New steps toward a universal flu vaccine

Researchers have developed a novel influenza vaccine that could represent the next step towards a universal influenza vaccine eliminating the need for seasonal immunizations.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 May 2010 | 12:00 pm

Sari cloth a simple sustainable protector from cholera

A five-year follow up study in Bangladesh finds that women are literally wearing the answer to better health for themselves, their families and even their neighbors. Using the simple sari to filter household water protects not only the household from cholera, but reduces the incidence of disease in neighboring households that do not filter.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 May 2010 | 12:00 pm

Are invasive species bad? Not always, say researchers

New research challenges the notion that invasive species can't coexist with native animals. The researchers studied the Asian shore crab, which has proliferated along the Atlantic shore. They explain why the crab has been successful in its new home without hurting native species.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 May 2010 | 12:00 pm

Commonly used atrazine herbicide adversely affects fish reproduction

Atrazine, one of the most commonly used herbicides in the world, has been shown to affect reproduction of fish, according to a new study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 May 2010 | 12:00 pm

Severity of binge eating disorder linked to childhood sexual or emotional abuse, researchers find

Researchers in Canada have discovered a link between childhood sexual and emotional abuse and binge eating disorder in adulthood.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 May 2010 | 12:00 pm

Artificial antibodies hold biomedical promise

Researchers have developed a much faster and simpler way of making synthetic antibodies, by carrying out the usual steps in reverse. They have developed a technique for constructing peptide sequences, then linking them together to form a synthetic antibody, or synbody, that can bind with one or more protein molecules contained in the vast repository of human proteins -- the proteome.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 May 2010 | 12:00 pm

Body's own molecular protection against arthritis discovered

Scientists have discovered that a natural molecule in the body counters the progression of osteoarthritis. The findings could one day lead to new therapies for some common diseases of aging.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 May 2010 | 9:00 am

Genetic link to infectious disease susceptibility revealed

Researchers have identified new genetic variants that increase susceptibility to several infectious diseases including tuberculosis and malaria.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 May 2010 | 9:00 am

Popular autism diet does not demonstrate behavioral improvement

A popular belief that specific dietary changes can improve the symptoms of children with autism was not supported by a tightly controlled study, which found that eliminating gluten and casein from the diets of children with autism had no impact on their behavior, sleep or bowel patterns.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 May 2010 | 9:00 am

Artificial butterfly in flight and filmed

A group of Japanese researchers have succeeded in building a fully functional replica model -- an ornithopter -- of a swallowtail butterfly, and they have filmed their model butterfly flying.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 20 May 2010 | 9:00 am

Extradition of computer hacker Gary McKinnon put on hold

Theresa May agrees adjournment of judicial review to consider whether Gary McKinnon is fit to be extradited to US

The extradition of the computer hacker Gary McKinnon has been put on hold after the home secretary, Theresa May, agreed to an adjournment of a judicial review that was supposed to start within days.

The move will allow May to begin formal consideration of the medical evidence to see whether McKinnon is fit to be extradited. If it is established that he cannot be allowed to go, it paves the way for a prosecution in the UK.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The home secretary has considered the proposal from Gary McKinnon's legal team and has agreed an adjournment should be sought. An application to the court is being made today."

McKinnon's lawyer, Karen Todner, said she hoped May would make a decision on whether he was fit to be extradited in a matter of weeks.

Todner said: "The secretary of state, having recently taken office and having received further representations from the claimant's representatives, wishes to have appropriate time fully to consider the issues in the case." She said she hoped the decision was "a signal of a more compassionate and caring home secretary".

McKinnon's lawyers were granted permission for a judicial review last week – having failed to win one last year – into whether a decision by the former home secretary Alan Johnson to allow extradition and trial in the US breached McKinnon's human rights.

The judicial review was supposed to start next week and was virtually a last throw of the legal dice. Its adjournment allows May to cast a fresh eye on what has turned into a cause celebre, and to make a close examination of the extradition agreement between the US and the UK.

Legal experts said May's main difficulty would be to override her Home Office advisers.

"They will, perhaps, tell their minister that if she reverses the [Jacqui] Smith-Johnson decision, the Americans might take her to court for judicial review. But this is unreal: the Obama administration is unlikely to challenge, on behalf of a local state prosecutor, a decision of the new British government," Geoffrey Robertson QC wrote on the Guardian's Comment is free website, this week.

McKinnon's supporters believe the new coalition government is sympathetic to their cause as David Cameron and Nick Clegg have in the past publicly criticised plans to extradite McKinnon. Last year, Cameron said any trial should take place in the UK. He said there was "a clear argument to be made that he should answer [any questions] in a British court".

McKinnon admitted to hacking into 97 computers in the US defence department and Nasa from his London flat, and said he was looking for evidence of UFOs between 2001-2.

Despite a lengthy legal battle and strong public support for the Free Gary campaign, McKinnon has so far failed in his seven-year fight against extradition. His supporters argue that McKinnon has Asperger's syndrome and was driven only by an obsession with UFOs. The US government argues that his hacking attempts were a deliberate effort to breach American defence systems.

If it is decided that McKinnon is not well enough to be extradited, he could then face prosecution in Britain.

The controversial case has crossed the desks of six home secretaries.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 20 May 2010 | 4:20 am

Mars rover surpasses Viking 1's longevity record (AP)

AP - Pop quiz: What spacecraft holds the record for longest-surviving mission on the bitterly cold and dusty surface of Mars?

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 20 May 2010 | 4:10 am

AP INVESTIGATION: Oil self-regulates around globe (AP)

AP - The U.S. government is not alone in ceding responsibility to the oil industry for the design of key safety features on offshore rigs, a trend coming under scrutiny worldwide following the deadly blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 20 May 2010 | 4:06 am

Invasive plant 'increases ozone'

A fast growing invasive plant spreading through parts of the US could increase ozone pollution near the ground, a study warns.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 20 May 2010 | 4:02 am

Is aging a disease?

It's clear that the simple fact of growing older -- chronological aging -- is relentless and unstoppable. But experts studying the science of aging say it's time for a fresh look at the biological process -- one which recognizes it as a condition that can be manipulated, treated and delayed.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 20 May 2010 | 3:30 am

Florida Braces For the Oil Spill, But Hopes the Threat is Overblown (Time.com)

Time.com - After paralyzing Louisiana's commercial fishing industry, the epic spill from the BP rig is now threatening Florida's $60 billion tourism business
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 20 May 2010 | 3:20 am

Louisiana shore sees heavy oil as BP prepares plug (Reuters)

Reuters - Heavy oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill threatened Louisiana marshlands on Thursday after washing ashore for the first time since a BP-operated rig exploded a month ago, sparking ecological disaster.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 20 May 2010 | 3:19 am

Turtle 'super tongue' discovered

Musk turtles use an extraordinary tongue to breathe underwater and stay submerged for many months, scientists discover.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 20 May 2010 | 2:48 am

The nation's weather (AP)

AP - Severe weather was forecast to continue sweeping through the Southern U.S. on Thursday, triggered by a strong low pressure system.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 20 May 2010 | 2:40 am

Atlantis astronauts finally get to relax in orbit (AP)

AP - The Atlantis astronauts finally get a chance to relax in orbit, following two grueling spacewalks.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 20 May 2010 | 2:20 am

China to train pandas to survive in wild (AP)

AP - China plans to build a center where giant pandas born in captivity will be trained to survive in the wild, state media reported Thursday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 20 May 2010 | 2:16 am

Canada firms vow to save forests

Environment groups and timber firms agree to protect two-thirds of Canada's vast forests from unsustainable logging.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 20 May 2010 | 1:27 am

Mechanical butterfly takes first flight

Scientists in Japan filmed the maiden flight of their lifesized mechanical butterfly

The swallowtail butterfly has exceptionally large wings relative to its body mass, a feature that makes its in-flight movements unique.

This scale model, which copies the shape of the swallowtail's wings and the thin veins and membranes that cover them, reveals that the insect achieves forward motion with simple flapping movements. Other butterflies have different flight characteristics.

The mechanical butterfly was built by Hiroto Tanaka and Isao Shimoyama at the University of Tokyo and is reported in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 20 May 2010 | 1:22 am

Can a Black Hole Have an 'Aurora'?

According to two Japanese researchers, we might be able to spot an 'aurora' crowning the poles of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. But this isn't your average aurora.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 20 May 2010 | 12:41 am

Astronauts to Open Space Station's Newest Room (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - Atlantis shuttle astronauts and the crew of the International Space Station will open the station's newest room Thursday, a Russian research module that doubles as a spaceship docking port.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 20 May 2010 | 12:25 am

Why Don't We Know How Big the Gulf Oil Spill is?

Government and industry attempts to withhold information are delaying our ability to understand and respond to the spill, not to mention hold the parties involved responsible.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 May 2010 | 11:53 pm

Gulf oil 'reaches major current'

The first oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill has reached a powerful current that could drag it to Florida, scientists say.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 19 May 2010 | 10:31 pm

Climate 'distraction' on malaria

Climate change is likely to have a minimal impact on malaria spread compared with society's capacity for controlling it, a study finds.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 19 May 2010 | 10:15 pm

Forecasters: 2-3 hurricanes in Central Pacific (AP)

AP - Weather forecasters said Wednesday that a below-average total of two to three hurricanes are likely to pass through Central Pacific waters this year as ocean surface temperatures cool.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 19 May 2010 | 6:26 pm

Genetics shine new light on old diseases

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Lui Sang, now 81, was diagnosed with leprosy as a boy shortly after his older brother came down with the same infection, notorious for centuries for causing disfiguring skin lesions and stigma.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 19 May 2010 | 6:13 pm

Genetics shine new light on old diseases (Reuters)

Reuters - Lui Sang, now 81, was diagnosed with leprosy as a boy shortly after his older brother came down with the same infection, notorious for centuries for causing disfiguring skin lesions and stigma.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 19 May 2010 | 6:13 pm

House panel probes personal genetic tests

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A House of Representatives committee is investigating personal genetic testing kits after one company attempted to sell its test through retailers, lawmakers said on Wednesday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 19 May 2010 | 4:42 pm

Greenland on the Rise

As ice recedes, Greenland is popping up at nearly an inch per year. And the rise seems to be accelerating.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 May 2010 | 4:35 pm

Pluto's moons get ready for their close-up

Astronomers make plans for detailed observations during NASA mission fly-by.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/btBcdHkErkg" height="1" width="1"/>
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 19 May 2010 | 3:58 pm

Gene variants may raise risk of infectious disease

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have found a group of gene variants that increase susceptibility to infectious diseases like tuberculosis and malaria and say the discovery may help in designing new drugs to tackle several illnesses at once.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 19 May 2010 | 3:22 pm

Solar cells sliced and diced

Peel-and-stamp technique could pave the way for more efficient semiconductors.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 19 May 2010 | 3:09 pm

Malaria may not rise as world warms

Studies suggest that strategies to combat the disease are offsetting the impact of climate change.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 19 May 2010 | 3:01 pm

Medical scares should at least ring true

Bogus headlines about phones giving you cancer are naff. If we're going to panic let's do it well, and keep disbelief suspended

Mobile phones give you brain cancer, and a bacon sandwich a day puts up heart disease by a half. It makes the choice pretty simple: bacon is tastier than ceaseless phone chat, and myocardial infarction is a lot quicker than a brain tumour. That said, it would be foolish to rule out the possibility that you've eaten a bacon sandwich while on the phone – in which case it's not a choice but a double whammy.

Both of these appeared as headlines in the Daily Mail: on the mobiles and brain cancer risk, its report was a marked contrast to those of the broadsheets, who agreed that the study on which the story was based had found no statistically significant raised risk. The author of the study, Professor Anthony Swerdlow of the Institute of Cancer Research, clarified the findings for me (as he had already, in a press conference – the misreporting here isn't accidental): there were 10 usage groups, ranging from very low to very high. In the very highest group – those reporting using their phone for 12 or more hours a day – there was a raised chance of both glioma and meningioma.

However, that level of use is in itself improbable, and you have to take into account the possibility that, since this sample is of people with brain tumours, they were confused or misremembering. ("They'd have to have been millionaires," Swerdlow commented, in passing; I personally think their wealth of time is more remarkable.)

Furthermore, there is a dose response missing: "Real causes tend to give progressively larger risks with larger doses. Biases sometimes don't, because the most extreme values can be errors," Swerdlow said, adding: "The study isn't useless or pointless but it needs careful interpretation."

Finally, biological literature can find no mechanism by which radio waves can cause cancer at all. Mobile phones don't disrupt DNA, which is the way ionising radiation causes cancer – that much was already well known. This makes me wonder whether the study was worth doing at all, but Swerdlow is very clear on this: "There is public concern, and it's part of the function of scientists to answer the questions that people are concerned about."

My view is that cancers are so diffuse, now – in cause, in treatment, in aggressiveness, in fatality, in the people they attack – that we're not really talking about a disease at all, we're using it as an umbrella term for death. The two elemental truths are that nobody wants to be ill, and yet nobody wants to live forever. This presents a chasm of realistic expectation: how do you eradicate disease while preserving mortality? What, exactly, do you want to die in your sleep of? There is also the ticklish conflict between what you want for yourself today and tomorrow, and what you imagine you'll want when you're 80. If we were to talk openly about death, the onus would be on everybody to charge on to this fraught, conflicted territory; if we only talk about cancer, we can leave it to doctors.

That doesn't, however, tell the whole story about our love affair with scare stories. To move on to bacon, the Harvard School of Public Health has just produced a study showing the risk of heart disease goes up by 42% with every two-ounce (about 56g) serving of processed meat. It sounds extraordinarily high, but on closer inspection isn't. Compare it to smoking, which raises the risk of cancer by 20 times, that is, 2,000%. A 42% rise is small, in epidemiological terms, and could have been thrown up by a bias (maybe angry men eat more bacon than placid women?). But it would be an extraordinary bias that could produce a 2,000% increase.

The newspaper, in reporting this story (in fairness, it was, again, only the Daily Mail), takes the role of the Friend Who Exaggerates. They expect you to enjoy the drama of their tale, adjusting it down to reality afterwards.

And they're right, to a point. Medical melodrama in the media is emphatically not taken as a guide. Well, smoking has diminished, by dint of the fact that it is manifestly dangerous and there aren't many places you can do it. But drinking, eating meat, not doing enough exercise – all the core modules of carcinogenic (or, generally, illness generating) behaviour steadily rise. We look at scare stories not as a blueprint for a better life, but for thrill-tainment; we're looking for the fright elements of the horror genre; the masochistic guilt of the religious experience; and enough cod statistics to feel, fleetingly, as if we're being educated.

My beef with the Mail and its ill-explained stats and totally bogus headlines, is not about the spread of the panic itself, which serves a cultural purpose and is enjoyable, but that it doesn't do it very well.

When the author of a study says there is most likely no connection between mobile phone use and brain cancer, the headline to print is not "more muddle over mobiles as study suggests raised brain cancer risk". Poor statistical analysis is like bad CGI: it breaks the spell, drags you back to a world where robots don't exist and the causes of cancer are quite incremental and quotidian. Health journalism (and it's not just the Mail) needs more scientific credibility, even to function as entertainment.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 19 May 2010 | 3:00 pm

Correction

Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 19 May 2010 | 3:00 pm

Neuroscience: The rat pack

Studying primates is the only way to understand human cognition — or so neuroscientists thought. But there may be much to learn from rats and mice, finds Alison Abbott.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 19 May 2010 | 3:00 pm

Oceanography: Death and rebirth in the deep

When a submarine volcano erupts, the results can be devastating — and fascinating. Jane Qiu finds new drama in underwater biogeography.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 19 May 2010 | 3:00 pm

Scientists Make Most Precise Measurement Yet of Ocean's Depth

The big blue ocean takes up a large chunk of our planet and yet our understanding of its enormity is shockingly poor. A new study calculates the oceans depth and volume, bringing us one step closer to defining just how ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 May 2010 | 2:04 pm

News briefing: 20 May 2010

The week in science.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 19 May 2010 | 2:00 pm

Video: An Artificial Butterfly Takes Flight

A tiny artificial butterfly takes flight in a new high-speed video.

Engineers Hiroto Tanaka and Isao Shimoyama of Harvard University and University of Tokyo, respectively, created the tiny butterfly to try to understand the biomechanics of butterfly flight.

But the tiny machine may not teach us too much about how butterflies actually row through the air, said Robert Dudley, a physiologist at the University of California, Berkeley, co-author of the research to be published May 20 in the journal Bioinspiration & Biomimetics.

“As a technical accomplishment, this work is impressive, but there are a number of aerodynamic and biological issues that need further attention,” Dudley wrote in an e-mail to Wired.com.

Butterfly flight is somewhat mysterious because it’s roughly the opposite of “as the crow flies.” Butterflies flit about rather than flying in a straight line. That actually costs them more energy, Dudley said, so scientists assume their looping flying serves some evolutionary purpose.

“The advantage is that it’s thought to be an anti-predator behavior,” Dudley said. “The claim is that irregular flight paths are a permanent signal of prey unprofitability.”

Would-be predators presumably take one look at the chaotic, loopy butterfly flight and decide to go after easier to predict snacks.

The Japanese researchers somewhat capture this oscillating type of flight with their plastic-winged flyer, but Dudley argued that the differences between the bot and a real butterfly are so great as to invalidate the biological lessons the researchers try to draw.

“There is nothing fundamentally wrong with this approach but it severely limits any claims to the biology,” Dudley said.

See Also:

• See Them While You Can: Endangered Butterfly Gallery
• Butterflies Use Antenna GPS to Guide Migration
• Squid Beaks: Amazing Biomechanics, but a Bad Idea for People
• Short Heels and Long Toes: A Surprising Recipe for Speed
• Secret Law of Flying Could Inspire Better Robots

WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal’s Twitter, Tumblr, and forthcoming book on the history of green technology; Wired Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 19 May 2010 | 1:49 pm

Male Antelope Snorts Trick Females into Sex

Male antelope snorts so his mate will think a dangerous predator is lurking elsewhere, luring her back for more sex. [NOTE: Contains footage of animal mating.]
Source: Livescience.com | 19 May 2010 | 1:27 pm

The Psychology of ID'ing Criminals

Gary Wells is an expert in scientific psychology and eyewitness memory.
Source: Livescience.com | 19 May 2010 | 1:21 pm

Ginger May Ease Muscle Pain

Researchers have found evidence that daily ginger consumption reduces muscle pain caused by exercise.
Source: Livescience.com | 19 May 2010 | 1:18 pm

Military Robots Keep Soldiers Out of Danger

Although they aren't yet advanced enough to replace field combatants, robots can perform routine tasks that would otherwise put troops in harm's way.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 May 2010 | 1:00 pm

Argonaut Octopus Mystery Solved

After centuries of speculation, biologists have documented one way a strange group of octopus-like creatures use their seashell-shaped cases.

Female argonauts, a group of four species that are close cousins of octopuses, grow delicate white shell-like cases. Biologists have found argonauts with air bubbles in their cases, and now it turns out the animals use the trapped air to float at a comfortable depth, says Julian Finn of Museum Victoria in Melbourne, Australia.

In the first reports from scuba observations of wild argonauts, Finn maneuvered Argonauta argo females so air escaped from their cases. The animals flailed as if struggling to maintain their orientation and quickly jetted to the water surface.

Once at the surface, argonauts rocked their cases and took on air, he says. Then they positioned body parts to seal in some of the air and jetted downward, leaving behind a trail of bubbles.

When the argonauts stopped several meters below the surface, water pressure compressed the remaining air inside the case enough that it counteracted the animals’ weight, leaving the argonauts floating neutrally buoyant at a chosen depth.

“Argonauts are fantastic animals to dive with,” Finn says, though he does acknowledge that “when they really got going, I couldn’t keep up with them.”

People have mused about the function of argonauts’ striking shell-like structures at least since Aristotle suggested that the animals sail or row them like boats.

Argonauts in the wild aren’t easy to find, and previous studies of captive argonauts, which raised the possibility that bubbles were bad for the animals, may have been muddled by the effects of keeping the creatures in aquaria, say Finn and Mark Norman, also of the Museum Victoria. Those tanks were probably too shallow to allow biologists to see the animals’ full behavior, the researchers say in their new analysis, posted online in Proceedings of the Royal Society B the week of May 17.

The idea that argonauts use their shells for buoyancy sounds plausible, says cephalopod biologist Michael Vecchione, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist based at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. “I wonder how it would function during a storm at sea — and maybe it doesn’t,” he says.

Bubble trapping, however, may not be the only function of the shell-like case, he says. Female argonauts tuck masses of tiny eggs into spare space in the structure, Vecchione notes, much as bottom-dwelling octopuses protect their eggs in rock crevices.

Only female argonauts grow the shell-like structures, but males have very different bodies, presumably with different buoyancy issues. Males grow to about the size of the eye of a full-grown female and mate by sacrificing a detachable arm specialized for one-time delivery of sperm. Biologists at first mistakenly classified the remnant male arms as some kind of parasite that occasionally infected females’ encased body.

Image: Julian Finn, Museum Victoria

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 19 May 2010 | 12:58 pm

Pet DNA Calls Out Poop-Scoop Offenders

As a dog lover, owner and advocate, I can let a lot slide when it comes to dogs behaving badly. But badly behaving owners: they’re another story. One of my BIGGEST pet peeves is when dog owners don’t clean up ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 May 2010 | 12:46 pm

New Transistor Bridges Human-Machine Gap

Humans and machines could be one step closer to merging thanks to a new transistor controlled by the molecule that powers biological cells.
Source: Livescience.com | 19 May 2010 | 12:44 pm

Animal's Scary Snort is Blatant Lie Aimed at Getting Sex

Male topi antelopes keep a mate around by snorting deceptively, a pretense that makes her think leaving him will bring her face-to-face with danger.
Source: Livescience.com | 19 May 2010 | 12:23 pm

World view: Disaster, unmitigated

An oil slick will not re-engage the public with environmental issues, warns Colin Macilwain, but it might lead to a saner US energy policy.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 19 May 2010 | 12:00 pm

Octopus Relative Floats on Shell

For centuries, biologists have puzzled over the evolutionary function of the female's delicate off-white casing.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 May 2010 | 11:25 am

Ancient octopus mystery resolved

Trapped air in the shells of rare octopuses is the key to their survival in the deep sea, say scientists.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 19 May 2010 | 11:19 am

Martin Rees calls on UN to set up nuclear disarmament labs

The president of the Royal Society, Sir Martin Rees, wants the UN to set up the laboratories to verify that countries are keeping their promises on nuclear disarmament

Britain's most senior scientist has called on the United Nations to establish a network of laboratories specialised in detecting and dismantling nuclear weapons.

The labs would take a central role in policing countries' efforts to reduce their stockpiles of warheads, a move experts see as crucial for building trust with other states that are thinking about developing their own nuclear weapons.

Sir Martin Rees, the president of the Royal Society, said scientists needed to develop verification technologies now so they are in place when agreements to cut nuclear stockpiles are reached.

The call comes as UN diplomats meet in New York to review the "grand bargain" of the organisation's nuclear non-proliferation treaty, in which five states with nuclear weapons – the US, Russia, China, France and Britain – agree to negotiate nuclear disarmament and other states resist acquiring the weapons.

Last month, the US and Russia renewed a bilateral arms reduction treaty that limits the number of warheads they deploy, but there are no procedures in place to check that the warheads have been decommissioned.

Writing in the journal Nature, Lord Rees and policy advisers at the Royal Society make the case for a new advisory group to guide international disarmament research, and a network of laboratories to build devices that can verify whether nuclear warheads have been dismantled and disposed of properly.

Britain has already taken a lead in disarmament technologies after the creation of a verification research programme at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire. "More international disarmament laboratories in this vein should be founded," the authors write.

Weapons inspectors need gadgets that can identify live warheads, while other technologies are required to confirm via satellite and other remote means that countries do not hold any clandestine nuclear weapons materials or bomb facilities.

In many cases, the scientific difficulties have already been overcome, but there has been no concerted effort to design and build suitable devices.

The plutonium in warheads can be detected from the streams of gamma rays and neutrons emitted by the material. These can also reveal whether the plutonium is of weapons grade. Other radioactive signatures can be used to identify highly enriched uranium in nuclear warheads.

One hurdle that remains is that any devices used to check for illicit nuclear technology must not, under the non-proliferation treaty, reveal sensitive details about how the weapons are designed.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 19 May 2010 | 11:17 am

Earth's Gooey Insides Ooze Faster Than Thought

The earth's mantle moves faster than sinking tectonic plates.
Source: Livescience.com | 19 May 2010 | 11:14 am

Willetts 'will argue for science'

New science minister will argue case for science but says getting public finances under control is government's priority.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 19 May 2010 | 11:13 am

UK on course to reap massive renewable energy harvest

Independent study says North Sea wind and wave power could make Britain the 'Saudi Arabia of renewable energy'

Britain could become the "Saudi Arabia of the renewables world" on the back of North Sea wind and wave resources, according to a study carried out by government and industry.

The review by independent consultants for the Offshore Valuation Group estimates that by 2050 the UK could generate the equivalent in electricity to the 1bn barrels of oil and gas being produced annually offshore.

Green energy experts in the City are sceptical claiming it would require herculean efforts to put the infrastructure in place to hit even the most modest targets.

The study, undertaken by the Boston Consulting Group, suggests that Britain could not only keep the lights on but would produce a surplus, suggesting the need for connections to a "super grid" to enable electricity to be exported via subsea cables. It predicts that using even 29% of the available resources, Britain could save 1.1bn tonnes of carbon dioxide between now and the middle the century.

"The UK is now most of the way through its first great offshore energy asset, our stock of hydrocarbon reserves. The central finding of this report is that our second offshore asset, of renewable energy, could be just as valuable. Britain's extensive offshore experience could now unlock an energy flow that will never run out," the report concludes.

It looks at different likely scenarios for growth of the industry with even the most conservative – 13% resource utilisation, producing 78 gigawatts of power at a capital cost of £170bn – which would provide half of the UK's electricity demand. A more ambitious scenario, using 29% of resources would see 169GW installed at a cost of nearly £433bn and would make Britain a net exporter of electricity.

The report was sponsored by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Scottish government and the Crown Estate as well as companies including Scottish and Southern Energy, E.ON and turbine manufacturer, Vestas.

David MacKay, the chief scientific adviser at DECC, said the "helpful" study underlined the need for major investments in innovation to bring down the cost of turbines, tidal schemes and novel energy storage systems.

But industry was much more upbeat saying it was very helpful to have a first really authoritative study of the enormous economic benefits waiting to be exploited.

"This is a hugely exciting piece of research which sets out compelling factual evidence of the huge potential of the UK's offshore renewable energy resource," said Peter Madigan, head of offshore renewables at trade body, RenewableUK.

"As an association we have long been saying that the North Sea will become the Saudi Arabia of wind energy, and today's tonne of oil and employment comparisons amply bear this out. Just as 30 years ago, the North Sea could be our ticket for economic growth. We are looking forward to the new government putting in place the policy framework to make this happen," he said.

There was caution among financial analysts such as Dean Cooper, head of clean tech at Ambrian Resources. He said: "We see the report as providing compelling sizing information to value the offshore resource, but equally it highlights the herculean scale of efforts needed to achieve the numbers outlined. To reach 78GW will require a build rate of 2.8GW per annum by 2050, which is equivalent to more than two 5MW turbines every day. This compares to the equivalent of one 5MW turbine installed every two weeks for the installed stock of offshore wind in the UK today.

"Offshore wind will be an important element in the UK's energy mix to keep the lights on, yet the gaps in supply chain, grid and planning to achieve this are monumental. There is money to be made in offshore wind as a structural growth trend, but when?"

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 19 May 2010 | 11:10 am

Study: Ocean Warmed Significantly Over Past 16 Years

The Ocean warmed significantly between 1993 and 2008
Source: Livescience.com | 19 May 2010 | 11:09 am

Stellar blast sparks controversy

Extraordinary stellar blast could be a new class of exploding star, say astronomers, but another team disagrees.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 19 May 2010 | 11:07 am

Earth's Mantle in Overdrive Under Alaska

The mantle under Alaska is moving 20 to 30 times faster than the crust -- reversing the usual order of plate tectonics.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 May 2010 | 11:00 am

Giant Bullet 580 Airship Inflated (Video)

In a test this week inside the Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery, Ala., E-Green Technologies inflated a 235-foot long, 65-foot diameter airship called Bullet 580.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 May 2010 | 10:29 am

Growing Oil Spill Headed for Florida

As scientists try to plot where the spill is going, officials struggle to contain the impact of where the oil has already been.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 May 2010 | 10:15 am

Green advantage

Dwindling metal supply threatens drive to go green
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 19 May 2010 | 9:50 am

Climate sceptic rejects 'sceptic' label

MIT professor says climate sceptics should stop accepting the term 'sceptic' because global warming theory is not 'a plausible proposition'

And so the Heartland Institute's International Conference on Climate Change is over for another year. While we lament this loss, let us pause for a short moment on a concluding statement by one of its star speakers.

Richard Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan professor of meteorology at MIT's department of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences, told his attendant fans (watch the video above) that he believes climate sceptics, such as himself, should "stop accepting the term 'sceptic'".

His reasoning? Because it affords too much legitimacy to the implausible theory of global warming:

One suggestion I'd make is that we stop accepting the term 'sceptic'. As far as I can tell, scepticism involves doubts about a plausible proposition. I think current global warming alarm does not represent a plausible proposition." [Applause.] For 20 years – more than 20 years unfortunately, 22 by now, since '88 – of repetition, escalation of claims does not make it more plausible. Quite the contrary, I would suggest the failure to prove the case of 20 years makes the case even less plausible, as does the evidence of Climategate and other instances of what are essentially [inaudible, but it sounds like "overt cheating"]. In the meantime, while I avoid making forecasts for tenths of a degree change in global average temperature model, I'm quite willing to state that unprecedented climate catastrophes are not on the horizon, though in several thousand years, we may return to an ice age.

So, if climate sceptics don't now want to be known as "sceptics", what should they be called instead? We know "denier" is off-limits, even though - judging by Lindzen's own framing, at least - denial seems to be a fairly legitimate description. So, what else? "Climate contrarian" seems to be growing in popularity, as does "climate agnostic".

But it strikes me that trying to find one handy, catch-all moniker is where we are going wrong here. Of course, there are as many varieties of sceptics as there are those who accept what the vast majority of climatologists are telling us.

There are those who deny, those who are sceptical, those who enjoy being contrarians, and those who are merely agnostic. What cluster term should be used to describe all these flavourings collectively? Maybe we'll just have to resort to what Prince did back in the 1990s? Something along the lines of "Global Union Formerly Known As Sceptics"? I'm just not convinced the acronym "Gufkas" will catch on, though.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 19 May 2010 | 9:34 am

Scientists save world's smallest waterlily from becoming extinct

A scientist based at the UK's Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew prevents the world's smallest waterlily from becoming extinct.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 19 May 2010 | 9:34 am

2010 Warmest on Record So Far

2010 could surpass 2005 as warmest year on record, if early trends continue.
Source: Livescience.com | 19 May 2010 | 9:28 am

Ocean's Depth and Volume Revealed

Ocean average depth and volume revealed by satellite measurements.
Source: Livescience.com | 19 May 2010 | 8:27 am

True Costs of Gulf Oil Disaster Hinge on Lawsuits

A lawyer says that an oil tax for a disaster relief fund could replace the need for costly lawsuits and litigation.
Source: Livescience.com | 19 May 2010 | 8:17 am