Readers following the AU summit on national TV news could be forgiven for wondering if the event on their screens is the same as that being described in this blog and on the pages of SciDev.Net.

It 'was' exactly the same event, only my colleagues from the broadcast media who came to Addis in their hundreds mostly ignored the discussions on science and climate change. They focused instead on conflicts: conflicts between heads of state for top jobs in the AU; conflicts between Ethiopia and Somalia, in Sudan and even in Rwanda where the country wants to heal and move on from the genocide.

This is not to say that Africa is conflict-free. But that the clips on our TV screens did not reflect the bulk of what was discussed at the AU this week, nor did the broadcasts convey much of a sense that Africa is on the move -- the overwhelming impression that delegates went home with. This week's summit showed that a confident and emboldened AU (with its planned new parliament and court of human rights) will be key to the continent's future. It is unfortunate that many viewers and listeners inside and outside Africa will never know, because broadcasters chose to turn their cameras elsewhere.

Posted by Ehsan Masood at 09:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

After close to 12 hours of discussion delegates emerged at midnight on 30 January with some decisions. The scientists, according to the AU’s commissioner for science Nagia Essayed, ended up with a result better than they might have expected.

Summiteers also pledged to move ahead with a merger of the two intellectual-property organizations that separately serve Anglophone and Francophone countries in the AU. The new organization will be called the Pan African Intellectual Property Organization. Setting this up is likely to prove complicated in practice, but doing so is necessary for an Africa-wide consensus on IP, which is independent of the politics of France and Britain.

There was also agreement on a 20-year strategy for biotechnology, new diplomatic-style passports for scientists that wll allow them to travel throughout the continent without visa restrictions. 2007, moreover, has been designated as Africa's year for innovations.

Less certain at this stage is the verdict on a planned new strategy for biosafety, which had financial backing from Germany. The biosafety strategy (if implemented) will have AU countries enforce the world’s toughest biosafety regulatory regime, which will go beyond the regulations of the UN Cartagena Protocol.

Two issues that failed to make it this time were the Africa-wide science fund, and a planned new council of heads of state to oversee AU decisions in science and technology. Essayed says she is not about to drop the ball on both of these issues just yet.

All-in-all, not a bad night for science.

Posted by Ehsan Masood at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Three years ago, President George W. Bush set plans for the Moon, Mars and beyond. Nature checks in on their progress.

FEATURE
Space exploration: Where 24 men have gone before
EDITORIAL
Brave blue world

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Light makes molecular machines perform trick.

David Leigh at Edinburgh University has managed to make a molecular machine inspired by "Maxwell's demon" — a thought experiment that defies the second law of thermodynamics.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Wreckage reveals clues to mysterious weapon.

Almost three weeks after the successful test of a Chinese anti-satellite weapon, the US military has catalogued more than 500 pieces of debris created by the destruction of the obsolete weather satellite (see 'Satellite kill creates space hazard'). Watchdog groups are keeping a keen eye on the space junk, and are using data from the military to learn more about the weapon's capabilities.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 10:16 AM | Permalink

Excavation shows strong connection with a nearby wooden circle.

It's hard to believe that the Stonehenge World Heritage Site — a popular tourist destination in densely populated southern England, and home to one of the most famous prehistoric monuments in the world — is the site of a major new discovery.

Read the story here.

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Last week, Virgin Galactic announced plans to fly spaceships from Arctic Sweden. News@nature.com looks at where else you can reach for the stars.

Read the briefing here.

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Travellers who bring illness home act as sentinels of disease.

When the first patients with dysentery started trickling into health clinics in Sierra Leone in early 1999, Philippe Guerin wasn't sure what to think. Guerin, a medical epidemiologist, knew that the symptoms he was seeing could be produced by several different pathogens, but resources were slim in the war-torn country, and healthcare workers did not have the facilities to pinpoint the source of the outbreak. As the flow of patients began to swell, healthcare workers collected samples and shipped them to Paris for testing.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 06:34 PM | Permalink

The public part of the summit is now over.

Heads of state are meeting in closed session before they issue a set of summit resolutions. This session could last late into the night. Several leaders are known to be cross at having been lectured-to for a day-and-a-half (by scientists) when they could have spent the time actually taking policy decisions. So much for the idea of making policy decisions based on good scientific advice, then?

The betting so far remains that a new, continent-wide strategy for biotechnology will be the most concrete outcome from this summit in science and technology. Expect also a strong resolution on climate change. The big question is whether anyone will pledge funds for the planned Africa-wide science fund. This idea needs to be backed with money from inside Africa if it is to fly.

Posted by Ehsan Masood at 02:07 PM | Permalink

Earlier this morning, UK government adviser Nicholas Stern led a debate on climate change in which he hinted strongly that rich countries ought to pay to resolve a crisis that they helped to cause. This goes further than the official UK government line, but was a wise move on the part of Stern.

Several speakers responded by repeating the point that while Africa contributes least to human-induced global warming, it will suffer most from the effects of climate change. President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda summed up the mood among many in the hall: “In causing global warming [developed] countries are committing aggression against us.”

Posted by Ehsan Masood at 01:50 PM | Permalink

Electrical short knocks out key scientific instrument.

The Hubble Space Telescope's primary camera has blown a fuse, and its main functions seem to be gone for good.

Read the story here.

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Every political summit needs a young-Turk, someone to remind the old guard that leadership isn't for life. Yesterday, summit-planners gave a keynote slot to Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda. Tall and of slim build, Kagame is not from the evangelical school of public speaking, but he managed to hold his audience with carefully-chosen words, and a vision that few (if any) of his colleagues were able to match. This includes a promise that Rwanda will aim to spend 3 per cent of its national income on research and development within the next five years – matching the proportion of spending that is common in the developed world. The AU average at present is less than 0.5 per cent.

Posted by Ehsan Masood at 09:42 AM | Permalink

International donors are out in force at the summit and practically falling over themselves to fund African development projects.

First up yesterday was incoming UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, followed by Unesco’s Koichiro Matsura who made a strong public pledge that Unesco (not always the biggest of donors) is ready to invest in African Union science initiatives. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has a four-strong team here. Italian Prime Minister Prodi flew in briefly yesterday, and Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan is still here.

The reason for Turkey’s presence at the summit becomes clearer after spending a few minutes at the Turkish stand in the summit exhibition hall. Visitors are invited to take away two glossy leaflets. In one, 'Turkey: A New Partner for Africa', a smiling Erdogan in pin-stripe suit is pictured on the cover surrounded by poorly-clothed African children each waving a Turkish flag. The second leaflet is called Turkey: Candidate for the United Nations Security Council. Enough said.

Posted by Ehsan Masood at 09:37 AM | Permalink

Collaborative effort puts country on the clinical research map.

Indonesia is set to attack both dengue fever and tuberculosis, in a move that should both boost the country's profile in clinical research and tackle two devastating diseases.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 06:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Coloured hotspot could reveal odd chemistry.

Undersea 'hotspots', which spew super-hot, mineral-rich fluids out of the sea floor and play host to a variety of weird marine life, just got weirder: scientists have found one blowing out blue smoke.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 06:20 PM | Permalink

Predators take venom from prey and use it themselves.

They say you are what you eat. And that’s especially true of Rhabdophis tigrinus — zoologists have discovered that this snake eats poisonous toads and keeps their venom for itself.

Read more here

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Scientists and science ministers ended the inaugural session somewhat in a state of shock. Rather than focus on science, the opening speeches from heads of state focused mostly on the international year of football in Africa. “This is not a football summit,” said one minister as he left the conference hall. Another said: “This is not what we need to pull the continent out of underdevelopment.” Presentations on science and on climate change are up next. Climate change has been rising up the summit agenda over recent weeks and some see the hand of Tony Blair in this.

Posted by Ehsan Masood at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

AU Summit: Addis for beginners

Ethiopia is a young democracy, and it occasionally shows. Take my ride to the summit venue. We are twice interrupted by groups of armed soldiers crossing the road: without necessarily looking to see if the road is clear. They don’t need to: the cabbie says he is programmed to stop for soldiers. This habit will take a while to break.

Incomes are low here even by developing-country standards. Shops are small, housed mostly in tin shacks, and there are few signs of the multinationals that are now a normal sight in the capital-cities of higher-income countries in the continent, such as international banks, fast-food chains, and the like.

What you do see are multinationals from the 1970s: oil companies such as Total and Shell run the pumps; Western Union is here (it is a big player in Africa, where remittances from Africans abroad are a major slice of overseas earnings). I also spot the ubiquitous YMCA. Its global network of libraries and hostels remain one of the best-known exports to developing countries. Soviet-built Ladas and 1970s Peugeots cram the roads. A billboard advertises something called the Macmillan Academy. NPG need not worry: it appears to be a primary school, or kindergarten.

My cab eventually joins a queue of limos, and white 4-x-4s with the UN logo in black. Minutes later we are at the summit venue and a world of blackberrys, coffee bars and wifi hotspots awaits. Inside, this could be London or Paris. Outside it most certainly isnt. This is the problem that AU leaders must fix.

Posted by Ehsan Masood at 11:23 AM | Permalink

Two years of painstaking preparations are over. The world’s gaze has descended on Addis Ababa to see whether Africa’s leaders will deliver on their promises to get real about science and technology. Can Addis live upto expectations? We will know in the next two days.

In the final weeks and months before this meeting, the signs were decidedly mixed. There was little consensus for example on a new Africa-wide research fund; nor on an idea to set up a council of presidents to keep an eye on political commitments on science.

A new 20-year strategy for biotechnology may get the green-light. If this happens, it will signal a much-needed truce in Africa’s very own science-wars – the damaging conflict between proponents and critics of GM technology in agriculture that has hindered everything from education, research, regulation and commercialization.

No summit of heads of state would be complete without a bit of glamour and entertainment – and this summit seems to have it in spades. Yesterday saw the launch of the International Year of African Football in which the summit was temporarily converted into a stadium. Delegates were treated to a match between Ethiopia and South Africa (under-15s).

Climate change is also on the agenda and the UK government’s latest scientific export: Nicholas Stern has been given star billing. Later today he will introduce his report on the economics of climate change. Stern will be preceded by the AU’s Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Mme Rosebud Kurwijila.

Posted by Ehsan Masood at 08:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Treatment based on narcolepsy could promote sleep in insomniacs.

By learning from patients who nod off unexpectedly during the day, researchers have pinpointed a chemical that could help people who can't sleep at night.

One out of every 10 people in the United States suffers from chronic insomnia, making for a big sleeping-pill market. The most popular pills work by strengthening the effects of a brain chemical that slows the nervous system and promotes relaxation. But these drugs can also carry unpleasant side effects, including memory loss and grogginess the next day. The race for a better sleeping pill is still on.

Read the full story here.

Posted by Alex Witze at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Daylight-saving measure fails to gain enough support.

A plan to bring Britain's clocks into line with those in the rest of Europe has failed to gather the necessary political support. The potential change, championed by supporters as a way to save lives and energy, will now be dropped.

The measure would have given Britain an extra hour of evening daylight in both winter and summer, by advancing the clocks an hour ahead of their current times while continuing to observe 'daylight saving time' (DST) by moving them forward in spring and back in autumn.

Read the full story here.

Posted by Alex Witze at 05:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Chemists develop method for spotting counterfeit pharmaceuticals.

Pharmaceutical fraudsters have had an easy ride for years — counterfeit drugs are notoriously difficult to detect through all the layers of packaging. But a new tweak to an old stalwart of analytical chemistry could change all that.

Fake drugs are a major international concern (see 'Murder by medicine'), though estimates vary widely as to how bad the problem is. The US Food and Drug Administration suggests that 10% of all drugs are fake; other, unofficial estimates range up to 50%. The problem is worst in developing countries. But Internet sales are helping to push up the figures in the developed world too.

Read the full story here.

Posted by Alex Witze at 05:28 PM | Permalink

Join Ehsan Masood as he blogs from the African Union Summit on the Nature newsblog. He'll be sending back entries from Monday 29 January.

To find out about this meeting, check out Ehsan's news feature (you'll need a password) Science in Africa: All eyes on Addis , and our editorial Grounds for optimism.

The conference webpage can be found here.
And Ehsan's blog is here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Archaeologists protest impending destruction of spa.

The Allianoi archaeological site could soon be under water if authorities carry out their plans to flood a newly constructed reservoir. Located in western Turkey, the site is a well-preserved example of an ancient Roman health spa.

Archaeologist Ahmet Yaras, head of the Allianoi excavation team, is spearheading a campaign to save the site from being submerged. They are trying to rally international support to pressure the authorities to move the reservoir — or at least delay the flooding for another five years so that they can finish the excavations.

Read the ful story here.

Posted by Alex Witze at 07:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Animal tests may have missed danger because monkeys ‘too clean’.

Immunologists have a new theory to explain why the devastating effects of the experimental drug TGN1412 were not spotted in animal tests. The ‘superantibody’ drug put six volunteers in intensive care in a London hospital last March.

Animals used in preclinical tests for TGN1412, researchers now say, lack a crucial set of immune cells because they are deliberately shielded from infections in the lab.

Read more here

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This week the Nature Podcast explores how fish know who’s boss, why summer is coming early to some countries, the best way to sniff out smells, and discovers an Australian fossil treasure trove.

Listen | About

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Posted by Arran Frood at 07:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Climate advocates 'underwhelmed' by president's vision.

On the night of 23 January, during his annual state of the union speech to the US Congress and the nation, President George W. Bush called for a 20 percent drop in petrol use by 2017. Bush also proposed raising fuel-efficiency standards for cars, and called for more research into alternative fuels. And he got a standing ovation when he referred to "the serious challenge of global climate change."

Yet climate experts were left wondering whether the president's proposals would make any difference. Vicki Arroyo, director of policy analysis at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change in Arlington, Virginia, called the address "underwhelming". Bush's speech, she said, was "very light on actual commitments".

Read the full story here.

Posted by Alex Witze at 06:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Australian bones could shed light on prehistoric extinction mystery.

The skeletons of eight new species of extinct kangaroo have been found amongst a bounty of fossils beneath the arid Nullarbor plain in south-central Australia.

In three caves, researchers unearthed the remains of 69 vertebrate species, plus a mollusc, that lived between 800,000 and 200,000 years ago1. The rare find sheds light on an intensely debated topic: what wiped out the large prehistoric animals, or megafauna, that roamed ancient Australia?

Read the full story here.

Posted by Alex Witze at 06:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

Is China's satellite zapping simply old-fashioned sabre-rattling? Or is it a rational step to restrict the use of space weapons?

How do you reconcile China's shooting down of a satellite earlier this month with the subsequent insistence by its foreign ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, that China opposes military competition in space?

China has not yet explained its objectives. But the action makes perfect sense in the context of game theory, the conventional framework for analysing conflict and cooperation.

Read the full column here.

Posted by Alex Witze at 06:14 PM | Permalink

But war may have caused other long-lasting environmental problems.

When Israeli bombs hit the Jiyyeh power plant in Lebanon last July, 15,000 tonnes of fuel oil spilled into the sea — yet another bit of bad news in the war between the two countries. But a 23 January report suggests that the marine environment has been spared long-term damage.

Oil pollution from the plant has been largely contained, experts say, even though the month-long war initially hampered clean-up efforts. Environmental problems remain, though, including damage to factories, industrial sites, agricultural land and infrastructure that continues to pose a threat to public health. Leaked chemicals are polluting water supplies, and unexploded bombs are stopping farmers from resuming their work.

Read the full story here.

Posted by Alex Witze at 07:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Get more out of geothermal, experts advise.

A modest investment in geothermal technology could allow the United States to harness 10% of its electricity-generating capacity from the hot bowels of the Earth by 2050, a new study says.

The United States is the world's biggest producer of geothermal energy, but interest in it has remained low — the resource makes up less than 1 percent of the country's electricity supply. That's partly because people have assumed that good geothermal spots are too few and far between for it to make a major impact at the national level.

Read the full story here.

Posted by Alex Witze at 07:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Stem rust threatens key crops in Asia.

The average human being eats more than 500 calories worth of wheat every day — it is a staple among staples. Now, a strain of fungus that threatens most of the world's wheat crop has spread from its origin in Africa, across the Red Sea to Yemen.

Prevailing winds will probably start moving the fungus spores eastwards, experts say. The fungus could be in South Asia in four years, where wheat is the number-one crop in Pakistan and the number-two crop in India.

Read the full story here.

Posted by Alex Witze at 07:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The editor of a new book, an anthology of science blogs, talks about how his blog saved his career in science.

Three years ago, Bora Zivkovic, a zoology graduate student at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, was in a tough spot. Burnt out by years in research and losing motivation as he was writing his thesis, he left the lab. Instead, he took up political activism, posting on campaign blogs during the run-up to the 2004 US presidential elections.

Soon he was blogging on his own about politics, education and science, and has since become a prolific science blogger. He's also at the centre of an emerging community; he co-organized the North Carolina Science Blogging Conference, which took place on 20 January on the campus of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, with about 170 people in attendance. He has also edited an anthology of science blog posts, The Open Laboratory: The Best Writing on Science Blogs 2006, which came out last week.

Read the story here.

Posted by Alex Witze at 06:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

Mice, at least, could benefit from therapeutic use of needles.

Acupuncture, used for thousands of years in the Far East to treat pain and illness, has many followers but little scientific rigor to explain whether it works or not. Now, an unusual study suggests that acupuncture has a marked effect on the type of brain inflammation seen in Parkinson's disease — in mice, that is.

Read the story here.

Posted by Alex Witze at 06:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Model opens up research into efficiency of motion.

How much energy does it take to move around? You might think it obvious that animals with long legs would use up less energy covering a given distance than would those with short legs. But how much leg length determines the energetic costs of walking or running is hotly debated by scientists.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 05:49 PM | Permalink

Soccer shootouts are won and lost on psychological responses to pressure.

On a summer evening last year, more than a billion pairs of eyes were fixed on footballer David Trézéguet as he stepped up to take his penalty for France in the shootout against Italy to decide the world championship. A supremely talented goal-scorer, he inexplicably crashed his kick against the crossbar. France lost.

Read more here

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The science of pedestrian motion meets the annual Hajj in Mecca.

The annual pilgrimage of Muslims to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, known as the Hajj, has on occasion been marred by deaths from trampling in the huge crowds that gather for the rituals. But scientists studying how pedestrians move around think they have made such crowd disasters much less likely.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 05:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

News@nature.com finds out how China's destruction of its own satellite could cause future damage.

According to US sources, China tested an anti-satellite weapon on 11 January. The weapon is said to have struck and destroyed the Feng Yun 1C, an obsolete weather satellite launched by the Chinese government in 1999.

Read the briefing here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 05:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Toxin-laden bacterium makes for a killer in the community.

Researchers have unpicked why a particularly nasty form of antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which can strike down otherwise healthy victims outside of the hospital, is quite so vicious.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 07:00 PM | Permalink

Costs are likely to be passed on to consumers, without a drop in emissions.

The world's airlines, including many firms who have lobbied aggressively against climate-change legislation, could make billions of euros from a planned emissions-reduction scheme, say economists studying the situation.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 05:55 PM | Permalink

With the shift of power in the US Congress comes an chance to re-engage in the debate over climate change. But the process will not be simple, says our new columnist David Goldston.

The 110th Congress convened in Washington DC on 4 January, with the Democrats in control of both chambers for the first time in a dozen years. The banging of the gavel by the new Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, was in effect the starting gun for what is likely to be two years of political strife, as both Democrats and Republicans race towards the 2008 congressional and presidential elections.

Read the column here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 05:49 PM | Permalink

This week the Nature Podcast investigates coral clocks, making magnets, keeping gas in cages, and a vicious flu virus; and gives you the low-down on science policy and the 'dark side' of science.

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Posted by Arran Frood at 01:54 PM | Permalink

Atomic scientists add climate change to the threats to humanity.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has moved the hands of its Doomsday Clock to five minutes before midnight — the metaphorical marker of the end of humanity.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 06:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

Do universities do a good job investigating accusations of misconduct?
What makes a scientist cheat in the first place?
And what has become of the subjects of past investigations? Nature finds out.
(You will need a subscription to access these links)

Misconduct? It's all academic...
Breeding cheats
Where are they now?
EDITORIAL Leading by example

Posted by Nicola Jones at 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Parasitic infections could stop the immune system from self-attack.

Could a spoonful of worm eggs help patients to fight the crippling symptoms of a nerve disease? Perhaps, say scientists who suggest that patients with multiple sclerosis can benefit from certain types of parasitic infection.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Lunar-A looks unlikely to go ahead, but bigger and better missions set to follow.

Japan's space agency JAXA has recommended scrapping its planned impact mission to the Moon, after more than a decade of delay.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 07:33 PM | Permalink

Approval of new projects would avoid 'fatal' gaps in measurement.

A committee of prominent Earth scientists has recommended that the US government fund 17 new Earth-observing missions over the next decade. Without these steps, they say, researchers could be left for years without critical data on climate change.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 04:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (0)

Pharmaceutical employees are going uncredited on medical papers.

When a scientific study is paid for by a company with commercial interests, journals take great care to ensure that this information is properly disclosed. But are all the possible sources of bias being reported? A study released today shows that the statisticians in charge of crunching, and sometimes selecting, the data in a study often go uncredited, making their influence impossible to trace.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 01:00 AM | Permalink

Metabolic costs of living stop carnivores from growing too huge.

The reason that there are no three-tonne lions chasing elephants across the Serengeti is, say researchers, because carnivorous land mammals have an upper size limit of about 1,100 kilograms. Above this, the costs of living outweigh the benefits of bringing down large prey.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Brain damage that wipes out the past also takes out the future.

Imagine a day on the beach: the hot sand, warm sunshine and aquamarine waters. Easy for you and me. But near impossible for some amnesiacs, according to new research.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Court case in India threatens to derail generic medicines.

The international humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF) is ramping up their fight against the Swiss drug giant Novartis, urging the company to drop a lawsuit that could make it much more difficult for Indian companies to produce cheap, generic drugs.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 05:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Close pass should reveal elementary secrets.

As Comet McNaught makes its closest pass to the Sun today, researchers are using the rare occurrence to take some stunning photos and hopefully learn something new about what comets are made of.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 05:55 PM | Permalink

Geneticists track the cause behind early rising.

Society celebrates its early birds, but for an unlucky few, the internal alarm clock goes off much too early. Now, studies of early-rising mice have led researchers to change their view of how biological clocks tell time, and could ultimately lead to new treatments for people with sleep disorders.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 02:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Pinning down the rotting-flesh plant could reveal the roots of gigantism.

With blooms that stink of rotting flesh and span up to a metre across, a flowering Rafflesia arnoldii is hard to miss in the tropical forests where it grows. But it has taken taxonomists nearly 200 years — when the odd plant was first described — to find its place in the family tree.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Chimaera experiments still on the table after authority avoids outright ban.

British plans to create cloned human embryos that contain small amounts of cow DNA have been set back by about a year, after regulators decided to gauge public opinion before granting any licences.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 06:10 PM | Permalink

This week’s Nature Podcast investigates early decision-making in embryo cells, explores the best way to store nuclear waste, links glucose sensors to furring arteries, and brings news of ecology-friendly crops and an energy-efficient bungee backpack.

Listen. About.

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Posted by Nicola Jones at 10:10 AM | Permalink

Researchers to get a bit closer to Japanese history.

Japan's royal tombs are to be opened to more thorough investigation by researchers for the first time. The move should re-invigorate studies into the country's ancient history, which have so far depended mostly on legends and myths.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 06:01 PM | Permalink

Astronomers make startling discoveries in our own back yard.

Astronomers are beginning to realize that we don't know our cosmic neighbourhood very well after all. Some of the galaxies next door to our very own Milky Way are speeding past us so fast that they threaten to rewrite the textbooks, whereas others are so teeny that they may deserve the entirely new name of 'hobbit' galaxies.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 05:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Estimates of radiation damage to materials have been too low.

Storing high-level nuclear waste without any leakage over thousands of years may be harder than experts have thought, research published in Nature today shows.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 05:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (0)

Ever wondered how basketball stars manage to sink a jump shot just-so? John Fontanella, an instructor at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, has the explanation for you.

By comparing videotapes of himself with, er, a slightly more accomplished basketball player, Fontanella calculated that the best players attempt to minimize the speed of the ball when it reaches the basket. That makes intuitive sense, he says - players want a 'soft' shot that sinks right into the basket. But when you hear it described in the context of gravity vs. drag vs. lift vs. buoyance -- well, it's enough to think Shaquille O'Neal might learn enough to improve his free throw percentage.

Posted by Alex Witze at 01:54 AM | Permalink

Few scientific presentations really make one hungry (or thirsty), but today's demonstration of the 'hot chocolate effect' did just that.

Tap a spoon on the inside bottom of a mug of hot chocolate, and you'll hear a rising pitch that keeps rising as you keep tapping. It's a fascinating physics experiment that can be done apres-ski. But don't limit yourself to just hot chocolate, says Bradley Carroll of Weber State University in Utah. It works for other beverages, including instant coffee and even cold beer.

It all has to do with tiny bubbles in the liquid. They slow down the speed of sound, so the pitch you hear is lower at first. As the bubbles rise to the surface and break, the speed of sound in the liquid rises, so the pitch rises in tone.

Try it out for yourself. Don't take my word for it.

Posted by Alex Witze at 01:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

You can say this for intelligent design: It has really inspired the science teachers of America. Today's session on the teaching of intelligent design - the notion that an intelligent 'creator' shaped biological organisms - was jam-packed. In fact, it was so overcrowded that the organizers moved it from a small lecture hall to a section of the giant ballroom.

If science educators such as these get out there and teach kids, one can only think that science will soon triumph over the pseudoscientific arguments of intelligent design.

Posted by Alex Witze at 01:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

An hourglass waistline has impressed men for centuries.

Of all the ingredients that make up the ideal female form, it isn’t the most obvious winner. But researchers claim that, for enduring popularity down the ages, nothing beats a narrow waistline.

Read more here

Posted by at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Tevatron gains renewed hope of bagging the particle that endows mass.

Physicists shooting to find the Higgs boson — the particle thought to endow all others with mass — have seen their target move, again. A new measurement of the mass of another subatomic particle, the W boson, has lowered the predicted mass of the Higgs.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 05:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Colliding galaxies in the early Universe produced dance of superbright objects.

Astronomers have found a new record-breaker: a triplet of quasars.

Read about it here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 05:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's a new way to reach kids via astronomy: a planetarium in Second Life.

Anthony Crider, an astronomy professor at Elon University in North Carolina, has had his students creating astronomy adventures in the virtual world of Second Life. He set up a planetarium there, and watched 30 to 40 people - their avatars, at least - wait in line for planetarium shows. He has his students test out their class telescope in virtual life before they fumble with it in real life. And he's working with NASA Ames and others to try to create a 'SciLands' area for scientifically interested people to congregate in in Second Life.

Finding like-minded people in the virtual world can be a challenge, though. Crider says he was inspired to purchase his own land and set up a new planetarium after his old location got some new neighbors: a casino, and a shop specializing in lesbian vampire pornography.

Now, though, he sees people coming into Second Life to debate the planetary status of Pluto, or to watch launches of spacecraft on NASA-TV. It's a weird world out there, but there are plenty of astronomy buffs wherever you go.

Posted by Alex Witze at 05:03 AM | Permalink

This is fun, if a bit specialized. As seen at a poster here at the AAS meeting: the Slackerpedia Galactica.

It's Wikipedia for astronomy, as you always wished it could be. So far, my favorite entry is the one describing quasars as "vicious little dots".

The entry for Pluto needs a bit of expansion, but shows promise.

Posted by Alex Witze at 05:00 AM | Permalink

Wes Traub, of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, reminded the AAS audience today of how an Earth-centric view can help us understand other worlds. Somehow I missed this back in September when it came out - but he and colleagues have done a nifty piece of work looking at Earth's evolution as seen from space. In other words, how has Earth's atmosphere changed composition through time? More specifically, how would aliens looking at Earth interpret life on our planet depending on when they spotted us?

Posted by Alex Witze at 04:58 AM | Permalink

Standard museum practice can wash away DNA.

Washing, brushing and varnishing fossils — all standard conservation treatments used by many fossil hunters and museum curators alike — vastly reduces the chances of recovering ancient DNA.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

How far can a parent go in managing the life of their disabled child? Perhaps too far.

Shock. Even revulsion. These were the main reactions provoked by news stories about Ashley, a nine-year-old disabled girl who has been surgically and hormonally altered by her parents to forever stay the size of a small child. Is such treatment acceptable, asked the world's press. On instinct, my immediate reaction was "no".

Read the column here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 06:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (0)

The easiest way to guarantee a headline on CNN is to say you've found life on Mars. Or, to be more specific, that NASA once found it but didn't really know it.

At the meeting here today, Dirk Schulze-Makuch of Washington State University described his theory that the Viking landers may have detected signs of microbial Martian life in 1976. The key: hydrogen peroxide, which in addition to bleaching your hair may have formed the basis for alien life forms, he argues.

The problem is that no one has ever been able to agree on what the Viking landers found. One of the key scientists for one of the key instruments has long insisted that it found evidence of life. Few others believe him. So Schultze-Makuch can speculate all day long about life forms based on hydrogen peroxide -- but until someone demonstrates that these kinds of critters really can exist, it'll be awfully tough to prove.

You can read more about the Viking experiments here.

Posted by Alex Witze at 05:33 AM | Permalink

Gleaned from astronaut Kathryn Thornton, who flew aboard the space shuttle four times:

If the Earth were the size of a basketball, spacecraft in orbit wouldn't be more than a quarter to a half inch off its surface.

Thornton's point: humans aren't exploring any more. They're stuck repeating experiments in an environment they already know. Most astronauts, of course, are strongly in favor of President Bush's plan to send astronauts back to the moon and then on to Mars. Many scientists are not, which makes her presence at a AAS meeting particularly intriguing.

Posted by Alex Witze at 09:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

The American Astronomical Society meeting starts here today at the Washington state convention center. They're handing out perhaps the most useful goodies I've ever gotten: a sturdy umbrella. This being Seattle, it is of course raining.

The meeting is joint with the American Association of Physics Teachers, so the usual crowd of typical astronomers is mingling with a younger, more diverse group of educators. As a bonus, the Seattle wedding show is also going on this weekend in the center. So the place is positively buzzing -- I've yet to see any astronomers slinking over to pick up a killer wedding dress, though.

Posted by Alex Witze at 07:18 PM | Permalink

First three-dimensional picture of elusive matter throws up mystery.

Hot on the heels of evidence last year that dark matter really does exist (see 'Dark matter spied in galactic collision'), the same technique has been used to map this uncharacterized mass across half a million distant galaxies.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

Some ethnic differences could be down to the same genes behaving differently.

From dark skin to fiery red hair, the world's ethnic groups all have characteristic physical features. But how does our genome code for these differences? New research shows that it isn't just because different groups carry different genes — some of the variation is down to the same genes being expressed differently.

ead the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Join Alex Witze at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle from 5-10 January. She'll be blogging about the planets and stars here!

Posted by Nicola Jones at 06:03 PM | Permalink

Fashion for non-processed foods could cut vitamins and boost birth defects.

Women in the United States are not eating enough folate, says a survey by government researchers. According to the study's authors, two-thirds of women do not eat the recommended daily amount of the vitamin, which helps to prevent severe birth defects. And levels of folate in the diet have actually declined since 1999, they report.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Climate change causes eelpout population to crash from suffocation.

The warming of the oceans is having a cruel effect on some fish: they can't breathe fast enough to survive in a hotter home.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 10:32 AM | Permalink

Magellanic penguins face harm from overfishing.

The Magellanic penguins of Punta Tombo don't tap dance like the cartoon birds from the movie Happy Feet, but they do sing. Each summer, hundreds of thousands of the birds converge on a bit of Patagonian coastline to breed among the desert shrubs. It's the world's largest colony of Magellanic penguins, and all together they raise quite a ruckus.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 10:30 AM | Permalink

Magellanic penguins face harm from overfishing.

The Magellanic penguins of Punta Tombo don't tap dance like the cartoon birds from the movie Happy Feet, but they do sing. Each summer, hundreds of thousands of the birds converge on a bit of Patagonian coastline to breed among the desert shrubs. It's the world's largest colony of Magellanic penguins, and all together they raise quite a ruckus.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 07:00 PM | Permalink

Climate change causes eelpout population to crash from suffocation.

The warming of the oceans is having a cruel effect on some fish: they can't breathe fast enough to survive in a hotter home.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

news@nature.com asks how the Blue Origin project plans to get off the ground.

This week, the secretive Blue Origin project released video footage of its first test flight, which took place in November 2006. The startling footage (see http://www.blueorigin.com), with the added ingredients of a billionaire backer and a promise to offer well-heeled tourists the trip of a lifetime by 2010, has space tourism enthusiasts sitting up and taking notice. But will this project really be the one to open the doors to space?

Read more here

Posted by at 06:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Manipulating society has traditionally been the preserve of politicians and the gods. Does the current boom in virtual worlds give social scientists and economists an opportunity to join them? Jim Giles investigates.
Jim Giles

Is a ruthless dictatorship a better way of running a country than a well-oiled democracy? Would people be happier if all their property was confiscated? Might our economies be healthier if inflation ran at 100%?

Find out in our feature.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 01:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Monsoon records link demise of the Tang in China and Maya in Mexico.

They lived in resplendence, half a world apart, before meeting their respective downfalls within decades of one another. Now a new theory suggests that the decline of the Tang Dynasty in China and that of the Mayan civilization in Mexico may both have been due to the same worldwide drought.

Read more here

Posted by at 06:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Rare muscle fibres could improve sporting prowess.

A genetic tweak has converted mice into endurance runners by enriching a little-known form of muscle fibre. The discovery could help boost sporting abilities, or reveal ways to slow muscle wasting.

Read the story here.

Posted by Helen Pearson at 05:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)