where she gave birth, Bellflower medical centre, is refusing to say whether fertility treatments were involved in this conception or not.

2. What are the risks - and how likely are the babies to survive?

An octuplet pregnancy isn't eight times as dangerous as a singleton pregnancy, says Professor James Walker, obstetrician at St James's Hospital in Leeds and a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists - but there are greatly increased dangers of gestational diabetes and hypertension. "Another big risk is of a postnatal haemorrhage in the hours after delivery - eight babies means eight placentas, which means eight different sites in the uterus that can become a site for major bleeding."

Mothers found to be carrying so many babies are usually offered the chance of a partial abortion, to reduce the number of foetuses and so increase the chances of getting to term (Allwood famously refused this option). Now they're safely born, the main issues for the LA babies will be respiratory and feeding problems. The babies in this case are comparatively good weights - between 1lb 8oz (820g) and 3lb 4oz (1.47g) - but the next few days will be critical.

3. What has happened to other octuplets?

Other octuplets have been born before - but in no recorded case has every baby survived. A set was born in Texas in 1998 to Nkem Chukwu, but the smallest, named Odera, died after a week. The surviving seven - five girls and two boys - celebrated their 10th birthdays last December. They live with their parents and six-year-old-sister in a six-bedroom house in the Houston suburbs that was donated to the family, and travel in a 16-passenger van. Their grandmother set up assembly lines to feed them when they were small; their mother has described raising them as "more than a full-time job".

A woman in Turkey lost all eight of her octuplets in 1985, as did Allwood in the UK in 1996, when hers were born at 22 weeks; two of a set born in Italy in 2000 died, and all of a set born in Mexico City in 1967 died within 14 hours.

The largest multiple birth ever recorded was nonuplets in Australia in 1971 - all nine died within a week.

4. Can the mother breastfeed them all?

Almost certainly not. However much we may admire the LA mother's desire to feed all these babies herself, the logistics are against her. New mothers often spend six hours or more in 24 feeding even a single baby. Assuming the Californian mother manages to feed two babies at a time (not as easy as it sounds), she could easily be feeding round-the-clock.

But Anna Burbidge of the breastfeeding-championing organisation La Leche League says it's possible that the new mother will be able to express enough milk in the next few days to ensure each of her eight tiny infants gets a small amount - and, given that the breastmilk of a mother who has had premature babies is packed with precisely the nutrition they need, that could be the most important breastmilk they ever get. "At that stage, the babies only need minute amounts of milk to fill their tiny tummies," she says. "They'll probably be being tube-fed at this stage."

Beyond that, she's loth to say it will be out of the question for the Californian mother. "After last year's earthquake in China there were reports of a 29-year-old policewoman, who had not long ago given birth herself, breastfeeding eight babies who had been orphaned," says Burbidge. "It sounds impossible, but maybe it's not. Feeding them any way is going to be difficult ... perhaps she'll be able to have a rota so they alternate breastfeeds with bottle feeds."

However, a word of warning from Janet Walton from Merseyside, who gave birth to the world's first all-female sextuplets in 1983: "It was a madhouse, with feeding and changing nappies throughout the day and night. It was like painting the Forth bridge, we never really stopped."

5. How much will it cost to raise them?

The US department of agriculture reckons it costs around $200,000 (£140,000) to raise one child to the age of 17 (and that's not taking into account the amount the LA family will have to spend on extra help and expensive baby equipment). So even a conservative estimate would put the cost of eight, to adulthood, at around a staggering $1.6m.

Parents with multiples are often approached by companies offering sponsorship but, says Sarah Newell of the Twin and Multiple Birth Association, these aren't without their drawbacks. "What we hear from families who've been in this situation is that nothing comes for free - you have to work for these deals, and what sponsors usually want is press appearances and photoshoots. It's not always conducive to family life."

6. Can they all go for a walk together?

Astonishingly, yes. What they need, says Newell, is a quad-buggy, which comes in an impressive four-square formation: in the UK, these retail at around £600. "They're not cheap, but they do make it doable for one parent to push four babies, and the other parent to push the other four," she says. An alternative would be to buy two triple-buggies and for each parent to carry a baby in a sling - but that wouldn't be practical in the longterm, so the quad buggies are the best option.

7. How many nappies will they get through?

A newborn baby needs an average of eight nappies in a 24-hour period: so we can expect the octuplets to use around 64 in a day, 448 in a week, and 23,296 a year. Given that they are likely to be in nappies for the first two to two-and-a-half years, that's going to be an awful lot of nappies - the bill for the octuplets will be around $16,000. And as for the green option - let's not go there. This new mother has quite enough on her plate without taking on more washing.

8. And, finally, what about the sibling rivalry?

"It's very common with multiples," says Newell. "The problem is that you can't give as much attention to several babies as you can to one, and it's that lack of parental attention that can go on to cause problems later on. Even raising my twins, I felt guilty that I couldn't give them enough time - you think, how long is it since I gave that one a cuddle?"

So what's it going to be like for the parents of eight? "Very, very difficult. But the most important thing will be seeing them as individuals. We'd strongly advise against dressing them identically - they do look cute, but it causes lots of problems. If you want your children to think of themselves as individuals, which is the best way to reduce the risk of sibling rivalry, then don't dress them all the same."

Walton says of her sextuplets: "Amazingly, they are all close. They have their moments when there are arguments and with eight adults living in the house there is bound to be a bit of friction but we have great fun and a lot of laughs. Overall, it was hardest physically when they were toddlers and all over the place".

• Additional reporting by Helen Carter

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 28 Jan 2009 | 12:01 am

Thousands blacked out as ice storm wreaks havoc (AP)

AP - Tree limbs snapped with a sound like gunshots, blacking out thousands of homes and businesses, and schools and government offices were closed Tuesday as a major storm spread a glaze of ice and snow from the southern Plains to the East Coast.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Jan 2009 | 11:39 pm

EU scientific body raises health alarm on MP3s

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Up to 10 million young Europeans are in danger of damaging their hearing by playing their MP3 personal music players too loud, a European Union body on health risks told a conference on Tuesday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 Jan 2009 | 10:51 pm

Dr. Dave's Super Slo-Mo Lab

Expanding an Instant. Your world at super slow motion.
Source: Livescience.com | 27 Jan 2009 | 10:35 pm

Animals in Slow Motion: Expanding the Instantaneous

Moth flight and dog bite… See what creatures actually do. At Colorado State, Dr. David G. Alciatore dissects each second up to 10,000x, revealing surprising processes and effects.
Source: Livescience.com | 27 Jan 2009 | 10:35 pm

Bouncy in Slow Motion: Expanding the Instantaneous

Things that spring. And one that doesn't. At Colorado State, Dr. David G. Alciatore dissects each second up to 10,000x, revealing surprising processes and effects.
Source: Livescience.com | 27 Jan 2009 | 10:34 pm

Crush-Crash in Slow Motion: Expanding the Instantaneous

Creative destruction of human artifacts. At Colorado State, Dr. David G. Alciatore dissects each second up to 10,000x, revealing surprising processes and effects.
Source: Livescience.com | 27 Jan 2009 | 10:33 pm

Sports in Slow Motion: Expanding the Instantaneous

Balls, skateboards, and some violent sporting mechanisms...At Colorado State, Dr. David G. Alciatore dissects each second up to 10,000x, revealing surprising processes and effects.
Source: Livescience.com | 27 Jan 2009 | 10:32 pm

Bangs in Slow Motion: Expanding the Instantaneous

Minitaure explosions, tiny flames and little jets. At Colorado State, Dr. David G. Alciatore dissects each second up to 10,000x, revealing surprising processes and effects.
Source: Livescience.com | 27 Jan 2009 | 10:31 pm

Humans in Slow Motion: Expanding the Instantaneous

Punches, Slaps, Pats, Thwacks… In the name of science. At Colorado State, Dr. David G. Alciatore dissects each second up to 10,000x, revealing surprising processes and effects.
Source: Livescience.com | 27 Jan 2009 | 10:31 pm

Foods in Slow Motion: Expanding the Instantaneous

Smashed, Sliced, Pounded, Immolated… Nowhere near a kitchen. At Colorado State, Dr. David G. Alciatore dissects each second up to 10,000x, revealing surprising processes and effects.
Source: Livescience.com | 27 Jan 2009 | 10:31 pm

Iceland sets major whaling quota

Iceland's departing government grants big whaling quotas for five years, though incoming ministers may overturn them.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Jan 2009 | 9:45 pm

Genetic inheritance plays role in child cancer: study

CHICAGO (Reuters) - More than 100 small genetic variations affect a child's response to treatment for the most common type of childhood cancer, a finding that might lead to better treatments, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 Jan 2009 | 9:23 pm

Cassini Team Pushes for 7-Year Extended Mission at Saturn (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - SAN FRANCISCO - As NASA scientists continue to report startling discoveries made during the Cassini spacecraft's initial tour of Saturn, a plan is being drafted that would extend the mission through 2017.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Jan 2009 | 9:04 pm

Octuplets stun doctors at California hospital

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California woman shocked doctors by giving birth on Monday to octuplets, believed to be only the second set of eight babies born in the United States.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 Jan 2009 | 9:01 pm

Obama and Science: So Far, So Good

Seven days into his presidency, Barack Obama is making good on his inaugural promise to "restore science to its rightful place."

Shortly after taking office, he lifted the ban on federal funding for international health groups who support abortion rights. Instituted by Ronald Reagan, the ban had been reversed by President Clinton and reinstated by President George W. Bush.

On Monday, he ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to consider allowing states to set their own standards on automobile emissions and fuel efficiency. The EPA, with the support of the Bush administration, had refused to grant the necessary waivers, though stronger-than-federal state pollution standards have historically been granted without fuss.

Along with his EPA directive, Obama told the Department of Transportation to finish its fuel efficiency guidelines in time for them to take effect in 2011.

On the biomedical front, Obama's $825 billion economic recovery plan contains $2 billion for the National Institutes of Health. Funding for the NIH doubled during the Bush administration's first term but then went flat; inflation and rising costs have effectively reduced its purchasing power by 13 percent.

Obama's long-anticipated lifting of federal funding restrictions on large swaths of embryonic stem cell research is expected to happen within the next few weeks.

All in all, it's a pretty good start — but there's a long way to go. Obama made dozens of science-related promises on the campaign trail, from doubling basic research support to including environmental standards in trade agreements and expanding research on future space missions. Meeting them won't be easy. (He's already drawn criticism for failing to propose tough short-term standards on greenhouse gas emissions.)

If you want to track Obama's performance, head over to the St. Petersburg Times' fantastic compendium of Obama's campaign promises on science, space, energy, the environment and health.

Image: Flickr/Tony the Misfit

See Also:

• IPCC Chief Calls Out Obama for Weak Greenhouse Gas Goals
• Nobel-Winning Physicist Rumored to Be Obama's Pick for Energy
  
• Obama's Biggest Science Challenges: You Tell Us
  
• FDA OKs First Human Trials of Embryonic Stem Cells
• Science Funding Should Remain a Priority, Says Obama Advisor

WiSci 2.0: Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and Del.icio.us feed; Wired Science on Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 27 Jan 2009 | 8:40 pm

Rare 1,800-Year-Old Figurine Found in Jerusalem

A tiny, Roman-era bust of a bearded man is unearthed in Jerusalem's Old City.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Jan 2009 | 8:05 pm

Armyworm plague

How a caterpillar is laying waste to swathes of Liberia
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Jan 2009 | 7:11 pm

Human Adaptation to Warming Aids Mosquito Spread

As people in parched regions store water, mosquitoes find new homes.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Jan 2009 | 6:30 pm

Nuclear plant 'quake ban' lifted

An outright ban on locating new nuclear power stations in areas of the UK which are susceptible to earthquakes is lifted by the government.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Jan 2009 | 6:23 pm

Studies find mercury in much U.S. corn syrup

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many common foods made using commercial high fructose corn syrup contain mercury as well, researchers reported on Tuesday, while another study suggested the corn syrup itself is contaminated.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 Jan 2009 | 6:15 pm

Talking rubbish

David Shukman asks if recycling is working in the UK
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Jan 2009 | 5:43 pm

Congo Gorillas Thriving Despite War

A small population of mountain gorillas is growing in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Jan 2009 | 5:00 pm

Pier-munching gribble could provide breakthrough for second generation biofuels

A wood-boring crustacean that spends much of its time munching through the wooden supports that hold up piers could help provide the next breakthrough in green energy. The gribble uses enzymes in its gut to break down wood and scientists want to employ it to produce climate-friendly biofuels from natural products such as willow and straw.

The work will form part of a £27m project to make second-generation biofuels a commercial reality within 10 years. The new biofuels would not lead to a net release of carbon dioxide but also won't compete with land for edible crops. The money will come from the government-backed Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and a coalition of 15 industrial partners including BP and Ceres.

The cash is aimed at funding research to use plants more efficiently as fuel. The cell walls of plants are made of a complex sugar called cellulose, which is usually mixed with a polymer called lignin. Second-generation biofuels are made by breaking down the cellulose and fermenting it to produce fuels such as ethanol or butanol.

One of the major challenges for biologists is to find chemical enzymes that can efficiently break down cell walls which contain cellulose and lignin. The gribble, a tiny shrimp-like crustacean, seems particularly good at this task. "It's single-handedly responsible for gnawing away at several piers on our south coast and, within its intestinal tract, are enzymes that can unlock some of the polymers [in wood-based materials]," said Professor Katherine Smart, a plant scientist at University of Nottingham and one of the leaders of the project.

First generation biofuels are made from crops that store sugars and starches in their grains. "This has two main problems – it diverts away from the food chain but also it's very energy intensive to grow the crops," said Dr Angela Karp of Rothamsted Research. "You have to grow them every year and it requires a lot of nitrogen fertilisers to grow those grains."

Instead, the BBSRC money will be concentrated on waste materials from normal food crops – wheat straw, spent grain – and also plants that are not grown for food production but still produce a large amount of biomass quickly, such as willows and grasses.

Karp said: "When you look at the overall energy balance of getting energy out of this kind of second-generation system, the gains in terms of energy and reductions in terms of greenhouse gases you can achieve and the waste of food crops far exceed the biofuels you can get from maize."

Smart said there was much to be done in improving the efficiency in extracting a plant's cellulose and then converting it into alcohol. "At the moment we can produce 19g of ethanol from 100g of straw. Based on the current amount of straw not used currently that means we have between 8-10bn tonnes of straw available in the UK for this kind of conversion. That could produce about a 10% of current use of petrol."

Karp said the research would additionally focus on finding ways to grow these plants on the marginal land – Karp said there were at least 3m hectares in the UK that could be turned over for this purpose – and also in selecting varieties that grew the most biomass in the quickest time.

The government's target is to source 10% of UK's energy needs from biofuels by 2010, part of an ambition to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. Announcing the money at a briefing today, the government's science minister Paul Drayson, who races cars powered by second generation biofuels, said: "Investment in science and innovation are going to be what gets us out of the global economic downturn. This £27m investment represents a real example of where research has the potential to address one of the biggest challenges of our time, climate change, but also an area where the UK has real strength."

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 27 Jan 2009 | 4:52 pm

US researchers find traces of toxic mercury in high-fructose corn syrup

A swig of soda or bite of a candy bar might be sweet, but a new study suggests that food made with corn syrup also could be delivering tiny doses of toxic mercury.

For the first time, researchers say they have detected traces of the silvery metal in samples of high-fructose corn syrup, a widely used sweetener that has replaced sugar in many processed foods. The study was published yesterday in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health.

Eating high-mercury fish is the chief source of exposure for most people. The new study raises concerns about a previously unknown dietary source of mercury, which has been linked to learning disabilities in children and heart disease in adults.

The source of the metal appears to be caustic soda and hydrochloric acid, which manufacturers of corn syrup use to help convert corn kernels into the food additive.

A handful of plants across the US still make the soda and acid by mixing a briny solution in electrified vats of mercury. Some of the toxic metal ends up in the final product, according to industry documents cited in the study.

Corn syrup manufacturers insisted their products are mercury-free. But the study noted that at least one maker of caustic soda that has used the mercury-based technology listed the corn syrup industry as a client.

"This seems like an avoidable source of mercury that we didn't know was out there," said David Wallinga, one of the study's co-authors and a researcher at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a Minnesota-based advocacy group.

The researchers cautioned that their study was limited. Only 20 samples were analyzed; mercury was detected in nine.

Still, the impact of the findings could be significant. High-fructose corn syrup has become such a staple in processed foods that the average American consumes about 12 teaspoons of it daily, according to federal estimates. Teenagers and young children tend to eat more of it than adults.

There is no established safe dose for elemental mercury, the type discovered in corn syrup. But the US Environmental Protection Agency says an average-sized woman should limit her exposure to 5.5 micrograms a day of methylmercury, the kind found in fish.

If that same woman regularly ate corn syrup contaminated at the highest level detected in the study - 0.57 micrograms per gram - the researchers estimated that she could end up consuming an amount of mercury that is five times higher than the EPA's safe dose.

One former EPA scientist who reviewed the paper said more study is needed to establish the risk, if any, posed by contaminated corn syrup. She urged the Food and Drug Administration to conduct a review of food made with the sweetener.

"For the most part, previous studies haven't found mercury in foods other than fish," said Kathryn Mahaffey, a former EPA scientist who co-wrote a landmark report to Congress on the perils of mercury contamination. "Is this an outlier or something we didn't know about before?"

In response to a 2005 Chicago Tribune series about mercury hazards, then-senator Barack Obama introduced legislation that would force chlorine plants to phase out its use or shut down. One plant in Wisconsin later vowed to switch to a mercury-free process by this year, leaving four others - in Georgia, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia - that still use the older technology.

The new study's lead author, Renee Dufault, began her research while investigating the Wisconsin plant for the FDA in the mid-2000s. But her results weren't published until now, a year after she retired from the agency.

An FDA spokesman said he still was waiting for a response to the study. Industry representatives, meanwhile, said the study was outdated.

"It is important that Americans are provided accurate, science-based information," Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association, said in a statement. "They should know that high-fructose corn syrup is safe."

In another statement, the Chlorine Institute said: "It is conceivable that measurable mercury content can be found in high-fructose corn syrup regardless of how it is processed."

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 27 Jan 2009 | 4:10 pm

BLOG: Bird Speedy at Forming New Species

The white eye bird forms new species faster than any other bird.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Jan 2009 | 3:53 pm

Lead Exposure Harms Aging Brains, Too

People are vulnerable to lead at any age, new research shows.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Jan 2009 | 3:24 pm

Climate Change Irreversible For Next 1,000 Years

Climate changes effects are "largely irreversible" concludes a new NOAA report.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Jan 2009 | 3:00 pm

Ancestor For All Animals Identified

New analysis finds the living ancestor of all animals is a sperm-like creature.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Jan 2009 | 2:20 pm

Global Appetite for Frog Legs Threatens Species

Are frogs being eaten to extinction? Maybe so, suggests a new study.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Jan 2009 | 2:07 pm