New drugs to relieve cancer pain

Researchers in the UK and Italy have collaborated to develop new drugs which have the potential to relieve cancer pain without causing many of the side effects of current pain-treatments like morphine.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

Birth of the Milky Way: Astronomers glimpse at earliest phases of our home galaxy

For the first time, a team of astronomers has succeeded in investigating the earliest phases of the evolutionary history of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The scientists deduce that the early galaxy went from smooth to clumpy in just a few hundred million years.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

Studies of women's attitudes to 'social egg freezing' find reasons differ with age

Women of different ages differ in their reasons for wishing to undergo egg freezing, two studies show.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

Biologically inspired technology produces sugar from photosynthetic bacteria

Researchers have engineered photosynthetic bacteria to produce simple sugars and lactic acid. This innovation could lead to new, environmentally friendly methods for producing commodity chemicals in bulk. It could also lead to reduced carbon dioxide emissions, greater availability of biodegradable plastics, and the capture of harmful CO₂ emissions from power plants and industrial facilities.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

New formula gives first accurate peak heart rate for women

A new gender-based formula based on a large study provides a more accurate estimate of the peak heart rate a healthy woman should attain during exercise. It also will more accurately predict the risk of heart-related death during a stress test. Researchers found women's normal peak rate is lower than men's.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

Even the midnight sun won't convince bees to work nights

Bees observe a strict working day, even in conditions of 24-hour sunlight. Researchers tagged worker bumblebees with a radio identifier, similar to an Oyster Card, which was used to monitor their movements during the constant light of the Arctic summer.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

New possibility to determine the severity of appendicitis

The symptoms of appendicitis are often diffuse and it can be difficult to obtain an accurate diagnosis early in the course of the disease. It may be possible to predict the severity from a blood sample, and in this way determine the treatment on an individual basis, according to new research from Sweden.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am

Pacemaker for your brain: Brain-to-computer chip revolutionizes neurological therapy

Researchers in Israel are delving deep into human behavior, neurophysiology and engineering to create a chip that can help doctors wire computer applications and sensors to the brain. The chip will provide deep brain stimulation precisely where and when it's needed.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am

Whiter clouds could mean wetter land

One proposed emergency fix for global warming is to seed clouds over the ocean to make them more reflective, reducing the solar radiation absorbed by the Earth. But the scheme could also change global rainfall patterns, raising concerns of water shortages on land. A new study suggests that the scheme could actually increase monsoonal rains and cause continents to become wetter, not drier, on average.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am

Introducing Robofish: Leading the crowd in studying group dynamics

Scientists have created the first convincing robotic fish that shoals will accept as one of their own. The innovation opens up new possibilities for studying fish behavior and group dynamics, which provides useful information to support freshwater and marine environmental management, to predict fish migration routes and assess the likely impact of human intervention on fish populations.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am

Hurricane Alex to hamper BP's oil spill containment (Reuters)

Reuters - Tropical Storm Alex is expected to reach hurricane strength on Tuesday, with high winds and vast waves set to hamper BP Plc's latest efforts to contain the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jun 2010 | 3:52 am

The nation's weather (AP)

AP - Two systems were forecast to bring active weather to the Southeastern U.S. on Tuesday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jun 2010 | 3:26 am

Alex to become hurricane, delay oil spill efforts (Reuters)

Reuters - Tropical Storm Alex was set to strengthen into a hurricane on Tuesday, delaying BP Plc's efforts to increase siphoning capacity at the gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico where some companies evacuated workers.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jun 2010 | 2:59 am

Storm could slow oil spill cleanup from far away (AP)

AP - The tropical storm plowing across the Gulf of Mexico could send oil skimmers back to port and make containment booms useless, even from far away. But the rough weather also might give nature a hand in breaking down crude from the massive oil spill.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jun 2010 | 2:12 am

Porpoises on brink of extinction

Finless porpoises, a rare type of toothed whale living in China, may be even more endangered than previously thought.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jun 2010 | 2:07 am

Pregnant women who drink may reduce sperm count of sons

Men whose mothers drank the most alcohol while pregnant had sperm counts a third lower on average than those whose mothers hardly drank or abstained

Women who drink alcohol while they are pregnant may be harming the fertility of their unborn sons, researchers say.

Expecting mothers who consumed more than 4.5 alcoholic drinks a week were more likely to have sons with lower sperm counts than those who drank little or none at all, their study suggests.

Men whose mothers drank the most had sperm counts a third lower on average than those whose mothers hardly drank in pregnancy or completely abstained.

It is too early to say whether a mother's alcohol consumption directly harms her son's future sperm count, but the finding might go some way towards explaining why sperm quality has declined in recent decades, the researchers said. The findings were announced at a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Rome today.

The government advises pregnant women to avoid alcohol completely during pregnancy, though the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says there is no evidence that a couple of units of alcohol once or twice a week will harm an unborn baby.

When a pregnant woman drinks beer, wine or spirits, the level of alcohol in her baby's blood rises as much as in her own. Because babies have under-developed livers, they are unable to break the alcohol down as quickly, and so are exposed to high levels for longer.

Unborn babies that are continually exposed to high levels of alcohol can develop foetal alcohol syndrome, a developmental disorder that causes learning difficulties and growth abnormalities.

Doctors at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark investigated 347 men aged between 18 and 21 years old whose mothers had been recruited to the Danish "Healthy habits for two" study between 1984 and 1987. Towards the end of their pregnancy, the women answered a lifestyle questionnaire that included a question about alcohol consumption. Their grown-up sons gave blood and semen samples for analysis.

Cecilia Ramlau-Hansen, who led the study, divided the men into four groups depending on how much alcohol their mothers drank while pregnant. Mothers of men in the first group had less than one alcoholic drink a week; the second group had one to 1.5 drinks a week; the third consumed between two and four drinks; and the fourth group had 4.5 or more drinks per week.

The study showed that the sons of mothers who drank 4.5 or more drinks a week had an average sperm count of 25m per millilitre, compared with 40m per millilitre for those who were least exposed to alcohol in the womb. The World Health Organisation defines a normal sperm count as 20m per millilitre or more.

"The reduced sperm concentrations in the most exposed men are rather close to the lower end of the WHO's normal range for fertility," said Dr Ramlau-Hansen. The chances of conceiving increase with greater sperm count, up to around 40m per millilitre, so "it is possible that the most exposed men could be less fertile than the least exposed," she added.

Young men whose mothers say they drank between one and 1.5 drinks per week during pregnancy produced the most semen and had the highest total sperm counts in the study. The researchers say they're unsure whether this is a statistical anomaly caused by inaccuracies in the mothers' answers, or a genuine beneficial effect of small amounts of alcohol in pregnancy.

The fathers' alcohol consumption had no bearing on their sons' sperm quality.

"If further research shows that maternal alcohol consumption is a cause of reduced semen concentration in male offspring, then we are a bit closer to an explanation of why semen quality may have decreased during the last decadees and why it differs between populations," said Ramlau-Hansen.

Allan Pacey, a senior lecturer in andrology at Sheffield University, said: "The most critical time for testicular development seems to be when the male foetus is in the womb. It may be that alcohol affects that development, but this study doesn't prove that. It makes sense, but it could also be something related to alcohol consumption."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 29 Jun 2010 | 2:04 am

A revolution in global aid to the poor | Aditya Chakraborrty

Here's a radical idea to tackle world poverty – give money straight to the poor

The most exciting new idea for tackling poverty and feeding billions around the world has got nothing to do with hydroelectric dams or back-slapping summitry. Instead, this one begins with a story about kung-fu movies.

In the mid-90s, Claire Melamed was working in a village in the far north of Mozambique. Nacuca had no electricity, nor running water, and precious few distractions. As the development economist recalls: "Villagers would ask, 'We have to live here, but how come you've chosen to stay?" Then one day visitors came, bearing entertainment.

They were former soldiers from Mozambique's long civil war and, like the other 90,000 or so demobbed men, they were getting $15 a month from donors, along with some funding to start businesses. This lot had pooled the hand-outs to buy a TV, a video recorder and a generator.

Oh, and a few old Bruce Lee tapes.

The former soldiers toured villages across Mozambique showing copies of Enter the Dragon and Fist of Fury for cash or, failing that, maize and cassava. And they went down a storm in the remote rural yawn of Nacuca, staying for days and playing the same films over and over.

What Melamed saw in Mozambique was one of the first major exercises in what is now among the most talked-about new ideas in aid, called cash transfers – or, as a new book title puts it, "Just give money to the poor", as those donors did to the former soldiers. The authors, Joseph Hanlon, Armando Barrientos and David Hulme, count 45 countries that hand cash to more than 110m families. In Brazil, poor families can collect money from lottery shops. Pick-up trucks drive across Namibia, bearing safes with cash machines welded on the front, used by old ladies to take out their monthly pensions.

It sounds forehead-smackingly obvious: isn't giving cash to the poor what we do every time we shovel change into an envelope, or pledge a donation to Comic Relief? But when that money – whether from individuals or governments or big international institutions like the World Bank – gets to Africa or Asia, it's typically turned into new roads, schools, even community radio stations. The idea is to give poor people the infrastructure and training they need to lift themselves out of destitution.

Or perhaps I should say that was the idea. Looking back over the last few years, we see in retrospect a brief golden period for aid. It was marked in Britain by turning Clare Short into the new secretary of state for international development, and defined internationally by the 2005 pledge at Gleneagles of the G8 richest countries to give more money to Africa. And it appears to be drawing to a close.

Academics and writers such as Bill Easterly and Dambisa Moyo now gain plaudits for books with titles such as Dead Aid. Recession-hit politicians at events such as last weekend's G20 summit in Toronto avoid even mentioning the Gleneagles promises. And when official money is handed over, it often ends up on the most useless projects. In 2008, Berlin spent half a million dollars on what it called a "basic nutrition project" but which turned out to be a scheme to reduce unpleasant smells from food-processing factories in China and (naturally enough) Germany. That would be called a joke, if it was only remotely funny.

Against all that, the idea of just handing over a hefty chunk of the world's $100bn aid money directly to the 1.4bn people living on less than $1.25 a day is pretty attractive. Less funny business from donors, and far less waste. And what makes this most remarkable of all is that while the rich countries squabble over how much money to give and in what form, this initiative has sprung largely from the poor nations – usually under pressure from some of their poorest people.

This is the world of aid turned upside down. A couple of years ago, Oxfam tried the idea out in a few villages in Vietnam. Charity workers gave the equivalent of three years' wages in one go to more than 400 families. When they returned they found that poverty had dropped through the floor, with most of the money spent sensibly on food or fertilisers, seeds and cows. But older people had put some cash towards coffins, explaining that funerals were a major expense. And one group had built a communal house, to practise yoga.

It takes a village to raise a child, Hillary Clinton once wrote; on this showing, it takes just a few million Vietnamese dong to raise a village into a bijou Notting Hill.

Findings such as these have led the author Joe Hanlon to call for most of the Gleneagles millions to be shovelled into poor people's pockets. That's going too far: individual donations cannot replace schools or hospitals. It may be that giving cash works best when there are amenities and opportunities – and people who can use both. As Richard Dowden at the Royal African Society points out: "Village communities are often tightly controlled by elders, chiefs and kings. Just handing over dollars to a rural community – even to the supposedly poorest people – risks reinforcing that hierarchy."

But, qualifications aside, the concept is only going to get more popular. Indeed, New York recently tried the idea with its poor citizens, handing over money if they successfully sent their kids to school.

Cash transfers may first have been made in a poor country, but the idea travels well. A bit like those Bruce Lee films.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 29 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am

More Genes Implicated in Type 2 Diabetes (HealthDay)

HealthDay - SUNDAY, June 27 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists have located 12 new genes that seem to be linked with a predisposition for type 2 diabetes, bringing the total number of genetic locations implicated in the condition to 38.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jun 2010 | 9:48 pm

Don't Be Subtle, Nuke That Asteroid

Going against the recommendations of not using nuclear explosions to destroy a doomsday asteroid, a physicist has turned the "softly, softly" approach on its head.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Jun 2010 | 8:26 pm

Death By Arsenic: An Increasing Problem In Bangladesh

A new study reveals that 1 in 5 deaths in Bangladesh are attributed to arsenic poisoning. The World Health Organization called it "the largest mass poisoning in history."
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Jun 2010 | 7:36 pm

Study: Archimedes Set Roman Ships Afire with Cannons (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Greek inventor Archimedes is said to have used mirrors to burn ships of an attacking Roman fleet. But new research suggests he may have used steam cannons and fiery cannonballs instead.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jun 2010 | 7:15 pm

Smart Walls Keep House Comfy

Phase change material used to be so flammable that it didn't make sense to put the temperature-regulating stuff in buildings. Now a new delivery mechanism allows an advanced version to be incorporated directly into building materials.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Jun 2010 | 5:32 pm

6 Super Close-Ups of Crazy Bug Eyes

They may not seem like creatures worth admiring when they are buzzing around your head or landing on your lunch, but under the microscope, bugs can be truly spectacular. Especially their eyes.

For the past 35 years, Nikon has held its Small World photomicrography competition to recognize excellent images of really tiny stuff. Of the many photos of bug eyes they’ve received over the years, these are the ones that caught the judges’ eyes. (I was on the judging panel this year, so I happen to know that there may be an addition to the list coming soon.)

And yes, I know the shrimp in the third image is not a bug, but it is buggy, and its eye is awesomely crazy looking.

Metallic Beetle

2004 6th Place Image
Charles B. Krebs
Issaquah, Washington, USA

Thorax, head and eye section of Chrysochroa fulminans (6.25x)

Image: Nikon Small World

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 28 Jun 2010 | 5:30 pm

Oil Clean Up Tech Needs More Funding

Last week, Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), introduced a bill that would "provide for the establishment of a program to support the development, demonstration, and commercialization of innovative technologies to prevent, stop, or capture large-scale accidental discharges of oil or other ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Jun 2010 | 5:11 pm

'Heritability' is widely misunderstood

Johnjoe McFadden correctly points out that molecular genetics has yet to deliver on its expensive promissory notes (Genes? Its complicated, 24 June). However, in citing heritability estimates of 80%-90% for diagnoses such as schizophrenia and autism, he perpetuates the misleading idea that these figures show the extent to which conditions are caused by genes. Heritability refers to the correlation between genes and a diagnosis in a given environment, and it depends on how variable the environment is.

For example, intelligence is indeed about 80% heritable in middle-class families (where environmental variation is limited – nearly every child is encouraged to study hard and read books) but 30% or less heritable in working-class families (where environmental variation is greater because some children are encouraged to study but others are not). In a world in which everyone smoked exactly 20 cigarettes a day, lung cancer would be 100% heritable but the main cause of the disease would still be smoking cigarettes.

Unrealistic expectations about what molecular genetics can deliver have been built on this widespread misinterpretation of heritability evidence. Genetics is indeed an important field of study, but we will all suffer if, as a consequence of our enthusiasm for it, we neglect the social and environmental determinants of disease.

Richard Bentall

Professor of clinical psychology, Bangor University

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Jun 2010 | 5:05 pm

Origami that folds itself

Programmable sheet puckers up spontaneously into an aeroplane or a boat.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/FefhObkIMkQ" height="1" width="1"/>
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 28 Jun 2010 | 5:00 pm

Strong medicine for French research

The medical-research adviser to France's president aims to shift power and money to universities.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 28 Jun 2010 | 4:20 pm

Evidence mounts against diabetes drug

Studies continue to find heart-attack risk.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 28 Jun 2010 | 4:19 pm

Obama plan boosts foreign, private space projects (Reuters)

Reuters - The Obama administration on Monday outlined a space policy that offers an expanded role for foreign governments including possibly China and private companies in monitoring Earth's climate, tracking and removing orbital debris and protecting satellites.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jun 2010 | 4:14 pm

Obama plan boosts foreign, private space projects

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Monday outlined a space policy that offers an expanded role for foreign governments including possibly China and private companies in monitoring Earth's climate, tracking and removing orbital debris and protecting satellites.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 28 Jun 2010 | 4:14 pm

Scratching the subsurface

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill puts ocean-current modelling to the test.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 28 Jun 2010 | 3:57 pm

Does Lou Gehrig’s Disease Only Affect Old People?

ALS is a motor neuron disease that can affect young adults, children and older people.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Jun 2010 | 3:51 pm

US lawmakers demand major oil firms' emergency plans (AFP)

AFP - Senior US lawmakers on Monday pressed oil giants Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell to prove they are better prepared than BP was in the Gulf of Mexico to confront a massive oil spill.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jun 2010 | 3:46 pm

BP says storm delaying added oil-capture capacity (Reuters)

Reuters - BP Plc said on Monday its plan to nearly double the amount of oil it can capture from the Gulf of Mexico leak will be delayed for about a week by high waves expected from tropical storm Alex.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jun 2010 | 3:36 pm

Why Soccer is Rife with Cheating

What is it about soccer that encourages cheating?
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Jun 2010 | 2:48 pm

Friday News Feedbag for June 25, 2010!

If this is your first exposure to the Friday News Feedbag... we're glad to have you in the club. Welcome to Feedbag Nation, which stems from our weekly science news podcast that you can subscribe to here on iTunes and ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Jun 2010 | 2:46 pm

Biking and Brisk Walking Can Keep Pounds Off

Just minutes of bike riding a day can help you maintain a healthy weight.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Jun 2010 | 2:14 pm

White House Unveils New National Space Policy (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - The White House rolled out a sweeping national space policy for the United States on Monday, one that aims to boost international cooperation and reiterates plans to send Americans to visit an asteroid by 2025.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jun 2010 | 2:01 pm

NASA Surveys Oil Spill with Earthquake Aircraft

Earthquake surveillance technology that takes images of cracks and destruction after a quake on land could be the next line of defense for oil spill clean-up efforts in the Gulf of Mexico.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Jun 2010 | 1:54 pm

'Programmable Matter' Could Lead to Universal Toolbox

Scientists have invented self-folding sheets of fiberglass that can flex themselves into origami airplanes and boats.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Jun 2010 | 1:35 pm

7 Strange Ways Humans Act Like Vampires

Some diseases and disorders show themselves in ways that give people vampiric characteristics.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Jun 2010 | 1:24 pm

Giant Magma Blobs Ripple Earth's Surface

Hot blobs give clues to sea level changes.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Jun 2010 | 12:51 pm

NASA Needs You: 6 Ways to Help an Astronomer

Space is a big place, and even with their giant telescopes, astronomers just can’t cover it all. This is where you come in. Yes, you.

Astronomy is one of the few scientific fields where amateur scientists can, and frequently do, make significant contributions. But now space scientists are increasingly also looking to people with little or no training for help with their research. Sometimes they are looking for free labor for tasks that humans can still do better than computers, like identifying different types of galaxies. Other times it’s numbers of eyes on the sky or feet on the ground they’re after. But more and more, they are finding ways to get regular citizens involved.

Amateur astronomers and regular folks have already had an impact on the science by making observations of fleeting cosmic phenomena that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

When an asteroid or a comet hit Jupiter in July 2009 and then again earlier this month, amateur astronomers in Australia and the Philippines were the first to notice. Amateurs have invented new telescopes, kept tabs on variable stars and discovered comets. And you don’t even need any fancy equipment.

“We can learn a lot from someone taking a cellphone video of a meteor as it burns up in the atmosphere,” said Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office.

But what if you’re not the lucky one who is in the right place at the right time? You are still needed. Citizen scientists have also become crucial for helping astronomers with one of their most intractable problems: too much data, too little time.

Here are some astronomy projects you can take part in right now, while you wait for your iPhone to capture a meteor.

Hunt for Meteorites

Last month, NASA tried to recruit meteorite hunters when cameras at NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center recorded the path of a meteor from its home in the asteroid belt to just 23 miles above the Earth’s surface. The 60-pound rock is thought to have smashed into the ground near Scottsboro, Alabama, on May 18.

“This is the first time our cameras picked up something we thought produced meteorites on the ground,” Cooke said. “If we find the one in Scottsboro, we know exactly where it came from.”

Knowing both the path the meteorite took and what it’s made of would give scientists a complete picture of the rock’s life, and they were anxious to find it. But after two days of searching, NASA’s meteorite basket came up empty.

So Cooke called on the masses. NASA issued a press release on May 20 asking anyone who found a funny rock near Scottsboro to call them.

“People in the public contribute a lot to meteor science,” Cooke said. “My hope was that it landed on somebody’s farm, and they thought, ‘Where the heck did that rock come from?’”

So far nobody has found the rock Cooke is after.

Image: NASA

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 28 Jun 2010 | 12:25 pm

Jenkins spoof rallies defenders of science

The latest attack on science from Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins has sparked an unconventional and often hilarious reaction, writes physicist Jon Butterworth

Well, wow. Ever rolled a little snowball for fun and seen an avalanche sweep down a mountainside? Me neither, but I find it easier to imagine now that "SpoofJenks" has crunched across the internet.

It began small. Yet another vacuous attack from Simon Jenkins on science in general, and one scientist in particular popped up. In this case the target was Martin Rees, dedicated and distinguished cosmologist, who had the temerity to engage with the public in the Reith Lectures. The BBC also received collateral damage for spending too much time revering science, as did my own experiment at Cern, the particle physics laboratory near Geneva, just for being there. Rees was labelled shameless and two-faced, scientists were said to "just want money".

So far, so familiar. I decided to ignore it.

I failed.

First I tweeted. Then I commented on the piece, pointing out the irony that it was delivered via one of the products of Cern (the world wide web). I tried again to move on.

Again I failed.

In the end, I decided to write a spoof blog to make me and my friends laugh about it. I confess I had about half a bottle of wine (no brandies though) and I wrote this rather quickly. Not the most elegant, cutting prose, not even an accurate spoof of the man's style, but it made me laugh and it made some friends laugh so I posted it.

Turns out I was far from alone.

Among others, two well known science bloggers, Jennifer Rohn and Stephen Curry, had been discussing how to respond. The trouble is, Jenkins' meanderings are such obvious nonsense that they unify the science community. This is bad, because we either assume the flaws are obvious to everyone (they aren't), or we respond with howls of outrage, which however justified, can appear to bolster his claims that we think science should be above criticism.

It should not. There is much important and intelligent criticsm to be levelled at various aspects of science. But Jenkins doesn't do that. And while he sets the level of the debate, it is very hard to move on.

Anyway, Jennifer and Stephen saw my piece and agreed that actually ridicule was perhaps an appropriate response here. Jennifer challenged bloggers to a SpoofJenks day. And they responded. Wow did they respond. The resulting blogs are here, and there were lots of 140 character versions too.

Can you spot which lines are the real Jenkins and which are from some of my favourite spoofs though?

"We already know way too much about the Universe, and we should stop wasting money trying to know more." (John Kennedy)

"The airwaves are crammed with science quizzes, science chatshows, science magazines and science feedback." (Jenkins)

"All this nonsense we hear about cancer being a serious problem comes from 'scientists', from the people behind organisations such as Cancer Research (which have a clear agenda)" (jdc325)

"You don't have to be innumerate to be a mathematician, but it could help." (Jenkins)

"If only science could look out of its underground lab and see that in the real world we have things like aeroplanes, computers, cars and hospitals that need power, not science." (standupmaths)

"Thousands of scientists buried under a Swiss mountain might have been better employed on energy research." (Jenkins)

"I studied advanced maths to 16." (Jenkins)

"Quantum Mechanics clearly has no practical applications as Philosophers cannot determine its metaphysical interpretation" (Mark Tibbetts, tweet)

"This astronomical gardeeloo is an attempt to con the public into accepting the "value" of scientific research." (Niall Deacon)

"Any suggestion that the Sun obviously rotates around the Earth [...] is met with swift and violent knee-jerk derision by the scientific community" (Jennifer)

"They suppress truth and suggest falsity, especially when a cheque or a plane ticket is on offer." (Bob O'Hara and Jenkins)

"Scientists seem to think they are the only ones that discovered DNA, yet I've got some in my mouth now, and on my tie" (Robin Ince, tweet)

Stephen Curry's effort also made me laugh, but being focused on looking for the other half of Jenkins' arse, it is clearly not real.

Perhaps we should not be too harsh. Apparently it can all be traced back to a terrifying incident with a pipette in a chemistry lesson (telescoper).

Still, this way I think everyone wins. Bystanders get some context for Jenkins' rubbish. Lots of scientists lower their blood pressure and have fun. And even Jenkins himself must be quite pleased by the amount of science that didn't get done today because of SpoofJenks.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Jun 2010 | 12:23 pm

Altitude Training May Be Bad For You

New research says altitude training may hinder athletic progress more than it helps.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

Nature's Wrath in 2009 Tallied by Country

Find out which countries experienced the worst natural disasters in 2009.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Jun 2010 | 11:35 am

Let the experts rule on video technology

Fifa should set up an expert commission to advise it on systems such as video technology and Hawkeye, writes sports engineer Steve Haake

Come on Fifa – get a grip! A clear refereeing mistake like the one that denied Frank Lampard a goal in England's game against Germany yesterday (see the video if you missed it) must surely give the ruling body of international football the courage to implement video technology. Poor rules lead to poor decisions and in the case of goal-line technology Fifa has simply got it wrong.

In a previous article on line-calling systems I stated the case for and against the use of line-calling technology. My conclusion?

"In using advanced technologies, all we have done is change the decision to be made; we still have to make a judgement ... By all means have technology (I'm an advocate) at an appropriate level. However, don't expect it to be foolproof and don't expect that decisions will be automatic."

Tennis leads the way with the protocol for testing line-calling systems. Back in 2003 the International Tennis Federation realised that the ubiquity of slow-motion replay and then the implementation of Hawkeye could lead to immediate discrepancies between what the audience saw and the decision made by officials.

Five years later in 2008, however, Fifa dismissed the concept of goal line technology following tests of video replay and the Hawkeye motion analysis system. It seems that the International Football Association Board were seeking systems that gave correct decisions automatically 100% of the time and claimed that neither video systems nor Hawkeye did this (a claim that was subsequently rebuffed by Hawkeye).

Fifa's logic seems to be that any technology will remove the power of the referee or slow the game down. Without the use of video technology, however, the referee can look foolish, and if he makes a wrong decision the game usually stops anyway due to the reaction of the players.

The rules of sport are arbitrary. Generally they were set up in a completely different era and tend to struggle with current technology. The task for any ruling body is to keep a balance between tradition and technology: too much tradition and the sport can become quickly outdated, too much technology and complaints are made that the human element has been removed.

In football, goal-line technology would give the referee the power to make a decision in line with the views of the majority. If Fifa is nervous, it should start by introducing video replay. The dugout has it, the managers have it, the TV audience and the media have it, so why make the referee's life harder?

If a ruling body has a poor understanding of technology, then generally it makes poor decisions (think swimming suits, for example). The first thing Fifa needs to do is to set up a technical commission to allow experts to advise it on all aspects of technology, much as the International Tennis Federation and other ruling bodies do. This will allow it to make considered decisions rather than have to react to public pressure.

At any rate, goal-line technology seems inevitable.

Steve Haake is head of sports engineering at Sheffield Hallam University. This is an edited version of his post on Sheffield's sports engineering blog

Shot simulator

The Sports Engineering Research Group at Sheffield Hallam University has developed a simulator to help visualise how altitude affects a shot's trajectory in South Africa.

The idea behind the application is that you choose a "perfect shot" from around 18 metres which will sail into the top corner of the goal. There are three choices of altitude: (1) Cape Town at sea-level; (2) Johannesberg at 1,700 metres; and (3) the highest stadium in the world in Peru at 4,380 metres. The shot simulator allows you to select the locations to compare your shot, and views such as from the keeper or the striker.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Jun 2010 | 11:22 am

Square Pixel Inventor Tries to Smooth Things Out

Russell Kirsch says he’s sorry.

More than 50 years ago, Kirsch took a picture of his infant son and scanned it into a computer. It was the first digital image: a grainy, black-and-white baby picture that literally changed the way we view the world. With it, the smoothness of images captured on film was shattered to bits.

The square pixel became the norm, thanks in part to Kirsch, and the world got a little bit rougher around the edges.

As a scientist at the National Bureau of Standards in the 1950s, Kirsch worked with the only programmable computer in the United States. “The only thing that constrained us was what we imagined,” he says. “So there were a lot of things we thought of doing. One of which was, what would happen if computers could see the world the way we see it?”

Kirsch and his colleagues couldn’t possibly know the answer to that question. Their work laid the foundations for satellite imagery, CT scans, virtual reality and Facebook.

Kirsch made that first digital image using an apparatus that transformed his picture into the binary language of computers, a regular grid of zeros and ones. A mere 176 by 176 pixels, that first image was built from roughly one one-thousandth the information in pictures captured with today’s digital cameras. Back then, the computer’s memory capacity limited the image’s size. But today, bits have become so cheap that a person can walk around with thousands of digital baby photos stored on a pocket-sized device that also makes phone calls, browses the Internet and even takes photos.

Yet science is still grappling with the limits set by the square pixel.

“Squares was the logical thing to do,” Kirsch says. “Of course, the logical thing was not the only possibility … but we used squares. It was something very foolish that everyone in the world has been suffering from ever since.”

Now retired and living in Portland, Oregon, Kirsch recently set out to make amends. Inspired by the mosaic builders of antiquity who constructed scenes of stunning detail with bits of tile, Kirsch has written a program that turns the chunky, clunky squares of a digital image into a smoother picture made of variably shaped pixels.

He applied the program to a more recent picture of his son, now 53 years old, which appears with Kirsch’s analysis in the May/June issue of the Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

“Finally,” he says, “at my advanced age of 81, I decided that instead of just complaining about what I did, I ought to do something about it.”

Kirsch’s method assesses a square-pixel picture with masks that are 6 by 6 pixels each and looks for the best way to divide this larger pixel cleanly into two areas of the greatest contrast. The program tries two different masks over each area — in one, a seam divides the mask into two rough triangles, and in the other a seam creates two rough rectangles. Each mask is then rotated until the program finds the configuration that splits the 6-by-6 area into sections that contrast the most. Then, similar pixels on either side of the seam are fused.

Kirsch has also used the program to clean up an MRI scan of his head. The program may find a home in the medical community, he says, where it’s standard to feed images such as X-rays into a computer.

Kirsch’s approach addresses a conundrum that the field of computational photography continues to grapple with, says David Brady, head of Duke University’s imaging and spectroscopy program in Durham, N.C.

Images built from pixels can show an incredible amount of detail, Brady says. “It’s fun to talk to kids about this because they don’t know what I’m talking about anymore, but the snow on analog television — a block-based imager can reconstruct that pattern exactly.”

But images taken from real life never look like that, Brady says. Typically, they have several large uniform sections — forehead, red shirt, blue tie. This means there’s a high probability that one pixel in an image will look the same as the pixel next to it. There’s no need to send all those look-alike pixels as single pieces of information; the information that’s really important is where things are different.

“I always joke that it’s like Los Angeles weather,” Brady says. “If you were a weatherman in Los Angeles you would almost always be right if you say tomorrow is going to be the same weather as today. So one thing you can do is say, I’m going to assume the next pixel is like this one. Don’t talk to me, don’t tell me anything about the image, until you get something different. A good weatherman in Los Angeles tells you when a big storm is coming. In an image, that’s an edge. You want to assume smoothness but have a measurement system that’s capable of accurately finding where the edges are.”

Where Kirsch uses masks to accomplish that task, researchers today typically use equations far more complex than his to strike the balance between shedding unnecessary information and keeping detail. Pixels are still the starting point of digital pictures today, but math — wavelet theory in particular — is what converts the pixels into the picture. Wavelet theory takes a small number of measurements and turns them into the best representation of what’s been measured. This best estimation of a picture allows a megapixel image to be stored as mere kilobytes of data.

Images: 1) This baby picture, scanned in 1957, was the first digital image. At 176 by 176 pixels, its size was limited by the memory capacity of the computer./NIST. 2) Before transforming the square-pixel image, a close-up of one ear appears as a blocky stack. The variably shaped pixel treatment turns it back into an ear./NIST.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 28 Jun 2010 | 11:18 am

Gulf Dead Zone Could Reach Size of New Jersey

Could damage important Gulf fisheries.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Jun 2010 | 11:05 am

Soccer Lags Behind Other Sports on Tech

Could instant replay be the cure for all the bad calls that have been plaguing this World Cup?
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Jun 2010 | 10:55 am

Ants Use Their Own Velcro to Catch Supersized Prey

Long before Velcro was invented, a species of South American ant used its own natural form of the wonder material to hunt.

The claws of Azteca andreae are shaped like hooks and fit neatly into fibrous loops on the undersides of its home plants’ leaves.

It’s “like natural Velcro that is reinforced by the group ambush strategy of the workers, allowing them to capture prey of up to 13,350 times the mean weight of a single worker,” wrote researchers in a study published June 25 in PLoS One.

A. andreae colonies live in trees, and individual ants line the underside edges of leaves, jaws open and outstretched. When an insect lands, the ants seize its legs, holding it down until other ants dismember the pinioned prey.

In the new study, the researchers held weighted threads in front of the ants. Instinctively, the ants bit and held. Without losing its grip, the average worker could hold on to 8 grams, or some 5,700 times its body weight. In proportional terms, that’s like a house cat holding on to a humpback whale. Passing insects don’t have a chance.

The ants keep their grip best while on Cecropia obtusa leaves, where the surface loops are pronounced. The two species seem to have co-evolved: A. andreae provides defense against plant-munching bugs, and C. obtusa helps the ants get a predatory grip.

Another, less gruesome example of Velcro-like plant-insect interaction was recently described between bumblebees and flower petals, which have microscopic loops that enable bees to hang upside-down with little effort.

Images: 1) Azteca andreae ants aligned on a leaf, and capturing a moth./PNAS. 2) Scanning electron micrographs of hook-shaped A. andreae claw, along with top and bottom surfaces of leaves to which they cling./PNAS.

See Also:

• Taking Traffic Control Lessons — From Ants
• Farmer Ants Fertilize Their Gardens With Bacteria
• Amazing Parasites Turn Ants Into Berries
• ‘Living Fossil’ Ant Species Dates to Late Cretaceous

“Citation: Arboreal Ants Use the “Velcro® Principle” to Capture Very Large Prey.” By Alain Dejean, Céline Leroy, Bruno Corbara, Olivier Roux, Régis Céréghino, Jérôme Orivel, Raphaël Boulay. Public Library of Science One, Vol. 5 No. 6, June 25, 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 | 28 Jun 2010 | 10:54 am

Who Are the Longest-Serving Senators in History?

When Senator Robert C. Byrd died this morning at age 92, the West Virginia Democrat left behind, among his accomplishments as a lawmaker, a legacy as the person who has served longer than any other member of Congress.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Jun 2010 | 10:19 am

Are We Going Back to the Moon?

Nearly 40 years have passed since our last journey to the moon and future plans for NASA don't seem to include jaunts to the Sea of Tranquility. So are we going back to the moon? You bet we are.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Jun 2010 | 10:05 am

LHC smashes beam collision record

The Large Hadron Collider doubles its rate of particle collisions, paving the way for a new phase of operation.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Jun 2010 | 9:55 am

Heavyweight element seeks name

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry needs your help again. They're seeking a name for the super-heavy, possibly super-stable element 114

It's that time again, folks. It's time for Name that Element!

Last year, Guardian science correspondent Alok Jha appealed for name suggestions for the newly synthesised unstable element 112. Readers proposed a whole slew of excellent names to celebrate this debatably consequential new edition to the periodic table.

Among the best were Tysonium, in honour of another unstable heavyweight. We also had Tedium and Adnauseam.

But despite these excellent suggestions, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry – the real chemical heavyweights – announced in February this year that the element formerly known as 112 would be officially dubbed "Copernicium", in honour of the late, great Copernicus.

Fair play to them, but all is not lost. It's time to bust out your best naming vocabulary again for the heavy and enigmatic element 114, 112's newest chemical cousin.

Last week came the news that a third laboratory had synthesised the new element. It was reportedly first synthesised in 1999 when Russian researchers at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna claimed to have produced a handful of atoms with 114 protons by beaming charged calcium ions at a strip of plutonium foil. Nobody, however, could confirm the success of this experiment.

Now teams both at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California and the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany, have synthesised the element using the Dubna method. The Darmstadt lab even produced a whopping yield of 13 atoms this week.

So what makes 114 so enigmatic? Well, researchers are unsure whether it might in fact be the fabled "island of stability" thought to exist in the upper echelons of the periodic table. Generally speaking, heavier atoms with more protons are less stable than their lighter compatriots, but theoreticians surmise that there might be a super-heavy element that is also super-stable, potentially at atomic number 114.

Only time will tell on that one, but meanwhile, drop us a line with a super name for this super element. Super? Super.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Jun 2010 | 9:36 am

Ariane rocket puts two satellites into orbit

CAYENNE, French Guiana (Reuters) - An Ariane rocket has put two satellites into orbit after a launch from French Guiana on Saturday, space officials said.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 28 Jun 2010 | 9:21 am

Celestial treats in July

The Summer Triangle of Vega, Altair and Deneb dominates the high S sky at the star chart times. At nightfall, though, Venus blazes at mag -4.0 to be by far the brightest of four bright objects that line up in the W. Look to the left of Venus, and a little higher, for Regulus in Leo, and farther in the same direction for Mars and Saturn.

July sees the trio of planets draw together but also sink lower into the twilight. Saturn (mag 1.1) moves only a little in W Virgo and is being caught by Mars (mag 1.3 to 1.5) which lies 1.8° below Saturn by 31 July. Venus, chasing them both as it brightens to mag -4.2, sweeps 1.1° N of Regulus on the 10th and stands 8° below and to the right of the Mars-Saturn pair by the month's end.

A telescope at midmonth shows Venus as a 17 arcsec and 65% sunlit gibbous disc, while Mars is only 5 arcsec wide and Saturn is 17 arcsec across, with rings that are 38 arcsec wide and tipped at 3°.

Jupiter improves from mag -2.5 to -2.7 and (not counting the Moon) is the most conspicuous object in the E to SE before dawn. Rising in the E by 01:00 tomorrow and two hours earlier by July's end, it is slow moving in Pisces, S of the Square of Pegasus, where it lies below the Moon next Sunday morning and again on 31 July. Uranus, a mag 5.8 binocular object, lies 2° to 3° to the right of Jupiter.

Though its brightening stalled near the fifth magnitude, Comet McNaught has been visible through binoculars, as it swept from right to left low across our N sky during recent weeks. It passed above Capella on 21 June and appeared as a small greenish blob with a dim upwards-pointing tail. Midnight BST tonight sees it 17° to the left of Capella and about 3° lower as it disappears into the twilight.

A solar eclipse on 11 July is total along a path that crosses the S Pacific but is not visible from Europe.

July diary

2nd 17h Comet McNaught at perihelion

4th 02h Moon 7˚N of Jupiter; 16h Last quarter

6th 12h Earth farthest from Sun (152 million km)

10th 04h Venus 1.1˚ N of Regulus

11th 21h New moon and total solar eclipse

15th 02h Moon 6˚ S of Venus

16th 06h Moon 6˚S of Mars; 20h Moon 8˚S of Saturn

18th 11h First quarter

24th 05h Jupiter stationary

26th 03h Full moon

31st 10h Moon 7˚ N of Jupiter 2 *Times are BST

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Jun 2010 | 9:20 am

Earth's gravity pictured in 'HD'

The Goce satellite returns a remarkable high-definition view of how gravity varies across the Earth.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Jun 2010 | 8:50 am

Mom's Favoritism Stings, Even for Adults

When mom singles out one adult child over another she's unwittingly contributing to her children's depression.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Jun 2010 | 8:10 am

Scientists experiment with Simon Jenkins

The Guardian columnist has been the subject of a Twitter campaign after a column criticising science coverage

A tide of teasing tweets are being sent in the direction of the Guardian's Simon Jenkins after his column denouncing, among other things, the BBC's "current craze" with science.

"The airwaves are crammed with science quizzes, science chatshows, science magazines and science feedback," wrote Jenkins. "News must have science stories, the Today programme science items, all reverential. No scepticism is admitted to this new orthodoxy – or rather this revival of CP Snow's 'two cultures' orthodoxy of the late 1950s."

"Disgusting! The BBC are broadcasting AN ENTIRE scientific TV programme this week! They should show the Antiques Roadshow instead," came the satirical retort from @DickMandrake. "Computers would work just as well powered by Ballet as Electricity," posts @marktibbetts.

The #spoofjenks Twitter hashtag was set up by the University College London cell biologist Jennifer Rohn. In a blog post explaining the reaction, Rohn said: "No area seems exempt from [Jenkins's] scorn: whether scientists are involved in analysing climate change, ash clouds, BSE or swine flu, they are probably up to no good.

"So I've been thinking to myself, can I really let Jenkins get away with painting me and all my colleagues as no-good, money-grubbing evil boffins? In the relaxed Saturday morning Twitter stream, some of us talked about how we might, yet again, try to rebut. Stephen opined that humour might be the best approach, building on the wonderful spoof post of UCL physicist Jon Butterworth. I then proposed making Monday "Spoof Jenks" day, with bloggers taking the opportunity to writing an anti-science post in the style of Simon Jenkins. And I'm pleased to report that the idea has taken off."

This Trendistic graph shows the inexorable rise of "Spoof Jenks Monday" on Twitter. Reckon its provocateur is keeping a close eye on the trending list? We're not so sure, but advise interested parties to look out for a spoofs round-up over on the Guardian Science Blog later today.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Jun 2010 | 8:05 am

Study: Archimedes Set Roman Ships Afire with Cannons

Archimedes used steam cannons rather than burning mirrors to set fire to Roman ships at the siege of Syracuse, a study suggests.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am

Mexican male fish sports sexy 'moustache'

Male molly fish in Mexico wear a sexy moustache that makes them more attractive to females, scientists discover.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Jun 2010 | 5:02 am

Wine under threat

Rescuing famous Riesling valley from giant motorway
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Jun 2010 | 4:32 am

Hay day

Could these rural gems become a thing of the past?
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Jun 2010 | 4:07 am