Naval research laboratory takes a close look at unique diamonds

Naval Research Laboratory, which has been involved in pioneering work involving chemical vapor deposition of diamond and the use of diamond materials in advanced technologies relevant to the Department of Defense since 1987, has recently undertaken some new projects in diamond research. In collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution Museum of Natural History, NRL researchers have begun studying unique and historic natural colored diamonds to understand and characterize the defects/impurities, which cause the color.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am

Transition into adult health care is a rocky road for 20 somethings

Young adults, a generally healthy population, are increasingly flocking to emergency departments instead of outpatient clinics for medical treatment.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am

Nanosatellite To Clear Dangerous Debris From Space

New technology is set to play a major part in clearing dangerous clouds of debris hurtling around the Earth's lower orbit. Scientists have devised a miniature satellite or nanosatellite fitted with a solar sail. "CubeSail" is a device which can be fitted to satellites or launch vehicle upper stages that are sent into orbit and then can be deployed to successfully de-orbit equipment that has reached the end of its mission.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am

Making car fuel from thin air

Researchers in the UK are working on a project that could take carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into car fuel. The project aims to develop porous materials that can absorb the gas that causes global warming and convert it into chemicals that can be used to make car fuel or plastics in a process powered by renewable solar energy.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am

Contact lenses loaded with vitamin E may treat glaucoma

The popular dietary supplement vitamin E, loaded into special medicated contact lenses, can keep glaucoma medicine near the eye -- where it can treat that common disease -- almost 100 times longer than possible with current commercial lenses, scientists report.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am

High systolic BP in patients with chest pain linked with favorable prognosis

New research finds that there is an inverse association between the level of supine (lying face up) systolic blood pressure measured on admission to an intensive care unit for acute chest pain and risk of death at one year, with those patients having high systolic blood pressure having a better prognosis after a year.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am

Vast microbial diversity of carnivorous pitcher plant uncovered

The microbial ecosystem inside the carnivorous pitcher plant is vastly more diverse than previously thought, according to new research.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Mar 2010 | 6:00 am

Compulsive eating shares addictive biochemical mechanism with cocaine, heroin abuse, study shows

In a newly published study, scientists have shown for the first time that the same molecular mechanisms that drive people into drug addiction are behind the compulsion to overeat, pushing people into obesity.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Mar 2010 | 6:00 am

Coronary artery development mystery solved, may lead to better bypasses

Scientists studying cardiac development in mouse embryos have identified the source of cells that become the coronary arteries -- the vessels that deliver blood to nourish the continuously pumping heart muscle.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Mar 2010 | 6:00 am

Slowing down immune system's 'brakes' may improve HIV vaccines

Like a skittish driver slamming the brakes, a special class of T cells may be limiting the effectiveness of therapeutic vaccines for HIV by slowing the immune system response too soon, report health science researchers. Their study may help researchers improve the efficacy of such vaccines by devising methods to circumvent the braking mechanism of these cells.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Mar 2010 | 6:00 am

How my Youtube channel is converting climate change sceptics | Peter Hadfield

Scientific candour, not polar bears and submerged cities, has helped my channel, Potholer54, to 27,000 subscribers

So you have this friend who just doesn't seem to get global warming. Showing him pictures of polar bears stranded on icebergs generates no sympathy. He is unmoved by computer images of New York under water. Could he really be a right-wing crackpot, unwilling to face the fact that the Earth is doomed?

Well maybe not. After questioning and listening to hundreds of climate change "sceptics," I have found that not all are conspiracy theorists or religious fundamentalists. Many are keen to learn about the science of climate change, but they have been learning about it from rather dubious sources.

So two years ago I began a series of videos on YouTube to explain the science, and rebut urban myths that spin round the internet and end up on the opinion pages of the Daily Express and the Wall Street Journal. The result has been astonishing. My channel, Potholer54, now has over 27,000 subscribers. The videos have been mirrored by others all over the internet, and several university lecturers have asked if they can use it in their environmental science classes. Most importantly, former sceptics tell me the videos have changed their minds about the reality of climate change.

That success, however, comes at a price. It means looking at the science – not scary and unrealistic images of submerged cities. It means accepting the fact that Al Gore is not always right, and he should not be defended when he's wrong. It means acknowledging that while sceptics like Christopher Monckton and Martin Durkin fabricate a lot of their facts, many environmental activists tend to exaggerate theirs.

Of course, the evidence clearly shows that the climate is changing, largely because of man-made gases. And the consequences are likely to be dire. But exaggerating them – and being caught out – is not the way to gain public understanding or trust. As a science journalist I could not, with a clear conscience, report that the melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice caps will drown most of Florida (as Al Gore does in An Inconvenient Truth) without pointing out that this is not likely to happen for thousands of years.

The result of this candour is that a lot of sceptics trust the Potholer54 channel, and appreciate that they are not being talked down to, or badgered or lectured. I do not call them climate "deniers", which presupposes there is some irrefutable truth they are denying. But neither are they truly sceptics. They learn climate science the same way many schoolchildren learn about sex – from other kids. The only difference in the internet age is that the playground got bigger.

Without question they unsceptically believe dubious sources like Fox News, the Daily Express and amateur blogs. A parade of scientists (never mind if they have degrees in microbiology or metallurgy) tell them that ocean cycles are reponsible for global warming, or that there is no warming at all, or that even if there is there is nothing to worry about.

Spend just a few days in this bizarre world of disinformation and it is hard to understand how the audience could not come to the conclusion that anthropogenic climate change is a hoax. And if it is a hoax, the next obvious conclusion is that climate scientists must be either stupid or in it for the money. Deconstructing all this spurious guff, one myth at a time, means checking it back to its source, finding the errors, and then pitting it against proper research studies. No need for condescention, insult, or appeals to emotion.

Environmental activists who have subscribed to the channel also began to change their minds about climate change, but for a different reason. They learned that some tenets of the environmental movement are not founded on solid science. And they told me the series had armed them with the information they needed to rebut arguments from sceptic friends and relatives.

Science is science because the knowledge we aquire comes from experimentation and observation, not guesswork, belief and hearsay. Sadly, most newspapers dispensed with a dedicated science correspondent years ago. Editors at the Mail may be a whizz at dissecting the problems of the National Health Service, but the morsel of science they understand can be drowned in their lunchtime gin-and-tonics. Once people understand this, the job of explaining real science is easy.

• Peter Hadfield was a correspondent for New Scientist for 14 years, and contributed regularly to the BBC's Science in Action and ABC's (Australia) The Science Show

Climate voices - messages sent to Peter Hadley via his YouTube channel

• "Your series on climate change is by far the best scientific, non-sensational piece I've ever seen on the subject. It clears up a lot of things that I'd been hearing about that I now realise were purposefully leaving things out. I can only hope more people adopt your non-partisan style of reporting facts in the future."

• "Really well done. I have learned a great deal from this series. I am sceptical by nature but fed into the 'denier's' claims without doing the proper investigation ( it can be quite time consuming)."

• "I decided a year ago that I would face my beliefs and distroy them. Belief used to be defined as ... the acceptance of something as true no matter the evidence to the contrary. It has since been watered down.

I believed that global warming caused by mans activities was bullshit. I just finished viewing your series on this issue and ... I must distroy my belief and accept the science on the topic. You have presented compelling evidence to support global warming due to the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere ... I cannot express how painful that is to type ... POTHOLER54"

• "EXCELLENT WORK ... as one of those "environmental activists" who admittedly doesn't know all the science ... (hey I'm a Social Studies major) I am looking forward to your next video. I'm glad someone finally explained the 800-year discrepancy thing."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 29 Mar 2010 | 4:03 am

Earth Watch

Anti-Japan or anti-whaling? Writers raise the stakes
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Mar 2010 | 3:44 am

Folk medicine threat to primates

Traditional folk medicine poses a significant threat to the future of over 100 primate species around the world, scientists say.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Mar 2010 | 3:30 am

The nation's weather (AP)

AP - A strong low pressure system over the Ohio Valley was expected to continue producing unsettling weather activity as it advanced into the Mid-Atlantic on Monday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Mar 2010 | 3:05 am

Are Cosmic Rays Causing Toyota's 'Sudden Acceleration' Problem?

The car manufacturer is tracking down the cause of inexplicable acceleration events reported in a number of vehicle models, but could the problem be less mechanical and more cosmic in origin?
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 29 Mar 2010 | 3:01 am

Small garden birds 'hit by cold'

The number of small birds like coal tits and goldcrests spotted in gardens has fallen because of the cold winter, says the RSPB.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Mar 2010 | 2:50 am

Gulf Stream 'is not slowing down'

Scientists confirm that there is no slowing of the Gulf Stream ocean current, as predicted by some models of climate change.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Mar 2010 | 2:48 am

Meat-Eating Vs. Driving: Another Climate Change Error? (Time.com)

Time.com - Climate change advocates are on the defensive after a beef-industry consultant points out a flawed comparison
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Mar 2010 | 1:05 am

Diagnosing Parasite Infections With Dye and a Blacklight

San Francisco — An inexpensive dye could give some of the world’s poorest people an early warning if they are infected with deadly parasites.

The dye reacts with a molecule that is produced by trypanosomes, the microbes that cause leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, and sleeping sickness. If the patient is infected, the chemical turns fluorescent green and glows brightly under a blacklight.

“Early diagnosis is the key to improving treatment of these diseases,” said Ellen Beaulieu, a chemist at SRI International who helped to develop the dye, March 21 here at the meeting of the American Chemical Society. “Diagnosis with conventional tests is difficult in developing countries where these diseases occur.”

Trypanosomes infect millions of people each year, and sicken great numbers of livestock as well. As far as parasitic diseases go, the death toll from trypanosome infections is second only to malaria.

Many of the medical lab tests that we take for granted require expensive equipment, refrigerated blood samples, high-end microscopes and trained personnel. In the developing world, it’s hard to find any of those things.

The new test could be performed by unskilled personnel anywhere, in just a few minutes, with little more than an ultraviolet flashlight.

Healthcare workers could use strips of paper coated with the dye to diagnose people with all three trypanosomal diseases. To find out if their patient is infected, they would add a reducing agent to a bit of serum and then dunk the test strip into that mixture. If the paper glows with a fluorescent green hue when placed under a blacklight, the person is infected and should get antiparasitic drugs immediately.

Until recently, leishmaniasis was mostly a plague of the developing world, but quite a few soldiers picked up the disease while serving in Iraq, and immigrants have been bringing it to the United States.

“There is a concern that [leshmaniasis] is getting into the blood supply,” said Mary Tanga, a medicinal chemist from SRI international.  “And soon blood donations will have to be tested for leishmaniasis.”

The test is still in an early stage of development and may not be used in the field until 2015, Beaulieu said.  It should be put through a rigorous battery of tests to make sure it’s sensitive and accurate enough.

Image: Shine a blacklight on the dye alone, and it is almost perfectly clear. Mix it with a peptide that is produced by parasites, and it will turn fluorescent green./Elizabeth Wilson

See Also:

• Third World Biotech: Blood Test for African Sleeping Sickness
• Third World Biotech: A Quick Test for Dengue Fever
• 5 Huge Green-Tech Projects in the Developing World
• Malaria Jumped to Humans From Chimpanzees
• Malaria Gaining Resistance to Best Available Treatment
• New Hope for Anti-Malaria Mosquito
• A Better Mouse Model for Malaria — and Maybe a Vaccine

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 28 Mar 2010 | 7:01 pm

Mongolian herders need food aid after hard winter (AP)

AP - Emergency food relief is needed for nomadic herders in Mongolia after the number of livestock killed there by blizzards and extreme cold doubled in recent weeks, the Red Cross said Monday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Mar 2010 | 6:46 pm

Greenpeace accuses Areva of neglecting health of Nigeriens (AFP)

AFP - French nuclear group Areva is not paying enough attention to the health of workers and inhabitants around its two uranium mines in Niger, Greenpeace said on Monday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Mar 2010 | 6:10 pm

Makeup Makeover: The Truth About Cosmetics (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - More than $40 billion is blown on cosmetics globally each year and hundreds of hours are spent applying creams, lotions and powders. Even with the recent downturn in the economy, makeup-addicts have simply turned to drugstores, instead of high-end boutiques, to snag their tonics, wands and face paints, according to a recent consumer report by Euromonitor International.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Mar 2010 | 5:35 pm

'Meow meow' review may be hampered after drug adviser quits in scientific objectivity row

Dr Polly Taylor is the sixth expert to resign from the committee since the controversial sacking of the chairman, Professor David Nutt, last October

The government's strained relationship with the scientific community has come under further pressure with the resignation of another key drugs adviser in a backlash over the way independent experts are treated by ministers.

Dr Polly Taylor, a consultant veterinary surgeon and long-standing member of the government's drugs advisory council, offered her resignation to the home secretary, Alan Johnson, in an email late last night.

Taylor is the sixth expert to resign from the committee since the controversial sacking of the chairman, Professor David Nutt, last October. Several other council members are considering their positions, the Guardian has learned.

The latest departure follows the publication of guidelines that set out the terms of engagement between ministers and their expert advisers. The guidelines were drawn up by scientists, but later amended by ministers and published as formal "principles of scientific advice to government" last week.

The revised guidelines have outraged critics, who claim they compromise scientists' independence and could discourage experts from giving objective advice on sensitive matters if it clashes with existing government policy.

Taylor's resignation could hamper government plans for a swift ban on the drug mephedrone, or "meow meow", which could be ordered by the home secretary as early as tomorrow afternoon.

The advisory council on the misuse of drugs (ACMD) is due to review a draft report on mephedrone at 2pm, but according to parliamentary regulations, the council requires a veterinary expert to be properly constituted. Officially, an order to ban a drug can only be put before parliament after consulting with the full council.

The council is believed to be in favour of making mephedrone a class B drug, alongside cannabis and speed, meaning dealers would face up to 14 years in prison. Last week, Nutt argued against banning mephedrone, adding that it would be safer to permit the use of the drug by adults under close supervision rather than driving it underground. The "legal high" has been linked to four deaths in the past month.

Nutt was sacked by the home secretary last year after criticising the government for rejecting recommendations from the ACMD on the classification of cannabis and ecstasy. Two members, Les King and Marion Walker, resigned immediately in protest.

Johnson met the ACMD a month later to reassure the expert panel of its independence, but was faced with three more resignations from council members who were not convinced.

Other members of the committee agreed to hold off from resigning until the government responded to the guidelines being drawn up by scientists.

A major point of contention in the revised guidelines concerns a requirement that ministers and their advisers "should not act to undermine mutual trust", a phrase some scientists believe could pressurise scientists into adjusting their advice to match ministers' views.

In her resignation letter, Taylor wrote: "The government's first response [to the guidelines] was highly unsatisfactory and appeared to justify ministers appointing and dismissing independent scientific advisers according to trust, which is an arbitrary and subjective matter."

Senior scientists, expert advisers and the cross-party science and technology select committee all raised objections with the government during its consultation on the guidelines. Taylor's letter goes on to state that she is "surprised and dismayed" that the government rejected the concerns. On the point of resigning, she added: "I feel that there is little more we can do to describe the importance of ensuring that advice is not subjected to a desire to please ministers or the mood of the day's press."

Nutt, who now chairs the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, said he was not surprised to hear of Taylor's resignation.

"I am very concerned that too many scientists have been left in the position of having to decide between advising government and maintaining their scientific independence," he told the Guardian.

"I established the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs because I felt it was vital to develop scientific knowledge on drugs independent of the perception or reality of political interference. The new guidelines on scientific advice suggest to me that the government has still not understood the matters of scientific principle at stake, nor what it means to work respectfully with independent scientific advisers."

Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat science spokesman, said: "Before the government criminalises thousands of people by banning a drug, they must take advice on drug harm and other matters from a legally constituted advisory council."

"The government have shot themselves in the foot. They were warned repeatedly by me and major scientific organisations that unless they pledged to allow their unpaid independent scientists the freedom and independence to give their advice without fear of reprisal by politicians they would face more resignations. Scientists are simply not prepared to be treated like Professor David Nutt was."

"If it is necessary to act urgently to ban mephedrone then, by provoking this resignation by their refusal to respect the scientists who offer advice, the home secretary will now be forced to wait a delay while the council is properly constituted. This episodes tells us is what we should have learned from the BSE disaster: if we treat scientists badly, then the government won't get good advice and everyone suffers."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Mar 2010 | 5:05 pm

Science Weekly podcast: The UK Space Agency, quantum information and monkeys

Vlatko Vedral, professor of quantum information theory, joins the pod to discuss his mind-blowing theories of entanglement. His new book Decoding Reality is out now.

If you want more of Vedral, see Aleks Krotoski interview him here.

The UK has launched its own space agency. Science correspondent Ian Sample was there to witness the moment and spoke to the UK's science minister Lord Drayson.

We visit London Zoo's new exhibit, which recreates the conditions of a living South American rainforest.

Molecular biologist Francisco Ayala, the winner of this year's £1m Templeton prize, speaks to us from our studio in Washington DC.

Nell Boase is your host while Alok is away.

WARNING: contains strong language.

Feel free to post your thoughts 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 | 28 Mar 2010 | 5:01 pm

CubeSails to Drag Space Junk from Orbit

Could a nanosatellite inspired by the solar sail be used to pull defunct satellites down to Earth? Is there a passive military application waiting to be unleashed?
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Mar 2010 | 3:44 pm

Science teacher Paul Butlin on Bang Goes the Theory

Bang Goes the Theory has plenty of wow factor, but Science teacher Paul Butlin would have liked to see more explanation of the actual science

Bang Goes the Theory is a programme about science with four presenters who travel the world investigating scientific breakthroughs. It's fast-paced and big-budget, with plenty of wow factor. But I'm not sure how effective it will be in bringing new people to science. The focus on experiments makes it feel laddish, reinforcing the stereotypical view that science is for boys.

One episode opened with a presenter investigating g-force. Using an apple stuck to a set of scales, he measured the forces acting on his body as he played on swings and roundabouts. I can't say I've ever done that with a school class. The apple was a nod to Isaac Newton, but it would have been helpful if they'd explained that force is measured in newtons.

Another presenter explored the nature of atoms, using grains of sand, cornish pasties and motorbikes driving in circles. He was unlikely to enhance viewers' knowledge in just a few minutes, but he could still have given a more developed picture, perhaps with a reference to Rutherford's experiment and evidence for the empty atom.

The show contains all the ingredients of good science teaching: it engages with the theory and gives plenty of examples. I would have liked to see more explanation of the science, but that's the drawback of packing so much in. I did enjoy the exploration of heart-muscle action during exercise, though. Two presenters tested their fitness to predict how long they would take to run the Sport Relief Mile. There was a section on the psychology of running, in which one of the presenters told herself: "Pain is my friend! Pain is my friend!" Learning science is a bit like that. It involves making an ally of difficulty. It's a challenge.

Paul Butlin is head of chemistry at Ipswich High School for Girls. Bang Goes the Theory is on BBC1, tonight.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Mar 2010 | 3:35 pm

Canada's annual seal hunt off to slow start (AFP)

AFP - Canada's annual seal hunt was off to a slow start Sunday, with most fishing boats still moored in their harbors, as missing ice floes in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence kept their prey hundreds of miles to the north.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Mar 2010 | 2:45 pm

Seat of Temptation Found in the Brain

A specific region of the brain could be responsible for the human ability to resist temptation, a new study says.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Mar 2010 | 1:50 pm

Grasshopper outlook strikes fear on Western range (AP)

AP - Grasshopper infestations have taken on mythic tones here on the arid prairie of northeastern Wyoming — they blanket highways, eat T-shirts off clotheslines and devour nearly every scrap of vegetation on ranches and farms.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Mar 2010 | 1:32 pm

Single gene powers hybrid tomato plants: study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A mutation in a single gene can turn hybrid tomato plants into super producers capable of generating more and much sweeter fruit without genetic engineering, scientists said in a study released on Sunday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 28 Mar 2010 | 11:01 am

Makeup Makeover: The Truth About Cosmetics

Cosmetics can play a significant role in your life, from helping you attract mates to boosting your earning potential.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Mar 2010 | 10:57 am

What Is Passover?

Passover is an eight-day commemoration that overlaps in date with Easter.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Mar 2010 | 10:48 am

Green promise

What happened to the green jobs bonanza?
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Mar 2010 | 10:37 am

Peru's trees

Who benefits from big business's carbon offsetting?
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Mar 2010 | 10:31 am

Machines Take Center Stage at 'Robot Olympics'

The seventh annual RoboGames competition runs from April 23 to 25 at California's San Mateo County Expo Center.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Mar 2010 | 9:23 am

Skipper Wants to 'Fly' Boat Around the World in 40 Days

Saw this piece on CNN this morning: Alain Thebault, the skipper of the world's fastest sailboat, the Hydroptere announced that he wants to sail his boat around the world in 40 days. And he wants to cross the Pacific in ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Mar 2010 | 7:49 am

T.Rex stalked Australia, albeit a mini-me version

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia scientists have found evidence that Tyrannosaur dinosaurs stalked southern hemisphere continents, with the discovery of a hip bone fossil of a small T.Rex in the south of the country.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 28 Mar 2010 | 7:21 am