Music Is The Engine Of New Lab-on-a-chip Device

Music, rather than electromechanical valves, can drive experimental samples through a lab-on-a-chip in a new system. This development could significantly simplify the process of conducting experiments in microfluidic devices.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm

Stop And Smell The Flowers -- The Scent Really Can Soothe Stress

Feeling stressed? Then try savoring the scent of lemon, mango, lavender or other fragrant plants. Scientists in Japan are reporting the first scientific evidence that inhaling certain fragrances alter gene activity and blood chemistry in ways that can reduce stress levels.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm

Promising First-in-class Drug Candidate For Genetic Protein-misfolding Disease

A promising new drug candidate -- the first in its class -- has been discovered for patients with a genetic protein-misfolding disease. The new drug tafamidis significantly halts disease progression for patients with a disease called Transthyretin (TTR) amyloid polyneuropathy (ATTR-PN).
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm

Experiments Show 'Artificial Gravity' Can Prevent Muscle Loss In Space

Researchers have conducted the first human experiments using a device intended to counteract the muscle-wasting effect of long periods in weightlessness -- a NASA centrifuge that spins a test subject with feet outward to create a force two and a half times that of gravity. Working with volunteers kept in bed for three weeks to simulate zero-gravity conditions, they found that just one hour a day on the centrifuge was sufficient to restore muscle synthesis.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm

Chimpanzees Infected With SIV Do Develop And Die From AIDS, Contrary To Prevailing View

Researchers have shown that African wild chimpanzees infected with simian immunodeficiency virus, an HIV-1-like virus, die prematurely and develop hallmarks of HIV-1 infection and AIDS.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm

Bad Mitochondria May Actually Be Good For You

Mice with a defective mitochondrial protein called MCLK1 produce elevated amounts of reactive oxygen when young; that should spell disaster, yet according to a new study these mice actually age at a slower rate and live longer than normal mice.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm

Predator-Prey Interactions Are Key 'Conductors' Of Nature's Synchronicity

Predator-prey interactions are the "conductors" of synchronicity in living organisms, according to new research.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jul 2009 | 12:00 pm

Genetic Marker Linked To Problem Behaviors In Adults With Developmental Disabilities

A common variation of the gene involved in regulating serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain may be linked to problem behaviors in adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities, new research indicates.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jul 2009 | 12:00 pm

Purer Water With Long Shelf Life Made Possible With One Atom Change To Water Purification Product

By substituting a single atom in a molecule widely used to purify water, researchers have created a far more effective decontaminant with a shelf life superior to products currently on the market. The substitution isn’t performed atom by atom using nanoscopic tweezers but rather uses a simple chemical process of dissolving aluminum salts in water, gallium salts into a sodium hydroxide solution and then slowly adding the sodium hydroxide solution to the aluminum solution while heating.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jul 2009 | 12:00 pm

Anti-Epilepsy Drug Risk On Cognitive Function For Unborn Children

Interim results of a new study suggest that children aged three years and younger, who are born to women taking the anti-epileptic drug sodium valproate whilst pregnant, are likely to have an IQ of six to nine points lower than average.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jul 2009 | 12:00 pm

UK space sector 'to double value'

The value of the space sector to the UK economy is set to double over the next decade, claims a new report.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jul 2009 | 10:56 am

The Nation's weather (AP)

AP - Forecasters were calling for wet weather to persist over the Eastern US, while the West Coast was likely to remain unseasonably warm on Thursday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jul 2009 | 10:23 am

Honeybees sterilise hives

Honeybees keep disease at bay by sterilising their hives with antimicrobial resin, scientists discover.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jul 2009 | 9:43 am

The genius of the natural world

From bacteria-free surfaces based on shark skin to carbon-sequestering cement, Janine Benyus says humanity should look to nature for technological inspiration

TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design, but the 'E' could just as soon stand for environment. It's one of the recurring themes at the conference, and Janine Benyus called on the audience to look to the natural world for technologies that can help humanity live in greater harmony with the world.

If I could reveal anything that is hidden from us in modern cultures, I would reveal something that we might have forgotten. We are part of a brilliant planet and surrounded by genius.

Benyus works in the field of bio-mimicry, looking to the natural world to learn how to design things elegantly, more efficiently and in harmony with nature.

Her young boy, Cody, keeps her in touch with the natural world around her. When he was about 8-years-old, he looked at a wasp's nest and asked his mother how she made it. Even at his young age, he thought if something was well built that it must be built by us, by humans.

How did we not know that we're not the first ones to build, to process cellulose, or to make paper, to heat and cool a structure? We're not the first ones to build houses for our young.

JR West, makers of high-speed bullet trains, found that when they entered tunnels the train built up pressure and created the equivalent of a sonic boom. Engineers looked at how the kingfisher entered the water and redesigned the train. It solved the problem of the tunnel noise, made the train 10% faster and 15% more efficient.

How does nature repel bacteria? The Galapagos shark swims slowly, but a pattern on its skin prevents bacteria adhering to it. Sharklet Technologies studied and adapted the pattern and found that it was better at keeping surfaces bacteria free than using anti-bacterial washes. Resistance to such cleaners is a significant problem as hospital-acquired infections kill more people in the US than AIDs, cancer and car crashes combined.

Taking a page from coral reefs, Calera has developed a technology that sequesters a half a ton of carbon dioxide for every ton of cement produced.

She talked about self-assembling solar cells, and bridge beams and car frames that use a minimum amount of material and have the ability to heal themselves.

The natural world uses only 5 polymers, but we use over 350 polymers to create products we use. Can we learn from hives of bees to find the best way to use energy? Like a swarm of insects, appliances in our home could talk to each other to minimise peak power use.

To help collect these lessons from nature, she created the website Ask Nature to organise all biological information according to its engineering purpose. What processes in nature create mechanical energy or process information?

We are part of a long line of organisms. How can we live here gracefully over the long haul? How can we create conditions conducive to life?

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jul 2009 | 9:00 am

Scientists 'kept at arm's length'

The UK government is treating science as "a peripheral policy concern" and must involve scientists more in policy-making, MPs say.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jul 2009 | 8:16 am

Researchers to implant pig cells in diabetics (AP)

AP - A New Zealand biotech company began a trial Thursday that will implant cells from newborn pigs into eight human volunteers as an experimental treatment for their diabetes.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jul 2009 | 7:51 am

Astronauts cut spacewalk short due to suit trouble (AP)

AP - Two astronauts cut short their spacewalk and hurried back to the safety of the international space station on Wednesday after a suit problem resulted in rising carbon dioxide levels for one of the men.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jul 2009 | 7:44 am

Bangladesh leopard renews hopes for species survival (AFP)

AFP - Bangladeshi conservationists said Thursday the discovery of a rare leopard captured by villagers in the southeast of the country renewed hopes for the survival of the critically endangered species.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jul 2009 | 7:15 am

Broadband ahoy

Kenya's undersea high-speed internet cable goes live
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jul 2009 | 6:47 am

With Spacesuit Glitches, NASA Takes No Chances (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - When an unexpected glitch pops up in an astronaut's spacesuit during a spacewalk, NASA takes no chances. If it looks like a problem, it's time to call it quits.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jul 2009 | 3:30 am

Rain hinders efforts to rescue 23 miners in China (AP)

AP - Heavy rains hindered efforts to rescue 23 miners who became trapped early Thursday in flooding at a mine in northeastern China, a local authority said.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jul 2009 | 3:25 am

Study nails secret of child sleep

Researchers have found that sedentary children take far longer to 'nod off' at night than their more active playmates.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jul 2009 | 2:13 am

Pre-Incan mummy dug up in center of Lima

LIMA (Reuters) - A pre-Incan mummy and eight other skeletons have been dug up from under what used to be a shanty town in the middle of Peru's capital, archeologists said on Wednesday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 23 Jul 2009 | 1:44 am

PETA: Video shows Ringling Bros. abusing animals (AP)

AP - An animal-rights group has released a video showing what it says is the abuse of Ringling Bros. circus elephants.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jul 2009 | 12:43 am

Far-Out Photo: Sunrise in Space

Astronauts orbiting Earth see a lot more sunrises and sunsets that those of us stranded on the surface.
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jul 2009 | 12:06 am

Broadband satellite jumps rocket

The UK Hylas spacecraft, which aims to help bridge the "broadband divide", is changing its launcher.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jul 2009 | 12:03 am

5 Cute Lemurs Born in Bronx Zoo (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Far from their homeland in Madagascar, five lemurs were born in an exhibit at the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Bronx Zoo.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 11:47 pm

Views sought on knotweed predator

The public's views are being sought on the release of a plant-eating predator from Asia into Britain to help control Japanese knotweed.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Jul 2009 | 11:35 pm

White-Sided Jackrabbit Under Threat

Although rabbits are known for their numbers, the white-sided jackrabbit struggles to survive.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Jul 2009 | 10:30 pm

Spacewalk cut short by spacesuit air problem

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA cut short a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Wednesday after carbon dioxide began building up in one astronaut's spacesuit, officials said.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 10:20 pm

Multiplying like bunnies? Not this jackrabbit (AP)

AP - Rabbits are certainly known for their propensity for multiplying, but one species of jackrabbit is having trouble keeping up. There are an estimated 150 white-sided jackrabbits left in the United States, and federal wildlife officials announced Wednesday they will study the elusive rabbit to determine if it needs to be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 10:19 pm

Chimps Get AIDS

Chimpanzees infected with SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus) do contract and die from AIDS.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Jul 2009 | 10:17 pm

New System Makes Online Data Expire

A new system might be able to protect all data we post online, including emails and photos.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Jul 2009 | 9:39 pm

New Film 'Orphan' Boycotted Over False Fears

Several adoption organizations have expressed concern over "Orphan," an upcoming horror movie featuring a murderous orphan.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Jul 2009 | 9:16 pm

Study calculates warming threat to Colorado River (AP)

AP - University of Colorado researchers say global warming increases the chances that the Colorado River system's reservoirs could be depleted by mid-century.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 9:08 pm

5 Cute Lemurs Born in Bronx Zoo

The Bronx Zoo is welcoming newborn lemurs during the first year of its newest exhibit.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Jul 2009 | 8:36 pm

Tuna Ranch Hormone Cocktail Could Save Bluefin

Swimming in a McMansion-sized tank in a nondescript warehouse in Port Lincoln, Australia, are 60 bluefin tuna. They’re about four months old, a foot long, and might represent the salvation — albeit an uncertain, ambiguous salvation — of that magnificent, desperately threatened creature.

The fish belong to Clean Seas Tuna, an Australian company that for the last decade has pursued the elusive task of spawning bluefin in captivity. Researchers from Japan and Europe are but a few steps behind them. Though far from complete, their work has made bluefin aquaculture, once nearly unthinkable, a possibility.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done. I don’t want to give the impression that it’s complete. But if this species can be aquacultured, it will take pressure off from fishing,” said Abigail Elizur, an aquaculture biotechnologist at Australia’s University of the Sunshine Coast.

News of breeding success comes with the three bluefin species — Northern, Southern and Pacific — speeding towards extinction, the victim of something close to a marine version of the 19th century buffalo slaughter. In the last 30 years, bluefin populations around the world have collapsed. Fishing fleets with spotter planes have chased ever-smaller, ever-younger fish, catching them at sea and hauling them to shoreline pens to be fattened and killed before they’re even old enough to reproduce.

That’s left the seas nearly barren of breeding-age bluefin. In April, the World Wildlife Federation declared that current overfishing rates would cause an irreversible collapse of Northern bluefin within three years. The Southern is considered critically endangered, and it’s thought that any increase in fishing pressure will put the Pacific on a track to oblivion.

Despite alarm among scientists, however, overfishing has continued. Two years ago, researchers from the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, or ICCAT — the regulators of Northern bluefin fishing — recommended a global quota of 15,000 tons. ICCAT officials ignored them, setting the limit at twice that number. They’ve since dropped it to 22,500 tons, but their scientists now say just 7,500 tons is sustainable. The fishing industry has ignored all those numbers, hauling in some 60,000 tons of Northern bluefin yearly. An independent review panel called ICCAT an “international disgrace,” a phrase that could just as easily apply to the management of Southern and Pacific stocks.

Ending the disgrace, however, is far easier said than done. Prized for their tender, fat-laced meat, bluefin tuna are a $7.2 billion global industry. In January, a 440-pound bluefin sold for $173,000 at a Tokyo market. It was the highest price ever paid for a single fish, and an object lesson in how, in the absence of sane regulation, impending extinction increases incentives for further exploitation. (It’s not for nothing that the Italian mafia is now linked to the bluefin trade; one conservation-minded ICCAT official famously found a white lily at her seat before a 2006 meeting.) Companies from Japan, which consumes three-quarters of all bluefin and effectively controls the global trade, have put an estimated 30,000 tons of the fish, worth between $10 billion and $20 billion, in frozen storage. Overfishing will only raise their price.

Compared with such profits, objections by conservationists, or even pledged bluefin boycotts by France and Spain and the United Kingdom, are relatively meaningless. The most realistic possibility for bluefin survival may be fish farms: If they can be raised in captivity, at-sea fishing should become less important, and wild bluefin might finally be protected.

But people have long known more about cooking bluefin than keeping them alive. The fish roam for thousands of miles at sea, die if they stop swimming, and have proven unsuitable for the sort of farms used in salmon aquaculture. Even when researchers figured out how to design pens in which the bluefin wouldn’t thrash themselves to death, they still refused to spawn. That might finally be changing.

“It’s now a technology question, not a biology question,” said fish physiologist Christopher Bridges of Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf. “How long will this take in terms of development and experimentation? That’s the bottleneck. And I have no doubt this bottleneck will be solved.”

Bridges is one of dozens of European scientists involved with the Allotuna and the Selfdott Northern bluefin-breeding programs. They’ve developed hormone treatments that coax tuna into spawning while they’re held in coastal pens. That seemingly simple feat hadn’t yet been done in the Northern bluefin, whose reproductive habits are in many ways still a mystery.

“Everyone in the tuna community was celebrating with them and for them,” said Alizur.

In late June, the researchers collected nearly 200 million eggs, or the output of about 20 females. The eggs were sent to hatcheries around the Mediterranean, where biologists will commence raising them from egg to larva to fingerling. That tricky progression is considered a benchmark in tuna aquaculture.

Having adjusted the Northern bluefin hormone treatments to fit their Pacific stock, they keep their fish in an onshore aquarium where water temperature, lighting and current are controlled. About 50 million eggs were fertilized in this artificial tuna love nest in March, ultimately producing the 60 foot-long fish now swimming in the company’s Port Lincoln aquarium.

The numbers seem humble, but the ability to conduct the spawning in a completely controlled environment heralds “the start of a commercial operation,” said Alizur. Clean Seas intends to have 250,000 bluefin at their hatchery by 2015.

For all their successes, however, that timetable may be optimistic. Researchers in Japan have tried to breed Southern bluefin in captivity for more than 30 years, but though they’ve learned to keep the fish alive, year-to-year egg harvests have been inconsistent. The European and Australian teams seem to have solved that problem, but there’s still more to do.

“We still need to optimize the conditions of larval rearing, what to feed them, the best conditions, what they need for space and special food,” said Alizur. “We all get excited, and rightfully so, but this is only the first step. It’s a bit like giving birth. It’s a huge thing, but once the baby is born, you focus on the feeding and growing, and end up having a short memory about the birth itself. We’re at that stage.”

Other dynamics may yet affect the nascent industry. Some researchers suspect that Japanese bluefin aquaculture has been constrained by pressure from the nation’s fishing industry, much like American automobile companies squashed innovation.

Even if farmed bluefin flourish, feeding them could be a problem. Though the Japanese researchers are trying to develop a grain-based diet, it’s possible — perhaps probable — that bluefin will insist on natural fare. “Presumably that will require vast amounts of bait fish to feed them,” said Richard Ellis, author of Tuna: A Love Story. “From the perspective of catching fish to feed fish, this is a step backwards.”

Unless drastic conservation measures are taken soon, bluefin aquaculture won’t mature in time to reduce fishing pressure, said Ellis. In the interim, companies — including Clean Seas — will still catch bluefin at sea.

Aquaculture, “together with quota cuts, is the way forward,” said Bridges.

For Ellis, who refuses to eat bluefin, the ideal solution is to “not treat this great creature solely as a food item,” he said. “But I don’t have any hope that people will stop eating it.”

See Also:

• To Save Animals, Put a Price on Them
• Hacking Salmon’s Mental Compass to Save Endangered Fish

Images: 1. NOAA 2. Alexandre Dulaunoy/Flickr 3. Stewart Butterfield/Flickr 4. Clean Seas 5. Christopher Bridges

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 22 Jul 2009 | 7:59 pm

Missing AIDS Link Found in Chimps

An HIV-related virus is killing wild chimps and could lead to better AIDS treatments.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Jul 2009 | 7:30 pm

Times Square Gets New Carbon Counter

First off: It shows estimates. Really estimated estimates.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Jul 2009 | 7:27 pm

WATCH: Why Is Sea Water So Salty?

Ever get a mouthful of water while swimming and wonder why the ocean is so salty?
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Jul 2009 | 7:15 pm

Artificial brain '10 years away'

A project to build and design an artificial human brain could be completed in the next 10 years, a leading scientist says.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Jul 2009 | 7:05 pm

Europe eyes 'innovative UK space'

The European Space Agency opens its new British technical research centre at Harwell in Oxfordshire.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Jul 2009 | 7:00 pm

Harrabin's Notes

Are consumers subsidising struggling firms?
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Jul 2009 | 6:41 pm

SLIDE SHOW: Solar Eclipse Blankets Asia

View the longest total solar eclipse of the century, as it was visible across Asia.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Jul 2009 | 6:05 pm

Antifreeze Could Keep Saturn Moon Wet

Ammonia, best known on Earth as a potent antifreeze, has been found on Enceladus, offering strong evidence that an ocean of liquid water might be lurking beneath the crust of Saturn’s icy moon.

Jets of ice from cracks near the south pole of Enceladus generate plumes of gas and particles, mostly made of water and carbon dioxide. Last October, using a special instrument on NASA’s Cassini probe, researchers detected traces of ammonia in the plumes, suggesting that the source of the gas might be liquid water beneath the ice shell.

“This is the first time Cassini has actually been able to ’smell’ ammonia,” said planetary scientist Jonathan Lunine of the University of Arizona, co-author of the study in Nature on Wednesday. “And because ammonia is an antifreeze, it probably ensures that there is liquid water in the interior of Enceladus.”

And where there’s water, there could be life. Scientific evidence for liquid water has been piling up in the past year. In June, another paper in Nature reported sodium salts found in Saturn’s outermost ring. Together, these two pieces of data offer a strong argument for liquid water, Lunine said.

“I’m pretty convinced,” Lunine said. “By itself, the findings we have are strong. But they’re made even stronger by the article in Nature last month that found, using a different instrument on Cassini, that there are sodium and ice particles on the E-ring.”

But not everyone is convinced the discovery of ammonia means liquid water on Enceladus. Space scientist Susan Kieffer of the University of Illinois has developed a model that doesn’t require liquid water for the creation of gas plumes, and the finding of ammonia hasn’t changed her skepticism.

“The argument in this paper hinges on an early announcement by NASA that temperatures in excess of 180 Kelvin have been reported,” Kieffer wrote in an e-mail. However, later measurements near the plume cracks reported temperatures closer to 167 Kelvin, she said.

“It sounds like a small difference, but it’s huge in terms of the ammonia-water system,” Kieffer wrote. If the temperature is above 173 Kelvin, there can be liquid water, but below there would likely be a system of frozen solids.

Despite the lower temperatures, Lunine says he stands by his group’s conclusions. Because the Cassini temperature instrument samples a fairly large region around the gas plumes, the temperature it reports is an average of hotter and colder regions of the moon.

“These temps are lower limit temperatures for what’s in the crack,” Lunine said. “Given fact that ammonia and water can melt at 176 Kelvin, we’re really in the range that liquid water could exist.”

“I’d love to have a situation where we actually dipped our toes into the water, although I’m not sure I’d want to do it barefoot,” Lunine said. “But we’re not going to be able to do that. Just the fact that we can sample the water — smell it if you will — by studying the gas in the plumes, is pretty great.”

See Also:

• Hunt for Life on Saturnian Moon Heats Up
• Case Builds for Water on Saturnian Moon of Enceladus
• Tiny Saturn Moon ID’d As Good Candidate For Alien Life
• Top 5 Bets for Extraterrestrial Life in the Solar System
• Misty Caverns of Enceladus
• Tiny Saturn Moon ID’d As Good Candidate For Alien Life

Image: NASA

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 22 Jul 2009 | 5:39 pm

The Evolution of Earth's Evenly Spaced Valleys

The evolution is shown of a model landscape's evenly spaced valleys over 600,000 years under the influence of bedrock uplift, stream incision and soil creep. See Perron et al., 2009, Nature.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Jul 2009 | 5:36 pm

Quake Brings New Zealand Closer to Australia

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake has brought New Zealand 11.8 inches (30 cm) closer to Australia.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Jul 2009 | 5:35 pm

Formula Found to Explain Earth's Evenly Spaced Valleys

A new study describes the geological tug-of-war that causes even spacing between valleys and ridges.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Jul 2009 | 5:12 pm

European Space Agency establishes its first research centre in UK

New facility will focus on climate change science and robotic space exploration, and will develop procedures to ensure future missions do not contaminate other planets with chemicals and microorganisms from Earth

The European Space Agency has opened its first research centre in the UK in a move designed to bring more British scientists and engineers into contact with the space industry. The agency has earmarked £1.3m for the facility's first year of operation.

Work at the centre, which is based in a former computing lab built in the 1960s at Harwell science park in Oxfordshire, will focus on climate change science and robotic missions. Other plans include a "planetary protection facility" that will develop procedures to ensure missions to other planets do not contaminate them with terrestrial chemicals or bugs.

The centre will also operate as a storage facility for moon rock, meteorites and other material brought back from space that needs to be kept under clean-room conditions to protect it from the environment.

At an official opening ceremony in London, Esa's director general Jean-Jacques Dordain said: "The European Space Agency is landing in the UK, one hundred years after Louis Blériot," in a reference to the French aviator who became the first person to cross the English Channel in an aeroplane in 1909.

Britain's science minister, Lord Drayson, said the centre was part of Britain's "space renaissance". Earlier this year Esa announced that it had chosen Major Tim Peake as the country's first official astronaut.

"In a few years' time, we'll look back on this period and see it as a generational change in space technology," Lord Drayson said.

The Harwell facility will be run by Martin Ditter, an Esa engineer. Climate scientists from the space agency will arrive at the facility in September.

The centre's climate change unit will work on data from environmental monitoring satellites, helping to refine models of climate change impact. Other projects will look at how to put space technology to good use on Earth, for example to improve transport information and mobile communications.

Further work is planned on robotics and the use of radioactive materials as power sources for space probes.

Earlier this week, Lord Drayson opened a 12-week public consultation on whether Britain should have its own dedicated space agency which would have the power to initiate its own missions.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 22 Jul 2009 | 5:01 pm

Scientists find HIV's 'missing link' in sick chimps

A virus that is killing chimpanzees in the wild may be an intermediate stage in the evolution of the deadly human strain

Scientists believe they have found a "missing link" in the evolution of the virus that causes Aids. It bridges the gap between an infection that does no harm to most non-human primates and one that kills millions of people.

The suspected link is a virus that is killing chimpanzees in the wild at a disturbingly high rate, according to a study in tomorrow's issue of the journal Nature. Chimpanzees are the first primate shown to get sick in the wild in significant numbers from a virus related to HIV. They are also humans' closest relative among primates.

The discovery of the disease killing chimps may help doctors to come up with better treatments or a workable vaccine for humans, experts said.

The primate version of the virus that causes AIDS is called simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), but most apes and monkeys that are infected with it show no symptoms of illness. "If we could figure out why the monkeys don't get sick, perhaps we could apply that to people," said study lead author Beatrice Hahn, a professor of medicine at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

The nine-year study of chimps in their natural habitat at Gombe National Park in Tanzania found chimps infected with SIV had a death rate 10 to 16 times as high as uninfected chimps. And postmortems of infected chimps showed unusually low T cell counts that are just like the levels found in humans with AIDS, said Hahn.

And when scientists looked at the strain infecting the chimps, they found that it was a close relative of the virus that first infected humans.

"From an evolutionary and epidemiological point of view, these data can be regarded as a 'missing link' in the history of the HIV pandemic," said Aids researcher Dr Daniel Douek of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who was not involved in the Nature study.

Monkeys and apes other than chimps seem to have an evolutionary adaptation, probably at the level of their cell receptors, that allows them to survive the virus, Douek said. The infection in chimps is more recent so they haven't adapted.

Hahn said chimps and people probably caught the virus the same way, by eating infected monkeys. And they both spread it the same way, through sexual activity.

Chimps are already endangered in the wild. Many factors are causing Africa's chimp population to dwindle, said study co-author Michael Wilson, a professor of anthropology at the University of Minnesota and former director of field research at the Jane Goodall Institute in Tanzania.

Hunting, loss of habitat and disease are decreasing chimp numbers and it's hard to figure out how much of a factor SIV is, he said.

"It is a concern," Wilson said. "The last thing these chimps need is another source of mortality."

Wilson, who spent years observing chimps in Tanzania as part of the study, said that when researchers realised the virus was fatal and they knew which chimps were infected, it became hard to watch some of their activities in the wild.

He recalled wanting to warn one female chimp: "Don't mate with those guys ... But of course I can't do that."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 22 Jul 2009 | 5:00 pm

Quake Nudges New Zealand Closer to Australia

A massive earthquake has made New Zealand a bit bigger -- and closer to Australia.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Jul 2009 | 4:35 pm

New Species of Horny Toad Identified in California

Scientists find that there are more species of horned lizards than previously thought.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Jul 2009 | 3:57 pm

Winter Heat Threatens Calif. Fruit, Nut Crops

Fruit and nut crops in California are in danger of collapse as winters warm.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Jul 2009 | 2:35 pm

The Eclipse, as Seen by the People (With Flickr Accounts)

The moon passed between the Earth and sun for several minutes yesterday, causing a spectacular total solar eclipse. Rather than sacrificing astrologers or going to war, people uploaded their photos to Flickr.

Sure, a few pessimistic sign-readers predicted natural disasters and terrorist attacks. But even the most hardened criminals were probably too busy shading their eyes and sharing a neighborly moment to cause trouble.

The pictures and video that floated out of Asia on Tuesday drive home a simple truth: wherever we’re from, whatever we do, however removed from the natural world we might be, having the moon cover the sun is just freaking awesome.

The next total solar eclipse will be on July 11, 2010. It’ll be visible from the South Pacific, reaching land in the Cook Islands, Easter Island, and a small section of southern Chile and Argentina.

Below is a small sampling of the flood of eclipse photos on Flickr. You can also check out this real-time eclipse photo aggregator.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 22 Jul 2009 | 2:20 pm

Phones transformed into microscopes

A new gadget that attaches to mobile phones will enable doctors to examine blood samples in remote areas

Medical researchers have unveiled a new gadget that could be used by doctors in the developing world to diagnose diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria.

The device, which attaches to a mobile phone, allows physicians to create a portable microscope that can be used to examine blood samples in the field and help spot some of the world's deadliest diseases.

Researchers at the University of California Berkeley say they hope the gadget would be deployed in areas where the cost of equipment and training currently prevents access to basic diagnostic tests.

While advanced medical imaging systems and computerised medical equipment remain the privilege of the rich, mobile phones are now ubiquitous – with recent figures suggesting that more there are more than 4bn mobile connections worldwide.

The CellScope microscope attachment clips on to an ordinary mobile phone and uses the built-in camera to process the images, allowing doctors to quickly screen for diseases including TB and sickle-cell. Doctors can perform complex high-resolution light microscopy on a blood or sputum sample placed on a slide.

In a paper published in the journal PLoS One, the team said that, although some of the tests would be more accurate or complete with higher-powered technology, they still proved adequate when performed on a standard Nokia N73 handset, which comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera.

"Sample evaluation could potentially be performed in real time while a patient is still in the presence of a healthcare worker, rather than requiring days or weeks," the paper says.

"Since we are developing a technology that makes the current and long-standing internationally accepted standards for disease screening in developing countries more portable, we anticipate that a relatively fast time to adoption by clinicians and health workers may be possible."

The team also suggest that extra features built into many mobile phones, such as GPS location data and internet connectivity, could be used to enhance the findings and make it easier for medics to spot outbreaks and coordinate their responses.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 22 Jul 2009 | 1:46 pm

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