Global water cycle is revving up
Quirin Schiermeier explains in the News Blog that perhaps the most troubling thing about global warming is that it will be mainly the poor who will feel its effects.
While, for example, the amount of rainfall at wealthy and relatively freshwater-blessed mid and high latitudes is likely to increase as the climate warms, drought-prone regions such as the Sahel zone will likely get even drier: Computer models used to simulate the effects of rising global temperature on the climate system at large do predict changes in the global water cycle whereby, metaphorically, the ‘rich get richer’ and the ‘poor get poorer’. An analysis published in the journal Science today of 50 years of ocean salinity data – an excellent indicator of a changing hydrological cycle – finds that existing models strongly underestimate the magnitude of the changes.
Learn more in Quirin’s post.
Booze buzz
Subhra Priyadarshini reveals in the Indigenus Blog that at the World Congress of Cardiology in Dubai (April 18-21, 2012) the discussion focused on some interesting research stories from India. One among them considers the impact of Bollywood on alcohol use among Indian adolescents:
Though the study is yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal (it was peer-reviewed to be presented at the congress, the organisers said), it has found that overall 10% of students ( between 12–16 years age) surveyed had already tried alcohol. However, students who had seen their stars drink on screen were about three times more likely to have tried alcohol as compared with those who were not exposed to these films.
Find out more in the post about the study and how they used 59 Bollywood movies to record the number of alcohol use occurrences.
Bear Bile
In the News Blog, Leila Haghighat tells us that Chinese scientists from Beijing Forest University have called in Nature this week for a government to ban bear farming. Around 10,000 endangered Asian black bears or ‘moon bears’ are kept captive in China so that their bile can be extracted for use in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).
The correspondence follows weeks of public outcry in China since Guizhentang, a prominent pharmaceutical company, made its second attempt to go public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in February. The company wants to use its initial public offering to expand the number of bear farms it runs. “Our stance is not to try and bring TCM down,” says Qiang Weng, a veterinary physician and one of the authors of the correspondence. “The industry is part of Chinese culture and really helps patients. What we would love to see is a proven and recognized replacement for the bear bile, so that there will eventually be a win–win situation for both animals and the industry.”
You can find out more about bear bile, or the ‘liquid gold’ as some practitioners have coined it, in the post.
No-fishing zone in Arctic waters
Hannah Hoag reporting for the News Blog informs that thousands of scientists from 67 countries have called for an international agreement to close the Arctic high seas to commercial fishing until research reveals more about the freshly exposed waters.
Recent Arctic sea-ice retreat during the summer months has opened up some of the waters that fall outside of the exclusive economic zones of the nations that circle the polar ocean. In all, more than 2.8 million square kilometres make up these international waters, which some scientists say could be ice free during summer months within 10–15 years. Although industrial fishing hasn’t yet occurred in the northernmost part of the Arctic, the lack of regulation may make it an appealing target for international commercial-fishing vessels. “The science community currently does not have sufficient biological information to understand the presence, abundance, structure, movements, and health of fish stocks and the role they play in the broader ecosystem of the central Arctic Ocean,” says the letter, which was released by the Pew Environment Group on Sunday on the eve of the opening of the International Polar Year 2012 scientific conference in Montreal, Canada. More than 2,000 scientists, including 1,328 from Arctic coastal countries, signed the letter.
Discover more about the letter in Hannah’s post.
US cannabinoid research?
The press conference last Friday held by two New York state assembly men was no doubt timed to coincide with observance of the 4/20 celebratory day in cannabis counterculture: On 20 April it was announced a bill would make New York the 41st state to deem possession or sale of the active ingredients in so-called ‘synthetic marijuana’ drugs a crime punishable by jail time, reveals Rebecca Hersher in the Spoonful of Medicine Blog.
The drugs in question—known to the mostly teenagers who like to smoke them as K2, Spice, Killer Buzzz, Blaze and Mr. Nice Guy—are mixtures of herbs such as oregano laced with laboratory-produced cannabinoids, a class of chemicals that also includes marijuana’s psychoactive component, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The dangers of synthetic cannabinoids are clear. A study published this month in Pediatricsdocumented more than 4,000 US hospital cases in which teens who used K2 and other drugs required emergency intervention for symptoms such as a dangerously rapid heart rate. But medical researchers warn that the march toward nationwide criminalization that started with a 2010Kansas law banning three synthetic cannabinoids has already begun to stifle research on the chemicals, which are known to stimulate appetite and ameliorate nausea and pain.
Do you agree with this decision? Feel free to join in the online conversation.
Melancholia
Paige Brown reviews the film Melancholia in her latest post, reflecting on the science.
Of course, I couldn’t talk about this film without given some weight to its science – the science of Melancholia. Kiefer Sutherland, who plays the husband of Justine’s sister Claire, seems to play the part of an amateur astronomer. Telescope in hand, he excitedly, and yet anxiously in secret, tracks the approach of planet Melancholia in the days after Justine’s wedding night. The planet Melancholia is portrayed in the film as a blue gas giant, something like real-life planet Jupiter. Melancholia, previously hiding from view behind the sun, eventually eclipses the red star Antares, a red supergiant star in the Milky Way galaxy that can be seen in the real night sky as part of the constellation Scorpius.
You can watch a snippet below:
Continue to the post to hear more of her thoughts on the film.
Securing food through science and technology
In the House of Wisdom Blog, Mohammed Yahia considers how, over the next 20 years, the number of people living on Earth will continue to grow exponentially but the arable land will not increase. Mohammed asks, “How can we feed this ever increasing population if the land we have available to grow food remains the same, making less food available per person?”
In a session organised by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) during the BioVision 2012 meeting taking place at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, researchers from Germany and Egypt gave their vision on how science and technology can help us remain food secure in the future. “The most obvious solution is to quadruple our meat production in the next 20 years, which is impossible and unhealthy,” said Hannelore Daniel, a professor of molecular nutrition at Technische Universität München, Germany. Mark Bücking from the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME-AE, Germany adds that by 2050, the world will need 100% more food then we are producing now. To manage to feed the population, 70% of this food must come from efficiency-improving technologies. More efficient food waste management will also be required. Currently, around 30% of the food produced in the developing and developed world ends up as waste.
What scientific research needs to be carried out to help us meet our increasing food demands? Find out more in the post.
Air Pollution and Childhood Obesity
Scitable’s blogger Samantha J. reports that as the childhood obesity rate in the United States is rising, with more than 12.5 million obese children nationwide, we tend to blame the weight gain on the child’s diet, family history, or lack of exercise. However, a study recently published by the researchers a tColumbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health discovered that air pollution might have a role in the “decision.”
…. they found that when pregnant women are exposed to a high concentration of the air pollutants, classified as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, (PAHs), their children will be more than twice as likely to suffer from obesity by the age of seven. So, what exactly are PAHs? PAHs are a group of over one hundred chemicals and compounds that are found in materials containing carbon. When these materials, such as coal, tobacco, oil, and wood, are burned, they release the PAHs into the air and they act as an air pollutant. Sources include car exhaust, cigarette smoke, forest fires, and grilled foods, and a few common PAHs are Pyrene, Fluorene, and anthracene.
Learn more about the study in Samantha’s post, as well as a fun fact.
I’m a Scientist
Nature Network’s blogger, Pete Etchells has been taking part in an Olympic-themed I’m a Scientist: Get me out of here! event this week, an X-factor style science communication competition being run by the Wellcome Trust. In his latest post he links out to his favourite questions of the week:
It’s 10 weeks of questions and live chats from students around the country, who can ask any and all questions about how the mind and body work, as well as general sciencey sorts of stuff. If you’re a scientist involved in sports, psychology, or movement science, then they’re still looking for participants! I’ve just come to the end of my first week, and it’s been pretty intense, but absolutely great fun. Here are some of my favourite questions from the week:
Is beetroot juice banned in the Olympics due to the extra muscle power it can add?
what is the best thing you have found out as a scientist?
how much burgers or hot dogs can you eat before you have a stroke or heart attack?
who is your favourite scientist? << and I really meant my answer about Gru for that one.
You also check out the new Nature Network Blog from Suzi Gage, one of last year’s I’m a Scientist winners.
Alien Life?
In her latest post, Why Can’t We See Evidence of Alien Life? GrrlScientist is presenting an animated exploration of the famous and fascinating Fermi Paradox:
Given the vast number of planets in the universe, many much older than Earth, why haven’t we yet seen obvious signs of alien life? The potential answers to this question are numerous and intriguing, alarming and hopeful.
Share your thoughts in her comment thread.
What to buy?
Last week Viktor Poor showed how should you pay for a homeopathic pharmacy. Now he is showing us what you get for your money:
