Words, Gestures Are Translated By Same Brain Regions

Researchers have shown that the brain regions that have long been recognized as a center in which spoken or written words are decoded are also important in interpreting wordless gestures. The findings suggest that these brain regions may play a much broader role in the interpretation of symbols than researchers have thought and, for this reason, could be the evolutionary starting point from which language originated.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

Radiation After Surgery Reduces Chance Of Melanoma Returning

High-risk melanoma patients who are treated with radiation after surgery have a significantly lower risk of their cancer returning to the lymph nodes (19 percent), compared to those patients who do not have radiation therapy (31 percent), according to the first randomized study of its kind.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

Flipping A Photonic Shock Wave

Physicists have directly observed a reverse shock wave of light in a specially tailored structure known as a left-handed metamaterial. Although it was first predicted over forty years ago, this is the first unambiguous experimental demonstration of the effect.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

Stem Cells Restore Cognitive Abilities Impaired By Brain Tumor Treatment

Human embryonic stem cells could help people with learning and memory deficits after radiation treatment for brain tumors, suggests a new study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

Antarctica Glacier Retreat Creates New Carbon Dioxide Store; Has Beneficial Impact On Climate Change

Large blooms of tiny marine plants called phytoplankton are flourishing in areas of open water left exposed by the recent and rapid melting of ice shelves and glaciers around the Antarctic Peninsula. This remarkable colonization is having a beneficial impact on climate change. As the blooms die back phytoplankton sinks to the sea-bed where it can store carbon for thousands or millions of years.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Sees Channels From Hale Crater

A new image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows channels to the southeast of Hale crater on southern Mars. Taken by the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, this view covers an area about 3 kilometers (2 miles) wide.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

New Light On The SARS Virus

Using novel techniques, a Dutch researcher has cast new light on the replication of coronaviruses, a family of viruses including the cause of SARS. He has shown, using luminescent viruses, how coronaviruses use host cells and how we can use the intracellular processes to attack the virus.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

Embryonic Stem Cell Therapy Restores Walking Ability In Rats With Neck Injuries

The first human embryonic stem cell treatment approved by the FDA for human testing has been shown to restore limb function in rats with neck spinal cord injuries -- a finding that could expand the clinical trial to include people with cervical damage.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

FDA-approved Drugs Eliminate, Prevent Cervical Cancer In Mice

Researchers have eliminated cervical cancer in mice with two FDA-approved drugs currently used to treat breast cancer and osteoporosis.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

Ice Cream Researchers Making Sweet Strides With 'Functional Foods'

A comfort food, a tasty treat, an indulgence -- ice cream conjures feelings of happiness and satisfaction for millions. Ice cream researchers have discovered ways to make ice cream tastier and healthier, and have contributed to ice cream development and manufacturing for more than a century. Today, researchers are working to make ice cream into a functional food, adding nutrients such as fiber, antioxidants and probiotics to premium ice cream.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

Climate change makes English winemakers see red (Reuters)

Reuters - The pickers working their way along the hillside, clipping bunches of small, dark purple grapes from the rows of vines and dropping them into plastic buckets are harbingers of a warmer planet.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Nov 2009 | 3:22 am

Weaker Ida soaks U.S. Gulf Coast, hits oil supply (Reuters)

Reuters - A weakening Tropical Storm Ida brought drenching rain to the U.S. Gulf Coast as it slowly approached shore on Tuesday after shutting down almost 30 percent of Gulf energy production.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Nov 2009 | 2:39 am

Close encounters of the faked kind

Psychologist Chris French explains why he believes The Fourth Kind is dangerously misleading twaddle

The Fourth Kind is, in so many ways, a really awful film. Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi and released in the UK over the weekend, it purports to be a dramatic reconstruction of events that took place in the city of Nome, Alaska, involving the disappearance of local residents. If you were to accept this film at face value, you would be left in no doubt whatsoever that these disappearances were the result of "close encounters of the fourth kind" – abduction by aliens.

The film employs several far-from-subtle techniques in an attempt to convince viewers that what they are watching is based entirely upon documented evidence. Both the trailer and the film itself open with an assurance to that effect, direct to camera, from the film's star:

"I am actress Milla Jovovich and I will be portraying Dr Abigail Tyler. This film is a dramatisation of events that occurred October 2000. Every scene in this movie is supported by archive footage. Some of what you are about to see is extremely disturbing."

At least the latter statement is accurate, although not for the reasons intended by the filmmakers.

Both trailer and film frequently cut between allegedly real footage of hypnotic regression sessions carried out by psychologist Dr Tyler on her patients and dramatic reconstructions of these same sessions, sometimes employing a split-screen technique to show both simultaneously to "prove" that the reconstructions are 100% accurate. This approach seems to have backfired badly on the filmmakers as most reviews of the film are highly critical of this unconvincing "archive footage".

Kyle Hopkins wrote an excellent piece for the Anchorage Daily News debunking the movie. He conceded that there is a long history of disappearances and suspicious deaths in Nome. They have been investigated by the FBI who "mostly blamed alcohol and the cruel Alaska winter". Hopkins goes on:

According to promotional materials from Universal, the film is framed around a psychologist named Abigail Tyler who interviewed traumatized patients in Nome. But state licensing examiner Jan Mays says she can't find records of an Abigail Tyler ever being licensed in any profession in Alaska. No one by that name lived in Nome in recent years, according to a search of public record databases.

Still, there is a shred of "evidence." Try Googling "Abigail Tyler" and "Alaska." You'll get a link to a convincingly boring Web site called the "Alaska Psychiatry Journal" – complete with a biography of a psychologist by that name who researched sleep behavior in Nome. Except the site is suspiciously vacant, mostly a collection of articles on sleep studies with no home page or contact information. Ron Adler is CEO and director of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute. Denise Dillard is president of the Alaska Psychological Association. They said this week they've never heard of the Alaska Psychiatry Journal, or of Abigail Tyler.

Hopkins also points out that Nome is not, as portrayed in the film, a city surrounded by beautiful mountains but is instead "a flat tundra town at the shore of the Bering Sea".

Let me be quite clear. I have no objections to the paranormal being featured in fiction. If it's good enough for Shakespeare, Dickens and The X-Files, it's good enough for me. But I do object to fiction being sold as fact.

The reason I found this film so "disturbing" was because experience shows that no matter how obvious a hoax may be to those capable of critical thinking, there will always be many who will accept at face value the film's claim to be based on true events. What I found really worrying was that, even though the "case histories" featured in the film were almost certainly fictional, the accounts would not have looked out of place if they had appeared in my column last month on sleep paralysis – individuals with disturbed sleep patterns seeing strange creatures staring at them and being attacked by unearthly intruders.

Sleep paralysis is a condition in which the sufferer experiences temporary paralysis when entering or emerging from sleep. It is sometimes accompanied by a strong sense of presence, terrifying visual and/or auditory hallucinations, and intense fear.

Despite the fact that sleep paralysis is scientifically recognised and reasonably well understood, there are many self-appointed UFO experts or "ufologists" who insist that if you have ever suffered from the symptoms of sleep paralysis, you have probably been abducted by aliens and you cannot remember the rest of the event, either because you have repressed it due to its horrific nature or because the aliens have wiped your memory. These ideas, along with the equally mistaken notion that hypnosis provides a reliable means to retrieve such hidden memories, are uncritically promoted in this film.

In 1992, ufologist Budd Hopkins, in collaboration with historian David Jacobs and sociologist Ron Westrum, commissioned a survey of around 6,000 American adults regarding unusual experiences. Included were five which Hopkins and colleagues claimed were often indicative of alien abduction (the percentages in brackets indicate those who said it had happened to them at least once):

Waking up paralysed with a sense of a strange person or presence or something else in the room [18%]

Experiencing a period of time of an hour or more in which you were apparently lost, but you could not remember why or where you had been [13%]

Feeling that you were actually flying through the air although you didn't know how or why [10%]

Seeing unusual lights or balls of light in a room without knowing what was causing them or where they came from [8%]

Finding puzzling scars on your body and neither you nor anyone else remembering how you received them or where you got them [8%]

Three of the above items describe common symptoms of sleep paralysis. Needless to say, there is no convincing evidence for a link between any of the experiences described above and alien abduction. However, according to Hopkins, if you answered "yes" to four or five of the above items, you have probably been abducted by extraterrestrials.

Of the original sample, 2% met these criteria. Extrapolating to the American adult population as a whole, the authors claimed that 3.7m Americans have probably been abducted by aliens. This figure received very widespread media coverage, often being misquoted to the effect that "3.7m Americans believe they have been abducted by aliens." The survey didn't actually ask this question directly.

A small minority of people who go to see The Fourth Kind will suffer from sleep paralysis but won't have heard of the scientific explanation for their condition. There is every possibility that some will believe that the film is based upon true events and that it provides a plausible explanation for their own bizarre experiences. They may decide that they should undergo hypnotic regression to "recover" the rest of their memory for this traumatic event and thus end up with detailed false memories of being abducted by aliens.

For that reason, this film and the manner in which it has been promoted deserve to be condemned as totally irresponsible.

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

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 10 Nov 2009 | 1:53 am

Report: Extreme weather will be seen on Yangtze (AP)

AP - Increased droughts, floods and storms will hit China's Yangtze River Basin over the next few decades, the result of rising temperatures globally, according to a report released Tuesday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Nov 2009 | 1:14 am

New solar-sail mission planned after 2005 failure (Reuters)

Reuters - Backers of a failed mission to launch the world's first solar-sail spacecraft unveiled plans on Monday to try again five years later with a smaller, swifter satellite to test the limits of sunlight propulsion.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Nov 2009 | 8:26 pm

New solar-sail mission planned after 2005 failure

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Backers of a failed mission to launch the world's first solar-sail spacecraft unveiled plans on Monday to try again five years later with a smaller, swifter satellite to test the limits of sunlight propulsion.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 9 Nov 2009 | 8:26 pm

Artificial Penis Tissue Proves Promising in Lab Tests (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - One day artificial penis tissue could be grown to help men, new findings in rabbits now suggest.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Nov 2009 | 8:04 pm

Penis tissue replaced in the lab

Tissue created in a laboratory has been used to completely replace the erectile tissue of the penis in animals.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Nov 2009 | 7:37 pm

The Spider Awards: Wired.com’s Arachnid Hall of Fame

We admit it. Spiders have become an obsession at Wired Science. It started in September when we reported on a spider-milking machine that was built to extract silk from a million golden orb-weavers, two dozen at a time, to make a 44-square foot cloth. After that, we were hooked, and we’ve found ourselves writing about an inordinate number of arachnids, and googling plenty more. But, really, who could blame us?

We wanted to share the fruits of this spider frenzy with you, so we’ve created a Hall of Fame for our eight-legged friends. Who’s the biggest, meanest or most stuck-up spider around? Read on to find out, but be forewarned: Some of these photos are guaranteed to give you the heebie-jeebies.

Largest Spider
The award for the most astronomically sized arachnid goes to the Goliath Bird-eating Tarantula (Theraphosa blondi), who lives in the rain forests of northern South America and grows up to a whopping 12 inches across, including legs. Females can live up to 25 years and can weigh nearly a half a pound.

Although this giant is called the Bird-eater, named by Victorian explorers who witnessed the spider devouring a hummingbird, the tarantula doesn’t have particular preference for birds. Like other spiders, the Goliath’s favorite foods are small insects such as crickets and beetles. However, he’s also an opportunistic eater: When faced with a delectable reptile, bird or small mammal, what’s a hungry spider to do? Apparently, the Goliath will gobble up just about anything that’s smaller than itself.

Image: Flickr/snakecollector

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 9 Nov 2009 | 6:11 pm

Taser Wars: The Real Dangers of Loose Triggers

Iman Morales didn’t answer the door. As his mother stood waiting outside his one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, she grew increasingly concerned. Lately Morales had been acting erratically and having trouble with his psychiatric medication. Desperation mounting, she called 911.

When the Emergency Service Unit from the New York City Police Department arrived, Morales scrambled out of his apartment onto the fire escape. The stout 35-year old was naked and shouted incoherently. An officer appeared on the fire escape, and Morales retreated to a slim metal ledge over a storefront, where he jabbed at him with a fluorescent light tube.

At that point, Lt. Michael Pigott, a 21-year NYPD veteran, ordered an officer on the ground to fire his stun gun. Morales collapsed and fell 10 feet to the sidewalk, landing on his head. He was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead on Sept. 24, 2008.

Morales’ death, a video of which was posted on the internet, raised a national media storm and fueled criticisms of law enforcement’s use of stun guns. During the past decade, police departments all over the United States have ramped up use of Tasers, the popular name for stun guns produced by Taser International. By June 2009, the company said it had sold Tasers to more than 14,200 law enforcement agencies in over 40 countries, and that 29 of the 33 largest U.S. cities now deploy the weapon.

According to Taser International, its technology is relatively safe — the official terminology is “less lethal”— and decreases injury and death among both police officers and arrestees. But not all experts agree. Doctors in particular are concerned about the effects on the heart and brain. And a December report by Amnesty International found that between 2001 and 2008, 334 people died in the U.S. after being Tasered by police. Just last month, a 19-year-old man died after being Tasered by police in San Bernardino, California.

“There is so much controversy because [the Taser] has conquered the market so rapidly,” said Steve Tuttle, vice president of communications for Taser International. “It’s a revolution in law enforcement. And with revolution comes pain.”

Taser International has become notorious for aggressively dismissing health concerns, but on Oct. 12, the company released a training bulletin recommending that officers avoid chest and head shots when possible. Three days later, however, Rick Guibault, vice president of training, said the change had little to do with safety and that the company would continue supporting its customers in lawsuits no matter where the Taser hits.

With no codified rules in place for Taser deployment, police have used it liberally — on children and the elderly, drug addicts and the mentally ill. Around 850,000 criminal suspects have been Tasered in the field, according to the company.

In 2007, the United Nations likened Taser use to torture. That same year the catch phrase “Don’t tase me, bro,” shouted by a student being Tasered by campus police, won a first place among Time magazine’s Top 10 T-shirt Worthy Slogans.

“Using the Taser weapon feels benign,” said Dalia Hashad, director of Amnesty International USA’s Domestic Human Rights Program. “Taser International is very fond of saying that getting shocked with a Taser is similar to receiving a static electricity shock from rubbing your feet on the carpet and then touching the doorknob. It’s that mentality that allows police officers to use the Taser weapon where they would never dream of using a billy club.”

“Unfortunately, there are hundreds of people who never got up again,” she said.

The Body Electric, and Then Some

The Tasers used by law enforcement look like play guns. Instead of a normal muzzle, the plastic weapon has two small cartridge doors. Pull the trigger and the doors pop open and two barbed metal darts, propelled by compressed nitrogen, fly out and lodge in the skin or clothes of the target. The darts are attached to the gun by thin electrical wires that draw electricity from a couple of AA batteries. Once in the body, they set up an electric circuit. The Taser’s high voltage — 50,000 volts, compared to the 110 volts of a light socket — makes charged particles flow readily through the skin, from dart to dart. The current is about 270 times smaller than that flowing in a Christmas-tree bulb, but it’s more than enough to hijack the delicate motor nerves that control our muscles.

At each pull of the trigger, the gun fires a rapid series of electric pulses that cycle for five seconds. As electricity courses down the motor nerves, it overrides the weaker signals from the brain and causes violent contractions in the muscle groups around the darts. The contractions are so powerful that, in rare instances, they can cause sprains or even fractures.

Along with the muscle spasms comes excruciating pain. A National Public Radio reporter, who volunteered to be shocked with a Taser in 2005, said it felt “like someone reached into my body to rip my muscles apart with a fork.” Wired.com’s Noah Shachtman called his 1-second Taser shock “brutal” when he volunteered in July (see video).

The overwhelming pain has long since placed electricity high in the torture arsenal. Later, it dawned on law enforcement that electricity would also make for a handy compliance tool. In 1969, riot-control expert Colonel Rex Applegate wrote in “Riot Control: materiel and techniques” that police could use the shock baton, essentially an electric cattle prod, to “handle and move, with a minimum of force, drunks of both sexes, teenagers, alcoholics, derelicts, etc.” The modern Taser goes one step further. Incapacitating the muscles, it freezes the target to the spot, allowing police to disarm and handcuff the suspect.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 9 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pm

UK starts study on using human DNA in animals (AP)

AP - British scientists begin a new study on Tuesday to consider how human DNA is used in animal experiments and to determine what the boundaries of such controversial science might be.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Nov 2009 | 5:33 pm

Planetary Society plans new 'solar sail' (AP)

AP - Four years after its first solar sail ended up in the ocean instead of orbit, The Planetary Society announced Monday that by the end of 2010 it will try again to launch a spacecraft that will be propelled by the subtle pressure of sunlight.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Nov 2009 | 5:12 pm

Scientists want debate on animals with human genes

LONDON (Reuters) - A mouse that can speak? A monkey with Down's Syndrome? Dogs with human hands or feet? British scientists want to know if such experiments are acceptable, or if they go too far in the name of medical research.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 9 Nov 2009 | 5:06 pm

Scientists want debate on animals with human genes (Reuters)

Reuters - A mouse that can speak? A monkey with Down's Syndrome? Dogs with human hands or feet? British scientists want to know if such experiments are acceptable, or if they go too far in the name of medical research.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Nov 2009 | 5:06 pm

Call for ban on drinks industry sponsoring sporting events

• Journal says practice may encourage alcohol abuse
• Debate echoes struggle over tobacco advertising

The government should ban the alcohol industry from sponsoring any sporting event in the interest of preventing harm, international medical experts say today.

In an editorial in the journal Addiction, they say the burden of proof over whether such sponsorship causes people to drink more should shift from the public to the alcohol industry. But until further research, policymakers should err on the side of caution. In practical terms this would mean restricting or, better, eliminating such sponsorship of sporting bodies and sports personalities.

The drinks industry does not provide figures on sports sponsorship, but the Portman group, a public relations body representing companies such as InBev and Carlsberg, says alcohol firms spend an estimated £150m to £200m on sponsorship and advertising in the UK annually.

For example, Johnnie Walker whisky sponsors the Gleneagles and Classic golf tournaments along with the Team McLaren formula one car. Red Stripe is a big name in cricket and sponsored the 2005 Ashes. In rugby union, Scotland's national team is linked to The Famous Grouse whisky and Wales has a relationship with Brains brewery. Magners is the title sponsor of the Magners league, the top rugby union competition in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, while Guinness is the title sponsor of the Guinness Premiership, in England.

Tobacco companies remain big sponsors in Formula One, but some alcohol brands are active in the sport. Budweiser, the US beer giant, appears on the Williams F1 car and the Foster's Group (with the Foster's Lager brand) sponsor numerous circuits around the world. Becks had been Jaguar's sponsor and Johnnie Walker has sponsored McLaren since 2006.

The editorial, covering ground similar to the debate that swirled around the relationship between tobacco and advertising, followed a study in New Zealand last year suggesting that alcohol industry sponsorship may increase drinking among sports participants. In a survey of 14 team and individual sports almost half the respondents received some form of sponsorship from drinks companies. Receiving free or discounted alcohol, the study found, was associated with higher scores on the alcohol use disorders identification test, a test developed by the World Health Organisation to determine if a person's alcohol consumption may be harmful.

"The alcohol and sponsorship industries' response in the United Kingdon was true to form," the editorial said. "In a manner reminiscent of the tobacco industry's public relations efforts, the Portman group and the European Sponsorship Association dismissed the results."

It added: "It should not be left to the public to demonstrate that alcohol industry sponsorship is harmful, but rather, it should be up to the proponents of the activity, ie the alcohol industry, to show that the practice is harmless. In the meantime, government should prohibit the practice in the interest of reducing unhealthy alcohol use."

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians and chairman of the Alcohol Health Alliance UK, backed calls for a ban on alcohol and sports sponsorship: "Notwithstanding the claims of their lobbyists, it is obvious that drinks industry sponsorship of sport is less about supporting an important part of our national culture and more brand positioning and profit. We need to ask whether this continued alliance and the mixed messages such deals send to young people and adults alike is actually appropriate."

The Portman group said it was concerned to ensure sponsorship was done responsibly. While it was keen to learn of new research, the New Zealand study was "essentially about amateur sports teams … being given free drinks by their local pubs and clubs. Its findings, while interesting, have very limited relevance to the issues surrounding drinks producers' sponsorship of sport in the UK."

The authors of the editorial pointed out that revenue from tobacco taxes is used to fund sporting activities and suggested it would be possible to "hypothecate an alcohol tax for the specific purpose of funding sporting activity".

The authors of the editorial are Kypros Kypri from the University of Newcastle, Australia, Kerry O'Brien from the University of Manchester, and Peter Miller, Deakin University, Australia.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 9 Nov 2009 | 5:05 pm

Brain food: Brian Eno and Steven Johnson in conversation

The professor of pop and the technology writer talk about innovation, Twitter and the Enlightenment

Where do big ideas come from? One way to find out is to ask someone who's had a few, which must be why London's ICA is packed out on a mucky November evening for an audience with Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno – or Eno to his friends.

For the rest of us, he's the self-described non-musician who as good as invented ambient music and terrorised a synth in Roxy Music while wearing more slap than Pat Butcher. Tonight, however, Eno is in his professor of pop garb – chocolate velvet jacket and designer specs – although the old stagecraft shows when he starts impersonating a recording studio. Joining him on stage is Steven Johnson, the American technology writer whose books have just the right sprinkling of pop-cultural references, light controversy and free-market optimism to make them quotable. He's also expert at titles with cute punchlines and serious explanatory clauses, as with his latest paperback, The Invention of Air: An Experiment, a Journey, a New Country and the Amazing Force of Scientific Discovery. It's the story of how Joseph Priestley, 18th-century scientist and resident of Leeds, discovered oxygen and, Johnson believes, a case study in innovation. For him, the Enlightenment comes down to the spread of coffeehouses, in which clever young men from different disciplines got to share cool ideas. In this telling, the 18th century comes out a bit like Silicon Valley – only without pictures of cats asking, "Can I haz cheese burger?"

This is Johnson all over: great soundbites, poor follow-through. Technology is all about being open – except that Apple, as he admits, fiercely guards its designs.

Less grandly, Eno argues that rock'n'roll took off in the 50s because of three factors: it was easy to play ("Learn three chords and you've mastered 98% of the canon"); lots of little record studios sprang up; and thousands of new radio stations wanted stuff to play. Johnson, who has 1.3 million followers on Twitter, moans about its 140-character limit, but Eno counters that arbitrary constraints can be far more conducive to innovation. And so the evening draws towards its end, with the former glam rocker telling an American that benevolent dictators can be good for a culture.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 9 Nov 2009 | 5:05 pm

New Russian Module Poised to Launch Toward Space Station (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - A new Russian room that doubles as a docking port for the International Space Station is ready for a planned Tuesday launch toward the orbiting laboratory.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Nov 2009 | 5:00 pm

Lab-grown penis helps rabbits mate ... like rabbits

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers have engineered artificial penises in rabbits, using cells from the animals, who then used their new organs to father baby rabbits.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 9 Nov 2009 | 4:08 pm

UN chief heads to Washington to push climate deal (AP)

AP - Confident that governments will reach a climate change deal next month, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is heading to Washington Tuesday to ensure that the United States is on board.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Nov 2009 | 3:24 pm

Russia to resume ISS construction

Russia will resume construction of her share in the International Space Station with the launch of a new module on Tuesday.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Nov 2009 | 2:49 pm

In the same leaky boat on climate change | Douglas Alexander and Mohamed Nasheed

The Maldives and Britain are united in the face of environment crisis – and we take inspiration from underwater politics

Be in no doubt. Climate change is not tomorrow's future menace. It is today's growing catastrophe. In Copenhagen next month a meaningful deal must be secured if we are to have any hope of avoiding catastrophe.

This very human crisis is already being felt in parts of the world. This year, entire communities in Bangladesh are being forced to leave their homes due to rising sea levels; women in drought-ridden parts of Ethiopia have to walk five miles a day to collect water; and natural disasters are occurring with increasing frequency and ever more devastating results.

Climate change threatens us all. If we fail to bring it under control in the next decade we may move past the point of no return. This is a defining political test of our generation. Less than one degree of global warming since the industrial revolution has caused dangerous changes to our world.

Last month, the government of the Maldives held a cabinet meeting underwater to illustrate the stark reality facing the nation. The meeting caused a media sensation internationally. It was a lighthearted event with a deadly serious message: if climate change is not addressed, these beautiful islands will slowly slip into the Indian Ocean.

This week, the Maldives is hosting a conference of climate-vulnerable developing countries. The conference aims to thrash out a common position among the most vulnerable nations ahead of the Copenhagen meeting in December.

Britain stands shoulder to shoulder with the Maldives and all vulnerable countries. We are working to ensure the voices of the people who will be hit first and hardest by climate change are heard around the negotiating table. Copenhagen must secure a deal that sees rich countries shouldering their fair share of the burden of controlling climate change. This means tough targets on their own emissions but also an agreement on funding to help developing countries pursue green growth and cope with the impacts of climate change.

This will mean helping to end the deforestation that sees 8 million trees lost every day; governments working with the private sector to secure large investments in green industries; and a commitment to renewable energy, to make renewables cheaper than fossil fuel.

A fair deal at Copenhagen also means that climate change funding is not plundered from existing aid budgets but should be new, additional finance.

It is vital that the developing world has a strong, coherent voice at the table. The rich world must take the lead in cutting emissions and providing sufficient funds for developing countries. They, however, also have responsibilities. Developing nations need to grow, but their economic growth must be green.

To that end, the Maldives has signed an agreement to build a 75MW wind farm which will power the capital, Malé, the international airport, and 24 luxury tourist resorts. This project will cut CO₂ emissions by 25%. It is due to be operational in 20 months. If a small developing country can make this rapid shift to renewables, there can be little excuse for richer nations to drag their feet.

Copenhagen is a moment of necessity. We must agree a credible, long-term deal that is fair and equitable. One that merely protects the interests of the rich will tell the world that the leaders of 2009 lacked the political will and moral conviction to help those whose lives will be blighted by climate change.

We need to use these last 28 days before Copenhagen to ensure that all parties are in a position to work towards a deal that will stand alongside the Geneva conventions and the UN charter as a defining document for humanity.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 9 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm

Do-It-Yourself Home Theater Control

A few simple tips can help you get a handle on of all your electronics.
Source: Livescience.com | 9 Nov 2009 | 1:54 pm

NASA’s Scrubbed Escape Pod Glides to New Home

The odd story of NASA’s unused wingless escape vehicle for the International Space Station is finally over.

The prototype X-38, a 7-person, unpowered, totally automatic lifeboat, was officially laid to rest at the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland, Nebraska last weekend.

Canceled in 2002 by the Bush administration in an effort to cut some costs from the International Space Station budget, the vehicle could have provided an emergency return route for astronauts on the station. It would have been docked in space, awaiting the call of duty.

The program got as far as “drop tests” during which the vehicles were dropped from B-52s and piloted to the ground. One of them is seen above. After a short freefall, the X38 deployed an enormous parafoil, which allowed it to glide softly to the ground.

The program had cost around $510 million and needed around $50 million more to complete its flight testing. At the time, an unnamed engineer told the Houston Chronicle the decision to abandon the project was “absolutely ridiculous.”

The shape of the plane’s body recalls the X-24 and other lifting body airplanes, including the one designed for the 1969 space opera starring Gene Hackman, Marooned.

Images: NASA

See Also:

• Gallery: Let the X-Planes Begin
• Little X-Plane Pushes Bottom Edge of the Envelope
• Let Private Sector Help NASA
• Gallery: Oddities From NASA’s Massive Image Archive
• NASA to Show Off New Lunar Rover at Obama Inauguration
• NASA Sets Date for Phoenix’s Return to the Ashes
• Torture Chamber: NASA Tests Next-Gen Craft for Space Blast
• From the NASA Archive: Early Apollo Lander Model

WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal’s Twitter, Google Reader feed, and green tech history research site; Wired Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 9 Nov 2009 | 1:34 pm

Overeaters and Drug Abusers Share Addictive Brain Chemistry

Research supports idea that overeating can, in extreme cases, be considered an addiction comparable to drug abuse or gambling.
Source: Livescience.com | 9 Nov 2009 | 1:30 pm

Maya Murals Give Rare View of Everyday Life

Murals uncovered in ancient Mayan mound give rare glimpse at everyday life.
Source: Livescience.com | 9 Nov 2009 | 1:05 pm

Artificial Penis Tissue Proves Promising in Lab Tests

After implantation with replacement tissue, lab rabbits that once had damaged penises had working organs and could produce offspring.
Source: Livescience.com | 9 Nov 2009 | 1:03 pm

Engineered Rabbit Penises Raise Human Hopes

Using tissue grown in a laboratory, researchers have engineered fully functional replacement penises. The organs were made for rabbits, but the technique may someday be useful for people.

“This technology has considerable potential for patients requiring penile construction,” wrote researchers in a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Leading the team was Anthony Atala, director of Wake Forest University’s Institute of Regenerative Medicine. Atala is best known for developing a technique in which cells are taken from an organ and sprayed onto a frame made of collagen, the primary structural protein in animal tissue. The structure is then bathed with growth-stimulating compounds and kept in an oven that duplicates the body’s temperature and chemical composition.

Given these starting conditions, natural biology does the rest. The cells divide and arrange themselves in natural, working configurations.

Atala’s group has already implanted lab-grown bladders, grown from the patients’ own tissue, in seven men. Bladders are just one of dozens of organs being engineered by the group, from every part of the body — but in some organs, it’s been difficult to find the right starting mix of different cell types, and reconstruction has proved challenging. The penis is one such organ.

In earlier studies, the researchers grew segments of the penis’ main structures, called corpus cavernosa. These lie along the shaft of the penis, and are made from a complex, sponge-like arrangement of different cell types. But when implanted in rabbits whose corpus cavernosa had been removed, the tissue failed to become erect.

This time, they used a different mix of growth factors, and grew entire corpus cavernosa, rather than pieces of them. It worked: The next penises responded normally to electrical and chemical stimuli, and — more importantly — to biological imperative. When given the chance to have sex, eight were able to ejaculate, and four became fathers.

Oddly, the procedure seemed to make the rabbits randier than usual.

“Most control rabbits did not attempt copulation after introduction to their female partners,” wrote the researchers. “All rabbits with bioengineered neocorpora attempted copulation within one minute of introduction.”

Image: PNAS

See Also:

• Salamander Discovery Could Lead to Human Limb Regeneration
• How the Smell of Rotten Eggs Could Lead to a New Viagra

Citation: “Bioengineered corporal tissue for structural and functional restoration of the penis.” By Kuo-Liang Chen, Daniel Eberli, James J. Yoo, and Anthony Atala. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 106 No. 45, November 9, 2009.

Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on Twitter. Brandon is currently working on a book about ecosystem and planetary tipping points.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 9 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm

This treasure stirs the West Midlands' Anglo-Saxon soul | Tristram Hunt

The Staffordshire hoard has brought history to life in modern-day Mercia – and it is here that the collection has to return

From the Lindisfarne gospels to the Lewis chessmen, much of British heritage policy is about putting things back where they belong. Now we have a golden opportunity not to commit the original sin, and ensure the most fascinating find in a generation remains where it should.

The Staffordshire hoard, that stunning collection of 1,500 Anglo-Saxon gold and silver goods discovered near Lichfield, has just gone on display at the British Museum with the earth still on it – the hoard's final outing before the treasure valuation committee sets a price to be split between the finder Terry Herbert and the field owner. But once those experts have announced whatever millions are needed, the loot must be fast-tracked out of Bloomsbury back to the kingdom of Mercia.

For history has come alive in the West Midlands, with some 40,000 enthusiasts queueing for over three hours at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery to look at the truly stunning hoard. Curators have been astonished by the passion and pride sparked by the discovery, with late openings laid on and the collection relocated to a larger gallery.

Part of this interest has been about the local identity the treasure points to. The role of the West Midlands in the civil war and industrial revolution is well understood, but the region now realises it also stood at the centre of the seventh century Anglo-Saxon world.

At its peak the Mercian kingdom stretched from London to Derbyshire and Herefordshire to Lincolnshire, and the Mercian king was calling himself Rex Britanniae. But this find of garnet-encrusted pommel caps, sword hilt collars and helmet fragments points to all sorts of other interesting questions about the wealth, kingship patterns, burial rituals and levels of Christianity of the Anglo-Saxon elite. It also highlights the unexpected internationalism of seventh-century Mercian trade, with some of the precious stones hailing from today's Turkey and Sri Lanka.

The significance of this hoard cannot be overplayed. According to the historian Simon Keynes, its riches start to explain how the Mercians held on to power for so long, as well as expand our understanding of Saxon culture, beginning with the epic poem Beowulf. It is the type of find that changes the teaching of the past almost overnight.

It is also a testament to the continuing success of the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Since its inception in 1996, this voluntary framework for rewarding amateur archaeologists and metal detectives has transformed public honesty over ancient finds. Rather than being scurried on to the black market, coins, medals and artefacts are handed into local museums with the promise of a cash payout. As a result, the last six years has seen an average increase of nearly 200% in the reporting of buried treasure.

Terry Herbert followed the Treasure Act to the letter. So, following the announcement of an initial valuation (rumoured to be near £3m), museums and galleries will have four months to raise the money for the acquisition and display of the hoard. After that, the British Museum, and potentially foreign parties, can step in. However, with his trademark acuity – and more than enough restitution cases to be getting on with – Neil MacGregor, the museum's director, has backed the campaign to return the collection to the region.

The question is: where in the West Midlands? Staffordshire county council and Lichfield district council can both lay a decent claim to the hoard, and the income from thousands of tourists who will come to see it. But the closest museum to the find is probably the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Stoke, while the big regional player is Birmingham. Thankfully, in contrast to the usual dogfight, the region's leaders have decided to work together under Birmingham and Stoke's leadership with follow-up plans for heritage tourism across "Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire".

All they have to do now is raise the money. Small sums have begun filling museum donation boxes, but it will take proper cash to preserve the collection. Already the regional minister, Ian Austin, has called on "our modern Mercian merchant princes to come to the aid of the appeal" – and so they should.

For decades regional leaders have rightly complained about the way England's historical and archaeological treasures disappear into the golden triangle of London-Oxford-Cambridge, with South Kensington's museum mile creaming off the top. Well, here is a golden opportunity to undo a relentless process of cultural centralisation with a campaign to "Hold on to the Hoard".

Those Black Country industrialists, Staffordshire landowners, Sutton Coldfield professionals and Birmingham business people need to find their inner Anglo-Saxon. For what the hoard reveals is that their seventh-century forebears, those righteous conquerors and wealthy warlords, were determined to use their prosperity to support art, crafts and design. These treasures, with their eagle miniatures, biblical inscriptions and thousands of inlaid garnets, show a kingdom replete with affluence and cultural confidence. The West Midlands wealthy have an unprecedented opportunity to ensure that future generations have ready access to this incredible insight into their identity and heritage.

Because if they fluff it some future director of the British Museum will no doubt find themselves in the invidious position of explaining just why the Staffordshire hoard can't return to Mercia.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 9 Nov 2009 | 12:30 pm

Go-ahead for 10 nuclear stations

Ministers have approved 10 sites in England and Wales as being suitable for new nuclear power stations.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Nov 2009 | 10:52 am

'Last chance' for tuna authority

The body charged with conserving Atlantic tuna has a "final chance" to get things right at its meeting, the US commissioner says.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Nov 2009 | 9:48 am

Black Holes: Powerhouses of the Universe

Black holes — extremely dense masses jammed into single points of space — pack quite an energy punch, releasing some of the most powerful radiation in the universe.
Source: Livescience.com | 9 Nov 2009 | 9:35 am

India 'arrogant' to deny global warming link to melting glaciers

IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri accuses Indian environment ministry of 'arrogance' for its report claiming there is no evidence that climate change has shrunk Himalayan glaciers

A leading climate scientist today accused the Indian environment ministry of "arrogance" after the release of a government report claiming that there is no evidence climate change has caused "abnormal" shrinking of Himalayan glaciers.

Jairam Ramesh, India's environment minister, released the controversial report in Delhi, saying it would "challenge the conventional wisdom" about melting ice in the mountains.

Two years ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN agency which evaluates the risk from global warming, warned the glaciers were receding faster than in any other part of the world and could "disappear altogether by 2035 if not sooner".

Today Ramesh denied any such risk existed: "There is no conclusive scientific evidence to link global warming with what is happening in the Himalayan glaciers." The minister added although some glaciers are receding they were doing so at a rate that was not "historically alarming".

However, Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the IPCC, told the Guardian: "We have a very clear idea of what is happening. I don't know why the minister is supporting this unsubstantiated research. It is an extremely arrogant statement."

Ramesh said he was prepared to take on "the doomsday scenarios of Al Gore and the IPCC".

"My concern is that this comes from western scientists … it is high time India makes an investment in understanding what is happening in the Himalayan ecosystem," he added.

The government report, entitled Himalayan glaciers (pdf), looks at 150 years' worth of data gathered from the Geological Survey of India from 25 glaciers. It claims to be the first comprehensive study on the region.

Vijay Kumar Raina, the geologist who authored the report, admitted that some "Himalayan glaciers are retreating. But it is nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing to suggest as some have said that they will disappear."

Pachauri dismissed the report saying it was not "peer reviewed" and had few "scientific citations".

"With the greatest of respect this guy retired years ago and I find it totally baffling that he comes out and throws out everything that has been established years ago."

In a remarkable finding, the report claims the Gangotri glacier, the main source of the River Ganges, actually receded fastest in 1977 – and is today "practically at a stand still".

Some scientists have warned that the river beds of the Gangetic Basin – which feed hundreds of millions in northern India – could run dry once glaciers go. However, such concerns are scotched by the report.

According to Raina, the mistake made by "western scientists" is to apply the rate of glacial loss from other parts of the world to the Himalayas. "In the United States the highest glaciers in Alaska are still below the lowest level of Himalayan glaciers. Our 9,500 glaciers are located at very high altitudes. It is completely different system."

"As long as we have monsoons we will have glaciers. There are many factors to consider when we want to find out how quickly (glaciers melt) … rainfall, debris cover, relief and terrain," said Raina.

In response Pachauri said that such statements were reminiscent of "climate change deniers and school boy science".

"I cannot see what the minister's motives are. We do need more extensive measurement of the Himalayan range but it is clear from satellite pictures what is happening."

Many environmentalists said they were also unconvinced by the minister's arguments. Sunita Narain, a member of the Indian prime minister's climate change council and director of the Centre for Science and Environment, said "the report would create a lot of confusion".

"The PM's council has just received a comprehensive report which presents many studies which show clear fragmentation of the glaciers would lead to faster recession. I am not sure what Jairam (Ramesh) is doing."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 9 Nov 2009 | 9:17 am

Posting Pics Online? What Your Photos Say About You

How you look says a lot about your personality.
Source: Livescience.com | 9 Nov 2009 | 8:46 am

Bubbles used to find cancer cells

A new technique using tiny bubbles to detect cancer is developed by radiographers and surgeons at a hospital in Kent.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Nov 2009 | 8:36 am

'Road trains' get ready to roll

A sensor system that joins vehicles in 'platoons' so they travel close together is being researched with European cash.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Nov 2009 | 8:31 am

One becomes two

Divergent lives of the two manta ray species
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Nov 2009 | 7:14 am

Human Origins: Our Crazy Family Tree

What do nutcracker man, the hobbit and others tell us about humanity?
Source: Livescience.com | 9 Nov 2009 | 6:16 am

A birthday present for Darwin | Andrew Copson

The teaching of evolution in primary schools will be an important defence against the ignorance of intelligent design

It's a great birthday present for Darwin in his 200th anniversary year. For the first time, evolution will be on the national curriculum for primary schools when the new version is published later this year. It was initially excluded from the draft curriculum when it was published for public consultation but sometimes, if not always, it seems government will listen to scientists and experts, many of whom were signatories to an open letter (pdf) to Ed Balls organised by the British Humanist Association in July which called for evolution to be included.

Those who care about public reason are routinely shocked by opinion polls and surveys showing high levels of credence given to the idea of intelligent design. The most recent poll purported to demonstrate that a majority of Britons think that it should be taught alongside evolution in schools.

To solve this problem, we have to know what causes it and there are two reasons why you might prefer the idea of intelligent design to that of evolution. You may do so because your prior ideological convictions, mostly to do with religious belief, simply don't allow you to accept the evidence that is presented to you. Or you may do so because you genuinely do not know of the evidence for evolution, have never had it explained to you, or because you just don't understand it. In a society as decreasingly religious as England, it is impossible to believe that most of the people who do not accept evolution are motivated by ideology rather than ignorance. This means that the best way to solve the problem is through better education and that is what makes the inclusion of evolution in the science curriculum as early as possible so important.

It's true that evolution can seem a difficult concept and that most resources on evolution are targeted towards pupils at secondary schools. But the wealth of new works published in this celebratory year for very young children, from What Mr Darwin Saw to Evolution Revolution or even older works like How Whales Walked into the Sea or Mammals Who Morph demonstrate that it is a subject easily made enjoyable and comprehensible by young children. This is a good thing, because as evolution is arguably the most important concept underlying the life sciences, providing children with an understanding of it at the earliest possible age will surely help lay the foundations for a surer scientific understanding later on.

We must certainly hope so, because even if ignorance rather than religious ideology is the principal cause of the low levels of acceptance of evolution in our country, there are still other factors working against a better public understanding of evolution – especially amongst the young. These factors are legion but at least two are very relevant to the case for introducing evolution to young children especially. The first is the profundity of the natural cognitive biases – such as our human propensity to look for design and purpose – that hinder the acceptance of evolution; obviously these are best countered as early as possible in a child's education. The second is the fact, so brilliantly elucidated by science educator James Williams that young children are bombarded with creationist messages in much of popular culture, which are insidious and confusing.

The new primary curriculum, together with the 2007 government guidance that prohibits the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in science lessons, should put English schools in the forefront of education about evolution. Coming in the month which marks the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species, and at a point when good science education is a matter of urgency, it could not be more timely.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 9 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

Genetic 'breakthroughs' are often nothing of the sort

Don't believe everything you read about genes and disease in prestigious journals like Science and Nature, say Marcus Munafò and Jonathan Flint. A lot of it is simply wrong

During the second world war, the physicist Enrico Fermi asked General Leslie Groves of the US Army how many generals might be called "great" and why. Groves replied that any general who won five major battles in a row might be called great, and that about three in every hundred would qualify.

Fermi countered that if opposing forces are roughly equal, the odds are one in two that a general will win one battle, one in four that he will win two battles in a row, one in eight for three battles, one in 16 for four battles, and one in 32 for five battles in a row. "So you are right, General, about three in a hundred. Mathematical probability, not genius."¹

There's an analogue of Fermi's "great general": the "great scientific discovery", or at least, as a case study, "the great genetic scientific discovery" as reported in the press. The discovery of genes for a certain behaviour, for schizophrenia, for happiness, always get good press coverage, usually based on publication in a respected scientific journal such as Science or Nature.

The research paper will include a statistic: the probability that the finding could have occurred by chance. The probability will have been sufficiently low that a reviewer for the journal was impressed and therefore recommended publication. Typically this probability or "P-value" will be less than 0.05, or 5%, which means the odds are less than one in 20 that the observed genetic correlation could have occurred by chance.

And, by the same logic, if two more groups make the same discovery (or the same group subsequently replicates the result), reporting in each case P-values of 0.05 or less, this should mean that the odds are less than 1 in 8,000 (0.05 x 0.05 x 0.05) that the discovery could have been replicated by chance, giving a reasonable level of confidence that the finding is real.

But here's an odd thing. In the years following media coverage of discoveries of a gene for depression, for intelligence, and so on, journals less prestigious than Science or Nature often publish reports that contradict the original claim, some even saying that the findings are quite compatible with chance.

Risk of depression

An extreme example comes from a study that described a mutation in the enzyme that manufactures the brain chemical serotonin (the neurotransmitter on which antidepressants like Prozac acts). The mutation meant that the enzyme could not function, so serotonin production would be lower than average and, potentially, carriers of the mutation would be more prone to depression.

The paper reporting the study states: "Nine subjects from a cohort of 87 depression patients were found to carry the mutant allele. These findings suggest that deficiency in brain serotonin synthesis may be an important risk factor for depression."²

This story made it into The New York Times. Not so widely reported were the reports that appeared shortly afterwards – several groups with much larger samples simply didn't find the variant in their subjects with depression, or in healthy control subjects.

Deciding who's right in this case, and many others like it, is not just a matter of academic dispute. For a start we are talking about hundreds of papers, not just the odd dozen. Someone has to pay for all this research, and a lot comes out of government-funded research budgets.

Then there is the impact on scientists' careers that publication in a learned journal brings: those who have published breakthrough results in prestigious journals such as Science and Nature get offered extremely attractive packages at major universities.

And finally there is the medical payoff. For example, no one knows for sure whether dysfunctions in the serotonin system are a cause of mood disorders, or whether they simply reflect some more fundamental abnormality. Finding abnormalities in the relevant genes, or reliable evidence that genetic variants in the serotonin system are associated with mood disorders, would help to answer this important question and, according to Tom Insel, director of the National Institutes for Mental Health in the US, could lead to a "genetic test for vulnerability to depression and a way to predict which patients might respond best to serotonin-selective antidepressants".

So a lot hangs on whether the association between gene and disease is real.

One way to get closer to the truth is to collect the results of all published studies and see what the combined data show. We recently did this for one of the most influential and highly cited reports in behaviour genetics: the claim that susceptibility to depression is increased in people who carry a specific genetic variant (of the serotonin transporter gene) and have experienced a stressful life event. Having a bad time could upset you, but if you were unlucky enough to have this particular genetic variant then it would really upset you. You'd probably need psychiatric help to get over it.³

Psychiatrists and psychologists around the world love this piece of work. It's inventive and interesting and suits our belief that genes exert their influence in complicated ways, in combination with the environment. However, we concluded from our analysis of evidence to date that the finding is probably due to chance. Despite this, genetic tests for this gene variant are currently being marketed on the internet for those who can afford them.

In fact, so many high-profile findings can be explained by chance alone that one genetic epidemiologist, John Ioannidis, has taken on the task of explaining, "Why most published research findings are false"⁴. Some of the reasons are due to the misuse of statistics and poor study design, but what Ioannidis and others now looking at this problem also point to are the social and political factors. These contribute to his claim that:

"The greater the financial and other interests and prejudices in a scientific field, the less likely the research findings are to be true. The hotter a scientific field (with more scientific teams involved), the less likely the research findings are to be true."

Scientists behaving badly

Outright scientific fraud is rare, but less deviant behavior may be much more common. For example, researchers may run multiple statistical tests on their data: they keep analysing the results in slightly different ways (known as "data mining") until they get a P-value less than 0.05. This is tempting because it is much easier to get one's research published if the findings are "statistically significant" (i.e. the P-value is less than 0.05) – a phenomenon known as "publication bias".

With enough data, and by running enough statistical tests, it is easy enough to find a significant effect, given the probabilistic nature of the statistical methods used. And with enough people trying, this effect might even be found more than once, giving the appearance of replication. The problem is that the results almost certainly won't be true.

Fortunately we can find out whether this sort of thing is happening. If you plot the P-values from hundreds of studies, then if nothing untoward is going on you should find a certain distribution, with a predicted proportion reporting P-values of less than 0.05, and so on. When we look at the published data, however, they do not fit this distribution: there is an excess of P-values just below the 0.05 threshold.^{5, 6}

So questionable behaviour unquestionably goes on. While rates of malpractice (such as plagiarism and falsification) probably run at a rate of about 2% or less (exact figures are understandably very hard to come by), rates for less serious misdemeanors by both junior and mid-career scientists are much higher. In a survey of 3,200 scientists, 33% said they had engaged in at least one of the 10 most common misdemeanors during the previous three years.⁷

Since this finding is based on a questionnaire survey, with a response rate of about 45%, the figures may be serious underestimates: misbehaving scientists are probably less likely than others to participate in surveys of this kind.

Pressure to perform

The social environment in which research occurs places scientists under pressure to perform. These institutional pressures have the well-intentioned aim of encouraging high productivity and performance, measured by the amount and quality of publications, and success in attracting research funding from government and charitable agencies.

However, there is an inherent tension between the scientific process, where success is often unpredictable, and the means by which research productivity is frequently assessed. The criteria currently used to assess a scientist's career and make decisions about future funding, salary and tenure may be an important factor encouraging departure from the ideals of scientific integrity.

But institutional pressures of this sort are unlikely to be solely responsible. Not only will their effect depend on the personality of the scientist (some are less likely than others to succumb to pressures to succeed), but there are also psychological factors related to the way scientists perceive their own work. For instance, once a scientist has published a finding and has his or her name associated with that result, there is pressure to maintain the apparent truth of the result, even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

Pressures are also likely to arise within the social structure of science, so that it is difficult for junior scientists to question the findings of senior, respected scientists, who often have considerable power over the career prospects and funding opportunities open to their junior colleagues.

And there are other, less tangible factors. For example we used data from gene-disease associations in the psychiatric genetics literature to see whether studies that overestimate or underestimate an effect have anything in common. It turns out that studies conducted in North America over-estimated the likely scale of effects by around 10% compared with those conducted in Europe and elsewhere.⁸

We also found that the scientific journals themselves may have an effect. Journals have a pecking order: Science and Nature dominate the top of this hierarchy, but there's a lot of fighting for a position in the middle ranks, a position in part determined by the "impact factor" of the journal (a measure of how often a paper is likely to be cited if it is published in that journal). We found, perhaps paradoxically, that studies published in journals with a low impact factor (typically taken to mean the journal enjoys lower prestige or quality) are more likely to give an accurate estimate of effect size than those published in journals with a high impact factor.⁹

There is no particular reason to think that the psychiatric genetics
literature is unique. Indeed, because many of these problems are now
acknowledged in this field, the levels of stringency now required to
publish are far higher than in the past. More important is that we
recognise the role of social factors in encouraging unacceptable practices in science more generally, which has only recently been recognised and is still poorly researched. Without adequate data on the nature and extent of the problem it is difficult to formulate a policy to foster a culture of integrity that limits and discourages deviant behaviour.

Better understanding of the interaction between science and society at all levels, from the media that report science, the journals in which scientists publish, through to the workplace and environment of individual scientists, is critical if we are to cultivate a better climate – one in which scientific rigour and integrity are placed above all else.

Marcus Munafò is a psychologist at the University of Bristol; Jonathan Flint is a geneticist at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford

References
1. Keegan J. The Face of Battle. New York: Viking, 1977.
2. Zhang X, Gainetdinov RR, Beaulieu JM, et al. Loss-of-function mutation in tryptophan hydroxylase-2 identified in unipolar major depression. Neuron 2005; 45 (1): 11-16.
3. Caspi A, Sugden K, Moffitt TE, et al. Influence of life stress on depression: moderation by a polymorphism in the 5-HTT gene. Science 2003; 301 (5631): 386-389.
4. Ioannidis JP. Why most published research findings are false. PLoS Medicine 2005; 2 (8): e124.
5. Ioannidis JP, Trikalinos TA. An exploratory test for an excess of significant findings. Clinical Trials 2007; 4 (3): 245-253.
6. Kavvoura FK, McQueen MB, Khoury MJ, et al. Evaluation of the potential excess of statistically significant findings in published genetic association studies: application to Alzheimer's disease. American Journal of Epidemiology 2008; 168 (8): 855-865.
7. Martinson BC, Anderson MS, de Vries R. Scientists behaving badly. Nature 2005; 435 (7043): 737-738.
8. Munafò MR, Attwood AS, Flint J. Bias in genetic association studies: effects of research location and resources. Psychological Medicine 2008; 38 (8): 1213-1214.
9. Munafò MR, Stothart G, Flint J. Bias in genetic association studies and impact factor. Molecular Psychiatry 2009; 14 (2): 119-120.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 9 Nov 2009 | 5:32 am

First film of a 'giant' stingray

The largest species of stingray is finally caught on film for the first time.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Nov 2009 | 4:42 am

Autumn's colours

Vivid images of the season courtesy of our readers
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Nov 2009 | 1:59 am

Scientists devise early treatment for spine injury

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Injecting tiny polymer spheres into rats right after a spinal cord injury helped the animals recover movement and prevented secondary nerve damage that often follows such injuries, U.S. researchers said on Sunday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 9 Nov 2009 | 1:44 am

Soviet H-bomb scientist Ginzburg dies

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vitaly Ginzburg, a Russian physicist who survived Stalin's purges by working on the Soviet atomic bomb project and later won the Nobel Prize for physics, died in Moscow late on Sunday after a long illness. He was 93.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 9 Nov 2009 | 1:43 am