Antioxidant Found In Berries, Other Foods Prevents UV Skin Damage That Leads To Wrinkles

Using a topical application of the antioxidant ellagic acid, researchers markedly prevented collagen destruction and inflammatory response -- major causes of wrinkles -- in both human skin cells and the sensitive skin of hairless mice following continuing exposure to UV-B, the sun's skin-damaging ultraviolet radioactive rays.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

Our Penchant For Rarity Could Threaten Conservation Efforts

Rare plant and animal species are like rare stamps or coins: they are perceived to be inherently more valuable to people, whatever they look like. Researchers have found that people are more attracted to species labeled "rare" than those labeled "common" even when they do not know which species are involved. The study shows that this irrational value conferred to unknown items only for the sake of rarity is both an asset and a threat for conservation.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

Human Stem Cells Promote Healing Of Diabetic Ulcers

Scientists have found that human fetal stem cells can effectively be used to treat back leg ischemic ulcers in a model of type 1 diabetes.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

Mysterious Space Blob Discovered At Cosmic Dawn

Astronomers have discovered a mysterious, giant object that existed when the universe was only 800 million years old. Dubbed an extended "Lyman-Alpha blob," it is a huge body of gas. It is named Himiko for a legendary Japanese queen and stretches for 55 thousand light years, a record for that early point in time. Its length is comparable to the radius of the Milky Way's disk.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

Increasing Levels Of Rare Element Found Worldwide

Researchers have determined that the presence of the rare element osmium is on the rise globally. They trace this increase to the consumption of refined platinum, the primary ingredient in catalytic converters, the equipment commonly installed in cars to reduce smog.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

Too Much Or Too Little Sleep Increases Risk Of Diabetes

Scientists have found that people who sleep too much or not enough are at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance. The risk is 2.5 times higher for people who sleep less than seven hours or more than eight hours a night.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

Fossil Evidence Of Missing Link In The Origin Of Seals, Sea Lions, Walruses Found In Canadian Arctic

Researchers from the United States and Canada have found a fossil skeleton of a newly discovered carnivorous animal, Puijila darwini. New research suggests Puijila is a "missing link" in the evolution of the group that today includes seals, sea lions, and the walrus.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 3:00 pm

How Quiet Sounds Are Magnified By 'Flexoelectric Motors' In The Ear

Researchers have learned how quiet sounds are magnified by bundles of tiny, hair-like tubes atop "hair cells" in the ear: when the tubes dance back and forth, they act as "flexoelectric motors" that amplify sound mechanically. "We are reporting discovery of a new nanoscale motor in the ear," says the study's principal author.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 3:00 pm

New Ebolavirus Vaccine Protects Against Lethal Infection in Animal Models

A new experimental Ebola vaccine is one step closer to realization, having proven its ability to protect against lethal infections in animal models.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 3:00 pm

First Compound For Receptors In Schizophrenia And Alzheimer's Holds Promise

Compounds that activate two specific CNS receptors, causing them to release the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, are effective in treating the cognitive and motor problems related to both schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease can cause gastrointestinal and other side effects. Thanks to the discovery of a truly selective agonist that targets only the M1 receptor, this may change.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 3:00 pm

Mara wildlife in serious decline

Numbers of giraffe, impala and topi have halved since 1979 in Kenya's Masai Mara wildlife reserve, scientists estimate.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Apr 2009 | 11:59 am

G8 seeks stronger bodiversity commitments (AFP)

AFP - The environment ministers of rich and emerging nations Wednesday sought new commitments to stopping biodiversity loss even with resources hit hard by the global financial crisis.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 11:59 am

Discovery of Earth-mass Planet Looms (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - The discovery of the lightest exoplanet ever found, less than twice the mass of the Earth, has electrified a week-long meeting on astronomy and space science in Europe.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 11:45 am

Turkey, Armenia agree on framework to normalize ties (Reuters)

Reuters - Turkey and Armenia have agreed on a framework to normalize ties after nearly a century of hostility, a move that could stabilize the volatile, oil-rich Caucasus but may affect European energy security plans.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 11:14 am

Obama calls for new era of energy exploration (AP)

AP - President Barack Obama, standing Wednesday in the shell of a once-giant Maytag appliance factory that now houses a wind energy company, declared that a "new era of energy exploration in America" would be a crucial to leading the nation out of an economic crisis.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 11:13 am

World first for strange molecule

A type of molecule that until now only existed in theory has finally been made, proving a Nobel prize-winner was right.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Apr 2009 | 10:54 am

Ministers to announce CO2 plans

Ideas for a new generation of coal-fired power plants to stave off a potential energy crisis are expected to be announced
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Apr 2009 | 4:57 am

Pollution 'fights global warming'

Scientists say air pollution may be helping the fight against global warming by making plants absorb more carbon dioxide.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Apr 2009 | 4:38 am

Gene Studies Reveal Cancer's Secrets (HealthDay)

HealthDay - TUESDAY, April 21 (HealthDay News) -- A close look at a tumor's or patient's genetics can provide important, potentially lifesaving clues to preventing and treating cancer.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 3:48 am

Gene technology threatens new racism: Vatican

GENEVA (Reuters) - Technology allowing parents to choose the genetic characteristics of their babies threatens to breed new forms of racism, the Vatican told a United Nations race conference on Wednesday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 2:19 am

NASA faces deadline for tough decisions on shuttle (AP)

AP - NASA is facing a critical deadline to make its biggest decision in a generation: whether to go forward with plans to retire the space shuttle fleet and replace it with a new mode of space travel. But the agency still has no chief to make the $230 billion call.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 1:18 am

Otter-like fossil reveals early seal evolution (AP)

AP - Scientists say they've found a "missing link" in the early evolution of seals and walruses — the skeleton of a web-footed, otter-like creature that was evolving away from a life on land. Those feet and other anatomical features show an early step on the way to developing flippers and other adaptations for a life in the sea, the scientists said.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 1:18 am

2009: A space oddity; big blob in early universe (AP)

AP - A strange giant space "blob" spotted when the universe was relatively young has got astronomers puzzled. Using space and ground telescopes, astronomers looked back to when the universe was only 800 million years old and found something that was out of proportion and out of time.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Apr 2009 | 1:18 am

The sun's calming down - so what does that mean for us?

The sun's activity is winding down, triggering fevered debate among scientists about how low it will go, and what it means for Earth's climate. Nasa recorded no sunspots on 266 days in 2008 - a level of inactivity not seen since 1913 - and 2009 looks set to be even quieter. Solar wind pressure is at a 50-year low and our local star is ever so slightly dimmer than it was 10 years ago.

Sunspots are the most visible sign of an active sun - islands of magnetism on the sun's surface where convection is inhibited, making the gas cooler and darker when seen from Earth - and the fact that they're vanishing means we're heading into a period of solar lethargy.

Where will it all end? Solar activity varies over an 11-year cycle, but it experiences longer-term variations, highs and lows that can last around a century.

"A new 11-year cycle started a year or two ago, and so far it's been extremely feeble," says Nigel Weiss of the University of Cambridge. With Jose Abreu of the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology in Dübendorf and others, Weiss recently predicted that the long-term solar high we've been enjoying since before the second world war is over, and the decline now under way will reach its lowest point around 2020. Their prediction is based on levels of rare isotopes that accumulate in the Earth's crust when weak solar winds allow cosmic rays to penetrate the Earth's atmosphere.

There's even a chance, says Weiss, that we might be heading for a low as deep as the Maunder minimum of the 17th century. Either side of that trough, Europe shivered through the Little Ice Age, when frost fairs were held on the Thames and whole Swiss villages disappeared under glaciers. So should we expect another freeze?

Those who claim the rise in temperatures we've seen over the last century are predominantly the result of intense solar activity might argue that we should, but they're in the minority. Most scientists believe humans are the main culprit when it comes to global warming, and Weiss is no exception. He points out that the ice remained in Europe long after solar activity picked up from the Maunder minimum. Even if we had another, similar low, he says, it would probably only cause temperatures on Earth to drop by the order of a tenth of a degree Celsius - peanuts compared to recent hikes. So don't pack your suncream away just yet.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 22 Apr 2009 | 11:01 pm

Bonjela ulcer gels 'unsafe for children'

One of the most popular treatments for mouth ulcers, Bonjela, should not be given to children under 16 as it could increase the risk of them developing a potentially fatal brain and liver disease, a health watchdog said today.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency warned that Bonjela and Bonjela Cool mint gel contain salicylate salts, which have been linked to Reye's syndrome, an incurable condition. The salts have the same effect on the body as aspirin, which parents are advised against giving to children under the age of 16.

Bonjela Teething Gel contains a different formula and is unaffected.

The MHRA said the move was a precautionary measure after it received three reports of suspected serious adverse drug reactions in children linked to the use of oral gels containing choline salicylate, including Bonjela, although Reye's syndrome was not confirmed in any child.

The MHRA also received four reports of vomiting or diarrhoea in children after the use of Bonjela, three of which related to them being given the gel for teething pain. All the children made a full recovery.

The agency said there was a "theoretical risk" that the gel could increase the possibility of a child developing Reye's syndrome". Dr June Raine, its director of risk management, said: "We are not aware of confirmed cases but, when there are alternatives, any risk is not worth taking."

Reckitt Benckiser, which makes Bonjela, said it and Bonjela Cool would be labelled suitable for adults and children over 16.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 22 Apr 2009 | 11:01 pm

The vast 'space blob' baffling astronomers

A cosmic blob, as big as a galaxy and from way back in the Universe's history, has space scientists puzzled.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Apr 2009 | 10:16 pm

Return of The Doc Who Cried Clone

Five years after Panayiotis Zavos shocked the world by claiming to implant a cloned human embryo, the rogue fertility doctor says he's done it again — and this time, with no fewer than 11 clones.

It's hard to know what to make of Zavos' boasts, which emerged yesterday in the wake of a Discovery Channel press release promoting its upcoming documentary, Human Cloning.

Zavos' original claims were roundly dismissed after he failed to produce any proof. The same went for a 2006 announcement that he'd put cloned embryos in five British women.

This time, he was filmed conducting research on allegedly clonal embryos before implanting them.

"My babies are doing well," he says on camera while peering through a microscope at a secret laboratory somewhere in the Middle East, where he moved so as to conduct research illegal in most of the world.

"I think we have three very good embryos that could be in utero today. If the implantation is successful as well, and the pregnancy is maintained, then as we say in the U.S., we have a home run," he said.

As evidence, the film is meaningless. Maybe he did implant the first reproductively cloned embryo. Maybe he's found a way to consistently avoid the potentially fatal genetic errors introduced during the cloning process. There's no way of knowing.

History, of course, suggests an answer. And if Zavos' assorted claims haven't stood the test of time, an assessment of him by bioethicist Art Caplan has.

"I think he is the most dangerous of the current fringe proponents of cloning, because he knows more, stretches the facts and seems to be wallowing in a mix of publicity and fund-raising that rests on a foundation of hype," Caplan told the Los Angeles Times in 2001.

Nothing has changed.

See Also:

• Cloned Puppies: Sure, They're Cute, But at What Cost?
• Research Breakthrough: Human Clones May Be Genetically Viable ...
• Shiites and Sunnis Disagree Over Cloning

Video: YouTube/The Independent

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 22 Apr 2009 | 9:37 pm

Egyptian woman dies of bird flu: MENA

CAIRO (Reuters) - A 25-year-old Egyptian woman has died of the H5N1 bird flu virus, the 25th human fatality of the disease in Egypt, state news agency MENA said on Wednesday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 Apr 2009 | 8:54 pm

Cell Phone Unlocks with Arm Swing

Who wants to type in a code when you want to make a call?
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Apr 2009 | 8:53 pm

To Save the Earth, Start With Data

You can't cast a stone without hitting a list of tips to save the planet, but few of them come with any hard data on how hand-washing your dishes will save polar bears. And all those companies "going green" just to do something on Earth Day could be hurting the cause, not helping.

"All these major media companies are giving people green tips. Frankly, three quarters of the time they have no clue what they're talking about," said Thomas Scaramellino, founder of Efficiency 2.0, which makes energy-efficiency software for utilities. "We think the general awareness is helpful, in principle. But you're setting yourself up for a backfire into a deep skepticism."

Conserving the Earth's biodiversity and natural resources will not be simple and can't be accomplished by a smallish group of like-minded people turning out their lights for an hour or walking to work for a day. The scale of that solution doesn't fit the scale of the world's intertwined energy problems. We've got declining petroleum resources in an oil-addicted world, too much carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere and billions of people without electricity.

Just hanging your clothes out to dry isn't going to change the entrenched systems that needs to be transformed. The first systemic step is to price carbon dioxide in some way and provide the right kinds of incentives for energy innovations. And it's going to take putting the right kinds of data into the hands of consumers and businesses, so they can guide producers into making environmentally superior products.

There are tradeoffs in buying a new energy-efficient fridge or a solar-paneled backpack, and if you don't want to waste your environmental dollars, you'll need some data to check the greenwashing that's splashed across the country.

Luckily, an ecosystem of companies is springing up to fill the information void around green products and ideas.

One such company, Efficiency 2.0, provides utility customers with granular data about the specific energy usage and CO2 reductions that their actions will have in their homes, based on the energy system where they live. While it might be frustrating for greens in Birmingham that their power is dirtier than their friends in Los Angeles, it also means that Alabamans reducing their electricity usage could have a bigger climate impact. 

Efficiency 2.0 estimates that replacing an old refrigerator with a new energy-efficient one would save about 1,000 pounds of CO2 annually in Chicago but only 582 pounds in New York. The aggregate data is nearly useless.

"It depends a lot on how much coal the utility is using," Scaramellino said.   

Or, take electric cars, which draw power from a grid that largely runs on fossil fuels. In an analysis that Efficiency 2.0 conducted comparing the electric version of the Toyota RAV4 to the Toyota Prius, it found that for much of the country, the hybrid, not the electric car, would emit less CO2.

And those solar backpacks? Another Efficiency 2.0 analysis found them to deliver "very little actual environmental benefit." Manufacturing a Voltaic Systems backpack, for example, creates about 30 pounds of CO2 emissions. Even if you charge devices with the bag for two hours a day, it would take seven years to save 30 pounds of CO2 by using the solar panel instead of grid electricity.

"Buying the bag is typically worse for the environment than buying a regular LL Bean bag," Scaramellino said.

The takeaway from all their data analysis is that we need numbers to understand which actions make a difference and which just make ourselves feel good. 

University of Arkansas supply chain specialist, Greg Norris, said finding the key levers to reduce climate change and energy consumptions is "how the economy comes to know itself."

He's building an open source tool, Earthster, that will use the power of the network effect to allow businesses to see how green their suppliers are. A business enters info, such as its energy usage, source of supplies, etc., and the software generates a broad environmental footprint for the company that goes far beyond simple carbon footprinting. While individual companies do this for individual products, the key Earthster innovation is that it would connect up these disparate analyses into a network of suppliers and producers.

By finding where in a long supply chain the energy-intensive processes lie, retailers like WalMart or product manufacturers can spot areas where innovation could reduce their overall environmental impact. 

"Every manufacturing process in the country has inputs from other processes," Norris said. "Some connections are much more powerful than others, so let's use those powerful connections."

The more companies that add data to the system, the better the system gets. The system is now in a closed beta test, but they are planning a rollout soon.

The data, though, is already beginning to feed into services like GoodGuide, which launched last fall. 

"We need that consumer-facing piece or there is no incentive to get the backend right," Norris said.

For example, two toy sets, LEGO's SpongeBob Squarepants and Hasbro's K'Nex Sesame Street Elmo Building Set look similar on the outside, but GoodGuide's ratings find the LEGO set far superior based on environmental and health data. If parents shopping at toy stores start to use these ratings to distinguish good environmental stewards from bad, they could start to change the way that companies make products. Large corporations could be rewarded or punished for changing their supply chains.

To do that, though, they'll have to figure out how to present information in just the right graphical, numerical or textual form that will actually change their behavior.

"Eighty-five percent of consumers have this intention to save energy, but only 3 percent do," said Scaramellino. "What the hell is this massive gap between intention and action all about?" 

O'Rourke's GoodGuide is trying to close the gap by providing a full-featured iPhone app that lets you take the data into the store. Efficiency 2.0 is banking on social influence. The company is working with utilities to present consumers with data about how well their neighbors are doing saving energy and cutting carbon.

If an approach or combination of approaches ends up working, these tech tools could be the key link between those little things that a person does to feel good and the large-scale solutions that the world needs to prevent catastrophic climate change and continued loss of biodiversity. 

"[We want] to move people from being consumers of products to co-producers of supply chains," GoodGuide CEO and Berkeley professor, Dara O'Rourke told Wired.com at the website's launch. "This is where we move from individual action, solving an individual problem, to a collective action." 

See Also:

• Open Data: Help Migratory Bird Observations Fly into the Digital
• Judge to Labor Department: Share Toxic Workplace Data
• Founding Fathers Skewed Climate Data, Too
• Happy Earth Day: Beautiful Pictures of Our Planet
• Your Earth Day: 7 Online Tools for a Green Wired Life
• In Space Every Day is Earth Day
• Memories of the Earth as Seen From Space

Image: Comp: flickr/hartkopf, flickr/wwworks

WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal's Twitter , Google Reader feed, and book site for The History of Our Future; Wired Science on Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 22 Apr 2009 | 8:22 pm

Giant 'Blob' Found in Outer Space

A strange, gaseous "blob" has been spotted amidst the signals from the early universe.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Apr 2009 | 8:20 pm

An Earth Day Message from a Personal Submersible

Greetings and wishes from inner space by science correspondent Dave Brody. Music by Jonn Serrie
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Apr 2009 | 7:42 pm

Webbed life

Arctic fossils trace evolution of seals and walruses
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Apr 2009 | 7:27 pm

Fossil Offers Flipper Evolution Link

How did the seal get its flippers? A new fossil from the Arctic offers clues.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Apr 2009 | 6:20 pm

Controversial Hobbit Looks Tiny in Person (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK - The Hobbit looks even smaller in real life.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Apr 2009 | 6:12 pm

James Lovelock: We can save Gaia

Father of Gaia theory James Lovelock defends his forthcoming trip into space, and suggests that the technology for reversing climate change may be within our grasp

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 22 Apr 2009 | 6:08 pm

Controversial Hobbit Looks Tiny in Person

A skeleton cast of tiny Homo floresiensis, nicknamed the Hobbit, went on public display for the first time.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Apr 2009 | 6:04 pm

Arctic fossil shows how seals went from land to sea

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Scientists in Canada's Arctic have discovered the fossil of a previously unknown web-footed carnivore that helps explain how seals developed from land-based mammals, a member of the team said on Wednesday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 Apr 2009 | 5:42 pm

Robo-Saurus Kills Car

Now for some pure, mindless, energy-wasting fun: watch this outsized mecha crush a car. Good clean family race-track entertainment.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Apr 2009 | 5:24 pm

Owls Getting Redder as Climate Warms

Like living thermometers, some owls are turning a deep shade of red as the climate warms.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Apr 2009 | 5:20 pm

Walking Seal Called Missing Link in Evolution (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - A fossil of a primitive "walking seal" with four legs and webbed feet has been found in the Canadian Arctic and dated to be at least 20 million years old.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Apr 2009 | 5:11 pm

Second Life for Test-Tube Earth

Nearly 15 years after the first managerial team of Biosphere 2 was ordered out by federal marshals, scientists yearn for a way to fulfill the true promise of Earth-in-a-bubble experiments.

"We need to do this again, and better," said Daniel Botkin a University of California, Santa Barbara naturalist who sat on Biosphere 2's original advisory committee. "We don't understand how ecosystems function, how life is sustained on the Earth. The way you study any system is to take a part of it and try to understand the principles inside."

Researchers still work inside the $200 million, glass-and-steel complex, but with slightly less modest ambitions. The sphere's windows, once sealed tighter than the space shuttle, open to Arizona air. Most of the original biomes are a tourist attraction. Research focuses on plant function in an arid semi-desert environment, rather than the ecological dynamics of a miniature planet.

"The biosphere is hugely important. It can answer questions that are impossible to answer any other way. The problem is that building the biosphere today would be cost-prohibitive," said Joaquin Ruiz, dean of sciences at the University of Arizona, who in 2007 took over Biosphere 2's management. 

Only one other biosphere, in Japan, has been built, making biospheres a tool essentially abandoned by science. This is a tragedy to researchers who think some questions are best explored in man-made environments big enough to capture some of Earth's ecological complexities, but small enough to host rigidly-measured experiments that couldn't be duplicated in nature.

To anyone familiar with Biosphere 2's controversial origins, that might seem an odd notion. Eight people sealed inside between 1991 and 1993 fought bitterly over the nature and direction of its research. The original Scientific Advisory Committee resigned en masse. Oxygen dropped to dangerous levels. Carbon dioxide levels skyrocketed. Biomes were overrun by an ant species that wasn't supposed to be there. Before Columbia University took over in 1995, Time Magazine concluded that "the two-year experiment in self-sufficiency is starting to look less like science and more like a $150 million stunt."

Some of those problems were inevitable and possibly instructive bugs in a system that was a giant beta test, with the alpha being Earth. Others reflected human flaws. But space-suited theatrics and Noah's ark overtones aside, Biosphere 2 was still the world's most ambitious test tube. Such tubes could still be valuable in an age of environmental sensors and satellite recordings, helping fill a research niche between small- and large-scale observations, generating hypotheses for field studies of climate change and other environmental vagaries.

"The large-scale closed systems that can be constructed in B2 allow carefully controlled physical experiments with actual environmental systems," said Larry Winter, deputy director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research and an advisor to its University of Arizona-run incarnation. "You can think of B2 as the ecoscience equivalent of a chem lab."

The original Biosphere 2 mission, though convoluted, did generate useful findings. Some were almost conceptual -- that life inside the sphere changed in such unpredictable ways, and could be so profoundly affected by human activity, was a lesson unto itself. More tangibly, it produced a wealth of literature on how future biospheres might be constructed by space explorers and colonizers, who cannot expect to bring with them enough supplies for long-term survival.

Other research described carbon and oxygen cycles within the sphere, the physiology of plants in a high-CO2 environment, waste remediation and agricultural techniques. It wasn't a bad show for what was, in effect, a beta test focused less on academic research than the survival of its inhabitants.

When Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory took over in 1995, they struggled to re-tool the sphere for more rigid ecosystem analyses. Some of the research focused on underpinnings of atmospheric processes, such as rates of gas exchange between soil and water.

"Just the fact that there was a building big enough and tall enough that rain could reach terminal velocity, and a big enough seawater space that you could study gas exchange" was unique, said John Dacey, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute biologist, of the Lamont-Doherty research.

Dacey was not involved in that work, but was invited to perform research at the sphere. He eventually declined, unable to create control conditions inside the biosphere that would allow for comparative research. But he said the facility could still be valuable for generating hypotheses about environmental effects.

The most striking example of this involved the acidifying effects of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide on coral reefs in the sphere's ocean biome. In the years following Columbia's stewardship, ocean acidification has become one of the most troubling effects of climate change.

"Much of what is known about coral reefs and ocean acidification was originally discovered ... in the self-enclosed, supposedly self-sufficient world known as Biosphere 2," wrote Elizabeth Kolbert in the New Yorker in 2006.

The University of Arizona opened the windows, but Biosphere 2 remains useful. Researchers can still account for nearly every drop of water and watt of sunlight, track parts-per-billion flows of carbon and oxygen, and monitor every organism. Though it's too early to measure the value of this latest phase of research, a study published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences hints at its continuing utility.

Researchers transported 20 local pine trees into Biosphere 2, keeping half in standard temperatures and warming the others by 7 degrees Fahrenheit. When they reduced the trees' water, those in a warmed environment died rapidly. The resulting paper describes a damaging synergistic effect between drought and expected climate changes.   

"Right now you have people doing experiments in really fancy pots, and people out in the field," said Ruiz. "The biosphere allows you to scale between those two sets of data."

The University of Arizona is also studying the hydrological effects of desert vegetation changes, and the rainforest dynamics of carbon, oxygen and vegetation in a variable-climate setting.   

"It's absolutely required for the kind of issues we deal with in large-scale ecology," said Ruiz. "The only way ecologists are going to be able to deal with the complexity of systems is if they have large-scale systems in which they can control variables and see feedback loops."

Another important effect of Biosphere 2 is social, said Winters. "The existence of the facility becomes a catalyst for inter-disciplinary teams to form, the kind of teams we need to investigate the coupled environmental systems that we understand so little and depend on so much," he said.

See Also:

• Biosphere 2 Not Such a Bust
• Wired 12.12: 10 Lessons from Biosphere 2
• Life Inside the Biosphere Bubble
• Biosphere Crew Hawks Pets with Space Pedigree

Images: University of Arizona

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 22 Apr 2009 | 5:10 pm

Walking Seal Called Missing Link in Evolution

Skeleton of primitive pinniped could be missing link between land animals and modern seals.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Apr 2009 | 5:01 pm

Night Shift May Harm Health

A small study of ten people has shown that when their sleep/wake schedule was inverted, their blood samples quickly showed symptoms that -- left untreated -- could lead to diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Apr 2009 | 4:08 pm

Erasing Memories

Scientists have shown that injecting an experimental drug into the brain can completely erase long-term memory in animals. This research could lead to new treatments for those who suffer from painful memories.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Apr 2009 | 4:06 pm

Could lice prevent asthma?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Could lice be the secret to preventing asthma?
Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 Apr 2009 | 4:05 pm

Spice Might Help Curb Diabetes and Obesity

Could an ingredient in curry reverse symptoms of diabetes and obesity? Researchers working with mice have found that it could.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Apr 2009 | 4:04 pm

'Open up' about aliens, Apollo astronaut tells US government

The truth is out there. And a former Apollo 14 astronaut wants you to know about it. Edgar Mitchell, who made the longest moonwalk in history in 1971, says alien life does exist and the US government is blocking the information from getting out.

On Monday Mitchell addressed the issue of extraterrestrial life at the National Press Club in Washington after the X-Conference, a convention of UFO researchers and activists.

"We are being visited," he said. "It is now time to put away this embargo of truth about the alien presence. I call upon our government to open up ... and become a part of this planetary community that is now trying to take our proper role as a spacefaring civilisation."

Mitchell, who has a PhD in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said it's only a matter of time before we need to evacuate Earth and seek a new home. "The sun will burn out in due course, and we have to be off this planet if our species is to survive. At this point in human history on this planet, we're now starting, and should be, to reach out beyond our planet and then beyond our solar system to find out what is really going on out there."

Growing up in Roswell, New Mexico - where some UFO experts believe a crash took place in 1947 – Mitchell said residents of the town "had been hushed and told not to talk about their experience by military authorities" and were told they would suffer "dire consequences" if they did.

Residents relayed eyewitness accounts of alien sightings to him because they "didn't want to go to the grave with their story. They wanted to tell somebody reliable. And being a local boy and having been to the moon, they considered me reliable enough to whisper in my ear their particular story."

Mitchell's belief in the existence of aliens is well documented. In an interview with the Times in 1998, he said he is "90% sure that many of the thousands of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, recorded since the 1940s, belong to visitors from other planets."

"A few insiders know the truth . . . and are studying the bodies that have been discovered," he told the St Petersburg Times of Florida in 2004.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 22 Apr 2009 | 3:58 pm

Afghanistan creates its first national park

Afghanistan creates its first national park in a spectacular mountainous region of deep blue lakes and natural dams.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Apr 2009 | 3:56 pm

Green Darling?

UK Budget turns out 'more beige than green'
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Apr 2009 | 3:24 pm

T. Rex Relative Fills Evolutionary Gap

A Tyrannosaurus rex ancestor and an ostrich-mimic are two new dinosaur species found in China's Gobi Desert.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Apr 2009 | 3:21 pm

The Great Expanding Space Peanut!

A thermonuclear explosion on a dead star has created a space bubble shaped like a peanut.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Apr 2009 | 3:05 pm

Kenya's Wildlife in Steep Decline

Kenya's giraffes, warthogs and impalas have dwindled by as much as 95 percent.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Apr 2009 | 2:30 pm

'Drowned' Spiders Come Back From the Dead

Marsh spiders enter temporary comas to survive drowning, research shows.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Apr 2009 | 2:30 pm

Smallest exoplanet found in search for Earth's twin

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Scientists searching for a planet like Earth said on Tuesday they have found the smallest planet ever detected outside the solar system, less than twice the size of our own.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 Apr 2009 | 2:29 pm

What's wrong with cloning humans?

A maverick fertility doctor claims he has cloned human embryos and implanted them into women. It's not the first time

It was one of those mornings when you wake up, smile at the blue sky, flick through the papers, and gently sink your head into your hands and weep.

Here's what happened. Yesterday afternoon, a London PR firm called Markettiers4dc sent the Guardian a press release promoting a documentary due to air on the Discovery Channel tonight.

The programme being touted is called Human Cloning. In it, the press release gushed, we'd go behind the scenes with "the hugely controversial fertility scientist, Dr Panayiotis Zavos, throughout his continuing attempts to create the first cloned human being."

The release goes on:

Reporter Peter Williams MBE – who thirty years ago made a film about the world's first test-tube baby – was given unrestricted access to Dr Zavos' work. The last time Zavos was in London in January 2004, he outraged the medical establishment by announcing that he had already transferred a cloned human embryo into the womb of an unnamed surrogate.

Later in the release, we're told how Zavos has been forced to continue his work in a secret lab in the Middle East. That's mostly because what he's trying to do is – in many countries – considered unethical, illegal or both.

Zavos has, the release continued, implanted 11 cloned embryos into four women, though none has gone on to produce a live birth. We're not told what did happen to them.

This is familiar publicity-grabbing territory for Dr Zavos. In 2001, he teamed up with the controversial Italian embryologist Severino Antinori to announce they had 10 women lined up who wanted to have cloned embryos implanted. The two parted in acrimony some time later.

In 2004, Zavos said he had implanted a cloned embryo into a 35-year-old woman, so she could give birth to a clone of her husband. Because Zavos gave no details and had not published the work, many scientists dismissed him as a charlatan.

Some of Zavos's patients have reportedly been told that treatment would cost the same as IVF, only for the figure to rise to nearly £50,000 later on.

Zavos re-appeared in 2006, when he told the Guardian he had transferred cloned embryos to five women, including one 52-year-old Briton.

This kind of history makes enormous alarm bells clang whenever you see the person's name again. And so back to that press release. I sent a note back to the PR agency saying I needed a lot more information to judge whether or not Zavos had really created cloned embryos.

I got a reply from the agency saying they would try and get some more credible evidence for the claims. None arrived. This morning they sent me a video clip of some embryos filmed down a microscope. It's impossible to tell if they are cloned embryos.

The Independent decided to splash the story on its front page this morning, and it will very probably help shift a few newspapers.

I don't think it was wrong to cover the story. It's interesting. What I despair of is that the tale that emerged is purest, spoonfed PR. The Discovery Channel can't be faulted for wanting publicity for its programme, but for the media to play along and present it as credible and factual without anything approaching sound evidence is disappointing. It's galling too that I'm only succeeding in giving it more attention now.

The media's part in this is a sideshow of course. The real issue is that reproductive human cloning is not remotely safe with today's technology. For this reason, it is illegal in the UK. A cloned baby is likely to be miscarried, or be stillborn, or delivered with significant birth defects.

When the technology behind test tube babies was introduced in the 1970s, research in animals had already shown the technique was safe. Conversely, almost every attempt to clone a new animal species has been marred with birth defects or worse. To try and clone humans with today's rudimentary expertise is reckless.

In the documentary, Zavos claims to have created cloned embryos of three dead people, including a 10-year-old girl called Cady who died in a car crash. The mother has, we are told, expressed an interest in having the child cloned.

This is another car crash in the making, albeit a psychological one. A cloned baby – if it survives – will be a very different person to whoever donated the cells from which it was created. Bringing a child up expecting it to be someone it is not is a sure-fire disaster. It will look similar, but it won't behave the same way, despite its parents' expectations.

We'll no doubt be hearing more from Zavos in the future. One thing I would like to see from him are the records of his failures. What happens to the embryos that are transferred? How many fail to implant? How many are miscarried later on? If any grow into foetuses, what abnormalities do they have?

If human cloning were safe, the arguments against using the technology in reproductive medicine would change rapidly and dramatically. Attempting it with today's imperfect technology is simply exploiting those vulnerable and desperate enough to pay for it.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 22 Apr 2009 | 2:06 pm

Oldest Nobel laureate turns 100

The world's oldest living Nobel laureate, Italian scientist Rita Levi-Montalcini, is celebrating her 100th birthday.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Apr 2009 | 1:54 pm

Black hole spews water vapour

Astronomers have found the most distant evidence of water in the Universe, a major conference has been told.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Apr 2009 | 1:53 pm

Hefty, Ostrich-Like Dino Found in China

A newly found dino weighed over 1,300 pounds, had a beak and looked like an ostrich.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Apr 2009 | 1:30 pm

Damaged Barrier Reef coral makes 'spectacular' comeback

Lucky combination of circumstances means corals have unexpectedly grown back within a year

Sections of coral reef in Australia's Great Barrier Reef have made a "spectacular" recovery from a devastating bleaching event three years ago, marine scientists say.

In 2006, high sea temperatures caused severe coral bleaching in the Keppell Islands, in the southern part of the reef — the largest coral reef system in the world. The damaged reefs were then covered by a single species of seaweed which threatened to suffocate the coral and cause further loss.

A "lucky combination" of rare circumstances has meant the reef has been able to make a recovery. Abundant corals have reestablished themselves in a single year, say the researchers from the University of Queensland's Centre for Marine Studies and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS).

"Three factors were critical," said Dr Guillermo Diaz-Pulido. "The first was exceptionally high regrowth of fragments of surviving coral tissue. The second was an unusual seasonal dieback in the seaweeds, and the third was the presence of a highly competitive coral species, which was able to outgrow the seaweed."

Coral bleaching occurs in higher sea temperatures when the coral lose the symbiotic algae they need to survive. The reefs then lose their colour and become more susceptible to death from starvation or disease.

The findings are important as it is extremely rare to see reports of reefs that bounce back from mass coral bleaching or other human impacts in less than a decade or two, the scientists said. The study is published in the online journal PLoS one.

"The exceptional aspect was that corals recovered by rapidly regrowing from surviving tissue," said Dr Sophie Dove, also from CoECRS and The University of Queensland.

"Recovery of corals is usually thought to depend on sexual reproduction and the settlement and growth of new corals arriving from other reefs. This study demonstrates that for fast-growing coral species asexual reproduction is a vital component of reef resilience."

Last year, a major global study found that coral reefs did have the ability to recover after major bleaching events, such as the one caused by the El Niño in 1998.

David Obura, the chairman of the International Union for Conservation of Nature climate change and coral reefs working group involved with the report, said: "Ten years after the world's biggest coral bleaching event, we know that reefs can recover – given the chance. Unfortunately, impacts on the scale of 1998 will reoccur in the near future, and there's no time to lose if we want to give reefs and people a chance to suffer as little as possible."

Coral reefs are crucial to the livelihoods of millions of coastal dwellers around the world and contain a huge range of biodiversity. The UN's Millennium Ecosystem Assessment says reefs are worth about $30bn annually to the global economy through tourism, fisheries and coastal protection.

But the ecosystems are under threat worldwide from overfishing, coastal development and runoff from the land, and in some areas, tourism impacts. Natural disasters such as the earthquake that triggered the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 have also caused reef loss.

Climate change poses the biggest threat to reefs however, as emissions of carbon dioxide make seawater increasingly acidic.

Last year a study showed that one-fifth of the world's coral reefs have died or been destroyed and the remainder are increasingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network says many surviving reefs could be lost over the coming decades as CO₂ emissions continue to increase.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 22 Apr 2009 | 1:01 pm

Japan mulls satellite for missile launch detection

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is mulling an early warning satellite that can detect missile launches, a government official said Wednesday, amid worries about North Korea's missile power.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 Apr 2009 | 12:11 pm

Big pharma tries to sugar the pill

The pharmaceuticals industry needs to rebuild its image with a public sceptical of science and genetically modified crops, and at Bayer they are trying to do just that

Big Pharma is in the throes of convulsive change. A spate of multibillion mergers and acquisitions in the past few months is transforming the landscape, with this week's $3.6bn (£2.5bn) takeover of Stiefel by GlaxoSmithKline the latest and certainly not the last.

It's a truism among analysts that this huge restructuring is driven, primarily, by a dearth of new blockbusting drugs in the pipeline of the biggest pharma groups, which are being forced to buy up innovation via smart start-ups and/or generic drugs companies.

But on the day GSK made its latest foray under its new chief Andrew Whitty, Wolfgang Plischke, board member for innovation, technology and environment at Bayer, pointed to a deeper set of trends. Over lunch in the German group's HQ overlooking a Japanese water garden, we discussed a growing public distaste for, nay dislike of, science and a "war for scarce talent" as young people turned their backs on it.

"I don't expect there'll be a change in public opinion in the next five to 10 years," he said.

But echoing the famous aphorism of the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci – "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will" – Plischke, an ultra-lean 57-year-old biologist keen on endurance sports, is convinced the industry – and science – can overcome their poor reputation and image.

Bayer, forever associated with aspirin, is in common with all companies buffeted or bulldozered by the recession reinventing itself. Its material science division, worth 30% of annual group turnover of around €32bn (£28bn) a year, has been harmed by plummeting demand in the car and construction sectors – as will be evidenced in first-quarter figures due on 29 April.

The business is branching out into "eco-commercial" buildings such as a new admin centre near Delhi in India, which will take much of its power and air-conditioning from a huge array of solar panels on its roof.

"The government has just committed more than €3bn to a second phase of its car scrappage scheme," said Bayer spokesman Michael Preuss. "But nobody is talking about insulating our homes, which could produce far greater energy savings and CO₂ cuts."

More controversially, the German group is expanding its crop sciences division, which accounts for about 20% of group sales – with 7% of that slice coming from genetically modified seeds and plants.

This month, Berlin banned the use of GM pest-resistant corn (maize) strains made by Monsanto. Plischke is troubled by the precedent-setting decision but takes comfort from the fact that it isn't a blanket ban on all GM seeds and crops. "It has no scientific basis," he said.

Bayer is investing €650m this year on research and development for the division, of which a third goes to environmental impacts, part of an increased overall €2.9bn research budget. Bayer has set its store by a "second green revolution" after the agricultural advances of more than 30 years ago.

Aware of continuing public hostility, marshalled by environmental NGOs and arguments about the long-term safety of the food chain allegedly threatened by genetically modified organisms, Plischke still insists that the real issue is the growing threat to food security posed by climate change, growth in the global population to 7.5 billion by 2020, scarcity of agricultural land and urbanisation.

"There'll only be 0.2 hectares per head available compared with 0.5 hectares only 10 or 20 years ago," he said. "There's a crying need to improve the quality of agriculture, increase yields and invest in agricultural research. We need to develop new stress-resistant plant varieties and crop protection, plants which can grow on poor, salty soil and the like. This is just the beginning of a new era."

This new era is being trialled in a research centre in nearby Monheim, where stress tests are carried out on tomato and cucumber seedlings, wheat and rice. Bayer's motto is: science for life. But Plischke admits it's an uphill struggle to convince the public.

"The trouble is that we're trying to have a concentrated debate on scientific issues but the public debate isn't about content but values. It's really hard to discuss issues without a shared set of objectives.

"We're keen to enable younger people, the upcoming people in our society, to have the ability to understand and debate scientific issues. And, thanks to the government, the interest of young people is starting to grow again."

The company holds a series of seminars for 12 to 18-year-olds in "Baylabs", trying to overcome their initial boredom, and claims success in opening young minds to the complexities of the GM debate.

One of Plischke's main tasks is to retain and restock Bayer's 12,000-strong research staff, including growing numbers based in the Asia Pacific region he also directs. Scientific excellence is vital, he says, to maintaining Germany's industrial base ("You lost yours in Britain," he said) and government reforms have buttressed this, forging closer links between industry and academia. As much as 70% of the R&D budget is spent in Germany.

He takes issue with the analysts' view that Big Pharma is losing its innovative edge despite this investment in research and product, arguing that up top 40 new drugs are released each year now – as was the case 10 or 20 years ago.

"What's changed is the money spent and the regulatory environment. It can cost up to $1bn to develop and launch new products, compared with $300m in the 1990s, and two-thirds of that cost is on expanded clinical trials. We have to test on, say, 2,000 patients compared with 200. It can cost up to $15,000 per patient, a horrendously large amount of money."

And, he added, there were limits to the way productivity and efficiency could be raised, despite EU talks on a low-dose approach to toxicology trials, increasing the substance "library" tenfold and efforts to shorten the time before a new product is used on humans. But he admitted many pharma groups had done little or no innovation, preferring to buy in from outside. But, he said: "Our ratio of discovery to spend is one of the highest in the industry."

Pharma is a risky business – including actual or potential litigation on safety as well as the continuing threat of public hostility or indifference. Europe, once the world's pharmacy, produced seven of 10 new medicines only a decade ago; now it's three, even though the EU accounts for 35% of global output and its three biggest firms count among the top five in the world.

Bayer's healthcare division, still accounting for half its turnover and working on new drugs to combat liver cancer, is mid-sized and often linked to takeover rumours (the latest has Swiss-based Novartis as the predator). "I guess the industry is not delivering in the public's eyes," said Plischke soberly. "We have to do more to get our message across."

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 22 Apr 2009 | 12:05 pm

SLIDE SHOW: On Earth Day, a Bird's-Eye View

Earth-observing satellites offer a fresh window to the planet's changing landscape.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Apr 2009 | 12:00 pm