Language of RNA decoded: Study reveals new function for pseudogenes and noncoding RNAs

The central dogma of molecular biology holds that genetic information is transferred from DNA to functional proteins by way of messenger RNA (mRNA). This suggests that mRNA has but a single role, that being to encode for proteins. Now, a cancer genetics team suggests there is much more to RNA than meets the eye.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am

Liquid crystals light way to better data storage

Currently, most liquid crystal technologies rely on physical or chemical manipulation, such as rubbing in one direction, to align molecules in a preferred direction. In an important advance, scientists in Japan have created a stable, rewritable memory device that exploits a liquid crystal property called the "anchoring transition."
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am

Drug mitigates toxic effects of radiation in mice

Medical researchers have provided one of the first examples of successful radiomitigation in mammals. The investigators found that oral treatment of mice with a drug that inhibits enzymes involved in cell division caused certain groups of bone marrow cells to temporarily stop dividing (which they termed "pharmacological quiescence" or PQ).
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am

Gut bacteria could be key indicator of colon cancer risk

A new study suggests that a shift in the balance between the "good" bacteria and the "bad" bacteria that populate our gut could be a harbinger of colon cancer.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am

Analyzing food and beverages with magnetic levitation

Scientists are reporting development of a new use for magnetic levitation, or "maglev," the futuristic technology best known for enabling high-speed passenger trains to float above the tracks. They describe putting maglev to use in an inexpensive sensor for analyzing food, water, and other beverages.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am

Gay men's bilateral brains better at remembering faces, study finds

A Canadian study finds that gay men can recall familiar faces faster and more accurately than their heterosexual counterparts.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am

'Ghost particle' sized up by cosmologists

Cosmologists are a step closer to determining the mass of the elusive neutrino particle, not by using a giant particle detector, but by gazing up into space.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am

Obesity, weight gain in middle age associated with increased risk of diabetes among older adults

For individuals 65 years of age and older, obesity, excess body fat around the waist and gaining weight after the age of 50 are associated with an increased risk of diabetes, according to a new study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am

How lead exposure damages the brain: New research fills in the picture

Exposure to lead during early childhood and even later in life has long been known to affect the release of critical neurotransmitters. However, the precise mechanism by which lead ions (Pb2+) impair this process has remained unknown. The study demonstrates that during the formation of synapses -- synaptogenesis -- exposure to lead alters the levels of several key proteins involved in neurotransmitter release.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am

New method of peptide synthesis makes it easier to create drugs based on natural compounds

A team of chemists has developed a novel method for chemically synthesizing peptides that promises to lower the cost and increase the availability of drugs based on natural compounds.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am

'Superstorm' rages on exoplanet

Astronomers measure high-speed winds in the atmosphere of a gas giant planet which orbits a distant star.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 24 Jun 2010 | 3:38 am

Tropical Storm Darby gaining strength in Pacific (AP)

AP - Tropical Storm Darby is gaining strength in the Pacific and could become a hurricane.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jun 2010 | 3:36 am

Robot nudge foils Gulf oil collection for a day (AP)

AP - One nudge by a deep-sea robot, and BP had to back off its most effective method so far for containing the Gulf of Mexico oil leak.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jun 2010 | 3:24 am

Brave new world

The human genome and a new age of medicine
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 24 Jun 2010 | 3:04 am

The nation's weather (AP)

AP - Portions of the East were forecast to see a bit of relief from this week's heat Thursday as a cold front from the Central U.S. trekked eastward.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jun 2010 | 3:02 am

Whaling 'peace deal' falls apart

Attempts to agree a compromise between whaling nations and opponents at the International Whaling Commission meeting fail.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 24 Jun 2010 | 2:00 am

Japan blames whaling foes for collapse of talks (AFP)

AFP - Japan's fisheries minister on Thursday blamed anti-whaling nations for the collapse of talks in the International Whaling Commission and questioned whether Japan should stay in the forum.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jun 2010 | 1:58 am

Gazprom to resume gas supply to Belarus (AFP)

AFP - Russian gas giant Gazprom confirmed Thursday that Belarus had paid its gas debt in full and said it would resume full gas supplies, the Kremlin spokeswoman said.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jun 2010 | 1:55 am

Gulf containment cap reattached, collecting oil: BP (AFP)

AFP - BP reinstalled an oil containment system sucking up crude from a ruptured pipe in the Gulf of Mexico, which had been removed following a collision with a robotic submarine.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jun 2010 | 1:46 am

In pictures

Eking a living out of Madagascar's meagre resources
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 24 Jun 2010 | 1:24 am

NY exhibit imagines utopian, green cities in 2030 (AP)

AP - Imagine no cars — or fewer, anyway.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jun 2010 | 1:16 am

Synthetic drugs use 'rising' - UN

Synthetic drugs are becoming increasingly popular while demand for opium and cocaine is dropping, a UN report says.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 24 Jun 2010 | 1:09 am

For Iceland's whaling king, they're 'just another fish' (AFP)

AFP - Kristjan Loftsson, Iceland's millionaire whaling king, doesn't really see the difference: "whales are just another fish," he said at a crunch meeting of the International Whaling Commission.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jun 2010 | 12:15 am

Stem Cell Technique Restores Sight to Burn-Injured Eyes (HealthDay)

HealthDay - WEDNESDAY, June 23 (HealthDay News) -- A new Italian study describes a technique that doctors can use to restore vision to some patients with severe burns to their eyes.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jun 2010 | 9:49 pm

Builders urged to support swifts

House builders and homeowners need to provide more nest sites for swifts to reverse the bird's falling numbers.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jun 2010 | 9:09 pm

Doctor Who's 'Crack in the Universe' is Real?

The crack in the universe may appear frequently in Dr Who, but it looks like the Spitzer Space Telescope has found its own crack in the cosmos.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Jun 2010 | 8:32 pm

Fin to limb evolution clue found

A study has shed light on a key genetic step in the evolution of animals' limbs from the fins of fish, scientists say.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jun 2010 | 7:58 pm

Call for wild salmon protection

A group fighting to preserve stocks of wild salmon will present a petition to the Scottish Parliament calling for tougher policing of fish farms.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jun 2010 | 7:14 pm

Why the Fossil 'Hobbit' of Flores Isn't so Strange

A clue to how the diminutive humanoid Homo floresiensis evolved can be found in its unique surroundings -- the fossils of Flores, and the island itself.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Jun 2010 | 6:31 pm

Homemade Nuclear Reactor Built in NYC

Amateur physicists who call themselves "fusioneers" are trying to solve the world's energy problem in their basements.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Jun 2010 | 6:19 pm

Will Humans Be Extinct Within 100 Years?

Is the clock of doom ticking for mankind? Yes, says an eminent 95 year old scientist from Australia.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Jun 2010 | 5:59 pm

NASA: Easter quake moved border city (AP)

AP - The strong Easter earthquake physically moved the border city of Calexico.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jun 2010 | 5:36 pm

Polar weather satellites pair up

The next-generation of Europe's polar orbiting weather satellites will fly as pairs when they launch late this decade.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jun 2010 | 5:09 pm

Never fear

Would you take a pill to make you feel more courageous?

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jun 2010 | 4:55 pm

Advanced AC Beats Heat and Humidity

A new air conditioner in development has the potential to use between 50 to 90 percent less electricity than the most advanced units out there, and do it without harmful refrigerants. Swoon.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Jun 2010 | 4:36 pm

Jet Lag Leaves Kidneys In Another Time Zone

Internal clocks are manipulated to create time zone-resistant mice.
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jun 2010 | 4:34 pm

Stem-cell corneas last up to a decade: study

BOSTON (Reuters) - Italian doctors reported long-term success on Wednesday with a technique of fixing burn-related eye damage using corneas grown from stem cells.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 23 Jun 2010 | 4:28 pm

Now scientists read your mind better than you can

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Brain scans may be able to predict what you will do better than you can yourself, and might offer a powerful tool for advertisers or health officials seeking to motivate consumers, researchers said on Tuesday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 23 Jun 2010 | 4:13 pm

For Americans, courts do far more than just test the law | Zoe Williams

In the US idea of little guy versus corporate giant, courts of law play a core role, offering a platform for political crusade

A US consumer group is suing McDonald's over its Happy Meals. False advertising, you say? "These don't make me happy! They make me full but only for a short time, and full of self-hate!" No, it's for the toys they give away. If only the Guardian had the financial muscle and entrepreneurial spirit to give away free Shreks and Pusses in Boots, you'd be able to see how incomprehensibly crap they are. California has already passed a law against offering free toys with any meal that doesn't reach a nutritional standard, in recognition of just how dense and suggestible is your average child diner.

It's interesting to look at the language used in this lawsuit, brought by the Center for Science in the Public Interest: "McDonald's is the stranger in the playground handing out candy to children. It's a creepy and predatory practice that warrants an injunction. McDonald's marketing has the effect of conscripting America's children into an unpaid drone army of word-of-mouth marketers, causing them to nag their parents to bring them to McDonald's." What a subtle audacity, calling Ronald McDonald a paedophile. In a lawsuit. I thought you were only allowed to say that on Facebook.

More remarkable is the radicalism underpinning this: the idea that large corporations should approach customers in a responsible way, thinking not only of profit but of the nutritional needs of a family, as well as its budget and interior dynamics.

In Britain, when we talk about the need for corporate responsibility we are referring to major transgressions against humankind: toxic spillage, sweat shops in Bangladesh, carbon footprints. In America there is provision under law for enforcing – or at least demanding – not just a duty of care not to kill anybody but the kind of responsibility you might ask from a reasonable adult. Please don't just profiteer. Also think of the tubby, plastic-ridden society you create.

This sounds like a good thing, doesn't it? And yet the landscape it creates is not necessarily one we'd emulate. Take, as an example, the drinks industry's response to foetal alcohol syndrome. In the 1970s, when alcohol was first identified as a hazard to a foetus, the industry naturally rejected it wholesale (mainly on the basis that pregnant women had been drinking for centuries). By 1988 the industry had willingly submitted to warning signs on every bottle – not "don't drink too much", but a red line through a pregnant woman, effectively "don't drink at all, you pregger".

The spur to this was a case brought against Jim Beam, on behalf of a child with foetal alcohol syndrome, the year before. (James A Beam actually escaped liability when the mood of the court turned against the mother, but it was a tense time for the drinks industry; the story is told in Janet Golden's book Message in a Bottle.)

The warnings are basically there to protect the sellers of alcohol from litigation. This is great for the industry but bad for the consumer. In an effort to shut down any possibility of legal recourse it elevates into a medical truism the idea that any amount of alcohol, however small, could cause foetal damage (this is not true). In doing so, it creates the suspicion that the country is crawling with women seeking to carouse at the expense of their unborn child – and this idea has spawned appalling legislation. Five states in the US authorise the civil commitment of a woman who is suspected of using alcohol during her pregnancy: 33 states require the reporting of suspected alcohol use. Rates of foetal alcohol syndrome have, predictably, stayed pretty static throughout: in response to warnings, light drinkers stop drinking, and alcoholics remain alcoholic.

Never minding the gender politics of all this – and Golden points to strongly racist imagery and rhetoric in the foetal alcohol syndrome debate – just look at the route. That case against the industry was the hinge moment, just as it was in the smoking debate, which was bitterly fought in class actions against Big Tobacco first, then passed through state law like a slippery pig.

The timing isn't always exact. A class action might be inspired by one in a single state, as is apparently the case in the People v Badly Made Shrek Toy.

But there is certainly an alternative political landscape in America, where arguments are made that are much more radical than anything you hear from mainstream politicians. Barack Obama sounds great, but he does not sound like a Marxist. You cannot imagine him accusing a fast-food giant of "conscripting" a child. The narrative is rarely a straightforward David v Goliath, where a little guy sets his all against a huge company and wins. That does sometimes happen, but there's baggage: a trail of on-the-hop law-making that can make the individual weaker even though it was formulated in response to an individual's case against a faceless corporation.

This sheds light on so much that is peculiar to the US – not just Americans' famous litigiousness and risk-aversion but their emotional relationship with the court process, and the vexed attitude to lawyers, who are shysters one minute and crusaders the next. Courts do more than test the law. They provide a political platform, a sense of collective action, a pressure valve to let off some of the howling frustration of being a drone to Ronald McDonald's King Bee.

Having said all that, there is another reason why I can't see anyone bringing a case against McDonald's in Britain: if you were going to bring a class action against plastic tat, you would definitely start with CBeebies magazine.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jun 2010 | 4:00 pm

The genome's shield from sunlight

Enzyme structure reveals how cells avoid DNA damage caused by ultraviolet rays.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/WVgl-cTaCQ8" height="1" width="1"/>
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 23 Jun 2010 | 3:58 pm

Why Was the Canadian Earthquake Felt So Far Away?

Eastern earthquakes are felt farther away than those out West.
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jun 2010 | 3:49 pm

How Corals Could Survive Climate Change

Coral's Ability to Survive Warming Depends on Parents
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jun 2010 | 3:39 pm

How fins became limbs

Four-legged creatures may have gained a foothold by ditching genes guiding fin development.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 23 Jun 2010 | 3:17 pm

Genes? It's complicated

The advance heralded a decade ago in mapping human DNA is yet to lead to the answers we craved

Ten years ago the $10bn Human Genome Project announced it had completed the first draft of the blueprint for human life. It was hailed as a huge scientific advance, comparable to putting a man on the moon. President Bill Clinton declared: "We'll go from knowing almost nothing about how our genes work to enlisting genes in the struggle to prevent and cure illness. This will be the scientific breakthrough of the century, perhaps of all time."

The project at last laid bare the entire human genetic code – 22,000 or so genes (the precise number is still uncertain) – that make us into the people we are. Several decades of research into the cause of diseases before the project had firmly identified genes as a significant cause of many important diseases.

The first haul of genetic diseases was of those fairly rare but devastating inherited diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and haemophilia, that are caused by single genes. Most of the genes responsible for those had been fished out of the genome long before the sequencing project hauled in its net. But the project was expected to find genes for various far more common conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, autism, depression and schizophrenia, because most of these conditions tend to run in families. Studies of families in which these diseases were common, particularly of twins, had established a level of heritability for each condition, and the levels were high. Autism comes out at a whopping 90%, indicating that most autism is caused by faulty genes (and certainly not by faulty vaccines). The heritability of schizophrenia was about 80% whereas conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer came in anywhere between 30% and 70%.

And it wasn't just diseases that were caused by genes. Many behavioural studies indicated that intelligence, personality, sexual orientation and even voting preference seemed to be highly heritable. If genes were so powerful, it should be straightforward to identify the culprits in the genome.

But a decade later these expectations have not been fulfilled. The project that promised so much has, so far, delivered very little. Very few genes have been found that account for more than 1% of the risk of any of those common diseases. And even the most significant intelligence gene yet found is responsible for variation in individual intelligence equivalent to less than one IQ point. The scientists who went in search of whoppers netted only a host of minnows. Where are the missing genes?

Like most things in life, it turns out that genes are more complex than we thought. Those genes responsible for single-gene defects such as cystic fibrosis and haemophilia are the low-hanging fruit. Common diseases, and such attributes as intelligence, are not caused by single genes or even handfuls of genes, but probably by networks of hundreds or even thousands of genes.

To understand these networks, we need to look, not at the branches, but at the roots of the genetic tree. Genes form tangles of interactions with each other such that the effect of chopping one or another is unpredictable and depends on the connectivity of the whole network. Finding a gene responsible for a disease is mostly like finding a root responsible for maintaining a tree.

The task of unravelling the roots of biology is the new science of systems biology, in which biologists work with mathematicians and computer scientists to build models of complex networks. This is where the causes of heart disease, diabetes and autism are now being sought. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, the genome project was not the end. It was not even the beginning of the end. But it was, perhaps, the end of the beginning in the search for our genes.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jun 2010 | 3:00 pm

African nations vow to support science

Policy-makers say that dependence on financial aid is hampering research, reports Linda Nordling.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 23 Jun 2010 | 3:00 pm

UK research centre born amid cuts

£600-million science complex planned for centre of London.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 23 Jun 2010 | 3:00 pm

Human genome at ten: Science after the sequence

The completion of the draft human genome sequence was announced ten years ago. 's survey of life scientists reveals that biology will never be the same again. Declan Butler reports.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 23 Jun 2010 | 3:00 pm

Scientific Academies: In the best company

The grandfather of scientific national academies is staging major celebrations this week for its 350th birthday. But, like similar elite groups around the world, Britain's Royal Society has had to work hard to stay relevant and influential, reports Colin Macilwain.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 23 Jun 2010 | 3:00 pm

How Do Vuvuzela Horns Cause Hearing Damage?

The vuvuzela, a stadium horn made popular by World Cup soccer fans in South Africa, may permanently damage the hearing of people within the vuvuzela's close proximity, including the horn-blower, according to a recent study.
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jun 2010 | 2:54 pm

Unmanned Airborne Warriors

The U.S. military is increasingly calling on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to gain battlefield advantage in Iraq, Afghanistan and other trouble spots around the globe.
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jun 2010 | 2:35 pm

Where Does Evil Come From?

What drives a person to commit unspeakable acts of evil and depravity? We turned to forensic psychologist Stephen Diamond, author of the Evil Deeds blog on Psychology Today for the answer: Typically it does involve some kind of trauma during ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Jun 2010 | 2:08 pm

Henrietta Lacks: the mother of modern medicine

How did cells taken from a poor black woman in 1951 come to unlock some of the biggest advances in science?

Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year-old mother of five, died of cervical cancer on 4 October 1951; and while her disease was a tragedy for her family, for the world of medical research – and beyond that, every one of us on the planet – it was something of a miracle.

Because, in the years since her death, Lacks's cells – taken from her tumour while she was undergoing surgery – have been responsible for some of the most important medical advances of all time. The polio vaccine, chemotherapy, cloning, gene mapping and IVF: all these health milestones, and many more, owe everything to the life, and death, of a young mother.

Lacks's cells – known as HeLa, using the first two letters of each of her names – became the first immortal human cell line in history. Scientists at the hospital where she died, Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, had been working for years to try to start a continuously reproducing cell line – but the cells always died. Lacks's were the first that "took", introducing a constantly reproducing line of cells that are literally, to give them their scientific definition, immortal. (Ordinary cells taken from a human body and kept in a lab have a limited life span; however, an immortal cell line is cultured in a particular way so it has the ability to proliferate indefinitely.) Quite why hers were the cells that survived and reproduced, when those of hundreds of other patients had died, is unclear – but the best guess is that the reason was linked to the ferocity of her tumour, which seems to have been made more virulent by the fact that she also suffered from syphilis.

As soon as it was clear that HeLa would continue to reproduce, all kinds of research and experiments suddenly became possible. For a start, having living cells available outside the human body meant doctors could watch cell division taking place, and could also see how viruses behaved inside the cells. What's more, it was possible to expose the cells to conditions that wouldn't have been ethical if they were inside a human body – for example, doctors could bombard them with carcinogens, and watch the results.

In the years since 1951, HeLa cells have been exposed to endless toxins and infections; they've been zapped by radiation, and tested with countless drugs. And all this – and much, much more – has led to hundreds, if not thousands, of new pieces of knowledge, and helped to shape the way medicine moved in the second half of the 20th century and the first decade of this one. And there are certainly plenty of HeLa cells to go round, these days: one researcher has estimated that if you laid them all end-to-end, they'd wrap around the planet at least three times.

No one would be more surprised to know this than Lacks (who, in her lifetime, stood about five feet tall). But for decades, while HeLa cells were routinely being used in laboratories around the world, and were being hailed as pivotal in breakthrough after breakthrough, no one seems to have stopped to think about the person behind them. Then, 37 years after Lacks's death, a 16-year-old schoolgirl called Rebecca Skloot was sitting in a biology lesson when her teacher explained how cancer begins, and said the process had been learned from studying cells in culture – HeLa cells. The cells, said the teacher, came from a woman called Henrietta Lacks.

When the class was over, the other students filed out – but Skloot hung around. "I said to my teacher: who was this woman Henrietta Lacks? Where was she from? Did she have any kids? But all the teacher knew was that she was black, and that she had died in 1951 from cervical cancer."

After school, and a degree in biological science, Skloot, who is promoting her book about what she calls the "immortality" of Lacks, devoted herself to finding out the truth behind the HeLa cells – and what she uncovered was a tale that is immensely moving. It's also a story that has captured the public imagination: since its publication in February in the US, Skloot's book has never been off the New York Times bestseller list.

What Skloot found out puts the American healthcare system, and beyond it scientists everywhere who depend on patient goodwill, but fail to communicate effectively, in the dock. Because what she found out was that, while Lacks's cells were changing the face of modern medicine, her husband and children not only knew nothing about it – they were also without adequate healthcare themselves. "What most people are most shocked at is that Henrietta's cells were taken without her knowledge, and without her consent," says Skloot. "But that's standard practice, here in the UK as in the US. If you sign a general consent form before surgery, any sample cells removed may be used for research later, and the doctors don't have to let you know.

"The general standpoint of medical science is that cells taken from an individual and used for research benefit the common good, so it's OK to use them. But the Lacks story shows that isn't true – certainly not in America, anyway. Because Henrietta's cells were used to develop medical treatments – but those treatments were only available to people who could afford medical insurance, and impoverished families like the Lackses were exactly the sort of family who couldn't."

To make matters worse, Lacks's cells were making some people – pharmaceutical companies – rich. More specifically, cell banks and biotech companies were retailing vials of her cells – the current going rate for a tube of HeLas is around US $260 (£174). But not a penny of the profits her cells had helped to generate went to her descendants: and while their mother's cells were soaring to worldwide scientific acclaim, fortunes in the Lacks family had plummeted.

It wasn't, of course, all that surprising. The Lacks family were not, and are not, wealthy. Henrietta's husband Day (with whom she'd had her first baby aged 14) worked in a steel mill in Baltimore, making about 80 cents an hour. Life in their household was tough enough, with five children to feed, even before their mother got cancer. What chance, really, would they have with her gone? Skloot's testimony – and she has interviewed hundreds of people for her book – reveals a tragic tale. Lacks clearly knew how precarious her kids' lives were going to be once she wasn't around any more. As she was dying, the doctors told her husband that she was too ill to have visits from her children – the youngest of whom was just 13 months old. So instead, Day Lacks would take them to play in a garden across the road from her ward. And despite being in excruciating pain, Lacks would drag herself out of bed to the window, and press her face against the glass looking at the children she knew she'd never hold in her arms again.

Her last request to Day, Skloot discovered, was to ask him to "take care of them kids . . . don't let nuthin happen to them". And Day tried his best, but the odds were stacked against him. Their eldest daughter Elsie, who had developmental problems, was already in the Hospital for the Negro Insane, and died there soon after her mother. A son, Joe, dropped out of school and later stabbed another boy, and was sentenced to 15 years in jail. Daughter Deborah was a teenage mother who later left her husband after he beat her up. By the time Skloot caught up with them all in 2000, nearly every one was in poor health: Day had prostate cancer and asbestos-filled lungs; one son, Sonny, had a bad heart; Deborah had arthritis, osteoporosis, nerve deafness, anxiety and depression. None had medical insurance cover and money for treatment. "If our mother is so important to science," another son, Lawrence, asked Skloot, "why can't we get health insurance?"

It was Lawrence's wife, Bobette, who was the first member of the Lacks family to hear about Henrietta's cells. By chance, she had met a cancer researcher – and when she told him her name, the researcher remarked that he was working in the lab on some cells that came from a woman named Henrietta Lacks. Bobette said that had been her mother-in-law's name – but it couldn't be her because she'd been dead for years. And then the researcher explained that the cells had been growing for years – ever since 1951, in fact.

It was a crass way for her family to find out what had happened to Lack's cells, but in fact they would have found out anyway. The cell line had been contaminated, and scientists realised they needed to test Henrietta's descendants to work out what had contaminated them. "But when they came back to take cell samples, they didn't explain properly to the Lackses what was going on," says Skloot. "Henrietta's children thought they were being tested for the cancer that had killed her . . . Deborah waited for months thinking she was going to find out whether she'd die the same agonising way her mother had."

One of the biggest issues her book raises, says Skloot, is how important it is for doctors and other health workers to communicate effectively with patients and their families. "If you spoke another language and you needed to see the doctor, you'd be provided with a translator – but if it's the science you don't understand, there's no one there to translate for you, so you go away simply not knowing what's been said. I think there should be science translators, who are trained to communicate complicated medical stuff in a straightforward, easily digestible manner. It would have made a huge difference to Henrietta's family." In many ways, Skloot became the "explainer" the Lacks children so desperately needed. "Usually when you're working as a journalist you're asking people about their story – but when I met the Lacks family, I was telling them about theirs," says Skloot.

Another question her book raises – and it's likely to be even more pertinent in the future, as medical research becomes a bigger and bigger, multi-billion-pound industry – is how much right do we have over the raw materials of our physiology? What rights do the providers of the original sample – or their families – have if their cell lines are later found to be worth patenting?

But the biggest point Skloot wants to make is that behind every test-tube of cells there lies a real, human story. "Tissue is so often dehumanised – it's referred to in medical reports and documents, and no one ever seems to remember that for every single biological sample that's used in any laboratory, anywhere, there's a person." Perhaps surprisingly, she says the people who most conspire to make this the way it is – the very scientists whose experiments require human cells and tissue – have greeted her book favourably. "One researcher said he'd never thought about the person behind the cells and now he knows the story, when he's working on HeLa cells he feels there's a ghost in the lab – the ghost of Henrietta."

Meanwhile in a cemetery in Virginia, where Henrietta Lacks was buried in an unmarked grave, a memorial has at last been erected. It is dedicated to the memory of a woman who, it says "touched the lives of many"; and no truer a sentence has ever been inscribed.

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is published by Macmillan, price £18.99.

• Science Weekly podcast: Rebecca Skloot describes the extraordinary living legacy left behind by Henrietta Lacks at guardian.co.uk/science

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jun 2010 | 2:00 pm

Unlocking the Mysteries of the San Andreas Fault

A geology scientist seeks to understand how faults slip and the landscape is sculpted.
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jun 2010 | 1:48 pm

Quake Strikes Canada, Rattles Buildings in New York City

A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck Canada this afternoon. Reports indicate it was felt as far away as Detroit and New York City.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Jun 2010 | 1:30 pm

Music of the Spheres? Stand by for the Boson Sonata

GENEVA (Reuters) - Do you enjoy Mike Oldfield's "Music of the Spheres?" Are you uplifted by Gustav Holst's "The Planets" suite?
Source: Reuters: Science News | 23 Jun 2010 | 12:54 pm

iPhone 4 Breakdown Reveals More Memory, Bigger Battery

The interior of the new iPhone 4 is dominated by a giant battery, it has double the RAM (512 MB) of the iPhone 3GS.
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jun 2010 | 12:45 pm

Citizen Science: Count the Gulf’s Ghost Crabs

While the oil disaster’s terrible toll on birds and turtles will at least be measured, less charismatic creatures tend to be ignored. That’s why conservationists are organizing a citizen science project to count the Gulf Coast’s ghost crabs.

Also known as sand crabs, they’re not classically cute, but they’re an important part of coastal food webs. Because the crabs are relatively easy to spot, it’s possible for people to help scientists estimate their numbers, providing baseline counts for comparison against future surveys.

“A lot of people are speculating that this spill could have severe effects on marine invertebrates,” said Drew Wheelan, a conservation coordinator for the American Birding Association, who came up with the idea for a ghost crab count. “Ghost crabs are conspicuous and easy to count.”

Wheelan modeled his project after an ongoing Gulf Coast bird count organized by the Audubon Society and Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Since early May, birders have submitted approximately 150,000 observations from Gulf states. That data will be invaluable to scientists trying to quantify the oil’s impacts, especially in areas where precise population counts didn’t previously exist.

University of Florida zoologist Sea McKeon designed the ghost crab-counting methodology, which is described on Wheelan’s blog, along with instructions for submitting data. It involves measuring distances between tideline crab burrows at a specific time and place each day for as long as possible, and requires little more than a measuring tape, notebook and pen, GPS reading and some sunscreen.

Wheelan said counts need to start as soon as possible in areas where oil hasn’t yet come ashore. Pre-disaster data is needed, and BP — which is trying to bar journalists and citizens from many affected areas — may close beaches as oil approaches.

Wheelan is still counting birds, too. During an ABA film project, Wheelan was interrogated by a policeman who appeared to take orders from BP.

But for now, “at least in Florida and Alabama and Mississippi, people are still able to travel on beaches” and count crabs, said Wheelan.

Image: Drew Wheelan

See Also:

• No Progress on Better Chemicals for Oil Disaster Cleanup
• Oil Disaster Shows Need for Endangered Species Act Overhaul
• Gulf Coast May Be Permanently Changed by Oil Spill
• BP’s ‘Nightmare’ Well: Internal Documents Uncover Negligence
• Oil Spill on Track to Reach Atlantic No Later Than October

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 | 23 Jun 2010 | 12:35 pm

Oil Gushes Unchecked in Gulf After Sub Crash

After a containment system was damaged by a robotic sub, oil flowed at a rate of up to 60,000 barrels a day into the Gulf of Mexico.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Jun 2010 | 12:30 pm

Scientists Predict Your Behavior Better Than You Can

Don't know what you'll be doing next week? A brain scan could do the trick.
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jun 2010 | 11:59 am

King Tut Died of Blood Disorder: Study

The new finding challenges past assertions that the famous pharaoh died of malaria.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Jun 2010 | 11:55 am

Raging Storm Detected on Faraway World

Observations show winds blowing more than 6,000 mph on an exoplanet 150 light-years away.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Jun 2010 | 11:07 am

Personality Predicted by Size of Different Brain Regions

The size of certain brain regions agrees with people's personalities, a new study suggests.
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jun 2010 | 10:39 am

Brain's Courage Center Located

The ability to have courage and overcome fears might be due to a certain brain region
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jun 2010 | 10:04 am

Natural hot reservoirs harnessed by scientists to service Pennine eco-village

Geothermal project promises limitless recyclable supplies for housing in Eastgate, Co Durham

Warm as bathwater, the first gusher from Britain's new "underground central heating system" showered over a Pennine field today, while scientists and engineers applauded.

Tapped a kilometre down, hot reservoirs in granite fissures below Weardale are set to service a new "eco-village" in the valley, and provide the country's first naturally warm spa since the Romans at Bath.

The breakthrough has overcome obstacles dogging other geothermal projects with a twin borehole system which recirculates the water, avoiding costly treatment or polluted run-off.

Limitless supplies from the hot aquifers will be pumped up one borehole, piped through the new housing at Eastgate, near Stanhope in County Durham, and then returned down a second borehole for rewarming by low-level radiation in the rocks.

"The system works in just the same way as central heating constantly circulates between a home's hot water tank, boiler and radiators," said Professor Paul Younger, director of Newcastle University's institute for research on sustainability, which has designed the scheme.

Geothermal energy is a priority of the Department of Energy and Climate Change, but the superficial simplicity of tapping underground springs has met with problems. Aquifers in buried granite – the best rock for high temperatures – tend to be twice as salty as the sea, causing corrosion and pollution problems.

"Unless you happen to be on the coast, you can't let the spent water simply flow away," said Prof Younger. "But cleaning it is both energy-intensive and costly. The recirculating system pioneered here in Weardale overcomes these problems. It's an almost carbon-neutral form of energy."

A generator priming the pump at Eastgate was the only carbon-user today, with drilling completed on a system which makes maximum use of cracks in the hidden granite. Professor David Manning, a soil scientist at Newcastle University, said: "The water goes back into the rock at a depth of a little under half a kilometre, then works its way through a maze of fissures to the extraction borehole, heating up again on the way."

Weardale's granite is particularly effective at heating water, but natural low-level radiation is found in all rocks. Prof Manning said that Eastgate had extra interest as a geothermal prototype whose lessons could be applied to other hotspots found by geologists, where warm aquifers are close enough to the surface for commercial tapping.

The valley, now a tourist attraction with a succession of nature reserves, also has a useful legacy of mining. Lee Berry, one of the drilling team, said that quarrying, cement-making and lead-mining had been the local staple for generations.

"We've had people coming and telling us about the underground water," he said. "When they dug out rock for the cement works here, they found blind white fish in the caves."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jun 2010 | 10:01 am

Fishy Gene Hints at How Limbs Evolved From Fins

Two genes found only in fish may be a key piece in the puzzling evolution of limbs.

The genes’ removal from zebra-fish embryos resulted in the loss of actinotrichia — a basic fin component — and made their proto-fins resemble appendages seen in ancient fossils of the first four-legged creatures.

“The loss of actinotrichia may have contributed to the evolutionary transition from fin to limb,” wrote researchers led by University of Ottawa biologists Jing Zhang and Marie-Andrée Akimenko in a study published June 23 in Nature.

During early embryonic development, fins and limbs look strikingly alike. In fish, however, some cells form a pattern of fine fibers. These are the actinotrichia, which form the scaffold on which fin rays are assembled.

In their study, Zhang and Akimenko noticed that two genes, actinodin 1 and 2, are especially active during zebra-fish fin development. These proved to code for previously unknown proteins that mix with collagen to form actinotrichia.

Subsequent searches of animal-genome databases found the actinodin genes in other bony fishes (including whale sharks, living fossils little changed in the 400 million years since the Devonian, before limbs evolved) but not in mammals, birds or amphibians.

When the researchers knocked actinodin genes out of zebra-fish embryos, actinotrichia didn’t form in the resulting fishes’ pectoral fins. Their tails, however, were unaffected. That fits with the evolutionary narrative suggested by fossils of the earliest known four-limbed creatures, which kept their fishy tails even as legs started to form.

Similar general patterns of gene expression are also found in embryonic chickens and mice with extra toes, a condition known as polydactyly.

“This is also in agreement with the fossil record, which indicates that the earliest primitive aquatic tetrapods of the late Devonian were polydactylous,” wrote the researchers.

Image: Left: A zebra-fish–embryo fin. Right: The paw of an embryonic mouse.
Jing Zhang

Citation: “Loss of fish actinotrichia proteins and the fin-to-limb transition.” By Jing Zhang, Purva Wagh, Danielle Guay, Luis Sanchez-Pulido, Bhaja K. Padhi, Vladimir Korzh, Miguel A. Andrade-Navarro & Marie-Andree Akimenko. Nature, Vol. 465, No. 7301, June 23, 2010.

See Also:

• Four-Winged Fossil Bridges Bird-Dinosaur Gap
• Video of Tissues Forming in Zebrafish Embryo
• Video of the First 24 Hours of an Embryo’s Cells
• Salamander Discovery Could Lead to Human Limb Regeneration
• Video: How Leaping Fish Species Left the Water — For Good

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 | 23 Jun 2010 | 9:47 am

'Hidden' tuberculosis raises drug-resistance fears

New study doubles known rate of infection at a South African hospital.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 23 Jun 2010 | 7:22 am

Mobile phone masts and cancer

A study published in the BMJ on 23 June found no link between childhood cancer and mobile phone masts. Over the coming days and weeks we will publish updates on this story and links to sources of further information

• The BMJ has made this research paper freely available
• Email us an update or other useful links

2.33pm: The Institution of Engineering and Technology has issued a response to the BMJ's study, saying that there is "no persuasive evidence that normal mobile phone usage or exposure to pylons and power lines causes harmful health effects".

Tony Barker, a fellow of the IET and chairman of its Biological Effects Policy Advisory Group, said:

"There is still a huge amount of interest in whether exposure to mobile phones and electricity pylons has harmful health effects. However, over the years the conclusion of most scientific bodies, including the Institution of Engineering and Technology, has remained substantially the same – that there is no persuasive evidence of this. The absence of robust new evidence of harmful health effects in the past two years is reassuring and is consistent with findings over the last two decades."

The IET's position statement on the possible harmful effects of low-level electromagnetic fields is worth reading for background. It reviewed 813 scientific papers, of which 44% covered static and low frequencies that are typically associated with power generation and distribution. 46% of the papers dealt with radio-frequency fields, and 64% of these were specifically related to mobile phone frequencies.

The IET has also published a factfile on the potential health effects of low-level electromagnetic fields with frequencies of up to 300 gigahertz.

Jack Rowley, director of research and sustainability at the GSM Association said that the BMJ's findings should reassure families living near mobile phone base stations.

"The results are consistent with the World Health Organisation position that there is no convincing scientific evidence that the weak radio signals from wireless networks cause adverse health effects."

He continued:

"Some people may have been concerned about claims of disease 'clusters' near radio transmitters. Investigations by health authorities in Australia, Europe and the USA have concluded that there was no evidence to link illness with living near radio transmitters. Diseases such as cancer are distributed randomly in the community. The growth in mobile networks in response to customer demand means that there will be chance instances of apparent increases in disease close to radio transmitters."

Expert comment

2:00pm: Some comments on the BMJ study courtesy of the Science Media Centre in London.

Eileen Rubery, former head of the public health prevention department at the UK government's department of health, said: "This is a carefully done study by a highly reputable group of epidemiologists. The size of the sample is large and the approach appropriate. It is reassuring that no adverse effects have been found and this fits with the anticipated and known biological effects from such sites and so is consistent with the physiology and biology."

Malcolm Sperrin, director of medical physics at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, said: "This study seems exemplary in its approach. The findings are well concluded and the methodology is thorough. The findings are generally in support of both the current understanding of tissue interactions and also in support of the work done by other similar research groups. The data is complex and requires some interpretation but the abstract and conclusions are well considered and easy to follow."

1.30pm: If you only have time to read two things related to the analysis of this story, here they are.

NHS Choices cuts through all the complexity with a superb article on its Behind the Headlines pages. It explains how the study was carried out, what the results are and what caveats there might be on the work.

One of the limitations to this study design is that the exposures being assessed occurred in the past, and therefore it can be difficult to assess them accurately, particularly if researchers rely only on people's recall of events. However, in this study, researchers did not have to rely on people remembering or estimating their exposure to mobile phone masts, instead they used data on where individuals lived and known locations of mobile phone masts. This increases the reliability of the information about exposure.

Despite any perceived limitations, NHS Choices concludes that the BMJ study "appears well conducted".

Funding

As well as elucidating the way the research was carried out, Ed Yong's post at the Cancer Research UK blog addresses the issue of funding:

It's also worth talking about sources of funding. This study was funded by an independent body called the UK Mobile Telecommunications Health Research Programme (MTHR). The MTHR was set up in 2001 to fund research into any possible health effects of mobile phones, following a recommendation by an independent expert group called the Stewart Committee.

The group is jointly funded by the UK Department of Health and the mobile telecommunications industry. It says, "In order to ensure that none of the funding bodies can influence the outcome of the MTHR Programme, it is run by an independent programme management committee." This is a common theme in this area of research – industry funding has always been mediated by an independent third party, such as the International Union for Cancer Control.

In addition, CRUK have posted data showing that the rates of malignant brain tumours in the UK have remained stable over the past 10 years.

12.40pm: An article in the British Medical Journal today reports a study looking at whether there are any links between children developing leukaemia or a tumour of the brain and whether their mothers lived near mobile phone masts at the time of their birth.

Sarah Boseley's write-up in the Guardian makes it clear that "Pregnant women who live close to mobile phone masts do not need to move house". She continues:

Researchers from Imperial College London identified 1,397 children under five who were diagnosed with leukaemia or a tumour of the brain or central nervous system between 1999 and 2001. They compared each child with four children of the same gender who were born on the same day but had not developed cancer.

The researchers studied the distance of the mother's home at the time of the birth from a phone mast, the total power output for base stations within 700 metres and the power density for base stations within 1,400 metres.

"We found no pattern to suggest that the children of mums living near a base station during pregnancy had a greater risk of developing cancer than those who lived elsewhere," said Professor Paul Elliott, one of the report's authors and director of the MRC-HPA centre for environment and health at Imperial.

Press roundup

In the Independent, health editor Jeremy Laurance gives some context for the study:

The increase in mobile phone use – from 9 million handsets in 1997 to 74 million in 2007 – has raised worries about the effects of exposure to low-frequency radiation. Several studies, including the Interphone study involving more than 10,000 people from 13 countries that was published last month, have found no damaging health effects from mobile phones themselves.

Public anxiety about transmitters has grown despite the level of individual exposure from transmitters being much lower than from mobile phones.

The LA Times Booster Shots blog reports some of the ways the researchers thought they might have improved their study:

The mothers whose children were diagnosed with cancer lived an average of 1,173 yards from a cellphone tower while they were pregnant – statistically indistinguishable from the 1,211 yards that separated the other pregnant women from their nearest cellphone towers. Tallying up the total power output of all cellphone towers within 766 yards of each pregnant woman's home, they found that both groups had nearly the same exposure – 2.89 kilowatts for the mothers of cancer victims and 3.00 kilowatts for the other mothers.

Only one of their models revealed a difference that was statistically significant, though just barely. In that case, higher radio-frequency exposure was associated with a reduced risk of cancer of the brain or central nervous system. (This result calls to mind a mouse study from last year that found that electromagnetic radiation from cellphones actually protected mice from Alzheimer's.) The results were published online Tuesday by the British Medical Journal.

The British researchers admitted their study would have been stronger if there had been some way to determine the actual radiation exposure for each pregnant woman instead of relying on mathematical models. They also would have liked to have tracked the exposure of babies after they were born, but the necessary data weren't available. Still, they said that if the cellphone towers had doubled the risk for these childhood cancers, the odds that their study would have picked up on it were greater than 90%.

The Press Associaton, Associated Press, Bloomberg Business Week and Irish Times, and the Washington Post's The Checkup blog also have reports.

Story summary

12.31pm: Pregnant women who live close to mobile phone masts do not need to move house, scientists said today, following the publication of a study which found no link to early childhood cancers.

There has been public concern over the possibility that living near phone masts could raise the cancer risk of small children and clusters of cases around masts have been reported. But a study published in the British Medical Journal – the first to examine possible links between phone masts and childhood cancer across Britain – found no cause for concern.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jun 2010 | 5:41 am

Maurice Strong: Ignore Glenn Beck – I don't want to rule the world

What I do want, says the man self-labelled 'the planet's leading environmentalist', is for nations to co-operate fully on issues they cannot deal with alone

• Read the full transcript of the interview here

Maurice Strong, the founding executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme and self-proclaimed "world's leading environmentalist", has hit back at his critics in a rare interview with the Guardian.

Responding to internet speculation and repeated attacks by prominent rightwing climate sceptics that he is using the climate change issue to establish a global government, the 81-year-old Canadian, who organised both the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972 and the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, said his only motivation was to alert the world that mankind's current actions are environmentally unsustainable.

"I've always made it clear that I do not believe that global government is either necessary or feasible," said Strong, who was a key official at the UN for decades until his retirement in 2005.

"What I do believe is that we need a system of global governance through which nations can co-operate and deal with issues they cannot deal with alone. Maybe that statement is too sophisticated for some, but it shouldn't be."

Last month, Glenn Beck, the conservative Fox News host and popular US talk radio presenter, portrayed Strong as a malevolent figure using his UN contacts to bring about the "collapse" of the world's "industrialised civilisations".

Beck said: "[Strong is] involved in collapsing the global economies into the hands of a global government."

Last year, Lord Monckton, the prominent climate sceptic who recently became the deputy leader of the UK Independence Party, accused Strong during a US TV programme of being a central figure in a "collusion" between UN officials, business leaders and scientists to use climate change as a device to make money.

Strong, a former oil and utilities industry executive who is currently a director of the Chicago Climate Exchange, North America's only exchange trading credits for greenhouse gas emissions, rejected the accusation.

"It's true that I do get a modest fee from Chicago Climate Exchange, which I helped [to found], because I believe the cap-and-trade system, while not perfect, is one of the best ways to ensure that people have the incentive to reduce their emissions at the lowest cost," he said.

"That's a long way from suggesting that I could invent the climate change issue to make profit.

"I have business interests, but they are pretty modest and I believe that business has to contribute to the solutions. To do that, they have to be profitable."

Strong also rejected internet speculation by conspiracy theorists that he is a member of clandestine groups, such as the Bilderberg Group and the Illuminati. "I have got lots of connections, but they're not amongst them," he said.

On the issue of whether humanity can tackle the environmental challenges he believes it now faces, Strong was downbeat.

"Analytically, I'm pessimistic," he said. "I believe the odds are against us for making the changes we need to make in time.

"But, operationally, I'm optimistic because I believe that it is still possible. [It becomes] tougher the longer we delay it.

"That's why I'm trying all these things because I believe we should still be trying as long as it is still possible. My pessimism is based on whether I think we will actually make these changes …

"The combination of population growth and the growth in consumption is a danger that we are not prepared for and something we will need global co-operation on."

• Read the full transcript of Leo Hickman's interview with Maurice Strong

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jun 2010 | 4:57 am

Scientists simulate the sound of the 'God particle'

Scientists simulate sounds set to be made by sub-atomic particles such as the Higgs boson when they are produced at the LHC.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jun 2010 | 4:16 am