Science raises questions about XMRV study – updated
XMRV is running out of legs to stand on. The journal Science, which published a controversial 2009 paper linking the retrovirus to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), has published two follow-up papers undermining the association, as well as an “editorial expression of concern” indicating that the association was probably the result of contamination.
The sexual politics of sexual conflict
The emerging field of “sexual conflict” covers everything from hermaphrodite snails that digest each other’s sperm to female spiders that cannabilise their mates. So researchers in this area should have a pretty enlightened view of the sexes, right? Not according to a new study of the terminology and models used in sexual conflict research. It concludes that chauvinistic gender stereotypes permeate even here, with females seen as meekly responding to the advances of dominant, aggressive males.
CO2 emissions climb to all-time high
In 2010, the worlds’ nations emitted a record 30.6 gigatonnes of carbon-dioxide, according to the latest estimates by the International Energy Agency. Read more
Global warming will open Arctic sea routes but sever the region’s ice roads
When it comes to Arctic transportation in the coming decades, melting ice will giveth, and melting ice will taketh away.
New Jersey nixes participation in US cap-and-trade system
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie yesterday announced his decision to withdraw his state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the only functioning US carbon cap-and-trade system, by year’s end. He argued that the program not only fails to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but creates an unnecessary tax burden on citizens and businesses. Read more
Family planning must be top of developing countries’ health agenda
Family planning should be catapulted to the top of global health priorities, said scientists and policymakers at a conference on population dynamics in London this week.
Planet-hunting pioneer calls for probe to Alpha Centauri
The brief for speakers at today’s exoplanet workshop at MIT is “be provocative”, and veteran planet-hunter Geoff Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, certainly satisfied that with an extraordinary ten minute talk this morning that had one NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory official on his feet trying to respond even before the allotted question time. Marcy’s idea of sending a probe to Alpha Centauri came on the back of a series of scathing policy criticisms targeted at NASA and the US National Academy of Sciences. Read more
Study to examine use of chimpanzees in US research — UPDATED
An Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee that will recommend whether the US government should continue to support chimpanzee research opened its inaugural meeting yesterday in Washington, D.C. and began wrestling with the thorny questions it has been set. Read more
Animal lab reprimanded for poor safety again
The laboratory responsible for the foot and mouth disease outbreak in the UK four years has been reprimanded again for failing to meet safety standards in its work with virus (BBC, Farmers Guardian).
Attention! New study points to power of controlling neurons
Humans and monkeys can learn to fire neurons in particular regions of the brain at will using a feedback mechanism. They can, for example, control the movement of motor neurons even without making any physical movements. But what effect does that firing have on the cognition or behavior of the monkey (or person) whose brain it is?