High-fat meals a no-no for asthma patients, researchers find

People with asthma may be well-advised to avoid heavy, high-fat meals, according to new research. Individuals with asthma who consumed a high-fat meal showed increased airway inflammation just hours after the binge, according to Australian researchers who conducted the study. The high fat meal also appeared to inhibit the response to the asthma reliever medication Ventolin (albuterol).
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 May 2010 | 9:00 am

Death of a star in 3D: New computer models show in detail how supernovae obtain their shape

Researchers have for the first time managed to reproduce the asymmetries and fast-moving iron clumps of observed supernovae by complex computer simulations in all three dimensions. To this end they successfully followed the outburst in their models consistently from milliseconds after the onset of the blast to the demise of the star several hours later.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 May 2010 | 9:00 am

The art of mindreading: Empathy or rational inference?

The ability to infer what another person is thinking is an essential tool for social interaction and is known by neuroscientists as "Theory of Mind," but how does the brain actually allow us to do this?
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 May 2010 | 9:00 am

Redefining electrical current law with the transistor laser

A major current law has been rewritten thanks to the three-port transistor laser. Data the transistor laser generated did not fit neatly within established circuit laws governing electrical currents, so the pair created a new model to account for the transistor laser having both electrical and optical output.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 May 2010 | 9:00 am

Clash of the mites: Hot on the heels of a destructive coconut pest

Biological control experts are sending mites after their own kind as researchers make headway in an initiative to naturally manage the most invasive and destructive pest of the crop, the coconut mite Aceria guerreronis Keifer.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 May 2010 | 9:00 am

Unhealthy patterns of innate oral bacteria may cause bad breath

It might not just be poor oral hygiene causing that bad breath say researchers from Japan. Unhealthy patterns of bacterial populations inherent to the mouth may also contribute to oral malodor.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 May 2010 | 9:00 am

How spiders create silk threads: Lowering pH regulates spider’s silk production, researchers find

How can a tiny spider body contain material for several decimeters of gossamer silk, and what governs the conversion to thread? Researchers in Sweden can now explain this process.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 May 2010 | 6:00 am

Noroviruses identified as common cause of travelers' diarrhea

Noroviruses, infamous for causing outbreaks of gastroenteritis on cruise ships, may now be recognized as a common cause of travelers' diarrhea in multiple regions of the world as well.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 May 2010 | 6:00 am

Precisely calculating the age of stars: Key to evolution of a type of white dwarf found

An international team of scientists has precisely calculated the age of a group of white dwarf stars. The research results open up new opportunities for advancing our understanding of the evolution of stars, plasma physics, and the origin of the universe in general.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 May 2010 | 6:00 am

Temperature and humidity may effect virus survival on surfaces

The SARS coronavirus (CoV) may survive on surfaces for days at temperature and humidity levels common to indoor environments, say researchers.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 May 2010 | 6:00 am

Deep sea oil plumes, dispersants endanger reefs (AP)

AP - The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has already spewed plumes over ecologically sensitive reefs, part of a stalled marine sanctuary proposal that would have restrict drilling in a large swath of the northern part of the vital waterway.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 May 2010 | 4:06 am

Atlantis to make first spacewalk

Astronauts on the shuttle Atlantis's latest mission to the space station make their first spacewalk on Monday.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 May 2010 | 3:41 am

The 'Quiet Zone': Hunting that Radio Noise (Part 2)

Cell phones and microwaves aren't the only devices to give off radio waves, the electronics in radio telescopes themselves can hamper observations if you're not careful.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 17 May 2010 | 3:19 am

Are We Alone in the Universe? (Invited Radio Show)

Last week I was invited on a CRI English radio show to talk about all things extraterrestrial. Seth Shostak (SETI Institute) and Douglas C. Lin (Peking University) were also there to give an expert opinion.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 17 May 2010 | 3:09 am

Conservationists ask the public to help save moths and bats

Moths and bats are "in crisis", say conservationists, who are asking the public to take part in a national survey.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 May 2010 | 2:55 am

The nation's weather (AP)

AP - Active weather was forecast to persist in the Eastern U.S. on Monday as an area of low pressure and associated frontal boundary pushed toward the East Coast.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 May 2010 | 2:53 am

Astronauts kicking off first of 3 spacewalks (AP)

AP - It's spacewalking time for the Atlantis astronauts.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 May 2010 | 2:01 am

Atlantis Shuttle Astronauts Set For Spacewalk No. 1 (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - Two spacewalking astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station Monday to attach a delicate communications antenna during a tricky service call.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 May 2010 | 1:45 am

BP mulls options as oil tube captures 'some' oil (AFP)

AFP - Engineers on Monday mulled options to seal an oil gush in the Gulf of Mexico after BP succeeded in capturing "some" oil and gas by inserting a mile-long tube into the main leak.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 May 2010 | 1:43 am

Shuttle Atlantis reaches space station on last trip

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The space shuttle Atlantis arrived at the International Space Station Sunday to deliver a new Russian module and spare parts needed to keep the outpost operational after two final shuttle visits this year.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 17 May 2010 | 1:36 am

BP says progress in effort to contain oil spill (Reuters)

Reuters - Energy giant BP was making some progress on Monday with its efforts to contain the oil gushing forth from a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 May 2010 | 1:21 am

Indoor air kills 2.2 million young Chinese: report (AFP)

AFP - More than two million Chinese youths die each year from health problems related to indoor air pollution, with nearly half of them under five years of age, state media cited a government study as saying.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 May 2010 | 1:08 am

New trials of daily polypill

A new trial of the Red Heart polypill, four drugs in a single tablet, launches today to assess whether those at risk of heart attacks and strokes will take it regularly and whether it will saves lives.

As the world changes, so do patterns of disease. Heart attacks and strokes used to be thought of as the burden of rich countries. Increasingly, cardiovascular disease is spreading across the developing world.

In rich countries, those at risk of a heart attack may be offered a whole load of different protective pills. But in developing countries, there is little in the way of preventive medicine, most pills are expensive and few patients take the sort of daily drug cocktails that keep some people well in the west.

But the polypill could change all that. A major new trial launches tomorrow to find out whether the Red Heart Pill, as it has been christened, could be a simple solution. It is four preventative drugs in a single, daily, cheap tablet. It contains low dose aspirin, a statin and two blood pressure-lowering medicines. All of them are cheap generic drugs.

Some think the polypill has such potential in preventing heart attacks and strokes that it ought to be widely available in Europe to those who have even low risk factors, such as overweight and high blood pressure. But there are issues around dosing healthy people with drugs - particularly aspirin.

But people who are at high risk - those who have already had one heart attack or stroke, for instance - are a different matter. And in countries like India, there are many people in that situation who have no chance of medicines - they are unavailable or too expensive. The vast majority of people have to pay for treatment.

The UMPIRE trial (Use of a Multidrug Pill In Reducing cardiovascular Events) launches today in London in the UK and at other centres in Ireland, the Netherlands and (pending regulatory approval) in India. It is supported by the European Commission and Indian generic company Dr Reddy is making the tablets. The details are here.

This is Professor Simon Thom, the co-principal investigator on the study from the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London:

The polypill idea is really simple: make it easier for people to get the medication they need by giving them just one polypill to take each day, rather than lots of different pills that may need to be taken at different times. It's likely that combining medications in one polypill could enable people in low-income countries to have easy access to cheap preventive medication.

Polypills are being used successfully to treat other diseases like tuberculosis and HIV, but we don't yet know whether they could be effective in those with cardiovascular problems. The UMPIRE trial aims to test whether the polypill does help people take their cardiovascular medicines in the long term and whether there are any unintended problems with this approach.

Anybody who feels like volunteering to take part can look at the website here.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 17 May 2010 | 12:00 am

Dear Phoenix Mars Lander, Will You Rise From The Dead?

For five days, NASA will give the Phoenix Mars Lander one last chance to phone home.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 16 May 2010 | 10:19 pm

Colony collapse

Our bees are buzzing off - but why, scientists ask?
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 May 2010 | 9:37 pm

3D images of live honeybee colony

A new way to see into a live honeybee colony could help scientists find out more about why the insects are declining.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 May 2010 | 9:36 pm

US unmoved by BP curb on oil leak

The US says the success of a move by BP to curb a leak in the Gulf of Mexico is "not clear" and the technique is "no solution".
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 May 2010 | 8:15 pm

Monster Black Hole Flung Out of Galaxy (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - A monster black hole has been flung from its home galaxy and is careening through space, according to a new study.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 May 2010 | 7:45 pm

Giant Underwater "Plumes" of Oil Discovered in Gulf

Scientists have found evidence suggesting the spill is far larger than official estimates.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 16 May 2010 | 6:48 pm

Brazil fire destroys snake centre

Fire destroys a leading collection of dead snakes, spiders and scorpions at a research centre in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 May 2010 | 6:00 pm

Changing our bodies

Is being slim, youthful and wrinkle-free now a moral responsibility? Psychotherapist Susie Orbach joins us in the studio to discuss how humans now see their bodies as creations. Warning: the discussion on labiaplasties may not be suitable for all listeners.

Susie's book, Bodies, is out now.

For more information about our first ever recording in front of an audience, check out the website of London's Science Museum. The recording will take place at its Lates event on Wednesday 26 May and admission is free. Let us know on the blog if you want to come along.

We visit a sound installation exhibition that tries to makes you remember. The Pattern completion exhibition is on this week at Gimpel Fils in London.

In the newsjam we discuss David Willetts' appointment as Britain's new science minister, men taking over the bodies of virtual women, why women are risking their lives by marrying younger men, and how a call from your mum is as good as a hug.

The Observer's science editor Robin McKie and Guardian science correspondent Ian Sample are also in the studio.

WARNING: contains explicit language.

Feel free to post your thoughts below.

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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 | 16 May 2010 | 5:01 pm

Brazil fire burns huge collection of dead snakes (AP)

AP - A fire in Brazil destroyed what may be the world's largest scientific collection of dead snakes, spiders and scorpions that served as the main source for research on many species, scientists said Sunday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 May 2010 | 4:26 pm

Burger & Fries Worsen Asthma, Study Suggests (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - A burger and fries are not only bad for the waistline, they might also exacerbate asthma, a new study suggests.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 May 2010 | 4:00 pm

Burger & Fries Worsen Asthma, Study Suggests

Fatty foods such as a burger and fries increase inflammation in the airways of asthma patients, a new study finds.
Source: Livescience.com | 16 May 2010 | 3:56 pm

Glass electrode powers smallest pump

Nanodevice could be used to sample or treat single cells.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/bR4-KBrqTFo" height="1" width="1"/>
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 16 May 2010 | 3:00 pm

Britain's secret biological weapon trials

Porton Down scientists studied foot-and-mouth, typhoid and cholera for disease attacks

British scientists experimented with ways of spreading foot-and-mouth disease, and lethal infections such as dysentery, cholera and typhoid in secret biological warfare trials during the second world war.

An extensive list of the contagious agents and plagues that could be turned into weapons of mass destruction is revealed in files from a War Cabinet committee released to the National Archives.

The government was known to have produced 5m anthrax-filled cakes to infect cattle in Germany during the war, but the latest documents show research was carried out into a far larger variety of diseases, mostly in Porton Down, near Salisbury, and Pirbright in Surrey.

Experts reported to the War Cabinet's Porton experiments sub-committee, which acknowledged that "bacteriological warfare" was outlawed by the 1925 Geneva protocol. The minutes, only now released, are labelled "secret" and "to be kept under lock and key". One session on "Toxin X" – thought to be botulinum – was so sensitive the minute records: "Not circulated."

An interim report in January 1941 said: "The diseases considered most likely to be effective in bacteriological warfare are:

• Human diseases: enteric group (typhoid and para-typhoid), dysentery and cholera.

• Animal diseases: anthrax, foot-and-mouth disease, rinderpest, glanders, and swine fever. (Anthrax and glanders also affect human beings under conditions favourable for infection)."

Biological warfare was not thought "likely to achieve a decisive effect, but might cause grave embarrassment at a critical stage in the conflict," the report said. Preparation was required both to defend against such attacks by "the enemy" and as a "means of retaliation".

The study queried whether retaliation should be limited only to diseases or infections "first used" by the Nazis. "... It is assumed that retaliation would be made simultaneously and on a maximum scale with all the means at our disposal".

Human diseases, it was said, could be introduced into "enemy territory only by saboteurs" – for example at "restaurant food counters". That would make it "very difficult to achieve on a scale sufficient to produce serious effects".

Attempts to infect reservoirs from the air would "necessitate large quantities of material and would probably be defeated by the chlorination of water supplies", it said. Some animal diseases – "anthrax, foot-and-mouth and rinderpest", the report added, "could be distributed [by spraying] on pasture land from aircraft."

By February 1941 work had been carried out to fit "streamlined steel containers" to the bomb bays of Wellington and Blenheim bombers.

Estimates of the time needed to prepare "retaliatory measures" in each disease were set out. Only small quantities of typhoid, dysentery and cholera would be required, it advised, and experiments were being made into "methods for use".

Infective anthrax spores could be produced in large numbers at a few days' notice, three strains of foot-and-mouth virus were available but a three-week "reactivation" period was needed. Supplies of rinderpest – or cattle plague – had to be obtained from Africa and a new isolation station built. Large batches of glanders – a bacterial infection – could be made up in two weeks. Experiments were being conducted on swine fever.

The sub-committee recommended that research into human and animal diseases continue. Scientists at Pirbright found their cows were unco-operative with attempts to poison them with cattle feed cakes containing infections or ground glass dropped from the air. "Observations have shown that cattle are rather suspicious of any new type of food." The virulence of stored foot-and-mouth disease also tended to decline rapidly, it was discovered. Experiments on "keeping the properties of the virus when filled into cakes" were ordered. Pirbright was the government research station whose leaking drains in 2007 triggered a foot-and-mouth outbreak across Surrey.

By November 1941 anthrax-filled cakes were emerging as the favoured, practical means for "taking offensive action".

The committee justified the research on the basis of defensive necessity. "This sub-committee was set up in 1936 because of reports that Germany was exploring the field," one minute recorded.

"Work started in Porton Down in 1940, directed almost entirely to the exploration of offensive possibilities in order to supply evidence on which defensive action can be taken and on which means of retaliation could be based if authorised."

Dr Brian Balmer, of University College London, who is the author of Britain and Biological Warfare: Expert Advice and Science Policy 1930-65, said the newly released material provided fresh insights into the UK's wartime biological programme. "We have not seen such a detailed list before." He added: "The process [at Porton Down] most likely involved starting with a list of likely sources for infections and then finding that some are difficult to aerosolise or are unstable or are otherwise unsuitable for weaponisation."

Neither side used biological weapons in the war.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 16 May 2010 | 11:57 am

2nd Deepest Lake Now Warmer Than in Past 1,500 Years

Lake Tanganyika warmest since AD 500.
Source: Livescience.com | 16 May 2010 | 11:45 am

Africa's lake Tanganyika warming fast, life dying

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Africa's lake Tanganyika has heated up sharply over the past 90 years and is now warmer than at any time for at least 1,500 years, a scientific paper said on Sunday, adding that fish and wildlife are threatened.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 16 May 2010 | 11:01 am

Texas schools board rewrites US history with lessons promoting God and guns

US Christian conservatives drop references to slave trade and sideline Thomas Jefferson who backed church-state separation

Cynthia Dunbar does not have a high regard for her local schools. She has called them unconstitutional, tyrannical and tools of perversion. The conservative Texas lawyer has even likened sending children to her state's schools to "throwing them in to the enemy's flames". Her hostility runs so deep that she educated her own offspring at home and at private Christian establishments.

Now Dunbar is on the brink of fulfilling a promise to change all that, or at least point Texas schools toward salvation. She is one of a clutch of Christian evangelists and social conservatives who have grasped control of the state's education board. This week they are expected to force through a new curriculum that is likely to shift what millions of American schoolchildren far beyond Texas learn about their history.

The board is to vote on a sweeping purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school textbooks in favour of what Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world, and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy.

"We are fighting for our children's education and our nation's future," Dunbar said. "In Texas we have certain statutory obligations to promote patriotism and to promote the free enterprise system. There seems to have been a move away from a patriotic ideology. There seems to be a denial that this was a nation founded under God. We had to go back and make some corrections."

Those corrections have prompted a blizzard of accusations of rewriting history and indoctrinating children by promoting rightwing views on religion, economics and guns while diminishing the science of evolution, the civil rights movement and the horrors of slavery.

Several changes include sidelining Thomas Jefferson, who favoured separation of church and state, while introducing a new focus on the "significant contributions" of pro-slavery Confederate leaders during the civil war.

The new curriculum asserts that "the right to keep and bear arms" is an important element of a democratic society. Study of Sir Isaac Newton is dropped in favour of examining scientific advances through military technology.

There is also a suggestion that the anti-communist witch-hunt by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s may have been justified.

The education board has dropped references to the slave trade in favour of calling it the more innocuous "Atlantic triangular trade", and recasts the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as driven by Islamic fundamentalism.

"There is a battle for the soul of education," said Mavis Knight, a liberal member of the Texas education board. "They're trying to indoctrinate with American exceptionalism, the Christian founding of this country, the free enterprise system. There are strands where the free enterprise system fits appropriately but they have stretched the concept of the free enterprise system back to medieval times. The president of the Texas historical association could not find any documentation to support the stretching of the free enterprise system to ancient times but it made no difference."

The curriculum has alarmed liberals across the country in part because Texas buys millions of text books every year, giving it considerable sway over what publishers print. By some estimates, all but a handful of American states rely on text books written to meet the Texas curriculum. The California legislature is considering a bill that would bar them from being used in the state's schools.

In the past four years, Christian conservatives have won almost half the seats on the Texas education board and can rely on other Republicans for support on most issues. They previously tried to require science teachers to address the "strengths and weaknesses" in the theory of evolution – a move critics regard as a back door to teaching creationism – but failed. They have had more success in tackling history and social studies.

Dunbar backed amendments to the curriculum that portray the free enterprise system (there is no mention of capitalism, deemed to be a tainted word) as a cornerstone of liberty and argue that the government should have a minimal role in the economy.

One amendment requires that students be taught that economic prosperity requires "minimal government intrusion and taxation".

Underpinning the changes is a particular view of religion.

Dunbar was elected to the state education board on the back of a campaign in which she argued for the teaching of creationism – euphemistically known as intelligent design – in science classes.

Two years ago, she published a book, One Nation Under God, in which she argued that the United States was ultimately governed by the scriptures.

"The only accurate method of ascertaining the intent of the founding fathers at the time of our government's inception comes from a biblical worldview," she wrote. "We as a nation were intended by God to be a light set on a hill to serve as a beacon of hope and Christian charity to a lost and dying world."

On the education board, Dunbar backed changes that include teaching the role the "Jewish Ten Commandments" played in "political and legal ideas", and the study of the influence of Moses on the US constitution. Dunbar says these are important steps to overturning what she believes is the myth of a separation between church and state in the US.

"There's been this amorphous changing of how we look at religion and how we define religion within American history. One concern I have is that the viewpoint of the founding fathers is very clear. They were not against the promotion of religion. I think it is important to present a historically accurate viewpoint to students," she said.

On the face of it some of the changes are innocuous but critics say that closer scrutiny reveals a not-so-hidden agenda. History students are now to be required to study documents, such as the Mayflower Compact, which instil the idea of America being founded as a Christian fundamentalist nation.

Knight and others do not question that religion was an important force in American history but they fear that it is being used as a Trojan horse by evangelists to insert religious indoctrination into the school curriculum. They point to the wording of amendments such as that requiring students to "describe how religion and virtue contributed to the growth of representative government in the American colonies".

Among the advisers the board brought in to help rewrite the curriculum is David Barton, the leader of WallBuilders which seeks to promote religion in history. Barton has campaigned against the separation of church and state. He argues that income tax should be abolished because it contradicts the bible. Among his recommendations was that pupils should be taught that the declaration of independence establishes that the creator is at the heart of law, government and individual rights.

Conservatives have been accused of an assault on the history of civil rights. One curriculum amendment describes the civil rights movement as creating "unrealistic expectations of equal outcomes" among minorities. Another seeks to place Martin Luther King and the violent Black Panther movement as opposite sides of the same coin.

"We had a big discussion around that," said Knight, a former teacher. "It was an attempt to taint the civil rights movement. They did the same by almost equating George Wallace [the segregationist governor of Alabama in the mid-1960s] with the civil rights movement and the things Martin Luther King Jr was trying to accomplish, as if Wallace was standing up for white civil rights. That's how slick they are.

"They're very smooth at excluding the contributions of minorities into the curriculum. It is as if they want to render minority groups totally invisible. I think it's racist. I really do."

The blizzard of amendments has produced the occasional farce. Some figures have been sidelined because they are deemed to be socialist or un-American. One of them is a children's author, Bill Martin, who wrote a popular tale, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Martin was purged from the curriculum when he was confused with an author with a similar name but a different book, Ethical Marxism.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 16 May 2010 | 10:19 am

Urban Pollution Raises Blood Pressure

Pollution in urban areas linked to hight blood pressure. Particulate matter is blamed.
Source: Livescience.com | 16 May 2010 | 8:04 am

Alzheimer's Disease: Bad News and Good News

An independent panel recently concluded that no firm evidence exists for any prevention of Alzheimer's or cognitive decline, but the next few years could bring answers.
Source: Livescience.com | 16 May 2010 | 6:19 am

Climate link to lizard extinction

Climate change could wipe out 20% of the world's lizard species by 2080, according to a global-scale study.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 May 2010 | 2:33 am