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Heat-resistant adhesive used in construction instead of boltsThe “Parasols” in Seville feature components that are designed to be glued instead of bolted together. To prevent the adhesive from melting, it needs to withstand temperatures of up to 60 degrees Celsius.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 19 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm Cochlear implants associated with improved voice control over time in children who are deafChildren with cochlear implants in both ears appear to have difficulty controlling the loudness and pitch of their voices, but these measures improve over time, according to a new report.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 19 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm Childhood harms can lead to lung cancerAdverse events in childhood have been linked to an increase in the likelihood of developing lung cancer in later life. Researchers describe how the link is partly explained by raised rates of cigarette smoking in victims of childhood trauma, but note that other factors may also be to blame.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 19 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm Bacteria are more capable of complex decision-making than thoughtIt's not thinking in the way humans, dogs or even birds think, but new findings show that bacteria are more capable of complex decision-making than previously known.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 19 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm Complications common, often linked to trauma in children receiving cochlear implantsSome complications may occur in children receiving cochlear implants, and are highly correlated with trauma to the ear area and inner ear malformation, according to a new report.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 19 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm Miniaturized mobile ozone detector works in air, water and near explosive gasesResearchers have developed a highly-sensitive, miniaturized mobile ozone sensor which can be used not only in air, but also in water and in the vicinity of explosive gases.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 19 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm Mice and humans with same anxiety-related gene abnormality behave similarlyStudying animals in behavioral experiments has been a cornerstone of psychological research, but whether the observations are relevant for human behavior has been unclear. Researchers have now identified an alteration to the DNA of a gene that imparts similar anxiety-related behavior in both humans and mice, demonstrating that laboratory animals can be accurately used to study these human behaviors.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 19 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am Synthetic, dissolving plates ease repairs of nasal septum defectsAttaching cartilage to plates made of the resorbable material polydioxanone appears to facilitate corrective surgery on the nasal septum, the thin cartilage separating the two airways, according to a new report.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 19 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am Harnessing the divas of the nanoworldBoron nitride nanotubes have been notoriously difficult to grow, requiring special instrumentation, dangerous chemistry, or temperatures of over 1,500 degrees Celsius to assemble. As it turns out, they just needed a little encouragement. Now, physicists have created virtual Persian carpets of the tiny fibers on substrates made from simple catalysts.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 19 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am Fish oil given intravenously to patients in intensive care has many benefits, study findsA randomized controlled trial of fish oil given intravenously to patients in intensive care has found that it improves gas exchange, reduces inflammatory chemicals and results in a shorter length of hospital stay. Researchers investigated the effects of including fish oil in the normal nutrient solution for patients with sepsis, finding a significant series of benefits.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 19 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am In Pictures: Strange seasPictures of sea creatures with some 'stranger than science fiction' lifestyles have been released by the Wildlife Trusts, as they launch their vision for UK seas.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 19 Jan 2010 | 3:06 am Corpse dangerDo unburied dead bodies really spread disease?Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 19 Jan 2010 | 2:58 am The nation's weather (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 19 Jan 2010 | 2:17 am WWF says China's wild tigers face extinction (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 19 Jan 2010 | 1:35 am MPs criticise 'vague' UK waste plansThe government needs firm waste targets for businesses and food waste recycling for homes, say MPs.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 19 Jan 2010 | 1:32 am Rare glimpse of the crystal caveBBC film-makers venture into Mexico's Cave of Crystals, which contains some of the largest natural crystals ever found.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 19 Jan 2010 | 12:04 am Cryosphere: Earth’s Icy Extremes Seen From Space<< previous image | next image >>
Floating sea ice covers about 11 million square miles of Earth’s oceans in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. It plays an important role in regulating climate and is critical for many animals. Glaciers and Ice sheets cover around 10 percent of the land area on Earth. Every continent except Australia is partially covered in ice. Despite its extent and importance, the nature of the cryosphere makes it difficult to visit, study and understand. Because of the remote and harsh conditions throughout most of the polar regions, scientists who study them often have to rely on data collected from space for research. The images taken by satellites and astronauts provide critical information for understanding the rapidly changing climate near the poles, but they also deliver some surprisingly beautiful, strange and intriguing images. We’ve collected some of the best here. Above: The Wilkins ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula dramatically broke apart in February 2008. In the image above, captured by the Taiwanese satellite Formosat-2, big pieces of the ice shelf float in a frozen matrix of smaller bits of ice. Some of the larger chunks are several hundred yards long. The image was made from near-infrared, infrared and green wavelengths reflected by the ice.
Below: This image from NASA’s Terra satellite, taken in November 2009, gives a wider view of the event. Click on any image in this gallery for a higher-resolution version.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 18 Jan 2010 | 10:00 pm Scots fishermen to clear rubbishFishermen have signed up for a programme in which they will help to clear rubbish from the sea.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 18 Jan 2010 | 5:23 pm No big bonuses necessary for bankersScientific evidence suggests that finance jobs are too complex to be aided by performance-related pay Next time you hear a banker defend big bonuses as an essential spur to doing a good job, attack him or her with a candlestick. In a classic psychology experiment, a candle is placed on a table with a box of pins and some matches. Subjects are told to attach the candle to the wall and light it without dripping any wax on the table below. Most try pinning the candle to the wall. It doesn't work. Others melt the base and attempt to stick it to the wall. No joy. Finally, the answeAdityr dawns: empty the box, pin it to the wall – and you have a candleholder. What's this got to do with financial incentives? In the 60s, Sam Glucksberg ran a version of the candle trial where subjects were split into two groups. One lot did the experiment as normal; the others were offered $5 if they ranked among the fastest 25% – with the quickest of all scooping $25. Did that speed things up? Quite the opposite. Those on incentives took an average of 3.5 minutes longer. And that's not a typo – but a result that contradicts business orthodoxy about how to get the best out of workers. Behavioural scientists have found that bonuses don't improve performance of tasks that require lateral or complex thought. In his new book Drive, Dan Pink rightly concludes, "There's a mismatch between what science knows and what business does." Where bonuses do work is in encouraging unthinking mechanical labour. In a recent study, US undergraduates were offered incentives to tap a keyboard as fast as possible, then to add up some numbers. The cash worked in the first, mechanical task, but it led to poorer performance of the maths. This week, City bankers will receive mega-bonuses for their supposedly rare brilliance. But regulators could use scientific evidence to show that finance jobs are too complex to be aided by performance-related pay. Windfalls only boost performance of mundane tasks, government officials might insist – so from now on, telephone-number pay packets should go to workers on assembly lines and checkouts. Just a thought. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 18 Jan 2010 | 5:05 pm Rare bird's breeding ground found in Afghanistan (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 5:05 pm Food scientists develop appetite-curbing gelNeed to shed some pounds? Scientists at Birmingham University aim to help, with research into a diet-suppressing solution The season of peace, goodwill and over-indulgence has come and gone. In the cold dawn of January, 'tis the season to shape up and shed the pounds. Unfortunately, however, the more we eat, the more we want to eat. Many a dieter is struggling to come to terms with that paradox following an overindulgent Christmas. Scientists at Birmingham University's school of chemical engineering may, in the not-too-distant future, be able to help. They are one year into a four-year project to find an aid for those who want to cut back on the desire to snack. They have developed an aqueous solution that gels into a solid structure in the stomach, thereby helping to curb appetite. The target market is those for whom bingeing is not just for Christmas, but a habit that dogs them all year round. "But, yes, it could also be used short-term to get back on track after the festive excesses. Why not?" suggests Dr Fotis Spyropoulos, one of the project team. The four-strong team at Birmingham is headed by Professor Ian Norton, formerly chief scientist (foods) at Unilever, and the man who oversaw the development of Flora as an alternative to butter. Unilever is among a group of big manufacturers and retailers who are indirectly financing this and other universities to develop potentially health-enhancing products through the Diet and Health Research Industry Club, otherwise known as Drinc. Other members include Coca-Cola, Cadbury, United Biscuits and Marks & Spencer. "To me that means that one or more of these companies see potential for future commercial application," says Spyropoulos. "Two or three years from now, we'll be looking to establish collaborations to market what might be a solution that could be mixed with milk and poured over breakfast cereal to keep you feeling full until lunchtime. Alternatively, it could be taken as one of those dairy-type drinks swigged down between meals when the urge to snack comes on." He adds: "Obesity is now one of the biggest drivers of food-based scientific research. As the issue has moved further and further up the national agenda, it seems to me that consumers have decided to blame the food and drink companies for making their products taste so good." You might think these companies would shy away from investing in any product that suppresses appetite. Not so. "They realise that they have to keep consumers happy in all sorts of ways. It comes down to offering a choice. We are involved in developing products that are healthy alternatives to foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar. But we're also looking into reinforcing healthy eating habits and changing unhealthy ones. That's what this project is about." The Birmingham scientists have developed a hydrocolloid, a substance that forms itself into a gel soon after impact with the stomach's acidic environment. They have used naturally occurring polymers that are found in a wide range of foods – starch in bread, for instance. The idea is to make you feel fuller for longer, thereby suppressing the yearning to eat between meals. "We now have to work on just how long that suppressant should last," Spyropoulos explains. "Should the effects be timed to wear off five or six hours from breakfast, or two or three hours from being consumed as a mid-morning drink? It's important to us to understand that process so that we can offer an alternative for the consumer." The gel needs to weaken progressively so that it can break down and pass through the digestive tract, allowing the desire to eat to return in time for lunch or dinner, he explains, before adding: "We're also looking at another key element of the formulation – how to get the gel to release energy slowly. When the stomach is full, your brain is triggered to expect a reward in terms of energy. That was a problem encountered by one of the big soft-drink manufacturers when it produced a new range of low-calorie drinks. Consumers were expecting a boost in energy, which wasn't forthcoming. So what did they do? They binged on something else." So this project is about psychology as well as chemistry, he points out. "We've brought in two PhD psychology students to look at consumer habits. When people indulge in food such as chocolate, is it because they have a psychological need to eat something slightly unhealthy as a reward for achievement elsewhere? When you're celebrating, after all, you have a glass of wine or beer rather than a banana. If there is a psychological rather than a physical need to snack, then maybe we should be looking to offer a healthier alternative – something that looks and tastes like chocolate, but isn't chocolate." Chocolate, strawberry or mango and passion fruit – the taste of the appetite-suppressing liquid has yet to be decided. "Flavouring is usually the last stage of any new food development," Spyropoulos confirms. "But it has to be something that consumers would enjoy. Otherwise they won't buy it." You don't need a PhD in psychology to work that one out. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 18 Jan 2010 | 5:05 pm Gravel 'traps Exxon Valdez oil'Large quantities of oil spilled during the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster persist beneath beaches in the region, a study finds.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 18 Jan 2010 | 4:35 pm Study explains why oil from Exxon Valdez spill still lingers on Alaska's beaches (McClatchy Newspapers)McClatchy Newspapers - ANCHORAGE — For nearly a decade, scientists have puzzled over the persistence of oil from the Exxon Valdez oil spill.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 3:55 pm Malignant malaria found in apesThe parasite which causes malignant malaria in humans has been identified in gorillas for the first time.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 18 Jan 2010 | 3:53 pm The Science Behind the Cell Phone Cancer Scare (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - Do cell phones cause brain cancer? There's no good reason to think they do.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 2:50 pm Double Sunsets May be Common, But Twin-Star Setups Still Mysterious (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - The Earth may orbit around a single star, but most stars like our sun are binaries — two stars orbiting each other as a pair. In fact there are many three-star triple systems, even going up perhaps as high as seven-star — or septuplet — systems.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 2:00 pm Start running and watch your brain grow• Aerobic exercise triggers new cell growth – study The health benefits of a regular run have long been known, but scientists have never understood the curious ability of exercise to boost brain power. Now researchers think they have the answer. Neuroscientists at Cambridge University have shown that running stimulates the brain to grow fresh grey matter and it has a big impact on mental ability. A few days of running led to the growth of hundreds of thousands of new brain cells that improved the ability to recall memories without confusing them, a skill that is crucial for learning and other cognitive tasks, researchers said. The new brain cells appeared in a region that is linked to the formation and recollection of memories. The work reveals why jogging and other aerobic exercise can improve memory and learning, and potentially slow down the deterioration of mental ability that happens with old age. "We know exercise can be good for healthy brain function, but this work provides us with a mechanism for the effect," said Timothy Bussey, a behavioural neuroscientist at Cambridge and a senior author on the study. The research builds on a growing body of work that suggests exercise plays a vital role in keeping the brain healthy by encouraging the growth of fresh brain cells. Previous studies have shown that "neurogenesis" is limited in people with depression, but that their symptoms can improve if they exercise regularly. Some antidepressant drugs work by encouraging the growth of new brain cells. Scientists are unsure why exercise triggers the growth of grey matter, but it may be linked to increased blood flow or higher levels of hormones that are released while exercising. Exercise might also reduce stress, which inhibits new brain cells through a hormone called cortisol. The Cambridge researchers joined forces with colleagues at the US National Institute on Ageing in Maryland to investigate the effect of running. They studied two groups of mice, one of which had unlimited access to a running wheel throughout. The other mice formed a control group. In a brief training session, the mice were put in front of a computer screen that displayed two identical squares side by side. If they nudged the one on the left with their nose they received a sugar pellet reward. If they nudged the one on the right, they got nothing. After training the mice went on to do the memory test. The more they nudged the correct square, the better they scored. At the start of the test, the squares were 30cm apart, but got closer and closer together until they were almost touching. This part of the experiment was designed to test how good the mice were at separating two very similar memories. The human equivalent could be remembering what a person had for dinner yesterday and the day before, or where they parked on different trips to the supermarket. The running mice clocked up an average of 15 miles (24km) a day. Their scores in the memory test were nearly twice as high as those of the control group. The greatest improvement was seen in the later stages of the experiment, when the two squares were so close they nearly touched, according to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "At this stage of the experiment, the two memories the mice are forming of the squares are very similar. It is when they have to distinguish between the two that these new brain cells really make a difference," Bussey said. The sedentary mice got steadily worse at the test because their memories became too similar to separate. The scientists also tried to wrongfoot the mice by switching the square that produced a food reward. The running mice were quicker to catch on when scientists changed them around. Brain tissue taken from the rodents showed that the running mice had grown fresh grey matter during the experiment. Tissue samples from the dentate gyrus part of the brain revealed on average 6,000 new brain cells in every cubic millimetre. The dentate gyrus is part of the hippocampus, one of the few regions of the adult brain that can grow fresh brain cells. Running stories"Running! If there's any activity happier, more exhilarating, more nourishing to the imagination, I can't think of what it might be. In running the mind flees with the body, the mysterious efflorescence of language seems to pulse in the brain, in rhythm with our feet and the swinging of our arms." Joyce Carole Oates, American author and professor of creative writing at Princeton University: "When I am running my mind empties itself. Everything I think while running is subordinate to the process. The thoughts that impose themselves on me while running are like light gusts of wind – they appear all of a sudden, disappear again and change nothing." Haruki Murakami, Japanese author "When I run, I think about everything: physics, family problems, plans for the weekend. I haven't made any big discoveries on a run, but it does give me time to think through problems. Some solutions are obvious, but they are only obvious when you are relaxed enough to find them." Wolfgang Ketterle, Nobel prizewinning physicist, MIT "Being a runner, to me, has made being depressed impossible. If ever I'm going through something emotional and just go outside for a run, you can rest assured that I'll come back with clarity and empowerment." Alanis Morissette, singer-songwriter guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 18 Jan 2010 | 1:41 pm Tough Snail Shell Could Inspire Better Body ArmorA snail's shell has a unique structure that may provide clues for designing improved body armor, a new study suggests.Source: Livescience.com | 18 Jan 2010 | 1:07 pm When our economic interests are at stake, the war on nature resumesAll this badger cull will prove is that our relations with the natural world have scarcely altered since the dark ages There's a story that almost all of us believe: that beyond a certain state of development, we relearn a respect for nature. It is true that some of the excesses of the early modern age – attempts by gamekeepers to kill all competing species, mass slaughter by white hunters in the colonies, the grubbing up of hedgerows and ancient woodlands – have lessened, though we still eat endangered fish and buy timber from clear-cut rainforest. It is also true that we give more money to conservation projects and spend more time watching wildlife films than we have ever done before. But as soon as we perceive that our economic interests are threatened, our war against nature resumes. 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. The Welsh assembly is celebrating the occasion by launching a project to exterminate the badger. I won't pretend that this story ranks alongside the catastrophe in Haiti or the meltdown in Afghanistan, but it casts an interesting light on humanity's continuing impulse to conquer nature, and shows how, even when cloaked in the language of science, our relations with the natural world are still governed by irrationality and superstition. Last week the Welsh rural affairs minister, Elin Jones, announced what her government calls "a proactive non-selective badger cull" in west Wales. What this means is the elimination of the species, beginning when the cubs emerge from their burrows in May. Badgers carry the bacterium which causes bovine tuberculosis. The purpose of the experiment is to discover whether the number of cows with the disease is reduced when the badger is exterminated. It it works, the method might be applied elsewhere. But even before the experiment begins, I can tell you that it's a waste of time and money. In 2007, after nine years of research, the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB sent its final report to the UK government. It discovered that "badger culling cannot meaningfully contribute to the future control of cattle TB in Britain". Rather than suppressing the disease, killing badgers appears to spread it. The researchers had killed badgers across 30 areas, each of 100 square kilometres. They found that when the badgers were culled in response to local outbreaks of TB, the slaughter "increased, rather than reduced" the incidence of the disease in cattle: the level of infection rose by some 20%. When badgers were killed proactively (culled annually, regardless of whether cattle were infected), the incidence of TB inside the killing zone was reduced by 23% – but the incidence outside increased by 25%. The reason is that the killing changes the behaviour of the badgers: they travel more and mix more, either to escape the slaughter or to investigate the ecological space it opens up. The economic costs of proactive culling, the study found, were 40 times greater than the benefits. But the old reflex dies hard. As the scientific group pointed out, "agricultural and veterinary leaders continue to believe, in spite of overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary, that the main approach to cattle TB control must involve some form of badger population control". It noted "considerable reluctance to accept and embrace scientific findings". The Welsh government shares this reluctance. In announcing her extermination policy last week, Elin Jones claimed that the cull would be conducted according to "the requirements outlined by the Independent Scientific Group". But the ISG couldn't have made itself clearer: badger culling of any kind won't work. Instead, governments should do more to control the way that cattle are kept, tested and moved. This was a message that farmers and the Welsh government didn't want to hear. The policy Elin Jones announced last week is even worse than this suggests. Her culling experiment is actually testing two variables: exterminating badgers and better management of cattle. Yet there are no experimental controls (study areas in which one or both methods are not being tried), so there is no means of telling which of the two measures is working, or whether changes in the incidence of the disease have anything to do with the experiment. There's a scientific term for a study that simultaneously tests two variables while using no controls: worthless. The Welsh experiment has nothing to do with science and everything to do with appeasing farmers. The Farmers' Union of Wales has been furiously demanding that time and money should be wasted in this fashion. It has lobbied the assembly government for a scheme that will damage its members' interests and alienate the people who buy their milk and butter and cheese. It appears to be impervious to evidence or reason: last week it announced that "badger culling works. Any talk about farming practices being a significant factor are unfounded." But even if extermination did work, the effect could be sustained only by killing any badgers that re-entered the area: in other words, rendering the species extinct there. Were the same approach to be rolled out across a wider area (the policy the experiment is designed to test), the badger would have to become extinct not only across that zone, but also in all neighbouring zones. Because badgers will move into areas from which the species has been erased, the only logical outcome of this approach is to exterminate the badger throughout the United Kingdom. As this is politically unacceptable, the Welsh experiment is pointless as well as worthless. This exercise in wilful stupidity betrays an approach to the natural world that has scarcely altered since the dark ages. We still act as if we have been granted dominion over it. Those with an economic interest seem to regard any species that might compete or conflict with them as a threat not only to their income but also to their power. They still treat the natural world as fungible: nothing is too precious, too great a source of wonder and delight to liquidate. There appears to be no point of regret beyond which we won't venture, no lesson in ecological collapse that we are prepared to learn. The Christian worldview, which places humankind at the apex of creation, is hard to shake, even in the most secular nation on earth. All industries strive not only towards monopoly but also towards monoculture: domination of the natural or cultural landscape. This is what George Orwell meant when he remarked that "the logical end of mechanical progress is to reduce the human being to something resembling a brain in a bottle". Industry, if left unchecked, tolerates no deviance. It seeks to shrink both the range of human experience and the wonders of the natural world until they fit into the container it has made for them. We could lose badgers and – except for those of us who spend summer evenings watching them as they shuffle out of their setts – suffer few tangible losses. But the urge to destroy them springs from the same pathological instinct for power which would deprive us of almost everything. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 18 Jan 2010 | 1:00 pm Fair weather friendsLong term forecasting is a science in its infancy. The BBC should stick with Met Office expertise It's open season, it seems, on the Met Office. The BBC is reported to be weighing up its contract with the state-owned forecaster, and considering a new deal with an alternative company, which would sever a 90-year link with the broadcaster. In my many years working for the Met Office and appearing on BBC programmes, I and my colleagues saw little of the wrangling behind the scenes, but renegotiation of contracts happened on at least two occasions. The BBC would be foolish not to assess the way its money is being spent. They are not alone in needing to find ways to save pennies. But the weather is slightly different to any old contract – this is a vital service, upon which millions of pounds, and human lives, depend. To my mind the Met Office is the most experienced and thorough forecaster in the world, home to the best and brightest brains in the business. Twenty four hours a day, 365 days a year, the Met Office delivers its information to Britain through the national broadcaster. Forecasters for the BBC need to have two distinct but crucial parts. First, they must be fully qualified meteorologists. They need to be proficient in understanding and interpreting the data provided, to be able to adjust interpretations at a moment's notice. Second, and just as essential, they need to be able to communicate that information to the audience. This is tougher than it might seem: it means translating specialist data and language into accessible terms; it often means thinking on one's feet; and it demands a personality that people trust. It is no easy marriage of skills and the BBC is well served by a uniquely talented team. The fog hovering over the Met Office has been deepened by press speculation that it has flunked its latest long-term forecasts. The talk of a "barbecue summer" and a "mild winter", it is insinuated, lay bare the Met Office's shortcomings. It is wrong to use long-term forecasts as a stick with which to beat the organisation. Predicting the weather for days ahead is a very different task to predicting an entire season. One is meteorology; the other is climatology. Producing forecasts for even one or two months ahead is a discipline in its infancy – and in my experience the Met Office has been reluctant to make public its long-term forecasts. The pressure to do so comes in large part from the very same parts of the media that now seek to discredit it, and the same parts of the media that so often exaggerate – or misrepresent – the information the Met Office provides. Several years ago when I was still at the Met Office, I remember we produced a forecast for that December, pointing to a mild month of wet patches, with colder spells. Parts of the press managed to extrapolate that information into headlines that predicted a white Christmas. It bore almost no relation to the facts. The Met Office, of course, should not be immune to criticism. But those who condemn it for wrongly predicting a "barbecue summer" would do well to revisit the data – measured over the three-month period, it was not the miserable summer that some imagine. And the mild winter? Well, it's not over yet. Let's wait until March, and measure the averages then, before we take the Met Office to task. My forecast? We're about to enter a period of mild weather. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 18 Jan 2010 | 12:30 pm UN climate body to review Himalayan glacier forecast (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 11:42 am U.N. panel re-examines Himalayan glacier thaw reportNEW DELHI (Reuters) - The U.N. panel of climate scientists said Monday it was reviewing a report containing a little-known projection that Himalayan glaciers might vanish by 2035, a finding trenchantly criticized by the Indian government.Source: Reuters: Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 10:50 am Mystery Object Behaves Both Like a Comet and AsteroidSomething awfully curious is happening 250 million miles away in the asteroid belt. Astronomers think they may be witnessing a never-before-seen collision between two asteroids. The puzzle centers on a newly discovered object that superficially looks like a comet but ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Jan 2010 | 10:41 am World leaders make new call for clean energy commitments (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 10:39 am Anti-science can be a lethal gameSimon Jenkins may scoff about swine flu estimates, but HIV/Aids has taught us not to wait to see how deep a pile of bodies gets It is disappointing to see Simon Jenkins continue his attacks on scientists attempting to explain complex concepts of risk about a new strain of virus to an ignorant public whose main source of information is an often hysterical media. From his opening paragraph Jenkins presents a unique interpretation of the dangers of swine flu based on his understanding of comments from public scientists. He accuses Sir Liam Donaldson of bandying "about any figure that came into his head, settling on '65,000 could die'". This figure was in fact a worst case scenario, as the article linked to in Jenkins' piece clearly indicates. Jenkins cites BSE/CJD as a previous example of scare story about science that came to nought, claiming that "it would 'lead to 136,000 deaths' – a spurious exactitude used to convey plausibility". Again the cited article makes clear that this is an estimated upper limit in a worst case scenario. One might also be curious about where Jenkins came across the phrase "the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence," which he calls a classic Rumsfeld-ism. In fact it is a misquote from Carl Sagan's Demon Haunted World, where it is used to illustrate the dangers of arguing from ignorance. But this isn't about Jenkins' lack of scholarship, this is about a reflexive, unthinking attitude to science and risk assessment that can go drastically, horribly wrong. In the early 1990s, when Jenkins was editor of the Times, he supported the then Times science correspondent, Neville Hodgkinson, who advocated the arguments of Peter Duesberg, a now notorious individual, who doubted the links between HIV and Aids. At this point in time Duesberg's theories were already considered wrong by the scientific community, yet this did not stop the Times from lending its support. In December 1993 Jenkins wrote an article in which he claimed that fears over Aids were simple scaremongering, predictions of fatalities were wrong, and drug company funding was distorting the public debate, thus, the link between HIV and Aids should be questioned. This position was untenable given the current state of the literature. Interestingly the arguments in that piece are almost identical to those Jenkins wields today against the dangers of swine flu. What Jenkins fails to understand is that scientific arguments are not constructed by rhetoric, but by the tedious and often slow process of evidence-gathering and interpretation. Sometimes, especially so in the case of a rapidly spreading disease, an official response is required before the scientific picture is clear. This response is based on a risk assessment from the contemporaneous evidence and can often seem to be wrong given hindsight benefiting from up-to-date evidence. Even so, governments are not responding in the firm belief that the worst is happening, they will be prepared for a wide range of possibilities, from slight to serious. The impact of the epidemic will become more apparent as the state of knowledge improves and the response modified accordingly. However, it is undesirable for governments to sit back and wait and see how deep the pile of bodies becomes before a serious response begins. Perhaps the best example of sitting back and waiting for disaster comes from the way in which South Africa dealt with Aids under Thabo Mbeki. Influenced by Duesberg and Hodgkinson, among others, Mbeki doubted the link between HIV and Aids and declined to make anti-retroviral drugs publicly available. It has been estimated that more than 300,000 deaths occurred because of this in South Africa alone. Being wrong about an epidemic can be lethal. Jenkins might be right in assuming that the dangers of swine flu and BSE/CJD were overestimated, but he was wrong about Aids. Being right two out of three times might be a winning strategy in games of poker, but when being wrong results in hundreds of thousands of deaths it is hard to argue that the game is worth playing given the stakes. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 18 Jan 2010 | 10:30 am SpacemanMethane on Mars: Esa and Nasa get down to businessSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 18 Jan 2010 | 10:16 am Scientists push "Doomsday Clock" back a minuteNEW YORK (Reuters) - Scientists pushed back the hands on the symbolic Doomsday Clock by one minute citing hopeful developments in nuclear weapons and climate change.Source: Reuters: Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 9:58 am Why Some Female Bovids Have HornsWhy do some female bovids have horns, whereas others don’t?Source: Livescience.com | 18 Jan 2010 | 9:10 am First written reference of Isaac Newton's apple story goes onlineThe original version of the story of Sir Isaac Newton and the falling apple has been made available online.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 18 Jan 2010 | 8:56 am The Science Behind the Cell Phone Cancer ScareDo cell phones cause cancer? Studies can't find a link, but fear remains.Source: Livescience.com | 18 Jan 2010 | 8:29 am Why Placebos Didn't Kill Alexa Ray JoelAlexa Ray Joel's overdose of Traumeel didn't kill her because the homeopathic medicine is no more effective than a placebo.Source: Livescience.com | 18 Jan 2010 | 8:09 am In Death Throes, Fish Help Offspring EscapeDying fish release alarm chemicals that cause embryos to develop faster.Source: Livescience.com | 18 Jan 2010 | 8:01 am World ClassSchools take the temperature after CopenhagenSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 18 Jan 2010 | 7:37 am Odds Slim for Resurrecting Defunct Mars Lander (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - Today, NASA will begin attempts to re-establish contact with the long-defunct Phoenix Mars Lander, which has been enveloped in the frost of the northern Martian winter for more than a year now. But chances are slim the probe will phone home.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 7:32 am Five fatal flaws of animal activism | Victor SchonfeldFrom tacky nude posters to dubious concepts such as 'happy meat', animal rights groups are losing the fight for real change There are a few things that have kept me going, and kept me proud of how I've been living over the decades. Pretty near the top of the list is being a vegetarian for ethical reasons. That was deeply unfashionable back in 1977 when I abandoned meat-eating and went on to make The Animals Film. I was over the moon when that film had a greater impact than I'd dreamed it would; and then I went back to human concerns in my creative work. It wasn't until some 30 years later at the suggestion of the BBC World Service that I returned to this terrain for the radio documentary series One Planet: Animals and Us. But I'd remained a vegetarian, and so hoped to discover that the exploitation of animals for food and science had been reduced since the 1980s. What I found, however, was more than disappointing – a complete absence of decisive progress. Austria with several new laws has come closest to meaningful change, but even there the number of animals suffering for human needs and pleasures is undiminished, and the industrialised exploitation of animals for food is spreading across the globe. There has been one unarguable advance, though, and that's been the progressive "normalisation" of vegetarianism over the years. When I first settled in Britain, restaurants seldom offered vegetarian choices; supermarkets barely catered to my needs at all. London's main vegetarian restaurant was named Cranks, and that said it all. Today, by contrast, families happily pop out to the corner shop to buy vegetarian foods to host my young daughter, and "veggie" options are steadily becoming staples in school lunch halls. In light of this, one New Zealand-based listener's criticism of my work for the BBC World Service stood out from enthusiastic responses to the programmes. "So disappointing to hear Schonfeld is still a vegetarian after so many years," she complained. What she was underlining is that I had not become a vegan. Though I concluded the series with Professor Gary Francione calling for vegan education as "the moral baseline" for animal rights, that still left the question: what about me personally, and the way I live now? I had stopped short of removing milk and eggs from my diet and all leather and wool from my clothing. I'd had my rationales for this, the main one being that I hadn't wanted to impose too zealously nonconformist a lifestyle on my family. Also, in the 1980s, one of the traps for the animal rights movement was marginalisation. So when I was interviewed about The Animals Film and journalists thought they'd caught me out in personal inconsistencies, I'd say I wore leather shoes or took milk in my coffee so that the implications of the film couldn't be dismissed by labelling the filmmaker a fanatic. But now in the 21st century supermarkets routinely cater to vegetarian food buyers, restaurant menus regularly display vegetarian symbols, and the harm to health and the global environment caused by factory farming has become established knowledge. It's time for vegans to become vocal. Even free range eggs and organic milk production entail significant suffering and the animals are killed when their productivity goes down. Yet we are socialised from early childhood to use a plethora of animal products without thinking. To follow a vegan path requires daily thought and effort. Here's what I've realised: getting to that ultimate zero-exploitation goal may be elusive, but the continuing efforts are empowering. So, on an individual level I'm hopeful. But the Animals and Us series made vivid that the organised group efforts on behalf of animals have been largely fruitless to date, in terms of the end goals, and campaigns for small changes are quite possibly counterproductive. The organised activism is sorely in need of fresh perspectives. Thus I submit here for scrutiny five fatal flaws of animal activism: 1. Instead of promoting animal rights goals as a major plank within broader social change movements, animal organisations insist on going it alone. Yet the Green party's animal rights goals are as radical as any animal rights organisation's. 2. One of the world's largest animal rights organisations routinely employs naked young women, including porn stars, to chase mass media attention. Would a human rights organisation stoop so low? 3. Animal rights organisations have been handing out awards and lavishing praise on slaughterhouse designers and burger restaurant chains after "negotiations" for small changes that leave the systems of exploitation intact. 4. Instead of animal rights organisations promoting a clear "moral baseline" that individuals should become vegans to curb their own demands for animal exploitation, groups have given their stamp of approval to deeply compromised marketing concepts such as "happy meat", "freedom foods", "sustainable meat", and "conscientious omnivores". 5. Tactics of violence and personal intimidation have at long last fallen out of favour, but activists now pour energy and resources into organisations that lack any real strategy for bringing an end to animal exploitation, whether for food or science. Animal activists have not been asking themselves the difficult questions, and organisational self-promotion stunts substitute for the less glamorous work of figuring out how to help each of us change the way we live. Much noise, little change. Perhaps it's time to reverse that. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 18 Jan 2010 | 7:00 am Story of Newton's encounter with apple goes online (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 5:13 am Century-Old Antarctic Station Shows WarmingWeather data from the past 107 years have revealed a warming trend since the 1950s.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Jan 2010 | 5:00 am Saving Energy Italian StylePower engineers estimate that using smart meters saves Italy’s largest electric company $750 million a year and cuts customers’ energy bills by as much as half.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Jan 2010 | 2:10 am
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