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Surgical options for female incontinence found to be effective but with different complicationsTwo popular procedures for female stress incontinence were found to be equivalent in efficacy but differed in side effects, according to new data. These surgical techniques, called mid urethral slings, are increasingly common for the treatment of stress incontinence or urine loss from physical activity such as coughing, sneezing or laughing.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2010 | 3:00 pm Odd geometry of bacteria may provide new way to study Earth's oldest fossilsDeciphering the few clues about ancient bacterial life that are seen in these poorly preserved rocks has been difficult, but researchers may have found a way to glean new information from the fossils. Specifically, they have linked the even spacing between the thousands of tiny cones that dot the surfaces of stromatolite-forming microbial mats -- a pattern that also appears in cross-sectional slices of stromatolites that are 2.8 billion years old -- to photosynthesis.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2010 | 3:00 pm Homeless adults have significant unmet health care needs, study findsThe vast majority of homeless adults surveyed in a national study had trouble accessing at least one type of needed health care service in the preceding year, according to new research that may be the first broad-based national study of factors related to unmet health needs among homeless people.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2010 | 3:00 pm Female damselflies prefer 'hot' malesResearchers have found that female damselflies prefer hot males. Hot male damselflies, who have warmed their bodies in the sun, are more attractive to their female counterparts.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2010 | 3:00 pm Large number of public wells in U.S. have potentially harmful contaminants in source water, study findsMore than 20 percent of untreated water samples from 932 public wells across the nation contained at least one contaminant at levels of potential health concern, according to a new study. The study focused primarily on source (untreated) water collected from public wells before treatment or blending rather than the finished (treated) drinking water that water utilities deliver to their customers.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2010 | 3:00 pm 'Fountain of youth' steroids could protect against heart diseaseA natural defense mechanism against heart disease could be switched on by steroids sold as health supplements, according to researchers.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2010 | 3:00 pm Why do Earth’s storm tracks differ from those of Jupiter?Computer simulations show that both ocean dynamics, such as the Gulf Stream, and mountain ranges influence the pattern of storm tracks on Earth. This also explains why Earth's storm tracks are so different from those on the gas giant Jupiter.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2010 | 9:00 am Simple electronic gadget could speed up HIV/AIDS diagnosticsA relatively simple electronic gadget could speed up HIV/AIDS diagnostics and improve accuracy particularly in parts of the world with very limited access to health-care workers.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2010 | 9:00 am New analysis reveals clearer picture of brain’s language areasLanguage is a defining aspect of what makes us human. Although some brain regions are known to be associated with language, neuroscientists have had a surprisingly difficult time using brain imaging technology to understand exactly what these 'language areas' are doing. Neuroscientists now report on a new method to analyze brain imaging data -- one that may paint a clearer picture of how our brain produces and understands language.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2010 | 9:00 am Quickly evolving bacteria could improve digestive healthWhen the forces of evolution took over an experimental strain of bacteria, it derailed an experiment that researchers thought they were conducting, but led to something much more profound instead. The researchers used a colony of mice raised in a large plastic bubble, called an isolator, that was completely sterile, lacking even a single bacterium. They introduced a single type of bacteria into the mouse colony, but it mutated quickly into different types, making new bacteria that were hardier inside of the mice than the original bacterium was.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2010 | 9:00 am Frustration mounts as oil seeps into Gulf wetlands (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 May 2010 | 3:54 am The nation's weather (AP)AP - Several areas of active weather will develop throughout the country on Sunday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 May 2010 | 3:14 am U.S. environment chief to visit Gulf, spill spreads (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 May 2010 | 3:04 am Atlantis to undock from ISS on its final mission (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 May 2010 | 1:46 am N. Zealand whale activist fears lengthy jail term (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 May 2010 | 1:28 am U.S. environment chief to visit Gulf, spill spreads (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 May 2010 | 11:50 pm BP wants to continue using contentious dispersant (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 May 2010 | 8:06 pm 'Dracula' Fish and Bombardier Slug Make Top 10 List (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - A "dracula" fish with canine-like fangs, a worm that launches glow-in-the-dark bombs and a psychedelic frogfish are among the Top 10 new species discovered in 2009, scientists just announced.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 May 2010 | 7:21 pm Megamasers: Distant Water and Precision CosmologyMeasuring the distances to objects in space is surprisingly hard, especially when looking at galaxies. Enter the Megamaser Cosmology Project, a technique that's taking the uncertainty out of galactic distances.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 May 2010 | 6:38 pm NASA Practices an Astronaut Rescue on Ocean Floor (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - It's a scenario NASA hopes to never to face: An astronaut in distress in a hostile environment in need of a rescue. But in this emergency, the victims are mannequins and the rescuers are professional divers and astronauts on the ocean floor practicing exactly how such a scene might play out on the moon or asteroid.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 May 2010 | 6:00 pm The dazzling showman of scienceA maverick, headline-grabbing biologist with an ego the size of a planet or a brilliant researcher who has succeeded in creating life? A bit of both, actually There is, appropriately enough, a biblical quality to Craig Venter's account of the genesis of his quest to create life "from scratch". He dates his mission to 1968 when he was working in the frontline medical corps of the US army in Vietnam during the Tet offensive. He had tried, and mostly failed, to save hundreds of men from dying – it was M*A*S*H without jokes – and he felt he'd had enough of the horror of life. A champion swimmer, he determined to swim out into the South China Sea and not swim back. In the beginning, then, this mythology goes, the biologist was in the middle of the ocean, "surrounded by venomous sea serpents", preparing to meet his genome. It took a shark circling to wake him out of this suicidal fantasy. "For a moment," he wrote in his 2007 autobiography, "I was angry that the shark had disrupted my plan. Then I became consumed with fear. What the fuck was I doing? I wanted to live…" Venter struck out for shore, now miles behind him, and when he arrived there it was if he had been reborn, like Crusoe, into a new fate: "I lay on the sand, naked, for what felt like hours. I was exhausted and relieved. I wanted my life to mean something; I wanted to make a difference. I felt pure; I felt energised." For the last 40 years, that pure energy has driven Craig Venter to extraordinary heights. ("A doctor can save maybe a few hundred lives in a lifetime," he told his brother as he embarked on his scientific career, with a characteristic mix of hubris and chutzpah. "A researcher can save the whole world.") Venter first came to international attention as the "rogue" biologist who attached himself to the painstaking $5bn, 15-year programme to decode the human genetic blueprint, "the book of life" Human Genome Project and announced to anyone who would listen he could do it much more quickly and much more cheaply with private capital (the distinguished scientists leading the global initiative were, he insisted, "the Liars Club": habitual fibbers about costs and deadlines). He caused further outrage when he said he would not only beat that establishment club to the solution but patent the results. He eventually – arguably – made good the first part of that boast but, under pressure from President Clinton, gave up on the latter and agreed a joint declaration of the triumph with the official team in the millennium year, losing a fortune in the process. (Asked how he felt to have deciphered human life, Venter, who had designs on being "the first billionaire biochemist", replied: "Poorer.") Not content with what was widely considered the landmark scientific achievement of our age, however, Venter then decided he would solve the crisis of climate change and ecological meltdown by discovering a biologically engineered source of energy. He set sail on his $15m yacht Sorcerer II on an unending voyage with the mission, along the way, "to put everything that Darwin missed into context" and map the whole world's genetic components. He dipped buckets into the Sargasso Sea and sent millions of primordial microbial lifeforms back to his labs for decoding. As a development of that ongoing effort, last week Venter announced in the pages of Science magazine that his research team had – by putting together a living and replicating bacterium from synthetic components, inserting a computer-generated genome into a cell – "created life" in the laboratory for the first time. The experiment suggested the possibility of creating bacteria to perform specific functions: as producers of fossil fuels or medicines. Venter, now 63, is nothing if not a showman and the publication of this revelation and the subsequent press conferences, have polarised opinion in ways with which he has long been familiar. Some authorities, and several newspaper leader writers, have claimed him as our Galileo or our Einstein; others have been notably underwhelmed. Freeman Dyson, the physicist, captured the full range of academic sentiment in this dry appraisal: "This experiment is clumsy, tedious, unoriginal. From the point of view of aesthetic and intellectual elegance, it is a bad experiment. But it is nevertheless a big discovery… the ability to design and create new forms of life marks a turning point in the history of our species and our planet." Venter's ego and his preference to turn to corporations rather than research foundations as funding partners (Exxon Mobil is a $600m sponsor of his energy experiments) do not tend to endear him to the academic establishment. Steve Jones, professor of genetics at University College London, and a perennial voice of reason, offered me this verdict on the biologist's latest headlines. "It's very easy to mock Venter," Jones suggests. "When he first appeared, people just kind of sneered at him. But they stopped sneering when they saw his brilliance in realising that the genome was not a problem of chemistry but a problem of computer power. I don't think anybody can deny that that was a monumental achievement and he has been doing fantastically interesting things subsequently with marine life. Having said that, though, the man is clearly a bit of a prick and one with a serial addiction to publicity." Jones is sceptical about the hyperbole of breathless headlines. "The idea that this is 'playing God' is just daft. What he has done in genetic terms would be analogous to taking an Apple Mac programme and making it work on a PC – and then saying you have created a computer. It's not trivial, but it is utterly absurd the claims that are being made about it." Stewart Brand, the ecological visionary and creator of the Whole Earth Catalog, is more persuaded. Brand has got to know Venter over the last couple of years through John Brockman's Edge initiative which brings together the world's pioneering minds. What differentiates Venter from many of his peers, Brand believes, is that he is not only a brilliant biologist, but also a brilliant organisational activist. "A lot of people can think big but Craig also has the ability to fund big: he doesn't wait for grants, he just gets on and finds a way to do these things. His great contribution will be to impress on people that we live in this vast biotic of microbes. What he has shown is that microbial ecology is now where everything is at." Brand once suggested that "we are as gods and we might as well get good at it". That statement has gained greater urgency with climate change, he suggests. "Craig is one of those who is rising to the occasion, showing us how good we can be." On the publication of his autobiography, Venter also brought out another book, one that contained the six billion characters of his own genome. It was the first full catalogue of a single individual's genetic code and it revealed several secrets about Venter's inherited traits, notably a predisposition to heart disease and to Alzheimer's. What it has not so far rendered, however, is the chemical clue to his most vital characteristic: impatience. The greatest scientists have shared the understanding that there is so much to do and so little time in which to do it. A decade ago, Venter was plagued by the sense that "as a civilisation, we know far less than 1% of what will be known about biology, human physiology and medicine. My view of biology is: we don't know shit". In the years since, he has perhaps done more that any man who has ever lived to add to that raw information. He did this initially by being the first to see that "the analogue world of biology" had to be transformed by the "digital world of the microchip". He is now, it is said, the largest private user of computer power in the world. Just as he found his vocation in the sea, so he returns to it constantly for inspiration. He was a high school dropout, a prototype beach bum. "I was a surfer as a kid, I was a surfer in Vietnam, I am still a surfer," he likes to say. When a writer for Wired magazine caught up with him in French Polynesia a couple of years ago, Venter was wandering the shoreline, naked, fishing items of interest out of the water. At the time, he described his scientific quest by gesturing to the ocean: "We're just trying to figure out who fucking lives out there." Of the billions of answers to that particular question, Venter himself has now added another one: Mycoplasma mycoides J Craig Venter Institute-syn1.0. Life has his name on it. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 22 May 2010 | 5:06 pm Tattoos: the naked truth about our forebears | DiscoverThe cultural significance of tattooing is explored in a new exhibition that features 300 samples of skin recovered from French prisons in the 19th century Peter Johnston-Saint was an agent for Sir Henry Wellcome, the Wisconsin-born pharmaceutical magnate, who in Paris in 1929 made a peculiar purchase: a collection of more than 300 examples of tattooed skin, dating to 1850. The seller, a shadowy figure called La Valette, seems to have obtained the specimens via his work at Parisian military establishments and prisons; motifs ranged from flowers to female figures, patriotic slogans to inscriptions. Animals featured too: a cheetah and a pig on a bicycle. Scholars of the period were increasingly interested in the practice of tattooing and anthropologists researched the complex social significance of tattoos in south-east Asia, Polynesia and of the Maori in New Zealand. Johnston-Saint's haul, while of a very difference provenance, was destined for Wellcome's collection of books, paintings and objects dealing with the historical development of medicine. Today, the tattooed skins form part of the Wellcome Collection, the museum established on the Euston Road in London, in 2007, and a handful of examples are star exhibits there in a new show called Skin. This exhibition, according to its co-curator Javier Moscoso, from the Spanish National Research Council, "focuses on the historical transformation of both the scientific understanding and cultural significance of human skin, plotting it as beliefs, facts and popular mindsets have all evolved". What this means is a show divided into two main parts: Objects, which, among much else, looks at skin removal and flaying; and Marks, which examines skin as a living canvas. But what of Johnston-Saint's haul of tattooed skins? Some of these, according to Gemma Angel, who is studying the Wellcome's collection for a Phd thesis, had been surgically removed; others would seem to have been hacked from corpses. Criminologists in the late Victorian period thought tattoos would be useful in identifying atavistic types; it is not known precisely why Wellcome wanted these examples in his collection. Skin is at the Wellcome Collection, London NW1 (www.wellcomecollection.org), 10 June-26 September guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 22 May 2010 | 5:05 pm Obama names oil-spill panel headsTwo political veterans are to head an independent US body to investigate the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and BP's role.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 May 2010 | 2:34 pm 'Dracula' Fish and Bombardier Worm Make Top 10 ListA "dracula" fish with canine-like fangs, a worm that launches glow-in-the-dark bombs and a psychedelic frogfish are among the top 10 new species discovered in 2009, scientists just announced.Source: Livescience.com | 22 May 2010 | 1:46 pm iPad Shortages Reported as Demand SoarsSome stores are out of iPads. Other have only one model.Source: Livescience.com | 22 May 2010 | 11:22 am Inventor Dean Kamen Aims to Grow Future InnovatorsInventor Dean Kamen has more on his mind than just evangelizing for science and technology.Source: Livescience.com | 22 May 2010 | 11:22 am 13-Year-Old Boy Summits EverestWhen Jordan Romero called his mom from the highest summit she told him to "get his butt back home."Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 May 2010 | 8:01 am Atlantis crew relaxes after wrapping up spacewalks (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 May 2010 | 7:40 am Breast Milk Does DNA GoodA newborn gulping breast milk may be doing his or her genes good, researchers say.Source: Livescience.com | 22 May 2010 | 6:18 am First Endangered Turtles Found Slathered in OilThe oil spill in the gulf of Mexico is slowly taking its toll on the surrounding wildlife.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 May 2010 | 6:05 am
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