Moms' depression in pregnancy tied to antisocial behavior in teens

Researchers studying 120 British youth from inner-city areas found that mothers who became depressed when pregnant were four times as likely to have children who were violent at 16. This was true for both boys and girls. The mothers' depression, in turn, was predicted by their own aggressive and disruptive behavior as teens.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2010 | 3:00 pm

How the butterflies got their spots

How two butterfly species have evolved exactly the same striking wing color and pattern has intrigued biologists since Darwin's day. Now, scientists have found "hot spots" in the butterflies' genes that they believe will explain one of the most extraordinary examples of mimicry in the natural world.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2010 | 3:00 pm

Secrets to superb malting barleys explored

Agricultural scientists are discovering more about what goes on inside malting barley grains as they germinate, or sprout, in the malt house.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2010 | 3:00 pm

How progesterone prevents preterm birth

Researchers believe they may have discovered how the hormone progesterone acts to prevent preterm birth.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2010 | 3:00 pm

Toward safer plastics that lock in potentially harmful plasticizers

Scientists have published the first report on a new way of preventing potentially harmful plasticizers -- the source of long-standing human health concerns -- from migrating from one of the most widely used groups of plastics.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2010 | 3:00 pm

New malaria vaccine is safe and protective in children, scientists find

A new vaccine to prevent the deadly malaria infection has shown promise to protect the most vulnerable patients -- young children -- against the disease, according to an international team of researchers. The vaccine seems to replicate in children the natural protective immunity that adults develop after years of intense exposure to malaria. A child dies of malaria every 30 seconds, according to the WHO.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2010 | 3:00 pm

Blacks with MS have more severe symptoms, decline faster than whites, new study shows

Fewer African Americans than Caucasians develop multiple sclerosis, statistics show, but their disease progresses more rapidly, and they don't respond as well to therapies, a new study by neurology researchers has found.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am

Leaves whisper their properties through ultrasound

The water content of leaves, their thickness, their density and other properties can now be determined without even having to touch them. Researchers in Spain have presented an innovative technique that enables plant leaves to be studied using ultrasound in a quick, simple and noninvasive fashion.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am

Quantum computing leap forward: altering a lone electron without disturbing its neighbors

A major hurdle in the ambitious quest to design and construct a radically new kind of quantum computer has been finding a way to manipulate the single electrons that very likely will constitute the new machines' processing components or "qubits." Now, a physicist has discovered how to do just that -- demonstrating a method that alters the properties of a lone electron without disturbing the trillions of electrons in its immediate surroundings. The feat is essential to the development of future varieties of superfast computers with near-limitless capacities for data.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am

World's first in-depth study of the malaria parasite genome

Groundbreaking research could lead to the development of more potent drugs or a vaccine for malaria. Scientists have scored a world first in successfully using transcriptional profiling to uncover hitherto unknown gene expression (activity) patterns in malaria.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am

Japanese media criticize Toyota chief for response (AP)

AP - Japanese media sharply criticized Toyota's president Saturday for what they called a delayed and unconvincing explanation for the massive car recall that has sullied the world's biggest automaker, a Japanese corporate icon.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 6 Feb 2010 | 3:19 am

In pictures

The troubles faced by the world's largest amphibian
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 6 Feb 2010 | 12:54 am

Powerful blizzard shuts down US capital (AFP)

AFP - An "extremely dangerous" blizzard expected to dump record amounts of snow pounded the eastern United States Saturday, closing down the US capital and threatening to trap millions indoors for days.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 5 Feb 2010 | 11:42 pm

This Tree's a Lady! (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Scientists have discovered the female sex hormone progesterone in a walnut tree, shaking up what's known about the different between plants and animals.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 5 Feb 2010 | 10:30 pm

Genome Mapped for Type 2 Diabetes (HealthDay)

HealthDay - FRIDAY, Feb. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists have completed a map of areas of the human genome that control which genes are switched on or off in type 2 diabetes, a finding that may advance understanding of the genetic basis of this and other common diseases.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 5 Feb 2010 | 9:49 pm

Feds: Status of pika will still need watching (AP)

AP - The American pika isn't heading for the endangered species list, but federal scientists said there's no question it bears watching as the West warms in the coming decades.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 5 Feb 2010 | 9:42 pm

Arctic climate changing faster than expected

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Climate change is transforming the Arctic environment faster than expected and accelerating the disappearance of sea ice, scientists said on Friday in giving their early findings from the biggest-ever study of Canada's changing north.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 5 Feb 2010 | 5:32 pm

Vrooms with a view: Europe's most scenic drives

Ten stunning journeys on the open road

Atlantic Highway, England

Start Abandon the M5 at Bridgwater (J23) amid watercolour landscapes of the Somerset Levels heading west on the A39, my favourite UK driving road.

Route (135 miles) It's easy: follow the A39, ignore your map/satnav and concentrate on stupendous views instead. On one side of the road are increasingly wild hills, on the other, some of Britain's best coastline.

End Bude's muddle of windy dunes, Victoriana and surfing marks the first seaside town in Cornwall but stay on the A39 for foodie Padstow or Newquay, the surfers' party town.

Look out for Charming little-known villages of the Quantocks and Brendon Hills, the National Trust's cutesy Selworthy village, the view from Lynmouth's water-powered cliff funicular railway and scenic detours to Ilfracombe and Combe Martin's rocky seashores and Hartland's bohemian end-of-the-worldness.

Where to stay/eat Andrews-on-the-Weir (+44 (0)1643 863300, doubles from £75 B&B) at Porlock Weir is a traditional, classy restaurant-with-rooms next to a tiny harbour. The thatched Rising Sun Hotel (+44 (0)1598 753223, from £60pp pn or £90 with dinner) at Lynmouth looks out across the bay. It's an inspirational spot: Shelley honeymooned here and RD Blackmore wrote part of Lorna Doone upstairs.

Yorkshire Wolds, England

Start Escape the M62 at J38, through North Cave village up to Beverley.

Route (135 miles) From Beverley's likeable minster, galleries and doily-clad teashops, drive north to the corny seaside charms of Bridlington. The long detour to Spurn Head is worth it for the sheer geographical oddity of this spit across the Humber Mouth. From "Brid", head south via the proud East Riding country towns of Driffield and Pocklington, where Burnby Hall Gardens' pretty lakes are home to the national water lily collection.

Ends Rejoin the M62 at the comfortable market town of Howden (J37), with its minster standing tall in the old centre.

Look out for Big skies, long straight roads and ancient villages nestling between smooth rolling hills; like Rudston, with its mysterious 26ft monolith, the tallest standing stone in England. I parked to walk around idyllic Londesborough village, not wanting to disturb its quiet, traffic-free perfection.

Where to stay/eat Eat at the Pipe and Glass Inn (01430 810246) among the pretty rows of estate workers' cottages in South Dalton overlooking Dalton Hall stately home. Sleep at the Beverley Arms Hotel (doubles from £60pn), an elegant 18th-century red brick coaching house.

Island Circuit, Isle of Man

Start On Man, everything stems from Douglas, its surprisingly large and sophisticated capital and ferry port standing on a broad, sandy crescent bay.

Route (75 miles) Simply follow the coastline right round the island on lovely well-maintained roads. I'd recommend anti-clockwise – that way the driver has the best sea views. Bike fans and speed freaks can take a detour inland to drive the 37-mile TT course on public roads – there's no speed limit.

Look out for Avoid the first week of June when motorbikes take over the island, otherwise the roads are quiet enough to gaze at views of lush wooded glens running down to the sea, the solitary and occasionally snow-topped Snaefell mountain, varied but always unspoilt coastal landscapes and time-warp villages. My favourite spots include the modern Sound Cafe (01624 838123) overlooking the Calf of Man, pottering around Castletown's quaint harbour and a bracing walk up Snaefell for the panoramic view from the top.

Where to stay/eat Stay in Port St Mary, amid Aaron House's brass bedsteads, iron fireplaces and patterned wallpaper (01624 835702, from £35pp pn B&B); or on Douglas seafront at Inglewood (01624 674734, inglewoodhotel.net, £35pp pn B&B). Celebrate your journey at the island's best seafood restaurant, Tanroagan in Douglas (01624 612355).

South-West Coast, Ireland

Start Hire a car at Shannon airport or drive from the eastern ferry ports to Limerick.

Route (450 miles) From Limerick, head south via Blarney to Cork and Kinsale. Then turn west for Skibbereen, following the sequence of picturesque peninsulas and deep fjord-like bays back round to Limerick via Tarbert. You can add a circuit of County Clare's coast and the cliffs of Moher, returning to Limerick on the N18 from Ardrahan.

Look out for Lush countryside, rugged coastlines, islands, lakes and rivers. Park up for charming towns and villages of thatched cottages and friendly pubs, as well as Cork's city craic, Cobh's historic harbour and Kinsale's posh waterfront. The west coast road has some of Europe's finest scenery; my favourite is Bantry Bay, though most seem to prefer the Dingle peninsular.

Where to stay/eat The west coast has scores of lovely, small, old B&Bs in farms and country houses, like Grove House (+353 28 22957, grovehouse.net,/€59-€69pp B&B) and Shearwater House (+353 28 33178, €35pp B&B). Visit discoverireland.ie for more.

Ends Back where you started, Limerick has a memorable medieval castle on a river island in an old centre full of all the shops, cafes and culture you'd hope for.

The Hebrides, Scotland

Start Drive off the ferry into the dour windy streets of Stornoway, the Hebrides' only town.

Route (150 miles) It's winding, single-track road all the way, but one of Britain's great travel experiences. To start, it's worth heading across Lewis' vast, flat, treeless machair landscape to see Stevenson's lighthouse at the Butt of Lewis and Port of Ness fishing village (and the tiny Saxon chapel where I got married). Drive south via the impressive Callanish Standing Stones – stop and soak up the sense of prehistory.

Look out for A sequence of islands full of views of mountains, sea, lochs and glorious white sand beaches. Highlights include driving through Harris' mountain pass and through sea spray on the causeways linking the central islands. Spot seals from your car and swaths of wildflowers in spring, and take a boat trip to Kisimul Castle on its little island off Castlebay in Barra.

Where to stay/eat Scarista House (+44)(0)1859 550238, doubles from £175 B&B), a cosy manse on a huge, empty beach, is the best place to stay and eat. Recently extended Langass Lodge (+44) (0)1876 580285, doubles from £90 B&B) on North Uist runs it close.

Ends The island of Barra at the foot of the Western Isles chain and a car ferry back to Oban.

The Grand Tour, Switzerland, France, Italy

Start At elegant Geneva's Lake Léman waterfront. Head along the south shore, passing from Switzerland into France.

Route (500 miles) Take the D902 south, climbing steeply to Chamonix via Thonon-Les-Bains. The seven-mile Mont-Blanc tunnel under the highest Alp is a strange thrill; emerging into Italy's deep Aosta valley is even better. From Turin, head south for Alba, hitting the Med at Savona. Enjoy the Levantine Riviera as far as La Spezia, then find the little roads climbing up the Apennines to Abatone, and then twist down into Florence. Make a circuit by returning on the winding minor routes to Bologna or Modena, then back up to the Alps via Milan.

Look out for Lots of mountains, of course, plus all the shops, food and buzz of Italian cities, the undiscovered charm of its country towns and old-school swank of its glamorous coast. Portofino and Le Cinque Terre are seaside highlights; the twisty Apennine roads north of Florence a driver's joy.

Where to stay/eat Money no object? Park next to George Clooney's motorbike slot at the Splendido in Portofino (+39 0185 267 801, doubles from around €671). On a budget? Casa Cambi near Savona (+39 0182 78009, doubles from €80 B&B) is a colourful little hilltop hideaway.

Ends In Florence. Don't let the flat, industrial outskirts deter you, but think twice about trying to drive around the complex, restricted old city centre.

Pas de Calais, France

Start Calais ferry or Eurotunnel terminal.

Route (160 miles) Take the little D940 via Boulogne along the Côte d'Opale to Le Touquet. The D349 to Hesdin along the river Canche is one of northern France's prettiest drives. Head north on the D928 to St Omer, then the N43 northwest back to Calais via Ardres.

Look out for Wide sandy beaches and classic rural French roads lined with trees and posters advertising Ricard. In particular: views to Dover from Cap Gris Nez; Boulogne's historic port, cobbled streets and squares, and aquarium (Europe's largest); the estuary fishing port lined with seafood restaurants at Étaples; Le Touquet's elegant 1920s boutiques, restaurants and tree-lined boulevards of Parisians' expensive holiday homes; quirky Hesdin's Spanish-influenced architecture, Azincourt history centre ; cathedral and boat trips round the vast marshland waterways dug by medieval monks; wandering the hilltown of Ardres spotting old churches, quiet bars, little shops and views across the plains towards Calais, the sea, and home. Local specialities include rhubarb wine and St Omer's famous beer.

Where to stay/eat Enjoy country house grandeur at Chateau Tilques near St Omer (+33 3 21 38 34 23, doubles from €125, room-only), specialities include foie gras with gingerbread biscuits. Or at Le Touquet's exotic Itsara Spa (+33 3 21 05 49 33, doubles from €69).

Ends Before you leave, explore Calais' food shops and markets (Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday) and, of course, cheap wine outlets.

Basque Circuit, Spain, France

Start Bilbao's port (served by ferry from Portsmouth) at Santurtzi has great motorway connections: Madrid is only three hours' drive, Barcelona six. But this Basque country circuit makes a more interesting driving holiday.

Route (300 miles) Head south through Bilbao on the B1623 via a spectacular mountain pass to Vitoria-Gasteiz, turning east for Pamplona (take the N1 if you're in a hurry, the smaller scenic mountains roads to the south through Sierra de Urbasa if you're not). From Pamplona, the N-135 leads through the Pyrenees into France via the historic Roncesvalles pass. Views become more distracting . . . and corners more demanding. The D918 through the foothills provides another sequence of panoramas before you pick up the scent of the sea to Biarritz. I love heading back west to Bilbao along the Cantabrian corniche, mountains on your left, the Bay of Biscay below on your right.

Look out for The imposing plaza and cathedral at Vitoria-Gasteiz; Pamplona's compact historic centre, famous for July's bull run; the Riviera feel of Biarritz, with period promenades, elegant hotels and pounding surf; glamorous shopping and restaurants in St Jean-de-Luz; beaches and seafood at San Sebastiàn; smaller fishing villages like Getaria, Zumaya or Bermeo.

Where to stay/eat The gourmet Pyrenean retreat of Auberge Ostapé (+33 5 59 37 91 91, doubles from €140 room-only).

Ends Back at Bilbao for culture at the Guggenheimand browsing the old town's shops, cafes and Gothic architecture.

Bergen To Oslo, Norway

Start At Bergen's ferry port or airport. Take the smaller, more exciting road via Alvik to meet the Oslo road at Eidfjord.

Route (800 miles) Michelin's excellent European road atlases highlight especially scenic roads in green. The 350 miles from Bergen to the outskirts of Oslo is green all the way – meaning many hours of non-stop pointing and gasping. Return along on the coast road via Kristiansand and Stavanger, and swap mountains for pretty coastal towns, rocky islands and car ferry trips.

Look out for Elk. They make a hefty dent in even the toughest 4x4. Gaze at snow-topped mountains, sparkling fjords, deep conifer woods and fairy-tale wooden buildings like stave churches at Rollag and Uvdal. Arendal and Kristiansand are worth exploring for upmarket waterfront shops and restaurants. Norway's southernmost point at Mandal has a cute lighthouse and chic restaurant and, towards the end of the journey, the tiny white cottages next to the sea at Skudeneshavn near Haugesund, once voted Norway's prettiest village.

Where to stay/eat Roald Dahl spent summer holidays at the whitewashed Strand Hotel Fevik (+47 37 25 00 00, doubles from £160 B&B). The elegant 30s hotel stands on a private sandy beach and the seafood here is good, too.

Ends Back at Bergen. Allow time for this world heritage city, especially gabled wooden buildings on the historic waterfront and riding funiculars and cable cars up the mountains.

Alpine Road, Germany

Start At the island town of Lindau on Lake Constance. Before you leave, stroll between the old gabled houses packed in a maze of narrow streets.

Route (300 miles) This is one of the classic European drives – a designated scenic route twisting along the edge of the Bavarian Alps. It's much more interesting than the more popular "Romantic Road" but trickier to follow as it twists through scores of small towns and villages like Oberstaufen, Oberammergau, Ettal, Garmisch and Bad Tölz. You'll need a decent atlas and the map at: deutsche-alpenstrasse.de.

Look out for A switchback of lush Alpine meadows, snowy mountain peaks and ancient forests, punctuated by dozens of fairy-tale castles and lakes. Along the way pass through the winter-sport resort of Garmisch under Zugspitze, Germany's highest peak, and King Ludwig's Neuschwanstein castle and Linderhof palaces. I'm always left with memories of cows with bells around their necks, barmaids serving huge beers and sausages, and ornate wooden chalet-style houses with flower boxes overflowing with red geraniums.

Where to stay/eat Plenty of smaller hotels and guesthouses along the route, like Hotel Sonne (+49 8362 080 double from €109) in the heart of Füssen's old town. In Ramsau, the quaint Alpenpension Auengrund (ramsau.a-germany.com/alpenpension-auengrund, doubles from €58).

Ends The scenic mountain resort of Berchtesgaden next to Lake Königssee.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 5 Feb 2010 | 5:06 pm

Climate science: Truth and tribalism

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It is the mantra of the courtroom, but it is also the motivating ideal of good science – as well as good journalism. The Guardian's special report into the leaked emails between climate scientists has revealed as many roughnesses, pimples and warts as any Cromwellian portrait. In and among (plentiful) electronic evidence of the University of East Anglia researchers going about their job diligently, we have uncovered an abject failure to ensure essential records were kept on Chinese weather stations, determined manoeuvring to exclude critics from leading journals and international reports, and suggestions of deleting potentially embarrassing correspondence with a view to evading the Freedom of Information Act.

For a newspaper that prides itself on leading the fight to fix the climate, avoiding such a forthright interrogation of the scientific pro­cesses on which our call for action ultimately depends might have been more comfortable – comfortable but wrong. The reality is that 4,660 files from East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit are in the public domain. The pragmatic argument runs that it is better that these should be evaluated seriously, methodically and in proper context, rather than hyped and distorted on the blogosphere. The principled argument, however, is more powerful still. Scientific progress comes through free and frank debate, the bedrock of truth being revealed only after every muddying stratum above it has been penetrated and cleared away. Indeed, the settled core of our knowledge on climate – the fact of increasing atmospheric carbon, the rising temperature trend, and the heat-trapping mechanism linking the two – has acquired the terrific authority it now possesses precisely because it has been forced to withstand so many challenges in the past. The moment climatology is sheltered from dispute, its force begins to wane.

So the sort of closing of intellectual ranks witnessed at UEA was serious and, in the end, self-defeating. That point is made by the briefest glance at the sort of polemical denials which instantly found their way into the mainstream media after the emails first emerged, and was underlined yesterday by a new BBC poll which showed public scepticism has increased since November. What Copenhagen did for the chances of a meaningful climate deal, East Anglia has unwittingly done for the prospects of prevailing in the battle for hearts and minds. Before rushing to judgment on the hapless scientists involved, though, it is as well to recall the peculiar pressures that climate researchers face. The climate clock is ticking on civilisation and it falls to them to answer the all-important question about just how much time there is left to act. Providing the answer necessarily involves forecasting the future, inevitably a less certain business than making sense of the present, and yet as much certainty as possible is urgently required. The blatant foul play of the deniers invites a tit-for-tat response as a matter of human instinct, while the well-grounded suspicion that their aim is squandering precious time provides a seeming rationale for simply cutting them out of the debate.

The temptation to fall into tribalism is, then, understandable enough. It is also true that many of the specific sins involved, such as partial peer-reviewing and overly zealous defence of one's own research, are and always have been found in all manner of science departments. With climate, though, the stakes are higher – and so the standards must be too. The well-financed interests that are set to pay a heavy price from any curbing of emissions will do anything to discredit those uncovering facts that they would rather keep buried. Their arguments will get a sympathetic hearing from a public whose understanding can be distorted by the desire for an easy life. Complacency is tough stuff to puncture; only the purest strain of truth can be relied on to do the job.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 5 Feb 2010 | 5:06 pm

This week: Rajendra Pachauri, Pope Benedict and Katie Price and Alex Reid

Lucy Mangan on the people hitting the headlines this week

Taking the heat

Rajendra Pachauri

The head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been under fire ever since it was revealed that a glacier that was supposed to be a waning trickle of despair by 2035 is actually going to take a few years longer than that to disappear. Though disappear, still, it most assuredly will.

Nevertheless, this somehow apparently means that Pachauri should resign, all science is wrong, all sceptics are right, global warming is a lie and we can all live forever. What a relief. Let's throw another panda on the fire.

Papal protest

Pope Benedict

A familiar weariness steals over us as we report that the pope has inveighed against a proposed tweaking of the equalities bill which, as he – albeit wrongly – understood it, threatened to impose greater responsibilities on church leaders not to discriminate against homosexuals.

Pope Benedict, just ahead of his visit to Britain, argued that the bill ran contrary to "natural law". Honestly, popes. You can't take them anywhere.

The proposed amendment was actually merely to strengthen the distinction between religious and non-religious jobs but the House of Lords deemed it otiose. So everything is as it was and nobody's aged homophobia glands needed to have started pumping after all. Pace yourself, Joseph. There's bound to be plenty of genuine potential progress that needs retarding before you're done.

Money can't buy love

Katie Price and Alex Reid

From the supposed ashes of Brangelina's relationship rises a phoenix at least 0.0001% as beautiful as that which has gone before. Former glamour model and barracuda-woman Katie Price has married cage fighter Alex Reid (pictured), the copper-coloured derbrain who won Celebrity Big Brother, in a doubtless beautiful ceremony in Las Vegas.

It is, to all those who demand a percentage of the magazine sales, a match made in heaven. It promises to be the start of a beautiful, or at least beautifully lucrative, story for everyone. Of course, if the unromantics among you would rather shoot yourselves in the head than plough through another Price-based media storm, now would be the time to do it.

What they said

"Somebody asked me what it's like to be a duchess. Well … I've been one for so long now, I can't remember what it was like before." Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, 90 next month. They don't make 'em like they used to.

"It just wasn't my night." Software analyst Kajen Thuraaisingham, who scored a total of five points on Mastermind, the lowest score ever.

"I love all the old classic music. Bands like Take That, that my mum used to listen to." Pixie Lott

What we've learned

Kyrgyzstan is to issue passports for its mountain sheep

4,500 children were penalised for trying to cheat on exams last year

Trevor Eve is the BBC's best-paid actor

Britons have a collective personal debt of £1.5 trillion

The capital budget for the NHS will fall by 22% this year

and what we haven't

What we're going to do when we fall ill

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 5 Feb 2010 | 5:06 pm

Doctor, doctor: The dangers of skunk, the risks of bypass surgery

Is skunk really more dangerous than cannabis? Plus, I'm due a coronary bypass – what are the odds of success?

My 18-year-old son smokes cannabis and says he hasn't been harmed by it, but I worry a lot, especially now that he admits he prefers skunk. How much more dangerous is skunk than straight cannabis? What can we say to try to wean him off it?
Skunk users are seven times more likely to have a serious mental illness than those who use ordinary ­cannabis, regardless of their ­previous health and social histories. Professor Robin Murray of the ­Institute of Psychiatry recently told the BMJ that while most cannabis users remain happy and healthy, a minority develop psychosis. The biggest risk for developing mental illness is ­family history, but Murray attributed it to the cannabis alone in around 10-15% of users. Weight for weight, skunk contains between four and six times as much of the ­active ingre­dient, THC, than usual cannabis. It also has proportionately less of the other active ingredient, cannabidiol, which is thought to protect somewhat against psychotic effects. The problem is that we can't predict who is going to become ­psychotic after taking skunk. Please tell your son this. If he still doesn't stop ­using, then in my experience there is little that anyone can do to help. This is something he has to choose to do for himself.

I'm about to have a coronary bypass operation. What are the risks? 
More adults, proportionately, survive heart surgery in Britain than in any other country, including the US, ­despite the fact that Brits who under­go surgery are generally sicker than American patients. According to recent audit figures, every one of the 200-plus heart surgeons in the UK meets the safety limits set by the Society of Cardiological Surgeons, so be assured that you have a very high chance of success and the ­lowest risk in the world. The ­outcome depends, of course, on how seriously ill you are and on how many arteries need to be operated upon, but our serious complication rate is around 2%. Which, looked at another way, means 98% of ­people undergoing your operation have no problems. That's a great ­advertisement for British heart ­surgeons, and great news for you. 

• Got a medical question for Dr Tom Smith? Email doctordoctor@guardian.co.uk

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 5 Feb 2010 | 5:05 pm

Driving the Welsh coast

Small country, massive landscape – this remote stretch of coastline is big on sweeping vistas

Wales isn't big – you could touch both north and south coasts in half a day or so – but it is huge in diversity of landscape: mountain, moor, marsh, lake, waterfall, village, town, hill, valley can all be seen on a two-hour drive. Best advice is to come over all zen, and recognise that the journey is as important as the destination. Which is why, whenever I need to go to the far north – which, for my sanity, is often – I don't turn right at Machynlleth, on to the A470 (the closest thing mid-Wales has to a motorway), but left, on to the A493, the road that clings to the jagged coastal cliffs high above the wild Atlantic.

Take on fuel in Aberdyfi, an old but still working fishing port whose population grows six-fold in the summer months. Several caffs do a pleasant, filling breakfast, and the sea­front deli will fulfil all picnicking needs.

Four miles north is Tywyn, an unengaging little town, except for the Church of St Cadfan which contains a stone bearing the oldest known example of written Welsh (AD650) and the sarcophagus of the Crying Knight, a sandstone effigy in which a vein of quartz appears at the figure's eye, absorbing ambient moisture.

Beyond Tywyn is the spectacular Dysynni valley; Cader Idris rises on the right, beyond Craig yr Aderyn (Bird's Rock), around which fly the cormorants which give it its name. After this, you'll return to hug the coast at Llangelynin; below, on the precipitous sweeping dingle, ancient hamlets limpet the cliffs, all grey stone and slate roofs and church bell towers and wind-bent trees. The railway runs parallel with the road here, one of the best short train journeys I've ever been on, from Machynlleth to Pwllheli). The railway crosses Abermaw on a bridge, but in a car you need to detour through Dolgellau, where I often stop for a stiffener at the George III Hotel on the estuary at Penmaenpool.

If it's summer, Barmouth town will be heaving with pink, sticky, blistered skin, so I take the lurchingly steep track at Arthog up to the Cregennan Lakes. Stand and gawp for a while. Truly beautiful up here. After this, you'll be in Ardudwy, with the heathery fells of the Rhinogs and the peaks of Eryri (Snowdonia) rising behind them.

Imagine yourself as a mite on a duvet, green and grey and lilac. A place of dizzying antiquity, this; at Llanddwywe can be seen the Cors-y-Gedol burial chamber, and another one at Dyffryn Ardudwy. There's also the Morfa Dyffryn dunes here, a nature reserve with a long, broad, white-sanded (and, usually, fairly unpeopled) beach; this is a good place to stop and fill up on the deli-bought goodies.

Llanbedr village contains Neolithic standing stones (indeed, this area bristles with them) and a lane down to Shell island, a perfect place for a swim to swill away the car-sweats. Llandanwg is another dingle-clinging hamlet, down on the left, from where can be seen the high ramparts of Harlech castle, still imposing after all these years.

The land begins to rise now, huge green humps and great fins of grey rock, all saw-toothed and serrated, on the right-hand side. Over the toll bridge at Penrhyndeudraeth, after Portmeirion (the dreamlike Italianate village where The Prisoner was filmed), what passes for the urban and the built-up in this part of Wales now surrounds you; the towns of Porthmadog and Criccieth and Pwllheli. This is the Llyn peninsula, a craggy arm of the country reaching out into the Celtic sea. Eryri's mountains press at your back, Cardigan Bay shimmers before you.

From here, I'll take the A499 through Abersoch and on to the wee B-road to Aberdaron, the little fishing village at the edge of Europe. The Atlantic crashes and exults all around, Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island) is the back of an immense sea-beast surfacing. This place is very different to your starting point at Aberdyfi, yet it is the same small country. There are two pubs in Aberdaron, both with decent food and rooms – but you're on the Llyn; why would you want to rest? Rather, crest Rhiw and look around you. Here you have the Nanhoron valley, Porth Dinllaen and its pub on the beach (the Ty Coch Inn), Nant Gwrtheyrn and Tre'r Ceiri, or Town of the Giants, the massive hilltop fort atop the Yr Eifl mountains.

You could spend a lifetime exploring this place, and still not see it all. So the end of one road trip becomes the beginning of another.

Where to stay
Tremfan Hall (01758 740169), in Llanbedrog on the Llyn peninsula, overlooks Cardigan Bay and Snowdonia. Rooms £50-£60pp B&B.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 5 Feb 2010 | 5:05 pm

What Darwin Got Wrong | Book review

Darwin is under fire again, but Mary Midgley feels that his ideas have been misrepresented

Charles Darwin complained quite crossly in his autobiography that, despite many denials, people still kept saying he thought natural selection was the sole cause of evolutionary development. "Great is the force of misrepresentation," he grumbled. Had he known that, a century later, his alleged followers would be promoting that very doctrine as central to his teaching, and extending it into the wilder reaches of psychology and physics, he might have got even crosser. Darwin's objection was surely not just that he could see other possible causes. He saw that the doctrine itself did not make sense. No filter, however powerful, can be the only cause of what flows out of it. Questions about what comes into that filter have to be just as important. The proposed solution bears no proportion to the size of the problem.

Since his time, biologists have discovered a huge amount that is really interesting and important about internal factors in organisms that affect reproduction. This powerful little book uses that material to challenge sharply the whole neo-Darwinist orthodoxy – the assumption that, essentially, all evolution is due to mutation and selection. Its authors do not, of course, deny that this kind of classical natural selection happens. But they argue strongly that there is now no reason to privilege it over a crowd of other possible causes. Not only are most mutations known to be destructive but the material of inheritance itself has turned out to be far more complex, and to provide a much wider repertoire of untapped possibilities, than used to be thought. To an impressive extent, organisms provide the materials for changes in their own future. As the authors put it, "Before any phenotype can be, so to speak, 'offered' to selection by the environment, a host of internal constraints have to be satisfied." Epigenetic effects, resulting from different expressions of the same genes, can make a huge difference. And genes themselves are now known not to be independent, bean-like items connected to particular transmitted traits, but aspects of a most intricate process, sensitive to all sorts of internal factors, so that in many ways the same genes can result in a different creature. Recent work in "evodevo" – evolutionary developmental biology – shows how paths of development can themselves change and can change the resulting organism. And again, forces such as "molecular drive", which ­rearrange the genes, can also have that effect.

Besides this – perhaps even more interestingly – the laws of physics and chemistry themselves take a hand in the developmental process. Matter itself behaves in characteristic ways which are distinctly non-random. Many natural patterns, such as the arrangement of buds on a stem, accord with the series of Fibonacci numbers, and Fibonacci spirals are also observed in spiral nebulae. There are, moreover, no flying pigs, on account of the way in which bones arrange themselves. I am pleased to see that Fodor and ­Piattelli Palmarini introduce these facts in a chapter headed "The Return of the Laws of Form" and connect them with the names of D'Arcy Thompson, Conrad Waddington and Ilya Prigogine. Though they don't actually mention Goethe, that reference still rightly picks up an important, genuinely scientific strand of investigation which was for some time oddly eclipsed by neo-Darwinist fascination with the drama of randomness and the illusory seductions of simplicity.

This book is, of course, fighting stuff, sure to be contested by those at whom it is aimed. On the face of things, however, it strikes an outsider as an overdue and valuable onslaught on neo-Darwinist simplicities. (The one thing I would complain of is the title, which is perhaps too personal. This isn't just a point about Darwin; it's a point about the nature of life.) As the authors note, the traditional story has been defended by extending it – by widening the notion of natural selection to include some of these internal processes. But they think – surely rightly – that this device merely adds epicycles which kill the doctrine by ­diluting it. The long process of repeated trials and errors which has always been claimed as a central feature of natural selection cannot be incorporated in this way.

If we now ask what will take its place, their answer is that this question does not arise. There is not – and does not have to be – any single, central mechanism of evolution. There are many such mechanisms, which all need to be investigated on their own terms. If one finds this kind of position reasonable, the interesting next question is, what has made it so hard to accept? What has kept this kind of dogmatic "Darwinism" – largely independent of its founder – afloat for so long, given that much of the material given here is by no means new?

The explanation for this might be the seductive myth that underlies it. That myth had its roots in Victorian social Darwinism but today it flows largely from two books – Jacques Monod's Chance and Necessity (1971) and Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene (1976). Both these books, of course, contain lots of good and necessary biological facts. But what made them bestsellers was chiefly the sensational underlying picture of human life supplied by their rhetoric and especially their metaphors. This drama showed heroic, isolated individuals contending, like space warriors, alone against an alien and meaningless cosmos. It established the books as a kind of bible of individualism, most congenial to the Reaganite and Thatcherite ethos of the 80s. Monod first showed humans in Existentialist style as aliens – "gypsies" in a foreign world – and, by expanding the role of chance in evolution, concluded that our life was essentially a "casino". Dawkins added personal drama by describing a population of genes which – quite unlike the real ones inside us – operate as totally independent agents and can do as they please. It is no great surprise that these images caught on, nor that they can now persist whether or not the doctrines linked to them turn out to be scientific.

Mary Midgley's Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature is published by Routledge.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 5 Feb 2010 | 5:05 pm

Telecom Giants Brace for Super Bowl Data Onslaught

Two telecom giants make temporary and permanent network upgrades to support hundreds of thousands of Super Bowl fans on Sunday.
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Feb 2010 | 4:43 pm

Is climate change hiding the decline of maple syrup?

Human-related carbon emissions may skew isotope analysis for food-quality control.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/VNH8K0HWCes" height="1" width="1"/>
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 5 Feb 2010 | 4:41 pm

Delays prompt reshuffle at ITER fusion project

Interim director appointed to Europe's part of programme.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 5 Feb 2010 | 4:22 pm

Well Aged, and On the Rocks

I remember well the first time I set foot on Antarctica. It was, amazing as it seems to me, almost exactly 17 years ago: February 11, 1993. I was co-leader of a Greenpeace expedition to find Japanese whaling ships in ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 5 Feb 2010 | 4:14 pm

Ultra-Precise Quantum-Logic Clock Puts Old Atomic Clock to Shame

Scientists have built a clock which is 100,000 times more precise than the existing international standard.

The quantum-logic clock, which detects the energy state of a single aluminum ion, keeps time to within a second every 3.7 billion years. The new timekeeper could one day improve GPS or detect the slowing of time predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

“It could it be a real contender for the next frequency standard, or next timekeeper,” said physicist Chin-wen (James) Chou of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, lead author of a study to appear in a forthcoming Physical Review Letters.

Chou’s team is one of several racing to build an atomic clock that can replace the current international standard, the cesium fountain clock. The cesium clock loses one second every 100 million years. Chou’s is not the first quantum-logic clock, but his uses aluminum and magnesium ions, which makes it twice as precise as its predecessors that used aluminum and beryllium.

To keep time, quantum-logic clocks measure the vibration frequency of UV lasers. Unfortunately, the best lasers we can build veer off their normal frequency by about one tick every hour, Chou said. To keep the laser’s timekeeping precise, its vibration must be anchored to something much more stable.

That anchor is the vibration of an electrically charged aluminum atom, which vibrates at 1.1 Petahertz, or 1.1 quadrillion times a second.

The first step in measuring the ion’s vibration is to hit it with UV lasers, which are tuned to the charged atom’s rate of vibration.The aluminum ion can be in either a low- or high-quantum energy state.

“If the laser frequency is right on the ion frequency, then the ion will change state, but if the laser frequency is off a little bit, then the ion doesn’t change state as efficiently,” Chou said. “This efficiency is a signal that tells us, this signal is off by so much, and we should steer the frequency so it stays on the frequency of the aluminum ion.”

But they can’t tune the laser frequency to the aluminum ion state unless they can actually detect that state. To do that, the group couples the aluminum ion to a magnesium ion. A separate set of laser beams shine on the pair. If the aluminum ion changes state, then both ions start to move.

Detecting that motion requires a third set of lasers to focus on the magnesium ion. If the magnesium ion is in motion, it emits a photon of light. Otherwise, it stays dark.

“That’s the beauty of it, we can see just one ion emitting light,” Chou said.

In a weird twist, the team can’t actually tell how many times the clock ticks per second. That’s because the definition of a second is currently based on the cesium fountain clock, which simply can’t measure the precision of a more precise machine. It works using a similar principle as the aluminum clock, but uses the vibration of a cesium atom to anchor the frequency of a microwave source.

The clock could help resolve questions about the universal physical constants, such as the speed of light in a vacuum, or Planck’s constant, an important value in quantum physics.

Physical constants are supposedly fixed over time, but some theories suggest they may vary slightly, he said. “Optical clocks are one of the candidates that might be able to see that really tiny variation over time,” he said.

Global positioning devices also rely on extremely precise atomic clocks, so “if we have better and better clocks than we can tell our position, to a better and better precision,” Chou said.

And the clocks could also show the effects of general relativity by detecting how much gravity warps time.

There’s no plan to adopt the aluminum-ion clock as the formal international standard yet. To do so, the clock ticks need be transmitted around the world. That is normally done with optical cables, but those can only transmit such a stable frequency for around 60 miles, Chou said.

Image: Chou with the quantum clock, J. Burrus/NIST

Citation: C.-W. Chou, D.B. Hume, J.C.J. Koelemeij, D.J. Wineland, and T. Rosenband. C.-W. Chou, D.B. Hume, J.C.J. Koelemeij, D.J. Wineland, and T. Rosenband. 2010. Frequency Comparison of Two High-Accuracy Al+ Optical Clocks. Physical Review Letters.

See Also:

• Lasers Can Chill Stuff Super Fast
• Fastest Camera Ever Built Uses Lasers
• How to Keep Planes From Colliding With Lasers

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 5 Feb 2010 | 4:13 pm

As Shuttle Launch Looms, NASA Workers in 'Shock' Over Future (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - With the launch of space shuttle Endeavour just two days away, NASA workers are staying focused despite being in shock from the cancellation of the agency's moon program earlier this week.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 5 Feb 2010 | 4:00 pm

Sweat Lodges Can Be Deadly But Not Cleansing

Steam rooms and sweat lodges can be warm and relaxing — but are they cleansing?
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Feb 2010 | 3:53 pm

Arctic climate changing faster than expected (Reuters)

Reuters - Climate change is transforming the Arctic environment faster than expected and accelerating the disappearance of sea ice, scientists said on Friday in giving their early findings from the biggest-ever study of Canada's changing north.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 5 Feb 2010 | 3:47 pm

7 Gadgets That Changed the World

Gadgets that changed the world by revolutionizing how we live.
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Feb 2010 | 3:45 pm

Electric Charge Can Change Freezing Point of Water

A watched pot never boils, but an electrically charged pot sometimes freezes.

A study in the Feb. 5 Science reports that water can freeze at different temperatures depending on whether the surface it rests on is positively or negatively charged. Under certain conditions, water can even freeze as it heats up.

“We are very, very surprised by this result,” says study coauthor Igor Lubomirsky of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. “It means that by controlling surface charge, either positive or negative, you can either suppress ice formation or enhance ice formation.”

Water usually begins freezing by forming an ice crystal around a particle of dust or some other impurity. Without that starting point, water can stay liquid well below its freezing point, down to about -42º Celsius. This supercooled water is useful in nature and in the lab, from frogs and fish surviving long winters to cryogenic preservation of blood and tissues.

Scientists have suspected for decades that electric fields could be used to trigger freezing in supercooled water. A molecule of water has a slight positive charge on one end and a negative charge on the other, so electric fields could snap water molecules into a rigid formation by aligning them according to charge.

But previous experiments to understand whether electric fields can influence freezing were complicated by the materials used. The best materials for holding electric charge are metals, but as anyone who has tried to open a car door after a snowstorm knows, ice forms easily on metals even without a charge.

“If you try to do it with metal, you don’t know what is from the electric field and what is from the metal itself,” Lubomirsky says. “We wanted to know whether it is the charge that does it, or something special in metal.”

Instead of metal, Lubomirsky and his colleagues used a pyroelectric material, which can form a short-lived electric field when heated or cooled. The researchers used four pyroelectric crystals, each of which was placed inside a copper cylinder. The bottom surfaces of two crystals were coated with chromium to conduct an electric charge, and the other two were coated with an aluminum oxide to keep the surface uncharged.

The researchers placed the experimental setup in a humid room and turned down the thermostat until water droplets formed on each crystal, then cooled the room further until the water froze.

With no charge on the surface, the water froze at -12.5º C, on average. But on the positively charged surface, water froze at a relatively balmy -7º. And on a negatively charged surface, ice formed, on average, at a chilly -18º.

“It’s really dramatic, the strong effect of the charge,” says physicist Gene Stanley of Boston University. He also says that the simplicity of the experiment means that “it’s the kind of thing that is almost surely correct.”

Lubomirsky and colleagues also managed to freeze water by heating it. Water droplets stayed liquid at -11º for up to 10 minutes on a negatively charged surface. But after the negative charge dissipated, heating the room to -8º was enough to induce a positive charge in the pyroelectric crystal and freeze the water.

“That’s a very intriguing behavior,” comments atmospheric physicist Will Cantrell of Michigan Technological University in Houghton. “In this case, on this particular substance, if you warm it up, you can get it to freeze.”

Coauthor Meir Lahav, also of the Weizmann Institute, says water’s response to charge probably depends on how the water molecules line up against the surface they’re freezing to, though more work is needed to figure out exactly what is happening.

“The water molecules should be aligned differently, so I anticipated that this difference should affect the freezing temperature of ice,” Lahav says. “But I didn’t expect such a large difference. I’m very much delighted to see that.”

Although he has no specific plans to harness the effect for applications such as cryogenic freezing or cloud seeding, Lahav says his team has already filed a patent.

Ice nucleation, “is a very fundamental problem,” he says. “The moment you understand better — have a new understanding of a new effect — the applications always come afterwards.”

Image: stevendepolo/Flickr

See Also:

• Super-Dense Frozen Water Breaks Final Ice Frontier
• Lasers Can Chill Stuff Super Fast

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 5 Feb 2010 | 3:03 pm

Science Nation

Science for the People: Surprising discoveries and fascinating researchers.
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Feb 2010 | 2:55 pm

Sea Turtles

Sea turtles, salmon, and sharks sometimes travel the width of the ocean to return to their "breeding ground" to reproduce. Biologist Ken Lohmann studies the role magnetic fields play in these long distance migrations.
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Feb 2010 | 2:53 pm

65,000-Year-Old Language Goes Extinct

Boa Senior died last week, ending ancient Andaman culture Alok Das/ Survival International A tribal language thought to have existed for 65,000 years has disapperead forever in India's Andaman Islands, taken to the grave with its last speaker. According to ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 5 Feb 2010 | 2:47 pm

Television Viewers Crave Action, Not Violence

Blood and gore don't always win the ratings wars.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 5 Feb 2010 | 2:45 pm

Powerful snowstorm hits East Coast (Reuters)

Reuters - A powerful storm slammed the U.S. mid-Atlantic on Friday, threatening record snowfall in a region heavily dependent on home heating oil and natural gas supplies.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 5 Feb 2010 | 2:32 pm

Space Station Realities Ground Moon Mission

The White House's proposed NASA budget draws on lessons learned from the past and could change the future of the space program.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 5 Feb 2010 | 2:10 pm

Great (and Not So Great) Spaced Out Super Bowl Ads

As the Super Bowl weekend begins, excitement (or dread) is building for the infamous Super Bowl commercials that will grace our screens at half time. I'm hoping there might be one or two space-themed ads. Last year, the tire company ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 5 Feb 2010 | 1:53 pm

Apologetic Toyota looking to outside quality input (Reuters)

Reuters - Toyota Motor Corp's president apologized on Friday for safety problems and said the company would bring in outside experts to review quality controls, an unusual action for a company that has enjoyed a reputation for high standards.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 5 Feb 2010 | 1:27 pm

Space shuttle Endeavour cleared for Sunday launch (AP)

AP - With many still in shock over this week's space exploration shake-up, NASA managers insist the launch team is focused on safely launching Endeavour on Sunday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 5 Feb 2010 | 12:39 pm

Warm Up, Pay Up

Submitted by guest blogger Debbie Salamone of the Pew Campaign to End Overfishing in the Southeast. Polar bears won’t be the only ones paying the price as the Arctic melts. The economic impact of losing the Arctic’s climate-cooling services could ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 5 Feb 2010 | 12:12 pm

How climate is changing Walden Pond

There are places around the Concord woods near Walden Pond that the naturalist Henry David Thoreau probably would not recognize. As climate has warmed in the northeastern U.S., many of the native plants that flourished 150 years ago have been ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 5 Feb 2010 | 12:00 pm

This isn't the life I dreamed of ...

Carole Jahme shines the cold light of evolutionary psychology on reader's problems. This week: depression

Feeling downtrodden

From Linda, age 48
Dear Carole, The last decade has been a pretty awful one with bad things happening one after the other. My husband had a heart attack and treble heart bypass. This was followed by his being made redundant not once but twice in a relatively short space of time, with all the consequent money worries and stress that brought.

My one and only professional job ended in disaster due to bullying. After this, I vowed I would never work for anybody again because I was sick of the nastiness of some women in the workplace as well the failure of organisations to do anything about it. I have since set up a little business from home as a freelancer providing editorial services but seem even to have failed at that.

Then, a year ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer. To this day, my family say I coped with it wonderfully, just getting on with it, never letting it get me down, etc, etc. The awful truth was, a part of me was secretly pleased. It was meant to be my escape route from all these terrible things that kept on happening.

I know I'm depressed but can't find any help. I used to be on Citalopram, but guess what, I can't take that antidepressant because it reacts with Tamoxifen.

And it turns out that the cancer wasn't my escape route after all; it seems to have been just another crap thing that happened to me. I feel utterly worthless, a failure at everything I've ever done.

This wasn't the life I dreamed of for myself when I was younger. I used to have what was described as "so much potential". I used to be a confident, vibrant person and I've changed into this downtrodden, miserable, 48-year-old woman and I don't know where to turn to stop feeling like this.

Carole replies:
There are a number of significant things that divide humans from the other apes, language being one of them. You need to talk your problems through with someone. You don't mention whether you have had counselling, but from your description I think professional counselling would be of benefit.

Your first port of call should be your GP. You say you can't take the antidepressant that was working for you before because you're now on Tamoxifen. Your doctor may advise a course of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which has been shown to be an effective treatment for depression. The Royal College of Psychiatrists has some very helpful information on CBT on its website, including helpline numbers and links to further information sources such as the Depression Alliance.

It seems you blame yourself for many things, but haven't you had enough punishment? Self-reflection has evolved in humans to allow us to examine our past behaviour and adapt it as necessary. With hindsight we can understand the part we played and prepare ourselves for similar events in the future. In general, women are more self-reflective than men, but some people (you might be one of them) are overly self-reflective, to the point of dwelling on past problems to an unhealthy extent.

You say you have "withered". Certainly you have been through a great deal of pain and anguish, but humans are highly adaptable animals and can overcome a great deal of hardship.

You are the result of a long line of survivors: your ancestors survived long enough to breed, when many, many others did not. Just the fact that you were born makes you a success story.

From now on, if you find yourself in a situation where people are bullying you – which is typical hierarchical behaviour among primates – cut your losses immediately. Try to recognise the types who treat you this way, and once you've moved on, don't waste time looking back and reflecting on their unjust behaviour.

Freelance work ebbs and flows, so stick with it.

Please organise counselling for yourself and most importantly of all talk to those who think you "coped wonderfully" and tell them the truth. You must learn to ask for help and state what you need rather than expecting to be empathised with. Others, even family members, may not be able to feel your feelings no matter how obvious the situation seems to you or how many hints you drop.

It seems you have cared for your family and struggled through the past 10 years without much support or understanding in return. You have become isolated and depressed. But our personalities are hardwired, so the confident, vibrant person you always were remains. Delve deep, get back in touch with your hopes and your potential. Put yourself first for the next six months and every day do things that make you happy.

But do give your rehabilitation time. Apes are long-lived animals. At 48 you may be only half way through your journey.

Trapnell, P, Campbell, J (1999) Private self-consciousness and the five-factor model of personality: distinguishing rumination from reflection. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology; 76 (2): 284-304.

Sprecher, S, Fehr, B, Zimmerman, C (2007) Expectation for mood enhancement as a result of helping: the effects of gender and compassionate love. Sex Roles; 56: 543-549.

Parks, CD, Rumble, AC (2001) Elements of Reciprocity and Social Value Orientation. Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

Kimura, D (2002) Sex Differences in the Brain. Scientific American, 3 May 2002.

Taylor, SE, et al (2000). Biobehavioural responses to stress in females: Tend-and-befriend not fight-or-flight. Psychological Review; 107: 413-429.

Harlow HF, Dodsworth RO, Harlow MK (1965) Total social isolation in monkeys. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; 54 (1): 90-97.

You can email your questions to Carole by clicking here. Please put "Ask Carole" in the subject line.

Terms and conditions
Please say whether you wish to be named in connection with your enquiry and if so by what name. We reserve the right to edit questions. If you mail us a question, you agree that your email may be published on the site.

We regret that Carole cannot answer all the mails we receive. We cannot provide urgent advice and suggest that if you need such advice you seek it immediately without waiting for a response from Carole. With regards to legal, medical or financial issues, we recommend seeking the advice of a listed professional. We will not be held liable for any loss, damage or injury you incur as a result of using this site or as a result of any advice given. We will not enter into personal correspondence via email.

Carole is UK-based and as such any advice she gives is intended for a UK audience only.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 5 Feb 2010 | 11:30 am

Campaigners survive mass overdose

Protesters in Oxford take massive overdoses of homeopathic remedies including 'arsenic' as part of the 10:23 campaign

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 5 Feb 2010 | 11:29 am

Briton takes off for space station as Nasa faces funding crisis

Nicholas Patrick's mission to international space station comes as Barack Obama announces cuts to US space programme

As a schoolboy in Yorkshire watching the first moon landings on television, Nicholas Patrick could only dream of following the pioneers of Apollo into space.

Inspired by their achievements, he moved to America to achieve his childhood ambition of becoming an astronaut. On Sunday, when the shuttle Endeavour blasts off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, Patrick will embark on one of the greatest adventures ever undertaken by one of the handful of Britons to reach orbit in an American spacecraft.

His five-million-mile journey to the international space station, where he will perform three ambitious and risky space walks, comes at a traumatic time for Nasa, following US president Barack Obama's decision this week to pull the plug on America's plans to return to the moon.

But Patrick, one of only three British ­fliers in the US space agency, is not among those worrying about job security after the shuttle fleet retires this year, leaving Nasa with no definitive programme for manned spaceflight for the first time in its 50-year history.

"I know that when I've landed I'll have more time to reflect," said Patrick, who is set to lift off at 9.39am GMT with six crewmates. "But it is important that we move on to new and different challenges."

Until his selection for this mission, Patrick, an engineering graduate of Cambridge University, was working to develop the flight deck for Orion, the next-generation spaceship that was to have replaced the ageing shuttle.

But Obama's cancellation of the $81bn Constellation programme, of which Orion was part, leaves the US relying on Russian Soyuz rockets or planned commercial space "taxis" to ferry its astronauts to the space station. It also means Nasa's vision to put astronauts back on the moon by 2020, almost half a century after the final Apollo mission in 1972, has disappeared.

Patrick, 45, said it was essential that Nasa had a future role that inspired children to pursue careers in science. "The space programme helps show kids that the purpose of all the science and technology is to achieve great and monumental things," he said.

Endeavour will dock with the space station on Tuesday, day three of its 13-day mission to help complete construction of the orbiting laboratory. Patrick and fellow astronaut Bob Behnken will make the spacewalks to install the station's final living-working component, the 75 sq m Tranquility node, and a domed observation room called the Cupola that will give astronauts an unprecedented 360-degree view of the universe and serve as a control room for future flights.

Patrick will be sending live updates from space on Twitter as @Astro_Nicholas.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 5 Feb 2010 | 11:20 am

Homeopathic society 'misled' MPs in inquiry

• BHA misrepresented science, say researchers
• NHS spent £12m over three years on remedies

The British Homeopathic Association has been accused of misrepresenting scientific evidence on alternative medicine in documents it gave to a parliamentary inquiry.

The organisation claimed several scientific reviews offered support for homeopathy in material submitted to the cross-party science and technology select committee, which is holding an investigation into the products. Robert Mathie, a researcher at the BHA, said the reviews found evidence for a difference between homeopathic remedies and sugar pills, which contain no active ingredients.

But the claim has dismayed some of the scientists who wrote the reviews and angered MPs on the committee who are in the final stages of writing their report.

One review cited was written by Edzard Ernst, a scientist who investigates complementary medicine at the Penisula Medical School in Exeter. He said the BHA's interpretation of his study was "grossly misleading" because they failed to mention important caveats published in the study. Another review, by Jean-Pierre Boissel at the Hospitals of Lyon and University Claude Bernard in France, was quoted as evidence that homeopathic treatments differ to placebos. Boissel said his conclusion was that homeopathy tended to fare worse in the best-designed studies.

"It is extremely disappointing to be fed misrepresentations of science, whether it's deliberate or incompetence," said Evan Harris MP, science spokesman for the Lib Dems and a member of the parliamentary committee.

Homeopathic treatments are usually made by diluting a substance so much there are no molecules of the original ingredient left. In November the chief pharmacist at Boots, Paul Bennett, told the inquiry he had no evidence that homeopathy works. At the weekend, hundreds of people took part in a "mass overdose" of homeopathic pills outside branches of Boots to protest against the company selling the products.

The row emerged as a survey for the medical journal, Pulse, found 80% of GPs want the Health Department to stop funding homeopathy on the NHS. Only 14% were in favour of the health service continuing to provide the treatments. According to figures released last year, homeopathy cost the NHS £12m over between 2008 and 2008. Peter Davies, a Halifax GP, said: "If patients want to try homeopathy and pay for it themselves, that is fine. In terms of evidence-based medicine, homeopathy doesn't get a look in. It is something the NHS should not fund."

In a statement, Mathie said: "The BHA's evidence to MPs did not misrepresent the clinical research evidence in homeopathy; it is an accurate and reasonable summary of the facts, with a series of recommendations for future research … We need more and higher quality clinical trials."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 5 Feb 2010 | 11:02 am

iPads Could Encourage Bad Posture, Experts Say

Apple's new iPad device is not so great for your body, experts say.
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Feb 2010 | 10:58 am

Birds use feathers 'to touch'

Birds may use their feathers for touch - to feel their surroundings just as cats use their whiskers, scientists find.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 5 Feb 2010 | 10:49 am

New Cretaceous Turtle Was An Ocean Invader

An international team of scientists has announced the discovery of "turtle of Angola," a Late Cretaceous reptile that was one of the earliest known marine turtles from Africa. The seafaring turtle, Angolachelys mbaxi, lived 90 million years ago. Octavio Mateus, ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 5 Feb 2010 | 10:32 am

This Car Runs on Code

The Toyota recall may be a harbinger of things to come in the auto industry, where vehicle electronics are getting more and more complex.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 5 Feb 2010 | 10:28 am

Climate scepticism 'on the rise'

The British public has become increasingly sceptical about climate change, a poll for BBC News suggests.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 5 Feb 2010 | 9:56 am

Tiny Galaxies Reveal How First Stars Formed

An astronomer at Lowell Observatory studies how stars form in tiny, "dwarf" galaxies, which may provide insight into the birth of the first starts after the Big Bang.
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Feb 2010 | 9:54 am

Water Freezes When Heated

Usually water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit and temperatures below that. But now scientists - reporting today in the journal Science -- have found a way to keep water in a liquid form at -40 degrees F. What's more, the ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 5 Feb 2010 | 9:44 am

Tiny Bubbles Destroy Cancer Cells

Scientists have discovered a new technique for destroying cancer cells with tiny bubbles, or "nanobubbles."
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Feb 2010 | 8:55 am

Electric Planes Could Transform How We Fly

Electric Planes are far more efficient, reliable and quiet than internal combustion engines.
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Feb 2010 | 8:35 am

Nanobubbles Blast Blocked Arteries

Scientists used lasers to make nanobubbles by zapping gold nanoparticles inside cells. In tests they found the nanobubbles could blast through deposits that block arteries. The method also worked to kill cancer cells.
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Feb 2010 | 8:20 am

Insects migrate in wind highways

Migrating insects use highways in the sky to speed their journey, according to a study published in Science magazine.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 5 Feb 2010 | 7:47 am

Dynamic Pluto revealed in images

Images from the Hubble Space Telescope reveal that the icy dwarf planet Pluto undergoes dramatic seasonal changes.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 5 Feb 2010 | 5:47 am

Embattled climate chief supported

India gives its full support to embattled climate change chief Rajendra Pachauri, under attack over recent scientific errors.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 5 Feb 2010 | 5:08 am

Computing ace

The computer that laid the foundations of the internet
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 5 Feb 2010 | 4:15 am

Out of this world

The Yorkshireman who's about to leave Planet Earth
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 5 Feb 2010 | 3:07 am

Shackleton's whisky dug from South Pole ice

Five crates of Scotch whisky and brandy belonging to polar explorer Ernest Shackleton have been recovered from the ice after a century.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 5 Feb 2010 | 2:56 am