Buckyballs Could Keep Water Systems Flowing

Microscopic particles of carbon known as buckyballs may be able to keep the nation's water pipes clear in the same way clot-busting drugs prevent arteries from clogging up.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 6:00 pm

Scientists Closer To Making Invisibility Cloak A Reality

J.K. Rowling may not have realized just how close Harry Potter's invisibility cloak was to becoming a reality when she introduced it in the first book of her best-selling fictional series in 1998. Scientists, however, have made huge strides in the past few years in the rapidly developing field of cloaking. Cloaking involves making an object invisible or undetectable to electromagnetic waves.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 6:00 pm

How Stem Cells Develop Into Blood Cells

How messages sent within stem cells through a specific communication pathway can trigger the cells to specialize and become blood cells in humans has been discovered by scientists of the McMaster Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 6:00 pm

Blood Test For Alzheimer's Possible, Study Suggests

Researchers have revealed a direct relationship between two specific antibodies and the severity of Alzheimer's disease symptoms, raising hopes that a diagnostic blood test for the devastating disorder is within reach.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 6:00 pm

Cannabis Use, Dangerous Driving Behaviors Interrelated

Thrill-seeking young men are more likely to drive under the influence of cannabis and engage in reckless driving, according to a new study. Men who are sensation-seekers, an average age of 27 and impulsive will consider taking the wheel after consuming cannabis more often than older peers.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 6:00 pm

Spin Battery: Physicist Develops Battery Using New Source Of Energy

Scientists have been able to prove the existence of a "spin battery," a battery that is "charged" by applying a large magnetic field to nano-magnets in a device called a magnetic tunnel junction. The electrical current made in this process is called a spin polarized current and finds use in a new technology called "spintronics."
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 6:00 pm

Neuroscientists Map Intelligence In The Brain

Neuroscientists have conducted the most comprehensive brain mapping to date of the cognitive abilities measured by the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, the most widely used intelligence test in the world. The results offer new insight into how the various factors that comprise an "intelligence quotient" score depend on particular regions of the brain.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 3:00 pm

First Right Whale Sedation Enables Disentanglement Effort

For the first time ever, rescuers used a new sedation delivery system to help free an entangled North Atlantic right whale. This is the first time in worldwide history a free-swimming large whale was successfully sedated in the wild.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 3:00 pm

Antibody Key To Treating Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD)

Scientists have determined the atomic structure of the "binding" between a brain protein and an antibody that could be key to treating patients with diseases such as variant CJD.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 3:00 pm

Muscular Dystrophy: Stem Cells That Repair Injured Muscles Identified

Scientists have identified a type of skeletal muscle stem cell that contributes to the repair of damaged muscles in mice, which could have important implications in the treatment of injured, diseased or aging muscle tissue in humans, including the ravages of muscular dystrophy.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 3:00 pm

Shipping body: NKorea plans April satellite launch (AP)

AP - North Korea has told an international shipping body that it will fire a satellite into space between April 4 and 8. Several neighboring governments suspect the launch will test long-range missile technology.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 11:38 am

Roche wins Genentech with raised $46.8 billion offer (Reuters)

Reuters - Roche Holding AG has struck a deal with Genentech Inc to acquire all outstanding shares in the U.S. biotech group for $46.8 billion, or $95 a share, the Swiss drugmaker said on Thursday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 11:11 am

Sky high eyes

The UK military shows off its latest robot planes
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 12 Mar 2009 | 10:22 am

Earth Watch

Deep impacts: The hidden risks of ocean fishing
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 12 Mar 2009 | 10:08 am

Flooding, heavy rain, wintry concerns today (weather.com)

weather.com -
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 10:05 am

Global warming to carry big costs for California (AP)

AP - From agricultural losses to devastation wrought by wildfires, California's economy is expected to see significant costs resulting from global warming in the decades ahead, according to a new report.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 9:20 am

Engineers find way to build a better battery

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. engineers have found a way to make lithium batteries that are smaller, lighter, longer lasting and capable of recharging in seconds.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 6:44 am

Rare Maya panels found in Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Archeologists have uncovered carved stucco panels depicting cosmic monsters, gods and serpents in Guatemala's northern jungle that are the oldest known depictions of a famous Mayan creation myth.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 6:42 am

U.S. high-tech water future hinges on cost, politics

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Anyone who has visited Disneyland recently and taken a sip from a drinking fountain there may have unknowingly sampled a taste of the future -- a small quantity of water that once flowed through a sewer.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 6:32 am

NASA resets space shuttle launch for Sunday

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA will try to launch U.S. space shuttle Discovery on Sunday after a hydrogen fuel leak forced it to postpone the launch attempt scheduled for Wednesday, a spokesman said.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 3:55 am

F1 technology helps workers and troops

LONDON (Reuters) - Formula One technology used by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton on the racetrack is also playing a role in protecting troops in Iraq and keeping factory workers on their feet.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 3:23 am

EU needs 'brutal' science advice

The UK government's chief scientist says Europe's lawmakers need independent and sometimes uncomfortable scientific advice.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 12 Mar 2009 | 2:30 am

Extremely Premature Babies Suffer Cognitive Problems Later (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - More than half of children born extremely prematurely have way lower IQs and need extra help in mainstream primary schools, especially when it comes to math, a new British study finds.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 2:25 am

Extremely Premature Babies Suffer Cognitive Problems Later

More than half of children born extremely prematurely need extra help in school, especially with math.
Source: Livescience.com | 12 Mar 2009 | 2:20 am

NASA successfully reboots Mars orbiter's computer (AP)

AP - NASA has successfully commanded the Mars Odyssey spacecraft to reboot its computer.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 1:33 am

Gas leak postpones space shuttle Discovery launch (AP)

AP - Hit by more valve trouble, NASA postponed the launch of space shuttle Discovery just hours before it was to head to the international space station Wednesday because of a hydrogen gas leak. The potentially catastrophic leak was in a different part of the system that already had caused a vexing one-month delay.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 12:58 am

Nasa postpones shuttle launch after detecting fuel leak

Nasa today postponed the launch of the space shuttle Discovery after detecting a leak in a hydrogen fuel line as the craft sat on the Cape Canaveral, Florida, launch pad.

The US space agency scrapped the launch after finding a leak in a vent line between the shuttle and the massive external fuel tank while filling the tank yesterday afternoon, seven hours before the scheduled launch. The seven-person crew had yet to board the shuttle.

The agency reportedly rescheduled the launch for early next week. The flight is already a month late, delayed because of hydrogen gas valve concerns. Gas valves inside space shuttle Endeavour's engine broke apart in November during the last shuttle flight, and Nasa has ordered extra testing on this flight to ensure the craft's safety.

Nasa officials told the Associated Press that today's leak occurred in gas lines outside the vehicle and were unrelated to the gas valves that ruptured in Endeavour.

The agency has lost two shuttles because of fuel tank damage in the 28 years since the first launch.

Columbia broke apart on re-entry in February 2003 due to damage to the craft sustained on lift-off when a piece of foam insulation broke off the external fuel tank seconds after launch.

Space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after lift-off in January 1986 when a seal on the external rocket booster failed, causing a flare of hot gas that weakened the hydrogen fuel tank and subsequently ignited its contents.

The space shuttle mission is to deliver a set of solar arrays to the international space station. The crew includes Koichi Wakata, who will stay aboard the space station. He is the first astronaut from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to live aboard it. Engineer Sandra Magnus is scheduled to hitch a ride home from the space station on the shuttle.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 12 Mar 2009 | 12:45 am

Space shuttle launch delayed, reset for Sunday

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA postponed space shuttle Discovery's launch to the International Space Station on Wednesday due to a hydrogen leak during fueling and said it would try again on Sunday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 12:33 am

Ancient 'Peking Man' Way Older Than Thought (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - The famous fossils of an early relative of modern humans commonly called Peking Man may be 200,000 years older than previously thought, a new study finds.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Mar 2009 | 12:15 am

Oxford university lands £36m donation from technology entrepreneur

James Martin pledges sum 'to safeguard a future for the generations that follow us'

Philanthropic giving has taken a nose-dive in the recession, but one millionaire today promised Oxford university £36m.

James Martin, a 75-year-old technology entrepreneur and author, who was already the university's biggest benefactor, has pledged to match donations made to Oxford of up to £36m for the next year.

The university said the sum was "within the largest five donations" it had ever received.

Martin, an Oxford physics graduate and Pulitzer prize nominee, donated £72.5m to the university in 2005 to set up a school for researchers to study the problems of the 21st century.

The James Martin 21st Century School houses 15 institutes which examine subjects such as ageing, energy materials, particle therapy and ethics.

Martin, who lives on an island he bought in Bermuda, is thought to be one of the world's most influential computer scientists.

"My view is that while we may be distracted by today's credit crunch, we must not forget the bigger picture," he said.

"We need to safeguard a future for the generations that follow us. We urgently have to work towards solutions to critical global challenges like climate change, world population growth and the impact of the singularity in computing."

Singularity is when machines surpass human intellect.

"That's why I want to inspire further financial support and new kinds of collaboration with my offer of matching funds," Martin said.

John Hood, the vice-chancellor of Oxford, said Martin's generosity showed that "despite the global economic downturn, there are philanthropists willing to support the world's leading universities".

The wealthy have been tightening their purses in recent months. A PricewaterhouseCoopers survey expects charity incomes to fall by £2.3bn this year from £10.6bn in 2008.

The British Red Cross has said that "giving from rich individuals, which had been flagged up as the next big thing, has gone down the pan".

• Oxford University announced today that the proportion of new undergraduates who come from state schools has risen to 55.4% this academic year, up from 53.4% who started in 2007. The rise is due to more successful applications from male students at state schools and colleges.

Grammar schools had a success rate of 30.8% in applications, compared with 29.4% for independent schools and 23% for comprehensives.

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

The truth is on the line

A voice analysis system is heralded as the answer to millions lost through fraud - yet two academics claim it is about as valid as astrology

It may seem contrary - even churlish - to doubt a technology claimed to have prevented millions of pounds of fraudulent insurance and benefit claims around the world. Yet that's what Francisco Lacerda, a professor of linguistics at Stockholm University, and Anders Eriksson, professor of phonetics at Gothenburg University, have done in a scientific paper.

They say the system, used to try to detect people lying in phone calls made to 25 UK councils and a number of car insurers, is no more reliable than flipping a coin - and that millions of pounds have been spent on a technology that has not been validated scientifically, and for which the claims about its function are "at the astrology end of the validity spectrum".

The claims publicly made for the voice risk analysis (VRA) software being used by trained operators at some local councils since May 2007 sound impressive. "Phone lie detector led to 160 Birmingham benefit cheat investigations", said the Birmingham Post. The Department for Work and Pensions has already spent £1.5m installing 150 "seats" of the software - plus training from its UK reseller, Amersham-based DigiLog, for each group - in councils, as part of two sets of pilot tests of the VRA system.

Insurance claim

Highway Insurance, which has used DigiLog's product since 2002, claimed in 2007 that the system has "successfully prevented more than £11m in potentially fraudulent motor insurance claims" because "Highway has screened nearly 19,000 motor claims cases since 2002, with more than 15% repudiated or withdrawn."

That suggests the system works. But perhaps the wording is important: it says they were potentially, not demonstrably, fraudulent. Scientists say telling people they are being monitored by a "lie detector" (real or not) makes them more likely to be truthful. The example cited in Lacerda and Eriksson's paper is of prison inmates interviewed about their drug use, and then tested by urinalysis and hair samples - an objective method. With "lie detection", only 14% lied; without it, 40% did.

The software is from Nemesysco, an Israeli company, which licenses DigiLog to sell it in the UK. Sales to the government are handled jointly by DigiLog (which does the staff training) and Capita. Nemesysco claims it applies "layered voice analysis" (LVA): "LVA uses a patented technology to detect 'brain activity traces' using the voice as a medium. By utilising a wide-range spectrum analysis to detect minute involuntary changes in the speech waveform itself, LVA can detect anomalies in brain activity and classify them in terms of stress, excitement, deception and varying emotional states".

In the UK, the system is known as VRA. Callers to Harrow council to make a housing benefit claim are warned their call may be subjected to voice analysis. The DigiLog software monitors the line that operator is on: if it reckons patterns in the voice indicate some form of stress, the operator hears a beep. Thus alerted, the operator is trained to begin asking questions that may uncover the truth.

Harrow visits anyone who chooses not to take part in a VRA call; it says there has been only one complaint since its introduction, "indicating that customers do not feel intimidated by the process". It claims the technology has saved it about £110,000 in benefits payments, helped identify 126 incorrectly awarded single-person council tax discounts - worth £40,000 - and prompted reviews of 304 claims. Of these, 47 were no longer valid, saving another £70,000. Birmingham city council is equivocal: no prosecutions have followed VRA's use - and in some cases, the benefits paid have even been raised.

Yet nobody testing the system seems to have tried generating the beep in the operator's ear by the electronic equivalent of a coin flip. Measuring the difference in effectiveness between random beeps and the proper system (without telling the operator) would be a scientific "blind" test: that could show whether the system is worth its cost or whether it was just the more assertive questions, allied to the "lie detector" warning, that made the difference.

In the absence of such scientific investigation, the next best step is to analyse the software. In a paper titled "Charlatanry in forensic speech science: a problem to be taken seriously", published in the International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law, Eriksson and Lacerda analysed the code in the 2003 patent for Nemesysco's software. They say it comprises about 500 lines in Microsoft's simple Visual Basic programming language. That code carries out the signal analysis, they say, and then offers the multiple levels of "certainty" to operators trying to decide whether someone is being truthful.

Call their bluff

"At best, this thing is giving you an indication of how [voice] pitch is changing," Lacerda told the Guardian. "But there's so much contamination by other [noise] factors that it's a rather crude measure." In the paper - which has been withdrawn from the website of its publisher, Equinox Publishing, after complaints from Nemesysco's founder that it contains personal attacks - the scientists say the scientific provability of the Nemesysco code is akin to astrology. The deterrent effect "is no proof of validity, just a demonstration that it is possible to take advantage of a bluff".

That chimes with one specialist, who spoke on condition of remaining anonymous. "Nobody seems to have done any sensible research into this," he says. "[The clients have] all talked to salesmen rather than scientists. Study after study shows low validity, and chance level for reliability. But people won't listen. They don't try them in controlled trials; they make a public announcement they're using it, then feel happy they've got a 30% fall in claims. It's called the 'bogus pipeline effect'. People are frightened [of the threat]."

Stress at work

But Lior Koskas, the business development manager of DigiLog, says the VRA system cannot be separated from its user, because the system only picks up stress. He does not claim it spots "lies" on its own. "Only when the technology and an operator trained by us spots it, then can we say there's a risk someone is lying." Has there been a scientific "blind test" of the system? "No," Koskas says, "you can't say you're using something if you aren't."

He adds that the technology "hasn't been scientifically validated", but he rejects Lacerda and Eriksson's criticisms. "With any technology you will have opinions," he says. "But how many of these scientists have tested it properly? They talk about the technology in isolation, as though you don't need anything from the operator except turning it on or off. But the majority of the training course is about linguistic training analysis, learning to listen. Anybody using this [technology] in the UK doesn't use it in isolation."

What would Lacerda advise the government and companies considering spending money on the system to do? "Spend it on educating the people who are going to interview people, because that would be much more valid and ethically sensible."

Yossi Pinkas, Nemesysco's vice-president of sales and marketing, insists the system "can't be tested in a lab environment, because you're testing emotion". To him, Lacerda and Eriksson's analysis is flawed because "there's no scientific field of 'voice analysis', only voice recognition".

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

Meet the sceptics

Barack Obama may be worried about greenhouse gases - but not everyone is. Suzanne Goldenberg reports from this week's gathering of climate change deniers

It is 8.50am in a windowless room in a hotel off New York's Times Square and the speaker is rounding off a talk called "Climate change and extreme events: lies, damned lies and statistics". There are nearly 100 people in the room. "How many people understood that statistical discussion?" he asks. Half a dozen hands go up. In the last row, a professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is regarded as a luminary by climate change revisionists, sits with mouth wide open and head tilted back, asleep.

In Copenhagen, scientists have been gathering this week to air the latest research on global warming. In Washington, Barack Obama and Congress are working on legislation to curb the burning of greenhouse gases. European government leaders returning from the US talk of how the new administration is giving fresh momentum to efforts for a global climate change treaty. Then there is this gathering, almost ignored by the media, which talks about climate change as a relic from the past: "Global warming: was it ever really a crisis?"

For those who reject the science that climate change is man-made and caused by carbon dioxide, and those who oppose government efforts to reduce carbon emissions, this is the anti-global warming jamboree: a gathering of the world's leading revisionist scientists and activists. It is also the launch of a new campaign against Obama's efforts to green the economy and sign America up to a climate change treaty.

"This is the counter-offensive to what is happening in the mainstream media and among our leadership in Congress and in the White House," says Marc Morano, an aide to James Inhofe, the Republican senator who notoriously dismissed global warming as a "hoax".

Conference attendees, from the US, Britain, Europe and beyond, readily admit that their views are dismissed by the leading scientific institutions and government. But they refuse to give up. They see in the economic recession new potential to re-open - and possibly win - the battle on global warming.

"The economic crisis has taken the wind out of the sails of [emissions] cap and trade and energy tax," says Joseph Bast, the president of the Heartland Institute, a Chicago thinktank that hosted the conference and was funded in the past by Exxon Mobil.

"If Obama cannot get cap and trade or an energy bill passed in the next two months, I think it is dead for the duration of the administration," he says.

It would be easy to dismiss this gathering as a pity party for people on the fringes of modern thought. The contrast with the America embodied by Obama's election is stark. The 600 attendees (by the organisers' count) are almost entirely white males, and many, if not most, are past retirement age. Only two women and one African-American man figure on the programme of more than 70 speakers. Aside from a smattering of academics from well-known universities, they are affiliated with rightwing thinktanks, such as the Ayn Rand Institute, the Carbon Sense Coalition, or the scarily named Committee for A Constructive Tomorrow, that operate far outside the mainstream of public discourse.

Unlike Obama, who owed his victory to millions of supporters and donors, the climate change deniers operate within narrow bands of support: the conservative wing of the Republican party and the extreme end of the Christian Right. According to DeSmogblog, an environmentalist website, the 50 or so thinktanks linked to this conference between them have received $47m in funds over the years from Exxon and the Koch and Scaife families, who are the leading patrons of conservative causes in America. Both families made their first fortunes in the oil business.

But on one point, environmentalists and their opponents agree: after the skirmishes of the last decade about the science explaining the causes of climate change, and policy debates about carbon trading in Europe, the stage is set for a final showdown in Washington.

Conversation in the corridors regularly turns to how the naysayers could be more effective at influencing the debate and blocking new legislation. "What about taking out lawsuits against Hollywood celebrities who lend their prestige to environmental causes?" someone asks.

Morano, once a producer for the chatshow host Rush Limbaugh, will be crucial to that new PR push. He is leaving his Senate job to start a new climate website. The main thrust of his argument is that the carbon reduction targets set in Europe and under consideration by Congress will not work - "a symbolic solution for an alleged crisis", he claims.

But although the next phase of combat will be in the policy arena, conference-goers are not willing to concede any ground to the scientific establishment. They insist there are other causes of climate change, such as the sun or volcanos.

Richard Lindzen, the MIT meterologist who is treated with near-reverence among the conference-goers, admits such sessions are closer to therapy than shared scientific discovery. "It's fundamentally a support group," he says. "Let's have a vehicle for people who are sceptical to get together and meet each other."

Not that the mingling process is without awkwardness. Among climate change deniers there is little agreement on who they are fighting, and why, beyond the most basic. They all share a loathing for Al Gore. In the exhibition hall, a film-maker promotes a documentary on the environmental champion called Not Evil Just Wrong. Gore is regularly excoriated in the speeches as the leading "climate change alarmist".

Some of those in attendance see themselves as modern day Galileos, pure scientists trying to get the truth out against a hostile academic orthodoxy. Others see the concern about global warming as just another attempt to get in the way of business trying to turn a legitimate profit. For some, the enemy is government of any kind. Arthur Robinson, a leading rejectionist, gets a smattering of applause when he says he opposes the idea of state-funded schools for children.

Still others, like the Czech President, Vaclav Klaus, the leading European climate change sceptic, are still fighting communism. "Environmentalism is an ideology," he told the conference. "It really is a replacement of some of the sins of the last century."

Environmentalists see that fracturing in the ranks as a sign of weakness. They note that large corporations, such as Exxon, which supported Heartland for nearly a decade, are now eager to be seen as partners for the Obama administration as it seeks to shift the US economy from fossil fuels to other sources of energy.

But though weakened in this age of Obama, the climate change revisionists remain determined not to go down without a fight. "It's almost a lost, lost battle," the Czech president said. "Nevertheless, for me, I must persevere and go on."

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

Penile Extenders Actually Might Work, Doctor's Say

Doctor's confirm the Andropenis penile extender can increase the flaccid length of a penis by nearly one inch.
Source: Livescience.com | 11 Mar 2009 | 11:23 pm

Nasa space shuttle launch delayed

Nasa delays the launch of its Discovery shuttle mission to the International Space Station after a fuel leak is detected.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Mar 2009 | 11:01 pm

Bush Stem Cell Ban Wrong, But Not Anti-Science

President Bush's stem cell policy may have been restrictive and misguided, but it wasn't anti-science.

In the wake of Obama's decision to lift Bush's funding ban, many scientists are celebrating the freedom of science from ideology. Their relief is understandable, but the rhetoric is disturbing.

The Bush administration didn't skew stem cell research like it did environmental science: It simply said it wasn't right. Bush's limitations on embryonic research were ethical and legitimate — but not, as many observers have noted, anti-science.

"Some scientists may take home the wrong message: that moral concerns should not restrict what scientists can do. But that's clearly false," said Tom Murray, director of the Hastings Center, a nonpartisan bioethics think tank.

There are good reasons why society puts ethical boundaries on science.

The Nuremberg code is the best-known example of this. Shocked by the horrors of Nazi science, the civilized world agreed that tests should never again be conducted on people who hadn't agreed to take part, and that test subjects should not be knowingly harmed.

The Nuremberg code was invoked by activists outraged when the Bush administration, at the chemical industry's urging, proposed tests of pesticides on pregnant mothers and children. They weren't being anti-scientific. They were being humane.

Unfortunately, the difference between skewing scientific facts and restraining research has been largely lost in the celebration over Obama's lifting of Bush's funding ban.

Many scientists saw the move as a victory of science over ethical shackles.

During the Bush administration, "political ideology was used to define how science should be done," said Harvard Stem Cell Institute researcher Douglas Melton in a prepared statement.

John Kessler, director of the Northwestern University Stem Cell Institute called Bush's restrictions a "really, really unwelcome intrusion of politics into science."

Their comments were echoed by researchers around the world — and though understandable, it was wrong.

While there are plenty of examples of the Bush administration skewing scientific facts for political ends, the ban on stem cell funding wasn't one of them.

The previous administration may have engaged in systematic suppression and corruption of scientific findings about climate change, air pollution, environmental toxins, endangered species, baby formula, abstinence, birth control, coal mining, missile defense and more, but banning stem cell funds was the result of a moral objection to the research.

As ideology, Bush's restrictions on embryonic stem cell funding were legitimate.

They represented a moral objection to the destruction of embryos by people who believe that life begins when sperm meets egg.

It's not an objection shared by everyone. But characterizing conscientious objectors as anti-scientific is dangerous.

"No thinking person should promote a science that claims to be value-free," said Murray. "There are plenty of experiments that would be scientifically interesting that we simply won’t do because of legitimate ethical concerns about how we treat the human subjects of research."

Most Americans now support research that Bush stifled and Obama will fund.

But there will be plenty of cases in the future when the aims of science — or, to be more precise, certain scientists — conflict with widely held values. And if the legacy of the stem cell debate is to label all conscientious objection as anti-science bias, it will be a toxic legacy indeed.

After all, as William Saletan wrote in Slate, "There's a word for bias you can't see: Yours."

See Also:

• With Bush Ban Gone, Stem Cell Research Will Proliferate
• On Science, Obama Puts His Mouth Where His Money Is
• Bush Administration Favored Baby Formula Companies Over Babies
• Feds Investigate EPA's Rejection of California's Clean Air Standards
• Whistleblower Group Details Bush Interference with Climate Change Science
• Scientists Stop EPA From Pushing Toxic Pesticide
• Environmental Police Force Hits All-Time Low
• Feds Set to Eliminate Water Regulations for Toxin
• President Bush Muzzled First Surgeon General on Science Topics
• Bush Administration Skewed the Science of Mountaintop Mining

Image: Flickr/pwbaker

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 11 Mar 2009 | 10:52 pm

Some states push back against stem cell research (AP)

AP - A showdown is shaping up in some of the nation's most conservative states over embryonic stem cell research, as opponents draw language and tactics from the battle over abortion to counter President Barack Obama's plan to ease research restrictions.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Mar 2009 | 10:10 pm

Map of Science Looks Like Milky Way

The pursuit of human knowledge has a shape.

By crunching data from more than a billion user interactions on scholarly databases, Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers produced a high-resolution map of the relationships between different fields of science.

They're not the first to map science, though they insist that their map is best. Other topographers of knowledge, they say, aren't up to date on what modern scholars search for, and rely too much on natural science databases.

(Maybe that's why the Los Alamos map, published in Public Library of Science ONE , looks a bit like the Milky Way, while this lovely scientific paradigm map — a favorite of Nature and Seed magazine — looks like an amoeba.) 

The Los Alamos team analyzed click streams from 23 databases — Thomson Scientific, Elsevier, Jstor, Ingenta and multiple campuses of the University of Texas and California State University — and mapped patterns of interest and cross-journal citations. (For anyone concerned about anonymity, no worries: queries weren't user-identifiable. Your search for "Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage" is still a secret.)

Mapmakers say that visualizations of knowledge help researchers frame discipline-hopping questions and identify neglected cooperative opportunities. I'm not entirely convinced — though the gap between organic chemistry and plant genetics is pretty surprising — but then again, one person's frivolous distraction is another's breakthrough-in-waiting.

And that's what science is all about.

Citation: Clickstream Data Yields High-Resolution Maps of Science. By Johan Bollen, Herbert Van de Sompel, Aric Hagberg, Luis Bettencourt, Ryan Chute, Marko A. Rodriguez, Lyudmila Balakireva. Public Library of Science ONE, March 11, 2009.

Note: Anyone interested in maps of science should visit Maps of Science.

See Also:

• The Finest Science Images of 2008: Your Pick
• Interactive Map: Satellite Imagery of War, Destruction
• Scientists Make First Map of Man's Marine Footprint
• The Most Beautiful Planetary Maps Ever
• Scientists Unveil High-Res Map of the U.S. Carbon Footprint

Image: 1. PLoS ONE  2. Nature

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 11 Mar 2009 | 10:08 pm

Environmental group defends Canada's seal hunt (AFP)

AFP - A Quebec environmental group on Wednesday called on the European Parliament not to ban seal products, saying it would hurt the Gulf of Saint Lawrence ecosystem and local communities.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Mar 2009 | 9:54 pm

New Battery Could Recharge in Seconds

A new battery material that recharges 100 times faster than the lithium-ion in your laptop has been revealed by researchers at MIT.

The discovery could lead to cellphone-sized batteries that could be charged in 10 seconds.

"The ability to charge and discharge batteries in a matter of seconds rather than hours may open up new technological applications and induce lifestyle changes," wrote materials scientists Gerbrand Ceder and Byoungwoo Kang Wednesday in the journal Nature.

In energy storage, there has always been a trade-off between the amount of energy a material could store and how quickly you could discharge it. Batteries were pretty good at storing energy (although not nearly as good as oil), but getting energy into and out of them was tough. Ultracapacitors, and their cousins, supercapacitors, can deliver a lot of charge really quickly, but it takes 20 times more of their materials to store the same energy as a comparable battery.

The new battery material appears to solve that problem by creating a "fast-lane" for ions to move around the lithium iron phosphate material. By applying a special surface coating to the old material, they allow the ions to speed around the battery at rates that are nearly unimaginable.

Rob Farrington of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's advanced vehicle group, called the battery's ability to deliver energy "remarkable."    

But questions remain. Fast-charging might be convenient, Farrington noted, but it requires running a large amount of current to the battery, which he worried would reduce the battery's life.

"High current means lots of heating. If you have high temperatures, you have to ask the question, are you detrimentally affecting the life of the battery?" he said. "The answer is that it's going to shorten the life." 

The MIT duo's Nature paper only presents data through 50 charge/recharge cycles, but what's there is promising: There's nearly no drop in capacity.

But as any laptop owner knows, the more charging cycles you go through, the less energy your battery stores. The same battery that let you work for three hours a couple years ago only yields an hour-and-a-half at the coffee shop now.    

That's one place where ultracapacitors are likely to retain their advantage over just about any battery.

"There are a lot of applications where you have to charge or discharge hundreds of times a day and in that, ultracapacitors have a very clear advantage," said Joel Schindall, who is heading a separate MIT research effort to develop carbon nanotube-based ultracapacitors.

Still, ultracap producers, though they've made inroads in niche markets. have had a hard time coming up with ultracapacitors that store anywhere near as much energy per weight or volume as a lithium-ion battery. Schindall's effort made waves in 2006 when the MIT Technology Review raved, "A breakthrough technology is holding forth the promise of charging electronic gadgets in minutes, never having to replace a battery again, and dropping the cost of hybrid cars."

But the effort has "stretched out," Schindall said — and he's not sure when his ultracapacitors will be ready to commercialize.

"I don't know whether that will be a week or a month or a year," he said.

Batteries, and all kinds of energy-storage devices, have a notoriously difficult time scaling out of the laboratory into production. We've previously likened the scale challenge to that faced by high school cafeterias. Even if the lunch ladies try to emulate home cooking or a restaurant kitchen, it's just fundamentally harder to cook for 3,000 people than it is to cook for 30 or three. Most of the time, you can't just make the process bigger, you need a new process.

And directly tied into the ability to create an industrial-scale process is the issue of cost, which Farrington said was always one of the barriers to the adoption of energy-storage technology.

Still, Ceder is optimistic. He believes his batteries could make it to the market in two to three years. The tech has already been licensed by two companies.

Citation: "Battery materials for ultrafast charging and discharging" by Byoungwoo Kang & Gerbrand Ceder doi:10.1038/nature07853

See Also:

• World's Smallest Cars Have Moving Parts
• Knee Brace Harvests Power from Walking
• Physics the Next President Needs to Know
• Puncturing the Hydrogen Fuel Myth

Image: The new battery material/MIT

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 | 11 Mar 2009 | 8:28 pm

Museum finds "secret" message in Lincoln's watch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A gold watch owned by Abraham Lincoln bears a message marking the start of the U.S. Civil War, but the president never knew of the "secret" inscription uncovered on Tuesday at the National Museum of American History.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 11 Mar 2009 | 6:38 pm

Scientists think they are on to a battery that 'charges in seconds'

A simple change to lithium-ion battery manufacturing leads to cheaper, safer, faster-charging batteries.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Mar 2009 | 6:22 pm

'Peking Man' Endured Frigid Climate

New techniques push back the date of an early hominid fossil by 200,000 years.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 11 Mar 2009 | 6:15 pm

"Peking man" a lot older than thought: study

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A new and more accurate dating method shows Peking Man may be 200,000 years older than what experts previously thought, researchers in China said.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 11 Mar 2009 | 6:14 pm

'Peking Man' older than thought

Iconic ancient human fossils from China are 200,000 years older than had previously been thought, a study shows.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Mar 2009 | 6:04 pm

Ancient 'Peking Man' Way Older Than Thought

New dating technique puts Peking Man in China earlier than previously thought.
Source: Livescience.com | 11 Mar 2009 | 6:02 pm

Our noble attempts to 'feed the world' are simply not working

There are 109 million more hungry people in poor countries now than there were just five years ago. But the answer is not more food aid, writes Pedro A. Sanchez

Sanchez's commentary "A smarter way to combat hunger", is published in tomorrow's issue of Nature

In recent decades, it seemed the struggle against world hunger was finally meeting with some success. But the number of undernourished people is growing again. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, the number of hungry people in poor countries has increased by 109 million to 963 million since 2004. Unicef estimates that each day 300 million children go to bed hungry.

Some 90% of these people are chronically hungry, meaning that their hunger is not due to a famine or war, but rather that they lack long-term access to sufficient amounts of food. Among its many deleterious effects, chronic hunger compromises the immune system, contributing to the epidemic diseases seen in poor countries. Malnutrition plays a role in the deaths of millions of children in poor countries each year.

For most donor countries, the response is to ship food aid to poor countries. While the impulse is generous, food aid is a quick fix – it fills stomachs but does not provide an enduring solution to hunger and poverty.

New evidence from the Millennium Villages project, which I direct, shows that helping farmers help themselves is more effective than food aid and costs a sixth as much. Farmers were given access to fertilisers, improved seeds, training and markets. Their maize yields more than doubled as a result. Similar results were seen in Malawi after its government provided fertiliser and seeds to farmers. In just two years, Malawi went from being a recipient of food aid to a food exporter.

It costs $812 to deliver one tonne of maize as US food aid to Africa. The fertiliser and seed that Millennium Village farmers need to produce an additional tonne of maize cost $135 on average.

Buying food aid locally, as the UN World Food Programme is increasingly doing, is another important step away from the inefficiency of food aid. Purchasing a tonne of maize in an African country costs approximately $320.

Although estimates on costs may vary, their underlying message is clear. Turning away from food aid and providing subsidies or credit to farmers in poor countries could help millions obtain their own food, begin the escape from poverty, and also meet much of the demand for food aid in developing countries – without costing more.

Fortunately, some donors are starting to shift away from food aid for the chronically hungry. The UN World Food Programme now buys some of its food aid in poor countries. The UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon is leading the development of a fund that would provide support for farmers in poor countries to grow more food. The Spanish government has pledged €1 billion over five years for this initiative, and the European parliament has committed the same amount. What is urgently needed now is an innovative financial mechanism that can deliver the funds rapidly and effectively to African governments that have shown a serious commitment to end hunger.

To paraphrase the popular proverb, giving someone a fish so they can "eat for a day" is only a solution for the most hungry who cannot help themselves or are the victims of war and famine. For most people in poor countries, we must give them the tools to fish so they can eat for a lifetime, and at one sixth of the cost.

With more programmes like this, fewer people around the world will go to bed hungry every night.

Pedro A. Sanchez directs the Tropical Agriculture Programme of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York, and is the winner of the 2002 World Food Prize

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 11 Mar 2009 | 6:00 pm

Gas Leak Postpones Space Shuttle Launch

NASA postpones Wednesday's launch of space shuttle Discovery because a gas leak is found.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 11 Mar 2009 | 5:35 pm

Intelligence Mapped in the Brain

Brain map shows intelligence is situated in specific spots.
Source: Livescience.com | 11 Mar 2009 | 5:11 pm

Photo of Abraham Lincoln Could Be His Last

A photo of Lincoln near the White House could be the last taken before his assassination.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 11 Mar 2009 | 5:05 pm

Technique Disables Plutonium's Use in Bombs

Adding the element Americium to plutonium may help prevent using the fuel in bombs.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 11 Mar 2009 | 4:40 pm

Laser TV - The Next Step in Flat Screens

LCD and plasma TV's can only reproduce about 60% of the colors your eye can see. New laser-pumped screens can show you 90%. And they use only half as much energy.
Source: Livescience.com | 11 Mar 2009 | 4:31 pm

Space Station Poll Tallies in Colbert's Favor

Stephen Colbert convinces his fans to write in his name in a space station naming poll.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 11 Mar 2009 | 3:14 pm

Medieval 'Vampire' Skull Found

The remains of a medieval "vampire" have been discovered among the corpses of 16th century plague victims in Venice.
Source: Livescience.com | 11 Mar 2009 | 3:06 pm

Tapped for Bile, China's 'Moon Bears' Languish

An estimated 7,000-10,000 moon bears are trapped in bile farms across China.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 11 Mar 2009 | 3:02 pm

Termite Killer Is Potent Greenhouse Gas

A gas used to fumigate for pests lasts longer in atmosphere than thought.
Source: Livescience.com | 11 Mar 2009 | 2:54 pm

Going off track

Formula One tech makes it into boots, boats and hospitals
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Mar 2009 | 2:34 pm

Amazon could shrink by 85% as a result of climate change

• Scientists say 4C rise would kill 85% of the Amazon rainforest
• Even modest temperature rise would see 20-40% loss within 100 years

Global warming will wreck attempts to save the Amazon rainforest, according to a devastating new study which predicts that one-third of its trees will be killed by even modest temperature rises.

The research, by some of Britain's leading experts on climate change, shows that even severe cuts in deforestation and carbon emissions will fail to save the emblematic South American jungle, the destruction of which has become a powerful symbol of human impact on the planet. Up to 85% of the forest could be lost if spiralling greenhouse gas emissions are not brought under control, the experts said. But even under the most optimistic climate change scenarios, the destruction of large parts of the forest is "irreversible".

Vicky Pope, of the Met Office's Hadley Centre, which carried out the study, said: "The impacts of climate change on the Amazon are much worse than we thought. As temperatures rise quickly over the coming century the damage to the forest won't be obvious straight away, but we could be storing up trouble for the future."

Tim Lenton, a climate expert at the University of East Anglia, called the study, presented at a global warming conference in Copenhagen today , a "bombshell". He said: "When I was young I thought chopping down the trees would destroy the forest but now it seems that climate change will deliver the killer blow."

The study, which has been submitted to the journal Nature Geoscience, used computer models to investigate how the Amazon would respond to future temperature rises.

It found that a 2C rise above pre-industrial levels, widely considered the best case global warming scenario and the target for ambitious international plans to curb emissions, would still see 20-40% of the Amazon die off within 100 years. A 3C rise would see 75% of the forest destroyed by drought over the following century, while a 4C rise would kill 85%. "The forest as we know it would effectively be gone," Pope said.

Experts had previously predicted that global warming could cause significant "die-back" of the Amazon. The new research is the first to quantify the long-term effect.

Chris Jones, who led the research, told the conference: "A temperature rise of anything over 1C commits you to some future loss of Amazon forest. Even the commonly quoted 2C target already commits us to 20-40% loss. On any kind of pragmatic timescale, I think we should see loss of the Amazon forest as irreversible."

Peter Cox, professor of climate system dynamics at the University of Exeter, said the effects would be felt around the world. "Ecologically it would be a catastrophe and it would be taking a huge chance with our own climate. The tropics are drivers of the world's weather systems and killing the Amazon is likely to change them forever. We don't know exactly what would happen but we could expect more extreme weather." Massive Amazon loss would also amplify global warming "significantly" he said.

"Destroying the Amazon would also turn what is a significant carbon sink into a significant source."

Jones said the study showed that tree growth in high latitudes, such as Siberia, would increase, but would be unlikely to compensate for the carbon stocks lost from the Amazon. Even with drastic cuts in emissions in the next decade, scientists say that there will only be around a 50% chance of keeping global temperatures rises below 2C.

This best-case emissions scenario is based on emissions peaking in 2015 and quickly changing from an increase of 2-3% per year to a decrease of 3% per year. For every 10 years this action is delayed, the most likely temperature rise increases by 0.5C.

Environmental campaigners said they were alarmed by the predictions. "With a rise of over 2C you begin to see a large-scale change to savannah," said Beatrix Richards, head of forest policy and trade at WWF UK. "You also lose major ecosystem services, such as keeping carbon levels stable, providing indigenous people with goods and services, and balancing rainfall patterns globally from the US grain belt to as far away as Kazakhstan. A 4C [rise] is a nightmare scenario that would move us into uncharted territory."

"People have known about the links between climate and forests for some time, but the alarming thing now is the level of certainty because real world observations are feeding into the computer models," said Tony Juniper, an environmental campaigner and Green party candidate. "There really is no time for delay. Governments must cooperate to cut industrial emissions while at the same time halting deforestation, otherwise we'll have a mass extinction and a global warming catastrophe."

A separate study from the Met Office shows that, if temperatures do reach 2C, then there is a one-in-three chance they would stay that high for at least 100 years, whatever action was taken on carbon pollution.

The results were announced on the second day of a key climate science meeting in Copenhagen, which is intended to spur politicians into taking action to cut carbon pollution. It comes ahead of a UN summit in December, also in Copenhagen, where officials will try to agree a new global deal on climate to replace the Kyoto protocol. The results from the meeting will be published in the summer as a supplement to the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Positive feedback

Amazon dieback is one of the key positive feedbacks brought about by global warming. These are typically runaway processes in which global temperature rises lead to further releases of CO², which in turn brings about more global warming. In the Amazon this happens on a more localised scale but the result, increased forest death, also releases carbon into the atmosphere.

Experts predict that higher worldwide temperatures will reduce rainfall in the Amazon region, which will cause widespread local drought. With less water and tree growth, "homegrown" rainfall produced by the forest will reduce as well, as it depends on water passed into the atmosphere above the forests by the trees. The cycle continues, with even less rain causing more drought, and so on.

With no water, the root systems collapse and the trees fall over. The parched forest becomes tinderbox dry and more susceptible to fire, which can spread to destroy the still-healthy patches of forest.

Other positive feedback effects expected by scientists, are releases of carbon stored in frozen arctic ecosystems and an increase in the sun's energy absorbed by the planet as ice melts.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 11 Mar 2009 | 2:34 pm

British Space Plane Concept Gets Boost

A futuristic British space plane could fly into orbit and land more cheaply.
Source: Livescience.com | 11 Mar 2009 | 1:45 pm

Artificial Muscles to Bring Back Wink, Then Smile

An artificial muscle system promises to help people with facial paralysis blink and smile.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 11 Mar 2009 | 1:45 pm

Shark Attacks Down in 2008 as Economy Tanks

People are spending less time at the beach, which may explain a dip in shark attacks.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 11 Mar 2009 | 1:45 pm

Mayans v mine

Claims of gold mine pollution in Guatemala denied
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Mar 2009 | 1:18 pm

Scientists rap on what makes us human

If humans and apes share around 94% of their DNA, why are they so different? The answer is gene regulation, and it is explained here through the medium of rap

An extraordinary thing, this trend in science to embrace rapping as a way of getting the message out to the masses. It may make you wince, but from time to time, it actually works.

Last year, we were enthralled by a truly brilliant rap from scientists at the Large Hadron Collider, which despite all my cynical expectations, was jaw-droppingly good and genuinely educational to boot.

Here, two Stanford biologists, Derrick Davis and Tom McFadden bring rap to the horrifically complicated world of gene regulation. Rather than differences in structural genes, it is the regulation of genes that is thought to play a major role in steering a developing embryo into one species or another.

The fact that humans and chimps are so close genetically yet so different phenotypically has led some people into all sorts of confusion about how developmental biology works. I read a book called Why us? by a man called James Le Fanu recently, in which the author seems so overwhelmed by the ability of genetically similar cells to grow into different organisms, that he invokes a "life force" to explain it:

There must be some non-material formative influence that, from the moment of conception, imposes the order of form on the developing embryo of, say, octopus, squid or kangaroo and holds it constant while its cells and tissues are continually renewed as it grow to adulthood.

We cannot, by definition, know that formative "life force" directly, only infer its reality as the missing factor that might bridge the unbridgeable gap between the "first order" reality of the phenomena of life as we know it to be in all its wondrous beauty and diversity and the "second order" reality of its explanation as revealed by those genome projects.

This is a book publilshed this year, in the 21st century, and to me at least, it says something about the pressing need for scientists to make the effort to explain their work, even if it is tricky stuff like gene regulation.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 11 Mar 2009 | 1:08 pm

Recycling Mystery: Styrofoam

Also known as expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam, it's a version of plastic #6 (polystyrene).
Source: Livescience.com | 11 Mar 2009 | 1:05 pm

Children of Older Men Suffer Lower IQ

Children with older fathers had reduced cognitive abilities.
Source: Livescience.com | 11 Mar 2009 | 12:42 pm

Survival of the nicest

The emerging notion that genes can be selfless as well as selfish suggests that working for the greater good is natural

Charles Darwin's famous theory of natural selection and Richard Dawkins' focus on the so-called "selfish gene" are among the most widely misunderstood ideas of modern times.

At one end of the spectrum, creationists find the idea that we evolved from apes – or, worse still, that we can trace our lineage right back to single cell prokaryotes which emerged out of an inauspicious chemical soup of amino acids – insulting and believe that evolution is an elaborate excuse for amorality. At the other end of the spectrum, the uglier manifestations of social Darwinism have completely misinterpreted the metaphor "survival of the fittest" to justify their self-serving racist, imperialist and classist ideas.

But neither Darwin nor evolutionary biologists such as Dawkins advocate the idea that cut-throat, ruthless competition is the only game in town, and co-operation between individuals, communities and even species permeates their work. Darwin even wrote in the Descent of Man that evolution would eventually lead a species to "acquire a moral sense or conscience".

Still, while "selfish gene" theories can explain a lot of behaviour, including co-operation and reciprocal altruism, they do not satisfactorily explain everything. Looking out for number one, no matter how enlightenedly individuals do it, cannot explain away all variations in human and animal conduct.

An extreme example of this is the enigma of why certain people are willing to lay down their lives for non-kin – soldiers, firefighters, accidental heroes. By saving the lives of people not related to them, they are actually putting the survival of their own genes in jeopardy.

Dawkins suggests that this can be explained by "misfiring" – ie the application of an instinctive, genetic rule of thumb in situations it did not originally evolve to cover.

But could there be a "selfless gene" out there? Could we be more than simple conduits or vessels that self-serving genes take for a ride? A growing number of scientists are beginning to advocate the existence of such selfless genes – genetic code that works to advance the survival of the group, species or even ecosystem above that of the individual.

Examples include genes that restrict how many offspring a predator has so as to avoid wiping out its prey, or genes that restrict the size of individuals within a species to limit its demand for food and other resources.

Dawkins himself sees some merit in species selection but not in group selection, because of the existence of "cheaters" and "freeloaders". But a few candidate examples of group selection have been identified and, as they actively look for them, scientists are finding more. Evidence is emerging that groups with the least number of cheaters thrive, while those with the largest number often perish, hence placing an evolutionary check on freeloaders.

One slimy example is microbial biofilms, which are colonies of bacteria living on a "commonwealth" of slime that they secrete. Cheaters who live off the slime but do not contribute to it endanger the entire group, while colonies in which all bacteria pull their weight prosper.

By implication, this leads to the intriguing possibility that natural selection may operate, in one way or another, at the level of entire ecosystems. Some experiments have shown that ecosystem selection can and does occur, although other explanations cannot be ruled out.

If these ideas stand the test of time, they could revolutionise the way we view the natural world and our place in it. For instance, this might mean that ecosystems may react to climate change and other environmental pressures in unexpected ways that may not be explainable by the sum of their individual parts. In addition, it rings another alarm bell for humanity that if we don't stop behaving like a "cancer", nature may eventually find a way to evolve us out of the picture.

With imperfect and incomplete knowledge, it can be hard to tell how much science reflects reality and how much it reflects ingrained biases and prejudices. How much did the idea of the selfish gene fuel our individualistic, consumerist culture, and how much did the culture affect our interpretation of the scientific evidence? In contrast, how much is growing disenchantment with the notion that the dogged pursuit of self-interest will magically serve the greater good by harnessing greed skewing our view of the scientific evidence today?

To my mind, what is becoming increasingly clear is that co-operation is as "natural" as competition, and that altruism is as natural as selfishness, and we need to find the right balance between the two. More importantly, our biology is only one factor in a complex equation and, ultimately, we are masters of our own destiny.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 11 Mar 2009 | 11:00 am