The Science News Digest - 13 March 2009
In the science news this week: a chimp in Sweden has been collecting rocks to throw at visitors, Barack Obama has reversed a ban on stem cell research in the United States, we are one step closer to self-healing car paint, and there is some good news for sun-seekers.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) were evacuated to a Russian escape module on Thursday after space junk was spotted racing towards them.
The object was seen too late for the space station to boost itself out of the way. Russian Yury Lonchakov and Americans Michael Fincke and Sandra Magnus were forced to shelter in the module for about 9 minutes until the threat had passed. From the Soyuz escape module the astronauts would have been able to leave quickly had the debris struck the station and caused it to depressurise.
The debris which caused this problem is only one piece of an increasingly large amount of 'space junk' - artificial rubbish orbiting the Earth including fragments of old satellites and paint chips from rockets. The piece causing the evacuation is believed to be part of an old motor from the ISS. Space junk has been accumulating since the first satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched in 1957. Since then thousands of space probes, satellites and telescopes have been sent into space.
There are more than 18,000 pieces of debris catalogued and being tracked by military radar. The high-speed collision between a US and a Russian satellite last month has increased the amount of space debris and, therefore, increased the risk of a future collision.
Read the full story in the Guardian.
....................
On Monday President Barack Obama overturned a ban on federal funding for stem cell research, a reversal of the policy put in place by George Bush nearly eight years ago. Obama said that: "When it comes to stem cell research, rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced into what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values. In this case, I believe the two are not inconsistent.”
President Bush brought in the ban on the grounds that he felt the research was morally wrong. Due to its use of human embryos the research does raise ethical questions with some opponents to the research objecting on the grounds that human embryos are destroyed to gain stem cells. However, supporters believe that these master cells, which have the capacity to turn into any type of human cell, may well form the basis for medical breakthroughs. There are already promising results in the fields of spinal and eye conditions.
Harvard University's stem cell institute co-director Doug Melton said: "It is a relief to know that we can now collaborate openly and freely with other scientists in our own university and elsewhere, without restrictions on what equipment, data, or ideas can be shared. Science thrives when there is an open and collaborative exchange, not when there are artificial barriers, silos, constructed by the government."
Visit the Guardian to read the full article.
....................
On Thursday over 2,500 leading environmental experts called upon governments to act now on climate change. At an emergency climate summit in Copenhagen, these scientists agreed that "worst case" scenarios were already becoming reality and that drastic action is needed to prevent imminent ‘dangerous’ climate change. The experts produced a strongly worded statement including the text: "The climate system is already moving beyond the patterns of natural variability within which our society and economy have developed and thrived. These parameters include global mean surface temperature, sea-level rise, ocean and ice sheet dynamics, ocean acidification, and extreme climatic events. There is a significant risk that many of the trends will accelerate, leading to an increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible climatic shifts."
The summary adds: "There is no excuse for inaction. We already have many tools and approaches - economic, technological, behavioural, management - to deal effectively with the climate change challenge. But they must be vigorously and widely implemented."
Prof Kevin Anderson, the research director at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in Manchester, said: "Scientists have lost patience with carefully constructed messages being lost in the political noise. We are now prepared to stand up and say enough is enough."
The Copenhagen conference is intended to publicise the latest research on climate change ahead of the United Nations Climate Conference, which will also be held in Copenhagen, in December. It is hoped that a draft of an updated Kyoto-style agreement on reducing emissions will be produced at this later meeting.
The Telegraph has run an article on the Copenhagen conference and some of the recent findings announced there.
....................
A chimpanzee in a zoo in Sweden has surprised scientists by collecting stones, rocks and bits of concrete to throw at visitors later in the day. Fortunately for visitors to Furuvik Zoo, Santino’s underarm throwing method did not prove very effective and no one has been hurt.
The zookeepers undertook covert surveillance of Santino as he would stop his collecting upon noticing he was being watched. One zookeeper hid in a room overlooking the enclosure and watched as Santino dragged stones from a protective moat around his island home and placed them in piles. He was also seen to break lumps of concrete from his shelter and break them into discs. Interestingly, Santino only made piles of ammunition on the part of the island nearest visitors to the zoo.
A study into Santino’s behaviour has been conducted by Dr Mathias Osvath, a cognitive scientist from Sweden’s Lund University, and published in the science journal Current Biology. The 31-year-old male Santino shows an ability to plan for the future which many scientists have argued to be a behaviour unique to humans. Chimpanzees have been shown to plan ahead in experimental settings before but alternate explanations for this apparent premeditation could not be excluded. Dr Osvath said: "Forward planning like this is supposed to be uniquely human; it implies a consciousness that is very special. Many apes throw objects, but the novelty with Santino is that he makes caches of these missiles while he is fully calm and only throws them much later on.”
To read more about Santino and Dr Osvath's findings visit the Guardian website.
....................
Drivers may never have to worry about scratching their car again. Self-repairing paint has become a realistic possibility thanks to work undertaken by scientists at the University of Southern Mississippi. They have developed a polyurethane coating that, using the power of the sun, mends itself.
In the journal Science, Marek Urban and Bisqajit Ghosh said that: “An ideal automotive coating would mend itself while a vehicle is driven.” They identified other possible uses for the material including on sunglasses, computer screens, clothing and biomedical products such as bandages where scratches can harbour germs.
The material has been made by incorporating four-sided oxetane ‘rings’ and chitosan, a substance found in the exoskeletons of crabs and shrimps, into a polyurethane. When the material is scratched the oxetane rings are split to expose reactive sites. Exposure to UV light breaks open the chitosan revealing another set of reactive sites. The chitosan and oxetane then bond together and repair the material. Scratches have been made to heal within about 30 minutes.
The Times has an article detailing this new discovery.
....................
Who would have thought that one of the major breakthroughs in reducing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere would come in the form of a giant microwave oven? Chris Turney, of the University of Exeter, believes it will.
He has proposed that these large ovens can be used to essentially 'cook' wood and turn it into charcoal, known as biochar. This charcoal can then be safely buried underground locking away, for thousands of years, all the carbon dioxide that the tree absorbed as it grew. Other advocates of the technique include James Lovelock and Nasa’s James Hansen.
The result of this technology could be the planting of fast-growing trees such as pine as carbon traps, grown with the primary purpose of soaking up carbon dioxide.
Turney has accredited a kitchen mishap during his teenage years as inspiration for the technology. He mistakenly microwaved a potato for 40 minutes and was surprised to discover that the potato emerged from the oven as charcoal. He has said that: "Years later when we were talking about carbon sequestration I thought maybe charcoal was the way to go."
Compared to other technological methods for reducing CO2 levels, such as altering the properties of clouds so that they reflect more of the sun’s radiation or adding iron to the oceans, Tim Lenton (University of East Anglia) has calculated that the production of biochar would be the most efficient. The results of his work have been published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry.
Read more about biochar and these ovens in the Guardian.
....................
And finallly...
Incidences of skin cancer have doubled in the UK over the past 20 years and it is now the second most common cancer in the country. To help aleviate this problem researchers from the University of Strathclyde have developed an indicator to warn people that they are at risk from a harmful dose of ultraviolet rays and sunburn. Their work has been reported in the journal Chemical Communications.
The technology takes the form of an ink which can be printed onto a suitable substrate, for instance a strip of plastic to be worn around the wrist. Exposure to UV rays drives a chemical reaction in the indicator which releases an acid into a dye prompting, when the exposure goes above a recommended level, a colour change. This combination of UV-driven reaction and acid-sensitive dye has been described as ‘intelligent ink’ by Professor Andrew Mills who led the research.
Professor Mills has explained that the novel feature of this indicator is its ability to identify the point at which people need to get out of the sun to prevent burning. The timing could be adapted, through the addition of an alkali to the dye, to make it suitable for different skin types.
Jodie Moffat, health information officer from Cancer Research UK, said that she could imagine “this sort of device being used to encourage people to protect their skin”. Over 2,300 people die from skin cancer each year in the UK, according to the charity.
To read more about the work of Prof Mills visit the BBC News website.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) were evacuated to a Russian escape module on Thursday after space junk was spotted racing towards them.
The object was seen too late for the space station to boost itself out of the way. Russian Yury Lonchakov and Americans Michael Fincke and Sandra Magnus were forced to shelter in the module for about 9 minutes until the threat had passed. From the Soyuz escape module the astronauts would have been able to leave quickly had the debris struck the station and caused it to depressurise.
The debris which caused this problem is only one piece of an increasingly large amount of 'space junk' - artificial rubbish orbiting the Earth including fragments of old satellites and paint chips from rockets. The piece causing the evacuation is believed to be part of an old motor from the ISS. Space junk has been accumulating since the first satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched in 1957. Since then thousands of space probes, satellites and telescopes have been sent into space.
There are more than 18,000 pieces of debris catalogued and being tracked by military radar. The high-speed collision between a US and a Russian satellite last month has increased the amount of space debris and, therefore, increased the risk of a future collision.
Read the full story in the Guardian.
....................
On Monday President Barack Obama overturned a ban on federal funding for stem cell research, a reversal of the policy put in place by George Bush nearly eight years ago. Obama said that: "When it comes to stem cell research, rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced into what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values. In this case, I believe the two are not inconsistent.”
President Bush brought in the ban on the grounds that he felt the research was morally wrong. Due to its use of human embryos the research does raise ethical questions with some opponents to the research objecting on the grounds that human embryos are destroyed to gain stem cells. However, supporters believe that these master cells, which have the capacity to turn into any type of human cell, may well form the basis for medical breakthroughs. There are already promising results in the fields of spinal and eye conditions.
Harvard University's stem cell institute co-director Doug Melton said: "It is a relief to know that we can now collaborate openly and freely with other scientists in our own university and elsewhere, without restrictions on what equipment, data, or ideas can be shared. Science thrives when there is an open and collaborative exchange, not when there are artificial barriers, silos, constructed by the government."
Visit the Guardian to read the full article.
....................
On Thursday over 2,500 leading environmental experts called upon governments to act now on climate change. At an emergency climate summit in Copenhagen, these scientists agreed that "worst case" scenarios were already becoming reality and that drastic action is needed to prevent imminent ‘dangerous’ climate change. The experts produced a strongly worded statement including the text: "The climate system is already moving beyond the patterns of natural variability within which our society and economy have developed and thrived. These parameters include global mean surface temperature, sea-level rise, ocean and ice sheet dynamics, ocean acidification, and extreme climatic events. There is a significant risk that many of the trends will accelerate, leading to an increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible climatic shifts."
The summary adds: "There is no excuse for inaction. We already have many tools and approaches - economic, technological, behavioural, management - to deal effectively with the climate change challenge. But they must be vigorously and widely implemented."
Prof Kevin Anderson, the research director at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in Manchester, said: "Scientists have lost patience with carefully constructed messages being lost in the political noise. We are now prepared to stand up and say enough is enough."
The Copenhagen conference is intended to publicise the latest research on climate change ahead of the United Nations Climate Conference, which will also be held in Copenhagen, in December. It is hoped that a draft of an updated Kyoto-style agreement on reducing emissions will be produced at this later meeting.
The Telegraph has run an article on the Copenhagen conference and some of the recent findings announced there.
....................
A chimpanzee in a zoo in Sweden has surprised scientists by collecting stones, rocks and bits of concrete to throw at visitors later in the day. Fortunately for visitors to Furuvik Zoo, Santino’s underarm throwing method did not prove very effective and no one has been hurt.
The zookeepers undertook covert surveillance of Santino as he would stop his collecting upon noticing he was being watched. One zookeeper hid in a room overlooking the enclosure and watched as Santino dragged stones from a protective moat around his island home and placed them in piles. He was also seen to break lumps of concrete from his shelter and break them into discs. Interestingly, Santino only made piles of ammunition on the part of the island nearest visitors to the zoo.
A study into Santino’s behaviour has been conducted by Dr Mathias Osvath, a cognitive scientist from Sweden’s Lund University, and published in the science journal Current Biology. The 31-year-old male Santino shows an ability to plan for the future which many scientists have argued to be a behaviour unique to humans. Chimpanzees have been shown to plan ahead in experimental settings before but alternate explanations for this apparent premeditation could not be excluded. Dr Osvath said: "Forward planning like this is supposed to be uniquely human; it implies a consciousness that is very special. Many apes throw objects, but the novelty with Santino is that he makes caches of these missiles while he is fully calm and only throws them much later on.”
To read more about Santino and Dr Osvath's findings visit the Guardian website.
....................
Drivers may never have to worry about scratching their car again. Self-repairing paint has become a realistic possibility thanks to work undertaken by scientists at the University of Southern Mississippi. They have developed a polyurethane coating that, using the power of the sun, mends itself.
In the journal Science, Marek Urban and Bisqajit Ghosh said that: “An ideal automotive coating would mend itself while a vehicle is driven.” They identified other possible uses for the material including on sunglasses, computer screens, clothing and biomedical products such as bandages where scratches can harbour germs.
The material has been made by incorporating four-sided oxetane ‘rings’ and chitosan, a substance found in the exoskeletons of crabs and shrimps, into a polyurethane. When the material is scratched the oxetane rings are split to expose reactive sites. Exposure to UV light breaks open the chitosan revealing another set of reactive sites. The chitosan and oxetane then bond together and repair the material. Scratches have been made to heal within about 30 minutes.
The Times has an article detailing this new discovery.
....................
Who would have thought that one of the major breakthroughs in reducing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere would come in the form of a giant microwave oven? Chris Turney, of the University of Exeter, believes it will.
He has proposed that these large ovens can be used to essentially 'cook' wood and turn it into charcoal, known as biochar. This charcoal can then be safely buried underground locking away, for thousands of years, all the carbon dioxide that the tree absorbed as it grew. Other advocates of the technique include James Lovelock and Nasa’s James Hansen.
The result of this technology could be the planting of fast-growing trees such as pine as carbon traps, grown with the primary purpose of soaking up carbon dioxide.
Turney has accredited a kitchen mishap during his teenage years as inspiration for the technology. He mistakenly microwaved a potato for 40 minutes and was surprised to discover that the potato emerged from the oven as charcoal. He has said that: "Years later when we were talking about carbon sequestration I thought maybe charcoal was the way to go."
Compared to other technological methods for reducing CO2 levels, such as altering the properties of clouds so that they reflect more of the sun’s radiation or adding iron to the oceans, Tim Lenton (University of East Anglia) has calculated that the production of biochar would be the most efficient. The results of his work have been published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry.
Read more about biochar and these ovens in the Guardian.
....................
And finallly...
Incidences of skin cancer have doubled in the UK over the past 20 years and it is now the second most common cancer in the country. To help aleviate this problem researchers from the University of Strathclyde have developed an indicator to warn people that they are at risk from a harmful dose of ultraviolet rays and sunburn. Their work has been reported in the journal Chemical Communications.
The technology takes the form of an ink which can be printed onto a suitable substrate, for instance a strip of plastic to be worn around the wrist. Exposure to UV rays drives a chemical reaction in the indicator which releases an acid into a dye prompting, when the exposure goes above a recommended level, a colour change. This combination of UV-driven reaction and acid-sensitive dye has been described as ‘intelligent ink’ by Professor Andrew Mills who led the research.
Professor Mills has explained that the novel feature of this indicator is its ability to identify the point at which people need to get out of the sun to prevent burning. The timing could be adapted, through the addition of an alkali to the dye, to make it suitable for different skin types.
Jodie Moffat, health information officer from Cancer Research UK, said that she could imagine “this sort of device being used to encourage people to protect their skin”. Over 2,300 people die from skin cancer each year in the UK, according to the charity.
To read more about the work of Prof Mills visit the BBC News website.
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