Colorectal Cancer Rates Increasing Worldwide

A new study finds colorectal cancer incidence rates for both males and females increased in 27 of 51 countries worldwide between 1983 and 2002, and points to increasing Westernization as being a likely culprit.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pm

Swine Flu Origins Revealed

A new analysis of the current swine-origin H1N1 influenza A virus suggests that transmission to humans occurred several months before recognition of the existing outbreak.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pm

Writing In Air Not Pie In The Sky: Student Device Turns Phone Gestures Into Email

Engineering students have taken advantage of the accelerometers in emerging cell phones to create an application that permits users to write short notes in the air with their phone, and have that message automatically sent to an e-mail address.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pm

Mathematicians Take Aim At 'Phantom' Traffic Jams: New Model Could Help Design Better Roads

Countless hours are lost in traffic jams every year. Most frustrating of all are those jams with no apparent cause -- no accident, no stalled vehicle, no lanes closed for construction. Such phantom jams can form when there is a heavy volume of cars on the road. In that high density of traffic, small disturbances (a driver hitting the brake too hard, or getting too close to another car) can quickly become amplified into a full-blown, self-sustaining traffic jam. A team of mathematicians has developed a model that describes how and under what conditions such jams form, which could help road designers minimize the odds of their formation.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pm

Postpartum Anxiety Delays Puberty In Offspring

Hormonal changes early in pregnancy cause maternal postpartum anxiety and behavior changes that can lead to a delayed onset of puberty in both birth and adoptive daughters, according to a new study conducted in mice.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pm

New Test Could Help Diagnose Early Dementia

A new cognitive test for detecting Alzheimer's disease is quicker and more accurate than many current tests, and could help diagnose early dementia.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pm

Risk Of Transmission Of Huntington's Disease To Offspring Among Male Carriers Estimated

Researchers have quantified the probability of a male who carries a "high normal" variant of the Huntington's disease gene having a child who develops the disease. Although thought to be a very rare event, the probability has never been estimated using current information and disease guidelines. The findings may be useful during prenatal genetic counseling.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

Dioxins In Food Chain Linked To Breastfeeding Ills

Exposure to dioxins during pregnancy harms the cells in rapidly-changing breast tissue, which may explain why some women have trouble breastfeeding or don't produce enough milk, according to a new study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

Supernova Remnant Is An Unusual Suspect

A new image from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows a supernova remnant with a different look. This object, known as SNR 0104-72.3 (SNR 0104 for short), is in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a small neighboring galaxy to the Milky Way. Astronomers think that SNR 0104 is the remains of a so-called Type Ia supernova caused by the thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

Abrupt Global Warming Could Shift Monsoon Patterns, Hurt Agriculture

At times in the distant past, an abrupt change in climate has been associated with a shift of seasonal monsoons to the south, a new study concludes, causing more rain to fall over the oceans than in the Earth's tropical regions, and leading to a dramatic drop in global vegetation growth.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

Herschel telescope 'opens eyes'

Europe's new billion-euro Herschel space observatory opens a hatch allowing its instruments to see the cosmos for the first time.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 14 Jun 2009 | 2:56 pm

World to End in 2012: A Hoax Gone Too Far?

When a hoax designed to make money gets people genuinely worried, is it too much?
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Jun 2009 | 2:35 pm

The Gross Science of a Cough and a Sneeze (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Like people, coughs come in all shapes and sizes. They can be deep or shallow, long or short, or forced or stifled.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Jun 2009 | 2:20 pm

The Gross Science of a Cough and a Sneeze

Scientists study the ways we cough and sneeze to shed light on how viruses like influenza spread.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Jun 2009 | 2:13 pm

Anderson favourite for BP post: report (AFP)

AFP - British energy giant BP could finally have a new chairman in place by July, with US executive Paul Anderson the leading candidate, said The Sunday Telegraph newspaper, citing sources.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Jun 2009 | 12:09 pm

Science and religion: a history of conflict?

It's popularly imagined that the history of science and religion is one of violent conflict, but the facts don't bear this out

As the battle between creationism and evolution heats up, some atheists, like Jerry Coyne, have been insisting that it is really a battle between religion and science. Coyne resists any accommodation between religious and non-religious scientists to defend Darwinism. He doesn't want to see them joining forces against the creationist common enemy in case that legitimises religion. In order for his position to make sense, he needs to show that there is some sort of existential conflict between religion and science. So it is unfortunate for him that the historical record clearly shows that accommodation and even cooperation have been the default positions in the relationship.

It's true that the popular perception of a historical conflict remains strong. That hasn't stopped all serious historians from queuing up to condemn it. John Hedley Brooke and Peter Harrison at Oxford; David Lindberg and Ron Numbers at Wisconsin-Madison; and Simon Shapin in California have all tried to put the record straight. But as Numbers ruefully admits, "Despite a developing consensus among scholars that science and Christianity have not been at war, the notion of conflict has refused to die." He has edited a new collection of essays, published by Harvard University Press, called Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion which tries to chip away some more from the edifice of popular opinion.

A strange thing about the conflict myth is that much of the evidence for it is bogus. Not only are most people ignorant of the real history, but what they think they know about it is actually untrue. Let me give some examples.

The old chestnut that the church encouraged the view that the earth is flat has been debunked so many times that it seems pointless to do so again. But despite a hundred years of effort from historians of science, the legend refuses to die. Only this year it has been repeated in The House of Wisdom, a history of Islamic science by Jonathan Lyons.

The myth that the Catholic church tried to ban zero has grown more popular in recent years. The journalist Charles Seife managed to write an entire book (Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea) about how zero was banned without ever realising his central argument has no foundation in fact. The same myth was passed on in Peter Atkin's Newton's Finger and Charles Mann's 1492.

The church also never tried to ban human dissection. I was amused to hear this story promulgated on the BBC show QI which usually prides itself in puncturing the conventional wisdom. The related myth that Vesalius, author of a famous book on anatomy published in 1543, had a run-in with the Spanish Inquisition, is also discounted by historians.

The celebrated astronomer Carl Sagan passed on the nugget that Pope Callistus III excommunicated Halley's Comet in 1456. This would have been a silly thing to do, but thankfully it never happened. The story appears to be based on misreading a contemporary chronicle.

Finally, various martyrs for science have been canonised. It is a sad fact that both Catholics and Protestants were engaged in the despicable practice of burning heretics. But no one was ever executed for their scientific views. For a long time it was supposed that the Renaissance thinker Giordano Bruno had died for his science. But we now know he was an occultist whose support for Copernicus was not based on scientific grounds and neither was it a reason for his execution. Pretty much all his cosmological thought can be found in a book by the 15th-century cardinal Nicolas of Cusa. Not even the Catholic church would burn you at the stake for repeating the published thoughts of a cardinal.

Only with the trial of Galileo, put under house arrest for life for teaching that the earth goes around the sun, does popular perception have much basis on fact. But even this case was more about the pope's self-esteem than science.

The conflict between science and creationism is real enough, but it is the exception, not the rule. For most of history, science and religion have rubbed along just fine. So, if Jerry Coyne really wants to promote evolution, he should be joining hands with the religious scientists who want to help.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 14 Jun 2009 | 11:00 am

Hint of planet outside our galaxy

Astronomers believe they have spotted an object six times Jupiter's mass orbiting a star in the Andromeda galaxy.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 14 Jun 2009 | 10:40 am

Truckdriver dies in fiery Calif. freeway crash (AP)

AP - A tanker truck hauling 8,000 gallons of ethanol crashed on a highway, exploding into an inferno that sent a river of flame into storm drains, officials said. The driver was killed.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Jun 2009 | 10:05 am

Northwest utilities turn to nuclear, 25 years after industry collapsed (McClatchy Newspapers)

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — A consortium of utilities in the Pacific Northwest once known as "Whoops," synonymous with the collapse of the nuclear power industry, wants back in the game.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Jun 2009 | 10:00 am

The Nation's Weather (AP)

AP - Rain was forecast Sunday for much of the nation, with possible severe weather developing across the Midwest and the lower Mississippi Valley.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Jun 2009 | 9:50 am

Higher rates, oil prices threaten US recovery (AFP)

AFP - Rising bond yields are taking a toll on home mortgage and corporate lending rates and together with jumping oil prices are threatening the expected US recovery from prolonged recession.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Jun 2009 | 4:59 am

GOP says Democrats' climate bill is another tax (AP)

AP - Republicans on Saturday slammed a Democratic bill before the House that seeks to address climate change, arguing that it amounts to an energy tax on consumers.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jun 2009 | 11:09 pm

It's a pandemic. But don't worry ... not yet, anyway

Out of 30,000 global cases, only 145 deaths have been reported and development of a vaccine is well under way. But scientists will not relax: the virus could mutate and grow stronger over the summer - and what happens if it mixes with bird flu?

It was the final surge in numbers that forced the World Health Organisation to act. With confirmation last week that swine flu cases had risen above 1,000 in Australia, it was clear the disease was now spreading freely around the world. Thousands of cases had already been reported in the United States, Mexico and Chile. Officials at the World Health Organisation simply had no choice. On Thursday, they announced swine flu had achieved pandemic status, the first strain of influenza to reach this mark for 41 years.

It seems an alarming prospect. Are we again set to face a disease that can kill millions as happened with the pandemics of 1918, 1957 and 1968? Margaret Chan, the World Health Organisation's director general, was confident, however. The disease is only a "moderately severe" risk, she announced. Out of 30,000 cases worldwide, only 145 deaths have been reported. Development of a vaccine - the world's main anti-flu weapon - is already under way while stockpiles of anti-viral drugs such as Tamiflu are also available, at least for developed nations.

It would be premature to assume complete security, however. Before the world vanquishes swine flu, many hurdles will have to be cleared. In particular, every stage of the development of a swine flu vaccine, our key hope of fighting the disease, could be disrupted, scientists warned last week. "We must be prepared for something that is more severe than is currently observed," said Dr Alan Hay, director of the World Influenza Centre, in London. "We cannot be complacent."

For a start, swine flu vaccine production is still at a very early stage. Indeed, the artificial strain that will form the core of a vaccine has only just been created, with researchers in Britain, Australia and the US having produced almost identical versions. These have only just been passed to pharmaceutical firms to see if they can quickly produce the vaccine on a mass scale.

The British version of the vaccine strain - known as RG121 - was created two weeks ago at the National Institute for Biological Standards Control near London. Like its US and Australian counterparts, it is made of bits of several flu viruses but specifically stimulates immunity against swine flu. Unlike swine flu, however, it can be grown easily in hens' eggs. Eggs are used throughout the drugs industry as incubators in which viruses - the basic components of vaccines - are grown.

"Hens' eggs remain the bulwark for vaccine production," said Professor Peter Dunnill, of the Centre for Biochemical Engineering at University College London. "It is a pretty ponderous business, however. Each egg has to be looked after carefully and you have to beware lest infections kill them off."

This point was backed by Dr James Robertson, leader of the team that created the RG121 strain. "Different strains behave differently in eggs and produce varying amounts of virus particles. In the case of our swine flu vaccine strain, we simply do not know yet how much virus you will get from each egg,

At present, pharmaceutical companies' estimates of the amounts of virus particles they will get from their eggs are optimistic. This could be a mistake, warn scientists, and companies could find they get less than a third or a quarter as many viral particles as they hoped for, a reduction that would, in turn, limit the number of vaccine doses available to the public.

Once viruses are extracted from eggs they are broken into pieces including bits of their protein coats. These protein pieces are important because they stimulate immune responses in humans and can be used to make a vaccine. "Coat proteins raise antibodies in the blood so that a person, coming across the real live virus, will be prepared to launch an immune attack against it," said Robertson.

But sometimes, it takes more than one dose of a vaccine to stimulate full protection. The current seasonal flu vaccine requires only a single shot but other vaccines require two inoculations, a point stressed by Dr Hay. "It may require two doses to provide significant immunity against swine flu," he told the Observer. And if a swine flu vaccine requires a double dose, this would also limit numbers of doses available to provide full protection as quickly as possible.

Even if viral production in eggs goes to plan, manufacturers such as GlaxoSmithKline will be stretched to meet demands and have decided to add chemicals known as adjuvants to their vaccines. Adjuvants stimulate immune systems and so reduce amounts of vaccine needed to create antibody protection in an individual. "We will be using adjuvants in our vaccines," said Stephen Rae of GlaxoSmithKline. "This will be the first time we have used them for a flu vaccine but we are confident they will work."

However, Professor Dunnill again warned that care should be taken with such predictions. "It remains to be seen if pharmaceuticals can rely on using adjuvants and still produce a single dose vaccine against swine flu," he said.

And then there is the issue of timing. At present, only a limited number of people have succumbed to swine flu in the UK with the Health Protection Agency putting the figure at 1,121 confirmed cases yesterday. But most scientists now predict a second wave of the disease is likely to strike later in the year. Exactly when and how it hits will have profound consequences for Britain, as Hay explained.

"The key issue is how the virus mutates in the southern hemisphere over the next few months during the winter there. That is far more important than its behaviour in the northern hemisphere during our spring and summer." The virus is more likely to spread through populations during the southern hemisphere in winter and the more it does so, the more it is likely to mutate, possibly into a new, more virulent form.

There is also the issue of the timing of that return. If a reinvigorated, more virulent forms appears late in the year, health and pharmaceutical workers could have enough time to prepare reasonable supplies of vaccine. "However, if it returns earlier in the year, in September, say, there is not much chance we will have enough vaccine ready by then," Dr Hay warned. "It is undoubtedly a problem. Certainly, there is no doubt the big issue here is time."

Should vaccine supplies be low when the second wave strikes, health workers will then face a problem of deciding which members of the public should be rated as priority targets. Health and utility workers, police and security staff, will be obvious choices. But selecting the elderly - a key choice for seasonal flu vaccine - as priorities for swine flu vaccines would be a mistake, Hay said. "Around 75 per cent of people who have succumbed to swine flu have been under age of 30 and very few have been over 60. It is very likely that people of 60 and above may well have some immunity."

Intriguingly swine flu is of the same basic type, called H1N1, as the virus that caused the 1918 pandemic, the world's worst outbreak of flu which killed up to 100 million people across the globe.

"That basic strain circulated round the world for another four decades until 1957 when it was replaced by a new type, known as H2N2, which was responsible for the Asian flu epidemic of that year," Hay said. In other words, people who were children or young adults before 1957 may well be carrying immune protection to an old virus that is a distant descendant of the 1918 flu strain and which is giving them protection against swine flu. Hence the relatively robust response of those over 60 to the current pandemic - though these individuals will still need protection from standard seasonal flu with vaccines that are now being stockpiled by pharmaceutical firms.

Vaccines are not our only protection against flu, of course. Anti-viral drugs - in particular, Tamiflu - block the spread of the flu virus between cells in the body and offer another line of defence against the disease. "Vaccines are our real hope but there is no doubt Tamiflu will help," said Dunnill. "But we should note resistance to the drug is spreading. The normal seasonal flu virus has acquired Tamiflu resistance over the past year and we will have to monitor, very carefully, how swine flu behaves. We cannot take the drug for granted, that is certain."

And finally scientists point to the disturbing scenario in which swine flu spreads to countries such as Indonesia and infects animals or humans who are already affected by bird flu. The latter disease is difficult to acquire but is highly virulent if caught. By contrast, swine flu is easy to pass on although, at present, it rarely produces serious symptoms. In a person who becomes infected by both strains, however, it is possible that there will be an exchange of genetic material resulting in the creation of an easily transmissible but highly virulent virus. "It is a nightmare vision which, fortunately, remains only a remote prospect at present," said Dunnill.

All these issues make it difficult for doctors and scientists to be certain how they will cope if swine flu, as expected, returns to Britain with renewed vigour later this year. Or it may return in a relatively non-virulent form and pharmaceutical companies may suffer no vaccine production problems. Alternatively, things could go wrong.

"We can anticipate many things and that, in the end, is all we can do," said Hay. "We must prepare as best we can for all these scenarios and then deal with the ones that unfold. It will probably be a long battle, however."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 13 Jun 2009 | 11:01 pm

Letters: MMR vaccination

Catherine Bennett is right to draw attention to the dangers of the low rate of MMR vaccination in this country, but to place all the blame on the medical establishment and the government without commenting on the role of the media seems disingenuous in the extreme ("It's time we created special schools for MMR dodgers", Comment, last week). At the height of the "debate" over the vaccine in 2001, more than 1,200 stories about MMR appeared in British papers. Most of these articles were at best uninformed and aimed at raising suspicions over the vaccine - and were subsequently proved wrong. It is not surprising that against this tidal wave of biased reporting the government of the day failed to make sufficient impact.
Dr Jeremy Swinson
Liverpool

Perhaps Catherine Bennett would like to meet my beautiful 19-year-old son, who was developing normally until he received the combined MMR vaccination (against measles, mumps and rubella). Within 24 hours, he was severely disabled and had developed a bowel disorder. I know he was developing normally despite the medical profession trying to say he was brain-damaged at birth - I am a childcare lecturer with a degree in child development.

Dr Andrew Wakefield raised the question: how come so many families were reporting the same story, that their child lost speech and developed a bowel disorder within days of receiving the MMR? He was concerned to find live measles in the bowels of children he studied, even though they had not had the disease.

Add that to the fact that the brand of MMR used to vaccinate my son had already been banned in Europe; add also the awareness that for children with a family history of allergy such as asthma, a triple vaccine will overload an already compromised immune system.
J Roe
Llantwit Fardre, Glamorgan

I fail to understand the hysteria over MMR: surely, vaccinated children are immune from measles, hence they aren't at risk from their unvaccinated peers? Or is Catherine Bennett saying that the vaccination is ineffective? The fact that herd immunity isn't being achieved merely means that unvaccinated children are likely to succumb to an epidemic of measles, much as I did as a child. The whole compulsory vaccination campaign seems to be rooted in pique that anyone should have the temerity to defy the commands of the medical profession. Or is it, perhaps, jealousy that their ability to stir up a panic is inferior to that of the antis?

I, for one, am glad that the age of deference, whether to doctors or irrational columnists, is over.
Nick James
Sheffield

Catherine Bennett highlights the continuing fears of the MMR-autism link, notwithstanding so many scientific studies and official pronouncements. So what does the "autism" establishment think? The National Autistic Society website refers to "suggested links" and "no conclusive evidence", but not to the measles risk and, worse, no reference to any of the studies conclusively dismissing the link. Is it not time for this leading charity to say, adapting its words, that the matter is beyond doubt and thus allay public concerns?
Michael Baron
Cumbria

I am overwhelmed by the amount of information on both sides of the MMR argument. What is clear is the grief suffered by families who have a child on the autistic spectrum. This is a lived-in grief, not transient, like an article written for the Comment section. I was offended by Ms Bennett's description of "defiant mummies ... at the helm of their 4x4s". This appears an attempt to caricature these people and undermine their arguments. Her sarcasm is out of place in an article about such a serious subject.
Drew Hunt
London SE5

Write to us

Letters, which may be edited, should include a full name and postal address and be sent to: Letters to the Editor, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU (to be received by noon Thursday). Fax: 020 7837 7817. Email: letters@observer.co.uk (please insert Letters to the Editor in subject field).

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 13 Jun 2009 | 11:01 pm

US, Canada to update Great Lakes water agreement (AP)

AP - The United States and Canada say they will update a key agreement to protect the Great Lakes from invasive species, climate change and other established and emerging threats to the world's biggest surface freshwater system.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jun 2009 | 9:18 pm

US space shuttle launch delayed over hydrogen leak (AFP)

AFP - The US space shuttle Endeavour's launch was delayed on Saturday following a hydrogen leak, postponing a mission to the International Space Station by at least four days.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jun 2009 | 8:39 pm

Museum experts ID birds that bring down planes (AP)

AP - When animals are the prime suspects in a whodunit, who gets on the case? In capers where feathers or fur are the smoking guns, the role of CSI is often played by top natural history museums.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jun 2009 | 4:38 pm

Marijuana Damages DNA and May Cause Cancer

Study indicates marijuana damages genetic material in ways that could increase the risk of cancer.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Jun 2009 | 3:56 pm

Eeeek! Robot Mimics Rats

Psikharpax has working whiskers, cameras for eyes, microphone ears and a set of tiny wheels.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Jun 2009 | 3:26 pm

Gas leak postpones space shuttle launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA canceled plans to launch space shuttle Endeavour on a construction mission to the International Space Station on Saturday due to a potentially dangerous hydrogen leak.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 13 Jun 2009 | 3:11 pm

Rat Island Missing One Thing: Rats

An island in the Aleutian chain became infested by a Japanese ship in the 1700s. Now they've finally been killed off. Maybe.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Jun 2009 | 2:40 pm

Wow! Natural Art in the Ocean

This photo, taken from a NASA satellite, shows ocean currents converging in the Pacific Ocean.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Jun 2009 | 2:19 pm