The Great Beyond

It would be unfair to accuse Congress of laziness -- there have been these things called the healthcare and climate/energy bills -- but it's been over a month into the 2010 fiscal year, and Congress still hasn't appropriated money for most science agencies. Thursday night, the Senate passed its version of the Commerce, Justice, Science, or CJS bill -- which contains funding for agencies like NSF and NASA. It now will sent to conference to iron out differences with the previously passed House version, a process that could easily take a month or more.

But if the Senate bill reflects the latest wisdom of the doyens of the Hill (if wisdom is what it is), then science is sitting pretty well. NASA would receive the full $18.7 billion that the Obama administration asked for. Interestingly, language accompanying the bill expresses concern that the International Lunar Network -- a planned system of lunar seismic detectors -- was tied to the human space programme rather than being a justifiable science mission in its own right. The Senate gave it $21 million for continued development.

The NSF would get $6.9 billion, just $130 million below the administration's request. However, the report language expresses concern about workplace environment -- no doubt tied to the porn scandal early this year. But it also questions the NSF's practice of rotating scientists in to the agency on short term appointments. The Senate bill acknowledges that this practice keeps NSF program managers fresh, but says it "creates gaps in management oversight". I wonder how scientists will feel if funding decisions were managed by career civil servants stuck in Washington rather than by their own.

Posted by Eric Hand
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Lord Drayson, the UK science minister, has thrown his weight behind a set of demands from the government’s independent advisors which were drawn up in the wake of the controversial sacking of drugs advisor David Nutt.

In an interview with Nature, Drayson also admitted there were concerns among government advisors that pre-date ‘Nutt-gate’. He said at recent meetings “a number of leading scientific advisors across different fields ... expressed to me some underlying concerns”.

“Not a huge concern, bubbling, but it was not just about advice relating to drugs classification,” says Drayson. “What’s happened over the last few days is that sort of bubbling concern has turned into very serious concern because of the events that have taken place.”

Drayson also confirmed the veracity of an email leaked to the Sun newspaper, in which he apparently said he was “pretty appalled” and that the Home Secretary’s decision to sack Nutt was “a big mistake” (see: Cracks show in government over Nutt-gate).

“I can confirm that was an email that I wrote and it reflects how I felt at that point,” he told Nature today. “I learnt about it through a Google Alert, which is not a great way to learn about it.”

An inquiry into the leak – which Drayson says “absolutely was not leaked from my end” – is now underway.

However, Drayson insists that good can still come of the whole affair. He says he backs a set of Principles for the Treatment of Independent Scientific Advice, drawn up by other advisors and leading scientists (see: Home Secretary under fire over ‘Nutt-gate’).

“What I want to do is to be in a position to be able to come out and reassure the scientific community which I know has been very seriously concerned about all this, that the government takes the independence of scientific advice very seriously indeed,” he says.

“I think the principles which were set out yesterday, did provide a very good framework, a starting point, to allow us to confirm these things. I think they reflect a number of things which were in the code of conduct. What I want to do now is … come up with a way of implementing these principles.”

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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Earlier this week, an electrical short again sidelined the Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle accelerator on the French-Swiss border. As the Register first reported, the cause of the short appears to have been a baguette caught inside a piece of electrical equipment that supports the machine.

CERN sources have confirmed the incident and blamed it on an errant bird. Under condition of anonymity, a CERN insider answered the Great Beyond's questions about the incident. Seriously, we did not make this up.

Any indication it might have been left on accident by a worker?
A short-circuit was thought to be caused by baguette carrying bird (not unknown for animals to cause this sort of problem). Workers were definitely not implicated.

Can we say anything about the contents of the baguette? Did it contain any tasty filling? If so what type?
Looks to have been a plain baguette - no filling observed. It was very soggy when found.

Is there any indication whether this is a French or a Swiss baguette?
It was a French site – But a frontier crossing bird is not ruled out.

Has anyone considered the possibility that the baguette came from the future to sabotage the LHC? Is there any indication that this is a futuristic baguette?
The possibility has been examined by theoretical physicists - considered unlikely as they feel baguettes will not play a part in future cultures.

Why is a bird considered the most likely theory?
Not unknown for birds to cause this sort of problem in outdoor electrical installations. The bird survived but lost breakfast.

Is this for real?
It is for real.

Will it have any impact on the CERN schedule?
There will be no impact on CERN schedule - full recovery has already taken place. It's similar to a power cut – procedures are in place to deal with this sort of thing.

CERN/Wikipedia/G. Brumfiel

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel
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Japanese electronics giant Panasonic is about to get even bigger, by offering to buy the majority of another Japanese electronics company, Sanyo for $4.5 billion. So what? I hear you cry.

This take over will mean that Panasonic is more than plasma-screen TVs, the company will have swiftly catapulted itself into the greentech big leagues. According to Greentech Media the deal, if it is successful (and according to the Guardian it will be) then Panasonic’s green tech portfolio becomes much more impressive.

The company will now have Sanyo’s solar panel capability and both companies’ combined lithium-ion battery arsenal will make the joint venture responsible for 30% of that market, says the Wall Street Journal. And we all know how hot lithium ion batteries are right now. The two companies, also according to that WSJ blog, will together account for most of the current battery market for hybrid cars, including the Toyota Prius and the Tesla cars.

To check out the rest of Panasonic’s green portfolio I recommend a closer look at that Greentech Media piece. It outlines the green credentials of Panasonic’s light bulbs, efficient TVs and even recycling schemes.

Image: Getty

Posted by Katharine Sanderson
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Hot on the heels of the pig genome comes news of another animal sequenced down on the farm. Writing in this week’s Science, researchers report the genome of Twilight, an adult female Equus caballus.

While this worthy feat of science has attracted much media interest, none of the coverage seems to mention that the horse genome was actually sequenced back in 2007 and widely reported at the time, although it was only published this week.

It is a useful genome to have though.

“Horses and humans suffer from similar illnesses, so identifying the genetic culprits in horses promises to deepen our knowledge of disease in both organisms,” says Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Uppsala University in Sweden (press release). “The horse genome sequence is a key enabling resource toward this goal.”

The equine sequence is roughly 2.7 billion letters long and is not dissimilar to our own. “Indeed, 17 horse chromosomes (53%) comprise material from a single human chromosome (in the dog, it is 29%),” the authors write.

The horse genome joins not only the pig, but also the chicken and the cow, with the sheep on the way. All together now: “Old Macdonald had a genome…”

Image: Twilight / courtesy of Doug Antczak, Baker Institute for Animal Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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The US Congress is finally taking on the controversial idea of geoengineering — large-scale, deliberate manipulation of the climate system to counteract climate change.

The concept has slowly been creeping into public awareness, including a casual — and much overblown — mention by Obama's science advisor John Holdren in his first interview with the Associated Press.

Yesterday the House committee on science and technology heard testimony from five scientists, including big-name geoengineering proponents people who have called for government support of geoengineering research, including Lee Lane, codirector of the American Enterprise Institute's geoengineering project, Ken Caldeira of Stanford University and John Shepherd of the University of Southampton. Shepherd recently chaired a Royal Society working group, which also included Caldeira and which released a report on geoengineering in September.

In his opening statement, committee chair Bart Gordon emphasized that there are many uncertainties about geoengineering, including the potential for catastrophic side-effects. But, he said, “the climate is changing”, so “we should accept the possibility that certain climate engineering proposals may merit consideration”.

Gordon announced that this hearing would be the first of three or four hearings to explore geoengineering over the next eight months, and that the committee planned to work with the UK House of Commons Science and Technology Committee. The chairman of the Commons committee will testify before the House committee this spring, Gordon said.

Continue reading "Geoengineering in the House" »

Posted by Lizzie Buchen
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Brain disease treated by gene therapy
A treatment based on HIV finds first success in humans.

Mars rover plans its escape
Crunch time approaches for a decision on how to free Spirit from a sand trap.

Oldest American artefact unearthed
Oregon caves yield evidence of continent's first inhabitants.

Lisbon Treaty could give research a boost
European Union set to take a bigger role in climate and space policy.

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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The pressure on the UK Home Secretary over his sacking of an independent science advisor dramatically increased today, with both politicians and other advisors wading into ‘Nutt-gate’.

David Nutt was the chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs until last week, when he was fired by Alan Johnson. Two members of the ACMD have already resigned in protest and today a who’s who of other advisors and leading scientists have signed up for a new set of Principles for the Treatment of Independent Scientific Advice.

Johnson has also been asked to explain himself to the influential cross party Parliamentary science committee. Phil Willis, the committee chair has written to Johnson, Nutt and the government’s chief science advisor John Beddington to ask for their accounts of the recent events.

Colin Blakemore, who is both a current advisor and former chief executive of the Medical Research Council, was one of those behind the new principles document.

“The priority now must be to rebuild the confidence of the scientific community in the way the Government, and indeed the Opposition parties, treat scientific advice and those who provide it,” he says. “If the Government can sign up to this statement, which essentially summarises commitments that have been made in the past, I hope that we can press the ‘reset’ button on the relationship.”

Continue reading "Home Secretary under fire over ‘Nutt-gate’" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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The line in the basement hallway of the US Department of Energy stretched interminably. "What's this line for?" asked one DOE employee. "Is everyone going to the gym or something?"

Nope. The bomb-sniffing dogs and Secret Service made it clear that the line was to see First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama, a figure so popular that the DOE had to give its employees tickets through a lottery.

Making her 13th visit to a federal agency, Obama joined Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Thursday in a tightly packed, 200-person basement DOE auditorium for a mock quiz of 10 middle schoolers who would compete next year in the National Science Bowl, an outreach effort run by DOE. Chu said that Obama was helping him with one of his highest priorities: "elevating the social status of nerds everywhere."

After a quick pep talk to the career civil service employees, Obama got ready to start peppering the kids with questions. "We're all set. I'm Alex Trebek," said Obama. "Secretary Chu is like my Vanna White."

And the two leaders jumped into a 14 minute round of hard-fought science trivia. "Cellular respiration in human cells is carried out mostly by what organelle?" asked Obama. Beeeeep! Catherine Xue, from Takoma Park, Maryland, buzzed in. "Mitochondria?" she asked timidly. "Correct," said Chu. Xue exchanged a fist bump with her team captain, Avikar Periwal.

Chu seemed to take pleasure when the budding scientists nailed a question, but winced when one team incorrectly guessed that nuclear power comprises only 5% of the US energy budget. The other team quickly got the answer right: 20%. "Correct," said Chu with a wry smile. If he gets his way, that answer could change -- Chu is hoping that DOE funding will help launch a new generation of nuclear reactors.

Image: Ken Shipp / DOE Photo

Posted by Eric Hand
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The cost of sequencing a human genome has dropped to just below $5,000. Well, sort of. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company Complete Genomics published a paper today describing its efforts to sequence three genomes at a materials cost of $4,400. Included in the trio is the genome of George Church, personal genomics evangelist and an adviser to the company, who has already posted the analysis of his data here.

Continue reading "Complete Genomics publishes a genome" »

Posted by Erika Check Hayden
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A paper has been published today in Nature Nanotechnology with a fairly provocative title: Nanoparticles can cause DNA damage across a cellular barrier.

But before we start shouting “grey goo” from the rooftops and blaming nanotechnology for ruining our lives, the paper requires some more considered thought. We already suspect that certain nanoparticles cause damage, but the need for more research is abundantly clear.

What the team, led by Charles Case from the Bristol Implant Research Centre, UK, and his colleagues have shown is that in their lab situation – more of which later – certain nanoparticles can reach through a cellular barrier and cause damage to the DNA in fibroblasts, which are cells important in wound healing.

The fact that nanoparticles can cross a cellular barrier (think blood-brain barrier, or the placenta) could cause alarm, but in this case shouldn’t.

The report is likely to be more interesting for those wanting to study the cellular processes that are happening. The set up in the lab was far removed from a real-life situation. Case’s team used a type of cell that can be used to build a structure that mimics a cellular barrier, they then built up three layers of these cells to make sure there were no gaps, and put the fibroblasts behind it. They then exposed the system to a very high dose of cobalt/chromium nanoparticles – because these are created in small amounts when artificial joints wear during use.

The results showed that the nanoparticles stayed in amongst the barrier cells without killing them. They nanoparticles didn’t reach the fibroblasts. So how was the DNA in the fibroblasts damaged? This is the part that is likely to whet the appetites of other scientists in the field. It looks like the nanoparticles set off a series of signals within the cells of the barrier, that ultimately led to the release of DNA-damaging ATP through two specific channels at the edge of the barrier.

This signalling process meant that the fibroblasts’ DNA was more damaged when the barrier was present than when the fibroblasts were directly exposed to the nanoparticles.

So what does this mean? I can’t put it any better than Andrew Maynard, nanotech regulation expert from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, who told me, “it's an important study as it raises possible new ways in which harm could occur following exposure. But while it raises new questions, it is far from conclusive on whether this is a relevant or significant way in which specific types of nanoparticles can cause harm. More research is needed.”

Posted by Katharine Sanderson
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After years of disappointment (for me, anyway) the Space Elevator Games has got a winner! Yes, NASA will have to open its purse and pay up.

To recap: the Space Elevator Games is a competition supported by the Spaceward Foundation with cash prizes donated by NASA. It’s all about making a space elevator to go into space. Easy so far. Since 2005 there has been an (almost) annual competition for teams demonstrating some of the integral parts of a space elevator. These include: a tether strong, thin and light enough to reach many hundreds of kilomteres into space and not snap; a climber to clamber up the tether; a way of powering the climber from the ground.

No team had managed to win any of the prize money in the first three competitions. Then last year difficulties finding a venue meant that the games were postponed until various times throughout this year. Between 4 and 6 November (i.e. right now) at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center the climber/power beaming event is happening.

And guess what, someone managed to win a prize! Yes, on the first day of the competition LaserMotive, a team from Seattle, managed to beam a laser at the underside of a platform which powered it so that it could scoot up a 900m long piece of cable in the allotted time required to be eligible for a prize - 4 minutes, 2 seconds. This qualifies the team for the portion of the prize put aside for being able to travel faster than 2 metres per second, which could be up to $900,000 according to reports.

The other two teams in round one, the University of Saskatchewan Space Design Team, and the Kansas City Space Pirates, didn’t make it.

The news of the successful attempt has spread far, with stories. Amongst others, at the Guardian, the Telegraph, Discover and the AP.

There are two more rounds as the competition continues today and tomorrow, we’ll keep you posted. But if you feel so inclined, you can keep up yourself on Twitter, or at the Spaceward Foundation's live coverage.

Posted by Katharine Sanderson
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Nature reporter Jeff Tollefson is at the United Nations climate summit from 2-6 November 2009 in Barcelona, Spain. It is the last negotiating period before the seminal climate summit in Copenhagen in December. You can read his full reports over at our In the Field blog.

Big heads of state

I arrived at the conference this morning only to encounter global leaders with unusually large heads pulling funny money out of one box labelled "aid" and putting it into another labelled "climate change." It was a short stunt by Oxfam - and just one of many put on by various activist groups each day - intended to raise awareness of the danger that rich countries will simply reduce development aid as they increase funding for adaptation and mitigation. Developing countries have made this a central part of their platform going into Copenhagen - any climate financing must be in addition to existing development aid. ...more...

Safeguarding primary forests under REDD

And now back to the case of the missing 10-word phrase, which says that any payments for reduced deforestation should include "safeguards against the conversion of natural forests to forest plantations." Just for amusement, here's the gist in UN climate speak: It was in "Non-paper No. 11" but was left out of "Non-paper No.18" when negotiators gathered for a final session before departing Bangkok last month. ...more...

Nature Geo stirs things up with deforestation analysis

This afternoon has been all about deforestation. Environmentalists are busy tracking the debate about an 10-word phrase - mysteriously deleted at the last talks in Bangkok - that is designed to prevent natural forests from being converted into plantations. But I'll deal with that issue in my next post and move on to a Nature Geoscience commentary that has caused quite a buzz here in Barcelona by downgrading the relative contribution of carbon emissions from deforestation. ...more...

Afternoon updates from the Africans, EU

Following up on yesterday's agreement, the leader of the African Group said during an afternoon press conference he is "guardedly optimistic" about the talks going forward. But Sudan's Lumumba Di-Aping refused to give any ground on developing countries' demands that rich countries curb emissions by 40 percent by 2020. ...more...

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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