New insight on how fast nicotine peaks in the brain

Nicotine takes much longer than previously thought to reach peak levels in the brains of cigarette smokers, according to new research.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm

Turning up the heat: Finding out how well the Webb telescope's sunshield will perform

Keeping an infrared telescope at very cold operating temperatures isn't an option, it's an absolute necessity. Serving as a radiation blocker, the Webb telescope sunshield is subjected to nearly 100,000 thermal watts of solar heat, and reduces that to one tenth of a watt on the cold side, a million to one reduction.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm

Minimally invasive sports hernia repair may get athletes 'back in the game' faster, study says

A new minimally invasive sports hernia repair gets athletes back in the game 3 times faster than the traditional repair, according to a new study. Sports hernias were often difficult to diagnose and prior to this new repair had a lengthy rehabilitation time.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm

Unlocking the opium poppy's biggest secret: Genes that make codeine, morphine

Researchers have discovered the unique genes that allow the opium poppy to make codeine and morphine, opening the door to alternate methods of producing these effective painkillers either by manufacturing them in a lab or controlling the production of these compounds in the plant.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm

Decoding the long calls of the orangutan

Research into the long calls of male orangutans in Borneo has given scientists new insight into how these solitary apes communicate through dense jungle. An acoustic analysis of the calls reveals that the calls not only serve to attract females, but also contain information on the identity and the context of the caller.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm

Body's anticipation of a meal can be a diabetes risk factor

Alterations in our response to the taste or smell of food may be another culprit responsible for Type 2 diabetes, according to scientists who have identified the specific mechanism in human specimens and in mice.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm

Inner workings of the inflammatory response to Leishmaniasis

The secret world of inflammation is slowly being revealed by the application of advanced techniques in microscopy, as shown in a new study. Researchers used 2-photon microscopy to identify how killer T lymphocytes behaved when they enter sites of inflammation caused by the parasite Leishmania donovani, and which infected cells they were able to recognize.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am

Pancreatic cancer study reveals mechanism initiating disease, in mice

Scientists have discovered how a mutated gene known as Kras is able to hijack mouse cells damaged by acute pancreatitis, putting them on the path to becoming pancreatic cancer cells.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am

New microscopy technique offers close-up, real-time view of cellular phenomena

For two decades, scientists have been pursuing a potential new way to treat bacterial infections, using naturally occurring proteins known as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). Now, scientists have recorded the first microscopic images showing the deadly effects of AMPs, most of which kill by poking holes in bacterial cell membranes.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am

'Microtentacles' on tumor cells appear to play role in how breast cancer spreads

Researchers have discovered that "microtentacles," or extensions of the plasma membrane of breast cancer cells, appear to play a key role in how cancers spread to distant locations in the body. Targeting these microtentacles, which are linked to a protein called "tau," might prove to be a new way to prevent or slow the growth of these secondary cancers, the scientists say.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am

The nation's weather (AP)

AP - Wet weather was forecast to persist in the Eastern U.S. on Monday as a strong low pressure system slowly moved off the East Coast.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Mar 2010 | 3:12 am

What Can Darwin teach us about morality? | The question

Is it merely a trick played on us by our genes, a meaningless by-product of evolution?

One of the most tragic and interesting scientific stories of the late 20th century was that of George Price, a fiercely atheist and idealistic socialist who discovered the early work of WD Hamilton, showing how altruism might evolve if it was advantageous to the relatives of altruists. Price went more or less mad under the burden of the discovery, for it suggests that we have moral sentiments only because they were advantageous to our ancestors. According to Hamilton and his fellow sociobiologists, altruism is real, but only to the extent that it is not in fact disinterested. What's left of morality in such a world?

Is it merely a trick played on us by our genes? Or is that in turn an incoherent idea? Can science naturalise morality, and show that there are certain good ends which come naturally to the sort of animals we are? Where, in that case, is the belief that we are free too choose our own ends? Does an evolutionary account of human nature challenge liberalism as much as it challenges conservatism?

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 15 Mar 2010 | 3:00 am

Animal rights activist uses FOI laws to target universities

Luke Steele, spokesman for Stop Animal Experiments at Bradford is forcing institutions to reveal vivisection details

A convicted animal rights activist is using freedom of information laws to force universities to reveal details of their animal experiments, raising fears that scientists involved could suffer renewed intimidation.

The requests for information, which have been sent to every university in Britain, ask for details of facilities and laboratories licensed for such experiments, as well as breeding centres and a list of different animals used, by species.

The requests were sent by Luke Steele, an animal rights activist based in Yorkshire. He was last year convicted of conspiracy to interfere with a contractual relationship, so as to harm an animal research organisation, after being arrested near an isolated Lincolnshire farm that supplies rabbits for research.

Several universities have already replied to the FOI requests. Steele said the information gathered would be used to publicise research and target demonstrations, some of which are planned for next month.

"We're putting the FOIs in just to find out what is happening with vivisection at the universities. If they've got nothing to hide, then it's not a problem for them to put the information out there," he said.

Groups promoting next month's planned protests against university research, such as Stop Animal Experiments at Bradford, for which Steele acts as spokesman, encourage people to carry out "filming inside these laboratories". Steele said he did not want people to break the law, and that protestors could find imaginative ways to get inside. "Obviously we can't control what everybody does," he said. The requests from Steele have triggered concern among some university researchers. "The way these questions are phrased, I don't think this is an exercise in openness," said Syed Khawar Abbas, veterinary officer at the University of Leeds. "This information can be used for intimidation. In the wrong hands, this information can cause problems for our scientists."

An information officer at a different university, who did not want to be identified, said: "This has caused a great deal of concern among our staff who are worried about receiving threats or worse. Most scientists faced with FOI requests are happy to put stuff into the open and welcome the scrutiny, but in this case they are having to second guess the motives of people who might use this information."

Some of the information requested by Steele is already published, in summaries of Home Office licenses and academic papers. Other details, such as specific laboratory locations, can be refused under FOI exemptions.

One university scientist said: "The most likely motivation here is that they want to catch somebody out. If they can find some bad wording in minutes from a meeting, then they can use that to claim we are up to no good."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 15 Mar 2010 | 1:00 am

ONGC FY10 output may be lower than target (Reuters)

Reuters - Oil and Natural Gas Corp's domestic oil output is seen at 24.9 million tonnes in the current financial year ending March 31, lower than the 25.76 million tonnes target, an official said.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Mar 2010 | 11:41 pm

Britain's Miliband visits China amid rancor (AP)

AP - Britain's foreign secretary is in China to lobby for further nuclear sanctions on Iran and will seek to smooth rancor with Beijing over climate change talks and the execution of a British drug smuggler thought to be mentally ill.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Mar 2010 | 11:40 pm

Investigation questions Prius driver's story: report (Reuters)

Reuters - A federal investigation of the Toyota Prius involved in a dramatic incident on a California highway last week found a pattern of wear on the car's brakes that raises questions about the driver's account of the event, the Wall Street Journal said in its online edition on Sunday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Mar 2010 | 11:12 pm

U.S. stem cell expert is "hottest" researcher

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rudolf Jaenisch, whose stem cell lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has consistently broken new barriers in the field, is the world's "hottest" researcher, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 14 Mar 2010 | 10:04 pm

U.S. stem cell expert is "hottest" researcher (Reuters)

Reuters - Rudolf Jaenisch, whose stem cell lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has consistently broken new barriers in the field, is the world's "hottest" researcher, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Mar 2010 | 10:04 pm

China zoo where tigers died to get emergency funds (AFP)

AFP - A Chinese zoo where three dozen animals, including 13 endangered Siberian tigers, died from malnutrition is to receive a cash boost of one million dollars, state media said Monday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Mar 2010 | 9:51 pm

5 Ways We'll Interface With Future Computers (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Since the dawn of personal computing, the mouse has served as the link between human and machine. As computers have become ever more powerful and portable, this basic interface of point-and-click has remained tried, true and little changed.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Mar 2010 | 9:25 pm

Police arrest 2 in Mumbai for planning strikes (Reuters)

Reuters - Police in Mumbai said on Sunday they have arrested two men they say were preparing to attack several targets in the financial hub, including the offices of energy firm Oil and Natural Gas Corp.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Mar 2010 | 8:42 pm

SpaceX says Falcon 9 rocket test fire is a success

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Space Exploration Technologies successfully test fired its Falcon 9 rocket this weekend, clearing a milestone toward the inaugural flight of a privately developed spaceship to fly cargo, and possibly astronauts, into orbit, the company said.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 14 Mar 2010 | 7:01 pm

SpaceX says Falcon 9 rocket test fire is a success (Reuters)

Reuters - Space Exploration Technologies successfully test fired its Falcon 9 rocket this weekend, clearing a milestone toward the inaugural flight of a privately developed spaceship to fly cargo, and possibly astronauts, into orbit, the company said.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Mar 2010 | 7:01 pm

Podcast: New ways to find aliens

Astrophysicist Paul Davies discusses new approaches to finding intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. The Seti scientist's new book is called Eerie Silence and is on a lecture tour of the UK.

You can hear an extended version of this interview in our latest Science Weekly Extra podcast.

Anthropologist Rick Potts is opening a new exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. It's called What does it mean to be human?

In the newsjam we discuss the new body set up to investigate an IPCC climate change report, sequencing the genomes of an entire family, and the new energy record about to be smashed at the LHC.

When it comes to theatre, sound is just as important as vision. It's the subject of a lecture this week in London organised by the Wellcome Trust. Neuroscientist Prof Sophie Scott of University College London and theatre director Jonathan Holmes go on stage at London's Bloomsbury Theatre to demonstrate. You'll hear some drama from actor Seth Sinclair.

The Observer's science editor Robin McKie and Guardian science correspondent Ian Sample join the pod.

Post your comments below.

Join our Facebook group.

Listen back through our archive.

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Subscribe free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 14 Mar 2010 | 6:12 pm

In a democracy, science has to speak up

Britain must celebrate its scientists, because if the voters do, then so will the politicians

National Science and Engineering Week – running now with 2,000-plus exhibitions, lectures, open days and debates for an expected audience of 1.5 million – began as a whistle in the dark. Back in 1994, the science minister, William Waldegrave, secured a derisory £100,000 for the first one, and it seemed like a gimmick.

The charge of cynicism was unfair: Waldegrave was that rare thing, a minister with a prior and genuine interest in science. But the gesture came near the end of a long period of devastation of an intellectual tradition that had delivered Newton, Faraday, Darwin, James Clerk Maxwell, Rutherford and one of the unsung giants of the 20th century, Paul Dirac. In 15 years of Conservative government, ambitious projects had been abandoned, long-established research teams broken up, laboratories closed, universities starved and institutions privatised. The asset-stripping continued for another three years and, by 1997, British science had a stagnant and impoverished culture, creaking equipment and demoralised personnel.

Paradoxically, it also had a lively national festival of science, engineering and technology, and a separate, slightly later funfair in Edinburgh, both of which attracted crowds of buzzing schoolchildren and delighted adults. The science community took Waldegrave's crust not as a sop but a challenge, and began to campaign for the re-election of reason and curiosity to the national debate. Thatcherite logic had argued that, if the economy really needed research, the market would provide it. No such thing happened. France, Germany, Japan and the US went on increasing investment in R&D while Britain became the place for merchant bankers and estate agents. But a freshly politicised community had by then understood that, in a democracy, science had to speak up, and so – at their successive jamborees – scientists did just that. They spelled out how information technology was forging a society in which knowledge was the real capital, and economic growth the interest that it accrued.

Here we go again. Last week the Royal Society reminded us that, while British science again faces cuts, France, Germany and the US are spending more than ever. Meanwhile, the inventor James Dyson urged the Tories not to cut the tax credits that support R&D. Peter Mandelson showed some sign of listening in an interview at the weekend, but that anyone should even need to make the argument shows how quickly forgotten have been the lessons of the past 30 years. Instead of paying university bosses the super-salaries we report on today, Britain must celebrate its scientists, because if the voters do, then so, eventually, will the politicians. We need our science festivals more than ever.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 14 Mar 2010 | 6:06 pm

Worldwide arms trade flourishing despite recession, report warns

Average volume of sales increased by 22%, with South America and south-east Asia seeing the biggest rises

The worldwide arms race has accelerated, most dramatically in South America and south-east Asia, despite the economic and financial slump, according to a report published today.

The average volume of arms sales increased by 22% over the past five years, compared to the previous five-year period, says the report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The last two of these years were marked by worldwide economic turbulence which has far from stabilised, yet the arms trade is booming, it finds.

The report does not give the cost of the arms trade because most governments no longer release the figures. Britain stopped publishing the cost of its arms sales last year.

The US remains the world's top arms exporter, accounting for 30% of the total, followed by Russia (23%), Germany (11%), and France (8%).

Britain, with 4%, saw a fall in the volume of its exports, as the delivery of 72 of its Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft to Saudi Arabia was only just getting under way in the period covered by the report.

Germany's arms exports have risen by more than 100%, mainly because of sales of armoured vehicles, says the report.

Arms sales to South America rose by 150%, raising the spectre of an arms race in the region. Last year Venezuela received $2.2bn (£1.4bn) in credit from Russia for the purchase of air defence systems, artillery, armoured cars, and tanks.

Mark Bromley, SIPRI researcher and Latin America expert, said: "We see evidence of competitive behaviour in arms acquisitions in South America. This clearly shows we need improved transparency and confidence-building measures to reduce tension in the region."

In south-east Asia, arms sales to Indonesia and Malaysia increased significantly, while Singapore became the first country in the region to be among the world's top 10 arms importers, since the end of the Vietnam war.

SIPRI Asia expert Siemon Wezeman said: "In 2009, Vietnam became the latest south-east Asian state to order long-range combat aircraft and submarines." He added: "The current wave of acquisitions could destabilise the region, jeopardising decades of peace."

China was the world's biggest arms importer over the past five years, with 9% of the total, followed by India, South Korea, the UAE and Greece, traditionally a big weapons importer and now immersed in a serious economic crisis.

Combat aircraft accounted for 39% of major US weapons sales over the past five years, and for 40% of Russian arms sales, according to today's report.

The report also warns that deliveries of combat aircraft could fuel an arms race in the Middle East, north Africa, South America and south Asia. Meanwhile, Pakistan is importing the first batch of 300 combat aircraft from China and an early warning aircraft from Sweden.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 14 Mar 2010 | 6:06 pm

TV: Watch this

Bang Goes the Theory | Dispatches: Children Of Gaza | Panorama | Man V Food

Bang Goes the Theory

7.30pm, BBC1

Too old for Blue Peter, missing Tomorrow's World, and longing for a Clarkson-free Top Gear? Chuck all the above in a blender and you end up with this: pop science with a youthful grin. Served chilled. Tonight, Jem Stansfield aims to trump Jeremy Clarkson's land speed record for fire extinguisher-propelled go-karting. It's fast all right, but what it needs is a bit of oomph after it tails off at 30mph. "Nothing like a bit of second-stage thrust!" squeals co-presenter Liz, disconcertingly. Can he pull it off?

Dispatches: Children Of Gaza

8pm, Channel 4

Jezza Neumann's film captures the human consequences of political actions, in this case the aftermath of Israel's assault on Gaza at the end of 2008. He follows the lives of three children for a year. Nine-year-old Amal has shrapnel lodged in her skull, which requires an operation that can only be performed in Israel. Ibraheem is an 11-year-old from a family of fishermen who helps his uncles fish in the permitted two-mile strip of sea. And Omsyate, also 11, struggles with her new life, living in a tent after her house was bulldozed and her little brother was shot dead. Panorama

8.30pm, BBC1

Are The Net Police Coming For You? refers to the government's proposals to tackle web piracy by slowing down or cutting off the internet connection of persistent offenders. The UK's "creative industries" claim it costs them £400m a year, but critics accuse the government of pandering to a powerful business lobby. Jo Whiley hears the well-rehearsed arguments; the X Factor's Louis Walsh reckons someone has to pay for it somewhere, while the people's troubadour Billy Bragg says, "The music industry is thriving. It's the record industry that is dying."

Man V Food

9pm, Good Food

A new show in which food fanatic and heart-attack-waiting-to-happen Adam Richman scours the US for the biggest food-eating challenges. He starts off in search of the Sasquatch, a burger almost as fantastical as the mythical beast it's named after: "4lb of burger, over 1 ¹/₂lb of toppings and a 2lb homemade bun the size of a barstool cushion." It's the kind of food only Homer Simpson could manage and Richman has to eat the whole thing in an hour, something only four people have ever achieved – although they don't say whether or not they actually survived.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 14 Mar 2010 | 6:05 pm

Scientists identify genes for codeine and morphine

Discovery raises possibility of manufacturing painkillers more cheaply using vats of microbes rather than fields of flowers

Scientists have identified the two genes in opium poppies which are used to make codeine and morphine, two of the most important painkillers in a doctor's armoury.

The discovery opens the door to alternative ways of making the drugs which do not involve giving over vast areas of farmland to growing the flowers. One hope is to transfer the genes into microbes, which could be grown in vats and provide huge quantities of the drugs at a fraction of the cost of farming and processing the plants.

Researchers said the findings could lead to the creation of strains of opium poppies that cannot make morphine, the opiate chemical turned into heroin and exported from Afghanistan and other countries for illicit use.

More than 2,500 hectares of British fields have been turned into opium poppy farms to meet NHS demands for morphine, a potent painkiller that was first isolated in 1806. The flower variety, Papaver somniferum, has been grown commercially in the UK since 2002 and differs from the common red flower, which does not contain morphine.

Pharmaceutical companies extract the drugs by processing seed pods stripped from the flowers, producing an annual national yield of codeine and morphine of 100 tonnes. Some 27m pills containing codeine are sold over the counter every year in a painkiller market worth £500m.

A team led by Peter Facchini at the University of Calgary, in Canada, identified the two genes used to make codeine and morphine from out of 23,000 in the opium poppy. The finding, reported in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, ends a 50-year quest.

"The evolution of these two genes in a single plant species has had such a huge impact on humanity over the past several thousand years," said Facchini. "Our discovery allows this unique genetic power to be harnessed."

Microbes are already used by the medical industry to mass produce synthetic insulin for diabetics and steroids for treating rheumatoid arthritis.

Last year, Tasmania's attorney-general, Lara Giddings, raised concerns over the impact of opium poppy farms on wildlife. Farmers in the country, the world's largest producer of legal opium, reported that wallabies had been hopping around in circles after eating the plants.

In 2008, the European Union's drug agency warned that Britain faced a heroin crisis following a record harvest of poppies in Afghanistan, which accounts for 90% of the world's illicit opium. By blocking one of the genes, scientists said they could create a strain of poppies that produce codeine but do not go on to convert this into morphine, the source of heroin.

This would "allow the direct recovery of codeine from the plant and prevent the formation of morphine, which would preclude the illicit synthesis of heroin," the scientists write in the journal.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 14 Mar 2010 | 6:02 pm

Science Weekly Extra podcast: Astrophysicist Paul Davies from Seti

Astrophysicist Paul Davies discusses new approaches to finding intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. The Seti scientist's new book is called Eerie Silence and is on a lecture tour of the UK.

Post your comments below.

Join our Facebook group.

Listen back through our archive.

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Subscribe free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 14 Mar 2010 | 6:01 pm

Snake infrared detection unravelled

Scientists have discovered the receptors that allow snakes to find prey in the dark.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 14 Mar 2010 | 4:00 pm

Nano-antennas could help keep quantum secrets

Nanorod arrays can guide light along the path toward quantum communication.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/gYlGaga_Yuc" height="1" width="1"/>
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 14 Mar 2010 | 4:00 pm

Life, but not as we know it

The place to look for aliens could be right here on our own planet – in Earth's second genesis

Fifty years ago next month, a young American astronomer named Frank Drake turned a radio telescope on a nearby star and began a systematic search for messages from an alien civilisation. It was an extraordinarily daring experiment. In those days, looking for aliens was regarded as part way between pseudoscience and lunacy.

Today the mood has dramatically shifted. Over the past few months, Seti – the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence – has featured prominently at scientific meetings in both the Vatican and the Royal Society, and around the world scientists are celebrating the half-century. Astronomers now estimate there could be billions of earth-like planets in our galaxy alone. But the key factor that determines whether or not we are alone in the universe remains stubbornly mysterious. That factor concerns the origin of life. Without life, there will be no alien intelligence.

Drake had assumed that if a planet resembled Earth, then life of some sort was pretty much bound to arise on it eventually. That assessment was echoed by Carl Sagan, Seti's charismatic champion, who pointed out that no sooner was Earth ready for life than "up it popped". If Drake and Sagan are correct, then it's easy to imagine thousands of technological civilisations in the galaxy.

But Drake and Sagan were swimming against a huge tide of opinion from molecular biologists. Francis Crick, for example, remarked that the origin of life seemed "almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going". The problem is that even the simplest living thing is already so stupendously complex that if such an entity were to be thrown together by chance, it would be a fluke of such magnitude as to be unlikely to happen twice in the observable universe, vast though that may be.

However, we don't know that life's origin was purely a chemical accident. Scientists are aware of all manner of self-organising processes that might have fast-tracked mindless molecules down a path of complexification leading to life. Indeed, that is the fashionable view. The biologist Christian de Duve expresses it splendidly with the evocative slogan that "life is a cosmic imperative".

Unfortunately, there are few grounds for this new-found optimism. Scientists have no agreed theory of the origin of life – plenty of scenarios, conjectures and just-so stories, but nothing with solid experimental support. Life may emerge from unremarkable chemical sludge with a high degree of probability; but then again, it may not. We haven't a clue either way. And while we are completely in the dark about precisely what it takes for life to start up, putting an estimate on the numbers of alien civilisations is pointless.

There might be a way to solve this problem at a stroke. No planet is more earth-like than Earth itself, so if life really does pop up readily in earth-like conditions, then surely it should have arisen many times right here on our home planet? And how do we know it didn't? The truth is, nobody has looked.

Biologists think all familiar forms of life on Earth are inter-related and descended from a common ancestor. Evidence comes from the universal nature of biochemistry, and also from gene sequencing, which enables organisms to be positioned on a single tree of life. If we found a life form with a seriously weird biochemical make-up, it could point to a second genesis.

The vast majority of terrestrial species are in fact microbes, and scientists have only begun scratching the surface of the microbial realm. It is entirely possible that examples of life as we don't know it have so far been overlooked.

If there is a second sample of life on Earth, it could constitute a sort of shadow biosphere, perhaps restricted to obscure pockets, or possibly spread all around us, interpenetrating the familiar biosphere. In the latter case, "alien" microbes might be intermingled with our own microbial relatives. They could be literally under our noses. Identifying the aliens presents a challenge, but a few scientists are finally starting to look.

If we do discover more than one type of life on Earth, we can be fairly certain that the universe is teeming with it, for it would be inconceivable that life started twice here but never on all the other earth-like planets. And once life gets going, there is least a chance that intelligence will evolve. Who knows, beings far across the galaxy may even now be wondering whether or not they are alone in the vastness of the cosmos, and trying in some way to attract our attention.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 14 Mar 2010 | 3:00 pm

SpaceX Fires Up

The Falcon 9 successfully completed a static test fire at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, where SpaceX is preparing for the rocket's debut flight next month.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 14 Mar 2010 | 2:12 pm

5 Ways We’ll Interface With Future Computers

The mouse has been the dominate way we've interfaced with computers for decades. What technologies may replace the mouse and even keyboards in the future?
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Mar 2010 | 12:08 pm

Jeffery and Miquette Roberts

My parents Jeffery and Miquette Roberts, who have both died aged 66, within 10 days of each other, shared passions for the arts and languages, and had broad-ranging, inquiring minds. In April 2009, Jeffery was diagnosed with cancer. He faced this with amazing fortitude, and the unending support of Miquette, who died of injuries resulting from a fall shortly after his death.

In my father's office were large maps of Russia and Finland, a piano and dictionaries covering various Nordic and Slavic languages. The effect was that of a musically gifted military dictator, combined with an eccentric taxi firm with an enormous catchment area. Jeffery had an avowedly internationalist focus, but his interest in the world was local as well, as shown by his time as a Liberal party councillor in Shoreditch, east London, from 1980 until 1987.

Born near Liverpool, of Anglo-Welsh parentage, he settled in London permanently in the early 1970s, having read geology at New College, Oxford, and then undertaken PhD research at Cardiff. He married Miquette in 1974. On his return from a period in Finland, working for Union Bank of Finland, in 1991 he formed Pomor Petroleum and Impivaara Securities, two companies that focused their attention on markets in Finland, Russia and the erstwhile Baltic states and beyond.

Jeffery spoke German, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, French and Russian. In the last years of his life, he took up Welsh. In his own language, he liked nothing better than talking at length, launching into excitable, provocative disquisitions, ranging in topic from delegate democracy, the situation in the Middle East (particularly Palestine) and the books of Karen Armstrong to the rise and fall of world empires.

He was passionate about music – playing it and listening to it. Among his favoured composers were Sibelius, Rachmaninoff, Chopin and Liszt. He was engaged and engaging, intellectual, energetic and funny, and by turns infuriating and generous (in every sense of the word). Jeffery found his counterpart in Miquette's quiet, determined character.

If Jeffery's room was his office, my mother's was the lounge. She had decorated it with a mix of African prints in sombre but not oppressive tones, and judiciously placed decorative objects. When a friend of mine visited, he stared as long as his manners allowed him to at Miquette's vibrant, shiny red shoes. He still talked about the shoes, and the contrasting tailored grey outfit, years later.

Such was the impact of my mum's individual style and her charismatic, yet unassuming nature. She had very definite ideas about style in fashion and art; and let it be known in gentle, but assertive terms that she disapproved wryly of my rainbow hair changes over the years.

Miquette was born in Glasgow, of mixed French and Scottish parentage. Her given name was Marie-Christine but she was universally known as Miquette, an affectionate name "usually given to cats in France" as she often remarked on meeting new people. Miquette will be remembered, among many other things, for her seemingly effortless ability to get on with others, and her talent as a writer (though she was far too modest to view herself in these glowing terms).

Having read History of Art, French and German at Glasgow University, she continued her studies at New Hall, Cambridge, graduating in 1966. She then worked in an educational capacity in various art galleries, ranging from those in Bristol and Aberdeen (in the 1960s and 70s) to Tate Britain (1992-2004).

On retirement, she took up the task of translating the wartime letters of her mother, Marie Touchard, from French into English. She also wrote an autobiographical work which she later doled out in tantalising snippets for the rest of the family to read. Her style was succinct and affecting. I remember her quiet but intense pride as she showed me the published letters of Marie Touchard in a bookshop in Paris in 2006.

Miquette is survived by her brother, Malcolm. Jeffery is survived by his sister, Joan. Both are survived by me and my brother Duncan.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 14 Mar 2010 | 12:08 pm

Scientists find new way to help crops fight pests

LONDON (Reuters) - An international team of scientists has managed to transfer disease resistance from one plant family to another, offering broader protection from potentially costly and destructive pests.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 14 Mar 2010 | 12:03 pm

FDA Working to Replace Misleading Food Labels

Food labels on package fronts, which have proliferated and are seen as misleading, have come under FDA scrutiny.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Mar 2010 | 9:16 am

Lunar Mirror Mystery Solved

Reflectors placed on the moon during Apollo missions practically stop working during a full moon. Now we may know why.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 14 Mar 2010 | 4:43 am

Strong 6.6 magnitude quake hits northern Japan (AFP)

AFP - A strong, 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan Sunday afternoon, but no tsunami warning was issued, US and Japanese authorities said.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Mar 2010 | 3:00 am