New Therapy Found To Prevent Heart Failure In Many Patients

A landmark study has successfully demonstrated a 29 percent reduction in heart failure or death in patients with heart disease who received an implanted cardiac resynchronization therapy device with defibrillator (CRT-D) vs. patients who received only an implanted cardiac defibrillator (ICD-only).
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

Ability To Literally Imagine Oneself In Another's Shoes May Be Tied To Empathy

New research indicates the way our brain handles how we move through space -- including being able to imagine literally stepping into someone else's shoes -- may be related to how and why we experience empathy toward others.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

Brain Represents Tools As Temporary Body Parts, Study Confirms

Researchers have what they say is the first direct proof of a very old idea: that when we use a tool -- even for just a few minutes -- it changes the way our brain represents the size of our body. In other words, the tool becomes a part of what is known in psychology as our body schema.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

Feather Fibers Fluff Up Hydrogen Storage Capacity

Scientists in Delaware say they have developed a new hydrogen storage method -- carbonized chicken feather fibers -- that can hold vast amounts of hydrogen, a promising but difficult to corral fuel source, and do it at a far lower cost than other hydrogen storage systems under consideration.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

Autonomous Robot Detects Shrapnel In Flesh

Bioengineers have developed a laboratory robot that can successfully locate tiny pieces of metal within flesh and guide a needle to its exact location --- all without the need for human assistance.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

Genetic Markers To Help Fight Diabetes Discovered

Scientists have identified five genetic biomarkers that could help lead to improved treatments, with fewer side effects, for patients with diabetes.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

Complex Climate Bill May Freeze Your Web Browser

The House might vote Friday on a climate bill that has generated arguments from more sides than there are political parties.
Source: Livescience.com | 24 Jun 2009 | 1:49 pm

Military Domains: Air, Land Sea and Now Cyberspace

New Cyber Command to watch over and protect U.S. military computer systems.
Source: Livescience.com | 24 Jun 2009 | 12:53 pm

Monsanto, Dole to collaborate on veggies

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Monsanto Co and Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc are formalizing a partnership to breed vegetables that are more attractive to consumers.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 24 Jun 2009 | 12:23 pm

Obama urges passage of "historic" climate change bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, urged on by President Barack Obama, announced progress on Tuesday toward quick passage of legislation to fight global warming by reducing industrial emissions of carbon dioxide.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 24 Jun 2009 | 12:21 pm

Obama urges passage of "historic" climate change bill (Reuters)

Reuters - Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, urged on by President Barack Obama, announced progress on Tuesday toward quick passage of legislation to fight global warming by reducing industrial emissions of carbon dioxide.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jun 2009 | 12:21 pm

Why Moms Go Mad (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Motherly love seems to be hardwired in most females, but sometimes there's a glitch and moms abandon their childcare responsibilities. Among mice, the moms even sometimes eat their young when this apparent switch goes haywire.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jun 2009 | 12:16 pm

Why Moms Go Mad

Mice lacking serotonin make lousy moms.
Source: Livescience.com | 24 Jun 2009 | 12:12 pm

Evolution faster when it's warmer

The climate could have a direct effect on the speed of "molecular evolution" in mammals, according to a study.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 24 Jun 2009 | 12:05 pm

World's Fastest And Most Sensitive Astronomical Camera

The next generation of instruments for ground-based telescopes took a leap forward with the development of a new ultra-fast camera that can take 1,500 finely exposed images per second even when observing extremely faint objects. The first 240x240 pixel images with the world's fastest high precision faint light camera were just obtained.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2009 | 12:00 pm

Early Infection And Protection Against Allergies?

Allergies have become more common in the last few decades. It is still not fully clear why certain people develop allergies, but a strong risk factor is if the mother is allergic. Also, changes in life style are seen as playing a major role and several studies indicate that early exposure to bacteria and viruses may reduce the risk of allergies later in life.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2009 | 12:00 pm

Pneumococcal Vaccine Reduces Child Deaths In Developing Countries

A new trial has found that pneumococcal vaccine is effective in preventing severe pneumonia, the leading cause of death among children in developing countries. The large scale efficacy trial – first of its kind in Asia - was carried out in the Philippines to investigate the effect of an investigational pneumococcal vaccine.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2009 | 12:00 pm

‘Chemical Nose’ May Sniff Out Cancer Earlier

Using a "chemical nose" array of nanoparticles and polymers, researchers have developed a fundamentally new, more effective way to differentiate not only between healthy and cancerous cells but also between metastatic and non-metastatic cancer cells. It's a tool that could revolutionize cancer detection and treatment, according to chemists.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2009 | 12:00 pm

Spider Mimics Ants to Scare off Predators

This unusual spider fends off other spiders by mimicking the behavior an ant.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 24 Jun 2009 | 11:50 am

Visions of Saturn

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, is staging an exhibition of some of the most spectacular images of Saturn and its moons captured by Nasa's Cassini-Huygens craft

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 24 Jun 2009 | 11:32 am

Now hear this: get what you want by talking into someone's right ear

If you want to get someone to do something, ask them in their right ear, say scientists.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 24 Jun 2009 | 10:12 am

UK's infrastructure 'vulnerable'

UK infrastructure such as energy and transport networks are vulnerable to terrorism and bad weather, a report warns.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 24 Jun 2009 | 9:28 am

Where giant plants dare to grow

The height to which plants grow follows a global pattern, new research reveals for the first time.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 24 Jun 2009 | 9:00 am

Study: Women look away more from abnormal babies (AP)

AP - Puzzling new research suggests women have a harder time than men looking at babies with facial birth defects. It's a surprise finding. Psychiatrists from the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital, who were studying perceptions of beauty, had expected women to spend more time than men cooing over pictures of extra-cute babies. Nope.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jun 2009 | 7:48 am

Oil prices could surge if Iran crisis worsens (AFP)

AFP - World oil prices have so far not been pushed up much by post-election violence in key crude producer Iran -- but they could spike higher if the situation deteriorates, analysts have warned.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jun 2009 | 6:39 am

Have you got a license for that? Six-year-old test drives solar car

A solar-electric car built by students at a Welsh university is to be test driven by the son of the group's leader.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 24 Jun 2009 | 6:02 am

Japan refiner eyes solar-power business in Saudi (AFP)

AFP - A Japanese oil refiner said that it was considering operating solar-power plants in Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, in cooperation with state-owned energy giant Saudi Aramco.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jun 2009 | 5:42 am

Hurricane Andres pounds western Mexico, one dead (Reuters)

Reuters - Hurricane Andres, the first cyclone of the eastern Pacific season, pounded western Mexico on Tuesday after sweeping a fisherman to his death and flooding streets in Acapulco.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jun 2009 | 3:27 am

Ancient Mummy's Face Recreated

The face of a long-dead mummy has been brought back to life through forensic science.
Source: Livescience.com | 24 Jun 2009 | 2:13 am

Harder for Women to Look at Birth-defect Babies

Is it a maternal love problem? Don't bank on it.
Source: Livescience.com | 24 Jun 2009 | 2:12 am

The Most Humiliating Burial Method

Apparently used in many societies in history to disrespect or humiliate the dead.
Source: Livescience.com | 24 Jun 2009 | 12:22 am

Beef capital

Texas town's manure ethanol plan falls flat
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jun 2009 | 11:26 pm

Rocky ground

I enjoyed this exhibition, but I would have liked more information about the rocks. There were some beautiful photographs and clever ideas, and artist Richard Long creates a series of sculptures out of different kinds of rock. When I see a rock, I immediately want to go and have a look at it - find out where it came from, why Long used it. But the gallery staff would have screamed blue murder.

I thought there would be more geological context. I wish there was more information about where Long's materials came from, and whether geological factors had any effect on the sculptures he was making. There was one called Alpine Ellipse, which was made from basalt. I can't think of any locations in the European Alps that are made of basalt. I'd have liked an indication of why he had chosen them.

There were little explanations at the beginning of each room, and one of them said that even if the artist does nothing, if he doesn't pick anything up or move it about, it's still a piece of art. As a scientist, I was thinking: oh, really?

The various text pieces that Long wrote on his walks reminded me of a geological field notebook. Long's notes about crossing streams and seeing butterflies are not that different from the notes I would make on a field trip.

One of them talked about 355m-year-old Dartmoor granite. It sounded a bit unlikely, so I checked. It's actually between 270 and 277 million years, so Long is about 70m years out. In the grand scheme of things, if it makes people think about that enormous scope of time - and that's obviously the artist's motivation - then what are a few million years between friends?

• Dr Caroline Smith is a curator in the mineralogy department of the Natural History Museum. Heaven and Earth is at Tate Britain, London, until 6 September.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jun 2009 | 11:01 pm

Paul Simons' Plantwatch

This has been an outstanding year for wildflowers, with plenty of sunshine and showers. A wonderful sight now in high summer is banks of foxgloves, their tall spikes festooned with trumpet-like flowers splashed with spots and rings, beckoning bumblebees to crawl inside and pollinate them. Its Latin name is Digitalis purpurea; it has a long history of medical use, but it wasn't until the 18th century that its effect on stimulating the heart was discovered. Today digitalin drugs made from foxgloves are widely prescribed as heart stimulants.

Many road verges and fields left untouched by herbicides are flush with red poppies. Their seeds can lie in the ground for years before they are disturbed and sprout up, which is how they grew in vast profusion in the churned up battlefields of the western front in the first world war. According to folklore, picking poppy flowers was supposed to bring on a thunderstorm, although keeping the picked flowers high in a house was protection against lightning.

Our wild orchids are having a sensational summer, growing on chalky or limestone soils. Enjoying a revival on nature reserves are some rare species, such as the evocatively-named lady, man, soldier and monkey orchids. Easier to find is the magnificent bee orchid, with its bulbous furry lower petal. It is such a plucky little plant that many are seen on old alkaline chemical dumps around St Helens and Runcorn. It has even spread into southern Scotland.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jun 2009 | 11:01 pm

Obituary: Jack Dainty

Physicist and pioneer in the field of plant physiological research

Jack Dainty, who has died aged 90, was a pioneer in the field of plant biophysics. As a trained physicist, he argued successfully that the same sort of quantitative physical principles that had so successfully been applied to understanding how animals function could also be applied to plants. Dainty formulated some of the essential physical concepts that describe movement of ions and water into and through plant cells, and ultimately through the plant itself. These plant-related issues pertain to drought and salt stress, and, in the context of global warming, affect us all.

When, in the 1950s, Dainty transferred his research attentions from physics to plants, plant physiological research had, a reputation for being rather woolly. Dainty's lucid thinking helped to transform the phenomenological into the hypothesis-driven. His lasting legacy has been, through his research papers and through his mentorship of researchers, to get plant physiologists to think quantitatively.

Dainty was born and brought up in a Yorkshire mining community, in Mexborough, near Sheffield, and educated at Mexborough grammar school. He was a precocious child, excelling in two fields: mathematics and football. He was also interested in natural history and read widely around the subject. This interest, fuelled by long walks in the countryside, ignited his later professional interest in biology.

Nobody in Dainty's family had pursued education beyond 14, yet he obtained a scholarship to Queens' College, Cambridge, to study mathematics, transferring to physics because he felt the former subject too narrow. At the beginning and end of each term, he would cycle the 120 miles or so between Mexborough and Cambridge.

After the end of his undergraduate course in 1940, Dainty was recruited in Cambridge to work on nuclear fission. The issue was clear: the prospect of a British atomic bomb. But Dainty realised was that this was not so much a research problem as a technological one. With some scientists spirited off to Los Alamos, and the Manhattan Project, Dainty was left heading the cyclotron team. After a period at the Canadian atomic energy laboratories at Chalk River, Ontario (1946-49), Dainty returned to an academic position in physics at Edinburgh University. He lectured on relativity, quantum theory, and the theory of errors. And then something happened.

In 1952, Dainty was asked to teach physics to a class of 300 medical, dental and veterinary students. Initially, he declined, on the basis that he would not wish to teach students who were not interested in physics. An enlightened head of department, the nuclear physicist Norman Feather, negotiated with the university that there could be a department of biophysics as a quid pro quo, with Dainty as its head, were Dainty to undertake the teaching. The department was established in an old chicken shed, and thus Dainty changed career.

Although he researched for a short time on ion transport across nerve cell membranes, Dainty wanted to develop novel systems, and viewed plants as an opportunity. Little was known about the physical principles that underpinned the movement of ions and water across plant cell membranes, and Dainty, together with his first graduate student, Enid MacRobbie, established, through the application of radioisotopes (to measure ion fluxes), in which direction the transport of the ions sodium and chloride was energised. A key critical finding at that time was in alerting investigators to the nature of unstirred layers - a principle familiar to physicists and engineers, but widely ignored by biologists.

In 1963, Dainty moved to the University of East Anglia to become one of the four founding chairs in what is now a thriving school of biological sciences. There, he was able to integrate biophysics as a key element in a biology curriculum. In the ensuing six years, Dainty established UEA as a centre for plant biophysics. He moved, in 1969, to take academic positions in California before accepting the chair in botany at the University of Toronto in 1972. He spent the final two decades of his career there.

Dainty was an avid reader of novels and perhaps it was this love of literature that made him also an outstanding communicator of science. Some authoritative reviews in the early 1960s not only made accessible to the average plant biologist the biophysical concepts of ion and water transport in plants: they also inspired considerable research in the field.

Dainty was, above all, a modest person. A lifelong socialist, he always remembered his origins and never sought recognition - being much more interested in talking about science than gossiping about accolades. Even so, he was elected to the national science academies of Canada, Italy, France and Scotland. It is a sad reflection of the prejudices regarding plant science research during the 1970s that the Royal Society never elected Dainty as a fellow.

Besides his love of literature and music, Dainty played semi-professional football before the second world war and had a trial, as a schoolboy, for Huddersfield Town. He could converse in Italian, French and Czech.

Dainty was married and divorced twice; he is survived by his children, Anton, Chris, Jacquetta and Patrick, by his first wife, Mary, and Jack and Mathew, by his second wife, Trish.

• Jack Dainty, plant biophysicist, born 7 May 1919; died 29 May 2009

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jun 2009 | 11:01 pm

Does a 4-year-old Need a Cell Phone?

Mobile phones are being actively marketed to young kids now. Is it right?
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jun 2009 | 10:08 pm

Requests to the Right Ear Are More Successful Than to the Left

You’re in a loud and sweaty Italian dance club when a woman approaches you. To be heard over the techno, she leans in close and yells into your ear, “Hai una sigaretta?”

If she spoke into your right ear, you would be twice as likely to give her a cigarette than if she asked by your left ear, according to a new study that employed this methodology in the clubs of Pescara, Italy. Of 88 clubbers who were approached on the right, 34 let the researcher bum a smoke, compared with 17 of 88 whom she approached on the left.

“The present work is one of the few studies demonstrating the natural expression of hemispheric asymmetries, showing their effect in everyday human behavior,” write psychologists Daniele Marzoli and Luca Tommasi of the University G. d’Annunzio in Italy.

It’s the latest in a series of studies that show that sound from both human ears is processed differently within the brain. Researchers have noted that humans tend to have a preference for listening to verbal input with their right ears and that given stimulus in both ears, they’ll privilege the syllables that went into the right ear. Brain scientists hypothesize that the right ear auditory stream receives precedence in the left hemisphere of the brain, where the bulk of linguistic processing is carried out.

What’s surprising about the study is that ear choice had such a decided impact on the behavior of participants in a natural, or as the researchers put it, ecological, setting. Why would people feel more generous when their right ears are addressed?

Marzoli and Tommasi write that some work has shown that the left and right hemispheres of the brain appear to be tuned for positive and negative emotions, respectively. Talk into the right ear and you send your words into a slightly more amenable part of the brain.

“These results seem to be consistent with the hypothesized differential specialization of right and left hemispheres,” they write.

In addition to the direct cigarette-ask study, they also simply observed people interacting and also asked for cigarettes without directing their requests towards a particular ear. The Italian researchers picked the night club setting because the loud music allowed the cigarette-asker to approach people and speak directly into one ear without seeming “odd.”

While the liquored-up setting might seem unconventional, they view their work in a real life setting as a valuable counterbalance to highly artificial in-lab psychological studies.

“[W]e would finally like to add that it is of utmost importance, in times of massive use of imaging techniques (that by definition impose severe constraints on the observation of neural activities in freely acting subjects) to continue to provide ecological evidence of brain functioning,” they conclude.

See Also:

• Gestures of Pride and Shame Are Universal
• More on the Role of Psychologists in Government-Sponsored Torture
• Self-Esteem Starts With Self-Compassion
• The Most Important Psychology Experiment That’s Never Been Done
• Men Are Hard-Wired to Suspect Infidelity
• Voter Superstitions, or Why You’re Wearing Blue or Red
• Celeb Antics Stem From Mental Illness, Says Dr. Drew

Image: flickr/THEfunkyman

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 23 Jun 2009 | 9:59 pm

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 Animals that Can Count

You've heard about monkeys counting, and we'll agree that most humans can. But...
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jun 2009 | 9:07 pm

Live From the Moon: NASA Probe Beams Home New Lunar Views (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - A new NASA probe beamed down live images of the moon early Tuesday to reveal a stark surface littered with craters, as it flew toward a planned crash at the lunar south pole later this year.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jun 2009 | 9:01 pm

Denmark asks to resume humpback whale hunt (AFP)

AFP - Denmark on Tuesday officially requested permission to resume hunting humpback whales off Greenland, in a move that has angered environmentalists.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jun 2009 | 8:27 pm

Locusts Swarm Ethiopia

What causes these Biblical-sounding events? Scientists call it "collective motion."
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jun 2009 | 8:21 pm

Green Screens for Iran: How Much Does It Help?

Many Twitter and Facebook users have colored their picture or avatar green in support of the protesters.
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jun 2009 | 8:02 pm

Biden: Council will help auto workers get new jobs (AP)

AP - A new government council will help auto industry workers transition to new manufacturing opportunities, including jobs in alternative energy, Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jun 2009 | 7:26 pm

Spitzer Telescope Warms Up to Its New Mission (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - Last month, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope ran out of the cryogen that has kept its instruments cool and allowed them to peer through the universe at some of the coldest objects in space for the last 5.5 years.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jun 2009 | 7:15 pm

'Man Vs. Wild' Helps Lost Boy Survive Alone

Nine-year-old uses tips from 'Man Vs. Wild' to survive in Utah's forests.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 23 Jun 2009 | 7:15 pm

BLOG: Russian Volcano Shocks the World

Astronauts spot a Russian volcano eruption from space.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 23 Jun 2009 | 7:00 pm

Stem cell treatment gives hope to Crohn's disease sufferers

Sufferers from the debilitating bowel condition Crohn's disease may be cured using a groundbreaking stem cell treatment, according to the British doctor leading the research.

Initial findings from the world's first controlled trial of the procedure have raised hopes that it could banish the disease's symptoms for many years in up to half of the patients who undergo it.

The pioneering therapy involves "rebooting" the patient's immune system, by first destroying the cells that have attacked it to cause the Crohn's, and then replacing them.

Professor Chris Hawkey, a gastroenterologist at Nottingham University, is leading the Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation in Crohn's Disease (Astic) trial. So far, 15 patients from six European countries, including three Britons, have taken part, though others are being recruited.

"I'm hopeful that half or more of the patients who undergo stem cell transplantation may either be cured or have a long-term remission," said Hawkey.

Hawkey, other specialist doctors and patients involved in the trial will tomorrow meet the chancellor, Alastair Darling, to press for the NHS to offer better treatment across the UK to the estimated 60,000 people who have Crohn's and the 140,000 who suffer from colitis.

Crohn's is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that causes ulceration and inflammation of the digestive tract. Existing treatments all involve drugs, which help sufferers to control their symptoms, but do not offer a cure. It wrecks lives because its embarrassing and painful symptoms – including diarrhoea, stomach pains, fatigue and weight loss – can mean that those with the most severe form of Crohn's find it hard to go to school or college, hold down a job or plan a holiday.

The stem cell treatment, which takes two years, is very painful for patients, and involves risks including bleeding, infection and a 1%-2% chance of death. The stem cell transplantation is used to kill off the patient's old bone marrow, which produces the harmful cells that cause the Crohn's, and generate new cells.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jun 2009 | 5:54 pm

Reverse-Engineering the Quantum Compass of Birds

Scientists are coming ever closer to understanding the cellular navigation tools that guide birds in their unerring, globe-spanning migrations.

The latest piece of the puzzle is superoxide, an oxygen molecule that may combine with light-sensitive proteins to form an in-eye compass, allowing birds to see Earth’s magnetic field.

“It connects from the subatomic world to a whole bird flying,” said Michael Edidin, an editor of Biphysical Journal, which published the study last week. “That’s exciting!”

The superoxide theory is proposed by Biophysicist Klaus Schulten of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, lead author of the study and a pioneer in avian magnetoreception. Schulten first hypothesized in 1978 that some sort of biochemical reaction took place in birds’ eyes, most likely producing electrons whose spin was affected by subtle magnetic gradients.

In 2000, Schulten refined this model, suggesting that the compass contained a photoreceptor protein called cryptochrome, which reacted with an as-yet-unidentified molecule to produce pairs of electrons that existed in a state of quantum entanglement — spatially separated, but each still able to affect the other.

According to this model, when a photon hits the compass, entangled electrons are scattered to different parts of the molecule. Variations in Earth’s magnetic field cause them to spin in different ways, each of which leaves the compass in a slightly different chemical state. The state alters the flow of cellular signals through a bird’s visual pathways, ultimately resulting in a perception of magnetism.

Far-fetched as it sounds, subsequent research from multiple groups has found cellular evidence of such a system. Molecular experiments suggest that it’s indeed sensitive to Earth’s geomagnetics, and computational models suggest a level of quantum entanglement only dreamed of by physicists, who hope to use entangled electrons to store information in quantum computers.

But though cryptochrome is likely part of the compass, the other part is still unknown. In April, another group of magnetoreception researchers showed that oxygen could interact with cryptochrome to produce the necessary electron entanglements. Schulten’s latest proposed role for superoxide, an oxygen anion found in bird eyes, fits with their findings.

Edidin cautioned that “this is still not an experimental demonstration. It’s a possibility.”

As for the perceptual result of the compass, it remains a mystery. Some researchers think birds might see a dot at the edge of their vision, swiveling according to the direction they’re facing. Others think it might produce effects of color or hue. Perhaps migrating birds fly towards the light.

See Also:

• Hacking Salmon’s Mental Compass to Save Endangered Fish
• Google Earth Reveals Sixth Sense of Cattle, Deer
• Cows Really Do Have a Magnetic Sixth Sense

Citations: “Magnetoreception through Cryptochrome May Involve Superoxide.” By Ilia A. Solov’yov and Klaus Schulten. Biophysical Journal, Vol. 96 Issue 12, June 17, 2009.

“Quantum coherence and entanglement in the avian compass.” By Elisabeth Rieper, Erik Gauger, John J. L. Morton, Simon C. Benjamin, Vlatko Vedral. arXiv, June 19, 2009.

“Magnetic Compass of Birds Is Based on a Molecule with Optimal Directional Sensitivity.” Thorsten Ritz, Roswitha Wiltschko, P.J. Hore, Christopher T. Rodgers, Katrin Stapput, Peter Thalau, Christiane R. Timmel and Wolfgang Wiltschko. Biophysical Journal, Vol. 96 Issue 8, April 22, 2009.

Image: fdecomite/Flickr

Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on Twitter.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 23 Jun 2009 | 5:36 pm

UK climate change policies 'dangerously optimistic'

Decc and Defra are like 'small dogs yapping at the heels' of more powerful departments, says leading climate scientist

A leading UK climate scientist today warned MPs that the government's climate change policies are "dangerously optimistic".

Professor Kevin Anderson, the director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, said the government's planned carbon cuts – if followed internationally – would have a "50-50 chance" of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 2C. This is the threshold that the EU defines as leading to "dangerous" climate change.

Anderson also said that the two government departments most directly involved with climate change policy, were like "small dogs yapping at the heels" of more powerful departments such as that run by the business secretary, Lord Mandelson. He said that the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc), run by Ed Miliband, should be given more power.

Anderson was speaking to MPs on the environmental audit committee as part of an inquiry into the UK's carbon budgets. These are legally binding caps on emissions set over five years by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the independent body set up to advise the government on how big the cuts should be.

In April, the CCC's proposed cut of 34% by 2020 relative to 1990 levels was adopted by the chancellor in his budget, making Britain the first country in the world to pursue legally binding emissions reductions. The CCC hopes that the government will adopt a higher intended budget (a 42% reduction in emissions by 2020) within the next two years, once a global deal on climate change has been agreed. But Anderson said that the UK should show leadership before the Copenhagen summit and raise the target to 40% now.

The top scientist's criticism will come as an unwelcome distraction to Decc ahead of the release of its "road to Copenhagen" strategy document on Friday. This will lay out what the government hopes to achieve at the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December and why the meeting is so important. The report will be accompanied by a dedicated website and online video.

But Anderson said that without more ambitious action he feared that a significant deal at Copenhagen would not be achieved. "No one I talk to thinks there is going to be anything significant to come out of Copenhagen," he said.

"We are going to come out and recover the deck-chairs in preparation for moving them as the Titanic sinks. We're not even at the stage of rearranging them," he added.

He criticised CCC's carbon budget because it failed to adequately factor in emissions from food, deforestation, aviation and shipping and the manufacture of goods for the west.

Anderson said a commitment to a 40% cut by 2020 would help to press other countries into a stronger deal on a successor to the Kyoto protocol. "It would send a much stronger message at Copenhagen that we need those levels of cuts," he said. "After 2020 you're looking at completely decarbonising the global system. It would take a vertical drop in emissions after 2020 if we have any chance of meeting the 2050 target."

David Kennedy, the chief executive of the CCC, said: "The CCC set a 2050 emissions reduction target guided by the latest scientific research and comprehensive climate modelling across the full range of emitting sectors and gases. The target, together with deep cuts from other developed and developing countries, is designed to keep global mean temperature increase as close to 2C as is practically possible. The carbon budgets are designed to put the UK on a pathway to the 80% target and to meet the climate change objective".

Anderson praised politicians for taking on the science of climate change. But accused them of letting policy be driven by political expediency rather than science. He compared Decc and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), to "small dogs yapping at the heels" of more powerful departments such as the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and the Treasury. He said the Treasury should be "dancing to the tune of Decc".

A spokesperson for Decc said: "The UK will be pushing for the most ambitious deal possible at Copenhagen. At home we've taken the CCC's advice and have set a legally binding target to achieve at least a 34% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions against 1990 levels by 2020, consistent with our share of the EU 2020 target. We've already said that we'll look again at tightening our carbon budgets once an international agreement has been achieved."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jun 2009 | 3:39 pm

Scientists harvest stem cells from placentas for future treatments

Placentas are a rich source of stem cells, which can be used to treat a wide range of diseases in later life

Scientists have developed a way to harvest stem cells efficiently from placentas after birth, opening up a potential new source of the cells which can be used to treat a wide range of illnesses including sickle cell disease, thalassaemia and leukaemia.

Frans Kuypers of the Children's Hospital and Research Centre in Oakland, California, led a team to extract the stem cells and found that placentas contained up to five times as many as cord blood, which has been used in recent years as a source of similar cells. His techniques are described in the latest edition of the journal Experimental Biology and Medicine.

"Yes, the stem cells are there; yes, they are viable; and yes, we can get them out," said Kuypers. His team harvested the cells from the placentas of healthy women undergoing elective Caesarean sections. He believes the technique could probably be further optimised in future to harvest even more of the stem cells.

Stem cells are the body's master cells and can be turned into almost any type of tissue – from brain cells to blood cells. The most versatile come from embryos but, because harvesting these results in the destruction of the embryo, many scientists are investigating other sources. Adults have stem cells too, for example in bone marrow, but these are less versatile than their embryonic cousins.

A lot of recent attention has therefore focused on the potential of cord blood and placentas, which can be collected without any risk to babies, as a source of stem cells. Increasingly parents have been freezing the cord blood of their newborn children in the hope that it might one day prove useful for treatments.

In his analysis, Kuypers showed that placenta stem cells have many of the characteristics of cord blood stem cells and might be even more "primitive", meaning they are more versatile.

Scientists at the Children's Hospital in Oakland have already treated more than 100 children suffering from blood-related diseases using stem cells taken from the cord blood of siblings. But when a patient receives a cord blood transplant, said Kuypers, there are often not enough stem cells to treat their condition. Placentas may be a more rich source of the cells. "The more stem cells, the bigger the chance of success."

His team's new technique uses drugs normally used to extract stem cells from bone marrow. The placenta is frozen after birth and treated with the drugs later, to avoid any harm to the baby or new mother.

The technique would allow companies to gather and process placentas at a central location. "We're looking for a partnership with industry to get placenta-derived stem cells in large quantities to the clinic," said Kuypers. "Someday we will be able to save a lot more kids and adults from these horrific blood disorders."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jun 2009 | 3:37 pm

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