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Molecule That Regulates Heart Size Developed By Using Zebrafish Screening ModelUsing zebrafish, researchers have identified and described an enzyme inhibitor that increases the number of cardiac progenitor cells and influences the size of the developing heart. The task was accomplished primarily because of the powerful advantages of studying embryonic development in zebrafish, vertebrates whose transparent embryos develop rapidly, are small and easy to handle and, most importantly, grow outside of the mother.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm 'Rosetta Stone' Of Bacterial Communication DiscoveredThe Rosetta Stone of bacterial communication may have been found. Although they have no sensory organs, bacteria can get a good idea about what's going on in their neighborhood and communicate with each other, mainly by secreting and taking in chemicals from their surrounding environment. Even though there are millions of different kinds of bacteria with their own ways of sensing the world around them, bioengineers believe they have found a principle common to all of them.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm Losing Sight Of People In A Crowd Can Spell Disaster, Warns New ReportFocusing on technology instead of people is a key factor in events going wrong, according to a major series of reports into crowd behavior and management.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm Artificial Leaf Development: Structure Of Artificial Light Harvesting Antenna DeterminedScientists have modified chlorophyll from an alga so that it resembles the extremely efficient light antennae of bacteria. The team was then able to determine the structure of these light antennae. This is the first step to converting sunlight into energy using an artificial leaf.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm Quantum Computers And Tossing A Coin In The MicrocosmAn atomic "coin" can display a superposition of heads and tails when it has been thrown. If you leave the decision where a quantum particle should go to a coin like this, you get unusual effects. For the first time, physicists have demonstrated these effects in an experiment with caesium.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm New Pill May Prevent Injury After Radiation ExposureResearchers have discovered and analyzed several new compounds, collectively called the ''EUK-400 series,'' which could someday be used to prevent radiation-induced injuries to kidneys, lungs, skin, intestinal tract and brains of radiological terrorism victims.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm Cesarean Section: Local Anesthetic Reduces Need For Painkillers Post-opGiving a local anesthetic during a Cesarean section helps manage pain after the operation and can reduce consumption of painkillers, according to researchers. The researchers recommend local anesthetics as part of integrated pain management strategies for Cesarean section operations, provided that consideration is given to the cost.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm New Insights Into Formation Of The Centromere, A Key Cellular Structure In Powering And Controlling Chromosome SegregationScientists have described the formation of the centromere, a key cellular structure in powering and controlling chromosome segregation and accurate cell division.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm First Direct Evidence Of Substantial Fish Consumption By Early Modern Humans In China 40,000 Years AgoFreshwater fish are an important part of the diet of many peoples around the world, but it has been unclear when fish became an important part of the year-round diet for early humans. A new study shows it may have happened in China as far back as 40,000 years ago.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm Enzyme Important In Aging IdentifiedThe secret to longevity may lie in an enzyme with the ability to promote a robust immune system into old age by maintaining the function of the thymus throughout life, according to researchers studying an "anti-aging" mouse model that lives longer than a typical mouse.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm BP reveals Azerbaijan deal to explore Caspian Sea (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jul 2009 | 12:33 pm Fiber Fabric Could Create Whole-Body Cameras (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - Flexible translucent fibers woven into a fabric can capture light and turn it into images without a camera lens, researchers announced this week.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jul 2009 | 12:29 pm NASA to Try For Monday Space Shuttle Launch (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA aims to give the space shuttle Endeavour a fifth shot at launching into orbit today after being waylaid by a series of unfortunate events for more than a month.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jul 2009 | 12:16 pm Energy policy 'too wind focused'The UK must invest more in nuclear and clean coal energy and put less emphasis on wind power, business leaders say.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Jul 2009 | 12:11 pm Bad weather delays space shuttle launchCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Thunderstorms near the Kennedy Space Center forced NASA to postpone Sunday's launch of the space shuttle Endeavour until Monday on a mission to deliver a Japanese-built porch to the International Space Station.Source: Reuters: Science News | 13 Jul 2009 | 11:13 am More storms threaten shuttle launch attempt (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jul 2009 | 10:21 am The Nation's weather (AP)AP - Forecasters expect two main weather systems to drive active weather in the country to begin the workweek.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jul 2009 | 9:29 am Aargh @*%!!!. Scientists say swearing helps reduce painCursing is an effective way to cope with pain, research suggests.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Jul 2009 | 9:13 am Scarless surgery'My kidney was removed through my navel'Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Jul 2009 | 9:04 am Amphibians mate under a full MoonAround the world, frogs and toads synchronise their mating behaviour with the lunar cycle, scientists discover.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Jul 2009 | 8:44 am Storm system halts fourth Endeavour launch attempt (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Jul 2009 | 11:36 pm Shuttle Launch Delayed Again by StormsThunderstorms again delay Endeavour's launch, already a month late.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Jul 2009 | 11:35 pm Top 10 Scientific Music VideosMusic can make the driest scientific concepts entertaining, or even hilarious. Catchy tunes about DNA blend genetics with jokes. Ballads about the heart and pi bring dull facts to life. Here are some of our favorite videos that show how hard science rocks. 10. GTCA 9. The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas
8. El Corazón 7. The Model of a Psychopharmacologist 6. Space Junk Song 5. The Elements Song 4. Pi 3. The Nano Song 2. Large Hadron Rap 1. The PCR Song See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 12 Jul 2009 | 11:34 pm Thunderstorms Delay Space Shuttle Launch (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA abandoned plans to launch the space shuttle Endeavour for the fourth time in a row on Sunday, this time because of stormy weather that crept too close to an emergency runway.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Jul 2009 | 11:30 pm Endeavour launch postponed againNasa reschedules the launch of space shuttle Endeavour for Monday, as bad weather continues.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 12 Jul 2009 | 11:22 pm Twenty ideas that could save the worldIngenious, madcap and perhaps not strictly legal: the Guardian's search for the greatest plan to tackle climate change Ask Chris Rapley, the ebullient physicist and director of the Science Museum in London, why he seems more sanguine about our prospects of taming climate change than many of his peers, and he'll tell you about the day he first toured the museum's library and archives. Surrounded by the thousands of designs and patent applications that traced the great Victorian lurch into modernity, he was struck by the power of human ingenuity. "It seemed clear that if we could somehow focus all that creativity and energy on clean energy then we'll be OK." Anyone watching an hour or two of the "hearings" in Manchester last weekend on which this report was based could not fail to have been similarly cheered. The idea behind them was simple: we hear endlessly about the havoc unabated climate change will wreak, about long-term emissions targets and diplomatic wrangling over who will commit to them. But the countless ingenious ideas for tackling the problem emanating from universities, thinktanks, front rooms and sheds across the planet get rather less attention. So the Guardian teamed up with the Manchester International Festival to mount a search for the best of them. Why Manchester? As the world's first great industrial city, it was arguably the birthplace of man-made warming. So just as Robert Angus Smith pioneered our understanding of atmospheric pollution here in the 1840s, experts and thinkers from around the world would gather in the city to grapple with the longer term legacy of its once mighty mills and factories. To underscore the project's connection to the city's carbon hungry past, the hearings were held in Manchester Town Hall, Alfred Waterhouse's neo-gothic cathedral to manufacturing and mercantilism. Above the scientists, entrepreneurs and inconoclasts presenting their ideas, the great vaulted ceiling documented the countries and cities to which the city once dispatched its wares; outside the mosaic floors were decorated with the bees that embodied its 19th century self-image as a hive of industry. The hearings themselves were perhaps best described as a cross between a judicial inquiry and an episode of the British TV show Dragons' Den. Chaired by Lord Bingham – formerly Britain's most senior judge – a panel of experts heard half hour pitches from advocates for each of 20 ideas shortlisted following a global appeal for innovative solutions to climate change. The panel, in consultation with the eminent climate scientist John Schellnhuber, picked the 10 most promising ideas – somewhat reluctantly since our experts felt all of the proposals aired in Manchester were worthy of more consideration. Now it's over to you: you can watch short video presentations of each of the ideas featured in this supplement on our website and vote for the ones you think will be most effective. Better still you might help to implement them by offering support or capital. The ideas heard in Manchester ranged from the wackier edges of science fiction to well-advanced products poised to roll off production lines. From the wilder shores came Professor Stephen Salter, an Edinburgh University engineer with a plan to increase the whiteness of clouds using a fleet of remote-control sailing ships spraying a fine mist of seawater into the air. But anyone tempted to dismiss his plan as the product of a crank who has spent too much time in the shed would do well to note that Salter was the man behind the Edinburgh Duck, a pioneering 1970s design for harnessing wave energy. Another variation on the marine theme came from former management consultant Tim Kruger who proposed tipping large amounts of lime into the ocean. This, he claimed, would increase the sea's ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as well as reduce the dangerous acidity which has also been a byproduct of decades of emissions. His compelling presentation was only slightly undermined by his own admission that such a plan would currently be illegal. Mark Capron, a former naval engineer from California, was also frustrated by prosaic legal considerations. His idea involves farming algae out at sea and then digesting it in thousands of "giant stomachs" under the surface. The algae would absorb carbon dioxide and produce methane which could be used to produce energy. The trouble is that he fears building a prototype in his garage would breach local safety regulations. Among the more developed ideas presented, Peter Scott made the case for simple, super-efficient cooking stoves. Burning wood (and other biomass) for cooking, largely in the developing world, was responsible for 10-20% of global emissions he told the panel. His stoves could cut the annual CO2 emissions of a household by 1-3 tonnes. The only downside, he noted ruefully, was that a local manufacturer in Malawi had been so successful that he had splashed out on a fleet of SUVs. "I haven't worked out the CO2 implications of that yet." Another idea tantalisingly close to crossing the threshold from brainwave to reality was proposed by entrepeneur Mike Mason. He described dishwasher sized "ceramic fuel cells" which could produce enough electricity to power a home as well as hot water. Because they were vastly more efficient than the power stations which produce electricity for the grid, and also obviated the need for hugely wasteful transmission of power along along hundreds of miles of cable, they could achieve massive carbon savings. And the first domestic models would go on sale next year with a price tag of around £3,000. Many green activists are intensely sceptical about the search for technological "fixes", particularly those that aim soley to mitigate the effects of warming. They warn that trying to invent our way out of trouble is a way of avoiding the changes to our way of life that are really required. But by no means all the advocates presenting in Manchester placed their faith in technology. One of the most quietly inspiring presentations came from Rosemary Randall, a Cambridge psychotherapist who had been puzzled by the ability of people at the same time to acknowledge the threat of climate change and in no way change their high carbon lifestyle. Randall designed a series of "carbon conversations" in which she encourages people to explore their attitude to consumption, identity and status. People who have been on her course of six meetings typically reduce their emissions by a tonne immediately and then plan to cut in half within two to five years. Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation offered an even simpler prescription: consume less. It might even make us happier too. Some of the ideas presented were so lateral that even our panel of seasoned experts looked wide-eyed at times. An engaging Australian accountant and farmer called Tony Lovell showed photographs of arid, dust-blown landscapes alongside images of lush vegetation. The difference? The farmer on the green side had been forcing his cattle to mimic the great migratory wildebeest herds of the Serengeti. If some of the schemes outlined in Manchester would once have seemed too radical to attract serious attention from governments and money men, the presence of climate secretary Ed Miliband at the event suggested that policymakers now recognise that they must cast the net for solutions wider than in the past. Here we lay out the best ideas that our net brought in. Now, Mr Miliband, what will you do with them? • Ian Katz is deputy editor of the Guardian responsible for environment coverage. 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 | 12 Jul 2009 | 11:14 pm Alick BearnPioneering geneticist known for his research into Wilson's disease Alick Bearn's research into cell genetics in the 1950s revealed some of the intricacies of Wilson's disease, an inherited condition that causes a toxic build-up of copper in the body. The gene is carried by one person in 100, but affects only the one in 40,000 who inherits it from both parents. Bearn, who has died of heart failure aged 86, showed why this was the case. His research was one of the first applications of genetics to medicine. Bearn was born in Surrey, the son of an under-secretary in the Ministry of Health. He was educated at Epsom college and Guy's hospital, qualifying in 1950. He spent the following year at the postgraduate medical school at Hammersmith hospital, where he worked with Professor Sheila Sherlock, the liver specialist. His abilities and interests in investigative medicine won him an invitation to the Rockefeller Institute in Manhattan, New York - now Rockefeller University - to research metabolic diseases under Henry Kunkel, who unravelled the chemistry of liver disease. In 1957 Bearn came back to the UK for a year, working in the Galton lab at University College London under the geneticist Lionel Penrose. He returned to the Rockefeller as professor. In 1966 he moved to Cornell University as professor, physician in chief and chairman of medicine, but maintained his association with Rockefeller. Thirteen years later he retired from Cornell with the title of professor emeritus. He moved to Philadelphia as senior vice-president for medical and scientific affairs at the pharmaceutical company Merck Sharpe & Dohme International. When he retired from this in 1988, aged 65, he continued as honorary physician at Rockefeller, and adjunct professor at Pennsylvania medical school. He also remained active as a trustee of Rockefeller University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and was on the editorial board of several academic journals. Bearn wrote many biographical papers and three books: on Archibald Garrod, the Victorian discoverer of inborn errors of metabolism (Archibald Garrod and the Individuality of Man, 1993), on Sir Clifford Allbutt (Sir Clifford Allbutt: Scholar and Physician, 2007), and on Sir Francis Fraser (Sir Francis Fraser, 1885-1964: a Canny Scot shapes British medicine, 2008); both Allbutt and Fraser revolutionised medical education between the wars. Bearn was an associate editor of Cecil and Loeb's Textbook of Medicine. He published 200 research papers, starting with work on liver function and Wilson's disease, and later covering other inherited inborn metabolic diseases including cystic fibrosis, Hurler syndrome and Gaucher's disease. In 1996 Bearn spent a year in Cambridge as distinguished visiting fellow at Christ's College. It was a great success; he was made a fellow commoner of the college, and bought a small house in Clarendon Street. Caius College assisted him with his research for his book on Allbutt, and in return he donated several historic items to the college. Of the four pioneers of Wilson's disease, Bearn was the third to die within a few weeks. The other two were Herb Scheinberg and Irmin Sternlieb. Scheinberg and Bearn, independently, and at the same time, discovered the absence of a compound called caeruloplasmin in patients with the disease; the two never got on because of this, and, said Dr John Walshe of Cambridge, each suspected the other of trying to steal a march. Bearn was, said Walshe: "A typical Guy's man, and good at parties," and was respected for his judgment and integrity. His colleagues described him as convivial, witty, warm and ebullient. He had a fund of anecdotes, including how he was once asked to take an aeroplane seat next to the emergency exit, which had plenty of leg room. When he asked why he had been singled out for this honour, he learned that it was because of his considerable weight. They needed a heavy person there in case the exit had to be forced open. Bearn married Margaret Slocum in 1952. In later years he became wheelchair-bound, suffering from a lumbar stenosis, and she staunchly wheeled him around. His hobbies included collecting snuff boxes and aristology - the art and science of cooking. He is survived by his wife and their son, Gordon, and daughter, Helen. • Alexander Gordon Bearn, geneticist, born 29 March 1923; died 15 May 2009 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 | 12 Jul 2009 | 11:01 pm Whalewatching in the UKThe best places to see cetaceans • For whalewatching in Cape Cod go to coastalstudies.org; for the Azores, espacotalassa.com. But this summer, you stand a great chance of seeing cetaceans off UK shores. Richard Sabin, of the Natural History Museum, reports that, recently, blue whales have been sighted in the Irish Sea. In the Moray Firth on the north-eastern coast of Scotland, the most northerly known population of bottlenose dolphins are visible from the shore - often only a few feet from the shingle. Chanonry Point on the Black Isle is the best viewing place. Since 2001, humpback whales have also been seen in the outer Moray Firth. seawatchfoundation.org • Killer whales are increasingly present in Scottish waters but they're most common around the Shetland Isles, especially at Esha Ness. On the west coast, trips in May to October to see minke whales off the Isle of Mull - the first place in Britain to offer dedicated whale-watching - have a particular poignancy; these are the same animals currently being hunted by Norway. wspa.org.uk • Cardigan Bay in Wales is famous for its population of 130 bottlenose dolphins, which can be seen from the shore at New Quay, where pods feed from April to September. • St David's Head in Pembrokeshire also has the usual smaller cetacean suspects, along with the alluring possibility of summer appearances by fin whales. new-quay.com; cbmwc.org • In Dorset, common dolphins can be seen from Durleston Head. In Cornwall, Lizard Point, Gwennap Head and Cape Cornwall are good for dolphin-spotting; pilot, killer and minke whales are seen at the extreme west. Ferries to the Scilly Isles offer good opportunities, but especially recommended is Marine Discovery of Penzance, which arranges "sea safaris" and will undertake charters: marinediscovery.co.uk • One of the best ways to see a wide range of cetaceans is from the cross-Channel ferries from Portsmouth and Plymouth to Bilbao and Santander. There are dedicated whalewatch areas on overnight crossings, with naturalists on hand to interpret. Crossing the Bay of Biscay opens up amazing possibilities to see species such as fin and sperm whales, and even beaked whales - some of the least-known of all cetaceans. biscay-dolphin.org.uk • For an overall view on whales and dolphins, see the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society site, wdcs.org.uk. Two books are essential: Trevor Day's beautifully illustrated Whalewatcher, a global guide published by the Natural History Museum but available in all good bookshops, £12.99; and Mark Carwardine's definitive Guide to Whalewatching: Britain and Europe, WDCS/Wildlife Trusts, £9.99. 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 | 12 Jul 2009 | 11:01 pm StarwatchVenus blazes in our eastern sky before dawn but it is Jupiter that rules much of our short July nights. Our chart shows its motion over the coming month as it moves westwards in NE Capricornus. The region covered, though, is only 5° across making the chart of little help in locating Jupiter. In fact, the giant planet is hard to miss at magnitude -2.7 as it climbs from the ESE horizon at about 22.50 BST tonight to pass 20° - 25° high in the S at 04.00. It is outgunned only by the moon and by Venus which rises in the NE by 02.30 and lies above the star Aldebaran tomorrow. Where our chart is useful is in showing Jupiter's position in relation to Neptune. Both worlds lie close to the fifth magnitude star Mu Capricorni at present and although Mu should be easy to spot through binoculars, Neptune shines only at mag 7.8 and may require a small telescope. Neptune was known as the sun's outermost planet from its discovery in 1846 until Pluto was found in 1930, and it regained that status when Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. Some 30 times as far from the sun as the Earth, it orbits every 165 years so it is almost exactly back to where it was when it was first spotted. Neptune is 17 times more massive than the Earth and, like Jupiter, consists largely of hydrogen and helium above a small rocky core. Water, ammonia and methane are also present, clouds of the latter lending the planet its distinctly bluish colour. It is 24,764km wide, yet only 2.3 arcsec wide through a telescope tonight. Compare these dimensions with the 71,492km and 47 arcsec of Jupiter and it is easy to see why Jupiter is more spectacular when viewed telescopically. The spectacle of the July daytime sky, though sadly not for Europe, is the total solar eclipse on 22 July. Dubbed the Eclipse of the Century, this has the longest spell of totality of any eclipse between 1991 and 2132. As the moon's dark umbral shadow races eastwards, its path stretches from India, across China and to the S of the Japanese mainland before striking out across the Pacific to end south of the equator and far to the S of Hawaii. Along that path, almost 260km wide at its widest, the sun's dazzling surface is hidden for up to 6 minutes 39 seconds. Shanghai lies just N of the mid-line of the path, so more people may witness this totality together than at any time in history. The extra-long eclipse occurs because the moon's disc is larger than usual in the sky at the same time as the sun appears smaller. Mid-eclipse comes six hours after the moon is at its closest to the Earth for this year, while the Earth was farthest from the Sun as recently as 4 July. 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 | 12 Jul 2009 | 11:01 pm Space operas and far futuresA golden age of British sci-fi This is a golden age for British science fiction, chiefly thanks to a wave of writers who are tackling an area their American rivals tend to leave well alone - far-future set, space-operatic, hard sci-fi. Americans tend to set their sci-fi in soft (ie, scientifically unsupported) near futures. Wimps. According to Guardian sci-fi critic and novelist Eric Brown, British SF writers "do it with an increasingly assured literary sensibility and concern for characterisation". • Among the jewels of this golden age is Peter F Hamilton (b 1960), who from his shed in Rutland writes vast doorsteps of novels (one of 1.2m words) that combine fantastic speculation with incredibly detailed imagining of the lives we will lead some time after the 30th century. He's currently two-thirds of the way through his Void trilogy, which posits that by the 34th century there is a void at the centre of the universe, which turns out not to be West Bromwich, and that humans are divided into highers, who have achieved almost bodiless existence, and others, who have stopped ageing by means of genetic manipulation. Gee, wonder which I'll be in 3409? Helpfully, Hamilton occasionally publishes handbooks to guide baffled users through his oeuvre. • Neal Asher (b 1961) writes books that are equally epic and yet he may well not be a straight space-operatic sci-fi writer but a post-cyberpunk one, which means, roughly, that he isn't into all those alienated, antinomian cyberpunks who want to bust a cap in the dystopian future's proverbial ass. Asher's heroes, by contrast, tend to be people keen to preserve society or make it better. His novels are overwhelmingly set in the Polity Universe, which features lots of riffs on standard sci-fi tropes - artificial intelligence, aliens, androids, hive minds, cyber-monkey tennis, time travel. I made up the bit about cyber-monkey tennis. • Liz Williams (b 1965) runs a witch-supply shop in Glastonbury, was brought up by a magician dad and a gothic novelist mum and has a PhD in artificial intelligence and philosophy. I know I'm intimidated. Her novels' themes include genetically altered humans, alien DNA, eugenics and designer species. Her ninth and latest novel, Winterstrike, is set on a far-future Mars now ruled by the Matriarch, under whose rule us men exist as little more than animals in the hinterlands. Fair enough: we've had a good run. • Iain M Banks (b 1954) is the sci-fi writing clone of novelist Iain Banks and is, in the opinion of many, better than the original. Much of Banks's sci-fi deals with the Culture, a fictional egalitarian, socialist, post-scarcity civilisation in which technological advances mean that wealth and comforts are limitless but possessions have all but been banned. Which may sound a bit worthy, but the Culture also has fun-time things such as starships, teleportation, warp drives, antimatter bombardment and something called personality backups whereby the Culture can read and store the so-called "full sentience" of any being, thus rendering death, mostly, obsolete. Nice. • Other heroes of British sci-fi's golden age include Gary Gibson, Stephen Baxter, Mike Cobley, M John Harrison, Paul McAuley and Ken McLeod, the man who coined the resonant phrase about sci-fi's appeal, "the rapture of the nerds". It may also include other British writers such as Neil Gaiman and China Miéville, because, after all, sci-fi is a porous genre into which writers of fantasy, crime and other genres frequently pour their work. 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 | 12 Jul 2009 | 11:01 pm Science Weekly: In search of timeWhat it time? Is it the uniform, steady flow envisaged by Newton that helps us follow our daily routines? A spooky, purely subjective feeling? A dimension of Einstein's space-time? Or simply the phenomenon that stops everything from happening all at once? Science writer Dan Falk is on hand to discuss the neuroscience, the physics and the philosophy of chronology and poses the question - do we really know what time is? James Randerson and Nell Boase join Alok for a round-up of the week's science news including claims that vegetarians are 45% less likely to develop cancer of the blood compared with meat eaters, a monster haul of new dinosaur species discovered in the Australian outback, and the G8 nations' battle with climate change. We also visit the Royal Society's Summer Exhibition to sink our teeth into some of the latest creations of science. Among the exhibits were a virtual cow, lasers that can treat cancer – and a very excitable and science-literate bunch of schoolchildren. Don't be shy ... • Mail us at science@guardian.co.uk
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 12 Jul 2009 | 11:00 pm Brown's climate change adviser has swine flu: reports (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Jul 2009 | 10:48 pm U.S. to spend another $1 billion on flu vaccineWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will spend another $1 billion on ingredients for an H1N1 vaccine, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Sunday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 12 Jul 2009 | 10:48 pm Azeri blogger detained, oil major presses case (Reuters)Reuters - An opposition blogger in Azerbaijan has been remanded in custody pending trial on hooliganism charges, prompting protests from his employer, oil major BP Plc, a media rights group said on its website.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Jul 2009 | 7:20 pm Jumbo Squid Wash Ashore After EarthquakeDozens of large creatures called jumbo Humboldt squid washed up. Nobody knows if the quake was the cause.Source: Livescience.com | 12 Jul 2009 | 6:29 pm Swearing lessens pain, study showsSwearing can actually lessen pain, according to scientists at Keele University. They asked 66 volunteers to submerge a hand into iced water while repeating one swear word out of a list of "five words you might use after hitting yourself on the thumb with a hammer". The experiment was carried out again, but with one of "five words to describe a table". Volunteers were able to keep their hands in longer when they swore. Their heart rates also accelerated and their pain perception reduced. The scientists, writing in NeuroReport, believe swearing triggers a "fight-or-flight" response and heightens aggression. 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 | 12 Jul 2009 | 5:53 pm 'Cashback' pledge for green powerPeople that contribute electricity to the National Grid are to receive payments under a new UK government scheme.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 12 Jul 2009 | 2:14 pm Swearing Makes Pain More TolerableSwearing during a painful experience may increase a person's tolerance to that pain.Source: Livescience.com | 12 Jul 2009 | 2:05 pm Wallets with Baby Photos Returned More OftenResearchers left 240 wallets around Edinburgh, Scotland, to see how many would be returned.Source: Livescience.com | 12 Jul 2009 | 2:02 pm Should Humans Meddle with Nature?Some say we're part of nature, so what we do to nature is natural.Source: Livescience.com | 12 Jul 2009 | 1:59 pm
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