Gene positions may aid cancer diagnosis, study shows

Certain genes switch their nuclear position in tumor cells, offering a potential new method of diagnosing cancer, say researchers.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm

Quitting smoking can reverse asthma-inducing changes in lungs

Asthmatic smokers may be able to reverse some of the damage to their lungs that exacerbates asthmatic symptoms just by putting down their cigarettes, according to new research.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm

Sea level could rise from 0.75 to 1.9 meters this century

A new scientific study warns that sea level could rise much faster than previously expected. By the year 2100, global sea level could rise between 0.75 to 1.9 meters, according to a new paper.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm

Craving hinders comprehension without you realizing it

A new study reveals that craving a cigarette while performing a cognitive task not only increases the chances of a person's mind wandering, but also makes that person less likely to notice when his or her mind has wandered.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm

A greener way to get electricity from natural gas

A new type of natural-gas electric power plant could provide electricity with zero carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere, at costs comparable to or less than conventional natural-gas plants, and even to coal-burning plants. But that can only come about if and when a price is set on the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases -- a step the US Congress and other governments are considering as a way to halt climate change.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm

New technology could boost disease detection tests' speed and sensitivity

Scientists have developed a way to rapidly manipulate and sort different cells in the blood using magnetizable liquids. The findings could dramatically improve the speed and sensitivity of tests used to detect cancer biomarkers, blood disorders, viruses and other diseases.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm

Dip ordinary paper into ink infused with nanotubes and nanowires to create an instant battery

Dip an ordinary piece of paper into ink infused with carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires, and it turns into a battery or supercapacitor. Crumple the piece of paper, and it still works. Researchers see many uses for this new way of storing electricity.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am

New platinum compound shows promise in tumor cells

Chemists have developed a new platinum compound that is as powerful as the commonly used anticancer drug cisplatin but better able to destroy tumor cells.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am

World's smallest semiconductor laser to have big impact in computing, bio-hazard detection

Researchers have demonstrated the world's smallest semiconductor laser, which may have applications to the Air Force in communications, computing and bio-hazard detection.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am

Exercise reduces death rate in prostate cancer patients

As little as 15 minutes of exercise a day can reduce overall mortality rates in patients with prostate cancer, according to a new study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am

UN weather agency: decade likely warmest on record (AP)

AP - This decade has very likely been the warmest in the historical record, and 2009 will probably end up as one of the warmest years, the U.N. weather agency announced Tuesday at the second day of the 192-nation climate conference in Copenhagen.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 8 Dec 2009 | 3:38 am

When two baboon troops go to war

An epic battle between hundreds of Hamadryas baboons is caught on camera by a BBC natural history film crew.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 8 Dec 2009 | 3:32 am

UK aviation 'needs room to grow'

Heathrow can expand and people can fly more without ruining carbon targets, the UK's official climate watchdog says.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 8 Dec 2009 | 3:32 am

The nation's weather (AP)

AP - Wet and wintry weather was expected across the Central U.S. on Tuesday as a low pressure system continued to track over the Central Rockies and into the Plains.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 8 Dec 2009 | 3:30 am

Call for rise in water meter use

An independent review calls for a huge rise in the use of water meters to encourage people to use their supply more wisely.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 8 Dec 2009 | 3:10 am

Video: Sir Richard Branson unveils 'sexiest spaceship ever'

Virgin's SpaceShipTwo promises to take passengers out of the Earth's atmosphere into outer space

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 8 Dec 2009 | 2:40 am

Ed Pilkington on Ohio planning to execute a prisoner with experimental drug

Ed Pilkington on Ohio planning to execute a prisoner with an experimental drug

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 8 Dec 2009 | 2:20 am

Questions and answers about EPA action on warming (AP)

AP - A big meeting in Copenhagen. A cap-and-trade bill in Congress. And now, a determination by the Environmental Protection Agency that global warming pollution is a threat to public health — a move that clears the way for the first-ever federal regulations targeting climate-changing emissions.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 8 Dec 2009 | 1:31 am

Branson hails Virgin's SpaceShipTwo 'the sexiest spaceship ever'

Craft unveiled in freezing Mojave desert in front of celebrity guests including Arnold Schwarzenegger

If this was the start of the second space age – as Sir Richard Branson and a cohort of enthusiastic fans insisted – then someone forgot to inform the weatherman.

As Britain's most visible showman-entrepreneur unveiled his latest creation in the southern California desert last night – a giant fantasy of a flying machine that promises to take tourists out of the Earth's atmosphere into outer space as soon as 2011 – everything was in place for the aviation equivalent of a glitzy Hollywood premiere.

Branson had the klieg lights, the sound system booming eerie space-age music, and the hospitality tents doling out free champagne and vodka cocktails right on the runway of the Mojave air and space port.

He even had "celebrity" guests – everyone from Victoria Principal, of Dallas fame, to Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California – and countless stunning young women draped across the arms of tech geeks, engineering whizzes and assorted zillionaires, some of whom had flown halfway across the world to watch a little piece of history in the making.

What he didn't have, though, was the kindness of the elements. The temperature hovered somewhere just above freezing. Driving rain gave way to howling winds of 50mph and even the occasional flurry of sleet and snow. The plastic-sheet ceiling of the marquee tent, where 800 dignitaries and guests gathered for the grand roll-out, flapped angrily in the wind, causing chandeliers and heavy speaker systems to sway dangerously.

Throughout the proceedings, as one speaker after another sought to pay homage to the (as yet untested) engineering marvel that is SpaceShipTwo, champagne glasses teetered and crashed dramatically to the ground.

Branson himself joked about the absence of a heating system – he said he had originally questioned whether the organisers even needed a tent – leaving some of the natural worriers in the audience to wonder what problems might still remain with the spacecraft itself. The warm welcome he extended could not hope to stop the chattering teeth or ease the pain of deep-chilled bones.

Still, the VIP guests and "future astronauts" – the 300 or more people who have pledged $200,000 (£122,000) each for a place on board SpaceShipTwo and the chance to boldly go where only a handful of professional space travellers have gone before – were nothing if not gracious.

They rippled with excitement at the sight of Burt Rutan, the engineering genius who figured out how to build a craft that could re-enter the atmosphere "carefree" without the need for nerve-rackingly precise piloting by either humans or computers. They rushed around Brian Binnie, one of the pioneering pilots who penetrated the atmosphere aboard Rutan's SpaceShipOne back in 2004, as though he were Tom Cruise, or Robert Pattinson.

When the engineering team – a line-up of aerodynamic and machine specialists with dishevelled hair, smudged glasses and poorly fitting jeans – were introduced as "rock stars", they got the reception to match.

Schwarzenegger also did his best to make light of the freezing conditions, making one crack after another at the expense of Bill Richardson, the New Mexico governor who has agreed to let Branson's Virgin Galactic company build its purpose-built Spaceport in the desert south of his state.

"We have many things in common," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "We are both governors. Both of us plan to retire next year. And neither of us has ever won an Oscar."

He even made a dig at Richardson's waistline, saying he knew how excited the future astronauts were to be able to experience the weightlessness of outer space. "Nobody is happier than Bill Richardson about that.".

By the time the great unveiling rolled around, almost nobody had any appetite to step outside and watch. But go they did – to admire the pools of purple light, the bad synthesiser music, the thumping drumbeat and, finally, the burst of white light cast over both SpaceShipTwo and its expansive carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo.

"This is the sexiest spaceship ever," Branson declared, mustering what must have been his last few drops of enthusiasm.

Schwarzenegger and Richardson each broke a champagne bottle over the ship's nose, bestowing upon it the name VSS Enterprise (pure Star Trek, as Virgin Galactic acknowledged), then retreated as fast as protocol would allow.

"Right," Branson said as soon as they had gone, "let's all get a drink."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 8 Dec 2009 | 1:08 am

Aussie winemakers can now flag green credentials (Reuters)

Reuters - Australian winemakers who care about the environment as much as their vintages can now seek formal recognition for their green credentials under a voluntary certification scheme.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 8 Dec 2009 | 12:55 am

Powerboat jets off to harass Japanese whalers (AFP)

AFP - A space-age powerboat which holds the round-the-world record sped off from Australia on Tuesday on a mission to harass Japanese whaling ships in Antarctic seas.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 8 Dec 2009 | 12:45 am

The Art of Cosmic Rays

Art and science are often seen as two conflicting cultures, but sometimes when those worlds collide, inspiration strikes. That's what happened with artist Roshan Houshmand. Houshmand has transformed her fascination with physics into a series of paintings based on the ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Dec 2009 | 11:05 pm

Virgin Galactic's Commercial Spaceliner Makes Public Debut (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - MOJAVE, Calif. – It was pre-sold as an "out of this world premier" – and you can't get more off-world than Virgin Galactic's Monday unveiling of a spaceliner built to whisk customers to the edge of space.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Dec 2009 | 9:30 pm

Historic EPA finding: Greenhouse gases harm humans (AP)

AP - The Obama administration took a major step Monday toward imposing the first federal limits on climate-changing pollution from cars, power plants and factories, declaring there was compelling scientific evidence that global warming from manmade greenhouse gases endangers Americans' health.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Dec 2009 | 9:29 pm

Roll-out for Branson's spaceliner

Sir Richard Branson shows off the rocket plane he will use to take fare-paying passengers into space.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Dec 2009 | 8:34 pm

Virgin Galactic unveils commercial spaceship (AP)

AP - The sleek, bullet-shaped spacecraft is about the size of a large business jet — with wide windows and seats for six well-heeled passengers to take a thrill ride into space.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Dec 2009 | 8:28 pm

EU and UN welcome US climate move

The EU and UN hail a US declaration that greenhouse emissions harm health, as climate talks are held in Copenhagen.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Dec 2009 | 6:55 pm

Brown: EU cuts must go deeper to get Copenhagen climate deal

Prime minister tells the Guardian he hopes the EU will agree to a cut in emissions of 30% by 2020

Gordon Brown is pushing European leaders to commit to deeper cuts in carbon emissions in an attempt to seal a global deal, he revealed as representatives of 192 countries began negotiations at the climate change summit in Copenhagen.

The prime minister told the Guardian he hoped the EU would agree to cut its output of greenhouse gases by 30% on 1990 levels by 2020 – a cut 10 percentage points deeper than Europe is currently offering. So far, the EU has said it will cut by 30% only if an ambitious global deal is reached.

Brown said: "We've got to make countries recognise that they have to be as ambitious as they say they want to be. It's not enough to say 'I may do this, I might do this, possibly I'll do this'. I want to create a situation in which the European Union is persuaded to go to 30%."

Any move to increase Europe's emissions reduction target would be fiercely resisted by eastern European countries as well as Italy and Austria, who have opposed deeper cuts.

An increase in the European pledge would mean the UK would have to achieve a cut of 42% by 2020, compared with the current British target of 34%. Because the UK is already racing to build renewable energy as fast as it can, the additional cuts would probably require measures such as road charging, increased fuel taxes and tougher emissions standards for cars.

On the opening day of the Copenhagen summit Saudi Arabia's chief climate negotiator, Mohammed al-Sabban, told delegates that the scandal over hacked emails from University of East Anglia researchers had undermined confidence in the science of climate change and would "affect the nature of what can be trusted in the negotiations".

But after lambasting climate deniers as "flat-earth sceptics" and "anti-change Luddites", Brown would say only that he "fundamentally disagrees" with Sabban, who last week said he believed there was no link between human behaviour and warming. "I somehow think that when we get agreement the Saudis will not refuse to be part of it," Brown said.

The prime minister's call for Europe to increase its "level of ambition" came as the expert committee charged with setting Britain's carbon targets published a report suggesting that higher flight taxes will be necessary to choke off demand for air travel.

The report said Britain could afford to see air travel increasing by up to 140m journeys a year by 2050 without breaching its carbon targets, allowing for the building of runways at Heathrow, Stansted and Edinburgh airports.

But it warned that development at other regional airports such as Gatwick, Birmingham and Newcastle would have to be curbed if growth in aviation was to be kept to 60% rather than the 200% by which it would expand if allowed to go unchecked.

Brown stopped short of suggesting that the EU should increase its offer irrespective of the outcome in Copenhagen, but said an increase in the European target would be "a signal that the world has come round to agree an ambitious deal".

Campaigners and experts including the economist Lord Stern have argued in recent weeks that the EU must increase its offer to unlock a deal because the US president, Barack Obama, constrained by the need to secure domestic legislation, cannot. Lord Stern told the Guardian last night: "The EU can show real leadership and help to bring an agreement in Copenhagen a step closer by committing now to its higher ambition."

He said if all countries confirmed their highest conditional offers, the target for annual emissions of 44bn tonnes by 2020 – which gives a reasonable chance of meeting the goal of limiting global temperature rise to 2C – would be bridged with further commitments of just a few more billion tonnes.

Bryony Worthington, carbon expert and founder of the campaign group Sandbag.org.uk, said: "The prime minister's support for a move to the EU's higher target is very encouraging. With targets on the table from all major countries, the EU can kickstart a leadership race and do much to unlock political tensions in Copenhagen. The move would mean taking on a much more realistic target than the current one, which will be met with almost no effort."

A Polish diplomat at the UN summit in the Danish capital said any unilateral move would not be strategic, as it would give away a significant EU concession without anything in return. The Polish economy is highly dependent on coal and its government has strongly resisted increases in the EU's targets.

The prime minister also said he hoped Labour would be able to match a Tory commitment to cut government emissions by 10% within a year as a contribution to the 10:10 campaign, which is asking individuals, businesses and other organisations to cut their carbon footprint for next year.

Brown said: "We are trying to achieve 10% … throughout Whitehall the message has gone out: 'You've got to save energy, we've got to be more energy-efficient'."

Until now, the government has argued it would be too expensive to cut government emissions by 10% within a year, and some departments that have already reduced their footprint would struggle to cut deeper.

In October, Labour killed a Lib Dem/Tory-backed bill that called for the government to make the 10% cut.

The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has meanwhile signed up City Hall to the 10:10 campaign, as part of his goal to make the capital "the greenest city on Earth". But he stopped short of making a personal pledge.

Additional reporting: Hélène Mulholland

George Monbiot, page 31

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 7 Dec 2009 | 5:36 pm

Skin Cream Secrets Revealed (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - If asked to describe how skin cream feels, you might use words like "smooth," "thick," or "greasy."
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Dec 2009 | 5:17 pm

Nasa tests for life on Mars clues

Scientists from Nasa are testing a mineral only found in Aberdeenshire to see if it can provide clues about life on Mars.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Dec 2009 | 5:07 pm

How Tony Blair fell in love with formaldehyde

Former prime minister Tony Blair is now an expert on formaldehyde – thanks to the £90,000 he received for a 20-minute speech on the chemical. By Leo Hickman

When you're being paid a reported £90,000 for a 20-minute speech, it's only common sense that you heap praise on your generous hosts and display exceptional interest in their cause. So it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to students of Tony Blair's post-Downing Street career that the former prime minister did his homework on formaldehyde and other fascinating byproducts of methanol's industrial process ahead of a speech to open a new methanol power plant in Azerbaijan.

Here's what he said to a gathering of the country's great and good last week. "To be honest, until I looked at the list of what formaldehyde does, I had no idea of how many parts of my life were governed by the existence of this thing. When I go back home, I will tell my nine-year-old boy: 'Stop all other studies and concentrate on formaldehyde and you will be fine!'"

So, let's consider what career opportunities might lay before Leo Blair should he choose to follow his father's advice. The Formaldehyde Council, which "represents the leading producers and users of formaldehyde in the US", can't speak highly enough of the stuff: "Chemistry has allowed the responsible use of formaldehyde in all kinds of everyday products such as plastics, carpeting, clothing, resins, glues, medicines, vaccines and x-ray film."

The chemical is an "essential building block" in the production of paper towels, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, lipstick and "acts as an anti-bacterial agent in such consumer products as mascara". It is also used to preserve dead bodies (just ask Damien Hirst, pictured, or any undertaker) and to manufacture plywood, MDF and other resin-bound construction materials.

But what Blair somehow forgot to mention is that formaldehyde has its downsides. The US National Cancer Institute says that when formaldehyde is present in the air "at levels exceeding 0.1 parts per million", individuals may experience symptoms such as burning sensations in the eyes, nose and throat, coughing, nausea and skin irritation. And in the UK it's a category 3 carcinogen, which means it is a substance with possible carcinogenic effects.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 7 Dec 2009 | 5:05 pm

Brain food: how voters' whims could scupper Copenhagen

'Rationally irrational' voters could stall any deal on the environment. By Aditya Chakrabortty

As if the slog of summitry, disputes over the science and the haggling for cash were not enough, the politicians and advisers gathering at Copenhagen this week have one more huge obstacle: their voters.

Not that the public is against fighting climate change. From Iran to the US, polls show that voters want to tackle global warming, even if it costs money and jobs. Yet whenever a specific policy comes up – higher taxes on petrol or flying, say – public support melts away faster than you can say polar ice caps.

General principles often get lost in political translation. US voters typically oppose free trade – until they go shopping for Chinese electronics. They're hostile to immigration, but are loyal customers at their Korean corner store. Political theorists put this disconnect down to public ignorance, or a sense of individual powerlessness (especially against giant lobby groups) but American academic Bryan Caplan has another explanation: "Voters are worse than ignorant. They are irrational – and vote accordingly."

In fact, he believes such voters are "rationally irrational". In a large democracy, no single ballot paper settles the result, so there's no point in someone swotting up on the options. As long as voters pay no direct cost for supporting a policy, they'll call for whichever seems most pleasant or socially respectable. But when there's a price, the option lightest on the wallet usually wins.

This helps explain why green policies often stall at Westminster, says Mathew Humphrey at Nottingham University. The British tell pollsters that climate change is more important to them than religion, but a recent Times survey found that even greens aren't willing to fly less. In this way, the fight against global catastrophe is reduced to a clarion call to, um, unplug the mobile-phone charger.

Governments can, of course, impose change and leave it to voters to adjust; Whitehall has launched a big drive for renewable energy that will add thousands to household fuel bills. But for Humphrey, the phenomenon of rational irrationality "makes me pessimistic about the ability of democratic governments to fight climate change". Caplan is even more pointed: the cover of his latest book depicts the electorate as a flock of sheep.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 7 Dec 2009 | 5:05 pm

Darwin stood on the shoulders of giants

Why express surprise that this year we have been celebrating Charles Darwin and his Origin of Species, but little about Alfred Russel Wallace (Letters, 3 December)? The simple answer is that this has been Darwin's year, not Wallace's. It is Darwin's 200th birthday, and the 150th anniversary of the first publication of the Origin. There will be due celebrations of Wallace's work when his turn comes. But it is not true that Wallace has been neglected. On 1 July last year, the Linnean Society of London celebrated its original hosting of the first Darwin-Wallace joint reading in 1858 of their theory of evolution by natural selection.

Moreover, 2009 has successfully provided numerous specialists with high-profile opportunities to reassess the individual contributions of both scientists as well as the (well-worn) conspiracy theory. It is also relevant that our Darwin celebrations have not been restricted to the Origin, but have also paid extended tribute to his fundamental contributions to many other aspects of biology, as well as anthropology, social science and geology – subjects for which no one has ever suggested anti-Wallace conspiracies. The root of the problem lies with our apparent obsession with identifying the role of the individual in the history of science. But as Darwin's prolific letter-writing testifies, and as Newton famously acknowledged ("on ye shoulders of giants"), science is a space-time continuum of extended collaborations and interactions embedded in the "invisible college" of the science community at large.

Brian Rosen

London

• The Charlesworths (Letters, 7 December) are right that Darwin had formulated the theory of evolution by natural selection 20 years before Wallace. But they don't point out that Patrick Matthew had beaten Darwin to it by seven years, and there is evidence that Darwin knew about Matthew by 1838.

Hugh Dower

York

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 7 Dec 2009 | 5:05 pm

Nitrous oxide concerns cloud future of biofuels

European scientists cast doubt on whether oil alternatives can ever be sustainably produced in significant quantities

Scientists at the European commission have cast doubt on whether biofuels could ever be produced sustainably in significant quantities, dealing a blow to the aviation industry, which sees such fuel as a key way to reduce its emissions.

The researchers argue that the greenhouse gases emitted in making biofuel may well negate most of the carbon dioxide savings made by replacing fossil fuels. Of particular concern is the uncertainty over emissions of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide.

The road transport industry is also keen to increase the use of biofuels, and an EU directive last year requires 10% of all road transport fuel to come from plants by 2020. Theoretically the fuels are carbon-neutral: when burned they only release the carbon dioxide they absorbed while the plants were growing.

Campaigners argue biofuels are not as sustainable as they seem and say more biofuels would mean the destruction of virgin forests – and the release of their stored carbon – to create agricultural land.

Heinz Ossenbrink, of the EC's Institute of Energy (IoE), said research carried out by EU-funded scientists increasingly pointed to a long-term problem for large-scale biofuels use, namely the emissions of nitrous oxide. This is about 270 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas and is released through use of fertilisers to grow biofuel crops. "Some of the older studies don't take that into account," he said. "We have now come to less positive values for biofuels."

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change does consider the production of nitrous oxide when deciding on the sustainibility of particular biofuels, but errors in its calculations are known to be large."That's because there's such a huge local variation – [emissions] could double from one end of the field to the other and hundreds of times between the fields in the same country and thousands of times around the world," said Robert Edwards, of the renewable energies unit at the IoE.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 7 Dec 2009 | 5:05 pm

Virgin Atlantic unveils first commercial spaceship

MOJAVE, California (Reuters) - Virgin Atlantic on Monday unveiled the first commercial passenger spaceship, a sleek black-and-white vessel that represents an expensive gamble on creating a commercial space tourism industry.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 7 Dec 2009 | 5:02 pm

Expert view: Let the people see our climate as the scientists do

It is important that members of the public can see the types of information scientists use to understand our weather and climate. The release of the Met Office HadCRUT temperature data is welcome because everyone will begin to see what the data looks like and what a big task it is to put it all together.

Anyone looking at the numbers will certainly be able to see trends and patterns in the data the same way scientists do as part of their analysis. And the more we can make publicly available, the better.

We collect a number of data sets to study our climate through such things as sunshine, rainfall, winds and temperature. The HadCRUT dataset is based on the measurements of surface temperature from close to 5,000 stations, going back to 1850. The latest version of HadCRUT includes observations from both land and sea (the HadCRUT3 data). The raw station data is put on to a grid and shows variations against the 30-year average from 1961-90. The difference from this average gives us a reference point against which we can see how the temperature varies from one year to the next.

The basic data is collected from a series of stations, all of which have to meet a standard criteria for how they place their thermometers and to make sure these are properly calibrated. That is quite important as you want to be sure that any changes are not down to differences in the way measurements are made. This means we have a very high quality of data, with low error-bars associated with the observations. The collected data is also quality-controlled to cope with obvious mistakes and misreporting.

One important point to note is that the basic data is not collected from some strange locations in some mysterious way. This data is the basic information that is also regularly used in our everyday weather forecasting work.

Good science by its nature should always be transparent and robust, that's how it works. Scientists collaborate by sharing information with each other and comparing results. It is through this comparison that we understand where the uncertainty lies and how we can focus our efforts to improve knowledge and understanding.

The important thing about the problems surrounding the University of East Anglia, and the questions it has raised in people's minds about climate science, is that lots of groups around the world have done similar things to the scientists there, and they've all been showing similar results. That gives us some confidence the information we're getting from the data is well-founded.

Paul Hardaker is chief executive of the Royal Meteorological Society

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 7 Dec 2009 | 4:13 pm

Royal Institution in crisis

• Neuroscientist faces redundancy or cut in role
• Proposals split governing body as senior figures quit

One of the country's greatest scientific institutions has been plunged into crisis after senior figures drew up proposals that could force the departure of Britain's most prominent female scientist from her position as its director.

Lady Greenfield, head of the Royal Institution, was appointed a decade ago to modernise the 200-year-old organisation where Michael Faraday changed the world by demonstrating the power of electricity. Greenfield, an Oxford neuroscientist, now faces redundancy or the option of staying on in a part-time role if plans drawn up by the advisers are approved.

The management advisory committee said the director's job should be sacrificed or "much reduced" during a review of senior roles to be completed by the end of the month. The plans were drawn up to save money at the institution amid the financial downturn.

Greenfield is understood to have originally agreed to a revised job description but later changed her mind. The advisory committee has suggested that even the revised position may be untenable in view of the institution's parlous finances.

The proposals, which were thrashed out between April and September, are believed to have split the institution's governing council. Two prominent members, Lord Rees, the astronomer royal and president of the Royal Society, and Lisa Jardine, professor of Renaissance studies at Queen Mary, University of London, resigned their posts shortly after, citing time pressures. Neither was available for comment yesterday.

One source familiar with the proposals described them as a "disgraceful" and suggested a small "cabal" of advisers opposed Greenfield's moves to modernise the oldest independent research organisation in the world.

Greenfield is regarded as a forthright and colourful character whose love of neuroscience, entrepreneurial drive and determination not to conform to the stereotype of dull scientist secured her position as a role model for female scientists. She has donned designer outfits for Vogue and Hello, and on being ranked 14th most influential woman in Britain by Harpers and Queen, quipped: "Dolly Parton came ninth." She was awarded the CBE in 2000 and made a "people's peer" in 2001.

As director, Greenfield raised eyebrows among some members of the institution when she ordered a £22m refurbishment of the premises in Mayfair, London. The strategy, which covered a complete refit of the historic Faraday lecture hall and an upmarket bar and restaurant, was criticised by some on the governing council and board of trustees as a risky financial gamble. She also drew up plans to use the Institution for weddings and parties. The Institution was reopened by the Queen in May last year.

The spat is the latest to thrust Greenfield into the headlines. Her nomination but subsequent failure to be named a fellow of the Royal Society – the highest honour for any scientist, short of winning the Nobel prize – was leaked in 2004, prompting allegations that she had been blackballed. She made news again when in 2005 she ended her marriage to the Oxford chemist Peter Atkins. More recently, she courted controversy by suggesting Twitter, Facebook and Second Life "alter the way our minds work".

The advisory committee approved the three other senior management positions at the Institution, which include the development director, the CEO and the director of the Davy Faraday Research Laboratory. The job of director was identified as the most costly of the positions.

Sir John Ritblat, vice-president of the Royal Institution, said he was unaware of any moves to diminish the director's position. "I'm not up to speed with any of the internal things," he told the Guardian. Lawyers acting for Greenfield are understood to be handling the dispute.

According to documents circulated to the governing council, "the currently defined role of director … is unaffordable", and the revised job "would be completely different from the current role."

Most probably, it suggests, the revised position would be part-time and centre on hosting institution events and fund-raising. The documents suggest the institution consider offering the new role to Greenfield, but if she declines, a new appointment should be made in the next six months.

The Royal Institution is most well known for its Christmas lectures, which were introduced by Michael Faraday in 1825 as a way of exciting children about science when organised education was scarce. The lectures have continued every year since, breaking only for the second world war. Greenfield could not be reached yesterday and the Royal Institution declined to comment.

A life of brains

Susan Greenfield was born in Hammersmith in 1950 and educated at Godolphin and Latymer School for Girls. As a child she alarmed her parents – an electrician and a dancer – when she arrived home one day with a dead animal from the local butchers. She wanted to see its brain, she explained. And so began Greenfield's interest in neuroscience.

She studied experimental psychology at St Hilda's College, Oxford and studied in Paris before joining Green College, Oxford as a junior research fellow. Greenfield's passion for research – she once said she was motivated by a desire to understand the neuroscience of love – quickly established her as a role model for young women and ensured her place on the science lecture circuit.

She became professor of pharmacology at Oxford in 1996 and took over as Director of the Royal Institution in 1998. She was made a life peer by the Blair government in 2001. Greenfield has written several popular science books and is behind three research companies, Brainboost, Synaptica and Neurodiagnostics. Her research focuses on understanding the physical basis of consciousness and brain functions and disorders, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 7 Dec 2009 | 3:29 pm

Astronauts, Space Workers Offer Designs for NASA Shuttle Patch Contest (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - Two months ago, NASA put out the call to its past and present employees: design a patch to symbolize the end of the space shuttle program coming to a close in 2010, and the chosen artwork will fly to orbit on one of the final flights.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Dec 2009 | 3:01 pm

Scientists say paper battery could be in the works

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ordinary paper could one day be used as a lightweight battery to power the devices that are now enabling the printed word to be eclipsed by e-mail, e-books and online news.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 7 Dec 2009 | 2:28 pm

Antidepressants Can Change Personalities

Using SSRI antidepressants can lead to positive personality changes, fewer negative emotions.
Source: Livescience.com | 7 Dec 2009 | 2:02 pm

iPhone Orchestra Redefines Music

Reseacher Ge Wang from Stanford University has turned the iPhone into an instrument. He adapted the iPhone in such a way that when the person blows into the microphone, the smart phone emits a musical note. Other sounds are controlled ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Dec 2009 | 1:57 pm

3 Bets the DOE Is Placing on Science to Break the Climate Stalemate

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for energy put out its second call for new ideas, and this time, the agency has narrowed its focused to three research fields.

The new arm of the Department of Energy, which is dedicated to high-risk, high-reward innovations, is betting $100 million on batteries for cars, new materials for capturing carbon, and microorganisms that can convert sunlight and carbon dioxide directly into fuels.

“This solicitation focuses on three cutting-edge technology areas which could have a transformational impact,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu, in a release.

Energy gets used in a lot of different ways, so no single technology can make all the difference. That said, a few key pieces of technology would provide the political world with better clean-energy options. We use coal to make half the nation’s electricity. Fossil fuels, mostly oil, burned for transportation account for roughly one-third of American emissions. Finding cheaper, cleaner solutions to the key problems of baseload generation and fuel for cars would be major steps toward reducing carbon emission and dependence on foreign oil.

This is the second call for proposals the DOE outfit has issued. ARPA is modeled after the military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. This new request is as narrow as the last was wide. In the first grants announced in October, ARPA-E spread the first $150 million from its coffers broadly on 37 different technologies across the energy landscape from building efficiency to biomass conversion to waste heat capture. Each endeavor received between $500,000 and $9 million.

Energy-dense, low-cost, long-lived batteries have been a dream of inventors since Thomas Edison claimed to have solved the problem in 1901. His battery was described by The New York Times as “combining all of the long-sought advantages of lightness, durability, and effectiveness.” It was so good, in fact, that “it was predicted that a new art of electrical propulsion and navigation would result.”

Though that has yet to happen, scientific knowledge of materials at the nanoscale has grown by leaps and bounds. ARPA-E is looking for battery makers who can meet the ambitious goals (.pdf) laid out by the United States Advanced Battery Consortium, a group of car makers working with the government.

Another area where scientific knowledge has been growing at an astounding pace is microbiological genomics. Scientists have gone beyond understanding individual gene functions to tweaking them for specialized functions. Synthetic biologists are working to develop microorganisms that are, in essence, programmable. One company, LS9, calls them “DesignerMicrobes.” The equation that the DOE would like these biological machines to solve is simple: CO2 and sunlight in, a substitute for oil out. Already, a flock of synthetic biology companies like Amyris, Solazyme and Synthetic Genomics are trying to create alternatives to oil using microorganismal genomics, and the DOE would like to see more.

Carbon dioxide capture is considered a mainline strategy for reducing carbon dioxide emissions by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but it requires a substantial percentage of the energy that the plant produces to do it. It’s thought that new materials could, as the DOE puts it, “dramatically reduce the parasitic energy penalties and corresponding increase in the cost of electricity required for carbon capture.”

Some labs, like Omar Yaghi’s at UCLA and Gerbrand Ceder’s at MIT, have developed new methods for finding large amounts of new materials and determining their properties. Their work is a promising start, but more carbon capture isn’t the only step needed to keep smokestack emissions from warming the earth. They also have to be permanently buried. Last year, energy researcher Vaclav Smil at the University of Manitoba estimated that to bury just 25 percent of CO2 produced by power plants would required moving twice the material the world’s crude-oil industry (.pdf) does now. That’s a tall order and would require a heck of a lot of pipes and caverns.

Image: A prototype sunlight-to-fuel solar furnace at Sandia National Laboratory.

See Also:

• DOE’s New Baby Bell Labs on Budget Chopping Block
• Chart: How the ‘Darpa for Energy’ Is Slicing Its $150-Million Pie
• Advanced Research Agency Created to Develop Clean Energy
• Obama Budget Strong in Science

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 7 Dec 2009 | 1:54 pm

Don't Buy Into the Illusion of Batching

Reading Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation has me wondering if we got it all wrong. James Womack and Daniel Jones offer the premise (in describing the flow piece of the Toyota Production System) that our ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Dec 2009 | 1:34 pm

Is Animated Tiger Woods Incident the Future of Journalism?

Back in 1994, O.J. was arrested on charges for the murder of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson. Both TIME and Newsweek used Simpson's police mugshot on their magazine covers. Newsweek used the original image; while TIME used technology to alter ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Dec 2009 | 1:09 pm

Rudiments of Language Discovered in Monkeys

Campbell’s monkeys appear to combine the same calls in different ways, using rules of grammar that turn sound into language.

Whether their rudimentary syntax echoes the speech of humanity’s evolutionary ancestors, or represents an emergence of language unrelated to our own, is unclear. Either way, they’re far more sophisticated than we thought.

“This is the first evidence we have in animal communication that they can combine, in a semantic way, different calls to create a new message,” said Alban Lemasson, a primatologist at the University of Rennes in France. “I’m not sure it has strong parallels with humans, in the way that we will find a subject and object and verb. But they have meaningful units combined into other meaningful sequences, with rules imposed on how they’re combined.”

Lemasson’s team previously described the monkeys’ use of calls with specific meanings in a paper published in November. It detailed the monkeys’ basic sound structures and their uses: “Hok” for eagle, “krak” for leopard, “krak-oo” for general disturbance, “hok-oo” and “wak-oo” for general disturbance in forest canopies. A sixth call, “boom,” was used in non-predatory contexts, such as when calling a group together for travel or arguing with neighboring groups.

Impressive as that was, however, it was still relatively one-dimensional, not much different from verbalizations heard in many animal species, from other non-human primates to songbirds. The team’s latest findings, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describe something far more complicated: syntax, or principles of word sequence and sentence structure.

Though some researchers have ascribed syntax to animals, it’s never been formally demonstrated — until now.

“People have criticized the use of ’syntax’ to describe animals just because they produce sequences of sound. They say that each unit has no meaning, that no rules explain how they’re combined,” said Lemasson. “Here we have rules of combination.”

For example, male monkeys called “boom boom” to gather other monkeys to them, but “boom boom krak-oo krak-oo” meant that a tree or branch was about to fall. Adding a “hak-oo” to that sequence turned it into a territorial warning against stray monkeys from neigboring groups. Multiple “krak-oo” calls added to an original “krak” meant not only that a leopard was in the area, but that it posed an immediate threat.

The research raises the question of whether early humans or our primate ancestors combined calls in a similar way, turning a small set of sounds into a rich verbal reportoire.

According to Lemasson and to Jared Taglialatela, a chimpanzee communication researcher at Clayton State University, it’s too soon to say whether the monkey talk is proto-human.

“I’d shy away from that. But this is certainly syntax,” said Taglialatela, who was not involved in the study. But he described the proto-human question as secondary to a far more intriguing possibility: that the potential for language is widespread in the animal kingdom.

“People like to draw lines and make boxes and put animals inside them. I don’t like to do that. There are differences and shades of grey. And when you take the time to collect data in a way that allows you to recognize complexity and patterns, than you find evidence of them,” said Taglialatela.

Lemasson’s analysis was based on a vast set of recordings, gathered from 10 monkey groups observed for two full years in their African rain forest homes.

Lemasson, who is further investigating Campbell’s monkey talk by measuring their reactions to recorded calls, suspects that a dense jungle environment drove the evolution of syntax. Since the monkeys had trouble seeing each other, they compensated by talking.

The same compensatory dynamic could operate in other species, such as whales that live in mostly sunless waters, he said.

“We can imagine that this ability has evolved in other lineages,” said Lemasson.

Image: Florian Möllers

See Also:

• Chimps: Not Human, But Are They People?
• Human Laughter Echoes Chimp Chuckles
• Humans and Chimpanzees Share Roots of Language
• Whales Might Be as Much Like People as Apes Are
• Blue Whale Song Mystery Baffles Scientists

Citation: “Generating meaning with finite means in Campbell’s monkeys.” By Karim Ouattara, Alban Lemasson, and Klaus Zuberbuhler. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 106 No. 48, December 7, 2009.

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 7 Dec 2009 | 1:06 pm

Virgin Founder Talks SpaceShipTwo

Billionaire and space tourism pioneer Richard Branson discusses Virgin Galactic's plans for commercial space flight.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Dec 2009 | 12:45 pm

Act now on climate, summit urged

Denmark's PM describes the UN climate summit in Copenhagen as an "opportunity the world cannot afford to miss".
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Dec 2009 | 12:20 pm

Workers Should Turn Off Visual Alerts, Study Finds

IMs, email alerts and other pop-ups can drain productivity.
Source: Livescience.com | 7 Dec 2009 | 12:02 pm

Greenhouse Gases May Endanger Human Health

The EPA is warning that emissions are a threat to public health and welfare.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Dec 2009 | 11:50 am

Time to act

People want more than hot air out of Copenhagen
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Dec 2009 | 11:27 am

List of Animals Threatened by Climate Change

Climate change impacts all animals, but some more than others, suggests a new report issued by the Wildlife Conservation Society. The report, "Species Feeling the Heat: Connecting Deforestation and Climate Change," was released today just as representatives from 190 different ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Dec 2009 | 10:56 am

Pearl Harbor Still Haunts One Survivor

Sixty-eight years after the attacks, Ed Johann will return to Pearl Harbor for the first time.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Dec 2009 | 10:45 am

Climate views

What are the arguments made by climate sceptics?
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Dec 2009 | 10:22 am

One of the World's Oldest Animals Dies

Kiki, a giant tortoise at France's the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes, died last week at the age of 146, according to Michel Saint Jalme, deputy director of the Paris Zoo. He—yes, Kiki was a he— was about 75 in ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Dec 2009 | 10:09 am

Top 10 Emerging Environmental Technologies

Wasteful energy policies, overuse of resources, water supply shortages, global climate change, and deforestation are just some of the issues experts say need to be addressed at the U.N. Climate Change summit in Copenhagen.
Source: Livescience.com | 7 Dec 2009 | 9:30 am

Commercial Spaceships May Speed up Consumer Air Travel

Want to fly anywhere on Earth in less than two hours?
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Dec 2009 | 9:25 am

Ancient HIV stowaway may hold clue to transmission

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An HIV genetic stowaway that may have come from a related cat virus could help the AIDS virus transmit and replicate in people, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 7 Dec 2009 | 9:21 am

Spaceman

How we'll be able to forecast the weather in 2040
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Dec 2009 | 8:06 am

Skin Cream Secrets Revealed

Researchers examine skin cream on the nanoscale to understand what makes it feel smooth
Source: Livescience.com | 7 Dec 2009 | 7:45 am

Scientists: Dim Outlook for Climate Summit

Scientists discuss their hopes for the historic climate summit.
Source: Livescience.com | 7 Dec 2009 | 7:34 am

Bat Ray Detects Weak Electrical Signals from Prey

Scientists explore rays’ sensory abilities.
Source: Livescience.com | 7 Dec 2009 | 7:33 am

A Poster Boy’s Retro Space Out

The International Year of Astronomy coincides with the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s revolutionary telescope this year. So what better way to celebrate history than with a retro look at the cosmos?

With today’s artists’ renderings of space becoming increasingly detailed, realistic and flashy, these posters truly stand out. They are the nostalgic creations of artist Simon Page who says his inspiration came from old illustrations of gravitational forces and planetary motion in science books.

“The main challenge I set myself with this was to recreate some thing very retro, minimalist and fresh in comparison to the current batch of space themed posters,” Page said.

Though Page designed the posters on his own, he says the IYA organizers took notice and were so impressed they requested to use them for some events they have planned for the end of the year.

The rest of the posters, all of which are for sale on Page’s website, can be seen below.

More on the following page.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 7 Dec 2009 | 4:00 am