Biological Basis For The Eight-hour Workday?

Scientists already know that some genes are controlled by the circadian clock and are turned on only one time during each 24-hour cycle. Now, researchers have found that some genes are switched on once every 12 or 8 hours, indicating that shorter cycles of the circadian rhythm are also biologically encoded.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 27 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

Kidney Removed Through The Belly Button

Surgeons have used new surgical technique that requires only one small incision to remove a diseased kidney.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 27 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

Computational Biology Illuminates How Cells Change Gears

Bioinformatics researchers just moved closer to unlocking the mystery of how human cells switch from "proliferation mode" to "specialization mode." This computational biology work could lead to new ideas for curbing unwanted cell proliferation -- including some cancers. This research could also improve our understanding of how organs and other complex tissues develop.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 27 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

Lice Can Be Nice To Us: Louse Infestation Calibrates Immune System Regulation

Parasite infestations might have a good side. Wild mice from a Nottinghamshire forest have given experts clues as to the importance of some parasites, such as lice, for the conditioning of a “natural” immune system.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 27 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

Evolution Of Human Sex Roles More Complex Than Described By Universal Theory

A new study challenges long-standing expectations that men are promiscuous and women tend to be more particular when it comes to choosing a mate. The research suggests that human mating strategies are not likely to conform to a single universal pattern and provides important insights that may impact future investigations of human mating behaviors.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 27 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

Quantum Computers: Powerful Method Of Suppressing Errors Developed

Researchers have demonstrated a technique for efficiently suppressing errors in quantum computers, an advance that could eventually make it much easier to build useful versions of these potentially powerful machines that, in theory, could solve important problems that are intractable using today's computers.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 27 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

Neuronal Growth Factor Receptor -- Long Implicated In Alzheimer's Disease -- May Actually Protect The Neuron

New research casts the role of a neuronal growth factor receptor -- long suspected to facilitate the toxic effects of beta amyloid in Alzheimer's disease -- in a new light, suggesting the molecule actually protects the neuron in the periphery from beta amyloid-induced damage.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 27 Apr 2009 | 3:00 pm

New Wireless Sensor First For Instant Monitoring Of Brain Oxygen

Scientists in Italy and Ireland are reporting development of the first wireless sensor that gives second-by-second readings of oxygen levels in the brain. The new microsensor -- smaller than a dime -- could become the basis for tiny devices to help test drugs and other treatments for patients with traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, and other conditions.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 27 Apr 2009 | 3:00 pm

Type Of Vitamin B1 Could Treat Common Cause Of Blindness

Researchers have discovered that a form of vitamin B1 could become a new and effective treatment for one of the world's leading causes of blindness, uveitis.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 27 Apr 2009 | 3:00 pm

Scientists Give A Hand(edness) To The Search For Alien Life

Visiting aliens may be the stuff of legend, but if a scientific team working at NIST is right, we may be able to find extraterrestrial life even before it leaves its home planet -- by looking for left- (or right-) handed light.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 27 Apr 2009 | 3:00 pm

Warnings as swine virus spreads

An EU official warns against travel to virus-hit parts of the US and Mexico, as a case of swine flu is confirmed in Spain.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Apr 2009 | 12:23 pm

Swine flu death toll exceeds 100 as pandemic fears grow

• Spain confirms first European case as pandemic fears grow
• World Health Organisation urges global vigilance

The EU's health commissioner today urged Europeans to postpone non-essential travel to Mexico and the US, as the death toll from the virus in Mexico rose to more than 100 and the first European case was confirmed in Spain.

In Luxembourg, where EU foreign ministers were discussing the virus, Androulla Vassiliou told reporters people should avoid travelling to Mexico or the US "unless it is very urgent for them". EU health ministers will hold an emergency meeting on Thursday.

"Personally, I'd try to avoid non-essential travel to the areas which are reported to be in the centre of the cluster in order to minimise the personal risk and to reduce the potential risk to spread the infection to other people," Vassiliou said.

Possible cases of swine flu were reported as far afield as Israel, New Zealand and Scotland, after a declaration at the weekend by the World Health Organisation of an international public health emergency was followed by a call for worldwide surveillance of the spread of the virus.

Spain's health ministry today said a young man who had recently been in Mexico had been confirmed as having swine flu, and 17 other people were under investigation.

The health minister, Trinidad Jimenez, said the man was responding well to treatment and was not in serious condition.

The European commission had already called for an emergency meeting of Europe's health ministers "as soon as possible".

The illness has rapidly claimed 103 lives, confined hundreds of people to hospital, and brought Mexico City, one of the world's largest cities, to a near standstill.

Financial turmoil

Fears of a potential pandemic have spooked financial markets worldwide, with airline and tourism stocks plunging today, the dollar dropping to its lowest level against the yuan, and the Mexican peso losing about 3% in electronic trading last night. Oil prices also fell. In London the FTSE 100 index lost more than 60 points in early trading, falling about 1.5% to 4095.06.

But shares soared in drug companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, and medical glovemakers. Shares of Top Glove, the world's largest listed rubber latex glovemaker, jumped more than 8% to 5.95 ringgit on the Malaysian stock exchange.

The Czech government, which currently holds the EU presidency, will be asked to organise the gathering of European health ministers.

"The timing is up to the Czech presidency, but we are asking for this meeting to happen as soon as possible," a spokeswoman for the EU health commissioner Androula Vassiliou said.

Mexico

José Ángel Córdova, the Mexican health secretary, said suspected swine flu cases in his country had risen to 1,614, including 103 deaths, 22 of which have been confirmed to be linked to the new virus. Tests are being carried out on the others. A further 1,614 cases of pneumonia are under investigation for links to the virus.

In Mexico City, the centre of the outbreak, schools, many public buildings and most restaurants remain closed.

The government is warning citizens not to shake hands or to stand close to each other. Many people stayed at home, or only ventured out wearing masks. Some stored water and food. Others left the city altogether.

Across Mexico more than 1,300 people were tested for suspected swine flu infection and 400 were taken to hospital for checks. Health officials believe that tens of thousands, and possibly more, have been infected but have since recovered.

"[We are] monitoring, minute by minute, the evolution of this problem across the whole country," said the Mexican president, Felipe Calderón. The World Bank yesterday approved $205m (£141bn) in loans to the country to fight the outbreak.

United States

Although confirmed infections outside Mexico remain few, the head of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Richard Besser, said he expected the flu to spread in the US. "I would expect that over time we are going to see more severe disease in this country," he said. "This will continue to spread, but we are taking aggressive actions to minimise the spread."

Another CDC official, Anne Schuchat, went further and said the virus had spread widely and could not be contained.

The US last night declared its own national health emergency, however White House officials urged people not to panic and pointed out that no case outside Mexico had proved fatal.

The US has found 20 confirmed cases of swine flu: eight students in New York and other sufferers in California, Kansas and Texas.

The US homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, ordered the immediate release of 12m doses of antiviral treatments, such as Tamiflu, collected over five years in response to fears about the spread of avian flu.

The US has begun work on a vaccine, but that is unlikely to be available for months and CDC officials say schools may be closed and large gatherings banned in the worst affected areas.

In New York health officials confirmed that eight pupils at a high school in Queens had been infected. The mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said all the cases were mild and there was no evidence that the disease had spread. "So far there does not seem to be any outbreak," he said. "We don't know if the spread will be sustained. What's heartening is the people who tested positive have only mild illnesses."

The US said it would begin testing suspect arrivals from infected areas. China and Russia took quarantine measures at airports to prevent entry by anyone infected.

Some governments issued travel warnings as suspected infections were reported in Spain, Israel and Canada. In New Zealand 10 pupils at an Auckland school who had visited Mexico were treated for symptoms similar to swine flu. Four suspected cases have been found in France.

British action

In the UK the Health Protection Agency chief executive, Justin McCracken, told BBC News it was better to assume the UK would be affected by some cases. "I think probably we should expect cases given the way this has spread across America. It is sensible that we plan in the assumption that there will be cases," he said. "We are already mobilising things in the UK in case the virus comes over here. I definitely think we have enough of the drugs."

He added: "I don't think at this stage there is any need to declare an emergency."

In Scotland the health secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, said two people in Lanarkshire had been admitted to hospital on their return from Mexico; however, their flu-like symptoms were mild and the couple's condition was causing little concern, she said. Test results due today should reveal whether they have contracted swine flu.

Another man, Chris Clarke, from Stannic, Northamptonshire, fell ill on a British Airways flight from Mexico City to Heathrow and was told to stay indoors, but tests came back negative.

Britons arriving back at Gatwick airport from Cancún said a doctor on board had questioned them about possible flu symptoms before they left the aircraft today.

World Health Organisation

Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's assistant director general for health security, said it had convened an emergency committee. "We have asked all countries to increase their surveillance," he said.

But Fukuda said the committee had held off raising its pandemic crisis alert system from phase three to four, which would ratchet up the response, until more information about the disease had been gathered.

He said that past experience with avian flu had laid the ground for officials to deal with this crisis. "I believe that the world is much, much better prepared than we have ever been for dealing with this kind of situation."

Of particular concern to health officials is that those most at risk of death are healthy adults whose immune systems are strong and overreact to the virus.

The WHO is likely to raise its pandemic alert level within days if more cases are confirmed. It will go to phase four if the virus shows sustained ability to pass from human to human, and to phase five if it is confirmed in two countries in the same region. "Declaration of phase five is a strong signal a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalise the organisation, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short," the WHO said. Phase six is the declaration of a global pandemic.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 27 Apr 2009 | 11:51 am

Plan to recreate 16th Century Chinese voyage sinks on last leg

A replica 16th-Century junk sinks off Taiwan's coast, one day short of completing an epic return voyage across the Pacific.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Apr 2009 | 11:39 am

Highlands 'wilderness' mulls electric car plan

Residents living in a remote part of the Highlands are looking at using electric or hybrid power vehicles to reduce carbon emissions.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Apr 2009 | 11:22 am

Study: SE Asia will be hit hard by climate change (AP)

AP - Southeast Asia will be hit particularly hard by climate change, causing the region's agriculture-dependent economies to contract by as much as 6.7 percent annually by the end of the century, according to a study released Monday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Apr 2009 | 9:15 am

Washington forum draws worst greenhouse polluters (Reuters)

Reuters - Diplomats from the world's biggest greenhouse gas polluters including the United States, China and India are set to take part in a forum on Monday at the U.S. State Department aimed at getting a U.N. agreement to curb global warming.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Apr 2009 | 8:53 am

Money game

Experts spar over the true cost of climate change
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Apr 2009 | 7:17 am

The truth about climate change

Vested interests have tried to spread misinformation about global warming, but scientific evidence shows urgent action is needed

Many people ask how sure we are about the science of climate change. The most definitive examination of the scientific evidence is to be found in the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and its last major report published in 2007. I had the privilege of being chairman or co-chairman of the panel's scientific assessments from 1988 to 2002.

Many hundreds of scientists from different countries were involved as contributors and reviewers for these reports, which are probably the most comprehensive and thorough international assessments on any scientific subject ever carried out. In June 1995, just before the G8 summit in Scotland, the academies of science of the world's 11 largest economies (the G8 plus India, China, and Brazil) issued a statement endorsing the IPCC's conclusions and urging world governments to take urgent action to address climate change. The world's top scientists could not have spoken more strongly.

Unfortunately, strong vested interests have spent millions of dollars on spreading misinformation about climate change. First, they tried to deny the existence of any scientific evidence for global warming. More recently, they have largely accepted the fact of anthropogenic (man-made) climate change but argue that its impacts will not be great, that we can "wait and see," and that in any case we can always fix the problem if it turns out to be substantial.

The scientific evidence does not support such arguments. Urgent action is needed both to adapt to the climate change that is inevitable and to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, especially CO², to prevent further damage as far as possible.

At the Earth summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the world's nations signed up to the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), the objective of which is "to stabilise the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level that does not cause dangerous interference with the climate system … that allows ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, that ensures food production is not threatened, and that enables economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner." Such stabilisation would also eventually stop further climate change.

It is now recognised that widespread damage due, for instance, to sea level rise and more frequent and intense heat waves, floods and droughts, will occur even for small increases of global average temperature. Therefore it is necessary that very strong efforts be made to hold the average global temperature rise below 2C relative to its preindustrial level.

If we are to have a good chance of achieving that target, the concentration of CO² must not be allowed to exceed 450 parts per million (it is now nearly 390 ppm). This implies that before 2050 global emissions of CO² must be reduced to below 50% of the 1990 level (they are currently 15% above that level), and that average emissions in developed countries must be reduced by at least 80% of the 1990 level. The UK has already committed itself to a binding target to reduce emissions by that amount, and President Barack Obama has expressed intention that the United States should also set that target.

One clear requirement is that tropical deforestation, which is responsible for 20% of greenhouse gas emissions, be halted within the next decade or two. Regarding emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its Energy Technology Perspectives has set out in detail the technologies and actions that are needed in different countries and sectors to meet these targets.

For the short term, the IEA points out that very strong and determined action will be necessary to ensure that global CO² emissions stop rising (the current increase is more than 3% per year), reach a peak by about 2015, and then decline steadily toward the 2050 target. The IEA also points out that the targets can be achieved without unacceptable economic damage. In fact, the IEA lists many benefits that will be realised if its recommendations are followed.

What is required now is recognition that anthropogenic climate change will severely affect our children, grandchildren, the world's ecosystems, and the world's poorer communities, and that the severity of the impact can be substantially alleviated by taking action now.

John Theodore Houghton, a former professor of atmospheric physics at Oxford University, and founder of the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, was the co-chair of the IPCC's scientific assessment working group and lead editor of its first three reports

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2009.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 27 Apr 2009 | 7:00 am

Red Pandas Have a Sweet Tooth (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - A threatened species native to the Himalayas is helping to shed light on how we taste sugary sweet foods - researchers have found that red pandas unexpectedly have a sweet tooth for aspartame.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Apr 2009 | 3:50 am

Ecuador's Correa cruises to re-election victory (Reuters)

Reuters - Ecuador's President Rafael Correa cruised to a re-election victory on Sunday as voters ignored a sputtering economy to make the charismatic socialist the OPEC nation's most powerful leader in a generation.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Apr 2009 | 1:23 am

For sale: cheeky mementos of the moonshot pranksters

After a textbook landing, Charlie Duke climbed down to the dusty surface of the moon, unpacked the Apollo 16 rover and checked his manual to see what to do next. Instead of more technical instructions, he found a hand-drawn cartoon of an astronaut embracing a buxom, naked woman.

The prank illustration, added by mischievous support crew back on Earth, followed a tradition of sneaking Snoopy cartoons and other joke pictures into the astronauts' spiral-bound checklists. The one used by Duke, still grey with moon dust, was presented to fellow astronaut Fred Haise as a thank-you for his role as backup commander on the 1972 mission.

Tomorrow, after a rather shorter journey from New York to London, Duke's checklist goes on display with a haul of other space race curiosities to be sold at auction this summer to mark the 40th anniversary of the first moon landings.

The sale of around 400 rare and historic items shines a light on the seemingly archaic technology that put man on the moon, and the poignant measures astronauts took to ensure their loved ones would be taken care of, should they not return.

Many of the items are originally from astronauts' personal collections and are accompanied by letters explaining their significance. The checklist used by Duke was standard issue for crew on the later Apollo missions and was there to ensure astronauts remembered what to do during their moon walks. The final pages urge astronauts to leave the moon as they found it, with the words: "Clean up area, make sure everything is well under the LM [lunar module]."

The collection includes mementos originally owned by Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon after Neil Armstrong. Among them are three pages of instructions from the Apollo 11 mission which Armstrong used to set the Eagle lander down on the lunar surface on 20 July 1969. The sheets are signed by Aldrin and could sell for $175,000 at auction.

One immediate task Armstrong and Aldrin faced after touching down for the first time was working out where they were. For this, they were issued with a star chart the size of a small plate. The chart, which is still tinted with moon dust, was considered crucial equipment by the Apollo astronauts and is expected to fetch over $70,000."This star chart was the single most critical navigational device we used while on the moon," an accompanying letter from Aldrin says.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 26 Apr 2009 | 11:01 pm

Andrew, the unlikely eco-warrior

Who is the greenest prince of them all? With his organic chutneys and prescient sermons against the destruction of the rainforest, Prince Charles must hold that title. But the prince popularly known as "air miles Andy" may be making a surprise bid for the eco-crown.

The Duke of York has been hailed by scientists for his role in developing a camera to expose illegal logging in the Amazon basin and the Congo. The British-built, £1m, 64-megapixel camera will be placed on a satellite, Amazonia-1, and deployed by Brazil's government to stop illegal logging.

The prince lobbied the prime minister to fund the project after a trip to see the impact of deforestation in Brazil in 2007 as part of his ambassadorial role for UK Trade and Investment, a government organisation promoting British businesses overseas.

While MPs have questioned the cost of Prince Andrew's foreign jaunts, scientists at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), a government unit specialising in space technology, say the camera would not have been built without his intervention.

"It was definitely the Duke of York who opened doors," says Professor Richard Holdaway, the director of space science and technology at RAL. "Without his very, very strong support this wouldn't have happened."

The £20m satellite will be launched in 2012 and Prince Andrew says he is "very excited"; perhaps he'll throw a pool party to celebrate.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 26 Apr 2009 | 11:01 pm

Once there were swarms of butterflies in our skies. Where have they all gone?

... but if you go out for a walk today, you will be lucky to spot one or two. Patrick Barkham, who has been a passionate lepidopterist since he was eight years old, laments the dramatic decline of these most extraordinary insects – and wonders if there is any chance of saving them

On a bright spring day, the chalky slopes of the Chilterns smell of warm thyme. Tiny purple violets bloom underfoot. For miles beyond, the Vale of Aylesbury unfolds in a tapestry of newly minted trees, yellow fields and the spires of village churches. This great vista of the English countryside seems gloriously immutable, unchanged since Victorian times, when Walter Rothschild would set out from Tring Park, his country house in the valley below, to throw his net at our summer butterflies and place them in his extraordinary zoological museum.

Not everything, however, would please the eye of Victorian lovers of nature. An easyJet plane casts a shadow across the downland. The air is filled with the complaint of two diggers, quarrying chalk from the bottom of the hill. But what would really make Rothschild weep is what is missing: the sky and the steep meadows dotted with the white flowers of wild strawberry are almost bereft of butterflies.

A casual eye might not notice it. Butterflies are still a conspicuous symbol of our summers, much celebrated by everyone from Wordsworth to Nabokov. On the Chilterns, a male orange tip patrols a hedgerow, two peacocks spiral into the air in a territorial dogfight and a speckled wood jinks its way through the trees. This scattering of a few common species is pitiful, however, compared with the riches that once adorned our countryside in summer. Near contemporaries of Rothschild wrote of skimming hundreds of purple hairstreaks from the trees or catching 100 Lulworth skippers in an hour. In 1892, SG Castle Russell took a walk through the New Forest: "Butterflies alarmed by my approach arose in immense numbers to take refuge in the trees above. They were so thick that I could hardly see ahead and indeed resembled a fall of brown leaves." A few centuries earlier, Richard Turpyn recorded a probable mass migration to or from Britain in his Chronicles of Calais during the reigns of Henry VII and VIII: "an innumerable swarme of whit buttarflyes ... so thicke as flakes of snowe" that they blotted out views of Calais for workers in fields beyond the town.

Swarms of butterflies have long disappeared. And a relentless decline may now become terminal for some of our best-loved species. Following the wet summer of 2007, last year was a disaster for butterflies: the lowest number was recorded for 27 years. Of Britain's precious 59 resident species, 12 experienced their worst ever year since the scientific monitoring of butterfly numbers began in 1976.

I began a less than scientific monitoring of butterflies in a little notepad when I was eight, helping my dad count the tiny brown argus on the Norfolk coast where we spent our summer holidays. Finding this darting, chocolate-brown gem ignited an awkward passion for butterflies that I kept well hidden during my teenage years. Dad and I would go on expeditions to discover, and photograph, rare species: we would sit in a wet meadow in Cumbria waiting for the marsh fritillary to emerge, or hover by piles of horse manure in the woodlands of Surrey, hoping the majestic, haughty (and turd-loving) purple emperor would descend from the treetops for us. Twenty years on, some of the nature reserves we visited have lost their precious rarities. If trends continue, another couple of bad summers could kill off some species for ever.

Numbers of the delicate wood white were down by 66% last year on dismal 2007; its population has slumped by 90% over the long-term recording period. The duke of burgundy and the high brown fritillary are most at risk of extinction. The high brown survives in just 50 small sites: at one spot in Dartmoor, there were 7,200 in 1995; last year, there were just 87. Nationwide, numbers have fallen by 85% over 10 years. "This run of bad weather has really pushed those species to the brink in many areas," says Martin Warren, the chief executive of Butterfly Conservation.

Butterflies find it difficult to fly, feed and mate in bad weather but these figures are not just a seasonal blip caused by freakishly soggy summers. The collecting of British butterflies has ceased to be acceptable and yet butterfly populations have still plummeted. Far more devastating than unscrupulous collectors of old has been industrial agriculture and the loss of 97% of England's natural grassland and wildflower meadows; planting conifers or letting our broadleaved woodlands become too overgrown for woodland flowers; and the sprawl of motorways and urban development.

To this deadly cocktail has been added a new poison: climate change. In theory, a gentle global warming should benefit almost all of Britain's butterflies. Creatures of sunshine, most of our butterflies are found in southern England where many are at the limit of their natural range; as our summers become hotter, these butterflies should thrive and spread further north. There are a few winners already: the beautiful comma is moving north and the rare silver-spotted skipper has done well thanks to hotter summers. Britain may also be visited more regularly by exotic species that were once rare migrants.

The fate of one much-loved native shows that this happy outcome, however, will not come to pass for most species. The small tortoiseshell is the labrador of the butterfly world: cheerful and content to live close to humans. Its caterpillars devour ubiquitous nettles. As an adult butterfly, it feasts on suburban flowers and hibernates in garden sheds, pitter-pattering against our windows when spring comes round again. Thanks to climate change, it is spreading north and is now seen for the first time in remote parts of Scotland. Unfortunately, so too is Sturmia bella (how the person who named this ugly brute could call it beautiful is beyond me), a species of parasitic fly.

This nasty fly was recorded for the first time in Britain in Hampshire 11 years ago. By last summer, it had reached Merseyside thanks to a modus operandi every bit as gory as the Alien films. It lays its microscopic eggs on patches of nettles where small tortoiseshell caterpillars feed. These unwittingly eat the fly's eggs which become tiny worms inside the caterpillar, bursting out of their bodies just when the small tortoiseshell is beginning its miraculous transformation into a butterfly inside its chrysalis.

Last year was the worst ever year for small tortoiseshells, its population slumping by 45% compared with 2007, despite thousands of migrant small tortoiseshells arriving from Europe in September. In southern and central England, it appears to have been virtually wiped out: during my afternoon roaming the Chilterns last week, I saw 10 peacocks and 12 yellow brimstones and the odd rather more elusive species, such as the grizzled skipper, but not a single small tortoiseshell.

Is Sturmia bella wiping it out? Where the fly finds small tortoiseshell caterpillars, their mortality rate is 61%, according to research by Dr Owen Lewis, an ecologist at Oxford University who is studying the impact of the fly. As with many declining species, there is seldom just one cause and the case against Sturmia bella is not yet conclusive. In most instances where new predators arrive, the attacked species eventually adapt to elude them. Other research suggests that, before the last two wet summers, the dry summers of a warming world also hit small tortoiseshell caterpillars: low moisture reduces the nutritional quality of nettles.

"Whichever way you look at it, it's linked back to the climate," says Tom Brereton, head of butterfly monitoring at Butterfly Conservation. Climate change, he says, is a particular problem for our butterflies because our countryside is so fragmented. Decades of ploughing up grassland and ripping out hedgerows means that more than half our butterfly species are now confined to small islands of land. When the climate makes the current sites unsuitable, butterflies will no longer be able to fly elsewhere and find new sites. "If you had an intact countryside, butterflies should be going through the roof, but the species can't move through the countryside like they once would have done," says Brereton. "Habitats are too fragmented. There are vacant suitable habitats in parts of the countryside but the butterflies won't necessarily find them."

Our largest and most charismatic native butterfly, the swallowtail, was once found across the fens of East Anglia and beyond until the draining of these wetlands for arable agriculture caused its extinction. It is now confined to the Norfolk Broads. When global warming causes the Broads to be inundated with sea water - widely expected within 100 years - the swallowtail will die unless it is relocated by humans to suitable inland sites. These new sites will have to be meticulously created to cultivate a single, rather neurotic wetland plant used by this notoriously picky species.

Conservationists playing God like this has already happened. The last species to become extinct in Britain was the large blue in 1979. Despite heroic scientific endeavour, the full complexity of this butterfly's weird lifecycle was not understood until it was too late. When tiny, the large blue caterpillar throws itself on to the ground and secretes a tantalising scent which tricks ants into carefully taking it into their underground nests, whereupon the nasty caterpillar devours ant grubs until it is fully grown. Its dependence on ants was known but not that it relied on a very particular species, which in turn needed a very specific kind of rough grassland to survive. So, in the 1980s, conservationists brought stock from Sweden and successfully re-established the butterfly on a small field on the edge of Dartmoor. Dad and I were ticked off by a warden when we found this secret meadow, still known only as Site X. The large blue has since been successfully reintroduced into other areas.

With this kind of ingenuity, could we turn the whole country into a giant butterfly farm? Could we save every species by reintroducing them to tailor-made nature reserves or boosting populations with specimens from abroad? "We might do it for a few species, but it's not the basis for a conservation strategy," says Warren. "What about all the other insects? We want to get the habitats right and butterflies will tell us if we are getting it right, and then we'll be getting it right for biodiversity as a whole."

Amazingly, despite all our knowledge, we still get it wrong. The pearl-bordered fritillary was known as "the woodman's friend" because it would faithfully follow foresters around broadleaved woods as they coppiced or cut down patches of trees, attracted to the flowers that blossomed in the freshly cut glades in subsequent years. Like many butterflies, it became inextricably linked to the way we managed our landscape, but has undergone a dramatic decline in numbers since this traditional way of "harvesting" our wood died out.

While conservation management has reintroduced coppicing - which is rarely economically viable because of the falling demand for wood fuel and is now often carried out by volunteers on nature reserves - pearl-bordered fritillaries have continued to die out, often because the work has not been carried out on a big enough scale. Even Monks Wood, a national nature reserve and the site of a celebrated government research station that has been the source of much of our scientific wisdom about butterflies, has lost 12 of its 40 species of butterfly since 1954, including the pearl-bordered fritillary.

The decline of butterflies is "not all farmers and climate change", as Brereton puts it. Some of our rarest butterflies have been inadvertently decimated by conservation efforts. Matthew Oates, the National Trust's advisor on nature, takes me to the beautiful Rodborough Common in the Cotswolds, to see the first duke of burgundy butterflies of the year. The delicate beauty of this small, fritillary-like butterfly belies its pugnacious urge to scrap with every other insect that comes near as it suns itself on the steep sides of the common. "The Oates motto is 'never underestimate a butterfly'," says Oates, a jovial polymath who brings his scholarly training in poetry to bear on butterfly conservation. If climate change brings better summers, he points out that some species will become more capable of travelling across our decimated landscape to look for new sites. "But I am seriously worried for burgundies. The figures are very alarming. What's messed it up in the last 20 years is conservation management."

Before climate change, another man-made event, the introduction of the rabbit-killing disease myxomatosis in the 1950s, caused the decline of many grassland butterflies which relied on large rabbit populations to keep the grass short and full of flowers. Conservation plans saw a widespread reintroduction of grazing to help rare plant species and butterflies such as the adonis blue. But the duke of burgundy requires longer, rougher grassland and a certain size of cowslip plants; overgrazing has caused its population to plummet. Now it exists in such tiny colonies it could easily disappear. "The track record of conservation management on this butterfly is bloody awful," says Oates. "I really think we could lose it."

We are belatedly getting better at conserving the right kind of land for fragile, complex and, frankly, contrary butterfly species. Butterfly Conservation had one conservation adviser a decade ago; today, 30 advisers help landowners manage 1,000 precious sites. Once the bete noire of conservationists, the Common Agricultural Policy now offers some funding - although not enough - to encourage farmers to manage their land for conservation. "It's by no means all doom and gloom but getting enough done in enough areas is the problem," says Warren. New demand for eco-friendly wood fuel from the sustainable harvesting of broadleaved woods would help too, recreating our traditional woodland system in which flowers and butterflies could thrive.

Climate change, however, makes it all much more complicated. As well as new predators, new diseases may destroy native trees, flowers and insects that butterflies depend on. Invasive weeds could crowd out butterfly food plants. Grass and bracken - with which many rare fritillaries have a delicate relationship - are already growing back more vigorously than in the past. Tangled woodland will need clearing more regularly. "A lot of conservation management won't necessarily work in the future," says Brereton. "With climate change, species are changing their habitats and their requirements are changing as well. It can be fatal to manage for what a butterfly needed 20 years ago. We need to keep on the ball with understanding what species need because their requirements are changing as the earth warms up."

Just as I kept my passion for butterflies hidden for fear of ridicule at school, so the butterfly hunters of old were often derided for such a whimsical, frivolous pursuit. Butterflies may be pretty but they seem inconsequential ornaments when compared with majestic eagles or pragmatically functional insects such as worms or bees. Every century, butterflies have become extinct in Britain. Why should we care if we lose a few more?

For a start, butterflies are an excellent indicator species: if butterflies are suffering then so too are thousands of less well monitored insects. (Thanks to the scientists who set up butterfly monitoring in the 1970s and the 1,500 volunteer butterfly recorders who count numbers every summer, we have excellent data showing their decline.) It is insects that pollinate many flowers, help matter decompose and protect other species by preying on pests. Plants, birds, rodents and big, greedy mammals - such as human beings - depend on them. "There is a good moral case for conservation but there is a pretty good selfish, economic case as well," says Warren. "With the economic downturn, people think saving butterflies is pretty low down on our list of priorities, but human beings and the natural world are linked very closely. If the natural world goes to pot, sooner or later we will go to pot. Butterflies' decline probably indicates a rapid decline in invertebrates in general. If the British situation is true across the world, we are heading for a sixth great extinction event. There have been five in the history of the planet and this one will be man-made."

Oates has another reason for saving our butterflies. Each species, in its own way, is part of the cultural identity of our landscape. Butterflies are a "conduit into natural beauty", he explains. "They take us on voyages of discovery to some of the most beautiful landscapes in this country." Many of our earliest memories of summer will involve a vivid image of a butterfly. If we seek out butterflies, they can lead us into a natural world from which we are increasingly estranged by our material, technological and suburban existences. "We underestimate the importance of beauty and wonder in our lives at our peril," says Oates. "As much as I love football, it's no substitute for the real thing."

After a day failing to see a single small tortoiseshell in the land where thousands once roamed - chased by the nets of obsessives such as Walter Rothschild - I head to a cool stone cupboard in Harrow School where a fraction of the 2.25m butterflies and moths gathered by Rothschild are stored in mahogany cabinets. This amazing collection of foreign butterflies with iridescent wings of purple, green and gold will be auctioned by Bonhams at the end of May. Beautifully preserved, they look as if they could have been flying last week. This glittering hoard is a melancholy reminder that we are only a hundred butterfly generations from summers of plenty. In time, these dried, dead beauties may be the only butterflies we can gaze upon in wonder.

• A Butterfly Year, Patrick Barkham's journey in search of British butterflies, will be published by Granta.

How you can help

Four steps to save Britain's butterflies

Gardening

Butterflies visit gardens to drink nectar from flowers. Many good nectar plants are hardy perennials and easy to grow. The best for butterflies are buddleia, ice-plant (sedum), lavender, michaelmas daisy and origanum (marjoram). But butterfly caterpillars need feeding too: plant holly and ivy in sunny positions where they can grow tall and flower for the holly blue. Don't pull up all your stinging nettles: leave a patch for comma, small tortoiseshell and red admiral butterflies.

Shopping

Buy produce from farmers who manage their land to support wildlife. Farmland is the main habitat for more than three-quarters of British butterflies but the flower-rich grassland and hedges where they breed have been lost to modern intensive farming methods. Some producers, and those with the Leaf marque, source food from farmers who take special care of wildlife.

Recording

Take a walk in the countryside and join Butterfly Conservation's army of volunteers, who record butterflies for the important scientific databases which track the health of populations. You can do it yourself and send in casual records, or join their surveying system: your sightings can help your countryside and butterfly-rich areas receive funding and better conservation management. Recording and monitoring details at butterfly-conservation.org

Volunteering

If you fancy getting fit, you can join working parties on nature reserves to help cut back weeds, trees and scrub and manage sites for butterflies. Your local wildlife trust will have details of how you can help. You can also support conservation efforts by becoming a member of Butterfly Conservation, which has more details of how you can help.

Patrick Barkham's favourite butterflies

Silver-washed fritillary

The most gracious of the fritillaries, which take their name from the delicate and subtly different chequered patterns on their wings, this large woodland butterfly is one of the more common. Other fritillaries, particularly the high brown, pearl-bordered, heath and marsh fritillaries, are among our most endangered butterfly species. Many require specific management of woods and meadows to allow their caterpillars, and food plants, to flourish.

Purple emperor

Our most majestic and mysterious butterfly, the purple emperor rules our ancient woodlands, gliding across the tops of trees in July. His Imperial Majesty, as he was known to entomologists of old, was a great prize for Victorian collectors. One even designed a 50ft butterfly net to try to entrap it. The female is rarely seen and even though the male flashes iridescent purple, he is similarly elusive. I've searched for the emperor on numerous occasions and only spotted him once, fleetingly, silhouetted against the sky.

Camberwell beauty

Named after the London suburb that was a leafy village when this large migrant roamed its lanes, the Camberwell beauty is the ultimate prize for butterfly fanatics. It was thought to be a British resident but it is actually a migrant. When the winds are favourable, only a handful of times every century, it reaches our shores from Scandinavia in its hundreds. The last great influx was in 1995; I've never spotted one, so I'm praying 2009 will see another.

Dingy skipper

A dingy butterfly seems an oxymoron and this feisty but very grey little skipper certainly lives up to its name. It's not much to look at, and you can confuse it with a day-flying moth. I spent an hour following what I hoped was a dingy skipper on Waterford heath near Hertford last week; it turned out to be a latticed heath moth. How can you tell the difference between a butterfly and a moth? The best way is to look at an insect's antennae or feelers: butterflies have distinctive clubbed antennae whereas moths have long
straight feelers.

Adonis blue

The most dashing of our blue butterflies as its showy name suggests, it is a creature of our flowery chalk downlands in midsummer. Immediately after performing at Sadler's Wells, London, in the evening, one of the most famous clowns of the 19th century, Joseph Grimaldi, would walk all night to Dartford, Kent, so he could capture adonis blues, which he called the Dartford blue. When his butterfly collection was stolen, Grimaldi the clown was so devastated, he took up pigeon fancying instead.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 26 Apr 2009 | 11:01 pm

Swine Flu Symptoms Worse in Mexico than U.S.

Why has the swine flu engulfing Mexico been deadly there, but not in the U.S.?
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 26 Apr 2009 | 5:12 pm

Cache of mummies unearthed at Egypt's Lahun pyramid

LAHUN, Egypt (Reuters) - Archaeologists have unearthed a cache of pharaonic-era mummies in brightly painted wooden coffins near Egypt's little-known Lahun pyramid, the site head said on Sunday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 26 Apr 2009 | 5:11 pm

Experts identify genes linked to chronic diseases

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Researchers in South Korea have identified genes that are linked to key indicators such as blood pressure and bone density that have a bearing on chronic diseases such as hypertension and osteoporosis.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 26 Apr 2009 | 5:08 pm

Experts identify genes linked to chronic diseases (Reuters)

Reuters - Researchers in South Korea have identified genes that are linked to key indicators such as blood pressure and bone density that have a bearing on chronic diseases such as hypertension and osteoporosis.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 26 Apr 2009 | 5:08 pm

China relocates last pandas from quake-hit habitat (AP)

AP - China has moved the last batch of pandas still living in a world-famous preserve badly damaged in last year's devastating earthquake to a nearby facility, state television reported Sunday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 26 Apr 2009 | 12:16 pm