Dispensing prescription drugs in 3-month supplies reduces drug costs by a third

Purchasing prescription drugs in a three-month supply rather than a one-month supply has long been regarded as a way to save money. New research quantifies the savings for the first time.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

New device implanted by surgeons help paralyzed patients breathe easier

Physicians will soon begin implanting a new device designed to improve breathing in patients with upper spinal-cord injuries or other diseases that keep them from breathing independently.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

Biological basis of 'bacterial immune system' discovered

Scientists have discovered how the bacterial immune system works, and the finding could lead to new classes of targeted antibiotics, new tools to study gene function in microorganisms and more stable bacterial cultures used by food and biotechnology industries to make products such as yogurt and cheese.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

Bell's palsy: Study calls for rethink of cause and treatment

Drugs widely prescribed to treat facial paralysis in Bell's palsy are ineffective and are based on false notions of the cause of the condition, according to researchers. They say research must now focus on discovering other potential causes and treatments.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

Nuclear waste reduction: Polymers designed to mop up radioactive isotopes

Nuclear power could solve our energy problems but it has rather nasty by-products: radioactive waste. Not only the disposal of the old core rods but also reactor operation results in a large amount of low-level waste, especially contaminated cooling water. Scientists have now developed a new method to reduce the amount of this radioactive waste considerably. They use small beads consisting of a special polymer which “fishes” the radioactivity out of the water.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

Fruit fly sperm makes females do housework after sex

The sperm of male fruit flies are coated with a chemical 'sex peptide' which inhibits the female's usual afternoon siesta and compels her into an intense period of foraging activity.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

RNA network seen in live bacterial cells for first time

New technology has given scientists the first look ever at RNA in a live bacteria cell -- a sight that could offer new information about how the molecule moves and works.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

Researchers fine-tune diffuse optical tomography for breast cancer screening

Researchers are working to make the physical pain and discomfort of mammograms a thing of the past, while allowing for diagnostic imaging eventually to be done in a home setting.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

Biologics for rheumatoid arthritis work, but which is best?

More studies that directly compare the effectiveness of different biologic drugs for rheumatoid arthritis are needed, say researchers who reviewed previous studies assessing the effectiveness of biologic disease-modifying drugs for treatment of RA and found that although all were very effective, there was little data on direct comparisons between the drugs that could help doctors decide which to prescribe.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

24-carat gold 'snowflakes' improve graphene's electrical properties

In an effort to make graphene more useful in electronics applications, engineers have made a golden discovery -- gold "snowflakes" on graphene.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

Swine flu vaccine is vital | Robert Read

The anti-immunisation movement has been peddling fear since the 1800s, but we must ignore its misinformation on H1N1

Many people are facing the question of whether to vaccinate themselves and their children against pandemic influenza H1N1 (so-called swine flu) – a vaccine that will provide safe and effective protection against a debilitating and potentially fatal illness. But the question comes at a time when some experts are concerned that a vociferous anti-vaccine lobby will undermine the mass vaccination campaigns being rolled out across Europe, putting the public and individuals' health at risk.

Vaccination – priming the body's immune system to resist attack – is the best defence an individual can have against infectious diseases. It can provide effective protection from infection, and means not having to face the uncertainty of whether treatment with anti-microbial drugs will be successful. Besides protecting us individually, vaccination also has a vital public health role because once the number of people immunised against an infection reaches a critical mass, that infection can no longer spread in the community.

Alongside improvements in sanitation, nutrition, and housing, vaccination has practically eliminated infectious diseases as a cause of childhood deaths in industrialised countries. Our children no longer die or are crippled by diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, or polio, to name a few examples. Even in the world's poorer countries that have yet to benefit from infrastructure improvements, vaccination has eradicated smallpox, is on the verge of doing the same for polio, and has cut deaths from measles by three quarters in the past decade alone. The countless millions of lives saved by vaccination are arguably science's greatest triumph.

The anti-vaccination movement took off in the 19th century as immunisation against smallpox was encouraged and, for example in the UK was then made compulsory by parliament in the 1840s and 1850s. As a 2002 article in the BMJ showed, arguments against the use of vaccines have barely changed in 150 years – opponents cite that they cause illness, they are ineffective, vaccination campaigns are an alliance for profit between government and industry, they are a poisonous chemical cocktail, immunity after vaccination is temporary, and a healthy lifestyle is an effective alternative. Yet in the past century and a half, anti-vaccines campaigners have produced no credible scientific evidence to support their arguments.

Concerns about the Pandemrix vaccine against H1N1, which is being widely distributed across Europe and in the UK, relate to whether it might itself cause flu, whether is has been adequately tested, and the safety of its component parts. The viral components in Pandemrix, which are necessary to stimulate immunity, are dead and cannot therefore cause an infection. The vaccine has been subjected to the same rigorous testing for safety and immunogenicity as seasonal flu vaccines, which have over the past 30 years had an unimpeachable safety record.

Clinical trials of Pandemrix among thousands of volunteers, including children as young as six months and the elderly, showed the vaccine produced a protective immune response in almost all those who received it, and raised no concerns about safety. The vaccine contains an adjuvant (designed to stimulate the immune response) based upon squalene; adjuvants of this type have been used in seasonal flu vaccines in Europe for more than 10 years without safety concerns. It also contains a preservative, thiomersal, which has had a controversial history, but whose safety is now backed by a mass of scientific data.

Although a milder illness than once feared, pandemic influenza is not a negligible disease. There have been an estimated 715,000 cases of H1N1 in the UK and 245 deaths. Children under five are particularly at risk of infection and serious illness, which is the reason why the vaccine is now being made available to this age group. About 80% of under-fives hospitalised for pandemic flu in the UK have no underlying health issues.

Reports from Wales of transmission from person to person of H1N1 virus resistant to the antiviral drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu) also raise concerns that treatment of pandemic flu may become difficult, and further emphasise the point that prevention is better than cure. Given that an effective vaccine without any known adverse event profile is available to prevent a disease with known potential for serious or even fatal illness, the decision to vaccinate seems an easy one to make.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

The nation's weather (AP)

AP - Snow and freezing rain was expected before a storm moves out of New England Saturday morning, leaving strong winds behind. Freezing temperatures also were expected in parts of the Southeast.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Nov 2009 | 2:50 am

Hopes rise for climate talks as rich countries ante up (AFP)

AFP - Hopes suddenly rose that a new global climate pact was within reach after rich nations attending a Commonwealth summit here offered to pay poorer countries to help seal the deal.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Nov 2009 | 1:28 am

Australia welcomes giant pandas with city party (AP)

AP - Two giant pandas from China were welcomed to Australia on Saturday with gifts of bamboo and a city party before settling into their new home, a 25-acre (10-hectare) natural enclosure at the Adelaide Zoo.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Nov 2009 | 1:05 am

Japan launches new spy satellite (AFP)

AFP - Japan on Saturday launched a next-generation spy satellite as part of efforts to beef up its surveillance system against the threat of North Korea's missiles, officials said.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Nov 2009 | 12:11 am

Japan launches 5th spy satellite (AP)

AP - Japan launched its fifth spy satellite into orbit Saturday in a bid to boost its ability to independently gather intelligence, the government said.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Nov 2009 | 12:02 am

UN chief urges deal at Copenhagen

UN head Ban Ki-moon urges world leaders to "seal a deal" on climate change when they meet in Copenhagen next month.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Nov 2009 | 9:55 pm

US and China to reduce emissions, but not enough (AP)

AP - Even after the U.S. and China set targets this week for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the world's combined pledges ahead of next month's climate summit fall far short of what experts say is needed to avert dangerous global warming.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Nov 2009 | 7:47 pm

Britain, France back global fund for climate ills (AP)

AP - The leaders of Britain and France gave their backing Friday to a global fund that would provide billions of dollars to poor countries to help them reduce the output of greenhouse gases linked to climate change.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Nov 2009 | 6:27 pm

Climate fund to help poor nations

The British and French leaders propose a multi-billion dollar fund to help poor nations combat climate change.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Nov 2009 | 6:22 pm

Carbon offsetting 'not working'

The first travel firm to offer consumer carbon offset schemes says they are a "distraction" from the urgency of climate change.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Nov 2009 | 5:59 pm

In Greenland, warming fuels dream of hidden wealth (AP)

AP - Gert Ignatiussen returns to this fjord-front Inuit town with the spoils of his hunting trip. Six seals, all killed with a single shot to the head.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Nov 2009 | 5:33 pm

This column will change your life: Perfect timing

Is there a 'best time' to buy shoes or ask for a pay rise?

The best time to view the Mona Lisa, according to a new book on the best times to do things, is around nine o'clock on a Sunday morning: most tourists, it seems, don't realise that the Louvre is open then, while plenty of those who do will still be recovering from the wine-fuelled excesses of Saturday night. The best time to buy shoes, contrastingly, is late afternoon, when your feet are at their biggest. The best night to eat at a restaurant is a Tuesday: no crowds, but better than a Monday, since many restaurants don't get weekend deliveries, making Monday's food less fresh.

Such is the mundane but strangely compelling life-advice collected within the covers of Buy Ketchup In May And Fly At Noon, by Mark Di Vincenzo, a book that takes literally the cliche that timing is everything. Di Vincenzo betrays, it's true, a certain America-centric bias – the titular wisdom on ketchup, for example, is something to do with condiment pricing in advance of the barbecue season, whatever that is – but the seductive implications of his outlook are universal. If there's a perfect time to ask for a pay rise or a date (5pm and 12pm respectively, Di Vincenzo argues, semi-scientifically), or a perfect moment in life to buy a house, have children or switch jobs, then there's hope for us all, if only we can time things right. There's also a ready-made excuse if we fail: it wasn't inferior intelligence, talent or effort – it's just that the timing was wrong.

Of course, there's no such secret art of timing that will make everything run smoothly. But one general principle that does emerge from Di Vincenzo's book is this: it pays, in life, to learn when and how to deliberately fall out of sync with the rest of the world. Sometimes, this is a simple question of avoiding the crowds: obviously, that's the rationale for holidaying off season, and it's why Di Vincenzo recommends calling customer-service lines the moment they open, when call volume is lowest. (On the other hand, you should visit the post office half an hour after opening, to allow the loitering early-birds to be served and depart.) But there's more to the matter than merely avoiding peak times: with a little cunning, you can de-synchronise yourself from the crowd so as to make their herd behaviour work to your advantage.

The humorist Lore Sjöberg recently labelled this stance the Cult of the Somewhat Delayed: an approach to life, and especially consumption, that involves putting yourself just a little behind the curve. Buy slightly older technology – an approach recommended by LastYearsModel.org – and you'll effectively be allowing others to weed out the teething problems with new gadgets, while avoiding those that turn out to be transient fads. Eschew 24-hour TV and web news in favour of newspapers or magazines, and you'll benefit from an improved "noise-to-signal ratio": things that turn out not to matter will be more likely to have been filtered out in advance. I've always thought the same principle could be applied to charity fundraising: aid groups are always complaining that the fickle media spotlight all too quickly abandons one crisis for the next, so what about a website allowing me automatically to funnel donations to last year's crisis? Timing may not be everything, but it's comforting to think that it might be cannier, easier and more effective to be slightly behind the times.

oliver.burkeman@guardian.co.uk

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 27 Nov 2009 | 5:10 pm

A nation divided by the weather

The Atlantic's storm track has slipped south, and the rain is more persistent than ever

The life of the writer RB Cunninghame Graham is now much more interesting than anything he wrote – a summary such as "Scottish laird, old Harrovian adventurer, Argentinian gaucho, Spanish gold prospector, Britain's first socialist MP" touches only half of it. But one of his short stories still finds a place in literary anthologies. This is Beattock for Moffat. It's a grim little story that mixes sentiment with a brutal matter-of-factness. An exiled Scotsman dying of bad lungs takes the night train north from London, determined to last long enough to see his birthplace, Moffat, just across the border. He gets as far as Beattock, the junction for the branch line, where he dies on a station bench with "a faint bloody foam [on] his pallid lips" and a "fine rain beating on the platform".

I think of it whenever I make the same journey from London by train and see the old terrace of railwaymen's houses at Beattock (the station itself closed long ago), or the turn-off signposted to Moffat if we're driving up the M74. The business of crossing borders – England/Scotland, life/death – is you might say at the heart of the story, but those aren't the borders I think about now. "Do ye think it will be rainin' aboot Ecclefechan?" asks the sick man of his brother when their train is still in Euston, and then decides for himself that it's "sure to be rainin" by Lockerbie. And usually it is. London will be in sun, the clouds will come somewhere between Stafford and Preston, the rain will be hitting the window or the windscreen long before Penrith. The border to consider (and regret) in these conditions is not so much cultural or political as meteorological: between wet north-west Britain and the drier country to the south and east.

Of course, the division isn't new. Cunninghame Graham wrote his story 100 years ago. Moist air blown in from the Atlantic has been precipitating over Britain's western hills and mountains for as long, probably, as they have existed. Nor, obviously, is the wetness and dryness absolute. When Luke Howard, the scientist who devised the modern classification of clouds, wrote that "habit reconciles the Englishman to a sky … which drips, more or less on half the days of the year" he gave no exemption to Londoners or the farmers of Kent. There is, however, no denying that the west is getting wetter. The floods that last week ruined Cockermouth and cut Workington in two had their origins upstream in the highest rainfall ever recorded in the UK over a 24-hour period: 314.4mm, about a foot of rain, was recorded at Seathwaite in Borrowdale, which is 35mm higher than the previous record (at Martinstown, Dorset, in 1955). Across the border at Eskdalemuir the weather station has already set records for November.

These are the peaks in a long-term pattern. The Met Office averages figures over 30-year periods to iron out the random excesses of climate variability. In western Scotland the average monthly rainfall for 1961-1990 was 473mm, which rose to 533mm in the period 1971-2000 – roughly an increase of 12% – and shows no signs of levelling off ("The only direction is up," the Met Office said this week). Bute, where I spend every family summer, had the wettest August since the island began to record its climate in 1800. Almost every day and night the rain would patter on the roof and gurgle down the gutter. The mere state of not-raining became the cause for celebration. During these August evenings we'd sit before a coal fire and watch the weather forecast: another Atlantic low would be heading our way even before the present one had left, while on the weather map London glowed irritatingly in sunshine. The south and the east (even Edinburgh) were foreign countries; they did things differently there.

Until recently, the people of the west accepted their climate as an almost frivolous disadvantage. People sighed – ah, but you never got good weather for the Glasgow holiday fortnight – or converted sullen days of persistent drizzle into funny stories of drowned putting greens and seaside landladies. There was also, then, the much likelier possibility that a brilliant blue day or two would bring out the cliche known everywhere from Snowdonia to Stornoway – if you get the weather, there's nowhere in the world to beat it. But these stoic attitudes date from the time when the Atlantic's diagonal track of depressions passed farther north, almost at Iceland, and northern Britain got only their eddies, which, to quote a meteorological study of 1928, "seldom bring really heavy rains".

The storm track has now slipped south. Science can't be certain why – changing sea surface temperatures may be the cause but as part of a process not yet sufficiently understood. The consequences are no longer containable by wry jokes. Unprecedented rainfall has spectacular and noticeably tragic effects – see Cumbria this week – but the general trend to a more watery climate could, slowly and less dramatically, eventually undo an economy and a way of life. Crops can't be planted or rot at their roots; tourists and their money go elsewhere; basements and lofts that have been dry for centuries spring leaks; gardens never stop squelching; doors squeak and wood crumbles; sewers overflow; buried cabling sparks out. In 2004, the A83 from Glasgow was closed for days by a landslip, marooning the people of south Argyll. The same thing happened last year and this. Peat, soil and stone that had been secure on the hillside for thousands of years suddenly romped down the slope. Nobody could remember such a phenomenon happening in summer before.

A certain amount of solace can be found in history, especially for anyone who doubts or denies that climate change is man-made and attributes global warming to the planet's natural cycles. Could the future, after all, be any worse than the little ice age of the 16th and 17th centuries? In north Britain, especially Scotland, crops failed, bread was baked from tree bark, and peasants maddened by starvation fought each other to feed from the choicest nettles. Snow on the highest mountaintops survived the summer, great winds obliterated coastal villages, and the upper limits of cultivation on frosty Lothian hillsides fell by 200 metres. Eskimos reached the Orkneys by ice floes and kayak, and one of them paddled as far south as Aberdeen. It marked the beginnings of Scotland as an emigrant country – a good place to see the back of, unless you were an Eskimo – and yet, slowly and erratically, warmth and a more prosperous civilisation returned.

But let's be even more Pollyanna-ish. After Peak Oil comes Peak Water (the title of a new book) and an era of Mediterranean thirst that north-west Britain, Wet Britain, is well placed to slake. I see water tankers sailing out of forgotten ports along the Cumbrian and Scottish coasts, bound for Naples and Cadiz. In Ecclefechan, where it will certainly still be raining, people relieve their depression by thinking of themselves as the Saudis of H₂O.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 27 Nov 2009 | 5:06 pm

Homeopathy and the nocebo effect

Dr Peter Fisher from the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital (funded by the NHS) says homeopathic pills have physical side-effects. Can a sugar pill have a side-effect?

This week the parliamentary science and technology committee looked into the the funding of homeopathy on the NHS and the evidence behind the decision of the MHRA, which regulates medicines, to allow homeopathy sugar pill labels to make medical claims without evidence of efficacy.

There were comedy highlights, as you might expect from any serious inquiry into an industry where sugar pills have healing powers conferred upon them by being shaken with one drop of the ingredient which has been diluted so extremely that it equates to one molecule of the substance in a sphere of water whose diameter is roughly the distance from the Earth to the sun.

The man from Boots said he had no evidence that homeopathy pills worked, but he sold them because people wanted to buy them. The man from the pill manufacturers' association said negative trials about homeopathy were often small, with an average of 65 people, and "all statisticians" agreed you need 500 people for a proper trial. Not only is it untrue that you necessarily need this many people ; he then cited, in his favour, a positive homeopathy trial with just 25 patients in it.

The best moment was Dr Peter Fisher from the (NHS-funded) Royal London Homeopathic hospital explaining that homeopathic sugar pills have physical side-effects – so they must be powerful.

Can a sugar pill have a side-effect? Interestingly, a paper published in the journal Pain next month looks at just this issue. It found every single placebo-controlled trial ever conducted on a migraine drug, and looked at the side-effects reported by the people in the control group, who received a dummy "placebo" sugar pill instead of the real drug. Not only were these side-effects common, they were also similar to those of whatever drug the patients thought they might be receiving.

This is nothing new. A study in 2006 sat 75 people in front of a rotating drum to make them feel nauseous, and gave them a placebo sugar pill: 25 were told it was a drug that would make the nausea worse. It did get worse, and they also exhibited more gastric tachyarrhythmia, the abnormal stomach activity that frequently accompanies nausea.

A paper in 2004 took 600 patients from three different specialist drug allergy clinics and gave them either the drug that was causing their adverse reactions, or a dummy pill with no ingredients: 27% of the patients experienced side-effects such as itching, malaise and headache from the placebo dummy pill.

And a classic paper from 1987 looked at the impact of listing side-effects on the treatment consent form. This was a large trial comparing aspirin against placebo, conducted in three different centres. In two, the form outlined various gastrointestinal side-effects, and in these centres there was a sixfold rise in the number of people reporting such symptoms and dropping out of the trial. This is the amazing world of the nocebo effect, where negative expectations can induce unpleasant symptoms, in the absence of a physical cause.

And in any case, it doesn't help homeopaths: In 2003 Professor Edzard Ernst conducted a systematic review, finding every homeopathy trial that reported side-effects. There was no significant difference in the rates of side-effects between patients given placebo and those given homeopathic remedies.

The world of the homeopath is reductionist, one-dimensional, and built on the power of the pill: it cannot accommodate the fascinating reality of connections between mind and body which have been elucidated by science.

The next time you find yourself trapped at dinner next to some bore who's decided in middle age that they have secret mystical healing powers, while they earnestly explain how their crass efforts at selling sugar pills represent a meaningful political stand against the crimes of big pharma, just think: some lucky person, somewhere in the world, is sat next to a nocebo researcher.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 27 Nov 2009 | 5:06 pm

Steven Poole's non-fiction roundup | Book reviews

Steven Poole on Why Animal Suffering Matters | Darwin's Dogs | Snail

Why Animal Suffering Matters, by Andrew Linzey (Oxford, £16.99)

Those sceptical folk who doubt that anything of practical importance could issue from a theology department will be confused by this book. Linzey, a theologian and director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, here adopts a strategy of rational ju jitsu. He accepts various differences between humans and other animals that are normally argued to justify our treatment of them (dominion, reason, language, morality and so on), and then argues that their moral implication runs in the opposite direction. This repeated trick is impressive even when applied to arguments that non-theists may consider irrelevant: to the claim that animal suffering is not important because they have no immortal soul, Linzey ripostes: "If animals are not going to be recompensed in some future life for the suffering that they have had to undergo in the present, it follows that their current suffering acquires even greater significance."

Linzey conducts devastating close readings of specious arguments and rhetorical misdescriptions (or Unspeak) employed in favour of fox-hunting, seal-clubbing, and fur-farming, while offering a useful explanation of how his views differ from those of Peter Singer. I was left unsure as to how "Animals and humans show a common ancestor" is squared with "We are all creatures of the same Creator", but that puzzle is marginal here, not diluting the force of Linzey's arguments, or their wit (one sub-heading: "Hunting as Anti-Social Behaviour"). A rights-based approach to animal welfare, he succeeds in showing, is not the only game in town.

Darwin's Dogs, by Emma Townshend (Frances Lincoln, £8.99)

It was Charles Darwin's scheme to show that humans and other animals lie on the same continuum, not just physiologically but behaviourally. "Others have told the story of the finches and the tortoises," Townshend writes, so her short but charmingly tail-wagging book explains how Darwin came to his theory of natural selection, with emphasis on the dogs.

Darwin always had dogs; he conducted important conversations with dog-breeders; and his opening of On the Origin of Species, with talk about dogs and other domestic animals, was a clever ploy to "familiarise the concept of selection: it brings it into the home, on to the hearth rug and curls it up in front of the fire". Darwin even compared a dog's "superstition" in barking at the movement of inanimate objects to the belief in the supernatural on the part of "savages" (though presumably not on the part of theology professors). Townshend has a gift for the vividly anecdotal explanation, and the book is decorated with numerous etchings and paintings of dogs, which only a heart of stone could fail to find irresistibly cute.

Snail, by Peter Williams (Reaktion, £9.99)

But does anyone weep for the humble snail? PG Wodehouse wrote cruelly that snails were "lacking in sustained dramatic interest", but there is more to the snail than meets the eye-on-a-stalk. From the use of marine-snail shells in antiquity and the discovery of the snail's suprisingly complex anatomy in 18th-century dissections, to the symbolism of monopods in painting and literature (they stand, or rather slime, for slowness as a "way of life"), this book exerts a hypnotic fascination. Some hermaphrodite snails, when there are no potential mates around, can fertilise themselves. This is called "selfing". I hope I've forgotten that next time I eat some, baked with garlic butter. "There is no doubt that the French are wedded to the animal," Williams says, which must make for some decidedly odd photographs outside the mairie.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 27 Nov 2009 | 5:05 pm

Face to faith: Galileo's lunar work drew on another Christian iconoclast who had lived 1,000 years earlier, says Mark Vernon

Face to faith: Galileo's lunar work drew on another Christian iconoclast who had lived 1,000 years earlier

Galileo's earliest surviving drawing of the moon can be dated to 30 November 1609, almost exactly 400 years ago. In the months before he made his observations, he'd become aware of an extraordinary new instrument that brought the far away much nearer: the telescope. Immediately, he'd seen its potential for science. And now, having polished up the original designs, and improved on its power, he turned the new instrument to the starry heavens and the still lunar surface. On that night – armed with his watercolours, ink and brushes too – he was the first to capture that most extraordinary of celestial sights: the details of an alien world.

What he experienced can still be enjoyed today. For it is easy to capture the wonder of the moment by focusing a telescope or binoculars on our heavenly companion. As an undergraduate I studied physics, and for one project I had to measure the heights of lunar mountains – a task that Galileo himself undertook. I had to take photographs of the shadows that fell across the peaks, valleys and plains. My efforts were, of course, utterly trivial so far as science is concerned. However, the experience was invaluable. I rose at 3am on dark, frosty mornings to ensure that there'd be clear skies. It reminded me of the monks who say the office of matins at similar hours while the world sleeps. What awaited was the gift that comes with contemplating the lunar surface, if through bleary eyes. The moon is a high-contrast place of greys and whites. Pitted like pumice, it feels close even when viewed through a relatively low-powered instrument.

Galileo's exploration of the moon was aesthetic as well as cartographical. In the book he wrote about his observations, The Sidereal Messenger, he commended his readers to the "great and marvellous sights" he'd seen. He also included one image painted in 1609 that was adjusted to make it more beautiful. "Galileo is much more interested in the play of light and shadow than in accurate mapping," explains Owen Gingerich of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics. "He is interested in the heights and depths that reveal an earthlike moon."

And that, in fact, is the lasting legacy of Galileo's work. He imagined the moon as earthlike. That could not be more significant. According to Aristotelian cosmology, the objects that filled the heavens were perfect, nestling among crystalline spheres. Rendering the moon with apparent flaws, such as craters and peaks, shattered those assumptions. Galileo's drawings were another nail in the coffin of the old cosmology.

Only, Galileo was far from the first to think like this. In order to interpret what he saw, he drew on an Alexandrian philosopher, John Philoponus, who'd lived 1,000 years before him. John was a Christian thinker who wrote about physics and theology. He challenged Aristotelian cosmology too, by reasoning that the earth and the heavens must be alike, and his ideas were known to many. But they were resisted by the establishment, perhaps because John had been declared a heretic by the church – not for his scientific views but because of his speculations about God. So, it is fascinating to ponder whether Galileo felt John was a kind of soulmate, as the Italian too headed for trouble with the church. He certainly cites John frequently in his writings. When he sketched his first images of the moon, he must have been thinking of the older iconoclast.

What they surely had in common was this powerful wonder at the natural world. It was a sense of religious awe coupled to a critical attitude, which is why they both challenged the received wisdom. As Galileo himself put it: "I shall concede to you indeed that the way in which God knows the infinite propositions of which we know so few is exceedingly more excellent than ours."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 27 Nov 2009 | 5:05 pm

Cell discovery hope for jet lag

Researchers find a group of cells that may hold the key to how the body clock works and could provide clues to fight jet lag.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Nov 2009 | 4:58 pm

From GPS noise, a signal achievement

Researchers at the University of Colorado have teased from what most engineers think of as unwanted "noise" received by antennas of the Global Positioning System a signal that allows them to measure the depth of snow and the level of ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 Nov 2009 | 3:35 pm

Have You Heard The One About Life On Mars?

A 13,000 year old meteorite from Mars, found in 1984 in the Allan Hills Region of Antarctica, is back in the news. The rock caused quite a stir when NASA announced during an August 1996 press conference that it contained ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 Nov 2009 | 2:54 pm

Space shuttle Atlantis, 7 astronauts back on Earth (AP)

AP - Space shuttle Atlantis and its seven astronauts returned to Earth with a smooth touchdown Friday to end an "amazing" flight that resupplied the International Space Station.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Nov 2009 | 2:53 pm

Inquiry into stolen climate e-mails

Details of a university inquiry into e-mails stolen from one of the UK's leading climate research units are likely to be made public.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Nov 2009 | 12:22 pm

Climate email hackers had access for more than a month

Email sent to weatherman suggests hackers had access to Climatic Research Unit's systems for longer than first suspected

Computer hackers who broke into the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) server at the University of East Anglia had access to its systems for more than a month.

The full data – covering 1,000 emails and 3,000 documents in which the most recent document and email is dated 12 November – came to wider notice when a copy was posted on a web server in Russia on 19 November.

But a month earlier a BBC weatherman who had expressed doubts about climate change on his blog was sent a sample of the email exchanges, suggesting the hackers already had access to the private system.

The university declined to answer questions about the setup and security of the computers used by CRU scientists, but security experts say there are only three tenable explanations for how the server was hacked: a determined break-in by an external hacker; that one of the CRU or university systems was accidentally "compromised" by a computer virus or other "malware"; or it was an "inside job" by a disaffected member of university staff. The latter is viewed as the least likely.

Climate change deniers have seized on the disclosures, claiming they proved that the scientists had colluded to manipulate climate data and that they called into question the evidence for human-driven global warming.

Leading scientific bodies and governments have dismissed the charges, insisting there is clear evidence that humans are to blame for global warming.

The first leak occurred after 9 October, when one of the BBC's regional weathermen, Paul Hudson, wrote an article arguing that for the last 11 years there had not been an increase in global temperatures. On 12 October he was forwarded a "chain of emails", including some which subsequently appeared in the hacked documents. Last night the BBC confirmed Hudson had been forwarded emails written by two of the scientists, but refused to disclose the source.

"Paul spotted that these few e-mails were among thousands published on the internet following the alleged hacking of the UEA computer system," said a BBC spokesman.

After sending Hudson the sample, nothing more emerged from the hackers for a month. Then early on 17 November someone hacked into the RealClimate website, used by climate scientists to explain their work. Using a computer in Turkey, they uploaded a zip file containing all 4,000 emails and documents. But within a couple of minutes Gavin Schmidt, the website's co-founder, realised something was wrong and shut down the site. The file had been online for 25 minutes but had not been picked up.

On 19 November the hackers used a computer in Saudi Arabia to post a link on The Air Vent – a website popular with climate change sceptics – pointing to a fresh copy of the zip file, this time stored on a Russian web server. At that point it was finally picked up by blogs and news organisations around the world.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 27 Nov 2009 | 11:34 am

Space Shuttle Atlantis Lands Safely in Florida (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - Space shuttle Atlantis landed safely in Florida early Friday, gliding in under sunny skies to wrap up a successful 11-day delivery mission to the International Space Station.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Nov 2009 | 10:30 am

Turkey Grease Spared Untimely End

Leftovers. Even the word makes me feel full. But in Gilbert, Arizona, Thanksgiving leftovers are being turned into something significantly better than heartburn. For the next week or so, the Gilbert-based company AZ BioDiesel will be collecting waste oil from ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 Nov 2009 | 10:20 am

For Football Fans, Almost Losing Is Ideal

The most exciting football games are those your team almost loses.
Source: Livescience.com | 27 Nov 2009 | 9:29 am

Space shuttle Atlantis returns to Earth

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Space shuttle Atlantis touched down at its Florida home port on Friday, wrapping up an 11-day mission to deliver cargo to the International Space Station, one of NASA's final supply runs before the shuttle fleet is retired next year.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 Nov 2009 | 8:57 am

Colossal star seen by Herschel

The death throes of the biggest star known to science have been observed by Europe's new space telescope, Herschel.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Nov 2009 | 8:50 am

Space shuttle Atlantis touches down

Space shuttle Atlantis arrives safely back on Earth after an 11-day mission to the International Space Station

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 27 Nov 2009 | 8:45 am

Shuttle Crew Makes it Home for Black Friday Shopping

They missed Thanksgiving, but seven astronauts returned from space in time for leftovers and post-holiday shopping on Friday. Thanks to a rare, completely clear day at the Kennedy Space Center, weather was not an issue for shuttle Atlantis' homecoming after ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 Nov 2009 | 8:38 am

Australia's wine industry in peril from climate change

Research by Macquarie University alerts Australian wine growers to consider new varieties of grapes to fend off the impact of climate change

A two year study of the $A 1bn (£554m) Hunter Valley wine industry, one of Australia's most prestigious wine producing regions north of Sydney, warns that extreme heat, frost and disease could devastate grapevines over the next 70 years.

The study by Macquarie University, climate change expert Associate Professor Ian Goodwin, for 12 local councils in the Hunter Valley region urges wine growers to consider changes such as introducing new grape varieties, moving vineyards and altering vineyard layouts.

It is the second study to alert Australian wine growers about the damage climate change is likely to inflict on their crops.

An earlier study by the CSIRO, Australia's leading scientific research organisation, concluded that climate change would dramatically alter the growing season for grapes and affect the wine flavours.

Temperatures in most Australian wine regions are projected to rise between 0.3 and 1.7 degrees Celsius by 2030.

If wine makers fail to adapt by introducing new varieties, the modelling indicates that grape quality could deteriorate in some regions by 12% to 57%.

Varieties such as Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc, which require cool climates, may disappear from the mainland and become the speciality of Tasmania, according to the CSIRO research.

Some regions will become so warm that wine making will be unfeasible unless suitable varieties are found.

Upper Hunter Valley Winemakers' Association president, Brett Keeping, said wine makers and grape growers needed to act now.

"We really have to be on our game when it comes to diseases, because the impact could be enormous. We need to start looking at row orientation, wind breaks and shelter at some vineyards," Keeping said.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 27 Nov 2009 | 8:34 am

Hammerhead Sharks See 360 Degrees in Stereo

Hammerheads have outstanding forward stereo vision and depth perception, study finds.
Source: Livescience.com | 27 Nov 2009 | 8:28 am

The science and magic of breadmaking

As winter sets in, warm your senses by baking your own fresh bread. Andy Connelly guides you through the magical process that turns flour and water into heavenly food

When I think of bread my mind goes back to cold Saturday mornings with ice on the inside of the patio doors and cartoons blazing on the television. My dad would get up early and, after eating his porridge, would begin to make bread.

He would mix all the ingredients in a large ceramic bowl that was crystal-white on the inside and biscuit-brown on the outside. I would watch as the flour became dough and the dough grew and grew in the warm kitchen. I would linger near the oven to smell the earthy fresh bread as it baked, waiting for the treat of eating the crusty end slice of the loaf with a thick slab of butter.

I'm not saying my dad was an amazing baker, but warm bread for tea on a wintry Saturday afternoon with cheese and strawberry jam is something I will never forget. Few things are as tasty, satisfying and simple, and yet if we take a deeper look at bread we find the science of life, complex structures and the history of human development.

Archaeologists have correlated the development of human civilisations with the evolution of what is now regarded as the modern species of bread wheat. Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods, dating back to Neolithic times when lumps of dough, unleavened, were placed on hot stones in the embers of a wood fire. Bread soon became synonymous with life itself.

In the Bible it is often compared directly to life: "And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth in me shall never thirst." And in the Lord's Prayer Christians ask that God "give us this day our daily bread".

In England, bread even defined the social hierarchy. "Lord" comes from the Anglo-Saxon halford meaning "loaf ward", the master who supplies food. "Lady" comes from hlaefdige, meaning "loaf kneader", the person whose servants produce what her husband then distributed.

Making bread was surely one of the first chemistry experiments. Finding that ground grain (a dry, loose, hard and bland substance) mixed into a rough porridge with water could be transformed into a flavourful, puffy, moist mass that was crisp on the outside, simply by placing it near a fire, was an extraordinary discovery. These flat breads can still be found in the world as the Middle Eastern lavash, the Greek pita, the American tortilla and the Indian chapatti.

Better still, if this porridge mixture was left in the open air for a few days the real science of life began. Magically, this "dough" began to rise and could then be baked into the most wonderful cloud-like substance, leavened bread.

Recipe

Flour 500g
Instant active dried yeast (as specified on packet)
Warm water 300g
A quick glug of olive oil
Pinch of salt (to taste)

1. Mix flour, salt and yeast together in a large bowl. Pour in the water and start mixing with a spoon.

Look at what is happening as you mix the ingredients. The water is disappearing and the dough is forming. The shaggy mass of dough is sticking to your spoon. The mixture is slowly binding together to form a cohesive mass. If the mixture seems too wet do not add more flour, wait 10 minutes for the starch to absorb the water.

Lean over the bowl and take a good sniff. You can smell the earthy, metallic odour of flour and water with a slightly sour note from the alcohol produced by the yeast and a sweet smell from the sugars released by enzymes in the flour.

Starch (70% by weight of wheat flour) absorbs the water you have added and then enzymes digest the starch and turn some of it into sugar. These free sugars are fantastic food for yeast. In fact, you can mix the dough the day before baking, without the yeast. This releases flavours and sugars trapped in the starch, which is great for the palette and for the yeast.

Yeast metabolises sugars for energy and produces carbon dioxide gas and alcohol as by-products just as in the fermentation of beer. In fact beer can be seen as liquid bread and bread as solid beer. In case you were wondering, the alcohol burns off during baking.

C₆H₁₂O₆ → 2C₂H₅OH + 2 CO₂

In other words, one molecule of glucose sugar yields two of alcohol and two of carbon dioxide gas – the burping and sweating of yeast.

Yeast spores are ubiquitous in air and on the surface of grain, and they readily infect a moist, nutritious grain paste. However, with this recipe it is much easier to add some easy-blend yeast from a packet, which is alive but dormant, waiting for us to wake it up.

It wasn't until the investigations of Louis Pasteur some 150 years ago that we began to understand the nature of the leavening process. He, like every baker of the time, was a scientist experimenting and learning how these single-cell fungi work and how to control them.

2. Work the ingredients together into a dough and knead on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic but not sticky;

As you knead your dough, turn, fold and press each time. The folding traps the air, the pressing adds mechanical energy, warming the dough slightly and aiding the formation of a network of gluten, a stretchy protein complex. The turning encourages mixing and gives a more homogeneous gluten structure. Watch the dough under your palms turn into a pliable, soft and elastic ball. Stop when the dough ceases to tear under your hands and forms a smooth, elastic surface.

Within the flour there are many long, chain-like protein molecules that are insoluble in water. When wet, and under the influence of yeast, these proteins link up end-to-end creating an extensive interconnected network of coiled proteins, the gluten. The glutinous dough is both plastic and elastic; that is, it will change its shape under pressure, yet it also resists and moves back towards its original shape when the pressure is removed. This allows the dough to expand, incorporating the carbon dioxide gas produced by the yeast, and yet resist enough to prevent the bubbles walls thinning to breaking point. Kneading the bread stretches the gluten into elastic sheets that can be filled with gas to form bubbles, giving the bread a spongy structure.

This gluten network can be stronger or weaker depending on the ingredients (such as the type of flour) and how you work the dough. Fats and oils tend to interfere with the gluten, making the gluten strands shorter, but just a little olive oil can make the dough exceptionally easy to knead, and give it a particular litheness.

The only ingredient we haven't discussed yet is the salt. If you've ever forgotten to add salt, the bread produced has a dead, rather unpleasant taste. However, it decreases yeast activity so don't add too much. The salt has been compared to the bridle, and the yeast to the whip. By judicious use of salt at the different stages you can guide and arrest fermentation.

3. Return the dough to a clean bowl and cover with an airtight plastic bag or a damp tea towel. Leave to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours;

When I watch the dough expand I see it as a lively white cushion, growing bigger and bigger, blowing up very slowly with thousands of tiny balloons inside. As much as 80% of the volume of bread is empty space. The bubbles interrupt the network of gluten and starch granules, dividing it into millions of very thin sheets that form the bubble walls.

The carbon dioxide produced by the yeast diffuses into any tiny bubbles it encounters and enlarges them. Thus, the more bubbles produced during the preparation of a dough, the finer and more tender the resulting bread.

Yeast cannot be rushed, it must be given time. When the Israelites fled Egypt they could not tarry – they could not waste the time required for yeast to work. Their bread had not risen and so was eaten, and is eaten to this day in memory, unleavened.

The end of this period (the proving period) is signalled by a doubling of dough volume. To check that the bread has finished proving you could follow the advice of an Russian cookery book published in 1860 and place the loaf in a bucket of water. When the loaf has sufficiently risen it will rise to the top of the bucket.

Or, less courageously, you could poke the dough with your finger. If it does not spring back this means that the gluten network has been stretched to the limit of its elasticity and the dough is ready.

4. Again, knead on a lightly floured surface but this time only briefly to homogenise any remaining yeast and the air pockets that have formed

5. Shape into loafs, place in buttered tins and leave to prove for 30 minutes;

6. Bake in a preheated oven at 220C for 35-40 minutes.

Baking is the process of turning all the beautiful work you have done into a delicately chambered, crisp loaf. As the dough heats up it becomes more fluid and the gas cells expand and the dough rises (called oven spring). The main cause of oven spring is the vaporisation of alcohol and water into gases. These fill holes in the gluten network and expand the dough by as much as half its initial volume.

The oven spring stops when the crust becomes stiff and firm enough to resist and when the interior of the loaf reaches 70-80C. This is the temperature at which gluten proteins form strong cross-links and water-laden starch granules swell and set. At this point the yeast has already died and the series of transformations from grain to bread are almost complete. Now the walls can no longer stretch and so the gas pressure in the holes builds, eventually popping the walls and creating the familiar open network you see when you slice a loaf.

Legend has it that you know the loaf is finished if you hear a hollow sound when you tap the base. This means the inside is light and fluffy. More scientifically you can check with a thermometer that the centre is at just less than 100C.

Personally, I like bread with a deep brown crust, as this adds some lovely warm flavours, so I tend to cook the loaf a little longer to allow the high temperatures to caramelise sugars in the crust. Supermarket bread is rarely crusty because it tends to be under-baked; this leaves more water in the loaf, allowing less flour to be used to produce a loaf of the same weight.

7. Leave on a wire rack to cool for about 20 minutes;

8. EAT!

To perform a little chemistry test in your home take a piece of bread in your mouth and chew, keep chewing, and chewing, and a bit more. Initially you should taste your beautiful homemade bread, followed by a sweet taste which is the remaining starch being turned into sugars by an enzyme in your saliva, and then, after almost everything else has gone, a chewing gum-like mass forms in your mouth. This is gluten.

But don't do this with all the bread. Take out a large pat of butter, spread it thickly on a slice, eat and enjoy.

Andy Connelly is a research scientist at the University of Sheffield

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 27 Nov 2009 | 8:22 am

Space Shuttle Atlantis Crew Back on Earth

The 11-day mission of the final shuttle flight of the year has come to an end.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 Nov 2009 | 8:12 am

Shuttle Atlantis lands in Florida

The crew of the space shuttle Atlantis has landed in Florida after their 11-day mission to the International Space Station.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Nov 2009 | 7:49 am

Finding the First Horse Whisperers

Researcher finds evidence of the earliest known horse domestication in Kazakhstan.
Source: Livescience.com | 27 Nov 2009 | 7:47 am

Smartphones Could Form Chemical Detection Networks

A NASA researcher has developed a new a new plug-in chemical sensor for the iPhone that can detect airborne ammonia, chlorine gas and methane, and could possibly help first responders.
Source: Livescience.com | 27 Nov 2009 | 7:31 am

Diabetes Cases to Double in 25 Years

Diabetes cases will double by 2034 and costs to care for the patients will triple.
Source: Livescience.com | 27 Nov 2009 | 7:25 am

Deadly trade

Battling the illegal loggers in Siberia's forests
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Nov 2009 | 4:01 am

Da Vinci's 'Last Supper' Gets Digital Makeover

Modern methods are breathing new life into this more than 500-year-old masterpiece.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

Eye spy: the secret behind shark's amazing vision

A hammerhead shark's unusual shape gives it outstanding vision, according to a study which may solve a centuries-old mystery.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Nov 2009 | 3:11 am