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Quotes of the Day

“I would estimate the number of dead sea cucumbers to be in the thousands and their cause of death is obviously related to the oil spill.”

Rainer Amon, a marine scientist from Texas A&M, comments on a disturbing discovery on a Deepwater Horizon cruise (Scientific American, hat tip: Deep Sea News).

“I would rather lose a toe, and gain a whole hand.”

Shannon Elliott explains why she has had her big toe transplanted to her hand, which was damaged in an accident (PIX 11 News, via Fox).

“It’s clear that this government doesn’t believe in research in general and they think research is not necessary. Maybe they think that Italy can stay in the G8 just by producing bags and shoes.”

Emilio Campana, head of research at Rome’s marine institute INSEAN, discusses a planed strike by scientists on 25 June in protest at government funding cuts that threaten his and other research institutions (Research Europe, not linkable).

Quotes of the day

“These hydrocarbons are from depth and not associated with sinking degraded oil but associated with the source of the Deep Horizon well head.”

David Hollander, of the University of South Florida, says his team have discovered a second oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico (CNN).

“If efficiency and safety has not been proven, we don’t believe it should be used. As a health ministry, we must always protect the human being.”

Ileana Herrera, chief of the Costa Rican health ministry’s research council, comments on a crackdown on unauthorized stem cell treatments (Reuters).

“Genentech on Sunday said its cancer drug Avastin prompted a 39 percent improvement in the likelihood of women with advanced ovarian cancer living longer without the disease progressing.”

AP reports on the latest announcement from Genetech, made at the the American Society of Clinical Oncologists meeting in Chicago.

Deepwater Horizon spill update

Oil is continuing to leak from the scene of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig accident.

A new dome is being is being developed to trap the oil at the site of the leak for pumping to the surface, says NOAA:

The alternative is called a “top hat”. This structure plans to use warm water and methanol going down the riser to help prevent ice crystals from forming.

Quotes of the day

“The incidence of some cancers, including some most common among children, is increasing for unexplained reasons.”

LaSalle Leffall, of Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, and Margaret Kripke, of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, say Americans are being ‘bombarded’ with carcinogens (Reuters).

“No country of this size has seen energy demand grow this fast before in absolute terms, and those who are most concerned about this are the Chinese themselves.”

Jonathan Sinton, of the International Energy Agency in Paris, comments on the fact that China has seen the largest six-month increase in greenhouse gases ever from an individual country (NY Times).

“I expect to see more people in the rich list to come from high-tech sectors as the government is obviously shifting its support away from traditional industries such as real estate.”

Wu Binghua, an analyst at Debon Securities, comments on the fact that pharmaceutical researcher Li Li has become China’s richest man (Reuters).

Quotes of the day

“Current indications are that we have made the first oil discovery in the North Falkland Basin. We will now focus on analysing in more detail the data gathered from the well.”

Samuel Moody, managing director of Rockhopper Exploration, says his company may have struck oil off the Falkland Islands (BBC).

“In this case, additional scientific equipment and components … could be delivered to the US segment of the station. However, funding for this flight has not been provided so far.”

The Russian Federal Space Agency says the shuttle Atlantis may travel to the International Space Station in 2011, meaning the shuttle programme does not end this year (RIA Novosti).

“The good news is that most of the spouses did not develop dementia. But this does alert us to the increased risk for some of them. We need to be taking care of the caregiver and finding ways to maximize the positives of care giving.”

Maria Norton, of Utah State University, in Logan, comments on her study showing that the spouses of people with dementia are at increased risk of dementia themselves (MSNBC).