The Science News Digest- 20 February 2009
In the science new this week: scientists have set their sights firmly on Jupiter, doctors are one step closer to a cure for peanut allergy suffers and a new insight into grizzly bears’ 'fancy footwork' following some brave camera work.
Following a meeting last week held at Washington DC, the European Space Agency and Nasa have agreed on a plan to send a probe to the Icy moon of Europa, in the Jupiter system and another to Ganymede, the largest moon ion the solar system with a unique magnetic field.
Scientists have had their sights set on targeting the moon Europa for a long time, it is believed that under the cracked surface, there lies a sub-surface ocean which could support life.
The Jupiter mission was considered alongside a proposed mission to Saturn’s moons Titan and Enceladus, but the venture to Jupiter’s moons has now been given an earlier flight target date of 2020, following a decision that this venture was more technically feasible. It is expected that the two orbiters would arrive in the Jupiter system by 2026. The mission to Saturn’s moons will be given a target date of later in the century.
The executive director of The Planetary Society, Louis Friedman, commented ‘A mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa will take is to one of the most likely habitats in the solar system- other than Earth- where life might have evolved’ (BBC News).
Curt Niebur, a programme scientist for outer planets research at NASA, told Nature ‘The Europa mission will help scientists investigate the emergence of habitable worlds around gas giants’
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Environmentalists and coastguards express their concern as the biggest oil slick to threaten Ireland and the UK coastlines in ten years drifts towards our shores. A Russian oil tanker, just off the Irish coastline, is said to be the origin of the spill, which was first spotted on Saturday during surveillance carried out by the European Maritime Safety Agency in Lisbon, Portugal.
Irish authorities are currently monitoring the spill that lies in Irish patrolled water, it is expected that the oil slick will hit Irish shores in the next two weeks.
It is expected that much of the 1000 tonnes of oil will evaporate, or turn into tar barrels, which will be less threatening to the environment.
Environmentalists warn however that any oil that does hit shores in the form of an oil slick could be devastating for surrounding marine life. Read more in the Independent.
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New Research has found that melt-water pooling on Arctic sea ice is increasing the rate of melting ice, the Guardian has reported. The Arctic sea ice has declined at a rate of 7.8% per decade, up 5.3% on the predicted rate of 2.5% per decade.
A number of teams have been battling to find out why the sea ice was melting at a faster rate than scientific models had predicted following the most recent assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
It is now understood that melted ice and snow that lies in pools on the sea ice causes the sea ice to melt more rapidly, this is because these pools are darker than the actual ice and absorb radiation from the sun rather than reflecting it.
Christina Alsvik Persersen, from the Norwegian Polar Institute tells the Guardian ‘Melt ponds were not taken into consideration by global climate models as sea-ice albedo [the ratio of reflected to incident solar radiation] is a complex process that is poorly described in these models’.
This recent research has developed our understanding of the processes and rates of melting Arctic sea ice. It is now hoped that research like this can be incorporated into new climatic models used by scientists to piece together what will happen to melting sea ice in the future and at what rate it is disappearing.
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Scientists believe that they are closer to a cure for children with peanut allergies.
A team of doctors at Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital have been working with 4 children over a six month period to desensitise them of their nut allergies. By gradually exposing the children to concentrations of peanuts they were able to build up the children’s tolerance.
Starting on a 5mg daily dose of peanut flour the children were gradually exposed higher and higher concentrations of peanut, by the end of the study the children’s bodies were able to cope with concentrations of 800mg, equivalent to 5 whole peanuts.
Although this is great news for the thousands of sufferers of nut allergies across the UK and indeed for those suffering from other food allergies, further studies will now need to be carried out. The team from Cambridge’s Addenbrooke’s Hospital will now broaden their study to work with another 18 children with allergies. Those four children who were in the original study will need to continue exposing themselves to peanuts in order for the body to remain tolerant, as the cure is not a permanent one. Even so, the cure has already had a positive impact upon the children’s lives.
One mum, whose son was one of the children taking part in the study, reports to BBC news ‘It's very hard to describe how much of a difference it's made - not just in Michael's life, but for all of us’. Find out more about this story at BBC news.
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The Independent has reported that scientists have discovered a way to lure crazed bull Elephants in ‘musth’ away from residential areas and back toward local Wildlife parks. Bull elephants are often a lethal threat to residents living near African wildlife parks as the animals will stop at nothing to get to a female elephant in heat.
Female elephants become fertile and go into oestrus only once every six months so it is no wonder that bull elephant’s sex hormones go into overdrive, making these animals one of the most feared in Africa.
Now scientists believe that they can lure the animals back to their home range by using recorded siren calls of females in oestrus. Playing these siren calls through bass speakers in the ground has so far proved an effective method to turn the males around and tempt them back the other way. Tests in the Etosha National Park in Namibia on 26 bull elephants have already shown that the males can be fooled into thinking the recordings are the real thing and have changed their paths to follow these sounds.
----------
Surgeons working around the clock have successfully completed a face transplant to replace 80% of a woman’s face. After some months of recovery the woman is now able to eat and drink something that she was not able to do before. Of the four face transplants that have successfully been completed, this is the biggest of its kind and took a team of surgeons taking shifts to complete the work. The 22 hour transplant included nose, lower lids, cheeks and upper jaw, but despite the huge complexities of the transplant, the patient is now doing well.
The Independent reported that the patient had been through a massive trauma and despite years of various attempts of reconstructive surgery, nothing had worked to bring back any functioning of the woman’s face. It is now hoped that the patient will continue to recover and will begin to gain sensitivity back to the face and more control over function and movement.
----------
The US National Academy of Sciences has produced a report expressing their concerns over the accuracy of forensic science. The board have requested an independent national body be put together to help raise standards of certain forensic techniques, such as techniques in bloodstain pattern analysis, and to assess the reliability of many other frequently used forensic techniques.
Many high profile convictions have come into question following too much of the prosecution relying on forensic evidence, that can then be questioned for reliability. In many questions this has led to exonerations of individuals.
Many forensic scientists welcome the criticism saying that there are too many inaccuracies in current techniques to decide the verdict of a conviction relying solely on forensic science.
Many comparative techniques such as hair or fingerprint analysis can not stand up to rigorous testing and do not come to the same conclusion on repeated testing. Read more at New Scientist.
----------
And finally……
A BBC team who followed grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) during the annual salmon migration have shown that these massive creatures can perform some very 'fancy footwork'.
The BBC film crew, who were following the bears as part of the new BBC Natural History Unit series- Nature’s Great Events, used under water cameras to study how these bears catch and eat their fishy feasts.
The bears use their huge feet to kick dead fish from deep pools into shallow water where they would reach down and pick the bears up, thus saving getting their ears wet. Wildlife cameraman, Jeff Turner, told BBC news that ‘bears will do anything to avoid getting their ears wet’.
After some initial problems with using a remote camera, Mr Turner decided to operate the camera himself from the water by attaching it to a pole. The tolerant bears allowed the cameraman to stand just 2 meters away while filming their fascinating footwork. This was a rare opportunity to observe the bears during their hunt. Reported in BBC News.
Following a meeting last week held at Washington DC, the European Space Agency and Nasa have agreed on a plan to send a probe to the Icy moon of Europa, in the Jupiter system and another to Ganymede, the largest moon ion the solar system with a unique magnetic field.
Scientists have had their sights set on targeting the moon Europa for a long time, it is believed that under the cracked surface, there lies a sub-surface ocean which could support life.
The Jupiter mission was considered alongside a proposed mission to Saturn’s moons Titan and Enceladus, but the venture to Jupiter’s moons has now been given an earlier flight target date of 2020, following a decision that this venture was more technically feasible. It is expected that the two orbiters would arrive in the Jupiter system by 2026. The mission to Saturn’s moons will be given a target date of later in the century.
The executive director of The Planetary Society, Louis Friedman, commented ‘A mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa will take is to one of the most likely habitats in the solar system- other than Earth- where life might have evolved’ (BBC News).
Curt Niebur, a programme scientist for outer planets research at NASA, told Nature ‘The Europa mission will help scientists investigate the emergence of habitable worlds around gas giants’
----------
Environmentalists and coastguards express their concern as the biggest oil slick to threaten Ireland and the UK coastlines in ten years drifts towards our shores. A Russian oil tanker, just off the Irish coastline, is said to be the origin of the spill, which was first spotted on Saturday during surveillance carried out by the European Maritime Safety Agency in Lisbon, Portugal.
Irish authorities are currently monitoring the spill that lies in Irish patrolled water, it is expected that the oil slick will hit Irish shores in the next two weeks.
It is expected that much of the 1000 tonnes of oil will evaporate, or turn into tar barrels, which will be less threatening to the environment.
Environmentalists warn however that any oil that does hit shores in the form of an oil slick could be devastating for surrounding marine life. Read more in the Independent.
----------
New Research has found that melt-water pooling on Arctic sea ice is increasing the rate of melting ice, the Guardian has reported. The Arctic sea ice has declined at a rate of 7.8% per decade, up 5.3% on the predicted rate of 2.5% per decade.
A number of teams have been battling to find out why the sea ice was melting at a faster rate than scientific models had predicted following the most recent assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
It is now understood that melted ice and snow that lies in pools on the sea ice causes the sea ice to melt more rapidly, this is because these pools are darker than the actual ice and absorb radiation from the sun rather than reflecting it.
Christina Alsvik Persersen, from the Norwegian Polar Institute tells the Guardian ‘Melt ponds were not taken into consideration by global climate models as sea-ice albedo [the ratio of reflected to incident solar radiation] is a complex process that is poorly described in these models’.
This recent research has developed our understanding of the processes and rates of melting Arctic sea ice. It is now hoped that research like this can be incorporated into new climatic models used by scientists to piece together what will happen to melting sea ice in the future and at what rate it is disappearing.
----------
Scientists believe that they are closer to a cure for children with peanut allergies.
A team of doctors at Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital have been working with 4 children over a six month period to desensitise them of their nut allergies. By gradually exposing the children to concentrations of peanuts they were able to build up the children’s tolerance.
Starting on a 5mg daily dose of peanut flour the children were gradually exposed higher and higher concentrations of peanut, by the end of the study the children’s bodies were able to cope with concentrations of 800mg, equivalent to 5 whole peanuts.
Although this is great news for the thousands of sufferers of nut allergies across the UK and indeed for those suffering from other food allergies, further studies will now need to be carried out. The team from Cambridge’s Addenbrooke’s Hospital will now broaden their study to work with another 18 children with allergies. Those four children who were in the original study will need to continue exposing themselves to peanuts in order for the body to remain tolerant, as the cure is not a permanent one. Even so, the cure has already had a positive impact upon the children’s lives.
One mum, whose son was one of the children taking part in the study, reports to BBC news ‘It's very hard to describe how much of a difference it's made - not just in Michael's life, but for all of us’. Find out more about this story at BBC news.
----------
The Independent has reported that scientists have discovered a way to lure crazed bull Elephants in ‘musth’ away from residential areas and back toward local Wildlife parks. Bull elephants are often a lethal threat to residents living near African wildlife parks as the animals will stop at nothing to get to a female elephant in heat.
Female elephants become fertile and go into oestrus only once every six months so it is no wonder that bull elephant’s sex hormones go into overdrive, making these animals one of the most feared in Africa.
Now scientists believe that they can lure the animals back to their home range by using recorded siren calls of females in oestrus. Playing these siren calls through bass speakers in the ground has so far proved an effective method to turn the males around and tempt them back the other way. Tests in the Etosha National Park in Namibia on 26 bull elephants have already shown that the males can be fooled into thinking the recordings are the real thing and have changed their paths to follow these sounds.
----------
Surgeons working around the clock have successfully completed a face transplant to replace 80% of a woman’s face. After some months of recovery the woman is now able to eat and drink something that she was not able to do before. Of the four face transplants that have successfully been completed, this is the biggest of its kind and took a team of surgeons taking shifts to complete the work. The 22 hour transplant included nose, lower lids, cheeks and upper jaw, but despite the huge complexities of the transplant, the patient is now doing well.
The Independent reported that the patient had been through a massive trauma and despite years of various attempts of reconstructive surgery, nothing had worked to bring back any functioning of the woman’s face. It is now hoped that the patient will continue to recover and will begin to gain sensitivity back to the face and more control over function and movement.
----------
The US National Academy of Sciences has produced a report expressing their concerns over the accuracy of forensic science. The board have requested an independent national body be put together to help raise standards of certain forensic techniques, such as techniques in bloodstain pattern analysis, and to assess the reliability of many other frequently used forensic techniques.
Many high profile convictions have come into question following too much of the prosecution relying on forensic evidence, that can then be questioned for reliability. In many questions this has led to exonerations of individuals.
Many forensic scientists welcome the criticism saying that there are too many inaccuracies in current techniques to decide the verdict of a conviction relying solely on forensic science.
Many comparative techniques such as hair or fingerprint analysis can not stand up to rigorous testing and do not come to the same conclusion on repeated testing. Read more at New Scientist.
----------
And finally……
A BBC team who followed grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) during the annual salmon migration have shown that these massive creatures can perform some very 'fancy footwork'.
The BBC film crew, who were following the bears as part of the new BBC Natural History Unit series- Nature’s Great Events, used under water cameras to study how these bears catch and eat their fishy feasts.
The bears use their huge feet to kick dead fish from deep pools into shallow water where they would reach down and pick the bears up, thus saving getting their ears wet. Wildlife cameraman, Jeff Turner, told BBC news that ‘bears will do anything to avoid getting their ears wet’.
After some initial problems with using a remote camera, Mr Turner decided to operate the camera himself from the water by attaching it to a pole. The tolerant bears allowed the cameraman to stand just 2 meters away while filming their fascinating footwork. This was a rare opportunity to observe the bears during their hunt. Reported in BBC News.
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