Science Headlines for November 25, 2009

How coughing is triggered by environmental irritants

Scientists have revealed how environmental irritants such as air pollution and cigarette smoke cause people to cough. The authors of a new study have identified the reaction inside the lungs that can trigger coughing when a person is exposed to particular irritants in the air. They suggest that their findings may ultimately lead to the development of new treatments for chronic coughing.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 25 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

First black holes may have incubated in giant, starlike cocoons

The first large black holes in the universe likely formed and grew deep inside gigantic, starlike cocoons that smothered their powerful X-ray radiation and prevented surrounding gases from being blown away, says a new study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 25 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

Sticky solution for identifying effective probiotics

Scientists have crystallized a protein that may help gut bacteria bind to the gastrointestinal tract. The protein could be used by probiotic producers to identify strains that are likely to be of real benefit to people.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 25 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

Origin of life: Generating RNA molecules in water

A key question in the origin of biological molecules like RNA and DNA is how they first came together billions of years ago from simple precursors. Now, researchers have reconstructed one of the earliest evolutionary steps yet: generating long chains of RNA from individual subunits using nothing but warm water.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 25 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

Yoga boosts heart health, new research finds

Heart rate variability, a sign of a healthy heart, has been shown to be higher in yoga practitioners than in non-practitioners, according to new research.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 25 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

Meiosis: Chromosomes Dance And Pair Up On The Nuclear Membrane

Meiosis -- the pairing and recombination of chromosomes, followed by segregation of half to each egg or sperm cell -- is a major crossroads in all organisms reproducing sexually. Yet, how the cell precisely choreographs these chromosomal interactions is a long-standing question. New findings show that the cell's cytoskeleton, which moves things around in the cell, plays a critical role, essentially reaching into the nucleus to bring chromosome pairs together in preparation for recombination and segregation.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 25 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

Hydrogen-economy on the way? New hydrogen-storage method discovered

Scientists have found for the first time that high pressure can be used to make a unique hydrogen-storage material. The discovery paves the way for a new approach to the hydrogen-storage problem. The researchers found that the normally nonreactive, noble gas xenon combines with molecular hydrogen under pressure to form a previously unknown solid with unusual bonding chemistry. The discovery debuts a new family of materials, which could boost hydrogen technologies.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 25 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

Butterfly proboscis to sip cells

A butterfly's proboscis looks like a straw -- long, slender and used for sipping -- but it works more like a paper towel, according to researchers. They hope to borrow the tricks of this piece of insect anatomy to make small probes that can sample the fluid inside of cells.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 25 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

Flu and children: RSV causes far more hospitalizations than seasonal flu

Influenza, particularly H1N1, has understandably captured the public spotlight. However, a new analysis shows that another virus -- respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) -- takes a substantially greater disease toll among young children than does seasonal flu. Children infected with RSV had more than twice as many emergency department visits and six times more hospitalizations than those with seasonal flu.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 25 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

Fat around the middle increases the risk of dementia

Women who store fat on their waist in middle age are more than twice as likely to develop dementia when they get older, reveals a new study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 25 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

Atlantis leaves station as NASA eyes shuttles' end (Reuters)

Reuters - Space shuttle Atlantis left the International Space Station on Wednesday after a seven-day stay to deliver gear to keep the outpost operating after the shuttle program is retired next year.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 25 Nov 2009 | 3:30 am

Shuttle Atlantis leaves space station, headed home (AP)

AP - Atlantis and its seven astronauts have left the International Space Station.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 25 Nov 2009 | 3:23 am

Shuttle Atlantis Departs From Space Station (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - The space shuttle Atlantis cast off from the International Space Station early Wednesday after almost a week linked to deliver vital spare parts.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 25 Nov 2009 | 3:16 am

In Pictures: Bringing up baby

Intimate images captured for a BBC documentary show the struggle that animals go through to raise their offspring.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 25 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

Islam's arrested development

Islam did ancient science brilliantly, but today Muslims lag behind. To catch up, they must demand the freedom to question

The question: Can Islam be reconciled with science?

Material resources are immaterial to the current sorry state of science in Islam. To do science, it is first necessary to accept the key premises underlying science – causality and the absence of divine intervention in physical processes, and a belief in the existence of physical law. Without the scientific method you cannot have science because science is all about objective and rational thinking. Science demands a mindset that incessantly questions and challenges assumptions, not one that relies upon received wisdom. If this condition is not fulfilled, all the money and machines in the world make no difference.

Can Islam accept the premises of science? There are some versions of the religion that can, and others that simply cannot.

But before proceeding further, let me distinguish between ancient science – which Muslims did brilliantly – and modern science. They are not quite the same but are so often confused together that it is important to make the point. The ancient science of the Greeks, Chinese, Muslims, and Hindus was a rather limited affair that did not put any theological system under undue stress. Scholars observed, drew a few conclusions, and wrote a treatise that only a few could read. It was inconceivable at that time to imagine that the workings of the entire physical world could be understood from just a handful of basic principles. There was almost no link to technology and therefore no impact upon how people actually lived.

Not so for modern science. This product of the European Enlightenment is now the essence of a universal human civilisation. Although it was fuelled by the discoveries of ancient science, including Muslim science, the Enlightenment had an impact that was totally different from the stellar works of individual ancient scholars.

Modern science defines our world by constantly creating new technologies. It also claims to explain everything from the scale of the atom to the universe, and from times that range from the present to the very birth of the universe. It evokes resistance among traditionalists because it offers an explanation of how humans emerged from the depths of biological evolution to their present form. All this makes it hugely different from ancient science, which is what the Greeks and Muslims – as well as Chinese and Hindus – had done so splendidly in their respective times. So if a civilisation did great ancient science, this does not automatically mean that it is equally qualified for doing modern science.

To return to the issue of the compatibility of science with Islam: at one level the for-and-against arguments resemble those for Christianity. Islam has had its share of pro-science reformers, such as the 19th century figure from India, Syed Ahmad Khan and the Iranian Jamaluddin Afghani, who argued that miracles specified in the Qur'an must be understood in broad allegorical terms rather than literally. Following the rationalist (Mutazillite) tradition of 9th century Islam, Muslim rationalists insisted on an interpretation that was in conformity with the observed truths of science. This meant doing away with cherished beliefs, also held by Christians, of the great flood and Adam's descent from heaven, etc. It was a risky proposition at that time but it was far safer than it is today when the mood has shifted away from empirical inquiry.

On the other hand, fundamentalist versions of all religions, including Islam, are philosophically averse to the notion of material forces running the world. They insist that the divine hand constantly intervenes, and so individual wellbeing requires constant supplications to the powers "up above". This belief system ascribes earthquakes, as well as drought and floods, to divine wrath. On this basis, it would be fair to say that Saudi Islam, or the various Wahhabi-Salafi-Deobandi versions, reject material causality and hence the very basis of modern science.

Shia Islam, on the other hand, while politically assertive and insurrectionist, is less inclined towards pre-modern beliefs. Ayatollah Khomeini was quite content to keep science and Islam in separate domains. He once remarked that there is no such thing as Islamic mathematics. Nor did he take a position against Darwinism. In fact, Iran is one of the rare Muslim countries where the theory of evolution is taught. Today it is a front-runner in stem-cell research – something which President George Bush and his neo-conservative administration had sought to ban from the United States.

But there is another side of the coin: Khomeini also developed the doctrine known as "guardianship of the clergy" (vilayat-e-faqih) which gives mullahs much wider powers than they had generally exercised in the past. Instead of being simple religious leaders, in post-revolutionary Iran they became political leaders as well. This echoed the broader Islamic fusion of the spiritual and the temporal, something that science is acutely uncomfortable with.

To conclude: scientific progress in Muslim countries requires greater personal and intellectual freedom. Without this there can be no thinking, ideas, innovations, discoveries, or progress. The real challenge is not better equipment or faster internet connectivity. Instead, to move ahead in science, Muslims need freedom from dogmatic beliefs and a culture that questions rather than obeys.

Pervez Hoodbhoy

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 25 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

David Adam on controversy over leaked climate change emails

David Adam

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 25 Nov 2009 | 2:51 am

British creationists: some numbers

Those who reject Darwinism in Britain are numerous, largely irreligious, and ignorant of science

The previous blog discussed how creationist opinion formers think: given that formal creationism is a belief that must be taught, this seems a sensible line of enquiry. By formal creationism, I mean the belief that most scientists have more or less malevolently misinterpreted the data for the last 200 years to prove that the Bible is not literally true. That survey dealt only with 50 opinion formers, interviewed in depth. But how many people do they represent?

The answer to that comes from an earlier Theos survey, published this spring, which contained truly shocking figures as to the amount of biological ignorance in the country; but at the same time, it suggested that this had nothing much to do with religion. How could it, when the number of people reporting either Young Earth creationism, or ID, at 25% is something like five times as large as the combined Muslim and evangelical population of this country? Twice as many people are confused about what they believe, and only another quarter are convinced of the truth of evolution.

These results were obtained by a fairly sophisticated set of questions, designed to discover what people actually believed, rather than the labels they would attach to it. Much of it, I think, is the result of innumeracy in general: someone for whom all numbers above about a thousand are indistinguishable blur may very well think that the earth is 10,000 years old and mean by this that it is really really seriously, like, old.

Such people don't pose any threat to the teaching of science in schools. They just make it look entirely pointless, since they have themselves been "educated". But that is a different and more serious problem than religious creationism. The anti-Darwinians interviewed in the most recent survey are a tiny, articulate and self-conscious minority. The real problem for public understanding, as anyone knows who has done any science writing, are the millions of people whose position is that they don't know, don't care, and don't want to do either.

Andrew Brown

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 25 Nov 2009 | 2:13 am

Icebergs head from Antarctica for New Zealand (AP)

AP - Ships are on alert and maritime authorities are monitoring the movements of hundreds of menacing icebergs drifting toward New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean, officials said.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 25 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

Hazy conditions disrupt air travel in China (AFP)

AFP - Poor visibility delayed about 280 domestic and international flights serving Beijing on Wednesday, the capital's airport said, following several days of heavy air pollution.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 25 Nov 2009 | 1:59 am

Homeopathy: MPs on science and technology committee grill experts

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has called in homeopaths and scientists to discuss evidence for the alternative therapy. Join us as the debate unfolds

10.35am: Evan Harris MP:
Asking what Wilson's scientific qualifications are.

Wilson: "What interests me are arguments in conventional medicine that resonate with homeopathy. I have none other [qualifications] than an interest."

"We need to have more research into homeopathy, research that can stand up to some of the criticisms that it faces."

10.33am: Robert Wilson:
"We just haven't yet understood these highly dilute substances."

He's comparing homeopathy to the idea of personalised genetic treatments. Interesting. Flawed, but interesting.

10.31am: MPs Q:
How do you determine between a good homeopath and a bad homeopath?
Brown: "Anybody offering medical advice needs to have medical training."

MP talking about Niels Bohr and Max Planck: He's asking if this is the same thing - a weird quirk of physics. That's hilarious. Quantum theory came about between 1910 and 1925 and works well enough to make iphones and so on. Nonsense.

10.25am:
Robert Wilson: "There are a great deal of things within orthodox medicine that people don't understand." Just because you don't understand the mechanism doesn't mean you don't use them.

Wilson: "Anyone can make an arnica pill. My business for arnica if £5m in this country." Asking who is going to pay for the research into homeopathy?

MPs Q: Can you categorically say it doesn't work?
Bennett: "I could not categorically say it does not work."

Brown: "The placebo effect is very powerful. People do heal. You would expect to see people benefit from taking a placebo."

Goldacre: "There's no evidence homeopathy pills are better than placebo. It's not worth doing more placebo trials, because it would be good money after bad."

Jayne Lawrence: It doesn't work beyond placebo.

Wilson: One of our best sellers are teething granuals for babies. Saying babies don't experience the placebo effect.

10.16am: The discussion has turned to whether pharmacists are being trained properly to sell homeopathic treatments.

Brown: Raises the point that homeopathic anti-malarial prophylactic substances are being sold on the high street without sicentific evidence.

Goldacre: "If you ask a pharmacist, including those at Boots, you'll get a reply that is not in keeping with the evidence."
Suggests pharmacists recommend homeopathic treatment without making it clear there are no active ingredients.

10.11am: Jayne Lawrence (Royal Pharma Soc):
We'd contest it's better for pharmacists to be present when consumers buy homeopathic substances - and consumers should know there's no evidence that they are effective (beyond placebo).

Q: "How can you ensure that pharmacies are keeping to your ethics code?"
Jayne Lawrence: There's an inspectorate that go out and check. So far no warnings issued through that route. One complaint mentioned that came in from the public.

10.06am: Phil Willis to Ben:

A lot of homeopathic medicine is prescribed in France and they "aren't dying in their droves". Why should we worry.

Ben G: "The MHRA endorsing them is extremely problematic."

"This is a 1.5bn industry that is able to influence the regulator."

"Sugar pills are being treated ceremonially."

"I don't think Wilson could tell the difference between one of his arnica pills and one of his arsenic pills."

10.03am: Brian Iddon MP inquiring about the options government could have taken to regulate homeopathy, given the relevant EC directive.
To Wilson:
National rules scheme for homeopathy developed by MHRA. Iddon asking - has it helped your product list expand?
Wilson: it took nearly two years to get one product approved by the national rules scheme.

9.59am: Robert Wilson (Nelsons homeopathic products) - the European market for homeopathy is 1.5bn.

Iddon: "Why should the MHRA have an interest in supporting the homeopathy industry?"

Brown (Sense about Science): EC directive allows nations to bring in their own rules.

9.56am: Paul Bennett (Boots):

"We rely very heavily on the regulatory process to indicate which products are approved and safe for sale."

9.54am: Bennett: Says the homeopathic substances contain the discalimer: "without approved therapeutic indications"

9.53am: Harris: pushing Bennett on the ethics of selling treatments that are ineffective beyond placebo.

Bennet (Boots) "Our key requirement here is for greater clinical evidence."

9.52am: Evan Harris, LibDem MP comes in:

"Is the best way to consider the evidence for homeopathy to consider systematic reviews?"

Robert Wilson criticising studies in general.

Harris gives up on that line.

Harris: Asking Bennett if he has any qualms about selling products that don't have any benefit.

Paul Bennett: "At the root of this, is there are regulated products that are safe. It's important we can support our consumers who believe they are efficacious. To deny someone access....would be wrong to do."

9.47am: Wilson: The homeopathic community is extremely pro-research.

9.45am: Willis: asking "should we sell nothing if it's got no scientific evidence."
Good to see some balance.

Brown: "When it has official eendorsement, such as a license, then we have a problem."

Our drugs regulator, the MHRA licenses homeopathic medicines.

9.43am: Goldacre: "I don't believe sugar pills are physically harmful to people."

Tracey Brown:

Talking about people taking sugar pills and thinking they're getting good treatment when they're not.

9.43am: Goldacre: Thinks homeopathy "culturally" harmful. Undermine credibility of MHRA, pharmacists etc.

9.42am: Next - Ben Goldacre:

"Placebo effect is very powerful."

I've never seen that man wearing a tie before. Never.

9.41am: "There's no scientific basis for their being effective, says Lawrence

9.40am: Next: Jayne Lawrence:

We've reviewed all the scientific evidence and we don't think there's any evidence for them working.

9.40am: Wilson says he believes homeopathy works beyond the placebo effect.

Wilson's comment: "If they didn't work beyond the placebo effect, why do people keep buying them?"

Willis: "That wasn't a serious comment was it?!"

Willis quizzing Wilson - if you have evidence that it works, why don't you give it to Boots. Boots just admitted they have no evidence that the stuff works.

9.38am: Phil Willis: to Robert Wilson

Wilson says it's an old business and populat in france. Willis: "So is prostitution."

9.37am: First off - question to Paul Bennett: "You sell them. Do they work?"

Paul: "There's consumer demand.

"I have no evidence to suggest they are efficacious."

Great opening.

"It's about consumer choice and a large number of our consumers think they are efficacious."

9.35am: Phil Willis is kicking things off. Looking to see "whether there is evidence to support government policy."

9.35am: It'll be interesting to see how many tories show up. Usually only one or two arrive for the science and tech committee. Mostly it's Lib Dems and Lab. Looks like a full house.

9.31am Fingers crossed this won't degrade into mumbo jumbo and name calling. I'll be interested to hear if any of the homeopaths embrace the idea that the value of their service is to optimise the placebo effect.

9.28 Robert Wilson is also on the board of the European Coalition on Homeopathic and Anthroposophic Medicinal Products. Yes, anthroposophic medicinal products. According to the ever-reliable oracle that is wikipedia, anthroposophical medicine is salutogenetic. Marvellous. I've not seen so many big words since graduating.

9.23am It's fair to say that, by and large, the Science committee aren't the greatest fans of homeopathy. They piled into Professor John Beddington, the chief scientist, earlier this year for defending the government's stance on homeopathy.

9.18am You can watch the evidence session here and here.

9.16am Robert Mathie of the British Homeopathic Association added a plug for the BHA on the NHS homeopathy page. He urged anyone who was likely to buy homeopathic substancecs to go to the BHA for advice first.

9.14am James Thallon - who's giving evidence in the second session (from 10.30am) - recently cut his PCT's funding for homeopathy, stating that the money was better spent on drugs that, erm, worked a bit better.

9.12am Ben Goldacre's also giving evidence. At the same time as Robert Wilson, who runs a homeopathic medicines company. I hope the committee find out how much money is made selling homeopathy. It'd be an interesting figure to have. The NHS has spent £12m in three years on it. That's an awful lot of water.

9.07am The session is due to kick off at half past the hour.

We should be in for an interesting discussion today. A few of these folks have taken pot shots at each other in the past.

We've got Paul Bennett from Boots, the high street chemist, which was slated by Edzard Ernst for pushing homeopathic rememdies. Here's what he said in a guardian piece recently:

The population at large trusts Boots more than any other pharmacy, but when you look behind the smokescreen, when it comes to alternative medicines, that trust is not justified. You can buy a lot of rubbish, with covert advertising stating things that are overtly wrong. People are spending their money on stuff that doesn't work...Boots seems to be fast becoming the biggest seller of quack remedies in UK high streets.

8.32am: It would be nice to think ministers made policy decisions on the basis of sound scientific evidence, but the government isn't renowned for listening to expert advice it doesn't agree with. Nor does it have a great track record on collecting proper evidence.

The Commons Science and Technology Committee has decided to investigate the scientific evidence that underpins the government's existing policies. Today they are looking into homeopathy. They have taken written evidence already, and received the inevitable admission from the Department of Health that the regulation of homeopathy has no scientific basis.

Now it's time to hear the oral evidence and this morning's session could be a corker. Between 9.30am and 11.30am the committee will quiz alternative therapists, scientists and doctors to find out what they all make of homeopathy. The government funds several NHS homeopathy hospitals, which have spent around £12m on homeopathic treatments over the past three years.

You can watch the webcast session in full here.

Below is a list of today's cast of players. Join us for the discussion and
let us know what you make of it.

9.30am
Professor Jayne Lawrence, chief scientific adviser, Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain
Robert Wilson, chairman of the British Association of Homeopathic
Manufacturers, and Nelsons, a homeopathy company
Paul Bennett, professional standards director, Boots the chemist
Tracey Brown, managing director, Sense About Science
Dr Ben Goldacre, journalist, The Guardian

10.30am
Dr Peter Fisher, director of research, Royal London Homeopathic Hospital
Professor Edzard Ernst, director, Complementary Medicine Group, Peninsula Medical School
Dr James Thallon, medical director, NHS West Kent
Dr Robert Mathie, research development adviser, British Homeopathic
Association

Ian Sample

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 25 Nov 2009 | 1:33 am

My DNA dilemma

The liberty-security balance is centuries old. On the DNA database, I think we're getting it right

As Willie Whitelaw once noted, balancing the rights of the individual against the rights of society as a whole is one of the most difficult responsibilities home secretaries face. It has been a constant tension faced by the office throughout its 227-year history.

Methods of detection, such as interviewing witnesses and examining crime scenes, which we consider straightforward today, were controversial when pursued by the Met's first detective force, established in 1842. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Kate Summerscale's brilliant analysis of a Victorian murder, shows the ambivalence of both the press and the public to this new breed of policeman. For some, they were "all-seeing little gods", who held the keys to intriguing mysteries and terrible crimes. For others, their methods represented an unacceptable intrusion into private, family life. The spectre of the grubby paws of the working-class detective rifling through the private belongings of his betters caused great disquiet among the middle classes. The introduction of fingerprinting caused similar consternation at the start of the 20th century.

Today, on DNA retention, the government must balance several factors. First, there's the scientific evidence, which is still sparse. The most recent research supports the case for the retention of DNA profiles of those arrested but not convicted. It also shows that, after six years, the probability of re-arrest is no higher than for the rest of the population.

Second, there's human rights legislation. Almost exactly a year ago, the European court ruled that while holding the DNA records of those who were not convicted was justifiable under the European convention on human rights, it was unlawful to hold them indefinitely.

Third, there's an understandable concern about privacy. DNA evidence is valuable because of its uniqueness. But the very characteristic that makes it so useful is also the reason why some find the prospect of its retention – although under current proposals, the sample itself will not be retained, only its unique 20-number code – so intrusive, particularly when there has been no conviction.

Finally, there is the very reasonable expectation that the police will appropriately harness this huge scientific advance to protect us from horrific crimes, and ensure justice for victims and their families. I reject the claim by the Human Genetics Commission yesterday that large numbers of people are being arrested simply to collect their DNA. There is no substantive evidence to suggest this is so. No one can have their DNA taken unless arrested for a recordable offence. As the Association of Chief Police Officers has said, arresting someone is a major step, never taken lightly.

It is unlikely that Mark Dixie, the murderer of Sally Anne Bowman, would ever have been found had his DNA profile not been recorded following his involvement in a pub brawl, after which he had been released without charge. Take also the case of Abdul Azad, arrested for violent disorder in Birmingham in February 2005. He had a DNA sample taken and was released without charge. In July 2005, a stranger rape occurred in Stafford, 25 miles away. DNA evidence was found to match Azad's. The senior officer said he would otherwise never have been caught.

It has also helped protect the innocent. Sean Hodgson, who was wrongfully convicted of murdering and raping Teresa de Simone in 1982, would probably not have been cleared without DNA analysis showing he was not the killer.

Under proposals soon to be considered by parliament, the DNA profiles of all those convicted of crimes – irrespective of the offence – will continue to be held indefinitely. The bill will also give police the power to take samples from those convicted of serious violent and sexual offences in the past, before DNA was routinely taken, and previous offenders who are returning from overseas.

It seems there is all-party consensus on these two measures. The controversy is around those arrested but not charged, where all records will be retained for six years (except for children, when it will generally be three). We consulted on a 12-year retention period for the most serious crimes, but research shows that the so-called hazard rate (propensity to be re-arrested) is no different for this group after six years, and that there is no basis for differentiation according to the severity of the crime an individual was accused of.

The Guardian has joined the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats in arguing for the Scottish system of three years' retention, plus further conditional two-year periods for those arrested but not charged for serious offences. But this accepts that there should be retention where there is no charge, while ignoring the evidence that three (or even five) years is too short a period. The Scottish model is said to be a success, but by whose standards, and by what evidence?

This is a classic home secretary dilemma. It is not a clear-cut choice between liberty and security – between siding with the civil liberties lobby or the forces of law and order. The far less headline-friendly reality is the need to balance all these factors – protecting the public, but in a way that's proportionate to the threat. I believe that the government's proposals do precisely that but I also welcome the debate as a necessary part of implementing such sensitive measures.

Alan Johnson MP

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Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 25 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

India electric car pioneer plans biggest plug-in plant (AFP)

AFP - Chetan Maini, the engineer who pioneered India's first electric car, had his eureka moment two decades ago when he drove a vehicle fuelled by solar power across the blazing Australian outback.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Nov 2009 | 11:59 pm

Hacked Climate Change Emails Set Off Political Storm (NewsFactor)

NewsFactor - Internet security and climate change had a surprising run-in last week, as thousands of emails from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit wound up on climate-skeptic web sites. The University says it is cooperating with police and launching its own investigation into how the emails wound up online.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Nov 2009 | 11:54 pm

"Climategate" and Other Nonsense

When discussing man-made climate change (or anthropogenic global warming), I often drift into unfamiliar (and sometimes disturbing) territory. That territory is what I call The Land of the Afraid, Ignorant and Lost. In this weird alternative dimension there are doomsayers ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 24 Nov 2009 | 11:25 pm

Hormones, incentive, experience "make best traders"

LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists say a perfect combination of testosterone, experience and a hunger for a share of profits can produce financial traders who consistently outperform the market -- even during a crisis.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 24 Nov 2009 | 10:44 pm

UK tree plan to aid emissions cut

Ministers back calls to plant millions of trees across the country to help combat climate change.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 24 Nov 2009 | 7:46 pm

Causes of Falls for Elderly Pinned Down

Lots of things can trip seniors up, from drugs to plain old pain.
Source: Livescience.com | 24 Nov 2009 | 5:41 pm

US official blasts big oil over Obama energy program (AFP)

AFP - US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar blasted big oil trade groups Tuesday, accusing them of barring the way to a balanced US energy system that would create thousands of jobs.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Nov 2009 | 5:21 pm

How to cope with conflict at work

Bottling up career resentments can double your risk of a heart attack. Here's how you should handle stress instead

Change a word and I'll kill you. The journal of Epidemiology and Community Health has just published new research by scientists at Stockholm University that reveals men who keep things bottled up at work and fail to confront bosses or colleagues about unfair treatment more than double their risk of a heart attack or dying of heart disease.

So with thanks to Phillip Hodson, Fellow of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, and Dr Luisa Dillner, here's a quick guide to dealing with conflict at work.

1 Have a blazing row. Undoubtedly both psychologically and physiologically highly beneficial. Unfortunately not so good for your career prospects. You might get away with it if the person you are rowing with is at the same level as you, but you might also be making a lifelong sworn enemy. Also, be sure to row out of earshot of any other colleagues: you don't want to let them in on the secret that you're completely out of control.

2 Say you are angry. It sounds obvious, but many people are scared of admitting to what they feel is a negative emotion. Anger is normal: the whole point of it is to get you through to the other side of something unpleasant. If you don't get angry, you get stuck.

3 If you can't say you are angry, use a meta-language. Either request permission to speak – it suggests the other person has stepped over the line – or query what your boss has said to you. Try to avoid being too narky, though. That's regression to passive-aggression.

4 Speak ever more quietly. It's a brilliantly controlling tactic as it forces people to make an extra effort to listen to you. It also makes you sound cold and furious so people will respond to you as if you really are being angry. Which you are, of course.

5 Don't engage at all. This option should only be taken if your boss is a Malcolm Tucker psychopath – a surprisingly common personality at the head of many large organisations. These people will take you down, any way they can. Keep a record of their behaviour and go to a tribunal.

6 Murder. A highly satisfactory outcome for your feelings, though not one society tends to endorse. Your surviving colleagues will probably treasure your memory in perpetuity.

John Crace

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Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 24 Nov 2009 | 5:05 pm

Response: There are major barriers to the mass production of electric tractors

Diesel-powered farm machinery will be with us for some time to come

George Monbiot is quite right to lambast the International Energy Agency for its lack of credibility over oil reserves, and I wish him well in his fight for general awareness of our dire environmental problems (The one thing depleting faster than oil is the credibility of those measuring it, 17 November).

I am glad that, almost alone among "green" journalists, he can see that productive agriculture is the most important of all our needs. But I feel that his dislike of the diesel engine, as used in farming, is informed by a concern for the pollution caused by motor transport rather than a knowledge of how farming machinery is actually used. Like many environmentalists, he seems to be unaware of some of the realities of engineering and physics, let alone farming. What I know about tractors comes from five years' experience in and under them and other machinery at a farm in France.

Monbiot says: "There are two possible options: either the mass replacement of farm machinery or the development of new farming systems that don't need much labour or energy." This is partly true, but there is no either/or about it; both options will be needed – in fact every possible option and a few that have not even been considered yet.

He says: "There are no obvious barriers to the mass production of electric tractors and combine harvesters." But to anyone who has worked with farm machinery, especially on smaller and poorer farms, the idea of electric tractors will seem ridiculous. So far, electric traction has been developed only for transport, and most successfully in railway trains. The development of batteries and control systems has been directed at the needs of passenger cars, which do not have to pull heavy loads at low speeds for long periods.

Electric tractors do exist, but are light machines similar to ride-on lawn mowers, with power outputs of around 40kW. Typical farm tractors have outputs of 100kW-200kW, and no currently available batteries could provide anything like this amount of energy, or anything approaching the working life of a diesel engine.

The best lithium-ion electric car batteries and motors work at high voltages (500V for example). As an engineer, I would blench at the idea of maintaining a 100KW, 500V system in a damp and muddy farmyard, let alone carrying out running repairs in the middle of a 50-hectare field, in the rain.

As far as I know, electric traction for farm machines has not yet been even considered as an option. If it ever reaches the stage of production, it will be very expensive indeed – far beyond the budgets of even large farms. So the diesel tractor will be with us for some time. Luckily, farms are well situated for making biodiesel fuel, and politicians should ensure this option should be used only for agriculture, and possibly for food transport.

So please let us have a realistic debate on food production, with every available technology considered, and using accurate data from impartial sources. Let us also think of all other means to survive. But don't reject Rudolf Diesel's wonderful invention yet – we have to eat.

John Hewson

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Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 24 Nov 2009 | 5:05 pm

Smoking Gun Found in Rejected Heart Transplants (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Scientists have long suspected that smoking increased the risk that a transplanted heart would be rejected. Now they have a smoking gun.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Nov 2009 | 4:31 pm

Smoking Gun Found in Rejected Heart Transplants

Cigarette smoke exposure before a heart transplant accelerates the death of the heart.
Source: Livescience.com | 24 Nov 2009 | 4:28 pm

Comatose for 23 years Belgian feels reborn (AP)

AP - With a caretaker holding his hand, a Belgian man who was diagnosed as comatose for 23 years typed out a message Tuesday that he felt reborn after decades of loneliness and frustration. A leading bioethicist, however, expressed skepticism that the man was truly communicating on his own.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Nov 2009 | 4:18 pm

Home Field Advantage Overestimated in College Football

Research focused on more than 100 rivalries dating back at least 30 years.
Source: Livescience.com | 24 Nov 2009 | 3:55 pm

Reborn Coma Man’s Words May Be Bogus

The statements of a Belgian man believed to be in a coma for 23 years, but recently discovered to be conscious, are poignant, but experts say they may not be his words at all.

Rom Houben’s account of his ordeal, repeated in scores of news stories since appearing Saturday in Der Spiegel, appears to be delivered with assistance from an aide who helps guide his finger to letters on a flat computer keyboard. Called “facilitated communication,” that technique has been widely discredited, and is not considered scientifically valid.

“If facilitated communication is part of this, and it appears to be, then I don’t trust it,” said Arthur Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Bioethics. “I’m not saying the whole thing is a hoax, but somebody ought to be checking this in greater detail. Any time facilitated communication of any sort is involved, red flags fly.”

Facilitated communication came to prominence in the late 1970s after an Australian teacher reportedly used it to communicate with 12 children rendered speechless by cerebral palsy and other disorders. Over the next two decades, it gained some adherents in patient and medical communities, but failed to produce consistent results in controlled, scientific settings.

Researchers said that facilitators were unconsciously or consciously guiding patients’ hands. Multiple professional organizations, including the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and the American Academy of Pediatrics, say that facilitated communication is not credible.

Far more credible, however, is emerging research on patients thought to be in vegetative states, but revealed by brain-scanning technology to be at least minimally conscious, and even aware of what is happening around them. These two strains of research have collided in the figure of Houben. In 2006, a full 23 years after a horrific car accident left him paralyzed and apparently unconscious, tests run by the University of Liege’s Coma Science Group showed that Houben’s brain was active, and almost normal. He wasn’t a vegetable, but aware, and trapped silently in the prison of his ruined body.

Houben has since proven able to answer yes-or-no questions with slight movements of his foot. It’s a tremendous accomplishment, and raises the chilling possibility that, as estimated by Coma Science Group leader Steven Laureys in a Monday New York Times story, as many as four in 10 people considered utterly comatose may be misdiagnosed. But the legitimacy of interviews given by Houben and his facilitator to Der Spiegel, and shown on video by the BBC, may not be as certain.

“I believe that he is sentient. They’ve shown that with MRI scans,” said James Randi, a prominent skeptic who during the 1990s investigated the use of facilitated communication for autistic children. But in the video, “You see this woman who’s not only holding his hand, but what she’s doing is directing his fingers and looking directly at the keyboard. She’s pressing down on the keyboard, pressing messages for him. He has nothing to do with it.”

According to Randi, facilitated communication could only be considered credible if the facilitator didn’t look at the keyboard or screen while supporting Houben’s hand, and helped him type messages in response to questions she had not heard, thus ensuring that Houben’s responses are entirely his own.

The James Randi Educational Foundation has offered a million-dollar prize to a valid demonstration of facilitated communication, and Randi invited Houben to participate. “Our prize is still there,” he said.

In the Der Spiegel interview, Houben and his facilitator recounted his ordeal. “I would scream, but no sound would come out,” they wrote. “I became the witness to my own suffering, as doctors and nurses tried to speak to me and eventually gave up.” Of the correct diagnosis, they wrote, “I will never forget the day they finally discovered what was wrong — it was my second birth.”

According to Caplan, Houben’s apparent lucidity after spending more than two decades in complete isolation — circumstances known to be psychologically and cognitively damaging — is hard to believe.

“You’re going to lie for 23 years in a hospital bed with almost no stimuli, and then sound completely coherent and cogent?” he said. “Something is wrong with that picture. The messages are almost poetic. It sounds too lucid, like someone prepared these things to say. I’m not saying it’s all a fraud, but I want to hear a lot more.”

Whatever the final verdict on Houben’s facilitated communication, however, it does not alter the fact of his misdiagnosis. Laureys could not be reached for comment, but said in an Agence France Presse story that “every patient should be tested at least 10 times before they are categorically defined as ‘vegetative.’”

Image: Yves Logghe/AP

See Also:

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 | 24 Nov 2009 | 3:31 pm

5 Myth-Busting Facts for a Safe Turkey

Here are some myth-busting facts to ensure a safe holiday meal.
Source: Livescience.com | 24 Nov 2009 | 2:49 pm

'Coma' revelation leads to re-examination of other cases

Locked-in syndrome is a rare neurological disorder in which nearly all the body's voluntary muscles are paralysed, but the patient remains conscious and able to think and reason.

It can be caused by traumatic brain injury, diseases of the circulatory system, overdosing on medication or diseases that destroy the insulating sheath surrounding nerve cells.

There is no cure, although electrodes can be used to stimulate muscle reflexes in an attempt to activate some paralysed muscles.

Most sufferers of the syndrome are able to move their eyes: the French journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby was able to write his memoir, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, by blinking his left eyelid to choose each letter.

But Rom Houben's paralysis extended to the muscles controlling eye movement, and he was left powerless to let those around him know he could see and hear.

"[His eyes] are open but they are not very well controlled," explained Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse, a PhD student in neuropsychology in the Coma Science Group who has worked with Houben for three years.

It was only when Vanhaudenhuyse's colleague, Steven Laureys, employed a state-of-the-art scanning system that Houben's brain was found to be functioning almost normally.

"It's rare, but it exists," said Vanhaudenhuyse of Houben's type of locked-in syndrome. The key difference between his and similar cases she had seen was that they had been diagnosed, she added. Laureys said he was re-examining dozens of other cases.

Houben is now communicating using a special touchscreen on his wheelchair. After intensive physiotherapy since his true state was discovered, three years ago, he is able to make "micro-movements" with his finger towards the letter he wants to use, and an assistant will move his hand the rest of the way. "He will have a big programme of rehabilitation," Vanhaudenhuyse said. "He will have a lot of speech therapy, ergotherapy and occupational therapy." But at this stage it is difficult to predict what he might one day be able to do, or whether he will ever be able to speak.

Rachel Williams

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 24 Nov 2009 | 1:57 pm

'I always knew he could understand'

Fina Nicolaes tells how she never gave up on son written off as brain dead

It was 2am on a bleak Belgian Sunday in November when Fina Nicolaes received the news that every mother dreads. Her son Rom, 20, was in hospital in Liège with life-threatening injuries after a Saturday night car crash.

The phone call that woke her up in the Flemish village of Kanne near the Dutch border was 26 years ago. Her son and the four friends in the car with him survived. But six months later, unable to move, speak or signal any kind of understanding, the second-year engineering student was written off as a vegetable, paralysed, brain-dead, awake but not aware.

On Monday night, Nicolaes got a phone call from a friend in the south of France after seeing a report of her son's "miracle" on the television news. "You always said Rom was conscious," said the friend.

Today, Nicolaes, a 73-year-old retired nurse, said: "My daughter and I were always convinced that he understands. It was something inside us. We always believed it."

Now 46, Rom Houben, Nicolaes's only son, was written off as comatose, awake but insentient, for 23 years until a leading Belgian neurologist deployed state-of-the-art tomography and brain-scanning equipment to discover that Houben had a brain that understood virtually everything. He just could not communicate any response or manifest any reaction. The mother's intuition had told her as much for decades, but the doctors and specialists, the physiotherapists and speech experts all concluded that her son was in a "permanent neuro-vegetative" condition.

"After the coma, when there's no change and no response, they call it neuro-vegetative. They said there was no hope," said Nicolaes at her flat in Liège. "At the start we didn't believe it."

So started a desperate odyssey around Belgium, France, and America on a quest for a new chance, an inkling of better news, a hint of medical breakthrough or discovery of some unknown expertise that might defeat the resignation and the fatalism.

Nicolaes, her late husband, and her daughter looked after Houben at home in the village where dozens of locals helped out. They moved to Liège in the hope of getting better treatment. They sought out American experts in Antwerp, others in Ghent. And five times, at their own expense since the medical insurance would not cover such risky expeditions, they took Houben to the Glenn Doman Institute in Philadelphia, a global pioneer in the treatment and diagnosis of brain-damaged children.

They drew a blank everywhere they turned. In 1997, when the father fell ill and the two women had difficulty coping with the physical tasks of caring for a paralysed man, they put him into an institute specialising in the brain-damaged in Zolder, a small town 50 miles from Liège. A few months later, Nicolaes's husband died of cancer. Houben knew because she told him. But no one knew that he knew.

"When father died, Rom couldn't communicate," said Nicolaes. "Now he says 'I couldn't help mum when dad died and I couldn't say goodbye to him'. This year we planted a little tree on father's grave. Rom was there."

Nine years after the father's death, a series of events conspired to break the depressing cycle of constant pessimism from a well-meaning medical profession. Houben's older sister, Tereïn ("they've both got gypsy names because when we were young we liked people who travelled," said Nicolaes) saw a programme on French TV about a breakthrough on what looked like a similar case. She contacted the television and the French doctors who put her in touch with a professional in Ghent specialising in computer aids for the paralysed.

He brought his equipment to the Zolder care centre, where a rudimentary breakthrough took place.

Nurses, speech therapists, the specialist and other medical staff were on hand to use the machinery and to try to get Rom to make a gesture.

Nicolaes recalled: "We needed to make him press the mouse. But how? He was lying down. He's very spastic. He can't control his movements. The doctor saw that he was moving his right foot. We put the mouse under the foot and were shouting, 'Push, Rom, push, Rom, push.' And he pushed. The computer said 'I am Rom'."

Rom then had to remove the foot. "He was moving his whole body to try to lift the foot. The speech therapist said she got the heebie-jeebies."

A few months later the mother and daughter attended a conference on "locked-in syndrome" – the condition of active minds utterly enveloped in paralysed bodies unable to show any human response. The syndrome is often misdiagnosed as coma and severe brain damage. The women met specialists from Ghent and Louvain who recommended Dr Steven Laureys of Liège University, a renowned neurologist.

His examinations brought the big breakthrough three years ago, reported this week by Germany's Der Spiegel magazine. Using the latest tomographic and scanning kit, Laureys found a mind in full working order 23 years after Houben was misdiagnosed.

Using a special keyboard on a computer beside his wheelchair, and with the constant help of speech and physical therapists, Houben can communicate sophisticatedly. "I was only my consciousness and nothing else," he told his doctors. "I'll never forget the day they discovered me. It was my second birth."

Laureys, said Nicolaes, "has a desire to work with people who have no future. He concluded that Rom was suffering from locked-in syndrome, that he was not, after all, neuro-vegetative." In a paper this year, the doctor postulated that as many as 40% of coma cases are wrongly diagnosed, that the 40% are active minds locked in paralysed bodies.

"The big difference is in the way others see Rom," said Nicolaes. "Now he's accepted as a whole person. For me, it means that I no longer have to take all the decisions for him. I can even talk to him on the phone. Linda (the speech therapist) calls me and says Rom wants to speak to me. He writes it on the computer and Linda reads it."

Because of the past medical opinions, Nicolaes's insurer has refused to reimburse her for much of the cost. She is currently engaged in a battle in order to raise the money for semi-permanent speech and physical therapy and specialist help with communication.

"He still needs help to write. He does not have his motor functions," said Nicolaes. "But only the fighters survive. The fight is in the head. You need the will."

Ian Traynor

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 24 Nov 2009 | 1:46 pm

Video: Saturn’s Spectacular Aurora in Action

How can you not love Cassini? The latest treat NASA’s spacecraft has provided us is the first ever movie of Saturn’s incredible aruroras.

The high-resolution video was assembled from 472 still images, spaced over 81 hours in October, that show the phenomenon in three dimensions. The lights can be seen as a rippling, vertical sheet up to 750 miles high above Saturn’s northern hemisphere.

“The auroras have put on a dazzling show, shape-shifting rapidly and exposing curtains that we suspected were there, but hadn’t seen on Saturn before,” Cal Tech scientist Andrew Ingersoll, a member of the Cassini imaging team that processed the new video, said in a press release. “Seeing these things on another planet helps us understand them a little better when we see them on Earth.”

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has returned many truly amazing images of Titan, Saturn and Enceladus, but the aurora video is one of the more spectacular views yet seen of another planet.

Each image has a 2 to 3 minute exposure time, and together they reveal that Saturn’s auroras are rapidly changing, as on Earth. But because of Saturn’s lighter, primarily hydrogen atmosphere, the lights reach much higher than in Earth’s heavier oxygen and nitrogen atmosphere.

Though Cassini has spied the alien auroras in ultraviolet and infrared light before, this time the phenomenon was captured in the visible spectrum. The imaging team added false color to the black and white images to highlight the aurora. Scientists are still trying to figure out what color the lights really are.

Video: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

See Also:

Follow us on Twitter @betsymason and @wiredscience, and on Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 24 Nov 2009 | 1:07 pm

The Black Hole That Made You Possible

Supermassive black holes are the open hearths upon which complex matter is forged; then flung far and wide.
Source: Livescience.com | 24 Nov 2009 | 1:01 pm

Ep. 2: How Black Holes Got Supermassive

Which came first: Galaxies? Or the big black holes at their centers? Evidence from the Hubble Space Telescope's Deep Field images is persuasive.
Source: Livescience.com | 24 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm

Ep. 3: Giants in the Depths - The Biggest Black Holes

Super-powerful galactic overlords rearrange the contours of space itself in their local neighborhoods. Their blast-waves heat up - and hollow out - hundreds of thousands of light years of interstellar space.
Source: Livescience.com | 24 Nov 2009 | 12:59 pm

Dark ocean depths home to exotic, unknown life

OSLO (Reuters) - The permanent darkness of the ocean depths is home to a far greater range of animals, from luminous jellyfish to tubeworms that live off oil seeping from the seabed, than previously thought, scientists said on Sunday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 24 Nov 2009 | 12:05 pm

Urban Nuclear Attack Scenarios Examined

Mapping the impact of a nuclear weapon could help emergency responders plan for the worst.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 24 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

Belgian Man Conscious During 23-Year Coma

Car-crash victim Rom Houben says through an aide that being able to communicate again was like a rebirth.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 24 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

Is Holiday Travel Bad For The Earth?

Today we got some bad news about climate change: it's happening faster than expected. If I'm one of the 38.4 million people hitting the roads and skies tomorrow, does this mean I'm going to make things even worse by adding ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 24 Nov 2009 | 11:59 am

Are You a Global Warming Sucker?

Yesterday the "big news" in global warming was that some hackers broke into the private emails of climate scientists, cherry-picked a few comments, then published them completely out of context to make it appear like the scientists were lying to ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 24 Nov 2009 | 11:44 am

Friday News Feedbag for November 20th

If this is your first exposure to the Friday News Feedbag...we're glad to have you in the club. Welcome to Feedbag Nation. Below you'll find an audio link to a weekly podcast where you can hear three of us Discovery ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 24 Nov 2009 | 11:33 am

Melting Away

The conclusions of the newly-released Copenhagen Diagnosis report - that climate change is proceeding more rapidly, and its effects are being felt more dramatically, than models had predicted - is not news to anyone who has been tracking the issue ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 24 Nov 2009 | 11:30 am

First Butterfly Chrysalis on Space Station

One Butterfly Coming Up: For the first time, a butterfly has formed a chrysalis on the International Space Station. The single chrysalis can be seen attached to the habitat in the lower left of the image (National Space Biomedical Research ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 24 Nov 2009 | 11:29 am

Professor in leaked email row dismisses conspiracy claims

Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia denies emails provide evidence of collusion by climatologists to fix data

The climatologist at the centre of the leaked emails row said today that he "absolutely" stands by his research and that any suggestion that the emails provide evidence of a conspiracy to manipulate or hide data that do not support the theory of man-made climate change was "complete rubbish".

Professor Phil Jones, director of the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, said that the past week had been "the worst few days of my professional life". He added that since the emails were leaked he had received personal threats which have now been passed on to the police to investigate.

In his first full interview since last week's theft, which saw hundreds of emails and documents exchanged between some of the leading climatologists over the past 13 years stolen from the university's servers, Jones defended himself against accusations by climate sceptics that the emails provide evidence of collusion by climatologists to fix data.

"That the world is warming is based on a range of sources: not only temperature records but other indicators such as sea level rise, glacier retreat and less Arctic sea ice," he said. "Our global temperature series tallies with those of other, completely independent, groups of scientists working for Nasa and the National Climate Data Centre in the United States, among others. Even if you were to ignore our findings, theirs show the same results. The facts speak for themselves; there is no need for anyone to manipulate them."

Jones accepted, though, that the contents of some of the emails were cause for embarrassment: "Some of the emails probably had poorly chosen words and were sent in the heat of the moment, when I was frustrated. I do regret sending some of them. We've not deleted any emails or data here at CRU. I would never manipulate the data one bit - I would categorically deny that."

He confirmed that all of the leaked emails that had provoked heated debate – including the now infamous email from 1999 in which he discussed a "trick" to "hide the decline" in global temperatures - appeared to be genuine.

"The use of the term 'hiding the decline' was in an email written in haste," he said. "CRU has not sought to hide the decline." (The University of East Anglia has now posted a detailed explanation of why this phrase was used on its website)

Jones said the timing of the theft suggested it was intended to cause maximum embarrassment ahead of the Copenhagen climate talks next month: "One has to wonder if it is a coincidence that this email correspondence has been stolen and published at this time. This may be a concerted attempt to put a question mark over the science of climate change in the run-up to the Copenhagen talks."

But he stressed that he has never wished to get drawn into the political debate about climate change, saying: "I'm a very apolitical person, I don't want to get involved in the politics, I'm much happier doing the science and producing the papers. I'm a scientist, I let my science do the talking, along with all my scientific climate colleagues. It's up to governments to decide and climate science is just one thing they have to take into account with the decisions they have to make."

He added that he had long been under pressure from climate sceptics to further explain his research: "From about 2001/2002 I was getting emails from a number of people involved in the climate sceptic community. Initially at the beginning I did try to respond to them in the hope I might convince them but I soon realised it was a forlorn hope and broke off communication. Some of the emails I sent them subsequently appeared and were discussed on various sceptic websites."

Trevor Davies, the University of East Anglia's pro-vice-chancellor with responsibility for research, rejected calls – including from the Guardian commentator George Monbiot – for Jones to resign: "We see no reason for Professor Jones to resign and, indeed, we would not accept his resignation. He is a valued and important scientist."

Davies said the university had now decided to conduct an independent review which will "address the issue of data security, an assessment of how we responded to a deluge of Freedom of Information requests, and any other relevant issues which the independent reviewer advises should be addressed".

Yesterday, prominent members of both sides of the climate change debate, including the climate change sceptic Lord Lawson, had called for an independent review. Lawson said he believed this should be carried out by the Natural Environment Research Council, a government science funding body.

But a spokesperson for Nerc said it was not a matter for them. "Nerc believes this is a matter for the University of East Anglia - their Climatic Research Unit is not a Nerc unit - so it is for them to decide if they call for an enquiry and if so who should conduct it. Should there be an enquiry we would of course be happy to contribute, if asked."

A spokesperson for the journal Nature said, "In line with our standard policy, if clear evidence were to arise that anything we've published is in question then we'll look into any action that may need to be taken."

Leo Hickman

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 24 Nov 2009 | 10:55 am

This year 'in top five warmest'

This year will be in the top five warmest years globally since records began, according to the UK Met Office.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 24 Nov 2009 | 10:36 am

WiFi in the Sky: In-Flight Internet Takes Off

A growing number of lucky travelers have already experienced free Internet access while flying this holiday season, courtesy of airline partnerships with the likes of Google and eBay.
Source: Livescience.com | 24 Nov 2009 | 10:20 am

Switchgrass Looks Like a Dream Field

If you grow it, the cars will run. That's still the idea behind cellulosic ethanol, which is biofuel from tough, reedy, and often discarded plant parts. A recent study indicates that switchgrass could yield the most biomass for this fuel. ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 24 Nov 2009 | 10:17 am

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