Science Headlines for June 20, 2009

Got Ear Plugs? You May Want To Sport Them On The Subway And Other Mass Transit, Researchers Say

Recent public health studies on the US mass transit system have identified several sources of environmental hazards associated with mass transit, including excessive noise. Scientists have found that MTA subways had the highest average noise levels of all mass transit in New York City, with levels high enough to potentially increase the risk of noise induced hearing loss.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pm

Severely Memory-deficit Mutant Mouse Created

A Japanese research group has successfully generated a novel kinase-dead mutant mouse of the CaMKIIalpha gene that completely and exclusively lacks its kinase activity. They examined hippocampal synaptic plasticity and behavioral learning of the mouse, and found a severe deficit.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pm

Antibiotics-resistant Gulls Worry Scientists

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are spreading to and throughout the environment. The resistance pattern for antibiotics in gulls is the same as in humans, and a new study shows that nearly half of Mediterranean gulls in southern France have some form of resistance to antibiotics.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pm

Punching Holes Into Herpes Viruses

Scientists have completed the first description of the mechanics of so-called nuclear herpes virus capsids.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pm

Plant Communication: Sagebrush Engage In Self-recognition And Warn Of Danger

Sagebrush engaged in self-recognition and communicate danger to their "clones" or genetically identical cuttings planted nearby, researchers show.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pm

Is Nanotechnology Safe? Interactions Between Nanomaterials And Biological Systems Explored

Tremendous growth in the development of nanomaterials with enhanced performance characteristics which are being used for commercial and medical applications prompts researchers to take a proactive role in examining the nano-bio interface to identify potential risks of engineered nanomaterials and explore methods for safer designs for use in drug delivery therapeutics and commercial products.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pm

Certain Zinc-based Cold Remedies Linked To Loss Of Sense Of Smell, FDA Says

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has advised consumers to stop using three products marketed over-the-counter as cold remedies because they are associated with the loss of sense of smell (anosmia). Anosmia may be long-lasting or permanent.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

Herschel’s Daring Test: A Glimpse Of Things To Come

Herschel opened its 'eyes' on 14 June and the Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer obtained images of M51, 'the whirlpool galaxy' for a first test observation. Scientists obtained images in three colors from the observation, which clearly demonstrate the excellence of Herschel, the largest infrared space telescope ever flown.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

Researchers 'All Aglow' Over New Test Of Toxin Strength

A new NIST assay using a "glow or no glow" technique may soon help the US Department of Homeland Security defend the nation against a spectrum of biological weapons that could be used in a terrorist attack.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

New Vaccination Strategy May Protect Against Both Lethal 1918 And H5N1 Influenza Viruses

A new study suggests that vaccination with 1918 H1N1 influenza virus-like particles not only protected mice and ferrets against the lethal 1918 influenza virus, but also displayed cross-reactive immunity against the potentially pandemic H5N1 influenza virus.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

Chiropractors forced to take down websites after 'witch hunt'

A chiropractic association has strongly advised its members to remove websites and withdraw patient leaflets or risk prosecution

On 10 June a revealing letter from the McTimoney Chiropractic Association was published on Andy Lewis's excellent website, The Quackometer. The strongly worded letter from the MCA advises all its members to take down their websites immediately or risk prosecution. The letter refers to "a witch hunt against chiropractors" with campaigners targeting "any claims for treatment that cannot be substantiated with chiropractic research".

The use of the phrase "witch hunt" brings to mind visions of the Salem witch trials or the worst excesses of the McCarthy era, with innocent people being unjustly persecuted by those in power. Challenging unsubstantiated treatment claims does not seem to me to qualify as a witch hunt.

The letter goes on to advise members to "REMOVE all the blue MCA patient information leaflets, or any patient information leaflets of your own that state you treat whiplash, colic or other childhood problems in your clinic" and, "If you use business cards or other stationery using the 'doctor' title and it does not clearly state that you are a doctor of chiropractic or that you are not a registered medical practitioner, STOP USING THEM immediately."

They were also warned to "Be wary of 'mystery shopper' phone calls and 'drop ins' to your practice, especially if they start asking about your care of children, or whiplash, or your evidence base for practice."

The letter concludes: "Finally, we strongly suggest you do NOT discuss this with others, especially patients. Firstly it would not be ethical to burden patients with this, though if they ask we hope you now have information with which you can respond." It is reassuring to see that the MCA takes its ethical responsibilities so seriously.

Just in case any of its members had not got the message, the MCA letter states: "IF YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THIS ADVICE, YOU MAY BE AT RISK FROM PROSECUTION."

What caused the MCA to react with such panic? As most readers will already know, the lack of good clinical evidence relating to the use of chiropractic for treating a range of disorders with no direct link to problems of the spine has come under the spotlight as never before following the decision of the British Chiropractic Association to sue science writer Simon Singh.

In an article in the Guardian last year he criticised the BCA for claiming that its members could use spinal manipulation to treat children with colic, ear infections, asthma, sleeping and feeding conditions, and prolonged crying. Singh described the treatments as "bogus" and based on insufficient evidence, and criticised the BCA for "happily promoting" them. At a preliminary hearing last month to decide the meaning of the article, a judge ruled that Singh had implied that the BCA was being consciously dishonest.

Could this explain the MCA's apocalyptic letter to its members? Apparently so. When the Guardian approached the association to check the authenticity of the leaked letter, it responded with a statement:

Following the High Court decision and in what one can only speculate was a spirit of retribution, a number of Dr Singh's supporters decided to launch, in their own words, a "blitzkrieg" against the chiropractic profession. This has centred on trawling the websites of chiropractors and one individual, Alan Henness, has made complaints against over 500 individual chiropractors to the Statutory Regulator for chiropractors, the General Chiropractic Council (GCC).

It continues:

For a chiropractor, having a complaint made against you to the GCC is a very serious matter. The process of having a complaint investigated by the GCC is a very stressful, protracted and ultimately expensive process for the chiropractor, however minor or serious the misdemeanour, regardless of the eventual outcome ... As soon as the MCA became aware of the actions of the 'skeptics', as they like to call themselves, we advised our members to withdraw their web sites as a precautionary measure in light of what was considered to be a vexatious campaign against the profession.

And in conclusion:

The MCA has nothing to hide – and it is our belief that our members have not intentionally breached any rules regarding the content of their websites. The MCA was not alone in advising such precautions; indeed at least two other chiropractic associations have given similar advice to their members.

The BCA's use of the perverse English libel laws in an attempt to silence Singh has caused outrage and concern in equal measure among scientists, journalists, and indeed anyone who values free speech and honest debate. Detailed coverage of the case can be found at Jack of Kent's superb blog.

An interesting development took place on 20 May when the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) published its adjudication on whether chiropractors Dr Carl Irwin and Associates "could substantiate the implied claim that their therapies could successfully treat some of the conditions mentioned, in particular IBS, colic and learning difficulties". The relevant part of the adjudication reads as follows:

We considered that, whilst some of the studies indicated that further research was worth pursuing, in particular in relation to the chiropractic relief of colic, we had not seen robust clinical evidence to support the claim that chiropractic could treat IBS, colic and learning difficulties.
On these points the ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 50.1 (Health and Beauty Products and Therapies).

The ASA instructed that the offending advertisement must not appear again and that the practice must not refer to the treatment of IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), colic and learning difficulties in future. Furthermore, the chiropractors gave assurances that they would not refer to themselves as "doctors" in any future advertising to avoid giving the misleading impression to members of the public that they held general medical qualifications.

Some people were so angered by the BCA's legal assault on Singh that they decided to follow up the ASA ruling. Among them was Simon Perry, organiser of the Leicester branch of Skeptics in the Pub. Singh's own account can be found on Perry's Adventures in Nonsense blog.

Essentially, Perry downloaded from the BCA website the details and websites of 174 chiropractic practices that either claimed to treat colic or else implied that chiropractic was an effective treatment for this condition. Using their postcodes, he then found their local trading standards office using the Trading Standards Institute website. Having checked the content of each chiropractic website, he then mailed 84 letters of complaint to trading standards offices, referring to the ASA adjudication and saying he believed the practices in question to be in breach of the unfair commercial practice regulations and other consumer protection legislation.

He has posted the latest results on his Adventures in Nonsense blog. It appears that out of the 84 chiropractors he reported to trading standards with individual letters, 14 have now removed the word "colic" from all pages on their web sites. Out of 55 individual chiropractors that Perry reported to the General Chiropractic Council, 13 have removed the word from all of their web pages.

Perry kindly agreed to perform a similar mail-merge on my behalf. My letters, around 80 of them, simply pointed out that as far as I was aware there is no convincing scientific evidence that chiropractic is an effective treatment for colic.

At the time of writing, I have received some 46 replies. The vast majority of these are simply acknowledging receipt of my complaint and telling me that it will be investigated. The others display a wide range of decisions regarding my concerns.

Trading Standards Service of East Sussex County Council informed me that they had been in touch with Lushington Chiropractic to advise them of the ASA's adjudication and to ask them to remove any reference to the conditions mentioned. Interestingly, their letter to me also states that "The General Chiropractic Council have recently contacted them regarding this, and so they have already taken steps to have the statements removed from their website and literature as soon as possible."

A similar response was received from the Borough of Poole Environmental and Consumer Protection Services with regard to Amethyst Chiropractic Clinic. A few responses informed me that the practices in question appeared to have already removed any references to the treatment of colic (possibly as a result of the MCA letter?).

Other responses simply reported that the trading standards officer in question had decided not to take any action against the chiropractic practice. Some, such as the environmental protection department of Sefton Council, proclaimed that my complaint had been investigated and, in its opinion, the Back for Your Future Family Chiropractic Clinic was not contravening any of the legislation that it enforces. No justification was provided for this verdict.

Four letters were particularly worrying. The trading standards officers for Haringey Council, the City of Edinburgh Council, and the Highland Council all claimed that they could only take action against the practices if they could "prove beyond all reasonable doubt" that the claim that chiropractic can treat colic is false or misleading. There is no obligation on the part of the trader, I was informed, to establish anything.

Mark McGinty of the Highland Council informed me that "For your information, it would appear that the evidence available is inconclusive … " and Simon Keegan, the trading standards inspector employed by the Northern Ireland Trading Standards Service, told me that "there is no conclusive scientific evidence stating that chiropractic does not offer effective treatment for infantile colic."

As it happens, to the best of my knowledge, there is no conclusive scientific evidence that chewing my toe-nail clippings is not an effective cure for Aids, but I would rather hope that trading standards services would take some action against me should I ever decide to set up a business based upon this claim.

The most commonly cited paper in support of the treatment of infantile colic by chiropractic is by Klougart, Nilsson, and Jacobsen (1989). They showed that 94% of a group of 316 infants suffering from colic improved when treated with chiropractic. The appropriate response to this statistic is "So what?" As no control group was included in the study, we simply cannot know if the results might have been even better if no spinal manipulation had been employed.

A subsequent study by Olafsdottir, Forshei, Fluge, and Markestad (2001) did include a placebo control group and concluded that "Chiropractic spinal manipulation is no more effective than placebo in the treatment of infantile colic." This raises the question of what exactly would constitute proof "beyond all reasonable doubt", to the satisfaction of certain trading standards officers, that chiropractic is ineffective as a treatment for colic?

Overall, though, the effect of this campaign appears to have been very positive from the perspective of those who value science, free speech and open debate. The BCA has shot itself in the foot by taking the heavy-handed approach it did with respect to Simon Singh's article. By doing so, it has brought the lack of good evidence for many of chiropractors' claims right out into the bright light of day.

If you care about science and free speech, join the 12,000 people who have already signed up to support Simon Singh and keep the libel laws out of science at the Sense About Science website.

Chris French is a professor of psychology at Goldsmiths in London where he heads the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit. He edits the [UK] Skeptic magazine

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 20 Jun 2009 | 9:58 am

Study: Beijing's air worse than at past Olympics (AP)

AP - Beijing's notoriously dirty air was cleaner during last summer's Olympic games, but pollution levels were still much worse than at recent Olympics, despite a massive Chinese cleanup campaign, a new report said.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 20 Jun 2009 | 9:03 am

India orders Afghan-bound US plane to land (AFP)

AFP - Air traffic controllers forced a US-chartered cargo plane carrying ammunition to Afghanistan to land at Mumbai airport after it violated Indian air space, according to officials.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 20 Jun 2009 | 7:11 am

Sex Change Operations: The Science, Sociology and Psychology (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Chaz Bono, as Sonny and Cher's former daughter is now known, began a surgical process to become a man earlier this year, and in doing so, joined the increasing numbers of people who now undergo gender-reassignment surgery annually.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 20 Jun 2009 | 2:45 am

New Mexico breaks ground on commercial spaceport

PHOENIX (Reuters) - New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson broke ground on Friday on construction of Spaceport America, the world's first facility built specifically for space-bound commercial customers and fee-paying passengers.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 19 Jun 2009 | 10:26 pm

Awkward Launch of a Giant Balloon/Telescope

What a clumsy yet delicate launch! See the video.
Source: Livescience.com | 19 Jun 2009 | 9:41 pm

Next Mars Rover Gets Huge Heat Shield (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - The largest heat shield ever built for a probe bound for Mars is ready for the new rover Curiosity, a massive Martian robot the size of a car.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 19 Jun 2009 | 9:30 pm

Hydrogen: Future of Fuels Finally Drives Up

What emits no carbon, stores electric energy from renewable sources, and makes engines run fast and powerfully? Hint: the Universe is mostly made of it (so it should be cheap).
Source: Livescience.com | 19 Jun 2009 | 9:18 pm

'Surprise' prostate result probed

Researchers are probing an unexpected success in a study of an experimental treatment for prostate cancer.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 19 Jun 2009 | 9:03 pm

Canada to ban some chemicals in toys, vinyl bibs

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian government proposed on Friday to ban the use of chemicals known as phthalates in soft vinyl toys, dolls, inflatable toys and vinyl bibs that could cause problems if sucked or chewed by a child for extended periods.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 19 Jun 2009 | 8:20 pm

Old People May Be Immune to Swine Flu

Just having been alive for a while could protect you from getting the novel swine flu circling the planet.

In 1977, a type of H1N1 virus, commonly known as the “Russian flu,” spread across the world, infecting people under 25 at much higher rates than their elders, who had been exposed to similar viruses in the ’40s and ’50s. In the first documented American outbreak, 70 percent of the students fell ill at a high school in Cheyenne, Wyoming, while their teachers proved immune. As the Air Force Academy’s chief medical officer said in 1978, “It’s one of the advantages of being middle-aged.”

Now, Leonard Mermel, an infectious disease specialist at Rhode Island Hospital, suggests the current flu virus could be similar enough to that ’70s strain that older people could again find themselves immune to a new virus.

“It might be that the H1N1 circulating now (swine-origin influenza virus) has enough antigenic similarity to related H1N1 influenza strains of the past to protect older individuals exposed to them previously,” Mermel wrote in a letter to the journal The Lancet.

That would be good news for public health officials and explain one of the more puzzling aspects of the new swine flu outbreak: why young people seem to be more susceptible to the disease than their parents and grandparents. Regular seasonal flu tends to disproportionately strike the old, not the strapping youthful masses. That can lead to higher morbidity because the elderly population is not as healthy overall. If older people are already immune, public health organizations could allocate what are sure to be small amounts of vaccine to the right populations.

Larry Madoff, editor of the epidemiological news service, ProMED Mail, a program of the International Society of Infectious Diseases, said that Mermel’s hypothesis was plausible, but would require further investigation.

“There may be other factors at play here as well,” Madoff said. The variance in infection rates among age groups “could also be due to the transmission patterns, the epidemiology. Kids are together more, confined in schools more. The immunology may not be the whole story.”

Still, Madoff said that while the jury is still out, Mermel’s theory “looks pretty good,” particularly when combined with recent biological lab work.

In a Centers for Disease Control publication, the Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report, scientists reported that older adults are, in fact, better immunologically prepared.

“Results among adults suggest that some degree of preexisting immunity to the novel H1N1 strains exists, especially among adults aged >60 years,” they wrote. “One possible explanation is that some adults in this age group have had previous exposure, either through infection or vaccination, to an influenza A (H1N1) virus that is genetically and antigenically more closely related to the novel influenza A (H1N1) virus than are contemporary seasonal H1N1 strains.”

1:40 PM PST: This post has been updated with comments from Larry Madoff and the CDC study.

See Also:

Image: flickr/helpage. Azuma Nakahira/HelpAge International 2008

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 | 19 Jun 2009 | 8:06 pm

Tweet Me to the Moon, Let Me Play Among the Nerds

moonlanding

How would you like to talk to someone on another continent by bouncing your voice off the moon?

Yes, you can do that, and many of your fellow Wired Science readers and @wiredscience followers entered our moon bounce contest in hopes of scoring a chance to join in a massive translunar conversation in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

We received many attempts at the poetic and profound (and perhaps even a few succeeded), some that nodded to history and others that looked toward the future, and the requisite passel of geeky references (though surprisingly only one “all your base are base are belong to us”), but this tweet was one of the few that made us laugh. The winner is:

@russjosephs Hey Aliens: Yeah, you have cool spaceships that fly at lightspeed and communicate tele-whatically. But you know what we got? Federline

Congrats! The prize is the opportunity to go to a moon bounce station on June 26 to transmit the tweet with your voice to the moon and back down to another spot on the globe, and receive a reply from another lunatic. Your voice will be crossing those of amateur radio astronomers, space enthusiasts, former astronauts and a few celebrities as it travels around 478,000 miles in about 2.5 seconds.

While we could only choose one winner, there were many worthy and entertaining entries. And several themes ran through the tweets. Some such as this one acknowledged the role the moon plays in moving Earth’s oceans:

@puppyfury hi moon, thanks for taking care of our oceans!

The more futuristic tweets focused on the potential for human travel to and colonization of the Moon, such as this rather optimistic one from a follower in Australia (which is one of the main countries participating in world Moon Bounce day):

@bootload “I am convinced that before twenty years are over one-half of our earth will have paid a visit to the moon.”

In addition to our winner, many of our followers sought to converse with other lifeforms:

@sarstar Hello! Is there anybody out there? Please visit!

And of course there were a few nods to Pink Floyd, claims that the Moon landing was a hoax and several versions of Neil Armstrong’s famous, and highly tweetable, lunar transmission from 40 years ago: