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

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10 Years on, ‘The Genome Revolution Is Only Just Beginning’

Almost 10 years after the celebrated completion of the human genome’s first draft, the expected revolution in medicine and research has only partly come to pass.

The human genome’s sequencing has profoundly influenced basic research and the refinement of genome-reading tools. But those advances have had only limited medical impacts.

“The promise of a revolution in human health remains quite real,” wrote Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, in an essay published March 31 in Nature. “Those who somehow expected dramatic results overnight may be disappointed.”

Collins’ commentary is one of four published this week in Nature in anticipation of the human genome’s upcoming 10th anniversary, which officially falls on June 26. On that date in 2000, Collins — then the head of the NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute — met in the White House with Craig Venter, founder of Celera Genomics, and President Bill Clinton.

In the same room that Merriweather Lewis and William Clark presented Thomas Jefferson with a map of the Louisiana Purchase territories, the researchers announced that the human genome’s three billion base pairs of DNA had been mapped. “Humankind is on the verge of gaining immense, new power to heal,” proclaimed Clinton. “It will revolutionize the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of most, if not all, human diseases.”

Mostly lost in the ceremony was the fact that the genome sequence was not truly complete, but only a first draft. About 10 percent of it hadn’t yet been read. The parts that had been read, still needed to be verified. Reading the genome had required its breakup into thousands of manageable chunks that needed to be reassembled. Ewan Birney, a Sanger Center geneticist and leader of a group involved in the sequencing, compared the moment to “being given the best book in the world, but it’s in Russian, and it’s incredibly boring to read.”

The human genome’s sequencing wasn’t formally completed until 2003. Since then, it has guided researchers in investigations of human development and disease. Some of their investigations have yielded new tests and drug targets and insights into the basis of human disease and development. But they’ve also revealed just how complicated human biology is, and how much remains to be understood.

“Wisely, the president did not attach timetables to his bold predictions,” wrote Collins in Nature.

Perhaps the greatest genomic advances of the last decade involve tools. The Human Genome Project — the Collins-led governmental side of the genome-sequencing race, with Venter leading the private side — commenced only when the cost of reading DNA finally approached $1 per unit, or $3 billion for a whole genome. A comparable genome sequence now costs less than $10,000. What took years to complete can be done in a day.

Better tools have driven other genomic advances. The International HapMap project was formed in 2002, and compared the genomes of several hundred people from around the world. This produced a map of genomic hotspots where people — any two of whom are roughly 99 percent identical at the genetic level — are most likely to have DNA differences. This helps researchers narrow their focus on genes involved in disease.

Researchers have also learned that just 1.5 percent of all human genes code for the proteins that make up our cells and tissues. As for what the rest are doing, they are still learning. In 2003, the NIH started the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements, or ENCODE, which supports researchers in identifying functions for the rest of our genes.

Many genes control when protein-coding genes are turned on and off at different places and times in the body, adding a whole new layer of complexity to the genome. This field of study is called epigenomics, and many researchers think it’s just as important as genomics. The NIH’s Roadmap Epigenomics Program started just two years ago.

Scientists hope these projects will fill the massive gaps that remain in current genetic explanations for most common diseases. Even after the publication of hundreds of genome-wide association studies — the gold standard of disease gene hunting, in which thousands of genomes are scanned and compared — scientists can explain only a fraction of the heritability that clearly exists in common diseases and conditions.

“The ability to make meaningful predictions is still quite limited,” wrote Collins. Indeed, personalized genomics companies like 23andMe, Navigenics and deCODE have struggled, as the novelty of genomic information gives way to a realization that it’s still of limited medical use.

But all for all that turn-of-the-millennium expectations have been tempered, the genomic age has produced significant medical advances. Analyses of gene disturbances in cancer tissues have produced several promising drugs. Testing for breast cancer mutations is now common. Individual response to about a dozen drugs can be predicted. And even if the big picture isn’t yet clear, researchers have thousands of new gene targets, each a providing a foothold on the path to understanding. For some complex diseases, such as schizophrenia, researchers are now looking at genes and physiological systems they never suspected were involved.

Making sense of massive new genomic datasets has fueled the growth of systems biology, now one of the hottest areas of science. And all this research is shaped by another legacy of the genome’s sequencing: what Collins calls “the radical ethic of immediate data deposit.” Knowledge of the human genome wasn’t scattered and hoarded. It was freely shared with any researcher who wanted it.

“My students can gather certain types of experimental data 1,000 and even 10,000 times faster than I could 40 years ago,” wrote Robert Weinberg, a Whitehead Institute geneticist, in Nature.

As Venter, now the leader of the eponymous J. Craig Venter Institute, responsible for the designing the first synthetic genome, concluded his essay: “The genome revolution is only just beginning.”

Image: A section of the printed human genome/Adam Nieman/Flickr

See Also:

• Beyond the Genome
• The Human Genome in 3 Dimensions
• The Epigenetics Boom
• How High-Speed Gene Sequencing Works
• The First and Last Meeting of Everyone with a Fully Sequenced …

Citations: “Has the revolution arrived?” By Francis Collins. Nature, Vol. 464 No. 7289, April 1, 2010.

“Multiple personal genomes await.” By J. Craig Venter. Nature, Vol. 464 No. 7289, April 1, 2010.

“Dive in, the data’s lovely.” By Todd Golub. Nature, Vol. 464 No. 7289, April 1, 2010.

“Don’t forget the hypotheses.” By Robert Weinberg. Nature, Vol. 464 No. 7289, April 1, 2010.

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

The Pac-Man Moon: Mimas Goes Wocka-Wocka-Wocka

Alec Bangham obituary

Leading haematologist who was known as the father of liposomes

Alec Bangham's decision to abandon clinical pathology and become a research scientist unleashed a career rich in discovery and innovation. It spanned six wonderfully fruitful decades during which Alec, who has died aged 88, became known as the father of liposomes.

In 1952 he was one of the first to be appointed to the new Institute of Animal Physiology, Babraham, Cambridge, where he was a staff scientist for 30 years. Early research reflected the catholicity of his approach, driven by curiosity. He studied carriers of typhoid among Egyptians, the effect of cortisone on wound healing, and found that horses exhibited two types of haemoglobins. He tackled the surface chemistry of blood cells and found that pure phospholipids dispersed in water consisted of sets of closed membranes that were structurally and functionally like real cell membranes. He (and the world) called them liposomes, even if some affectionately prefer "Bangasomes". From this discovery in the 1960s, a new industry was to emerge.

His fascination with the basic physics of how molecules permeate across membranes extended to the fusion and stickiness of membranes, blood clotting, anaesthetics and vitamin A intoxication. In contrast to many of today's set-ups, Alec always had a small laboratory of never more than two or three devoted staff. It received a stream of visiting scientists from all parts of the world, who became part of the extended family with Alec and his wife, Rosalind, at the centre. The impact of his work has been far-reaching, with tens of thousands of scientific papers, a succession of patents, a new journal, an international society, a profusion of conferences and the creation of companies.

Excited when industry began to catch up with his ideas, Alec followed closely how liposomes could be used to treat chronic human diseases, whether it was cancer, fungal and mycoplasma infections or vascular disease. They could be used stealthily, like a Trojan horse, to deliver toxic drugs to their targets, as adjuvants for immunisation, and to deliver healthy genes where they were needed. He flew with Rosalind to Paris for dinner with Jacques Rouet, president of Christian Dior, to see liposomes being made by the kilogram. These little fatty vesicles became valuable in the cosmetics not only of Christian Dior but also Lancôme, Arden and numerous other companies.

Alec was deeply aware that scientists in research institutes were envied by their peers in universities because many had permanent appointments, technical assistants and freedom to follow their curiosities. Yet he recognised the deprivations institutes imposed on scientists, who, for instance, missed out on the feedback generated by teaching. They were also forced to retire at the age of 61, an arrangement enforced by civil service rules that gave greater importance to age than creativity.

As was to be expected, though, Alec found ways around this, and with Colin Morley at Addenbrooke's hospital, Cambridge, discovered that solid, rather than liquid, lung surfactant prevented lung tissue from filling up with fluid. A successful treatment for babies suffering from respiratory distress syndrome was developed, and artificial lung expanding compound, or "Alec", was launched, this time by a UK company. This new treatment gave great cause for rejoicing.

Alec was awarded a doctorate of medicine from London University in 1965, was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1977 and of University College London in 1981, and made a distinguished fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1997. The landmark paper in which he had first described liposomes, with Malcolm Standish and Jeff Watkins, which was published in 1965, was recognised as a citation classic in Current Contents in 1989.

The son of Donald Bangham, director of research at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association, and Edith Kerby, who was born in St Petersburg and had been a one-time interpreter for Emmeline Pankhurst, Alec was the eldest of three children. His early schooling at the Downs Quaker preparatory school, Colwall, Worcestershire, overlapped with the future twice-Nobel laureate Fred Sanger. He was taught English in his final two years by WH Auden.

Photography was an enduring passion with Alec, and Auden paid him five cigarettes for taking a photograph of him with his wife of the day, Erika Mann, daughter of Thomas Mann, whom Auden had married so she could leave Germany. The school permitted Alec to visit his parents in Egypt, where his father was professor of physical chemistry in Cairo University. There, he photographed Jack Gaddum, who had been appointed by Alec's father to the chair of pharmacology and later became director of Babraham.

Alec left Downs with barely the common entrance marks to get into Bryanston school, Blandford, Dorset. The story of his early academic career, however, did not presage the highly original and insightful research scientist who was to emerge. At school, Alec abandoned Latin as a lost cause, which excluded him from Oxbridge. At the outbreak of the second world war, he was not eligible for call-up, so, having read Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruif, he decided to do medicine. He repeated French three times to gain access to London University, and failed his final MB MS (medicine) twice before emerging successfully from UCL.

His first appointment was at Addenbrooke's hospital, followed by national service as a pathologist, becoming a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1948. Postings to Palestine and Fayid, Egypt, exposed him to the depressing task of carrying out postmortems on soldiers killed in action. Rosalind, who had qualified in medicine from King's College, London, joined him to live outside married quarters in a mud hut. With Colonel John Hunt (of Everest fame), expeditions to the mountains of the western desert were irresistible. In his autobiography, Hunt recalled these expeditions and with obvious affection, wrote of this "delightfully unconventional pair" – the Banghams on an ageing motorbike and sidecar and the Hunts in a dilapidated pre-war Standard 9.

Alec was devoted to his family and addicted to sailing, cricket (he was a notable batsman in his day), photography, restoring Caucasian rugs, cars, scooters, making facsimiles of classical clarinet mouthpieces, and growing the largest vegetables in the locality.

At the end of his life he was still bursting with ideas and still publishing. His latest hypothesis was that a person's bouquet of weak volatile organic compounds serves two purposes. In their uncharged state, they are permeable and smell and collectively identify an individual. When charged, they bond and make surfaces charge-free and invisible – fit to avoid rejection. It was a surreal moment when he gathered a small group of friends and colleagues to tell them all about this on the evening before he died.

His wife predeceased him by a few months. He leaves three sons and a daughter.

• Alec Douglas Bangham, haematologist, born 10 November 1921; died 9 March 2010

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 31 Mar 2010 | 11:34 am

Obama Announces Offshore Drilling Plan

Skydiver Aims to Jump From 120,000 Feet, Break the Sound Barrier

If you’re planning to jump out of a plane at 120,000 feet and break the sound barrier, you need a really fancy suit.

Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner has been working with a company that makes space suits for astronauts in an effort to pull off a record-setting jump with the Red Bull Stratos project that he hopes will also lead to safer flight suits for future astronauts.

Baumgartner, the Red Bull star who has done everything from crossing the English Channel during free fall using a carbon fiber wing, to BASE jumping off the tallest buildings in the world, is planning to ascend to the stratosphere in a pressurized capsule carried by a massive helium balloon. Once reaching 120,000 feet, the plan is to depressurize the capsule, open the door and step off.

Retired U.S. Air Force Colonlel Joseph Kittenger steps into the great unknown in 1960

The current record for a skydive was set way back in 1960 when U.S. Air Force Colonel (Retired) Joseph Kittinger jumped from 102,600 feet. In addition to breaking that record, Baumgartner (like Kittinger did) is working with several scientists to research new, safer suit designs for pilots and future space travelers. The hope is to develop the next generation of full pressure suits that would help increase survival if the need to bail out of a spacecraft should ever arise at extremely high altitudes.

The new suit being used by Baumgartner is made by David Clark, the same company that made Kittinger’s suit as well as full pressure suits for astronauts and military pilots flying at the edge of the atmosphere in aircraft such as the SR-71 Blackbird, the U-2 and the X-15. The suits provide an artificial atmosphere that allows pilots to survive in what would otherwise be a a deadly environment.

For Baumgartner’s jump, temperatures are expected to be colder than minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit, and the air pressure will be so low that a condition known as ebullism would kill him if the pressure suit were to fail. The condition is explained by everybody’s favorite formula from chemistry class, the ideal gas law. Ebullism can strike at 62,000 feet, but at 120,000 feet, the outside air pressure is less than one pound per square inch, making it even easier for gas bubbles to form in the blood, basically allowing the blood to boil.

Another potential problem is maneuvering during free fall. In order to achieve Mach 1, Baumgartner will have to adjust his position during free fall and a normal suit is too restrictive to allow sufficient freedom of movement. One of the worries is what would happen if a person were to begin tumbling.

Felix Baumgartner is fitted for his new pressure suit

Skydivers use their arms and legs to maneuver, but with the limited motion in a space suit, mobility is greatly restricted. The David Clark suit gives Baumgartner more flexibility to move during free fall. So far the Red Bull Stratos team has tested the new suit in wind tunnels, low pressure chambers and several jumps from 25,000 feet. Baumgartner has been fine tuning his “delta” position that he will use to achieve the supersonic jump.

No person has ever broken the sound barrier during free fall, though it is thought if a person were forced to bail out of a spacecraft at altitudes much higher than 120,000 feet, they would achieve supersonic speeds involuntarily. Baumgartner wants to help researchers better understand the possible effects of supersonic speeds on a person falling through the atmosphere as well as the effects on the suit.

Images: Red Bull

See Also:

• How to Maneuver in a Space Suit Using the ‘Apollo Number’
• Gallery: The Space Suit Makes the NASA Astronaut
• For Sale: Slightly Used Spacesuit, $500K OBO

CERN tackles glitches, pushes new science frontier

Mega-flood triggered cooling 13,000 years ago: scientists

Video: Zebra finches and autism

Geneticists are using the genome of zebra finches to understand more about speech problems caused by Parkinson's and autism

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 31 Mar 2010 | 11:03 am

Why Early Earth Didn't Freeze

Britain brandishes olive branch to restart global climate change talks

Ed Miliband concedes ground and offers to sign new Kyoto treaty in unilateral attempt to heal rift between rich and poor countries

Britain brandished a diplomatic olive branch today as it tried to restart global climate change negotiations with an initiative to heal the rift between rich and poor countries following the failure of the Copenhagen summit.

Climate secretary Ed Miliband conceded considerable ground, offering to sign a new Kyoto treaty as developing countries' demand, but while also requiring that those nations enshrine their commitments to tackling global warming in international law.

Britain's unilateral move addresses the key issue that doomed Copenhagen – that the rich accept the legally binding commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions enshrined in Kyoto.

The initiative could lead to two separate global treaties on climate change. It also offers a challenge to China, India and other major developing countries, who have been unwilling to commit legally to acting on climate change because the Kyoto agreement specifically exempts them.

"We are asking that developing countries internationalise in a legally binding agreement the actions they take domestically," said the government action plan, published today in advance of formal UN negotiations that reopen next week in Bonn.

"We would not envisage developing countries being subject to any punitive compliance measures," it added.

The move is the strongest signal yet that rich countries' attempts to sideline or even abandon the Kyoto treaty have failed and that the negotiations will continue within the 192-nation UN climate body and not in smaller groups of countries as the US and other nations had wanted.

"We hope by doing this we can take away the myth that developed countries were trying to destroy Kyoto," said Miliband.

"We are determined to unblock the negotiations. We are willing to offer a second agreement under Kyoto, provided there is a separate legal treaty covering all other countries."

The move was immediately welcomed by Bharrat Jagdeo, president of Guyana. But he warned that developing countries would not accept an agreement if rich countries – who have emitted by far the most carbon pollution – did not commit to further deep cuts in emissions.

Referring to the US, he said: "There are countries who stick out and clearly need to do more work. If the largest [developed] country emitter falls so far below the minimum, it makes it far harder for other countries, and you lose the element of justice and fairness."

The diplomatic moves came as Gordon Brown met billionaire financier George Soros; Obama's economic adviser Larry Summers; economist Lord Nicholas Stern and other finance ministers to find ways to raise $30bn (£20bn) a year immediately and $100bn a year by 2020 to enable developing countries to adapt to climate change.

The high-level advisory group on climate change financing, convened by UN general secretary Ban Ki-moon and chaired by Brown and Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi, will consider at least six ways of raising up to $1tn dollars for climate change adaptation. These include:

• a small levy on all international aviation and shipping

• enlarging existing carbon cap-and-trade markets

• imposing a small "Robin Hood"-type tax on all financial transactions

• using the International Monetary Fund's special drawing rights.

The group of 19 financial leaders have been asked by Ban to report back by November, when UN climate talks take place in Cancun, Mexico.

Environment and development groups welcomed the British initiative. Andy Atkins, Friends of the Earth's executive director, said: "It's positive that the government has restated its commitment to the Kyoto protocol, which enshrines the responsibility of rich countries, as the biggest historical polluters, to slash their emissions first and fastest."

Joanne Green, head of policy at development agency Cafod, said: "This shows that Gordon Brown is listening to the concerns of developing countries. This is a first stride in rebuilding the trust desperately needed between developing and developed countries."

And Melanie Ward, Christian Aid's UK political adviser, said: "The positive language needs to be matched by the necessary political choices.

"These include using international finance to support clean development in poor countries, rather than more dirty coal power stations, and demanding much deeper cuts in EU emissions levels."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 31 Mar 2010 | 10:59 am

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A suitable case for libel?

As a member of the British False Memory Society, I and others like me are portrayed as giving comfort to child sex abusers. Is it worth suing our accusers?

Some weeks ago, I wrote a piece for the Guardian criticising the Reverend Pearl Luxon, the person in charge of the Church of England's child protection policy, who appears to believe that "there is no such thing as false memory". The Church continues to recommend a self-help book called The Courage to Heal as part of their child protection policy despite the fact that the book has been criticised as contributing to the formation of false memories of childhood sexual abuse both by the scientific and professional advisory board of the British False Memory Society (BFMS) and other experts in the field.

This led to accusations that I and other members of the BFMS as well as sociologist Jo Woodiwiss, were attacking survivors of child abuse and denying their experiences of a traumatic childhood. These accusations were made by Peter Saunders, the CEO and founder of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), an organisation that recently received a grant of almost half a million pounds from the Big Lottery Fund. The comments were made by Saunders in response to a follow-up article by Woodiwiss in which she pointed out, quite correctly, that reading books like The Courage to Heal can lead vulnerable individuals to conclude that they were the victims of sexual abuse even in the absence of any conscious memories of such abuse. Saunders wrote of "so-called academics" who are "doing all abusers a huge favour" by "effectively silencing victims for fear of attracting ridicule". The idea of false memories was referred to as "nonsense" and "dangerous tripe".

On behalf of the maligned scientific advisers and also the membership of the BFMS, (who were labelled by Saunders as a "dangerous group" on his blog), the director of the BFMS, Madeline Greenhalgh, sought the advice of Adrienne Page QC, who is acting for Simon Singh in his legal battle with the British Chiropractic Association. Her excellent advice is summarised here with the permission of the BFMS:

The BFMS engages in public debate and seeks to influence public opinion. It has stimulated the latest round of argument by the public letter sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury expressing concern regarding the Church of England's continued recommendation of The Courage to Heal as part of its child protection policy. The stance of the European Court of Human Rights is that those who enter the public arena and contribute on matters of public interest must be especially tolerant of extreme, unreasonable and even defamatory reactions to their viewpoint. This, it is said, is vital in a democratic society.

Essentially Saunders is expressing a personal viewpoint, even if in terms which many may feel are offensive and defamatory, especially those he describes as so-called academics disseminating dangerous tripe. However, readers can judge for themselves the quality of contributions to public debate. Some have done so in their own comments on the Woodiwiss article.

The cases of scientists and doctors sued for libel that are currently in the news have led to the establishment of an extremely effective and widely supported lobby movement against allowing the libel laws to continue to play a role in matters of public interest involving science and medical research. This movement has even influenced the government to look closely at proposals for immediate legal reform.

The BFMS, with its distinguished body of scientific advisers, may consider it wise to avoid the sort of public opprobrium that has befallen libel complainants who have been accused of using the libel laws in an attempt to shut down public criticism in matters of science and medicine. The BFMS should be well able to meet criticism of it and its members by measured public responses to their critics.

I could not agree more with this advice. It is worth making the point here that the campaign for reform of the English libel laws, which I strongly support, is seeking reforms that would make laws fairer, not abolish them altogether.

So, the good people at the Guardian can relax – we don't intend to sue Saunders for libel. It is far too heavy handed an approach to deal with what is essentially a matter of scientific evidence. But I would like to spell out very clearly my own position on the matter of childhood sexual abuse, a position which is, I believe, widely shared by other members of the BFMS.

I do not for an instant deny that childhood sexual abuse occurs and can often have devastating psychological consequences. My heart goes out to the victims of such abuse and I condemn without reservation their abusers. The question is: How often do individuals suffer such abuse and then totally forget it as a consequence of "repression"? The available evidence suggests that this rarely, if ever, happens. Instead, it is far more typical for victims to be unable to block the traumatic memories from their consciousness. Furthermore, despite the claims of Peter Saunders and Rev Luxon, the evidence that false memories do occur is overwhelming – there simply is no doubt about that. The evidence is available in numerous books and psychology journals for anyone who cares to look at it. Members of the BFMS are more than happy to supply this information to Peter Saunders and Rev Luxon upon request or to meet them in person to discuss the evidence.

Perhaps the Church of England authorities have adopted their position because they are afraid of becoming embroiled in the type of child sex abuse scandals that are currently engulfing the Roman Catholic Church. It is understandable that they would wish to avoid any risk of being accused by the likes of Peter Saunders of defending abusers and attacking victims. But they, like the rest of us, must ultimately base their policy upon the best scientific evidence available.

According to an article in the Church Times on 19 March, a review by the Church of England of its child protection policies will take into account the issues raised by the BFMS. One final thought that the Church authorities might like to ponder during this review: If accusations of child sex abuse are made against its members based upon "recovered" memories by individuals who have read and been influenced by The Courage to Heal or similar books, would they not find it very difficult to defend themselves, given that they recommend such reading material themselves? After all, if there is no such thing as a false memory, it follows that any such memories must be true, doesn't it?

Chris French is a Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths where he heads the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit. He edits the the Skeptic.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 31 Mar 2010 | 8:32 am

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China spends big to counter severe weather caused by climate change

Country invests heavily in warning systems and infrastructure to tackle effects of extreme temperatures, typhoons, fog and storms

China will tomorrow start ramping up preparations for typhoons, dust storms and other extreme weather disasters as part of a 10-year plan to predict and prevent the worst impacts of climate change.

Improved warning systems, new emergency drills and bolstered infrastructure will form the backbone of the new regulations, which are the country's most advanced measures yet to deal with natural disaster.

China has a long history of devastating floods and droughts, but officials said the problems were intensifying.

"It is necessary to respond to the new situation under climate change to avoid and mitigate the losses caused by meteorological disasters," said Gao Fengtao, deputy director of the state council's legislative affairs office, as he unveiled the new policy.

In recent years, he said, disasters were characterised by "sudden occurrence, wider variety, greater intensity and higher frequency in the context of global warming".

Officials warned this posed a threat to human life and a huge challenge to China's sustainable development.

Zheng Guoguang, head of China's meteorological administration, said natural disasters caused economic losses each year of up to 300bn yuan (£29bn), equivalent to about 2% of the country's gross domestic product.

He cited the unusually severe snow storms that engulfed southern China in 2008 and the worst drought in a century that is now afflicting Yunnan, Guangxi and Sichuan provinces.

The new regulations for the prevention of and preparedness for meteorological disasters will establish a legal framework for disaster response, risk assessment, evacuation measures and public education.

They will cover terrestrial phenomena – such as extreme temperatures, dust and sand storms, lightning strikes, fog, typhoons – and "space weather", such as solar storms.

Officials said the move was part of a 10-year national plan that clarified the government's response to climate change and stipulated what measures regional and local governments should take in terms of infrastructure investment, reporting mechanisms and disaster drills.

But it was unclear how much the central government would spend on the programme and the proportion of the costs it would bear. Local authorities in poor areas often neglect Beijing directives that they cannot afford to implement.

Despite its developing nation status, China has an advanced meteorological monitoring system, using weather satellites and a global network of 158 radar stations.

Zheng said the government has invested 10bn yuan in the system in recent years, with the budget rising 15% annually.

"The large sums that China invests in its meteorological infrastructure are rarely seen in the world," he said.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 31 Mar 2010 | 8:13 am

Earth Watch