Driving while distracted is a primary-care issue, physician says; Talking or texting behind the wheel is roughly equivalent to driving drunk

It's time for physicians to talk to patients about driving while distracted, a problem that has risen to the rough equivalence of drunken driving thanks to the proliferation of phones that allow drivers to talk and text, a primary-care physician suggests.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

Two-drug phase I trial shows promise in treating late-stage ovarian cancer

The combination of decitabine and carboplatin appears to improve the outcome of women who have late-stage ovarian cancer, according to researchers.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

New microbial genetic system dissects biomass to biofuel conversion

A research team has developed a powerful new tool that promises to unlock the secrets of biomass degradation, a critical step in the development of cost-effective cellulosic biofuels.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

Alzheimer’s brain protein may provide target for treating mental retardation

From the perspective of neuroscientists, Alzheimer's disease and Down syndrome have at least one thing in common: patients with both diseases have an accumulation of ²-amyloid protein in their brains. Scientists now provide evidence that drugs which help reduce the level of ²-amyloid in the brains of Alzheimer's patients may also work to treat mental retardation in Down syndrome.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

New species of large blue butterfly discovered

Scientists have found a new butterfly species in the south of China. It is the first known species of the family of large blue butterflies that lives in mountain forests.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

Discovery in 'pop' science reveals the elegant, complex way bubbles burst

Scientists believe they have stumbled upon a universal behavior in how bubbles pop that holds as true for suds in a sink as it does for foam in the ocean. Rather than simply vanishing, ruptured bubbles create rings of smaller bubbles in a cascade effect.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

How the wrong genes are repressed

The mechanism by which "polycomb" proteins critical for embyronic stem cell function and fate are targeted to DNA has been identified by scientists in the UK. The discovery has implications for the fields of stem cell and tissue engineering.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am

Harbor seals' whiskers as good at detecting fish as echolocating dolphins, researchers find

Seals use their whiskers to track hydrodynamic trails left by passing fish, but how sensitive are the whiskers? Testing the responses of a seal to trails left by an artificial fin, researchers found that seals can detect trails up 35 seconds after a fin has passed. Fish can cover hundreds of meters in that time, so the whiskers compare well with the performance of echolocating whales and dolphins.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am

Sense of smell holds the key to diagnosis and treatment in early stage Parkinson's disease

A fast, simple and noninvasive test of the ability to smell may be an important tool to screen people who are likely to develop Parkinson's disease, in which motor symptoms only become evident at a later stage of the disease.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am

Obstacles to stem cell therapy cleared

Researchers in Sweden have come up with a new technique to prevent tumors developing in connection with stem cell transplantations.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am

Russian rocket primed for space station mission (AP)

AP - A Russian rocket set to carry a three-person U.S.-Russian crew to the international space station was moved Sunday to a launch pad in preparation for blastoff.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jun 2010 | 3:42 am

Iran approves "peace pipeline" deal with Pakistan (Reuters)

Reuters - Iran finalized a $7 billion "peace pipeline" deal on Sunday to export natural gas to Pakistan by 2015, Iran's state television reported.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jun 2010 | 3:29 am

Asteroid mission set for re-entry

A capsule Japanese scientists hope contains dusty samples grabbed from asteroid Itokawa is set to return to Earth.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Jun 2010 | 2:10 am

Japan asteroid probe on track to return to Earth (AFP)

AFP - A tiny heatproof capsule which scientists hope contains some of the oldest dust in the universe will streak back to Earth and land in the Australian Outback on Sunday, ending a historic space mission.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jun 2010 | 1:56 am

BP exec gives pep talk amid US tensions over spill (AP)

AP - A top BP executive acknowledged the growing tensions between the oil giant and the federal government but also gave workers at a command center a much-needed pep talk, reminding them of the huge challenge they faced as they try to stop a massive oil leak and keep the crude away from the fragile Gulf Coast.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jun 2010 | 1:51 am

British, US leaders discuss oil spill (AFP)

AFP - US and British leaders sought to ease tensions amid sharpened rhetoric over the expanding oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, as President Barack Obama readied to take matters into his own hands.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jun 2010 | 1:12 am

Heat on BP to improve oil spill response (Reuters)

Reuters - BP Plc faced renewed U.S. pressure on Sunday to do more to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, as the United States and Britain tried to avert a potentially damaging row over the crisis.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Jun 2010 | 12:49 am

Japanese space probe to land in Australian outback

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A Japanese space probe which scientists hope will bring back a sample from an asteroid is due to return to Earth on schedule late on Sunday in the Australian outback, an Australian defense official said.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 12 Jun 2010 | 11:28 pm

Space Probe, Perhaps with a Chunk of Asteroid, Returns to Earth Sunday (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - A Japanese space capsule perhaps carrying the first ever sample from an asteroid is on track for a Sunday parachute landing in South Australia.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Jun 2010 | 10:45 pm

Japan's Asteroid Mission Set For Fiery Re-entry Over Australia

On Sunday, JAXA's Hayabusa mission will return to Earth after a dramatic seven years in space. But will it contain those precious asteroid particles?
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 12 Jun 2010 | 8:36 pm

Natural History Museum to cut 'up to 40 jobs'

Fears that entire research unit could be shut as director plans £2.3m cuts to prepare for public spending decisions

The Natural History Museum is considering cutting dozens of jobs to save £2m in preparation for heavy public spending cuts, it has emerged. Reports suggest up to 40 positions in the research, public engagement and corporate departments are at risk, with managers being asked to identify posts that could be lost. There are also fears that an entire research unit could be shut.

A Facebook group has been set up in response to suggestions that the museum plans to shut its micropalaeontology unit. The study of microfossils can be used to provide an detailed record of climate change and biological evolution.

The director of the museum, Michael Dixon, confirmed that there were plans to reduce the expense base by £2.3m to help prepare for public spending decisions. Although the museum is performing well, there are fears that it will be hit by the austerity programme that is being implemented by the coalition.

Tom Dunkley Jones, a micropalaeontologist at Imperial College London, told Nature there were fears across the field. "The news has had a strong response from the wider community. We're worried about how the collections are going to be interfaced with the scientific community," he said.

Norman MacLeod, the museum's Keeper of Palaeontology, sent a message to colleagues saying the next few years would be neither "easy nor pleasant" for any museum or public sector institution. He said he hoped there would be no further cuts to his department and claimed the museum had no intention to diminish the micropaleontological collections.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 12 Jun 2010 | 5:06 pm

iPads for animals? It's not as far fetched as you might think …

Using Apple's latest gadget – and with the willing help of Merlin the dolphin – American researchers hope to unravel the secret of how dolphins communicate. Alok Jha reports

When Steve Jobs launched his latest must-have computer to the world, he might not have been thinking about the dolphin market. But, at the Dolphin Discovery swim facility in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico, Apple's groundbreaking iPad is engaged in some remarkable groundbreaking inter-species research.

Scientists there are using a waterproofed version of the iPad to help them communicate with a bottlenose dolphin called Merlin. "Merlin is quite curious, like most dolphins, and he showed a complete willingness to examine the iPad," according to Jack Kassewitz of Miami-based SpeakDolphin.com, who is looking for ways to allow dolphins to better express themselves around humans.

Two-year-old Merlin can tap symbols on the waterproofed iPad and Kassewitz reckons the dolphin will be able to get the hang of a wide assortment of symbols.

"The use of the iPad is part of our continuing search to find a suitable touchscreen technology which the dolphins can activate with the tip of their rostrums or beaks," says Kassewitz. "After extensive searching and product review, it looks like our choice is between the Panasonic Toughbook and the Apple iPad.

"We think that once the dolphins get the hang of the touchscreen, we can let them choose from a wide assortment of symbols to represent objects, actions and even emotions."

The work with Merlin is part of a long line of research examining dolphin intelligence. At the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Mississippi, Kelly the dolphin learned to trade bits of paper for fish every time a trainer passed her tank. Dolphins are known to be able to keep track of many different relationships within a large social group and have an efficient communication system of clicks and whistles to keep in touch. They also communicate using touch and body postures, but there is no evidence they have anything we could call a language.

Kassewitz already has some suggestions for the next generations of the tablet computers that could help him with his work. "Waterproofing, processor speed, touch-sensitivity, anti-glare screens and dolphin-friendly programs are essential," he says. "We'll need fast technology to help us respond appropriately and quickly to the dolphins."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 12 Jun 2010 | 5:05 pm

Language alters how we think

The linguist argues that in our haste to explain language in terms of genetics we've underestimated the power of culture

Guy Deutscher is that rare beast, an academic who talks good sense about linguistics, his chosen field. In his new book, Through the Language Glass (Heinemann), he fearlessly contradicts the fashionable consensus, espoused by the likes of Steven Pinker, that language is wholly a product of nature, that it does not take colour and value from culture and society. Deutscher argues, in a playful and provocative way, that our mother tongue does indeed affect how we think and, just as important, how we perceive the world.

An honorary research fellow at the University of Manchester, the 40-year-old linguist draws on a range of sources in the book to show language reflecting the society in which it is spoken. In the process, he explains why Russian water (a "she") becomes a "he" once you have dipped a teabag into her, and why, in German, a young lady has no sex, though a turnip has.

What's your new book about in a nutshell?

It's about why the world can look different in other languages. I try to explain why in the race to ascribe to our genes all the fundamental aspects of language and thought, the immense power of culture and nurture has been grossly underestimated.

How has it been underestimated?

For example, I argue that the mother tongue has considerable influence on the way we think and perceive the world. But there's a great deal of historical baggage attached to this question and so most respectable psychologists and linguists won't touch it with a bargepole.

It's like being a historian and talking about national character, isn't it?

Exactly. But I think we are grown up enough now to look at this question in a scientific way.

Can you give me an example of what you mean?

The most striking example involves what I call the language of space – how we describe the arrangement of objects around us. Take a sentence such as: "The child is standing behind the tree" – you'd imagine all languages would behave in the same way when describing something so simple. It's almost inconceivable that there would be languages that don't use such concepts at all. For centuries, philosophers and psychologists have had us believe that such egocentric concepts of space such as "in front of", "behind", "left" or "right" are the universal building blocks of language and cognition.

And aren't they universal?

Well, this remote aboriginal tongue turned up – called Guugu Yimithirr, from north Queensland. These people have a way of speaking about space that is incredibly odd, because they don't use any such concepts at all. So they would never say: "The child is behind the tree." Instead, they would say: "The child is north of the tree."

It also happens to be the language that gave us the word kangaroo.

Yes, it's famous for that, but it should be doubly famous. These people say things such as: "There's an ant on your northern foot", or: "I left the pen on the southern edge of the western table in your northern room in the house." You might think that their weird way of speaking about space must be a one-off. But the discovery of this language inspired a great deal of research and we learned of other peoples around the globe, from Mexico to Indonesia, who speak in a similar way.

What consequences does such a language have for your perception of space?

Growing up with such a language essentially develops in your brain a sort of GPS system, an unfailing sense of orientation, and the reason is fairly straightforward: if from the age at which you start talking, you have to be aware of the cardinal directions every waking second of your life in order to understand the most trivial things that people say around you, then your language trains you to pay constant attention to your orientation at all times. Because of this intense drilling, the sense of directions becomes second nature. If you ask the Guugu Yimithirr how they know where north is or where south is, they look at you in amazement, just as you would be flummoxed if I asked you how you know where in front of you is and where behind is.

Is your dominant interest to do with neurology or linguistics?

My focus is on the effects of language on thought, but I try to concentrate on those effects that can be demonstrated scientifically. Neurology may be an exciting subject, but we are still profoundly ignorant about its subject matter – we know little about how the brain works. So to show any influence of language on thought, we need to find examples where this influence has practical and measurable consequences in actual behaviour.

If we were having this conversation in 50 years' time, it would be much easier to talk about real neurology, because we would be able to scan the brain and find out exactly how each different language influences different aspects of thought. Our current ruminations about the subject would then look pitifully primitive. But progress can only come through trying and failing and failing better.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 12 Jun 2010 | 5:05 pm

Hemidactylus gujaratensis

Found on a temple wall in Gujarat, this new species of gecko is likely to be one of many the environmentally diverse region yields over time, writes Quentin Wheeler

A 24-year-old reptile enthusiast leading a nature tour near Junagadh, India, noticed a gecko on the loose boulders of the walls of the Vagheshwari Mata temple that he recognised as unusual. It proved to be a species new to science, Hemidactylus gujaratensis.

Although primarily nocturnal, the species was common at the site which is a popular tourist destination located in disturbed forest (a forest habitat which has been affected by human activity) near the city. The genus is the second largest of the gecko family with 85 species, 24 of which occur in India where the group remains incompletely explored. It's named after the state of Gujarat where diverse habitats are likely to yield additional new reptiles.

International Institute for Species Exploration, Arizona State University

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 12 Jun 2010 | 5:05 pm

The Most Powerful Idea in the World

The story of James Watt – the genius behind the steam revolution – reveals how inspiration often needs a little push

At the heart of Glasgow Green, the city's oldest park, there is a 140ft obelisk dedicated to Horatio Nelson. Built in 1806, a year after the great man's death, the monument was the first major civic commemoration to be erected after his victory at Trafalgar and predates the construction of Nelson's Column in London by more than 30 years.

Much later, in the 1980s, Glasgow's councillors decided to place a second memorial near the column, a small boulder with a simple inscription. "Near this spot in 1765, James Watt conceived the idea for the separate condenser for the steam engine."

The contrast is intriguing. On the one hand, a remote battle was celebrated immediately with a grandiose stonework. On the other, an invention that gave birth to the industrial revolution had to wait almost two centuries for recognition – in the form of a small plinth. Nelson may have saved Britain from French invasion but Watt transformed an entire planet when he took a Sunday morning stroll across the green and thought of the idea of the secondary condenser.

Within a few decades of Watt's breakthrough, webs of railways, factories and mines were spreading across the nation, triggering a global frenzy for fossil-fuel burning that is now propelling the world towards dangerous climate change. Indeed, the Nobel prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen now argues that greenhouse gases have brought about such profound changes that we must accept the world has entered a new epoch: the anthropocene, he calls it. As to this new epoch's birthplace, Crutzen believes it can be placed precisely to Watt's stroll.

Now I have to confess to a particular fascination with this idea, which pinpoints the birth of a world-changing event with such specificity, partly because of its importance – and partly because my early childhood home, a tenement flat on Glasgow's London Road, overlooked the parkland where Watt strolled as he worked out his great idea. It is reassuring to realise that you have been raised in a neighbourhood that was epoch-making.

William Rosen, I am pleased to say, shares my enthusiasm for Watt's inspiration. As he states in this intriguing, witty account of the birth of steam power, the inventor's walk on Glasgow Green was "one of the best recorded, and most repeated, eureka moments since Archimedes leaped out of his bathtub." However, we should note, precisely, what Watt achieved on that stroll. He certainly did not invent the steam engine. That had already been done. Nor, adds Rosen, should we take seriously those stories of the great inventor's childhood fascination with steam pushing aside kettle lids.

In fact, Watt was less interested in the power of steam to push than he was in its ability to create a vacuum that could pull. In 1765, he was working on a Newcomen pump, a state-of-the-art engine in which steam pushed a piston through a cylinder. Water was then sprayed into the cylinder, causing the steam to condense, creating a vacuum behind the piston which was sucked back to its original position. More steam was pumped in, and the piston was pushed forward again.

However, constantly heating and then cooling the engine's huge cylinder was incredibly inefficient. Up to three-quarters of the engine's steam was wasted this way, Watt calculated. He dreamed up all sorts of solutions, none of them feasible, until his epiphany on Glasgow Green. A separate condenser would create a vacuum but allow the engine's cylinder to operate at a constant temperature, he realised. Steam power was transformed.

It took a remarkable confluence of ideas to prepare the ground for the breakthrough, however. These included: changes to British patent laws which provided effective protection for those who came up with money-earning ideas; philosopher John Locke's arguments that man has rights to property where labour had been added; pioneering work on early steam engines by Savery, Newcomen and Papin; the discovery of latent heat by Watt's Glasgow University friend Joseph Black; and the ability to make industrial devices of real precision.

These advances, which Rosen laces into his account with skill, answer a key question raised in his prologue: "If the process of thinking up 'gadgets' was, at bottom, the same for Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci and James Watt, why did it take until the middle of the 18th century for a trickle [of inventions] to become a wave?" Three hundred pages later we get the answer: the ground had been fertilised by political, philosophical and intellectual changes that, for the first time, rewarded both the inventor and society for making and accepting change. Watt didn't know it when he walked out for that walk on Glasgow Green, but his path had already been well prepared.

Robin McKie is the Observer's science editor.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 12 Jun 2010 | 5:05 pm

Depth of Himalayan Mountain Roots Revealed (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - An epic collision between two ancient continents pushed the Himalayas up fom the Earth's surface. That much is known, but a new study reveals how deep the unseen wreckage penetrated underground.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Jun 2010 | 4:27 pm

Depth of Himalayan Mountain Roots Revealed

Depth of Indian continental crust from collision with Asia revealed.
Source: Livescience.com | 12 Jun 2010 | 4:17 pm

Tsunami alerts canceled after strong Indian Ocean quake (Reuters)

Reuters - A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 struck in the ocean near India's Nicobar Islands on Sunday, sparking some tsunami warnings, the U.S. Geological Survey and local officials said.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Jun 2010 | 4:10 pm

Raccoon Disrupts Television News Weather Segment

Watch how news reporters react when a raccoon enters their studio during a live broadcast.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 12 Jun 2010 | 3:01 pm

Airborne Wind Turbines Lift Off

Alt energy enthusiasts have talked about harnessing powerful winds from the troposphere since the 1970s, but technological limits made it seem like a distant dream. Well, it's 2010 and the future has arrived. Airborne wind turbine prototypes are finally taking ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 12 Jun 2010 | 2:36 pm

Weighty argument... British professor queries gold World Cup

A chemistry professor says that if the World Cup trophy was really solid gold it would be too heavy for footballers to lift.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 12 Jun 2010 | 10:57 am

Living (or Not) With a Hot Jupiter

What would life on Earth be like if Jupiter had migrated very close to the sun? Would life have even evolved?
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 12 Jun 2010 | 8:41 am

Polar diary

Daily updates from key polar science conference in Oslo
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 12 Jun 2010 | 8:10 am

The nation's weather (AP)

AP - More stormy weather was in the forecast for the central U.S. on Saturday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Jun 2010 | 2:52 am

New UN science body to monitor biosphere

'IPCC for biodiversity' approved after long negotiation<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/1rJGm8zkuH4" height="1" width="1"/>
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 12 Jun 2010 | 2:31 am