The Great Beyond

What’s been on The Great Beyond this week and a few extras...

September 28, 2007
Creationist film row / Accordion news: smoking ban benefits bands / Bizarre radio burst baffles astronomers / Oxygen is older than we thought

September 27, 2007
China dam threatens ‘catastrophe’ / Quantum computing advances

September 26, 2007
Europe debates creationism / No place like home for crocs / New species found in Vietnam / Nasa prepares for Dawn

September 25, 2007
Acupuncture 'better than medicine' / Nutrients drive frog deformities / Public view of global warming pt 2 / New nuclear plants proposed / Rapid bird flu test

September 24, 2007
Three tales from NASA / HIV vaccine setback

Other Nature blog posts you may have missed
Climate Feedback: Lovelock and Rapley’s cure for global warming
Nascent: the Nature Podcast is reborn!

Ones that got away
James ‘DNA’ Watson interviewed, in the Union Tribune
How drugs get their names, in the Indianapolis Star
Why cars should look more like animals, in the Daily Telegraph

The Great Beyond will be back on Monday.

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Richard Dawkins is annoyed. Having been interviewed for a film entitled ‘Crossroads’ about science and religion he was surprised to find he was actually appearing in ‘Expelled’, a film promoting intelligent design (NY Times, Spiegel). “At no time was I given the slightest clue that these people were a creationist front,” he told the Times. This isn’t the first time Dawkins has had trouble with a creationist film crew.

It’s not just Dawkins though. Leading science blogger PZ Myers also features in the film and has previously written about how underhand the interviews were, and how the producers responded to his complaints. “We were lied to, and they tricked us. It's that simple. They ought to simply 'fess up to it — it's not as if we can take legal action against them or do anything to suppress their movie, since we all signed quite legal releases,” he states in his comments on the NY Times piece.

In a press release from last month Walt Ruloff, co-executive producer of the film, said: “The incredible thing about Expelled is that we don't resort to manipulating our interviews for the purpose of achieving the 'shock effect,' something that has become common in documentary film these days. People will be stunned to actually find out what elitist scientists proclaim, which is that a large majority of Americans are simpletons who believe in a fairy tale.”

But don’t believe this blog. As the Expelled website will tell you “‘Big Science Academy’ is proud to have the support of the ‘Mainstream Press’ in stifling the rise of freedom of speech in our science classrooms. In so many ways, ‘Big Science’ and ‘Big Media’ are on exactly the same page, when it comes to making sure that dissenters and troublemakers are properly expelled.”

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Policy | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Smoking bans have an unintended consequence, according to research in this week’s BMJ. John Garvey, a medic in Ireland, found that accordions played at traditional music sessions in previously smoke filled pubs were cleaner and possibly sound better as a result of the ban in that country (AFP, LA Times). “One repairer commented that the deposition of dirt could be substantial enough to affect the pitch of the reed,” his letter in the BMJ states.

“It’s a remarkable analogy in that you’ve got an instrument that’s basically performing much the same way as the lung and responding much the same way as the lung,” said Kirby Donnelly, head of environmental and occupational health at Texas A&M’s School of Rural Public Health (Health Day).

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Health and medicine, Neat technologies | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An “entirely new” astronomical phenomenon has been announced this week by scientists analysing radio telescope data. With only one observation though no one has any real idea what it is or what it means. Researchers discovered a powerful burst of radio waves when going over some old data. And despite their best efforts they haven’t been able to find anything similar (press release 1, press release 2).

“Their first response was, ‘Ooo, can we observe this event again?’ They spent several days staring in the same direction but it didn't deign to reappear,” said John Reynolds, an astronomer contacted by the team who discovered the pulse (The Australian). Despite this, the researchers say in their paper in Science that “hundreds of similar events could occur every day and act as insightful cosmological probes”.

“We think there are probably many of these bursts every day that we are just not detecting because we don't have the right kind of surveys of the sky looking for them,” study author Maura McLaughlin of West Virginia University told Reuters. “We think it has got to be some sort of catastrophic event happening in another galaxy - like two stars colliding and merging or maybe a black hole. Something kind of exotic.”

Astrophysicist Valerie Connaughton, from the University of Alabama, though cautions that no radio burst have ever been associated with these events (Science Now). Over at Space.com there is the suggestion that if these bursts are numerous they could help filter data from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, and thus help detect the gravity waves predicted by Einstein's theory of relativity. The story is also covered by Sky and Telescope.

Image: Visible-light (negative greyscale) and radio (contours) image of Small Magellanic Cloud and area where burst originated / Lorimer et al, NRAO/AUI/NSF

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Space and astronomy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Rocks from a core nearly a kilometre long show oxygen appeared on Earth millions of years earlier than previously thought. In the past it was thought oxygen first appeared somewhere around 2.3 or 2.4 billion years ago – known as the Great Oxidation Event – but the new rock cores show there was at least a whiff of oxygen around 100 million years earlier (Reuters, AP).

A group of researchers from Maryland found unexpected variations in sulfur chemistry in a section of a 908m long rock core of Mt. McRae Shale from Australia’s Hamersley Basin. Another team from Arizona State University then found corresponding variations in metal abundance. Taken together these indicated the presence of oxygen in a section of the core dated as older than the Great Oxidation Event.

“The Mount McRae record of sulfur isotopes captures the widespread and possibly permanent activation of the oxidative sulfur cycle for perhaps the first time in Earth's history,” write Alan J. Kaufman and co. in this week’s Science. “The data suggest that oxygenation of the surface ocean preceded pervasive and persistent atmospheric oxygenation by 50 million years or more.” Ariel Anbar’s team found the same rock was enriched with the metals molybdenum and rhenium. Reactions involving oxygen probably weathered these metals out of crustal minerals into the oceans, before they went on to form part of the shale. ”These findings point to the presence of small amounts of O2 in the environment more than 50 million years before the start of the Great Oxidation Event.”

The instant reaction might be ‘so what’ – at most this pushes back our estimates of when oxygen appeared by less than 5%. However the finding could have important implications for life on Earth. The Great Oxidation Event saw Earth go from oxygen-poor to oxygen-rich very quickly. These new findings could suggest ancestors of plants were producing oxygen before this event. “What we have now are new lines of evidence for oxygen in the environment 50 to 100 million years before its big rise,” says Anbar (NSF press release).

“We believe that these findings are a significant step in our understanding of the oxygenation of Earth because they link changes in the environment with that of the biosphere,” adds Kaufman (UM press release).

Image: new findings reveal the importance of oxygen in the environment shortly before the deposition of this massive formation of iron oxide--rust--in the Hamersley Basin in Western Australia / AD Anbar, ASU

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Earth, environment & ecology | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

China has admitted that the massive, and massively controversial, Three Gorges Dam has all the makings of an environmental disaster. “If no preventive measures are taken, the project could lead to catastrophe,” unnamed officials are quoted as saying in state news source Xinhua. Critics have been saying since before construction of the dam began that it would cause huge environmental damage. Previously however China has played down these concerns, lauding the power it will generate and the protection against flooding it offers.

A two-day forum in Wuhan this week heard that erosion caused by the dam was already triggering landslides. Huang Xuebin, head of the Headquarters for Prevention and Control of Geological Disasters in the Three Gorges Reservoir, claimed waves up to 50 meters high had been triggered by landsides into the reservoir created by the dam (Xinhua). This claim of 50 m high waves is repeated by AFP, the Independent, and the Guardian, although it seems highly fanciful. Problems with pollution and erosion are also being reported.

Previous reports have highlighted the damage done to the environment and to archaeological sites by the damming process, which created a 40 cubic kilometre lake. Nevertheless, the confession that the still-unfinished dam is doing any damage is unusual. The Times calls it an “unprecedented admission of blame” and it has generated massive interest from the world’s press (WSJ, Guardian, Sidney Morning Herald, BBC, AP).

A full briefing on the dam from last year is on Nature News (subscription required). Some key numbers:
Length: 2.3 kilometres
Cost: US$25 billion (official estimate)
Completion date: 2009

Image: 60 km stretch of Yangtze River with construction site of the Three Gorges Dam to the left / NASA

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Earth, environment & ecology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Scientists in the UK have made a major step in quantum computing by demonstrating that superconducting electrical circuits can be used to send information between two stores of quantum information (AFP, Reuters). The advance is detailed in two papers in this week's Nature – one by Silanpaa and colleagues and the other by Johannes Majer and colleagues.

Silanpaa and co connected their storage mechanisms for quantum information (qubits) via a cavity in which an electromagnetic wave had been established. Majer and co did a similar thing, but using ‘virtual’ photons (“weak perturbations of their cavity's quantum light field” according to an accompanying News and Views article, subscription required). As if quantum computing wasn’t difficult enough, another paper from last week’s Nature is also relevant, one authored by Houck et al. They detailed a ‘single-photon gun’ that can be used to generate and guide photons in an electrical circuit

What does this all mean though? Basically, for quantum computing to work we need to be able to transfer information stored in qubits to other qubits. Previously this had only been done between qubits that were (relatively) close to each other; this work shows it can be done over (relatively) large distances. Here’s what the News and Views piece makes of it all: “these papers represent confident steps towards the ultimate goal of a viable, large-scale quantum computer.”.

Yale, where many of these researchers are based, has a press release on this too.

Image: “coplanar waveguide cavity connecting two superconducting phase qubits at each end” / Michael Kemper

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Neat technologies, Physics & Mathematics | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Europe’s human rights body is considering declaring the teaching of creationism as science a potential threat to human rights (Reuters). The parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, responsible for the European Convention on Human Rights, will next week vote on a resolution entitled The dangers of creationism in education. This calls on member states to “oppose firmly any attempts at teaching creationism as a scientific discipline”.

“The aim of this report is not to question or to fight a belief. It is not a matter of opposing belief and science, but it is necessary to prevent belief from opposing science,” assembly member Anne Brasseur told Reuters.

The resolution, which if accepted would not be binding on council members, states

If we are not careful, creationism could become a threat to human rights which are a key concern of the Council of Europe. ... The war on the theory of evolution and on its proponents most often originates in forms of religious extremism which are closely allied to extreme right-wing political movements. The creationist movements possess real political power. The fact of the matter, and this has been exposed on several occasions, is that some advocates of strict creationism are out to replace democracy by theocracy.

Although creationism and intelligent design are not as prevalent in Europe as they are in the United States there have been controversial cases (eg The Guardian). A previous version of the report drew some criticism from ID proponents but the usual suspects on both sides seem strangely silent this time. Tune in next week for the fireworks...

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Policy | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Relocated crocodiles do a reptilian impression of homing pigeons, swimming hundreds of kilometres to get back to their old haunts (The Australian, ABC, UPI). This is bad news for those advocating relocating dangerous crocodiles that threaten humans to distant regions – they’ll probably just come back. Craig Franklin of the University of Queensland found one beast swam 400 kilometres in 20 days to get home. “We often thought crocodiles tired very quickly but here we show very clearly that they are capable of moving marathon distances for days on end,” he said (UQ press release).

Franklin and colleagues, including the late ‘crocodile hunter’ Steve Irwin, moved three large Crocodylus porosus 56, 99 and 411 km away from home. “All crocodiles spent time around their release site before returning rapidly and apparently purposefully to their capture locations,” they report in the PLOS One journal (paper, PLOS press release).

Crocodiles probably use factors such as its position to the sun, magnetic fields, sight, and smell to navigate, according to Franklin. “Crocodiles are more closely related to birds than they are any other reptile so they are possibly using navigation systems similar to birds.”

Image: Irwin and team from Australia Zoo restraining crocodile / Craig Franklin

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Biology & Biotechnology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A survey in a remote region of Vietnam has discovered 11 species previously unknown to science (press release). The survey of the ‘Green Corridor’ also yielded 10 other species that may also be new - explaining why the Times hails 21 new species and Reuters, AFP, the Guardian, the Saigon Times, and Reuters again hail 11. “You only discover so many new species in very special places, and the Green Corridor is one of them,” said Chris Dickinson, WWF’s Chief Technical Adviser in the area. “Several large mammal species were discovered in the 1990s in the same forests, which means that these latest discoveries could be just the tip of the iceberg.”

The new species include a snake, two butterflies, five orchids, and three other plants, according to the WWF, which made the announcement today (although these animals were actually discovered between 2005 and 2006). Of the orchids, three are leafless and live on decaying matter.

Pictures
New snake species, white-lipped keelback / Raoul Bain / WWF Greater Mekong
New butterfly from the genus Zela / Alexander Monastyrskii
Rare leafless orchid / Leonid Averyanov / WWF Greater Mekong
As yet unnamed aspidistra / Leonid Averyanov / WWF Greater Mekong

Main image: rainforest in the Green Corridor, Annamite Mountain Range, Vietnam / Leonid Averyanov / WWF Greater Mekong

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Biology & Biotechnology, Earth, environment & ecology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The long-delayed Dawn space probe may finally get off Earth soon (Space.com, AFP, AP). NASA is moving towards a 27th September launch for Dawn, which will visit the rocks Vesta and Ceres in the asteroid belt (press release). After launch the probe will unfurl solar panels 65 feet wide, tip to tip, fire up one of its three ion engines and accelerate away from Earth very slowly (more from NASA). After many delays and threats of cancellation Dawn is finally looking likely to get off the ground (see Nature – subscription required).

Results from Vesta and Ceres may shed light on the process of planetary formation – hence the name Dawn: it is designed to study objects dating from the inception of the Solar System,. These are the two biggest objects in the asteroid belt and details of the differences between them could provide key insights. “In my view, we’re going to be visiting some of the last unexplored worlds in the inner solar system,” said chief engineer Marc Rayman. The Christian Science Monitor goes into detail on Vesta and Ceres, and why they are so important, despite being ‘tiny, planet wannabes’.

If Dawn is successful this will be the first time that a space craft has orbited two bodies in the solar system (excluding the Earth and the Moon). This has been made possible due to the ion engines, which accelerate xenon ions to super-high speeds and spit them out to provide thrust (Dawn info pdf). NASA says at maximum thrust each engine produces “about the amount of force involved in holding a single piece of notebook paper in your hand” and at at maximum throttle it would take Dawn four days to reach 60 miles per hour. Anyone thinking any jalopy can do better should be warned though – after a year Dawn will hit 5,500 miles an hour having burned through only 15 gallons of fuel, according to Reuters.

Image: Artist concept of Dawn / William K. Hartmann courtesy of UCLA

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Neat technologies, Space and astronomy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A new study appears to show that sticking needles in people is better than conventional therapies for relieving back pain. This has generated a lot of heat from the world’s media, who have been quick to claim that acupuncture is better than those pesky drugs doctors make you take (extended list below). Researchers in Germany found that after 6 months of treatment 47.6% of those with chronic low back pain given genuine acupuncture felt better, compared with 44.2% of those given sham acupuncture, and 27.4% given conventional therapy (abstract).

‘Real’ treatment involved using traditional Chinese acupuncture principles. Sham treatment involved the painful sounding ‘superficial needling’ at ‘non-acupuncture points’. Conventional therapy was a combination of drugs, physical therapy and exercise.

Does this mean acupuncture is ‘better than medicine’? This is dangerous ground for those selling acupuncture, which makes specific claims about the therapeutic benefits of putting needles in certain places. If fake acupuncture works just as well then they’re all going to be out of a job.

There’s an interesting piece how acupuncture does appear to have a measurable effect on the brain on Nature for subscribers.

Headlines
Needles 'are best for back pain' (BBC)
Study: Acupuncture Works for Back Pain (AP)
Acupuncture 'provides twice the pain relief of standard medicine' (Daily Mail)
Back Pain: Moving the Needles (NY Times)
Acupuncture helps back pain, don't ask how (Reuters)
Got a backache? Get acupuncture (AFP)

UPDATE

Blogs having a field day:
DC’s Improbable Science says there has been “a real orgy of bad science reporting about this interesting paper” and includes the interesting titbit that the BBC story is now very different to its original version.
Bad Science goes into full on geek mode about the placebo effect. “Back pain is clearly a problem which requires more than simply pharmaceutical pills. The question is whether an elaborate, expensive, gimmicky and theatrical placebo ritual is an effective use of money, or whether other, cheaper, more pragmatic, honest psychosocial interventions might be more appropriate and cost effective.”

Image: Punchstock

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Health and medicine | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Run off from farming is driving up numbers of horrifically deformed frogs (AP, Reuters, Wisconsin State Journal, Rocky Mountain News). New research from the University of Colorado at Boulder shows that nitrogen and phosphorus used to increase crop yields are leading to the amphibians sprouting extra legs and other malformations (research abstract). “You can get five or six extra limbs. You can get no hind limbs. You can get all kinds of really bizarre, sick and twisted stuff,” evolutionary biologist Pieter Johnson told Reuters.

The problem first came to light in the 1990s when a group of Minnesota school children stumbled across a pond full of deformed frogs. Suspects included pesticides, parasites and UV rays. Actually, according to Johnson and colleagues the extra limbs are caused by trematode parasites – parasites that are increasingly prevalent due to farming run off (press release). By constructing artificial ponds to recreate frog / parasite habitats they determined the key role of nutrients.

Nutrients promote algae growth; algae growth increases snail populations that host parasites; snails then release the parasites into ponds and lakes; here they prey on tadpoles, causing cysts in developing limbs which cause the malformations. The finding could be important for other parasite-spread problems linked to nutrient supply, including cholera, malaria and West Nile virus.

Image: University of Colorado & Peiter Johnson

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Biology & Biotechnology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

At the end of last month we highlighted a new paper showing that the public really do believe in global warming. That study wasn’t good enough for the BBC though – they wanted their own research (story, followed up by Reuters, PA). Over 22,000 people were surveyed for the BBC in 21 countries to coincide with the UN summit on climate change (coverage of that is over on Nature News). Of this sample of the world’s population, eight out of 10 think “human activity, including industry and transportation, is a significant cause of climate change” (pdf).

Strangely 9 out of 10 of those surveyed think action is necessary to combat global warming, which would seem to imply that at least 600 million people (one in ten of the world’s population) believe we should be actively attempting to change our climate against natural processes. Leaving that aside, the public view seems to be in line with scientists: global warming is real. Now if only they could be convinced on homeopathy and astrology.

As an interesting aside BBC Head of News Peter Horrocks said recently he thought the weight of scientific opinion behind climate change being caused by man was “not overwhelming”.

Image: The Andes Mountains / NASA

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Earth, environment & ecology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The first application to build a new nuclear power reactor since the 1979 Three Mile Island accident has been filed in the United States. Wittily titled energy company NRG Energy wants to build two new reactors in Texas (San Antonio Express, Daily Texan, Dallas Morning News). If things go the company’s way the Advanced Boiling Water Reactors could be online in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

“It is a new day for energy in America,” said David Crane, the company’s president and CEO (press release). “... But equally, this announcement heralds a new day for the environment. Advanced nuclear technology is the only currently viable large-scale alternative to traditional coal-fuelled generation to produce none of the traditional air emissions - and most importantly in this age of climate change - no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases.”

Not so says Ken Kramer, director of the Austin chapter of the Sierra Club – one of America’s largest environmental groups. He told the Star Telegram that nuclear power still involves significant carbon-dioxide emissions in the mining of uranium and construction of the facilities. The proposed reactors will be on the site of an existing nuclear plant but this is unlikely to make them uncontroversial. Still, the Wall Street Journal reckons this might just be “a nuclear renaissance” and it says regulators are expecting up to 29 applications in the next 15 months.

Image: Artist’s impression of the new units / NRG

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Earth, environment & ecology, Neat technologies, Policy | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the biggest problems in controlling pandemics is working out exactly how far they’ve actually spread. Determining who has got bird flu, SARS, or the latest disease-du-jour is vital. So a new handheld disease detector that can quickly sort the infected from those with colds, flu or plain hypochondria is potentially hugely important (AFP, Reuters, Bloomberg).

Researchers in Singapore have developed a ‘mini-lab’ that can identify H5N1 (bird flu) in under half an hour, compared to several hours for existing methods (AFP). The new test is also cheaper. “Compared to commercially available tests, the bioassay is equally sensitive and is 440% faster and 2,000–5,000% cheaper,” the researchers say in their paper in our sister publication Nature Medicine (abstract).

A throat-swab from a potentially infected individual is combined with magnetic particles. A liquid drop containing the sample is then manipulated using magnetic forces to separate out viral RNA. This is then isolated, purified and concentrated before being analyzed. “The novelty of our method lies in the way that the droplet itself becomes a pump, valve, mixer, solid-phase extractor and real-time thermocycler. Complex biochemical tasks can thus be processed in a fashion similar to that of a traditional biological laboratory on a miniature scale,” said study author Juergen Pipper of the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore (press release pdf).

Image: IBN

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Health and medicine | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It’s been a busy weekend for NASA stories: the space agency has announced the discovery of caves on Mars, said yes to a ‘black hole finder’ satellite, and given preliminary approval to resurrect a British space probe for a mission to the Moon.

Mars caves

With now almost standard hyperbole the Mars caves have been hailed as potential shelters for future astronauts or reservoirs of life (AFP). Actually though this story first appeared in March this year (Nature, subscription required). All that’s new is the results have now been published (abstract).

Images from the Mars Odyssey orbiter show dark circles on the surface of the planet up to 250 meters wide (press release). As these were cooler than the surrounding surface during the day and warmer at night researchers think they could be openings to underground caverns. “Their thermal behavior is not as steady as large caves on Earth that often maintain a fairly constant temperature, but it is consistent with these being deep holes in the ground,” said astrogeologist Glen Cushing of the Northern Arizona University.

Image: NASA. Explanation.

Continue reading "Three tales from NASA" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Space and astronomy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

HIV researchers suffered a blow at the weekend when drug company Merck pulled a major vaccine trial (BBC, AFP, AP, NY Times, press release). Testing of the V520 vaccine was stopped after it was found to be ineffective. “It is a huge disappointment because this vaccine has shown promise all the way through, but it's only when you get in on these big trials that you start to see how the vaccine behaves. Although in earlier studies we saw beautiful immune responses, it doesn't look like this immune response translates into something that could protect people against HIV infection,” said Glenda Gray, one of the principal investigators (AFP).

The vaccine used a weakened version of a common cold virus carrying three synthetic HIV genes. The trial enrolled 3,000 HIV-negative volunteers at high risk of HIV infection at sites around the world. An interim analysis conducted on half of these people found no benefit from the vaccine. There were 24 cases of infection in the 741 participants who received the vaccine and 21 cases in the 762 who didn’t.

Image: HIV virus / Getty

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Health and medicine | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

What’s been on The Great Beyond this week and a few extras...

September 21, 2007
Velociraptors: less scary than thought / Drought makes rainforest greener / Pimp my moon buggy

September 20, 2007
Adieu Moore’s Law? / Worshiping in space / Bluefin tuna fishing ‘ban’

September 19, 2007
A barcode for every animal / Farewell to the stethoscope / Mystery illness follows meteor / NASA needs YOU

September 18, 2007
Californian car climate change court case / Yale returns ‘borrowed’ artefacts / Steel shield for Chernobyl

September 17, 2007
California's new stem cell supremo / Who’d be a whale? / Northwest passage in ice opens / Was dark matter hot or cold?

Other Nature blog posts you may have missed
Spoonful of Medicine: would grad students do anything for their PIs?
The Sceptical Chymist: six degrees of scientist separation
The Niche: why words are weapons in the stem cell debate

Ones that got away
Wired goes ‘Inside Baghdad’s Forensic Bomb Squad’
Relentless squid attack ecologist (Juneau Empire via KSJ)
WSJ looks at outside-the-box awards for cancer research

The Great Beyond will be back on Monday.

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Velociraptors were not the lizard-like beasts we all thought. Researchers have discovered they were actually just “unusual looking birds”, even to the point of having feathers. ‘Those dinosaurs from Jurassic Park’, as the world’s press has determined they must be called, were actually just killer turkeys according to the Guardian, free-paper Metro, and others. (Only Reuters’s coverage doesn’t mention Jurassic Park in the first line.)

“The velociraptor might have looked like a big chicken with a long tail, claws and teeth,” according to lead researcher Mark Norell of the American Museum of Natural History in New York (Bloomberg). “There is basically no difference between birds and their closely related dinosaur ancestors. If animals such as velociraptor were alive today our first impression would be they were very unusual-looking birds.” he added (various).

Norell and colleagues found ‘quill knobs’ on a raptor fossil unearthed in Mongolia in 1998 (Science: abstract, full text). These knobs are fixing points where feathers meet bone and are found on many modern birds. “A lack of quill knobs does not necessarily mean that a dinosaur did not have feathers. Finding quill knobs on velociraptor, though, means that it definitely had feathers. This is something we’d long suspected but no one had been able to prove,” said co-author Alan Turner (in The Times, AFP, BBC and others).

Kudos to The Sun for their imagining of what the dinosaur looks like (if only in their art editors mind).

Image: (A) Dorsal view of right ulna of Velociraptor (B) Detail of red box with arrows showing six evenly spaced feather quill knobs / Science

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Biology & Biotechnology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In one to file squarely under the ‘you what?’ heading researchers have found that a major drought made the Amazon greener, not browner. Satellite observations showed a ‘green-up’ in response to an intense drought in 2005. “These findings suggest that Amazon forests, though threatened by human-caused deforestation, fire, and possibly by more severe long-term droughts, may be more resilient to climate changes than ecosystem models assume,” according Scott Saleska and colleagues’ Science paper (abstract).

Some models predict that global warming could kill off the Amazon rainforest by causing “intense drought” (Live Science). The forest should respond to drought by cutting evaporation from its leaves and cutting photosynthesis. In a feedback loop this reduces the amount of water in the atmosphere, perpetuating the drought.

Actually, during the 2005 drought trees used water from deep roots to take advantage of the cloudless skies and have a bit of a growth spurt, explains the Arizona Daily Star. “If you anthropomorphize a little bit these trees are not dumb. They’ve been living here tens of millions of years,” Saleska, an ecologist at the University of Arizona, told the paper. However this only works for a while. “You take away enough water for a long enough time, the trees are going to die,” he adds.

There is a wonderful extended feature on the whole issue from last year on NASA’s Earth Observatory website.

Image: Getty

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Biology & Biotechnology, Earth, environment & ecology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

NASA has unveiled details of new plans for its moon base, including high speed pressurised vehicles that can be driven without bulky spacesuits. “They’re basically habitats on wheels. If you can picture this thing, it's kind of a combination between a spacesuit and a sports car,” according to Mike Gernhardt, NASA's lead for extravehicular physiology systems and performance projects (Space.com). NASA is also considering shipping one mega-module base to the moon, instead of alternative plans’ suggestions for a modular system that could be assembled in situ (NY Times).

Back to the buggies ... which will have exterior mounted spacesuits drivers can enter via hatchways. Capable of handling two-week moon excursions of up to 600 miles with astronauts protected from radiation by a layer of water (NY Times) they will also have seats that can fold down into beds according to Gernhard (Space.com again). Current estimates of cost are “more than a Ferrari”, a quote Space.com attributes to Gernhard and the Times to Geoff Yoder, an official working on the lunar plans.

Florida Today call this the “RV-like approach”. It says this is important as astronauts in spacesuits take “a physical beating” with cuts and blisters after just a few hours in suits. Maybe NASA should fund more flexible spacesuits?

Image: NASA

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Space and astronomy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Since it was coined by Gordon Moore in 1965 the doctrine that holds that the number of transistors that can be put on a computer chip will double every two years has been one of the most oft quoted scientific laws in existence. Now it seems, the end is in sight – Moore himself said this week he thinks the rule will only hold for another few years (Reuters, Wired, The Inquirer). “Another decade, a decade and a half, I think we'll hit something fairly fundamental,” Moore, co-founder of chip-maker Intel, said at a conference on Tuesday.

This ‘something fairly fundamental’ is the laws of physics. IT companies are simply running out of space on chips to put more transistors, according to Reuters. As Nature noted in its coverage of the law’s 40 birthday (subscription required):

If his law is extrapolated to the middle of the twenty-first century, it says that a transistor will be as small as a single atom. ... Even before then, chips will get so small that the insulating films will be too thin to prevent short circuits. And the heat generated by electrical currents in dense circuitry threatens it with meltdown.

Strangely, just days ago another Intel man – chief technology officer Justin Rattner – explained at great length to IT Business why the law was going to be live and kicking for some time yet. Moore has actually predicted the end of his law before (Wired). Even this time Ars Technica thinks it doesn’t really matter anyway – a decade is a loooooong time in technology terms. “My point here is that in 10 to 15 years, Ray Kurzweil may descend bodily from heaven with an all-star cast of futurists to lead us into the Great Beyond ...,” it says in a quote that I’ve included mainly because it contains my blog’s name.

More on Moore’s law.

Image: Getty

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Neat technologies | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Being an astronaut is not easy at the best of times. However it is a lot harder if you have to pray 80 times a day. This was the dilemma facing Malaysia’s Muslim astronaut candidates until new guidelines were produced, as reported in a much syndicated AFP news item. Actually this story previously surfaced last year (in New Scientist for example) and the new guidelines for Muslims in space were reported in May in The Times. Still, it’s such a good story it stands being told again.

Muslims are traditionally expected to pray five times a day but the ‘day’ on the International Space Station is 16 times shorter than on Earth, meaning they could be expected to pray 80 times in 24 hours. One of two Malay candidates currently in training will ship into space as part of a deal struck with Russia – Malaysia bought 18 jet fighters from Russia and got a free trip into space as part of the deal.

However their religious dilemma has been solved – Malaysia’s Department of Islamic Development has produced guidelines on how a Muslim should behave in space. Previous Muslim astronauts have had to work things out on their own. “In difficult conditions, Islam has conveniences to ensure that religious worship can still be performed,” says the department. Praying is only necessary five times a day, following the time at the launch site in Russia. If water is not available astronauts can perform washing rituals by symbolically sweeping holy dust onto the face and hands.

This answers most of the problems New Scientist identified last year when they wrote about this issue, although AFP is strangely silent on the issue of how you should make sure you pray towards Mecca when in space.

Image: NASA

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Space and astronomy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

To the despair of sushi lovers the European Union has banned fishing for bluefin tuna, according to headlines on Reuters, AFP, BBC. Actually what the EU has done is close this year’s fishing, as more bluefin have already been caught by the seven states in Europe that hunt the giant fish than quotas allow (press release). “Clearly there are problems both of over fishing a stock already threatened with collapse and of equity between the Member States concerned,” said Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg.

Europe has a quota of 16,779.5 tonnes of bluefin, allocated by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. Slightly unfairly, it seems some of the seven states haven’t caught their full share, but so much fish has been landed by the rest that “that the total EU quota has effectively been exhausted”, according to the Commission. Some fishing forums are not impressed with the ‘ban’. “Calling this a ‘ban’ is a joke ... this is nothing more than a close to the season, to be opened again fully when next season starts,” says one enraged angler.

Several of the reports on this say demand for tuna has been pushed up by European appetites for sushi and sashimi. AFP notes the Mediterranean’s natural replacement rate is 15,000 to 16,000 tonnes. This illustrates a rather fundamental problem with the whole industry – they’re allocated a catch of nearly 800 tonnes more fish than is sustainable. Build in the amount taken by illegal catches and the poor old tuna is headed one way only – to extinction.

Contrast the current “ban” with Borg’s statement from just a week or so ago when he welcomed the latest divvying up of tuna stocks by the ICCAT. A ‘recovery plan’ will allow Europe to catch 16,249.92 tonnes for 2008; 15,679.75 for 2009 and 14,539.41 for 2010.

We have previously had a major look at how the EU sets its quotas and attempts to be more scientific about it. The NY Times has also previously highlighted arguments of tuna quotas, and is currently asking whether we’re ‘ready for life without bluefin tuna’.

Image: Measuring the length of a bluefin / NOAA

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Biology & Biotechnology, Earth, environment & ecology, Policy | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Experts putting together a ‘telephone directory of species’ are meeting this week in Taipei, Taiwan. A database of so-called DNA barcodes could allow scientists to rapidly and cheaply identify species from samples. This could assist in clamping down on illegally traded rare species, keep dangerous products and contaminants out of the food chain and revolutionise biology research.

The idea involves using a short DNA sequence from an agreed-upon position in the genome for species-level identification. David Schindel, executive secretary of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life, said a global reference library would be "a kind of telephone directory for all species" (AP). Barcoders are already working with the US Food and Drug Administration on applications ranging from fighting illegal imports to understanding animal migrations (Reuters). On a similar note AFP says mislabelled fish could be a thing of the past thanks to barcoding – a good thing if the fish in question is potentially deadly pufferfish.

“DNA barcoding is emerging as a global standard for identifying species in basic taxonomic research, biodiversity studies and in government regulation,” Schindel told UPI. That view has been controversial in the past. Earlier this year Nature reported on attempts to sort a row over whether barcoding missed crucial information about organisms. That row has been going since the concept was first mooted (subscription required).

A good background piece in the Toronto Star notes that 31,000 species have been coded since the concept of genetic barcoding was published in 2003. In a blog post from the conference The Scientist says we have thus far identified only about 1.8 million of the estimated 10 million species on our planet and barcodes could help with this. A second blog post is almost entirely about Taiwanese street cuisine.

Image: Getty

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Biology & Biotechnology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Recognising doctors could be much harder in future. Moves to get rid of the white coat are already progressing in the UK and now it seems MP3 players could replace the venerable stethoscope (Telegraph, AFP, Times, CanWest, The Canadian Press). Using players’ built in microphones is as good if not better for listening to chest sounds than using a stethoscope, according to research from the University of Alberta in Canada.

“The quality, clarity and purity of the loud sounds were better than I have ever heard with a stethoscope,” Neil Skjodt, a respiratory medicine expert from the university, told the European Respiratory Society’s annual congress in Stockholm.

Skjodt was browsing in a store a couple of years ago looking for an electronic microphone and decided to use one built into an MP3 player. “That’s when I had my eureka moment and realized [the microphone from the MP3 player] was far better than anything I was carrying around in my pocket,” he said (CanWest). Another bonus of using digital music players is recordings can be sent to other doctors for a second opinion. This could be useful given previous research suggests some medical students have a “woeful lack of stethoscope skills” (press release, study).

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Health and medicine, Neat technologies | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hundreds of people are reported to be ill after visiting the site of a suspected meteor impact in Peru. The exact numbers aren’t clear, with Peru’s La Republica and RPP saying 600, AFP saying 200, and others playing safe with “hundreds”. There is also some confusion over the size of the crater formed, with reports putting it between 30 and 10m wide and 5 or 6m deep – The Guardian and others have pictures, so you can make your own estimate.

“Lots of people from the town of Carancas have fallen ill. They have headaches, eye problems, irritated skin, nausea and vomiting,” local mayor Nestor Quispe told the BBC. “I think there's also a certain psychological fear in the community.”

There are reports of ‘noxious gases’ emanating from the crater. Jorge Lopez, director of the health department in the southern state of Puno where the crater is located, said residents’ health problems were “caused by the gas they have inhaled after the crash” (AP). But meteor expert Ursula Marvin said it was more likely they were down to dust raised by the impact.

Anyone seeking a mass of informed debate, random speculation, and sci fi references should head over to Slashdot.

UPDATE - 24/09/07

Experts seem to have confirmed that it was a meteor (AP). Evidence on what may have caused the spate of illnesses has not materialized. Speculation and rumour are rife though. The best theory so far is that the meteor was actually a nuclear powered satellite shot down by an American space weapons research programme (Pravda).

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Health and medicine, Space and astronomy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Those of you who can’t afford a private flight into space take heart. NASA has opened recruitment for its 2009 class of astronauts under the cornball slogan ‘NASA has space for you’. If you’re between 5’2” and 6’3”, a US citizen and prepared to travel you could be on your way to space. “Possible destinations may include, but are not limited to, Texas, Florida, California, Russia, Kazakhstan, the International Space Station and the moon,” says NASA (job advert, press release).

Starting salaries of between $59,493 and $130,257 are on offer for the 10 to 15 people selected, according to the USA Jobs site. Applicants are requested to have a degree in engineering, science, or maths and three years relevant experience. It seems teaching counts as relevant experience but sadly being a science journalist does not. “Typically, successful applicants have significant qualifications in engineering or science, or extensive experience flying high-performance jet aircraft,” notes the press release.

The Houston Chronicle says this is the first time in nearly 30 years that the space agency has issued a call for recruits to fly on craft other than the shuttle. Space.com adds that this will be the first set of ‘space-flyers’ since 2004. Unlike the South Korean recruitment programme it does not seem at this stage that NASA plans to use an American Idol style TV contest to select their next space farer, although in the wake of the Nowak affair applicants can expect some fairly rigorous psychological screening...

Image: Getty

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Space and astronomy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A judge in the US has thrown out a lawsuit seeking to hold car manufacturers accountable for global warming. The state of California was claiming millions of dollars from General Motors, Ford, Honda, Toyota, Chrysler and Nissan but a federal court has ruled that the matter is political and not legal (Mercury News, AFP, AP, NY Times, BBC). District Judge Martin Jenkins said a court "injecting itself into the global warming thicket at this juncture would require an initial policy determination of the type reserved for the political branches of government” (various).

Californian officials are considering an appeal. “Obviously, we’re very disappointed with the ruling, and we’re going to read it very carefully. We certainly have the ability to file an appeal with the Ninth Circuit and that will be a part of our calculation,” Ken Alex, the state’s supervising deputy attorney general, told AFP.

Theodore Boutrous Jr, lawyer for the car companies concerned, said, “Our bottom-line point is that global warming presents exceedingly complex policy issues that must be addressed at the national and international levels by Congress and the president, not through lawsuits seeking damages in the federal courts. We are pleased that Judge Jenkins agreed and dismissed this lawsuit” (NY Times).

Image: Getty

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Earth, environment & ecology, Policy | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Yale University has accepted that Peru is the rightful owner of thousands of artefacts removed from the historic Machu Picchu site nearly a century ago (Yale/Peru joint statement). Over 4,000 items including pottery, jewellery and bones were sent to Yale by the re-discoverer of the Inca site, Yale alumnus Hiram Bingham (well covered by Yale Daily News and also by The Hartford Courant, as well as BBC, Reuters, AFP, and others). Peru has been insisting that the artefacts were only loaned and threatening court action unless they are returned.

Inside Higher Ed’s in depth analysis suggests, “The agreement, which extends beyond the artifacts in dispute, promotes the idea of research collaboration between Yale and Peru and ends a bitter legal dispute over a prized collection.” But the LA Times says some Peruvians are still unhappy, citing doubts about the university’s right to retain parts of the collection for “ongoing research”. “It’s good that the pieces are to be sent back, but it's absurd that this doesn’t cover all of them. If Yale wants to continue studying the pieces, they can come to Peru,” said Luis Lumbreras, former director of Peru's National Institute of Culture.

Meanwhile, down in Peru there are increasing fears that the Machu Picchu site itself is crumbling under the feet of growing numbers of tourists (Houston Chronicle).

Image: Machu Picchu by Allard Schmidt / via WikiMedia

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Policy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster is to be encased again, with a new steel sheath erected over the current crumbling concrete sarcophagus. “Today is probably the first time that we can openly look into the eyes of the national and international community and say that a solution to the problem that has long been called the Chernobyl problem was formally found,” said Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko (AP, BBC).

A $505 million contract to design and build the steel cover was yesterday awarded by Ukraine to French-led consortium Novarka (government press release, Le Monde). Other projects will take costs of this next phase of the Chernobyl clean up to $1.39 billion, funded by Ukraine and international donors under the auspices of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD press release).

Called the ‘New Safe Confinement’, an arch-shaped structure 105 metres high, 150 metres long and 260 metres across will be constructed on site and then slid over the reactor. Eventually it is hoped that the reactor and the concrete sarcophagus can be dismantled inside the new cover (AP). Around 95% of the reactors’ original nuclear material is believed to still be inside the concrete casing (BBC).

Work should start in October and finish in 2012. The steel cover is designed to last 100 years and by the end of this time “Chernobyl will not exist anymore” according to Yves-Thibault de Silguy, chairman of Vinci, one of the companies that make up Novarka (AFP). Meanwhile Vinci’s colleague Pierre Berger sees a great opportunity in the disapperance "Cela va permettre de démontrer le savoir-faire français dans un secteur – la déconstruction nucléaire – qui offrira d'énormes débouchés au cours des cinquante prochaines années." [“It will give us an opportunity to demonstrate French savoir-faire in an area – nuclear deconstruction – which is going to open up enormously in the next 50 years”] (Le Monde)

Image: 4th Reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant before the accident / via WikiMedia

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Earth, environment & ecology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine has at last found a new president: Alan Trounson of Monash University in Australia. Our colleague Monya Baker has all the news and responses over at The Niche, the blog she runs for Nature Reports Stem Cells.

Posted by Oliver Morton
Categories: | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

It would seem it’s not a good time to be a whale off the coast of the United States. Last week the papers were full of the news that members of the Makah Tribe were updating their traditional – and long mothballed – hunts by harpooning a gray whale from a speedboat near Seattle then shooting it multiple times (the Seattle Times has a good Q&A and editorial on the topic, it also featured on CNN, AP, NY Times, LA Times, and others). It seems reports they used a machine gun are off the mark though (correction and comment). A recent study shows reports of gray whale numbers recovering are slightly erroneous (study, LA Times report).

The row over whaling is also continuing outside of America - an extremist environmental group is claiming it scuttled a Norwegian whaling ship that sank recently (AFP). "There have been signs that the leakage that led to the sinking may be linked to an open valve in the boat's machine room," the police inspector in charge of the investigation told Reuters.

Back in the US, another cetacean was responsible for massive traffic jams after rubberneckers stopped to peer at the carcass of a blue whale washed ashore in California. Marine scientists told AP it seemed the poor beast had been hit by a ship, with a tell-tale 15 ft bruise found on its back. Although it was hoped the skeleton could be preserved in a museum it was apparently too damaged. The bits of the whale that have not been sent to a local wildlife institute have now been buried (Ventura County Star).

UPDATE – 21/09/07

The LA Times is today reporting that another dead blue whale has been spotted off the California coast, the third in two weeks. “There’s something a little different going on right now and we don’t know what it is,” said Joe Cordaro, National Marine Fisheries Service wildlife biologist.

Image: Gray whale / NOAA

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Earth, environment & ecology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A long-coveted sea route through the arctic has opened thanks to record low sea ice coverage. Satellite images show a direct route past northern Canada – the famous Northwest Passage – is now fully navigable. And a Northeast Passage near Siberia is only partially blocked, according to the European Space Agency (press release). ESA and press reports (including the BBC, Reuters, the Guardian, AP) are implicating global warming in this. However this year’s ice retreat is extreme even by recent standards and it seems unlikely that all the blame can be laid at global warming’s door.

Sea ice this year has smashed previous records (see blog passim) and whatever its cause the opening of the Northwest Passage is likely to be as symbolic of the changing arctic as the decline of the polar bear. As the Telegraph notes, it was realised back in the 15th century that a route round the north America would improve trading routes between Europe and the Far East. A full transit was first completes in 1906, taking three years. The British Library’s history of the sea route notes:

Since Columbus encountered the land barrier of America in 1492, many explorers have ventured into the inhospitable Arctic regions in search of the Northwest Passage, a navigable channel that was believed to connect the North Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. The search is a long chapter of failure, disaster, and tragedy, but also of heroism and endurance, and four frustrating centuries would pass before the goal would finally be achieved.

The opening of the Northwest Passage is likely to further increase the value of the arctic and the efforts of countries in the region to stake claims to the territory (as noted by Reuters, for more see Nature editorial and news story, subscription required).

Image: satellite image mosaic of arctic this month showing Northwest Passage (orange line) and Northeast Passage (blue line) / ESA

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Earth, environment & ecology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The ‘true nature’ of dark matter could be revealed by new computer modelling work (BBC). The modelling, published in Science, suggests in a universe dominated by “warm” dark matter the first stars could have formed from fragments of filaments thousands of light-years long (study abstract, commentary). “The filaments would have been about 9,000 light years long, which is about a quarter the size of the Milky Way galaxy,” according to study leader Liang Gao of Durham University in the UK (press release 1, press release 2). “They would have fragmented in a huge burst of star formation, a spectacular event to contemplate.”

“What is new is we were first to show the properties of these first stars depended so crucially on dark matter,” co-author Tom Theuns, also at Durham, told Reuters. When simulations were run with cold dark matter – the particles of which are less energetic than their warmer brethren – the first stars formed in bunches, rather than in strings. This difference is important as observations could tell us which of the two scenarios is actually true. “If the first constellations can be mapped by future telescopes, the energy of the underlying dark matter may be deduced simply by reading the stars, telling us what dark matter is potentially made of,” says Joanna Baker, associate editor at Science magazine, in AFP’s coverage of the study.

Some of these stars could even be around today – larger stars have shorter life spans but the warm dark matter model predicts that some low mass stars would also be formed. These would still be, as Theuns puts it, “lurking in our galaxy”.

Image: / Science

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Physics & Mathematics, Space and astronomy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What’s been on The Great Beyond this week and a few extras...

Friday September 14, 2007
Foot and Mouth breaks out again / X Prize: ‘We like the moon’ / Row over ‘Rama’s Bridge’

Thursday September 13, 2007
Nowak trial postponed / Tsunami threats trouble shaken Indonesia / X-rays to illuminate ancient documents

Wednesday September 12, 2007
Fruity crime pays for chimps / ‘Hippocratic oath for scientists’ / Pet problems over identity chips / Rover enters Mars crater

Tuesday September 11, 2007
Cliché true, say psychologists / Red tape enrages fertility scientist / Commercial space flight falters

Monday September 10, 2007
Polar bears disappear / Giving genes a human face / Solar powered flight at night

Other Nature blog posts you may have missed
The Sceptical Chymist: which chemicals do chemists hate?
Nascent: ancient DNA in Second Life
Nautilus: Are there too many scientists?

Ones that got away
Higher petrol prices may force down average US waistline
US government sending 23,000 fake vials of germs to unsuspecting Bostonians

The Great Beyond will be back on Monday.

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Foot and Mouth disease has again been detected in the UK. The government hoped it had contained an outbreak from a laboratory earlier this year but new cases were detected this week at a farm some miles from the original source. Chief vet Debby Reynolds said the virus strain in the new cases was “generally” the same as that from the laboratory outbreak (BBC) meaning it is not likely to be a separate incident. Reynolds had said recently she was “satisfied that foot-and-mouth has been eradicated” in the UK (NY Times).

Last week two reports detailed biosafety problems at the scene of the outbreak – which is shared by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’s Institute of Animal Health and private company Merial. Farmers Guardian said they “lifted the lid on the series of astonishing biosecurity lapses that lay behind last month’s outbreak”. Arguments over funding appear to have delayed maintenance work at the labs. The government has pledged to review its institute but some are saying a long, hard look at the department is long overdue.

“Defra underfunded the IAH against the government’s own agreed policy, in the face of [chief science advisor David] King’s advice and knowing that its facilities offered only second-rate containment. It didn’t do too little, too late. It did nothing,” says science policy paper Research Fortnight (subscription required).

Image: Getty

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Biology & Biotechnology, Policy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

‘X Prizes’ of up to $30 million are up for grabs for the first private company to put a robotic rover on to the moon (Reuters, Ars Technica, NY Times, and many others). In order to receive the $20 million first prize of this Google-funded competition, the robot must be capable of achieving a number of tasks upon its arrival, including roaming at least 500 metres and transmitting data back to Earth, by 2013 (website, press release). There is also a $5 million second Prize and $5 million in bonus prizes. You can even try and get your photo sent to the moon and beamed back as part of the competition (Space.com).

Contestants are already stepping forward. One, Carnegie Mellon scientist Red Whittaker, said “It’s inevitable that someone will find a way to win it. Regardless of who takes home the cash, this achievement will enrich us all.” According to Reuters US launch services firm Space Exploration Technologies is offering to fly contestants’ rovers on its rockets at cost – about $7 million. "I'm a huge believer in us becoming a space-faring civilization," said company founder Elon Musk. This seems a little like cheating to me.

The competition is being run under the auspices of the X Prize, previously responsible for the $10 million Ansari X Prize for suborbital spaceflight that was won in 2004 by SpaceShipOne. There are also bonus prizes on offer for wandering longer distances, discovering water and imaging man made artefacts. The last would perhaps finally put paid to conspiracy theorist claims that the moon landings were faked by film studios – while $30 million might get you to the moon it wouldn’t get you a movie of it these days (1995’s Apollo 13 cost $62 million).

In other Moon news, the Japanese yesterday launched their first ever lunar probe, the Selenological and Engineering Explorer (Nature). Nicknamed Kaguya, after an ancient folk tale, the probe is about four years behind schedule and cost rather more than the X Prize, although there is some confusion about the exact amount - $479 million according to Reuters and Koyodo News and $279 million according to us and AP.

Image: Earth about five degrees above lunar horizon / NASA

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Space and astronomy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Engineers, religious scholars, a Hindu god, NASA and an army of monkeys could all be set to make appearances in court, not necessarily all in person of course. A row over a proposed shipping canal in the area between India and Sri Lanka is pulling this remarkably disparate set of characters together. The Indian government wants to improve shipping lanes by removing part of what scientists say is a natural ridge linking islands between the subcontinent and Sri Lanka. But some Hindus believe the ridge is the mythical Rama's Bridge, built by an army of monkeys at the command of the god Rama. The row has now ended up in court.

An Indian government body is in hot water, having been forced to withdraw a report submitted to the court saying that claims the ridge was built by Rama were based entirely on the text Ramayana and there was no scientific evidence that events described in this book ever took place (BBC, Times of India, The Hindu). This report led to claims of blasphemy (Reuters).

NASA was previously dragged into the row over the provenance of ‘Rama's Bridge’, with claims being made in 2002 that its satellite photographs support the Ramayana version of events. “NASA has clarified that images of the area were being captured for several years and no scientific discovery has been made so far in respect of the origins of the formation known as Adams Bridge,” C Dorjee, monuments director of the Archaeological Survey of India, which prepared the report said this week (Hindustan Times). On a more prosaic note, Salon highlights several non-religious reasons to have misgivings about the project including the environmental impact from the dredging and whether “saving just the few hours required to circumnavigate Sri Lanka is worth all the trouble” (other sources say it will save about 30 hours). Thaindian says there could be major economic benefits however.

Just to make things messier, the ridge is also called Adam’s Bridge. According to Britannica Muslim legend has it that Adam crossed it to reach Adam's Peak on Sri Lanka, where he stood repentant on one foot for 1,000 years.

Image: NASA

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Earth, environment & ecology | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Emails obtained by AP and NPR under freedom of information legislation appear to show that NASA was aware its astronauts could “melt down” and was looking for early warning signs months before Lisa Nowak was arrested. The trial of Nowak for allegedly assaulting and attempting to kidnap a love rival was postponed on Tuesday following a request from the prosecution. Some reports are claiming Nowak’s insanity defence took prosecutors by surprise, hence their request for a postponement (Reuters, 11 News). Another AP report says pre-trial hearings are scheduled for next week as Nowak’s legal team attempt to rule out use of her arrest interview and the search of her car.

The emails obtained by AP detail an effort to identify clues to unstable behaviour, following the unrelated suicide of astronaut Charles Brady Jr:

In one dated Nov. 8, 2006, a NASA or contractor employee whose name is blacked out wrote about being instructed to look into Brady’s death ‘in order to take from it any lessons learned in the hope that such an event might be prevented from ever occurring again’. ... Another e-mail, dated Nov. 6, indicated the writer had an interest in investigating the circumstances surrounding Brady's death ‘in terms of identifying and acting on an astronaut with psychiatric problems.’

As NASA Watch notes, “This is starting to get ghoulish.”

Image: NASA

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Space and astronomy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Uncertainty still grips Indonesia after a lucky escape following three confirmed earthquakes. Although at least 10 people are thought to have died and property damage is reported to be high, a tsunami formed by an 8.4 magnitude quake yesterday travelled away from the island. “There was a tsunami created by the earthquake, it just travelled in a southwest direction away from land,” Mike Turnbull, seismologist at Central Queensland University, told Reuters. While a major tsunami may have been avoided, ABC says a small one did make landfall and that houses were damaged in a “largely deserted” village following the initial quake.

The US Geological survey reports three earthquakes yesterday – the initial, 8.4 magnitude quake, was followed by another registering at 7.8. A new tsunami alert was issued and then lifted after third earthquake this morning. This third quake has been widely reported as magnitude 6.4 (BBC for example), although a USGS preliminary report says it was a 5.0.

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Earth, environment & ecology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A giant X-ray machine in Oxfordshire is going to peer inside unopened manuscripts too fragile to unfurl. Tim Wess from the University of Cardiff has worked out that X-rays from the Diamond synchrotron can be used to image the writing on ancient parchments. Now he wants to look at some of the Dead Sea Scrolls that have so far been deemed too brittle to read, he told the British Association Festival of Science in York (covered by the Daily Telegraph, Times, Daily Mail, Guardian, and the BA). “We’ve folded up a real piece of parchment and then done a process of X-ray tomography on it. We’ve been able to recover the structure where we can see the words that are written inside the document,” says Wess (BBC).

Collagen in animal skins used to write on turns to gelatine when wet, making the documents sticky and hard to read. Drying makes them brittle and equally, if differently, problematic. But iron in the ink used shows up on X-rays and, using computers, different layers of folded or rolled documents can be read. Wess is currently perfecting his technique on documents less valuable than the Dead Sea Scrolls and he believes in three or four years it will be good enough to read text in pamphlets and thin books. Unread works by Beethoven and Mozart would then be accessible (The Daily Telegraph, Times). So far his team has been able to read 80% of the text from 18th century legal documents they have been studying (Guardian).

This is actually the latest development in a great tradition of using X-rays to analyse valuable artefacts. They have previously peered under the surface of paintings to detect images hidden beneath, helped date and conserve sculptures and even detected fraud.

Image: unrolled parchment X-ray / Cardiff University

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Chemistry, Physics & Mathematics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The New York-based Blacksmith Institute, together with Green Cross Switzerland, yesterday released its annual top ten list of the world’s most polluted places (press release). Blacksmith founder Richard Fuller did not mince his words: “These places are the shitholes of these countries.” Time and Reuters have both covered this, with the latter also producing a nice list of the problems and possible solutions at four of the sites.

The list is compiled by a panel of experts who take into account factors like the toxicity of the pollutant and the number of people affected. But it often turns up small cities that you’ve likely never heard of – places located near mines or large factories, where the source of pollution may be the economic centre of the region. People choose to live nearby “simply because they need to be there to be first in line to get the jobs”, the Institute’s Director of Global Operations David Hanrahan told reporters yesterday.

But he also had a few success stories. The Institute participated in a project to clean the mercury from contaminated drinking water near Vladivostok, Russia, where levels were once 40 times above the acceptable limit. For about $50,000, he said, they were able to clean the drinking water of thousands of people.

Here are the ‘winners’ (alphabetically by country as "ranking is not realistic or feasible” says the institute):

Sumgayit, Azerbaijan
Linfen, China
Tianjin, China Tianying, China [Blacksmith alerted us to a mistake in their report - corrected 13/09/07]
Sukinda, India
Vapi, India
La Oroya, Peru
Dzerzhinsk, Russia
Norilsk, Russia
Chernobyl, Ukraine
Kabwe, Zambia

Posted for Heidi Ledford

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Earth, environment & ecology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Chimps use their skill at pilfering fruit from farmers to impress potential mates, a study shows. An international team claims to have documented the only recorded example of regular sharing of plant foods by unrelated chimps (study, press release, videos of the thieving chimps). One particular female, presumably with a very bad reputation, was given most of the attention. “The adult male who shared most with this female engaged in more consortships* with her and received more grooming from her than the other adult males, even the alpha male. ... Such daring behaviour may be considered an attractive trait,” says study author Kimberley Hockings of the University of Stirling (Reuters).

Meat is known to be used as a social tool, according to Hockings and colleagues, however chimps observed in the Republic of Guinea rarely shared wild plant food. They did however share cultivated fruit – this accounted for 58 of 59 observed food sharing events. There may be implications for non-chimps too. “It has been proposed that men in hunter-gatherer societies acquire large and risky-to-obtain food packages for social strategising and to garner attention,” Hockings says (BBC).

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m seeing my girlfriend tonight so I’m off to shoplift a papaya.

*Consortships: where an adult female and an adult male chimpanzee move to the periphery of their community so that the male gains exclusive mating access (press release).

Image: Getty

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Biology & Biotechnology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The BBC is reporting on a ‘universal code of ethics for scientists’ set out by the UK government’s chief scientific advisor. Sir David King hopes researchers across the globe will adopt his seven principles (you can listen to him on the BBC’s Radio 4) and the UK government has already adopted them. The BBC thinks this could be the scientific equivalent of medicine’s Hippocratic oath.

“Our social licence to operate as scientists needs to be founded on a continually renewed relationship of trust between scientists and society. The code has been developed in my office to help us meet this challenge,” says Sir David in a leaflet promoting the ‘Rigour, Respect, Responsibility’ code. This code has been mooted for some time (the Guardian wrote about it last year) and the issue of whether scientists should have a ‘code of ethics’ has been doing the round for even longer. The real question is whether this code is actually any use.

Which seems like a good opportunity to apply the ‘not test’: would anyone actually profess not to support any of these points? Here’s the code:
- Act with skill and care in all scientific work. Maintain up to date skills and assist their development in others.
- Take steps to prevent corrupt practices and professional misconduct. Declare conflicts of interest.
- Be alert to the ways in which research derives from and affects the work of other people, and respect the rights and reputations of others.
- Ensure that your work is lawful and justified.
- Minimise and justify any adverse effect your work may have on people, animals and the natural environment.
- Seek to discuss the issues that science raises for society. Listen to the aspirations and concerns of others.
- Do not knowingly mislead, or allow others to be misled, about scientific matters. Present and review scientific evidence, theory or interpretation honestly and accurately.

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Policy | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The whole world and its dog are getting very wound up by an AP special report stating implanting radio-frequency identification (RFID) microchips into living tissue could cause cancer. In the dog’s case this is probably justifiable as the evidence is currently limited to animals, and putting the chips in humans is still pretty much experimental, though in concept it has been approved by the FDA. Widespread coverage of the new report sent stocks in their manufacturer VeriChip plummeting (The Ottawa Citizen).

The chips have a number of uses or potential uses, such as tracking pets and products in supermarkets, providing easier access to patient information, and as implanted credit cards. But according to AP, animal studies dating back to the mid-1990s show implants induced malignant tumours in lab mice and rats. “The transponders were the cause of the tumors,” Keith Johnson, retired toxicologic pathologist and member of one of the study teams, said. ‘Leading cancer specialists’ who looked at the research for AP said the findings “troubled them”. Not as much, I’m guessing, as they are now troubling the 2,000 people who have been implanted with the things (regardless of how weak the evidence may be).

It is worth noting that none of the studies referenced by AP are new; whether they were reviewed by the FDA before it approved the chips is unclear. There’s also a row brewing over the fact that Tommy Thompson, then US Secretary of Health and Human Services, supported the approval of microchip technology for humans, then joined VeriChip (see Google News Comment). The catalyst for the story (according to Wired) was a French bulldog that died of cancer after being implanted with a RFID chip.

Continue reading "Pet problems over identity chips" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Biology & Biotechnology | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

NASA’s Mars rovers are continuing to do exactly what they have been designed to do – namely roving. You might not think that would make headlines, but the fact they are doing it three and a half years on is pretty impressive, given that their initial mission was scheduled to last three months. Now one of the two machines is embarking on a mission that may spell its doom: Opportunity is roving into a crater it could become stuck in for the rest of its life. “If the rover malfunctions, or the terrain is more difficult than expected, this could be Opportunity's last trip,” says the LA Times. Wired calls it “a risky trek that could spell trouble for the little explorer”.

Rocks exposed in the over-200-foot-deep (70 meters) Victoria Crater could provide insights into the past climate of Mars, according to the rovers’ NASA handlers. “For almost two years now, we've felt that Victoria Crater was the most compelling science for Opportunity,” said rover project manager John Callas in the Times.

According to AP the rover will be driving down a 15 degree slope towards rocks of interest. So far it has only peaked over the edge of the crater, before scampering backwards. After trundling four meters into the crater it tried to back out, but before it could succeed its wheels started slipping to such an extent that it sat down for a rest according to its protocols (Press release).

Will this be the end? Across the desk from me a colleague is already writing the rover’s obituary, just in case...

Image: Opportunity entering Victoria Crater / NASA/JPL-Caltech

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Space and astronomy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Psychology researchers in the UK had been busy demonstrating that their students are better than students from rival faculties. By spying on psychology and engineering students in a waiting room they found the former were better able to identify other people’s emotional states and were also better at picking up yawns – well known to be contagious. “They have got a more highly developed social awareness,” said study leader Catriona Morrison (Guardian, story also features in the Times).

While waiting for what they believed would be the experiment 40 students of each type were secretly monitored while someone in the room yawned 10 times. The psychology students yawned an average of 5.5 times, while engineers yawned 1.5 times. On a subsequent test assessing empathy psychologists scored 28 and engineers 25.5. “We thought that psychology students would be highly empathetic and that engineering students would be more systemised, more interested in numbers and formulas,” Morison told the BBC. Having spent many an hour trying to tell people the cliché of socially inept scientists is a nonsense I’m quite annoyed she was proven right.

This is the second story on the contagious nature of yawning in the last month. Researchers have also linked an inability to ‘contract’ yawns to autism (Nature, subscription required). So clearly the research topic is catching too.

Now if someone could just work out why on earth we actually yawn in the first place we might be getting somewhere...

Image: Punchstock

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Biology & Biotechnology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A pioneering fertility researcher who is also one of the most famous faces of television science in Britain says he is planning to take his research across the Atlantic to escape the stranglehold of UK red tape. The British press is full of the story (Independent, BBC, Telegraph). The American press has yet to notice it.

The Times says fertility expert Robert Winston’s move “raised fresh concern that the brain drain to the US is being revived by an excessive bureaucracy attached to British science”. Mind you, last year the UK was gloating over all the US scientists who were going to flee oppressive regulations to its shores (Guardian) and there is some debate about whether brain drain is necessarily a bad thing (Ars Technica).

Speaking to journalists at the BA Festival of Science in York yesterday, Lord Winston complained that the Home Office, which oversees animal research in the UK, had taken 13 months to grant him a license to produce transgenic pigs as part of his research into developing organs for xenotransplantation – the transplantation of tissue between species. Then the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs prevented his spin-out company Atazoa from moving the genetically modified pigs to a farm to breed, thus halting work which, according to Winston, “causes absolutely no suffering to the animal and simply allows them a bit of pleasure while they naturally mate” (Guardian). Presumably it provides some scientific insights as well. Winston has previously taken issue with other heads of the UK’s regulatory hydra – notably with his running battle with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (Guardian from 2007, BBC from 2004).

Winston is now applying for US funding to pursue his research in Missouri with collaborators there. In the meantime, those on the organ transplant waiting list are, he says, “literally waiting for someone to have a motorcycle accident and die” (Times again).

Posted on behalf of Mary Muers

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Biology & Biotechnology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

NASA’s plan to get someone else to do a lot of their work has crashed and burned. Last year the agency signed a contract with Rocketplane Kistler, pledging millions of dollars towards RPK’s reusable space rocket, provided the company could raise similar millions of their own. Following the failure of the company to raise the money NASA has torn up the agreement (Aerospace Daily & Defense Report). On the plus side this now means that around $200 million could be available for others building their own rockets in the garage (Wired).

The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story that RPK might be unable to get the money a few weeks ago, quotes RPK’s chairman stating that “we’re looking at all the possible ways to cure the deficiency” But it also notes some are already predicting the firm will suspend operations and could even file for bankruptcy protection. The NASA decision is not the company’s only problem – it is also being sued by a space-tourism agency (Wired has the full story).

NASA has a similar agreement to the RPK one with another commercial company SpaceX. What now remains to be seen is whether the current problems are a one off, or a sign of deeper problems with the viability of commercial space flight (explored in a Nature article last month).

Image: Artist’s impression of RPK launch / RPK

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Space and astronomy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On Friday, the US Geological Survey put out a press release about its new findings on polar bears and their future, and the press responded en masse: Google offers hundreds of stories filed over the weekend. The reports’ conclusion (AP | New York Times) is that diminishing sea ice is a serious problem for the bears, with two thirds of them at risk over the next fifty years – maybe more if, as the report recognises, current estimates of ice loss are too conservative. Most quoted quote: "As the sea ice goes, so goes the polar bear" -- Steven Amstrup, the lead author of the new studies.

Some bear populations, such as those of Alaska, are expected to die out completely, which is naturally enough the lead in the Anchorage Daily News. If you’re a polar bear, the place you want to be is what the USGS calls the “convergent ice ecoregion” (a term that doesn’t seem to turn up in the news); this is where the currents pile up ice that can persist for years on the northern shores of the Canadian islands and down the eastern side of Greenland. You don’t want to be west of Greenland or in Baffin Bay, where the ice is seasonal ice and likely to vanish, or on the north shores of Russia and Alaska, where the currents move what ice there is away from the shore (the “divergent ice ecoregion”).

The reports are part of the process by which the US government will decide whether to put polar bears on the endangered species list (earlier Nature story). Geoffrey Lean, at the Independent, pulls the USGS report together with his paper’s investigation into polar bear hunting, which is apparently on the increase. Lean and others also bring up a meeting of religious, scientific and political leaders that’s been going on in Ilulissat , where “leaders of Christian, Shia, Sunni, Hindu, Shinto, Buddhist and Jewish religions took a boat to the tongue of the glacier for a silent prayer for the planet” while Robert Correll, chairman of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, warned of “a massive acceleration of the speed with which these glaciers are moving into the sea,” according to Paul Brown in the Guardian.

Meanwhile, almost all of the stories also mention the current reduced area of Arctic sea ice, which this year has already reached a record low and is expected to keep shrinking for a week or so more. The US National Snow and Ice Data Center is keeping a close eye on the situation with regular updates and a lot of interesting data, not to mention a really nice animation that shows how the ice cover evolves over many years (found via and easily seen at Steinn Sigurdsson's Dynamics of Cats) which explains more about the convergent and divergent ecoregions than a static map ever could.

Images: Grzegorz Polak, distributed under Creative Commons license; Wikimedia

Posted by Oliver Morton
Categories: Earth, environment & ecology | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The first big story to be feted at the British Association for the Advancement of Science Festival in York is a technique for analysing 3D digital images of faces which could speed up the diagnosis of some genetic disorders (BBC, Independent, Telegraph, press release).

Most people are familiar with the characteristic face-shape of children with Down’s Syndrome, but facial changes associated with 700 other genetic conditions can be so subtle, or the disorder so rare, that it is hard for even a trained clinician to spot them.

In a presentation at the festival Peter Hammond from University College London described a computer model for merging facial images of children with genetic disorders to create the ‘average’ face for each condition. “ ’Doctors can use this to focus in on the likely disorder before beginning genetic tests, which can cost £500 to £1,000 each, so the children and the parents should get a cheaper, quicker diagnosis’ ” (Guardian). But press interest is generally less about the money, and more about the chance of 'seeing' autism in the faces if young kids.

For the disorders cited in the press reports, including Fragile X syndrome, the most common form of inherited learning disability, Hammond has achieved a greater than 90 % success rate in distinguishing normal from affected children. However, in a paper published earlier this year on Fabry disease, the UCL team was only able to discriminate between normal and affected children adults in about 70-80 % of cases [corrected – 11/09/07].

Posted on behalf of Mary Muers

UPDATE – 11/09/07

According to a BBC article Hammond has become pretty annoyed by reports the scans can ‘detect autism’. It says: “He was, he said, extremely angry. His work had been misreported, he had been misquoted, and he wanted nothing more to do with the media.”

Although details are a bit sparse – that would be the not talking to the media bit -- Hammond seems most annoyed that the scans have been presented as diagnostic and that he was quoted as saying “you can spot a kid with Down's syndrome a mile away”.

Image courtesy BA/Peter Hammond

Posted by Oliver Morton
Categories: Health and medicine | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Flying a solar powered aircraft at night is clearly not an easy task, but one of the teams working on this intriguing technology now claims to have done it twice on the trot. A report on the BBC, followed up by a company press release, says that Zephyr, a solar powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has successfully stayed aloft under power for 54 hours while flying out of the White Sands test range in New Mexico. Zephyr, which was developed by the rather absurdly named UK defence contractor QinetiQ, has a wingspan of 18 metres and weighs 30 kilos; it reached an altitude of 17,787 metres during the flight, which was mostly carrried out on autopilot, and carried an unspecified "surveillance payload".

Apparently a solar powered aircraft developed by AC Propulsion stayed up for 48 hours a couple of years ago, but its remote control pilots turned off its motors now and then to conserve power. Zephyr’s lithium sulphur batteries kept it going all night long. Still, the flight apparently will not officially set a new world endurance record, because it was not invigilated by the FAI.

The BBC piece has a lot of context on other teams working with similar technology, not to mention a video of three members of the team launching the UAV by hand. There’s no word as to whether the flight was conceived of as a tribute to the late great Paul MacCready (Economist obituary), a pioneer of solar powered as well as human powered flight. But it probably should have been.

PS: want to build your own photo-reconnaissance UAV? You can! (But not a solar powered one. Yet.)

Image credit: Qinetiq

Posted by Oliver Morton
Categories: Neat technologies | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What’s been on The Great Beyond this week and a few extras...

Friday September 7, 2007
A depressing study
Anybody know a good plumber?

Thursday September 6, 2007
Row over climate change TV / Additives linked to hyperactivity / Warheads Warheads Everywhere

Wednesday September 5, 2007
Do dogs devastate Britain’s birds? / Gene for lean / South Korea selects first astronaut / Lab leak report leaked

Tuesday September 4, 2007
Rocket launch cheers India / Hurricanes and global warming / That genome in full

Monday September 3, 2007
Atlas ‘shows climate change’ / New neutron source record / Forest fires and global warming

Other Nature blog posts you may have missed
The Sceptical Chymist: Can you beat Nature Nanotechnology’s score on this nanotech quiz?
The Seven Stones: Our Molecular Systems Biology blog goes to town on the Venter genome
Nascent: Timo Hannay on “some way-cool things that have passed my way lately”

Ones that got away
The LA Times explores nuclear tourism in China
Why a video game could wipe out the stag beetle in The Times
I really can’t resist the pun – largest maize in the world. A-maize-ing

The Great Beyond will be back on Monday.

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Depression is really bad for general health – worse, in fact, than angina, arthritis, asthma or diabetes - according to widespread reports today (see the BBC for example) on a Lancet paper (you’ll need to register, for free, to read this).

Defining ‘general health’ is a tricky issue, and the researchers had to develop a new questionaire to assess it. They came up with 18 questions in which volunteers ranked whether they had problems with everything from pain to sleep, energy levels, vision, mobility, mental sharpness, interpersonal relations, and ability to look after themselves. Average scores can be found in the paper.

The work urges health care professionals to pay more attention to depression in their patients – particularly those who are also suffering from a chronic physical condition. This is, in fact, the main thrust of the paper: that doctors should be taught not to ignore depression in patients already suffering physically, given the extra dent this has on their health. The researchers suggest that one way to achieve this is to get the (simpler) message out that depression is “a disease at least on a par with physical chronic diseases in damaging health”.

Pulse, a weekly medical news bulletin for UK general practitioners, has flagged this as their ‘paper of the day’, which should help to get the word out.

There is a quick test online to see if you might be suffering from depression on the New York University School of Medicine psychiatry department’s website.

All this seems to go against a study from just last month indicating that doctors are over-diagnosing depression for people who are simply sad, hinting that perhaps some doctors are all too aware of the condition. Getting the balance right might be tricky.

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Health and medicine | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The final reports on the 3 August outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Surrey were released today by the Health and Safety Executive and an independent scientist from Imperial College. The Guardian already has a nice story on the topic, and more is sure to follow.

Ultimately, the distinguished panel admitted, the biggest British biosecurity breach in recent history probably came down to bad plumbing. The drainage system between the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council's Institute for Animal Health and the Merial Corporation's Pirbright Centre, which manufacturers foot and mouth vaccine, was in bad need of repair.

To make matters worse, both Merial and the Institute knew that the pipe needed replacing for years, but were squabbling over who would foot the bill. In the end, nobody made the replacement, and the virus likely washed out of the cracked pipe during this summer's heavy rains. It was then probably spread, even more ironically, by lorries hired to make improvements to the institute.

Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, looked a bit sheepish as he tried to explain what had happened. He also refused to speculate over who would be held responsible for the drainage problems. "Ultimately," he said, "it’s a legal question."
Credit: HSE

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel
Categories: Biology & Biotechnology, Policy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A little mix-up over at the Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota gets a lot of ink today. Last week, a ground crew accidentally loaded six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles onto a B-52 bomber bound for Louisiana. The plane arrived without incident, but as of this morning, a munitions commander was relieved of duty and several others had been suspended.

Several papers including the Edmonton Sun, Detroit News, and New York Daily News warned of the Air Force accidentally flying “live” warheads, but it’s pretty unlikely that was the case. The bomber was carrying W-80-1 warheads, which are some of the Pentagon’s more sophisticated weapons. They’re equipped with Permissive Action Links (PALs) which prevent the crew from using them without presidential authorisation. The PALs on these particular warheads maintain an actual physical barrier between the electrical systems of the warhead and the rest of the missile and could even be used to remotely disable it, so there’s no way the crew could have armed, fused or fired the missiles. Even if the plane had crashed, the warhead’s “primary” contained fire-resistant “insensitive” high explosives of the type that would be unlikely to detonate.

In fact things were a lot more dangerous in the good old days of the Cold War. In the early 60s, the Air Force kept nuclear-armed B-52s aloft twenty-four-seven. The programme came to an end in 1968 after one of the B-52s carrying four nukes crashed in Thule, Greenland. A succinct summary of the incident, and the Air Force’s nuke-flying history can be found here

The real issue here, as most of the coverage pointed out, is the inventory system the Air Force uses to keep track of its weapons. It should be quite difficult for a ground crew to load warheads in place of duds, and a thorough investigation will be needed to find out exactly what happened.

Credit: USAF

Posted by Geoff Brumfiel
Categories: Physics & Mathematics, Policy | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

A new study showing a link between hyperactivity in children and additives has been exciting the world’s media today. Researchers funded by the UK’s Food Standards Agency and published in The Lancet found children on an additive free diet given food colours and benzoate preservatives to drink were more hyperactive than those given just fruit juice (abstract, registration required). “We now have clear evidence that mixtures of certain food colours and benzoate preservative can adversely influence the behaviour of children,” said research leader Jim Stevenson, of the University of Southampton (press release).

In total 153 three-year-olds and 144 eight-year-olds living from Southampton were involved in the study, hailed by the New York Times as “the first time researchers have conclusively and scientifically confirmed a link that has long been suspected by many parents”. There is some disagreement in Reuters’s coverage though.

We’re all “the unwitting subjects of a vast, ongoing scientific experiment” according to Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser’s Guardian opinion piece. “The best advice is probably caveat emptor. We simply don’t know what effect these things are having on us.” Except that now, thanks to some sound research, we do know a little more.

Image: Corbis

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Health and medicine | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The BBC, it seems, is damned if it does and damned if it don’t. Having abandoned plans for a day long global warming special “which would have involved viewers in a mass ‘switch-off’ to save energy” it has taken fire from all sides (BBC News). As its own reporting notes it has been accused of “cowardice” by environmentalists. However, critics including some senior voices within the corporation had previously slammed the planned ‘Planet Relief’ programme as a violation of the commitment to impartiality enshrined in the BBC’s charter. The BBC claims the show was scrapped not due to impartiality concerns but because audiences “are most receptive to documentary or factual-style programming as a means of learning about the issues surrounding this subject”. So maybe they’ll just be showing ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ on loop?

For those not based in the UK it is probably worth noting that the BBC is funded by a ‘licence fee’ levied on every television owner. It is “forbidden from expressing an opinion on current affairs or matters of public policy other than broadcasting” (BBC guidelines). The scrapping of the show follows heated debate within the BBC over its stance on climate change. One of the BBC’s own editors earlier this month said it was "not the corporation's job to save the planet" (Daily Mail). The blogosphere has gone into pretty predictable overdrive.

Another employee, the BBC’s Head of News Peter Horrocks, wrote a blog entry on the topic in which he said “It is not the BBC's job to lead opinion or proselytise on this or any other subject.” However Horrocks also says “there is an increasingly strong (although not overwhelming) weight of scientific opinion in favour of the proposition that climate change is happening and is being largely caused by man”. I’m not sure many climate scientists would agree that the weight of opinion was “not overwhelming”. Opposition politician Chris Huhne, environment spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, certainly wouldn’t. “The consensus about global warming in the science community is now overwhelming,” he says (Independent), “so accusing the BBC of campaigning on such an undisputed threat is like suggesting it should be even-handed between criminals and their victims.”

Image: Getty

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Earth, environment & ecology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The finger of blame for the leak of the foot and mouth virus from a UK laboratory site is pointing at construction workers and a cracked pipe, according to media reports. An official report into the source of the outbreak is due out on Friday, but like the lab it seems to have leaked. Both the Guardian and the BBC are claiming drainage problems could have led to the virus’s escape and workmen on the site could then have carried it to the farm where the outbreak occurred.

Key here is the word ‘could’ – the Guardian notes that the exact cause of the outbreak may never be known. However the fact that the movements of 120 builders working at the site were “not properly monitored” has raised the Guardian’s suspicions that it’s all their fault. The BBC is more interested in the fact that the virus was found in a pipe running between the government lab and the biotech company that share the site in Surrey. Roots could have damaged the pipe after which flooding may have brought the virus to the surface.

Things aren't going much better in the US, where Texas A&M University has been slammed for its prodceudures for dealing with "some of the world's most dangerous infectious diseases" (Houston Chronicle). A recent Nature article on the topic looked in detail at the issue of biosecurity (subscription required).

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Biology & Biotechnology, Policy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

After a selection process that combined physical and mental tests with a TV poll South Korea has selected artificial intelligence engineer Ko San as its first astronaut. The Korea Times has gone to town on this with two news articles and an opinion piece on former boxing medallist Ko. He beat over 36,000 applicants to become the country’s first ever astronaut, it says, though not by boxing them. His eight day trip to the International Space Station in April aboard a Soyuz spacecraft will be the most expensive trip ever made by a Korean – costing 3.25 billion won per day (about £1.7 million).

AFP says Ko will conduct 18 experiments, including investigations on weightlessness and the human body and how organisms grow in space. South Korea is building its first space centre and hopes to complete it by the end of next year in order to further its exploration ambitions (AP). Although the Korea Times claims there were 36,000 applicants to the space programme, Nature’s previous coverage of the selection process reveals that only 3,300 people out of 10,000 invited to prove their worth by running showed up (subscription required).

Image: Soyuz and ISS / NASA

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Space and astronomy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Scientists have detected a gene that acts as a ‘master switch’ for the burning of fat (Daily Telegraph, Guardian). A new study published in Cell Metabolism found greater activity of the adipose gene resulted in thinner animals (abstract). Jonathan Graff, of UT Southwestern, and colleagues write that the gene, “appears to be involved in an ancient pathway that regulates fat accumulation”.

“Maybe if you could affect this gene, even just a little bit, you might have a beneficial effect on fat,” Graff says in the Guardian. The gene was originally discovered by Winifred Doane, then a graduate student at Yale University. “It was always my dream that the drosophila adipose gene would turn out to be a model for controlling obesity and type 2 diabetes. It looks like it is starting in that direction now,” she told Reuters.

Graff fiddled with fruit flies, worms and genetically engineered mice, manipulating turning adipose gene on and off at various stages in their lives. Mice with higher adipose activity were leaner and diabetes resistant, despite eating as much as or more than normal mice. Mice with reduced activity were fatter, less healthy and diabetic. In perhaps the corniest line of the year Graff states: “People who want to fit in their jeans might someday be able to overcome their genes” (press release).

Image: Corbis

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Biology & Biotechnology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dog walkers should be banned from sensitive parts of the countryside, according to researchers who have found taking a mutt for a walk is bad for birds. Researchers from the University of New South Wales found a 41% drop in the number of birds counted after a dog was walked through the forest, compared with no walking at all (The Guardian). People walking without dogs also disturbed birds but “impact was a fraction” of that when dogs were involved, according to The Times. “These results argue against access by dog walkers to sensitive conservation areas,” Peter Banks and Jessica Bryant write in a paper in Biology Letters (abstract, pdf). They add: “That the effects of dogs occurred even where dog walking was frequent suggests further that local wildlife does not become habituated to continued disturbance”.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds told the Times, “If you are walking your dog in a sensitive area for biodiversity, clearly it is having an impact.” But the Kennel Club told the Guardian it “does not consider that dog walking in the countryside in the UK has any detrimental effect on birds providing walkers stick to the rules of the countryside”. New research on one side – considered opinion of a spokesperson for the Kennel Club on the other. Who are you going to trust?

Observers counting birds seen and heard followed 20 seconds behind dogs being walked on leads, walkers without dogs and a control with neither walkers nor dogs. Banks told the BBC: “The key finding is that dog-walking certainly does have an impact on birds - and we were quite surprised by the magnitude of the impact.” Readers of the Telegraph’s article on the research are not happy. “So Man’s Best Friend is to be banned in favour of ‘environmental correctness’, and again, one scientific study is brought to the fore by the media, accepted as writ,” comments one. Many dog lovers are asking why they have been singled out, rather than those who own cats.

There is a great interview with the researcher on Radio 4.

Image: Getty

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Biology & Biotechnology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Craig Venter’s diploid genome (as published in PLoS Biology) is all over the shop today, fairly predictably: Reuters, press release, Google, and naturally Nature: see Postgenomic for blog reactions. Nicholas Wade gives it a big write up in the New York Times, characterising Venter as “the loser” in the original race to sequence the genome and the new data as a sort of last-laugh comeback, with a far higher quality than in any other sequence deposited to date.

Huntington F. Willard, a geneticist at Duke University who has had early access to Dr. Venter’s genome sequence, said that the quality of the new genome was “exceptionally high” and that “until the next genome comes along this is the gold standard right now.”

Wade also points out the number of gaps in the genome – 4,500 -- and the fact that it could be further improved on, not least by sequencing the hard-to-sort-out ends of the chromosomes. He also mentions the possibility of sequencing Venter’s mother to work out which chromosome came from whom. The Washington Post notes that Venter didn’t ask the permission of the various people who share his genome in whole or in part – mother, three siblings and son – before publishing: “Their main response is not "Oh, my God.' It's 'Can I get my genome done, too?'” Venter is quoted as saying.

Not all responses see the work as quite so great an advance: “I would call this a small, quantitative milestone,” George Church told the Post (Church’s own genome is being sequenced as part of the Archon X-prize genomes project). As far as I can see no one asked Jim Watson, whose genome was published a few months ago, for comment (or if they did, he didn’t produce one that they were willing to use).

Most reports note that the new data shows more variation than was expected, and that its possible to suggest various things about Venter – from the consistency of his earwax (lead in the Globe and Mail) through mixed news on heart disease to an elevated risk of Alzheimers – from the resulting data. There’s a fair amount of discussion of what knowing ones genes can and can’t reveal about the future, but not much on the business implications of the technology (though this recent piece from Motley Fool is relevant)

The genome itself -- now known simply as HuRef -- should be available for your inspection at Genbank: the accession numbers are AADD00000000 (WGSA) and ABBA01000000

Posted by Oliver Morton
Categories: Biology & Biotechnology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hurricane Felix, currently menacing Central America, has become the second storm of 2007 to be rated category five – the highest wind speed category (updates). The Daily Telegraph says it was upgraded on Sunday from category two to category five in 15 hours – one of the fasted jumps on record. There is some debate over what this might mean. Jean-Noel Degrace, expert at Meteo-France told the AFP, “The fact that there have already been two intense storms marks out 2007 as an active year.” Mark Saunders, lead scientist with the Tropical Storm Risk, only went so far as to say it was “unusual but not unprecedented” to have a category five at this point in the hurricane season.

Despite the US National Hurricane Center having already predicted this to be an “above-normal” hurricane season, some people are still getting excited, perhaps over excited. “I can't get over these numbers: The 1980s saw three official Category 5 hurricanes. The 1990s saw two. The 2000s, so far, have seen eight, all clustered from 2003 to 2007. In this context, the past five years certainly look like a scary anomaly compared to what has come before,” said blogger Chris Mooney, whose book “Storm World” deals with “Hurricanes, politics and the battle over global warming (Nature review, subscribers only). Could these hurricane numbers be linked to global warming?

Climate modeller William M. Connolley is having less than none of it. “If you want to know if its got warmer, then hurricanes are clearly a poor indicator - the record is too noisy,” he says. “And we have a far better record: that of the temperature. If you want to know, conversely, if GW is going to lead to more or deeper or scarier hurricanes, then counting numbers by decade isn't a good idea either.” Their disagreement continues in the comments of Connolley’s blog.

Whatever the truth of the situation, it is proving grist to the mill of those looking for a liberal (for which read global warming expounding, environmentalist) bias in the media – NewsBusters for example. Mooney has also pulled together a nice set of links on Felix.

Image: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration

Cross posted to Climate Feedback

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Earth, environment & ecology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Backslaps and champagne all round at the Indian space agency where a successful rocket launch on Sunday put their plans to take a share of the satellite launch market back on track (press release). Last year a launch attempt using the same rocket design went disastrously wrong after a liquid booster failed. Now the Indian Space Research Organisation “has several reasons to be delighted”, says the Hindustan Times.

The new launch from the island of Sriharikota, which represents the return to flight of its geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle, was two hours behind schedule after problems with the rocket (Times of India). Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-F04 put INSAT 4CR, a two tonne communications satellite that will do the job that the satellite lost in last year’s accident was meant to do, into orbit. The first orbit raising manoeuvre was carried out yesterday (press release).

“It has been an excellent performance of the launch vehicle. There have been a number of critical moments on this happy occasion,” said G. Madhavan Nair, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief says in the Times. Space.com points out that the rocket in fact underperformed just a little, leaving the satellite in a slightly low orbit

Space.com also reports that India is due to launch another satellite later this month, when a smaller launch vehicle will put the Israeli spy satellite into a polar orbit.

All this will come as a morale boost to the ISRO, which also recently suffered the loss of two senior officials in a car accident, reports the Indo-Asian News Service. AFP says the launch was “viewed as crucial to India’s aims to grab a slice of the 2.5-billion-dollar heavy satellite launch business”. Nair is quoted by the news wire as saying: “This mission from all point of view has been highly dramatic. ... We had really gone through the mill. On one side we had the anxiety coming from the previous failure.”

Image: fully integrated GSLV at assembly building / ISRO

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Space and astronomy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The forest fires that raged across Greece last week are prompting some to look more closely at the contribution of such fires to global warming. While global warming may be leading to more forest fires, as Grist notes, the fires then accelerate global warming themselves. As Reuters says, the Greek fires are nothing compared to those burning in the Amazon, the Congo and Indonesia. In fact, in a worrying if neat comparison, the news wire says an area of forest the size of Greece disappears every year, with deforestation accounting for 18% of carbon dioxide emissions.

The Independent says environmentalists might actually be partly to blame, due to conservation practices which discourage controlled burning and result in a massive build up of combustible material. While non-human sources of carbon dioxide are exempt from the Kyoto Protocol, according to Reuters, it's not clear what happens if fires turn out to be arson, as some suspect is the case in Greece. In a small piece of positive news, the Indonesian government setting up a ‘Forestry Eight’ group of countries to look at global warming (Antara news).

Image: Land clearing fires in Indonesia / NASA

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Earth, environment & ecology | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Cries of “mine’s bigger than yours” will surely have been flying from US neutron physicists to their UK counterparts at the end of last week. For America has smashed the previous record for neutron source beam power. Basically this means that they have a more powerful device to smash neutrons out of a target and use these neutron to study materials. More importantly they have bragging rights (press release).

“If this is your field, if this is what you want to do, then this is where you want to be. There is no place in the world that can do what we can do with high performance computing, neutron, and with nano-science,” said Tom Mason, director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory where the new-record holding neutron source is located (WATE).

The lab’s $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source works by throwing negatively charged hydrogen through foil, stripping the hydrogen electrons and thereby turning it into protons. Bunches of these protons are then hurled at liquid mercury, where they free up neutrons which can be guided in beam lines and used in experiments. Nature looked at the machine in detail back in 2005 (subscription required).

As AP points out, there is something of an arms race going on. The Oak Ridge neutron beam has reached 183 kilowatts, beating the UK record of 160. However the UK is going to double its capacity. But wait! The Oak Ridge machine isn’t even out of second gear yet and will eventually produce 10 times more neutrons than it is now.

"I like to be first. Tennesseans like to be first. ... My grandfather used to say aim for the top--there is more room there. What we see are some firsts,” said local senator Lamar Alexander (WBIR). The Great Beyond thinks a verse of one of the state songs is in order: “TENNE-, TENNE-, TENNES-SEE! Oh, how proud we are of thee!”

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Physics & Mathematics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The dramatic effect of climate change has been illustrated by a new atlas, whose compilers say they have had to re-draw and reclassify vast chunks of map because of global warming. The Daily Telegraph has a dramatic list of the changes along with some equally dramatic pictures. It is worth noting though that this atlas is a revision of the last version from four yeas ago, while the pictures and statistics for massive drops in ice caps and huge desertification are mostly over 50 or 100 years.

Still, a lot of papers have run with the story anyway. Metro captions pictures of the retreating Lake Chad from 1972 and 1987 as evidence of the “damaging effects of global warming” – totally ignoring human activity estimated to be responsible for around half the change. The rest of the article though says that the main culprits of the atlas changes are “climate change and ill-conceived irrigation projects”. AFP notes that there were 20,000 updates in the new edition, 3,500 of which were name changes.

All three papers quote the atlas editor-in-chief Mick Ashworth saying: “We can literally see environmental disasters unfolding before our eyes. We have a real fear that in the near future famous geographical features will disappear forever.”

He didn’t say: “We have a real fear that our £150 atlas will be made redundant by Google Earth.” But that was probably an oversight.

Image: The Andes Mountains / NASA

Posted by Daniel Cressey
Categories: Earth, environment & ecology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)