Smokeless Tobacco Safer Than Smoking, Study Suggests

Smokeless tobacco products, as used in Europe and North America, do not appear to increase cancer risk. A large meta-analysis has shown that snuff as used in Scandinavia has no discernible effect on the risk of various cancers. Products used in the past in the US may have increased the risk, but any effect that exists now seems likely to be quite small.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 12:00 pm

Common Food Dye May Hold Promise In Treating Spinal Cord Injury

A common food additive that gives M&Ms and Gatorade their blue tint may offer promise for preventing the additional -- and serious -- secondary damage that immediately follows a traumatic injury to the spinal cord. In the study, researchers report that the compound Brilliant Blue G stops the cascade of molecular events that cause damage to the spinal cord in the hours following an injury.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 12:00 pm

Scientists Track Impact Of DNA Damage In The Developing Brain

Switching off a key DNA repair system in the developing nervous system is linked to smaller brain size as well as problems in brain structures vital to movement, memory and emotion, according to new research.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 12:00 pm

Yawn Alert For Weary Drivers

A new system that can tell when you are yawning and could prevent road traffic accidents.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 12:00 pm

Gulf Of Mexico Dead Zone Smaller Than Expected, But Severe

Scientists have found the size of this year's Gulf of Mexico dead zone to be smaller than forecasted, measuring 3,000 square miles. However the dead zone, which is usually limited to water just above the sea floor, was severe where it did occur, extending closer to the water surface then in most years.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 12:00 pm

Extinction Crisis Looms In Oceania

Governments must act urgently to halt loss of habitats and invading species that are posing major threats to biodiversity and causing species extinctions across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, according to a new study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 12:00 pm

Discovery To Aid In Future Treatments Of Third-world Parasites

Schistosomiasis, one of the most important of the neglected tropical diseases, is caused by infection with parasitic helminths of the genus Schistosoma. These parasites are long lived and dwell within blood vessels, where they produce eggs that become the focus of intense, chronic inflammatory responses. In severe cases, this inflammation is associated with life-threatening liver disease.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 9:00 am

Cancer Vaccines Led To Long-term Survival For Patients With Metastatic Melanoma

Medical researchers have released promising data from a clinical study showing patient-specific cancer vaccines derived from patients' own cancer cells and immune cells were well tolerated and resulted in impressive long-term survival rates in patients with metastatic melanoma whose disease had been minimized by other therapies.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 9:00 am

After Dinosaurs, Mammals Rise But Their Genomes Get Smaller

Evidence buried in the chromosomes of animals and plants strongly suggests only one group -- mammals -- have seen their genomes shrink after the dinosaurs' extinction. What's more, that trend continues today.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 9:00 am

Nanotubes Spin As They Grow

New research showing the atom-by-atom growth of carbon nanotubes reveals they spin stepwise as they grow, much like a ticking clock. The research provides the first experimental evidence of how individual atoms are added to growing nanotubes.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 9:00 am

Sharp view of 'Orion's shoulder'

The Very Large Telescope facility in Chile takes the sharpest pictures yet of the Orion star Betelgeuse.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jul 2009 | 5:51 am

Panel meets on NASA plans for humans in space (AP)

AP - The panel reviewing NASA's future plans for human space flight is convening for a session in Alabama.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 5:50 am

Astronauts inspect space shuttle ahead of landing (AP)

AP - Space shuttle Endeavour's astronauts are inspecting their ship to make sure it's safe for Friday's landing.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 5:48 am

Confirmed: Tanning Beds Cause Cancer

Group raises warning of tanning beds from "probably carcinogenic to humans" to "carcinogenic to humans."
Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jul 2009 | 5:45 am

Families win fight over birth defects (AP)

AP - A British court has ruled in favor of a group of young people who say pollution from a former steelworks contributed to their birth defects.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 5:43 am

50 Percent of Doctors Use Wikipedia

A survey in April found that 50 percent of doctors turn to Wikipedia for medical info.
Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jul 2009 | 5:33 am

The Nation's weather (AP)

AP - Wet weather with areas of severe storm development was expected to persist over the Eastern US, while the West was forecast to remain dreadfully hot on Wednesday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 5:08 am

'Disaster satellites' ready to fly

A Russian Dnepr rocket is set to place two British-built fast-response imaging satellites in orbit on Wednesday.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jul 2009 | 4:54 am

A fossil records the oldest known creature to live in the trees

A 260-million-year-old fossil is oldest known creature to live in the trees, according to scientists.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jul 2009 | 4:51 am

'Barcode' to help identify plants

Scientists agree on a standard DNA barcode for plants, allowing species to be identified more quickly and easily.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jul 2009 | 4:35 am

Big Fat Star Sheds Pounds Like Crazy (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - As a large star nears the end of its life it begins to shed mass at a tremendous rate.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 4:30 am

Modern Insanity: What Really Makes Us Crazy

The typical American lifestyle teems with risk factors for mental illness.
Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jul 2009 | 4:24 am

Scientists Claim New State of Matter Created (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Scientists claim to have created a form of aluminum that's nearly transparent to extreme ultraviolet radiation and which is a new state of matter.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 4:22 am

Melting hopes

Bolivian community fears loss of mountain glaciers
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jul 2009 | 4:03 am

Water pollution sickens thousands in north China (AP)

AP - Contaminated drinking water has sickened more than 2,600 people in northern China, including 59 who were hospitalized with fevers, diarrhea, stomach aches and vomiting, state media reported Wednesday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 3:57 am

Scientists seek new tools to fight malnutrition (AP)

AP - Missouri researchers have launched a new effort in their fight against worldwide hunger: bringing together a doctor who has long treated the malnourished with plant scientists working to improve the nutritional content of food.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 2:42 am

World of wax

Medical models that became public curiosities
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jul 2009 | 2:21 am

Panel backs NASA bid for bigger shuttle budget

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The United States needs to boost NASA's budget by $1.5 billion to fly the last seven shuttle missions and should extend International Space Station operations through 2020, members of a presidential panel reviewing the U.S. human space program said on Tuesday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 28 Jul 2009 | 9:59 pm

FDA says mercury dental fillings not harmful

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday silver-colored dental fillings that contain mercury are safe for patients, reversing an earlier caution against their use in certain patients, including pregnant women and children.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 28 Jul 2009 | 7:32 pm

Before Dinosaurs, the First Tree-Climber Revealed

Before dinosaurs arrived, trees were the ultimate refuge from predators
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Jul 2009 | 7:22 pm

Met Office cools summer forecast

The UK Met Office is issuing a revised summer forecast for more unsettled weather well into August.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Jul 2009 | 6:12 pm

Sunbeds dramatically raise cancer risk

Government review after worldwide study shows risk as high as tobacco

Ministers are preparing to clamp down on the cosmetic tanning industry after international experts on cancer said sunbeds belonged in the same category of carcinogenic risk as tobacco smoke.

The Department of Health said it was reviewing its stance on sunbeds after the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) upgraded its assessment of the risk posed by sunbeds and sunlamps.

Until now the IARC, which advises the World Health Organisation, categorised sunbeds as "probably carcinogenic to humans". But after conducting further research into the evidence around their effects it has placed them in its highest cancer risk category.

The Department of Health, which has resisted previous calls to regulate the industry, said: "Sunbeds can be dangerous – we must ensure that people who use them do so safely. If necessary we will look at new laws to protect young people."

A report by Dr Fatiha El Ghissassi and colleagues from the IARC in France published tomorrow in The Lancet Oncology said: "The use of UV-emitting tanning devices is widespread in many developed countries, especially among young women. A comprehensive meta-analysis concluded that the risk of skin melanoma is increased by 75% when use of tanning devices starts before 30 years of age." Several studies had also linked sunbed use to a greater likelihood of developing a rare eye cancer called ocular melanoma, they added.

The IARC's WHO agency for research on cancer therefore "raised the classification of the use of UV-emitting tanning devices to Group 1, 'carcinogenic to humans'," they said.

Other recognised carcinogens include tobacco smoke, asbestos, benzine, formaldehyde and the Epstein-Barr virus, which causes glandular fever.

Health campaigners last night welcomed the move and demanded government action. Jessica Harris of Cancer Research UK said: "Given the dangers of sunbeds we want the government to act now to ban under-18s from using sunbeds, close salons that aren't supervised by trained staff and ensure information about the risk of using sunbeds is given to all customers."

People should avoid sunbeds completely for cosmetic purposes, she said. " They have no health benefits and they increase the risk of cancer."

Nina Goad of the British Association of Dermatologists said: "We know that ultraviolet radiation (UVR) causes skin cancer, and sunbeds create a tan by emitting UVR, so we welcome the recognition that sunbeds are carcinogenic. It is high time that steps were taken to regulate the industry, to prevent children using sunbeds, and to ensure that sunbeds are subject to health warnings like other known carcinogens."

Some salons advertise health "benefits" to using sunbeds but offer customers no guidance on health risks, she added. "Hopefully categorising sunbeds as a known carcinogen will prompt the government to introduce compulsory health warnings on tanning beds."

Julie Barratt of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, which represents environmental health officers, also called for new restrictions. "This new research underlines the case for urgent reform. We want coin-operated ones, where there are no staff, banned because anyone, including children, can go in and do what they like. All sunbed premises should be registered with the local authority, under-18s should not be able to use them, and everybody using a sunbed should have to be given advice about the health risks."

A Department of Health spokesman said it was examining what action it might take following a report last month from the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (Comare), a group of government advisers. It recommended that anyone under 18 should not be allowed to use sunbeds. Professor Alex Elliott, who chairs Comare, said people could buy a walk-in tanning machine that inside two minutes gave the user the same UV exposure as a fortnight's holiday in the Mediterranean.

The spokesman added: "We commissioned a report from Comare to give us a better understanding of the issues around sunbeds. This report was published in June and we are considering the recommendations in full." Government sources said action was "very likely".

Kathy Banks, chief executive of the Sunbed Association, said it disputed IARC's reclassification of sunbeds as carcinogenic.

She said: "There is no proven link between the responsible use of sunbeds and skin cancer. The relationship between UV exposure and an increased risk of developing skin cancer is only likely to arise where over-exposure – that is, burning – has taken place.

"This outcome would be the same whether burning takes place on a sunbed or on a beach or in a park or garden in natural sunlight. Over 80% of sunbed users are very knowledgeable about the risks associated with over-exposure to UV and the majority of sunbed users take 20 or less sunbed sessions a year."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Jul 2009 | 5:05 pm

Secrets of swing unveiled by science

Most of us never stray from the basic swing. A few of us dabble with the double swing. And then there are the curious few who indulge in an ungainly swing that goes the opposite way to everyone else's. It has long been argued that the way we move our arms when walking is a vestige of our ancestral life on all fours. But scientists have never nailed down exactly why we do it – until now.

The secrets of swing have been laid out in research published today by a biomechanics expert, Steve Collins, at the Delft University in the Netherlands.

Those who don't swing put an unnecessary burden on their bodies and burn too much energy, he found, while those who swing their arms and legs in synch are in danger of careering off course.

Collins studied volunteers as they strolled on a treadmill. Some walked normally, some clamped their arms to their sides, while others swung both arms in unison. Another group tried the "Sears catalogue walk", in which the right arm goes forward with the right leg and vice-versa.

Monitoring the volunteers' metabolism showed that keeping our arms still as we stroll burns up 12% more energy than swinging them normally. The clumsy anti-swing walk, in which the arm and leg on one side go forward together, uses 26% more energy, as our muscles fight to keep us on course, according to a report in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The findings are likely to help researchers improve exercises used to rehabilitate patients learning to walk again after injury.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Jul 2009 | 5:05 pm

Early Human Relative Predates Dinosaurs

The first known tree-dwelling vertebrate was a distant relative of modern mammals, including humans.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 28 Jul 2009 | 5:01 pm

Scientists Claim New State of Matter Created

Scientists claim to have created a form of aluminum that's a new state of matter.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Jul 2009 | 4:20 pm

More funding is sought for hurricane research (McClatchy Newspapers)

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — Florida's senators on Tuesday renewed a push to boost federal funding for research into predicting, modeling and preventing damage from hurricanes.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jul 2009 | 4:06 pm

BLOG: John Kerry, Discovery Team up for Sharks

Sen. John Kerry joins the Discovery Channel on Shark Week in an effort to save sharks.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 28 Jul 2009 | 2:45 pm

On the origin of education

To deny the importance of teaching evolution is to fail to grasp a basic truth about children

Ed Balls received a letter this week from 26 of the country's leading scientists – including Richard Dawkins, Harry Kroto, John Sulston – warning of their concerns that the proposed new primary school science curriculum does not even mention evolution.

I was happy to add my name to the signatories. To omit evolution from the education of five- to 11-year-olds would be to miss a great opportunity. Children are often fascinated by fossils and wildlife. While many are too young to appreciate the concepts of "deep time" – that the Earth is some 4.6 thousand million years old – and the logical rigour of natural selection, they have powers of observation and a capacity to be engaged by the names and structures of organisms that put many adults to shame.

Some will be suspicious because the letter to the secretary of state for children, schools and families was organised through the offices of the British Humanist Association. And it's a coincidence (I think) that news of it emerged at the same time as many of us were being regaled by a breakfast TV clip of what are becoming known as "Richard Dawkins's atheist summer camps" – but I am strongly in favour of children being taught about evolution in school whether or not they or their parents have a religious faith.

The great majority of people with a religious faith successfully combine it with an acceptance of evolution, as I do. Nevertheless, there is a substantial minority – perhaps about 15% of people in the UK – who are creationists. The views of such people can be respected without us failing to teach evolution in schools. We do not want to go down the path followed by many schools in the US, where evolution doesn't get a look in.

This year is Darwin200, the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, his magnum opus and the most important biology book ever written. What many people don't realise is that the sorts of observations that led Darwin to accept evolution and come up with the theory of natural selection are just those that can be made by schoolchildren.

Indeed, the Wellcome Trust has funded some wonderful Darwin-related activities being undertaken this year by hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of children. Kew has sent a treasure chest of activities to every state primary school as part of The Great Plant Hunt, and there are activities for secondary students, too.

Why do I feel so strongly that evolution should be a part of every child's education? In large measure it is because Darwin enables us to see ourselves in a new light. For all that we are the most special of species – with our unrivalled capacity for language, for thought, for morality and for reason – we are not wholly distinct from the rest of creation. We share a common ancestor with every mammal, with every animal; indeed, with every organism.

There doesn't have to be a link between an appreciation of this web of life and our behaviour towards our fellow creatures, but, thankfully, there often is. By now it's a truism that we live at a time of almost unparalleled species extinction. Seeing ourselves in an evolutionary light may yet help us slow this terrible trend.

And then an evolutionary perspective on life can help us more rigorously assess our strengths and our weaknesses. We are the product of a mechanism that puts us first – that's what natural selection is all about – but we also have the evolved capacities to seek after truth, beauty and goodness: that's what being human is all about. This should start in the primary classroom.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Jul 2009 | 2:30 pm

Shuttle Heads Home, Leaving Six at Space Station

Astronauts head home after installing a porch and new batteries at the space station.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 28 Jul 2009 | 12:54 pm

Government watchdog considers ban on IQ booster drugs

The government's official experts on illegal drugs have been asked to look at whether intelligence-enhancing drugs, such as those used by students to boost performance in exams, should be banned.

Medical experts believe that a range of psychoactive drugs that includes those used to tackle the symptoms of Alzheimer's and attention-deficit disorder in children, could fuel an already over-competitive society when used by the healthy.

Amid fears that the increase in online pharmacies means that such drugs are much more readily available, the Home Office has asked the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to see how this "rapidly evolving field" should be regulated. Just before she stepped down from office, the previous home secretary, Jacqui Smith, asked the advisory council to assess the harm – including that of possible psychological dependence or addiction – caused by this group of drugs when used by healthy adults.

The request, disclosed in the council's annual report published today, followed a study by the Academy of Medical Sciences, which highlighted for the first time many of the problems arising from the use of these drugs by healthy adults.

"Competitive use of cognitive enhancers raises many of the same issues as the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport," said the report. "Their use could lead to problems of coercion, where there is pressure on individuals to take the drugs even if they do not wish to. Similarly, if such drugs were available to only a proportion of competitors, they could be seen as giving an unfair advantage, or to be a form of cheating."

The medical scientists pointed to the growing use of drugs designed to maintain attention or keep people awake. They cited the use of drugs, such as modafinil and methylphenidate, in the workplace to aid professional performance and by the military to increase problem-solving skills and reduce impulsive behaviour.

The new range of psychoactive "intelligence enhancers" embrace a spectrum of competitive and non-competitive uses: from students taking such drugs to get through tests, to individuals using them to curb forgetfulness. The scientists, who said a study was needed of the drugs' potential side-effects, said the concerns included possible devaluation of "normal" achievements and a potential reduction in the value of effort and motivation involved in learning.

There were also the issues of inequality where the drugs were expensive, and of exacerbating an already over-competitive culture, the study said.

A Cabinet Office paper published last year said: "Some putative enhancers are already being sold informally, especially online. At present availability is greater for such enhancers that are sold as herbal remedies or 'nutraceutical' food supplements rather than as mainstream pharmaceuticals. If effective cognition enhancers become generally available, the issue would be how best to regulate such a change in access."

The government's drug experts are to advise Alan Johnson, the home secretary, on whether he should take action to ban "legal highs" such as Spice, a herbal preparation with synthetic cannabis.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Jul 2009 | 12:50 pm

Orangutans swing for their dinner

Scientists show how Sumatran orangutans move in a unique way through the trees.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Jul 2009 | 12:36 pm

Human activity driving Earth's 'sixth great extinction event'

Population growth, pollution and invasive species are having a disastrous effect on species in the southern hemisphere, a major review by conservationists warns

Earth is experiencing its "sixth great extinction event" with disease and human activity taking a devastating toll on vulnerable species, according to a major review by conservationists.

Much of the southern hemisphere is suffering particularly badly, and Australia, New Zealand and neighbouring Pacific islands may become the extinction hot spots of the world, the report warns.

Ecosystems in Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia need urgent and effective conservation policies, or the region's already poor record on extinctions will worsen significantly.

Researchers trawled 24,000 published reports to compile information on the native flora and fauna of Australasia and the Pacific islands, which have six of the most biodiverse regions on the planet. Their report identifies six causes driving species to extinction, almost all linked in some way to human activity.

"Our region has the notorious distinction of having possibly the worst extinction record on Earth," said Richard Kingsford, an environmental scientist at the University of New South Wales in Sydney and lead author of the report. "We have an amazing natural environment, but so much of it is being destroyed before our eyes. Species are being threatened by habitat loss and degradation, invasive species, climate change, over-exploitation, pollution and wildlife disease."

The review, published in the journal Conservation Biology, highlights destruction and degradation of ecosystems as the main threat. In Australia, agriculture has altered or destroyed half of all woodland and forests. Around 70% of the remaining forest has been damaged by logging. Loss of habitats is behind 80% of threatened species, the report claims.

Invasive animals and plants have devastated native species on many Pacific islands. The Guam Micronesian kingfisher is thought to be extinct in the wild following the introduction of the brown tree snake. The impact of invasive species is often compounded by pollution and burgeoning human populations on the islands, which have outstripped their capacity to deal with waste. Plastics and fishing gear are an ongoing danger.

The impact of humans on wildlife is likely to increase in Australasia and the Pacific islands. By 2050, the population of Australia is expected to have risen by 35%, and New Zealand by 25%, while Papua New Guinea faces a 76% increase and New Caledonia 49%.

More than 2,500 invasive plant species have colonised Australia and New Zealand, competing for sunlight and nutrients. Many have been introduced by governments, horticulturists and hunters. In addition, the report says, average temperatures in Australia have increased, in line with climate change predictions, forcing some species towards Antarctica and others to higher, cooler ground.

The report highlights several studies that point to serious threats from diseases such as avian malaria and the chytrid fungus, linked to declines in frog populations. An infectious facial cancer is spreading rapidly among Tasmanian devils and populations of the world's largest marsupial predator are believed to have fallen by more than 60% as a result.

Plants have also fared badly: a root fungus deliberately introduced into Australia has destroyed several species.

The report sets out a raft of recommendations to slow the decline by introducing laws to limit land clearing, logging and mining; restricting deliberate introduction of invasive species; reducing carbon emissions and pollution; and limiting fisheries. It raises particular concerns about bottom trawling, and the use of cyanide and dynamite, and calls for early-warning systems to pick up diseases in the wild.

"The burden on the environment is going to get worse unless we are a lot smarter about reducing our footprint," said Kingsford. "Unless we get this right, future generations will surely be paying more in quality of life and the environment. And our region will continue its terrible reputation of leading the world in the extinction of plants and animals."

Dead and buried

Cretaceous-Tertiary 65m years ago, the dinosaurs were wiped out in a mass extinction that killed nearly a fifth of land vertebrate families, 16% of marine families and nearly half of all marine animals. Thought to have been caused by asteroid impact that created Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan.

End of Triassic About 200m years ago, lava floods erupting from the central Atlantic are thought to have created lethal global warming, killing off more than a fifth of all marine families and half of marine genera.

Permian-Triassic The worst mass extinction took place 250m years ago, killing 95% of all species. Experts disagree on the cause.

Late Devonian About 360m years ago, a fifth of marine families were wiped out, alongside more than half of all marine genera. Cause unknown.

Ordovician-Silurian About 440m years ago, a quarter of all marine families were wiped out by fluctuating sea levels as glaciers formed and melted. again.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Jul 2009 | 12:24 pm

Brain Surgery Done With Sound

Focused ultrasound surgery has now been performed successfully on nine human patients.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Jul 2009 | 11:53 am

How to Catch a Giant, Smelly, Endangered Earthworm

Only four giant Palouse earthworms have been found in the last 100 years — so scientists are dousing the worms with hot mustard and shocking them with electricity.

Those are the two main tricks of Palouse worm hunters, who’ve recently taken to the field in an effort to dig up information about a species so rare that the Bush administration wouldn’t declare them endangered. Not enough was known, they said.

Environmentalists hope the Obama administration will be more sympathetic. But whatever happens, they’ll need to know more about the worm. Leading the effort is University of Idaho soil scientist Jodi Johnson-Maynard, who explained their techniques to Wired.com.

The simplest way of finding the earthworm is “hand-sorting,” a fancy name for digging them up with a shovel. That’s how one of Johnson-Maynard’s students accidentally found a giant Palouse earthworm in 2005. Unfortunately, the shovel cut the worm in half.

Hoping to avoid a repeat, Maynard-Johnson turned to a dilute solution of off-the-shelf hot mustard. “It’s an irritant that causes them to try to come up to escape it,” she said. “It works on other worms, so probably it’ll work on the Palouse. It’s thought to be more efficient at extracting larger earthworms that burrow fairly deep, like nightcrawlers, and produce very straight, downward burrows. It flows preferentially down those holes.”

Similar in principle is electroextraction. “We have a series of probes put in the ground, and hooked up to a power source,” said Johnson-Maynard. “The worm senses the current going through the soil, and moves up to escape it.”

Johnson-Maynard has also tried worm grunting, in which a wooden stake is driven into the ground and rubbed with steel, producing vibrations that mimic the sound of worm-hungry moles. That works great for standard earthworms, but didn’t uncover any giant worms.

“There may not have been many worms present,” she said. “But another problem is that it could possibly work if the earthworms were close to the surface, but if they’re five to 10 feet down, that’ll be hard.”

Hot mustard and electroextraction are scheduled for use at a site in north-central Washington where several giant Palouse earthworms are believed to have been found, though formal identification was inconclusive.

“I liken this to fishing. Fishermen have a lot of patience, and that’s what this takes,” she said.

See Also:

• Will Obama Save America’s Giant, Smelly Earthworm?
• Giant Earthworms Could Become the New Spotted Owl

Images: 1. Karl Umiker & Jodi Johnson-Maynard 2. Joanna Blaszczak

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 28 Jul 2009 | 11:24 am

WATCH: Pinup Girls Release Pitbulls Calendar

Michael Vick may have used pitbulls for fighting, but a group of women is posing with them.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 28 Jul 2009 | 11:00 am

Animal activists vow to up campaign against Australian mulesing (AFP)

AFP - Animal rights activists vowed to intensify calls for boycotts of Australian wool Tuesday, after farmers said they would continue sheep mulesing, the cutting of the hide to prevent disease.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jul 2009 | 10:06 am

Insect defence all blood and guts

As a bizarre defence against predators, armoured crickets haemorrhage toxic blood and make themselves sick.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Jul 2009 | 9:42 am

Spacewalkers complete Japan's laboratory complex

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A pair of spacewalking astronauts put the finishing touches on Japan's International Space Station research lab Monday during a fifth and final outing before the visiting shuttle Endeavour departs.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 28 Jul 2009 | 9:39 am

Crustacean Color Control System Decoded

A single protein produces the unique color system present in all crustaceans.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 28 Jul 2009 | 9:30 am

Common, safe blue food dye may treat broken spines

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A common and safe blue food dye might provide the best treatment available so far for spinal cord injuries, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 28 Jul 2009 | 9:12 am

Airplane Built To Launch Spaceships Flies

An airplane built to launch a ship into space makes its debut.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 28 Jul 2009 | 9:05 am

Space Station Gets X-Ray Eyes

A telescope now on the space station will provide X-ray images during every Earth orbit.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 28 Jul 2009 | 8:55 am

Brain’s Potential Explained by Big New Idea

Components in the brain's cortex may determine our ability to learn
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Jul 2009 | 8:13 am

One cheer for Camp Quest

A summer camp dedicated to Darwin and scepticism has been launched. Nothing wrong with that, but is it really needed?

The media seems to have decided that yesterday – the first day of the "atheist summer camp" Camp Quest, which convenes for a week of Darwin-themed godless fun in Somerset – was important. Important enough to run it as an item on BBC news this morning. Important enough for the Guardian to ask me for a comment about it. Why? There is surely little that is remarkable about 24 happy campers gathering for a week to canoe, zip line and sing campfire songs. Does it lie in the novelty of the fact that Camp Quest is specifically designed for "the children of atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers and all those who embrace a naturalistic rather than supernatural world view" (though, presumably to head off discrimination suits, it is technically open to the offspring of parents of any belief)? That the camp will have an evolution theme, and feature some "pseudo-science" debunking and a competition to disprove the existence of unicorns? Of course this was it, which is why most of the stories packaged the camp as "Richard Dawkins' Atheist Camp", name-checking the bestselling God-basher, even though the extent of his involvement was to offer a modest one-off donation.

This allows the non-hysterical "quality" media to have their liberal cake and eat their Daily Mail cake too. Underlying the apparently objective coverage of the camp is a distinct line in sneeriness and a barely concealed incitement to apoplexy – look! They seem to say, see how these heathen are brainwashing their children, just like the religious fundamentalists they criticise! Michael Deacon in the Telegraph, for example, worried about "the thought of my child mutating into some kind of pedantic, humourless, eight-year-old mini-Dawkins". It's all a bit predictable really, though of course great publicity for the camp, which promptly sold out.

My problems with Camp Quest are of a different order. Firstly – summer camp? In my experience summer camp serves as a decent backdrop to North American coming-of-age-teen-flicks like Meatballs or the killing ground for a bunch of hormonal witless teens like Camp Crystal Lake in Friday the 13th and … that's it. We don't do summer camps in Britain, do we? I always understood them to be a distinct phenomena of the American system that confers a wonderfully prolonged summer vacation on its lucky little Brad and Janets, while shackling its working schlubs to their desks for all but a couple of weeks a year. Summer camp is a practical childcare solution. We Brits had to acquire our canoeing and coming-of-age skills on school trips, or round the back of the bike sheds. And didn't we also spend a bit of time with Mum and Dad? I'm sure the idea of packing the kids off to camp for a week appeals to a certain kind of parent in this country – I mean how is one supposed to keep them occupied when they come back from boarding school?

Secondly, Camp Quest is an organisation set up as a mirror and counterbalance to religious summer camps, which are apparently all the rage in the states. But are they a phenomenon that requires counteracting here? I know they exist, but so do Viking battle reconstruction clubs and step classes. I thought the British way was to ignore these idiosyncratic outbursts of nonsense, not set up counter-nonsense clubs. The issue of to what degree we non-believers should seek to inculcate our non-belief in our children is certainly a live one, as evidenced by the hundreds of responses to this article by an atheist parent trying to find books for his kids to counteract the Bible classes their Catholic mother takes them to. As with most things the humanists can't seem to agree. Some of them endorse the idea of humanist camps and books as a counterweight to scripture, others suggest reading the Bible and arguing loudly with it. Some people even think the answer is to love the kids, and trust them to make up their own minds.

I think that if we have to have summer camps then an atheist summer camp dedicated to Darwin is entirely welcome.

But do we really have to?

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Jul 2009 | 8:11 am

Gulf Dead Zone Looks Smaller, but Appearances Deceive

The infamous Gulf of Mexico dead zone looks smaller than predicted this year, but scientists say the reprieve is just temporary, and barely even a reprieve. Some worry that more pollution could cause the Gulf’s ecosystem to collapse.

“We’re in a condition in the Gulf of Mexico that indicates we might be near some sort of tipping point, but you don’t really know it until it happens,” said Nancy Rabelais, director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.

The federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released the dead zone data Tuesday. Caused by farm fertilizer runoff that feeds algae that in turn feeds oxygen-gobbling bacteria, the dead zone has covered an area the size of New Jersey for the last several years. This year, unexpected weather patterns — rather than a drop in pollution — have cut its surface area by half.

“The models do not include weather,” said Robert Diaz, a Virginia Institute of Marine Science biologist who’s tracked ocean dead zones since 1995.

But oxygen levels are unusually low, and run especially deep, in the afflicted area. Bottom-dwelling crab, shrimp and eels have been found swimming on the ocean surface. Elsewhere in the Gulf, phytoplankton distribution has changed, and deep-sea creatures have given way to those that can survive high in the water column.

Rabelais and other researchers have found that the effects of nitrogen are becoming more pronounced, with small doses generating the same low-oxygen volumes once produced by large amounts of pollution.

Whether these changes are potentially stable or signify the wobbling of a system that could suddenly shift to a radically different ecological structure is hard to tell.

“Where we are in this continuum in the Gulf of Mexico, we don’t know. There are other areas where fisheries have collapsed. I’m not saying that’s going to happen in the Gulf of Mexico, but we’re concerned,” said Rabelais. “We’re in experimental mode here.”

See Also:

• Ocean Dead Zones May Be Worse Than Thought
• Toxin-Gobbling Bugs Could Clean Ocean Dead Zones
• Climate Change Could Choke Oceans for 100000 Years
• Corn-Based Biofuels Spell Death for Gulf of Mexico

Image: NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 28 Jul 2009 | 7:58 am

Robotic firefighting team debuts

A team of robots designed to deal with the risks posed by gas cylinders at fire scenes has been demonstrated in London.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Jul 2009 | 7:56 am

Healthcare Systems: U.S. vs. Japan

Although Japan's health care system has flaws, it has produced the healthiest citizenry in the world.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Jul 2009 | 7:27 am

'Brain Carpet' Translates Thoughts Into Action

New microelectrodes connect man to machine by sitting on the surface of the brain.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 28 Jul 2009 | 7:05 am

Incan Empire Aided by Global Warming

A 400-year period of warming helped usher in the Inca Empire.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 28 Jul 2009 | 6:05 am

Free Spirit: NASA Recreates Mars Surface to Liberate Rover

PASADENA - Getting stuck is never fun, especially when you’re over 30 million miles from Earth. NASA’s Spirit rover is mired in dirt on Mars and now scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are working hard to free the over-worked robot.

Spirit first ran afoul of the Martian surface on May 6 when it hit some patches of dirt that made its wheels spin in place. Now the wheels (two of which are not working properly) are sunk in up to their hubcaps.

Like a remote Auto Club for robots, JPL engineers have built a sandbox filled with a mixture of materials that closely mimic the consistency of Martian soil as well as a rock to high-center the rover. They’ve driven a replica of the Spirit into the box and are working diligently to figure out the best way to escape the talcum-like trap – a technique used with Spirit’s twin rover, Opportunity, back in 2005 when it also became stuck.

The first Mars Exploration Rover landed on the red planet in January 2004. Initially, the mission was supposed to last 90 Martian days, but Spirit exceeded that by over 20 times. Thanks to a recent dust storm, the fine dust that coated Spirit’s solar panels was blown off and it has been operating at full power for months now. If this latest obstacle can be overcome, Spirit can keep exploring even longer.

Read on to see how the JPL scientists created a little piece of Mars on Earth and get up close and personal with Spirit’s predicament.

Above: A JPL technician attaches a grounding strap to the rover before measuring the distance it traveled during the previous move. Below:

A Discovery Channel Canada film crew films the engineers as they work to get the rover unstuck.

Photos: Dave Bullock/Wired.com

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 28 Jul 2009 | 6:00 am

Graphic and ghoulish: The Wellcome's cadaverous Exquisite Bodies show

Part fairground attraction, part science lesson, a new exhibition of grotesquely lifelike waxworks lifts the curtain on the hidden history of medicine and art

The Wellcome Collection in London is about to open a peep show – and of a kind not seen in Britain for well over a century, since the last public museum of medical waxworks was smashed to pieces by the London Metropolitan police. The Wellcome's normally chaste white galleries have been transformed for a new show called Exquisite Bodies, which gathers together centuries of anatomical models of human bodies and body parts, created to educate, terrify and titillate.

The exhibition's designers say it will be part university lecture, part artist's anatomy lesson, part Victorian fairground booth. The oldest pieces, works made in ivory or wood in the 17th and 18th centuries, come from private collections in Europe. But most of the pieces, made in tinted wax, have a rowdier history, often conveying physical deformity or grotesque disease in lurid detail, and displayed in crowd-thrilling museums and travelling fairs from the 19th century onwards. The Roca museum, the original home of many of the pieces in the show, survived in the red-light district of Barcelona until 1935, and was considered so educational, particularly as a warning against the horrors of venereal disease, that at one point it was maintained by the Red Cross.

"We wanted to convey the atmosphere of these displays," curator Kate Forde says. "They were certainly about educating people, but they were also hugely popular entertainment, at a time before x-rays when the inner workings of their own bodies were a profound mystery to most people."

Most of the pieces are now fragile, and very rare. As these museums fell out of favour, the exhibits were destroyed. Forde has spent years tracking down specimens for the exhibition, adding to those collected in the early 20th century by Henry Wellcome, founder of the Wellcome Trust.

The rooms have been painted dark blue, and filled with extraordinary objects, from a two-headed calf – probably faked – to a cutaway model of a pregnant woman, her serene face betraying nothing of the midwife's hand groping inside her.

Especially arresting are supine naked women, known as "anatomical Venuses", made from the 18th century onwards. They were constructed of wax, wood or ivory so that their stomachs could be opened and internal organs displayed, usually including a pregnant uterus. Most have beautiful faces resembling traditional images of the Madonna, and luxuriant real hair. Although originally modelled for private collections, when any scholarly gentleman's study would include scientific instruments and anatomical treatises, some were also made to educate medical students.

There are also miniature ivory models in the same style. "It used to be thought that these were made to aid women consulting doctors, who could point to the models to show what their problem was, but I think that's most unlikely," says Forde. "They are far too small, and the detail is too crude to be useful. They are luxury objects, and I wonder if they aren't a kind of executive desk toy, where you would amuse yourself by taking them to pieces and reassembling them."

Draw aside the crimson velvet curtains of the side alcoves, and you expose ever more striking things: human genitalia in extreme stages of disease modelled in flesh-coloured wax featuring real pubic hair, for instance. Whether these are intended to terrify the viewer into virtuous living or offer a curious form of titillation is open to debate.

The Wellcome has always been interested in the permeable membrane between art and science. Generations of art students learned anatomy directly from models originally intended for medical students; dissection was either illegal or specimens difficult to obtain. Detailed watercolour illustrations and engravings were made of dissections, and centuries-old specimens survive preserved in alcohol – but the unique advantage of the model was that it preserved a three-dimensional image with its original colour.

Most were made by highly skilled specialists, of whom the finest was undoubtedly Joseph Towne, born in 1806 in Royston, near Cambridge. As a teenager, he modelled a full-size human skeleton working from observation and book illustrations alone, eventually being directed to London, and then to Guy's hospital in his attempts to find out if it was accurate. Guy's needed an assistant model maker, and the extraordinary model hand Towne made to demonstrate his skill is still in the hospital collection.

He ended up spending his entire working life at Guy's, living and working in the hospital basement. He was so secretive, particularly of his technique for colouring the wax, that he sometimes worked draped in a cloth, and blocked the keyhole of his room.

The most startling aspect of Towne's models is that they are unmistakably portraits of real people, including the head of a child dying of syphilis and a yelling man with a stubbled chin and broken teeth. Many contemporary artists must have been aware of Towne's peculiar genius. He craved recognition for his skill, and his work was often shown in exhibitions that included conventional works of art. His model of a dissected head – included in the Wellcome show – won a Royal Society of Arts gold medal in 1825, and he was included in the Great Exhibition in 1851.

There are many other overlaps with art history in the show. The Belgian surrealist painter Paul Delvaux, who repeatedly visited a Venus in the Spitzner Museum at the Brussels Fair, was only one of many artists fascinated by such figures. Delvaux might even be one of those captured in a photograph from the 1930s, on display here, which shows crowds poring over display cases in a tent in Brussels, their faces in various states of shock or hilarity.

The grotesquely dismembered figures that populate many early surrealist exhibitions strikingly recall these fairground creations, as does the work of many contemporary artists including Louise Bourgeois, the Chapman Brothers and Marc Quinn. Quinn's own sculpture of a naked woman, an eerie body cast of a real woman, Silvia Petretti, in polymer wax mixed with the anti-HIV drugs she was taking, was bought when the Wellcome Collection opened three years ago, and lies on permanent display in a glass case just inside the main door of the building.

The exhibition reflects an aspect of scientific history in which the gallery's founder himself was hugely interested – the meeting point of art and science, and of the academic and the popular. Indeed, Henry Wellcome collected the most beautiful of the Venuses, originally commissioned by a Florentine aristocrat, and the ivory miniatures. Forde is confident he would have loved this show.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Jul 2009 | 5:20 am