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Quiz: name that synonym! | Mind your languageJamie Fahey: Now you know your popular orange vegetables from your war-torn republics, can you work out what these phrases refer to? Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 1 Jun 2011 | 5:55 am Sun-induced skin cancer: Discovery permits doctors to assess genetic riskAs people head to the beach this summer, very few if any, really know how likely they are to develop skin cancer from their outdoor fun. That's about to change, thanks to a new discovery that makes it possible for doctors to access people's personal risk for skin cancer.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am First paper 'dipstick' test for determining blood typeScientists are reporting development of the first "dipstick" test for instantly determining a person's blood type at a cost of just a few pennies. The test involves placing a drop of blood on a specially treated paper strip.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am A quick fix for queuesQueuing, standing in line ... it's what we do well, but complain about the most. Thankfully, science is coming to the rescue as researchers in Taiwan have devised a formula that could revolutionize restaurants, post offices, customer service desks, and theater ticket sales everywhere.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am Bone drug suppresses wandering tumor cells in breast cancer patients; May reduce metastatic diseaseThe bone-strengthening drug zoledronic acid (Zometa) can help fight metastatic breast cancer when given before surgery, new research suggests. When the drug was given along with chemotherapy for three months before breast cancer surgery, it reduced the number of women who had tumor cells in their bone marrow at the time of surgery.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am Pride, prejudice and the 'Darcin effect': Pheromone that attracts female mice to odor of particular male identifiedThe pheromone that attracts female mice to the odor of a particular male has been identified. Named "darcin" by researchers (after Darcy, the attractive hero in Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice"), this unusual protein in a male's urine attracts females and is responsible for learned preference for specific males.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am New culture dish could advance human embryonic stem cell researchA new synthetic Petri dish coating could overcome a major challenge to the advancement of human embryonic stem cell research.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am Nanoparticle PSA test predicts if prostate cancer will return: Ultrasensitive test gives first accurate answer after prostate cancer surgeryConventional PSA tests aren't sensitive enough to show if men are cured after having a cancerous prostate gland removed. New research shows an ultrasensitive PSA test using nanoparticle-based technology may be able to definitively predict after surgery if the cancer is cured or if it will recur. The new test is 300 times more sensitive than currently available and may pick up cancer recurrence at a much earlier stage.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am Deep brain stimulation at two different targets gives similar motor benefits in Parkinson'sIn a major study, investigators have compared how individuals with Parkinson's disease respond to deep brain stimulation (DBS) at two different sites in the brain. Contrary to current belief, patients who received DBS at either site in the brain experienced comparable benefits for the motor symptoms of Parkinson's.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am Probiotic found in breast milk helps alleviate symptoms of digestive disordersHere's another reason to breast feed your baby: Researchers have discovered how a probiotic found in breast milk reduces or eliminates painful cramping in the gut. Scientists used mice to show that a specific strain of Lactobacillus reuteri decreases the force of muscle contractions in the gut within minutes of exposure.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am Structure of immune molecule that counteracts HIV strains determinedIn findings that contribute to efforts to design an AIDS vaccine, a team of scientists has determined the structure of an immune system antibody molecule that effectively acts against most strains of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am AP News in Brief (AP)AP - BP's latest underwater experiment in Gulf spill hits a snag, just like the other attemptsSource: Yahoo! News: Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 4:04 am Hot! Thermal Video of Hawaiian Volcano is Amazing
This incredible view of a vent in the Halemaumau Crater within the Kilauea volcanic caldera on the Island of Hawaii was captured by a U.S. Geological Survey thermal video camera on July 1. Sped up by four times, the video reveals activity in the 450 foot-wide vent that is usually obscured by accompanying gas fumes. The cracks in the lava pond at the beginning of the video when the lava is at a high stand are just visible in the photo below. As the clip continues, more cracks form in the cooled crust of lava on top of the pond and pieces begin to break off and move around. As the activity increases, lava can be seen splattering and the hot fumes released look like flames in the thermal view. Hawaii’s volcanoes are the result of a heated plume rising from deep in the Earth’s molten mantle and breaking through the oceanic crust. As the Pacific plate moves slowly northward, older volcanoes go dormant as they inch away from the plume, and new volcanic islands are formed. Kilauea is the youngest volcano, slowly taking the torch away from neighboring Mauna Loa, the largest volcano on Earth.
Video and Image: USGS See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 3 Jun 2010 | 4:00 am Volunteers begin a 'Mars exile'Six men lock themselves into a mock spaceship in Moscow to simulate an 18-month mission to Mars.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Jun 2010 | 3:57 am Spill threatens Florida's beaches and tourism (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 3:53 am British man dies after reaching Everest's summit (AP)AP - A British man who was unable to descend following his climb to the top of Mount Everest died near the summit after fellow climbers were unable to bring him down, a Chinese official and his climbing team said Thursday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 3:52 am Gulf spill workers complaining of flulike symptoms (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 3:50 am Gulf oil 'nears Florida beaches'Oil from the Gulf of Mexico is seen off the coast of Florida, as the latest effort to cap the well continues.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Jun 2010 | 3:24 am The nation's weather (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 2:49 am Star motion, Jim, but not as we know it... Hubble's latest catchUsing the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers measure the strange motion of stars in a distant cluster.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Jun 2010 | 2:33 am 17th century visionary foresaw flight and life extensionRoyal Society exhibition reveals the remarkable scope of co-founder's scientific ambitions As wishlists go, it was both visionary and practical, but more than anything it reveals the scope and almost limitless ambition of science in the 17th century. In 24 handwritten notes, Robert Boyle, co-founder of the Royal Society, set forth the most pressing problems for scientists to solve. The issues ranged from the secret of eternal youth and healing wounds from afar, to the construction of an unsinkable ship and the ability to harness the power of the hysterical. The list was drawn up in the 1660s, soon after the Royal Society was formed, and goes on public display for the first time next week as part of an exhibition at the scientific body's London premises to celebrate its 350th anniversary. Boyle's notes appear alongside rare and previously undisplayed manuscripts, instruments, portraits and books that chart the history of science from the society's earliest days. Among them are the first sketches of nebulae by Sir John Herschel, who visited South Africa with a telescope in the 1830s, and Newton's death mask. Boyle was an enduring and influential figure who brought great minds into the fold of the organisation. His wishlist for scientists begins, simply, with "The Prolongation of Life", a laudable goal considering life expectancy at birth at the time was less than 40 years old. Boyle also ponders the development of a means to recover youth, or at least some of its outward signs. Perhaps false teeth and hair colouring will one day be possible, he speculated. Many of the problems Boyle set out had clear practical applications, such as perfecting "the art of flying". It was nearly a century since Leonardo da Vinci had sketched out designs for ornithopters, but it would be another century yet before the Montgolfier brothers achieved the first hot air balloon flight. Boyle's hopes for a way to "cure wounds at a distance, or at least by transplantation" have become a reality, with the advent of organ transplants and robotic surgical tools that can be operated from thousands of miles away. "As you go down Boyle's list, some of the things sound quite silly, but then you realise we've kind of done them," said Keith Moore, the society's librarian. Boyle also hoped scientists would find ways for people to work underwater and develop a ship that could sail in all winds and was impossible to sink. "I'm not sure we've managed that yet," said Jonathan Ashmore, fellow of the Royal Society and a spokesman for the exhibition. "But the way the list was put together is impressive, with very far-sighted and visionary ideas coupled with very down-to-earth, practical ones." The most radical items on Boyle's list touch on human physiology and the brain. In one note, he suggests scientists might devise ways to live on a minimal amount of sleep by studying the effects of tea and also "mad-men", who appeared to need very little. In another, he wonders if understanding hysterical people and those with epilepsy might help scientists recreate their "great strength and agility". Boyle, regarded by some as the father of chemistry, had great faith in the power of pharmaceuticals and encouraged his fellow chemists to develop potent mind-altering drugs, and pills to relieve pain and induce restful sleep and sweet dreams. A more curious route of inquiry was "Attaining Gigantik Dimensions", presumably a reference to the possibility of enlarging the human race. "This document provides us with an amazing window into one of the most extraordinary minds of the 17th century," said Ashmore. "Boyle's predictions on the future of science are quite remarkable. His hopes for the cure of diseases by transplantation and drugs to appease pain and aid sleep have both become inherent features of contemporary medicine and yet these were predictions he was making over 300 years ago. We have also seen numerous of his other predictions realised in various ways, including flight, modern healthcare prolonging life, Kevlar body armour, underwater exploration and GPS navigation." This year, the Royal Society is holding a series of meetings to thrash out the future priorities for modern science. Feeding the world and providing ample green energy will certainly feature, as will enduring questions on the nature of ageing and consciousness. "What I'd really like scientists to do is find evidence for alien life. I've been waiting a long time ... they should pull their fingers out," said Moore. Several documents from the 20th century reveal the Royal Society's increasing role in advising government and addressing industrial or occupational issues. In the early 1900s, the society established a committee to investigate the unusually high rates of cataracts among glassblowers. The problem was traced to the intense glare of the molten glass, prompting the scientist, William Crookes, to design darkened safety spectacles. In doing so, he also invented sunglasses. Years later, the society's fellows drew up blueprints for ship mines, studied the possibility of extracting alcohol from horse chestnuts and drafted secret reports on the effects of atomic bombs. "These guys were interested in everything and the emphasis on rationality when faced with the complexity of the world really comes through," said Ashmore. New goals – the next 30 years?Sources of clean, green energy Plenty of energy reaches the Earth in the form of sunlight, but major scientific advances are needed to harness solar energy efficiently. Attempts to master fusion power by creating a tiny star on Earth are under way. Feeding the world A perfect storm of climate change, growing human population and water shortages are predicted to put food production under extraordinary strain. Scientific advances in agriculture and desalination are much needed. Slowing and reversing ageing The ageing effects of our lifestyles and environment are becoming clear, but scientists know little about the genetics of ageing and how to affect it. Greater knowledge of consciousness Giant leaps in neuroscience have failed to explain the nature of consciousness and how it arises. Some scientists believe that consciousness is an emergent property that is inevitable when a critical number of brain cells are interconnected. Others suspect we are missing a fundamental ingredient that gives rise to the conscious mind. Extraterrestrials Decades of searching for signs of alien life have so far turned up a blank, yet the question of whether life on Earth is a one-off is among the most compelling in science. Many scientists believe that basic alien life, in the form of microbes, may be relatively common, with intelligent life much rarer. 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 | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:58 am Live Q&A: Environment secretary Caroline SpelmanFrom paid recycling to badger culling, the new secretary of state for environment will answer your questions from 1.15pm today Caroline Spelman, the new secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, will be answering your questions live today at 1.15pm BST. Please post your questions in the comments below. Defra's brief is broad: from national parks and wildlife, to farming and fisheries, to air pollution and flooding. The coalition government's agreement contains 18 pledges for Defra, including: • A "zero waste" economy where councils pay people to recycle So should badgers be culled? How can the UK's dwindling biodiversity be protected? How can farmers combine producing safe, ethical food and caring for the land? Over to you. 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 | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:53 am 350th anniversary: Royal Society goes back to the futureIn an exhibition to mark its 350th anniversary, the Royal Society showcases its achievements and predictions that have become reality Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:41 am SpacemanThe magic touch of French satellite financeSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:36 am Citizen science 'can save birds'By recording their everyday sightings of birds, the public could help limit future extinctions, a study suggests.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:08 am Uglier fish have 'better sperm'In a study of tropical guppies, scientists find that less attractive males have "better sperm".Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:07 am Deep sea fish 'mystery migration'Deep sea fish from the Pacific Ocean have been discovered on the other side of the world, in the south Atlantic.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:07 am Pacific islands 'are not sinking'Many low-lying Pacific islands are growing, not sinking, a study finds - though sea level rise still poses a threat.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Jun 2010 | 12:07 am RSPB's call to count all the creatures in your garden | Mike ClarkeThe RSPB's Make Your Nature Count survey is a great way to enjoy the wildlife in your garden while doing your bit to protect it It's an exciting time in the garden at the moment with birdtables, feeders and baths a constant scrum of activity. I can't wait to get outside and enjoy it all with my teenaged daughters, and this week I have the excuse to do so – by taking part in the RSPB's summer survey, Make Your Nature Count. Gardens all over the UK will be under surveillance from this weekend, with thousands of people keeping their eyes peeled for visiting wildlife. The RSPB wants to know what creatures sing, snuffle and scuttle on your patch. As you'd expect, we want to know about birdlife, but we want to hear about mammals too, such as badgers, foxes, moles, mice and deer. This year's Make Your Nature Count includes the largest count of mammals ever undertaken in UK gardens, and we're really excited about what you might help us find out. Last year was the first time we ran this survey and results showed that a quarter of UK gardens are home to species such as foxes and hedgehogs. One in 10 participants also reported seeing badgers. These creatures are more commonly found in the wider countryside and we were astounded at how many households saw them. Taking part is simple. All you need to do is spend an hour sometime during 5-13 June counting the wildlife that visits your garden, and record the highest number of each species seen at any one time. You'll be surprised at what you see, no matter where you live or what size your garden. We have a good idea of the sort of wildlife that people might see at this time of year, but we know very little about the numbers – and that's where you come in. Through this survey, we hope to get a better feel for where and how these species are using our gardens. So we want you to describe the area in which you live so that we can start to identify urban, rural and regional variations. We've been collecting information via our winter survey, Big Garden Birdwatch, for several decades and we find some fascinating results. Now we're keen to get a more detailed picture of the population changes of our summer birdlife. Britain endured its harshest winter in over 30 years and the impact of the prolonged cold weather on our garden birds is unknown. We had endless reports of weird and wonderful wildlife visiting gardens during those exceptionally cold weeks back in January and February, and while it was incredible for people to enjoy the sight of birds such as bitterns at garden ponds, it showed just how desperate they were for food. Thankfully, conditions have improved and our garden birds are now busy raising their young. The birds you'll see during the survey week will probably be breeding, so look out for blackbird, robin and songthrush chicks. And because we'll be repeating this survey every year, the results will contribute to our understanding of the impact the recent severe conditions had on our garden birds. We're also interested in one of our summer visitors, the house martin. We've lost a third of our members of this species in the past 25 years so we are particularly keen to know if they are nesting under the eaves of your home. Whatever the weather next week, your survey results are important from a conservation perspective – so do take part and discover what wildlife lurks in your garden. Enjoy, and thank you! • Mike Clarke is the chief executive of the RSPB. Make Your Nature Count runs from 5-13 June 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 | 3 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Stephen Hawking honored at NYC science, arts gala (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 2 Jun 2010 | 10:10 pm Earthquake risk calculator goes globalModel should enable researchers to reduce vulnerability to seismic shocks.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/POMicFHOseM" height="1" width="1"/>Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 2 Jun 2010 | 9:01 pm Don't Call The Guatemala Sinkhole a SinkholeCalling the hole in the capital city a "sinkhole" is a misunderstanding that masks a much more dangerous reality for over a million people who live in the area.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jun 2010 | 7:34 pm iPad To Help Humans Speak With Dolphins (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - The ability to communicate with dolphins - a long sought after goal among scientists - could be on the verge of a breakthrough thanks to the iPad.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 2 Jun 2010 | 5:45 pm Huge order for Iridium spacecraftThe mobile satellite services provider Iridium orders 81 spacecraft to upgrade its global network in a $2.9bn project.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 2 Jun 2010 | 5:40 pm Google Wants to Know Where You AreWiFi-sniffing technology turns your cell phone or laptop into a virtual GPS, which Google can use to locate you right down to your exact latitude and longitude.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jun 2010 | 5:39 pm Storm forceWhat happens if a hurricane hits the Gulf of Mexico?Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 2 Jun 2010 | 5:34 pm Real or Fake? 8 Bizarre Hybrid AnimalsLigers and camas and mules, oh my. Animal hybrids are not sci-fi anymore.Source: Livescience.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 5:30 pm Urine Pheromone in Mice Named After Jane Austen CharacterIn one of the more bizarre homages to Jane Austen, biologists have named a protein in mice urine after her famed character Mr. Darcy from the novel "Pride and Prejudice."Source: Livescience.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 5:20 pm Costa Rica shuts stem cell clinicMEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Costa Rica has ordered the country's largest stem cell clinic to stop offering treatment, saying there is no proof that it is effective, the country's health minister said on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 2 Jun 2010 | 5:10 pm Costa Rica shuts stem cell clinic (Reuters)Reuters - Costa Rica has ordered the country's largest stem cell clinic to stop offering treatment, saying there is no proof that it is effective, the country's health minister said on Wednesday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 2 Jun 2010 | 5:10 pm Noise Pollution Could Frustrate Fish
After years of growing concern about the effects of marine noise on whales, scientists are finally asking what noise could do to fish. Whether they’re harmed isn’t yet known, but it’s certainly a possibility. The oceans are an increasingly clamorous place, with boat motors and sonar and explosions and construction creating a din at frequencies used by fish. “If you’re walking down the street and someone is jackhammering, you walk across the street and go around. What happens to a fish?” said University of Maryland aquatic noise specialist Arthur Popper. “How fish respond to sound is the big question for all of us.” Popper co-authored a review of the field’s patchy, question-filled literature in the June Trends in Ecology and Evolution, marking a shift in thinking about ocean noise.
What Jacques Cousteau called “The Silent World” is actually full of natural noise, from fish calls to the sound of their bodies moving through water. To that natural din, human activity has added roughly 10 decibels of ambient commotion in the last half-century. At construction sites for offshore oil platforms, wind farms and river bridges, where explosions and pile drivers can hit 250 decibels repeatedly for months or years on end, the noise is even more intense. All this has concerned researchers like Popper, who warn that scientists simply don’t know how fish respond. “It might be that fish are well-adapted to noise. Maybe it’s not a problem. We don’t know,” said Rob McCauley, a marine biologist at Australia’s Curtin University of Technology. “The work that’s been done has only scratched the surface.” Studies on the effects of noise in terrestrial animals may provide some guide for what’s happening to fish. In some bird species, traffic noise that overlaps with song frequencies has been linked to drops in population diversity and density, and seems to reduce reproductive rates. The same appears to happen with frogs. Those findings don’t necessarily apply directly to fish, but they’re suggestive. As for the fish themselves, studies are mixed. Tuna appear disoriented by boat noise, while some reef fish stay in their homes during and after massive air gun blasts. In some species, ship noise seems to increase production of cortisol — a stress hormone with damaging long-term effects — and harm eggs and larva. Another study, however, found no evidence of harm. “If fish are swimming up the Potomac, and get to a construction site for the Woodrow Wilson bridge, do they go around it? Swim back to where they come from? Stop? This is a question for all of us,” said Popper. Research is hindered by the different qualities of various types of underwater noise noise, as well as the variability of fish species, he said. It’s also hard to study fish behavior. “The best method would be to put transmitters in the fish, have receivers all over the place, and keep track of every fish” in a specific area, said Popper. Nobody has yet accomplished such a complicated task, though that’s a result not just of technical difficulties, but lagging scientific curiosity. “The first thing we need to appreciate is that sound is extremely important to the lives of fish,” McCauley said. Image: 1) Test tank of fish exposed to high-intensity sonar./Arthur Popper. 2) Graph of frequencies used by marine animals and generated by human activity./Trends in Ecology & Evolution. See Also:
Citation: “A noisy spring: the impact of globally rising underwater sound levels on fish.” By Hans Slabbekoorn, Niels Bouton, Ilse van Opzeeland, Aukje Coers, Carel ten Cate, and Arthur N. Popper. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Vol. 25 Issue 6, June 2010. Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on Twitter. Brandon is currently working on a book about ecological tipping points.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 2 Jun 2010 | 4:36 pm Half doses of diabetes drugs can prevent diseaseWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Low doses of GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes drug Avandia combined with metformin can prevent diabetes without causing the most common side-effects, Canadian doctors reported on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 2 Jun 2010 | 4:34 pm Robotic Fish Lead Schools of Fish From DangerMan has created a dangerous world for poor, unsuspecting fish. Now, man has also created a robot to guide the creatures away from peril.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jun 2010 | 4:19 pm 747 Set to Battle Gulf Oil Slick (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - A Boeing 747 supertanker is parked on the tarmac of the Gulfport, Miss., airport awaiting a call from British Petroleum asking for help in combating the tsunami of crude oil spewing from BP's failed Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:48 pm iPad To Help Humans Speak With DolphinsAn iPad might allow humans and dolphins to interact more easily but also potentially lead to a universal translator for humans.Source: Livescience.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:43 pm 42% of U.S. Teens 15-19 Have Had SexAbout 4 in 10 never–married U.S. teenagers aged 15–19 have had sexual intercourse at least once.Source: Livescience.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:41 pm Hybrid Creatures: The Real Science of 'Splice'The movie "Splice" is about scientists creating a human-animal hybrid creature, and of course the mad scientists run into trouble.Source: Livescience.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:31 pm Erectile Dysfunction Linked to Cardiovascular DiseaseMen with erectile dysfunction are at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease.Source: Livescience.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:16 pm Radiation After Mastectomy Useful in Some CasesPostmastectomy radiation therapy works for some breast cancer patients.Source: Livescience.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:06 pm LED entangles light at the flick of a switchReliable quantum-bit production could ease the way to high-speed computers.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:01 pm The player: is gaming a path to self-understanding?Psychologists have many theories about why we play games. And I've certainly had flashes of self-knowledge I occasionally game with my friend Josh, who like me has had therapy in the past. "Come on," he says, as we pick up our controllers and start firing, "let's go and kill these stand-ins for our parents." It's not necessarily a joke. Cultural theorist Marsha Kinder has suggested that videogame "boss battles" – often featuring a tiny protagonist fighting an enormous monster – might be a way of re-experiencing the viewpoint of a child: surrounded by much larger people, who can be dangerous and frightening. Other analyses have compared the repetition necessary to complete a difficult sequence to recurring dreams, in which one might be trying to work through trauma. If this seems ridiculous, consider that psychologists have long recognised the importance of children's play and that thinkers since Aristotle have praised the effects of theatrical catharsis: release through experiencing strong emotions vicariously. Discussions about the psychology of videogames often focus on claims that playing leads to violence or "addiction", but perhaps when we game, we're working something through. I'm not sure that I've ever experienced catharsis through playing a game, but I have certainly had flashes of self-knowledge. Musing on why it was taking me so long to complete a particular set of missions in Red Dead Redemption, I realised that I was constantly being distracted by side quests. "Ah," I found myself thinking, "it's because I find it so hard to say no when someone asks me for help." I'm surprised more self-help books don't recommend gaming as a path to self-understanding. 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 | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:00 pm Volcanology: Out of the ashesThe Icelandic eruption has given researchers the opportunity of a lifetime. Katharine Sanderson talks to scientists working around the clock to study the volcano and its effects.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:00 pm Fisheries: What's the catch?New England fishermen have mixed feelings about a programme designed to allow overfished species to recover. Mark Schrope reports on how catch shares have scientists fishing for answers.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:00 pm Chili Peppers Might Fight FatThe stuff that makes chili peppers hot, capsaicin, may cause weight loss and fight fat buildup.Source: Livescience.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:56 pm Synthetic-biology competition launchesGenome-design contest aims to engineer cress for commercial uses.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:55 pm Canadian Man Fights African Witchcraft MurdersAfrican albinos are being murdered and dismembered because of belief in magic and witchcraft.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:31 pm 747 Set to Battle Gulf Oil SlickA Boeing 747 supertanker is awaiting a call top help combat the tsunami of crude oil spewing in the Gulf of Mexico.Source: Livescience.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:25 pm New Private Rocket Now Aiming for Friday Test Launch (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - The private spaceflight company SpaceX has officially set Friday as the target date for the launch debut of its new Falcon 9 rocket.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:16 pm How to See Quantum Entanglement
Human eyes can detect the spooky phenomenon of quantum entanglement — but only sometimes, a new study on the physics preprint website arXiv.org claims. While eyes can help determine if two individual photons were recently entangled, they can’t tell if the brighter bunch of photons that actually hit the retina are in this bizarre quantum state. “In general you think these quantum phenomena that involve only a few particles, they’re really far removed from us. That is actually not so true anymore,” said physicist Nicolas Brunner of the University of Bristol. “You could really go to an experiment by just having people look at these photons, and from there really actually see entanglement.” In an earlier paper, Brunner and colleagues at the University of Geneva in Switzerland sketched out an experiment in which a human observer could replace a standard quantum detector. This isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds, they say, because the eye’s most important job is to be a sensitive photon detector. The researchers would first prepare two entangled photons — photons whose quantum properties are so intimately linked that one always knows what the other is doing. When an aspect of one photon’s quantum state is measured, the other photon changes in response, even when the two photons are separated by large distances. The researchers would send one photon to a standard detector and the other to a human observer in a dark room. The human would see a dim point of light in either the right or left field of view, depending on the photon’s quantum state. If those flashes of light correlate strongly enough with the output of the ordinary photon detector, then the scientists can conclude that the photons are entangled. “This is a standard way of measuring and detecting entanglement,” says physicist Nicolas Gisin of the University of Geneva, a coauthor of the new paper.
There’s just one problem: Humans can’t see individual photons. The retina needs at least seven photons to hit it at once before it sends signals to the brain. Also, 90 percent of photons are lost or scattered on the way through the gelatinous part of the eye to the retina. These restrictions mean that you need a lot of photons — at least hundreds, preferably thousands — to make a practical human quantum detector. In 2008 a group in Rome found a way to clone an entangled photon that preserves the entanglement. If you treat the big bunch of clones as a single quantum state, the entire bunch is entangled with the other original photon, the researchers claimed. “It’s like having a Schrodinger’s cat,” says Brunner, referring to Erwin Schrodinger’s famous 1935 thought experiment in which a cat in a box has a 50-50 chance of living or dying depending on whether a radioactive atom decays. In this case, the microscopic state of the atom is entangled with the macroscopic state of the cat: Either the atom decays and the cat is dead, or the atom doesn’t decay and the cat is alive. Until someone opens the box, the only way to describe the system is by including both the atom and the cat. Gisin and colleagues thought this photon-cloning method would be perfect for their human quantum-detector experiments. All they would have to do is make a few thousand copies of one member of the original entangled photon pair, and send all those copies to the human observer. But because entanglement is easy to break, the team was unsure if the photons that reach the observer’s eyes would still be entangled with the other photon. To test this idea, Gisin and colleagues imagined what would happen if instead of cloning the original photon, they made the equivalent of a photocopy. Like a black-and-white Xerox of a color picture, some information about the original photon would be lost. Because the copied photons were never entangled with the original, they would still not be entangled when they reached the observer’s eyes. The researchers compared the theoretical results using photocopied photons and a real quantum cloner, and found that they looked exactly the same. The human observer would see the same thing, even when the bunch of photons were just Xeroxes that couldn’t possibly be entangled with the other photon. The group concluded that human eyes can’t see quantum entanglement between a macro-state and a micro-state. Schrodinger’s cat may well be entangled with the atom, but a human detector can’t tell. But the human eye can reliably tell whether the original two photons were entangled. That’s still “seeing” entanglement, the authors say. “Macro-micro is almost out of the question. But the micro-micro is nice as well,” said study coauthor Christoph Simon of the University of Calgary in Canada. “You’re bringing the observer a little bit closer to the quantum physics.” The researchers are now working on ways to perform the experiment in the lab and expect it to be ready within two years. “The theoretical paper is certainly sound and of good quality,” comments physicist Dirk Bouwmeester of the University of California, Santa Barbara. But Gisin acknowledges that replacing quantum detectors with eyeballs would not lead to any new applications. “Why do we do it nevertheless?” he says. “We find entanglement fascinating.” Image: ~Dezz~/flickr See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:03 pm News briefing: 3 June 2010The week in scienceSource: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:00 pm 'Drunk' Parrots Litter Australian TownThese seemingly inebriated birds are presenting a mystery for veterinarians struggling to explain their behavior.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:35 pm Salmon Study Pits Fish Against Alaskan Mega-Mine
An Alaskan bay bitterly contested by fishermen and miners has become the site of a landmark study on population dynamics — and the findings favor the fish. Published June 2 in Nature, the analysis of Bristol Bay salmon quantifies a common-sense tenet of population dynamics: Diversity produces resilience. Had the proposed Pebble Mine been built in earlier decades, it’s possible the bay’s sockeye salmon fishery — the world’s largest, worth more than $100 million annually — might not exist today. “The long-term maintenance of the Bristol Bay sockeye fishery has sometimes been almost totally dependent on the Kvichak watershed,” where the mine would be located, said University of Washington biologist Ray Hilborn. “If the entire Kvichak watershed was made nonproductive, then historically, that would have been totally disastrous.” The mining industry has pushed to dig around Bristol Bay since a multibillion-dollar lode of gold and copper was discovered in the region. But extracting the minerals would also produce billions of tons of toxic waste, requiring the construction of Hoover Dam-sized walls to prevent it from spilling.
Environmentalists say that, given the region’s torrential rains, nearby geological faults and the industry’s track record on pollution, the walls would inevitably fail. The watershed’s sponge-like soil would deliver toxins into the salmon’s spawning grounds; even trace amounts would short-circuit their ability to navigate and reproduce. In 2008, with the help of then-governor Sarah Palin, mining supporters voted down the Alaska Clean Water Act, which would have banned the discharge of toxic materials from mines and impeded the Pebble Mine plan. And, as the fight over the mine has dragged on, Hilborn’s team has continued to collect data from their Bristol Bay research station, where biologists have tracked salmon populations for the last 50 years. In the new study, Hilborn plugged the the salmon numbers into models of population dynamics, hoping to quantify the role of population diversity within a single species. Biodiversity’s dynamics are appreciated at the ecosystem level, but while scientists assume they work the same way for individual species, research is only starting to describe that. Hilborn calculated that Bristol Bay’s sockeye salmon populations would fluctuate ever more wildly as their diversity diminishes, and the effects of seasonal variability would be magnified. For now, a hot year may hurt one population, but another picks up the slack. With fewer populations, such resilience is less likely. If the salmon consisted of a single population, the fishery would need to be shut down every two to three years. Otherwise, the numbers would drop so low the salmon could hit a tipping point. “People say that the Kvichak only produces a million fish lately. Three or four decades ago, it was 50 million fish. And we’d expect that at some point in the future, Kvichak will be the major source again,” said Hilborn. “And Pebble Mine is the tip of the iceberg. The whole area is staked with claims. Every salmon-producing watershed is where mining could go. The decision needs to be made: Is Bristol Bay going to be a mining area, or a salmon area?” Image: Sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay./Ben Knight, Red Gold Film. See Also:
Citation: “Population diversity and the portfolio effect in an exploited species.” By Daniel E. Schindler, Ray Hilborn, Brandon Chasco, Christopher P. Boatright, Thomas P. Quinn, Lauren A. Rogers & Michael S. Webster. Nature, Vol. 465 No. 7298, June 3, 2010. Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on Twitter. Brandon is currently working on a book about ecological tipping points.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:22 pm Model stars set to explodeRealistic computational models of supernovae might soon solve a long-standing mystery.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:00 pm Mind Control: Learning How the Brain WorksEd Boyden studies the control mechanism behind neural circuits in order to understand how cognition and emotion arise.Source: Livescience.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:49 pm Are Tsunamis Predictable?Tsunami modeling technology has made huge strides in recent years, and scientists are learning a lot from the Chilean tsunami that rippled through the Pacific Ocean in February.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:37 pm World view: Defending democracyGovernment surveillance technology programmes must aim to protect privacy and civil rights from the start, says Daniel Sarewitz.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm Young Mountaineer Meets His Death on EverestPeter Kinloch's team was forced to make a tragic decision: leave him behind or die themselves.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jun 2010 | 11:48 am Toshiba invention brings quantum computing closerLONDON (Reuters) - Superfast quantum computing, one of the holy grails of science, could be a step closer following the invention of a new device capable of producing so-called "entangled" light on demand.Source: Reuters: Science News | 2 Jun 2010 | 11:02 am Biologists tackle cells' identity crisisDNA fingerprinting scheme aims to make sure researchers are working on the right cells.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 2 Jun 2010 | 11:00 am Government offers jobs grant to Florida space workersCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The Labor Department on Wednesday announced a $15 million emergency grant to help space shuttle workers start new careers in Florida, a politically important swing state with a high jobless rate.Source: Reuters: Science News | 2 Jun 2010 | 10:54 am Oil Spill Threatens Gulf SeafoodSeafood lovers can take comfort in the fact that oil has yet to have a major impact on catches in the Gulf -- at least for now.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jun 2010 | 10:40 am 2010 on track to become warmest yearFigures from US scientists show Arctic sea ice is at a record low, while land temperatures are likely to hit new highs New data from some of the world's leading climate researchers and institutions suggest that 2010 is shaping up to be one of the warmest years ever recorded. Scientists at the US National Snow and Ice Centre Data Centre (NSIDC) report today that Arctic sea ice – frozen seawater that floats on the ocean surface – is now at its lowest physical extent ever recorded for the time of year, suggesting that it is on course to break the previous record low set in 2007. Satellite monitoring by the NSIDC in Boulder, Colorado, shows that the melting of sea ice has been unusually fast this year, with as much as 40,000 sq km now disappearing daily. The melt season started almost a month later than normal at the end of March and is not expected to end until September. Meanwhile, research from the polar science centre at the University of Washington suggests that the volume of sea ice in March 2010 was 20,300 cubic km, 38% below the 1979 level when records began. Global surface temperatures may also be at a record high, according to leading climate scientist James Hansen and colleagues at the National Aeronautic Space Administration (Nasa). In a paper which is yet to be peer-reviewed but has been submitted to the journal Reviews of Geophysics, they suggest that the Earth has been 0.65C warmer over the past 12 months than during the 1951 to 1980 mean, and that the global temperature for 2010 will exceed the 2005 record. Hansen, credited with being one of the first scientists to study climate change, dismisses sceptics' claims that global warming "stopped" in 1998. "Record high global temperature during the period with instrumental data was reached in 2010," he writes. "It is likely that the 2010 global surface temperature ... will be a record. "Global warming on decadal timescales is continuing without let-up ... we conclude that there has been no reduction in the global warming trend of 0.15-0.2C/decade that began in the late 1970s." The Nasa research backs up findings by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), the US national climate monitoring service that measures global temperatures by satellite. This has recorded the hottest ever first four months of a year. As a result of high sea surface temperatures, the Atlantic hurricane season – which officially started this week – is expected to be one of the most intense in years. Last week NOAA predicted 14 to 23 named storms, including eight to 14 hurricanes – three to seven of which were likely to be "major", with winds of at least 111mph. This is compared to an average six-month season of 11 named storms, six of which become hurricanes, two of them major. 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 | 2 Jun 2010 | 10:27 am Stuck Saw Hampers Efforts to Contain SpillBP has tried and failed repeatedly to halt the flow of the oil, and the latest attempt like others has never been tried before a mile beneath the ocean.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jun 2010 | 9:30 am Vodka's Bonds May Influence TasteMeasuring vodka's microstructure could serve as an all-purpose quality control measure.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jun 2010 | 9:05 am Countdown starts for gruelling mission in Moscow car parkTomorrow six men will be sealed inside a mock-up spaceship in Moscow, where they will spend the next 520 days testing how well humans cope with the stress of a return trip to Mars After a year of strenuous astronaut training, six men will clamber into a capsule tomorrow afternoon for a journey like no other. Their mission? To boldly go – well, nowhere. The men, who were chosen from thousands of highly qualified applicants, are the crew for a simulated round-trip to Mars, a mission that requires them to be sealed for 520 days inside a mock-up spaceship that sits in a Moscow car park. The European Space Agency (Esa) experiment, called Mars 500, is designed to explore how humans cope with the stress, confinement and severely limited company that will confront future astronauts on missions to the farthest reaches of the solar system. To keep the would-be astronauts on their toes, agency officials will simulate equipment failures and medical emergencies. Regular medical checks and psychological appraisals will reveal how well – or how badly – the men are faring. The crew, three Russians, two Europeans and one Chinese, will spend most of their 18-month stay in the "habitable module" of the spaceship, a steel capsule the size of a bendy bus that has six sparsely furnished bedrooms built into it. Another capsule attached to the living quarters contains a gym, an artificial greenhouse and space for supplies such as food and water. A third capsule is the medical room. On being selected, 27-year-old Italian-Colombian engineer, Diego Urbina, said he was excited, but added: "I'm slightly worried about the unexpected things, mainly psychological, that may happen during the isolation." Another crew member, Russian cosmonaut Alexei Sitev, tied the knot earlier this year with bride Ekaterina Golubeva. The prospect of spending the first year and a half of married life away from his wife was "very tough", he told reporters. Simonetta di Pippo, Esa's director of human spaceflight, said the men were "brave" for taking part in the "history-making experiment" and praised them for willingly giving up so much of their time. The crew will spend 250 days performing flight tasks and experiments on their "journey to the Red Planet" before climbing into a mockup of a landing module, from which they will step out in spacesuits onto a simulated Martian surface. After 30 days working on the surface – essentially a large sandpit – the crew face a 240-day "return trip". The only contact the men will have with the outside world will be via a radio link to the space agency's "ground control" staff. To make the trip more realistic, their conversations will have a built-in time delay of up to 20 minutes: the time it takes for radio signals to reach Mars from Earth. Nick Kanas, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, who has studied astronauts on the international space station and the Russian Mir station, said the crew face a tough time. "It's not unheard of for people to be confined and isolated for a long period, but it wears on you. You get tired of hearing the other guys' stories all the time. You run out of stimulating conversation after a few months. They will need constantly to find new things to talk about and to keep themselves interested," he said. Space agencies have simulated long missions before, though not always successfully. An experiment at the same Moscow facility in 1999 descended into chaos when a Russian captain forced a kiss on a female Canadian crew member, and two other Russians got drunk and ended up in a fist fight that left blood spattered over the capsule walls. "People in space tend to do the same things that people on the ground do," said Professor Kanas. "They're better able to deal with stress, but they also have more stress to deal with." 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 | 2 Jun 2010 | 8:43 am Russian Soyuz returns from space station missionKOROLYOV, Russia (Reuters) - A Russian Soyuz spacecraft containing an international trio of astronauts who oversaw the final assembly stage of a $100 billion space station landed safely on Kazakhstan's steppe on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 2 Jun 2010 | 8:16 am Hubble Captures Surprising Star Motions
Using images of a star cluster taken 10 years apart, astronomers detected young stars moving in somewhat surprising ways. The Hubble Space Telescope imaged the core cluster of the extremely dense star-forming region NGC 3603 in 1997 and again in 2007 (above), revealing tiny motions of hundreds of relatively new stars. The cluster, located 20,000 light-years from our sun, formed around 1.4 million years ago, and astronomers expected the stars to have settled down. But after two years of analysis of very small differences in the locations of more than 800 stars in Hubble’s extremely sharp images (below), a team led by Wolfgang Brander of the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy found the stars are still moving at rates that are independent of their mass. This situation is typical of clusters at the earliest stages of formation. The discovery, reported in June 2 in Astrophysical Journal Letters, may cause astronomers to rethink how clusters form and evolve. The new measurements will help astronomers to develop benchmarks of cluster evolution and better estimate the masses of other star clusters. Many such measurements are based on the stars having reached a more settled state known as virial equilibrium. If the stars haven’t reached this state, the mass of the cluster will be overestimated.
Images: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 2 Jun 2010 | 8:00 am Coffee doesn't make you any more alert• Data shows coffee addicts only stave off caffeine withdrawal The millions of people who depend on a shot of coffee to kickstart their day are no more alert than those who are not regular coffee drinkers, say researchers. A cup of coffee, suggests a study, only counteracts the effects of caffeine withdrawal that has built up overnight. "Someone who consumes caffeine regularly when they're at work but not at weekends runs the risk of feeling a bit rubbish by Sunday," said Peter Rogers, who led the research at Bristol University. "It's better to stick with it or keep off it altogether." Infrequent coffee drinkers who reach for an emergency hit fare no better, experiencing heightened feelings of anxiety - and withdrawal symptoms the next day. How genetic differences may influence response was also examined. Blood samples were taken from 379 volunteers who were asked to avoid caffeine for 16 hours. After that period, they were given either a caffeine pill or a placebo. Later, they took a slightly higher dose or another placebo.The researchers then used a standard questionnaire called the Mood, Alertness and Physical Sensations Scales (MAPSS) to measure the subjects' emotional state and alertness. The participants' response to caffeine depended on their normal consumption. Roughly half regularly used medium-to-high levels of caffeine – equivalent to a few mugs of filter coffee a day – while the rest usually had little or no caffeine at all. Caffeine did not increase the alertness of any group above the levels of non-users who were given the placebo. But caffeine fiends who were given a placebo after abstaining from coffee for 16 hours felt less alert and experienced worse headaches than those who received their usual dose. Four people had to drop out of the study owing to the severity of their headaches. Infrequent users had more headaches after taking the caffeine pills, but did not feel any more alert than normal. Among people who usually consumed little or no caffeine, a dose boosted their anxiety levels. Those participants who had a variant of a gene called ADORA2A, which has been linked to panic attacks, became particularly anxious after a dose of caffeine. Medium-to-high level caffeine users, however, did not become any more anxious after caffeine, implying that regular consumption helps build up a resistance to its anxiety-inducing effect. People in this group who were genetically predisposed to anxiety drank more coffee than the rest, suggesting mild feelings of tension might even contribute to their enjoyment of the caffeine buzz. The research is significant because previous studies into the effects of caffeine have involved far fewer participants. "It's an interesting piece of evidence, and a very ambitious study," said Lorenzo Stafford, a psychologist at the University of Portsmouth. "Getting the DNA samples of so many participants is a huge effort." The study was published today in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. 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 | 2 Jun 2010 | 7:55 am Academic resigns over 'GM propaganda'Labour government's £500,000 public dialogue on GM food could be abandoned after second resignation A £500,000 public dialogue over GM food could be abandoned after a second member of the steering group overseeing it resigned, the government's independent food watchdog said today. The Food Standards Agency, which had been commissioned by the Labour government to gauge the public mood on growing and eating the controversial foods, said that it would ask the coalition government if it should continue with the dialogue. "There has been a major change in government," said Nathalie Golden, a spokeswoman for the FSA. "It will need to be presented to ministers. It depends on the new government whether it goes ahead." Professor Brian Wynne, the vice-chair of the 11-person steering group, today became the second member to resign in the past eight days. Wynne, an academic specialist on public engagement with science, said in a letter to the group that the planned consultation was biased in favour of the technology and was little more than propaganda for the industry. He accused the FSA of having adopted a "dogmatically entrenched" pro-GM position and said that the dialogue could become a "public mistrust generator". He was also heavily critical of FSA chair, ex-Labour minister Lord Rooker, who has described the public's sceptical position on GM food and crops as "anti-science". His resignation follows that of Dr Helen Wallace, director of the thinktank GeneWatch UK who resigned last week in protest at the FSA's links with the agri-chemical industry which has been lobbying strongly to allow GM foods to be used more widely. She alleged that some of the contractors being considered to run the project were already working for a major biotechnology company in order to "position the company as a positive force". "It has now become clear to me that the process that the FSA has in mind is nothing more than a PR exercise on behalf of the GM industry," she said. "In my view, this would be a significant waste of £500,000 of taxpayers' money. A process that was barely credible has become a farce. "Taxpayers' money should not be wasted on a PR exercise for the GM industry." Pete Riley, director of GM Freeze, a coalition of environment groups opposed to GM foods, said: "The GM public dialogue is now in chaos. "The coalition government needs to look very seriously at how the FSA is attempting to use the dialogue process to gather information on what the public thinks about GM so they can the use it to manipulate public opinion in a pro-GM direction. "This would be a gross misuse of public funds, and ministers need to put a stop to it. "The FSA is far too close to industry on this issue, which is a deep disappointment for an organisation that was set up as an independent regulator and food safety champion for the public just 10 years ago." But Golden said there were are no plans to delay the dialogue because of the resignations. "The steering group is now in the process of identifying an organisation which might carry out the dialogue," she said. "Once the steering group is in a position to suggest a body to do this, it will make a recommendation to the FSA board. "The board will then ask ministers, before contracts are signed, whether the GM dialogue should proceed. "The agency is completely independent. It is not at all a front for industry. We will all be considering the implications of these resignations." 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 | 2 Jun 2010 | 7:37 am Chemist, biologist wins MIT inventor's prizeBOSTON (Reuters) - A University of California chemistry and biology professor whose research is applied widely in biotechnology became on Wednesday the first woman to win the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Prize for outstanding inventor.Source: Reuters: Science News | 2 Jun 2010 | 7:18 am
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Until recently, researchers and environmentalists who thought at all about aquatic noise were focused on marine mammals and especially whales, which can be debilitated by sonar and engine noise. But the world’s 21,000 fish species also rely on sound. Many use it to communicate, and almost all rely on acoustics to navigate a dark, often turbid world.
