Science News Digest - 21 August 2009
In the science news this week: obesity, binge drinking and liver cancer, hopping pterosaurs and Kenya's dwindling lions.
Roaring loses
Kenya could lose its entire lion population in the next 20 years, writes the Telegraph.
Growing human settlements, increasing farming, climate change and disease are pushing the animals too far. According to the Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) an average of 100 lions are lost every year.
“The trend of lion population decline is disturbing and every effort needs to be made to ensure that Kenya either stabilises its population at the current population of 2,000 lions or increases the numbers to an ecologically acceptable level” stressed Paul Udoto, a spokesperson for KWS.
Human settlements are increasing rapidly in the region, and drought is pushing the lions closer to waterholes near these.
Persecution is also a problem. Speaking of the decline, Laurence Frank, project director of Living With Lions, a Kenya-based conservation organisation, said: “The reason is simple, lions eat cattle, and as the numbers of people grow, the numbers of cattle grow. Alongside that there are ever more efficient ways, including poisoning, to kill lions”.
Conservationists are currently finalising a fresh strategy to protect the animals, due to be launched next month. This includes tracking lions fitted with radio collars in parts of the region.
“Quick and decisive action needs to be taken to create public awareness as well as formulation of national guidelines on lion conservation and management in the long term” emphasised Udoto.
--------------------------------------
Robo cops
A nearing future of autonomous systems – such as lorries which drive themselves and robots that perform surgery – will bring a fresh raft of legal and ethical issues, warns a new report.
Fully autonomous rapid transport systems already exist at Heathrow Airport. The Royal Academy of Engineering says that it could be as few as ten years before automated freight transport is on our roads, and that robotic surgery will begin to need less human intervention.
“We’re all used to automatic systems – lifts, washing machines. We’re talking about levels above that”, said Lambert Dopping-Heppenstal of the Academy’s engineering ethics working group. “It’s about systems that have some level of self-determination”.
These are slowly moving from science fiction to science fact, and the report says discussion of the issues surrounding them are becoming more urgent.
Professor Will Stewart, a fellow at the Academy, and report co-author Chris Elliott, believe that autonomous systems will be better in some fields, on average, than humans. But it could lead to a legal mess if things do go wrong.
“If a robot surgeon is actually better than a human one, most times you’re going to be better off with a robot surgeon” commented Elliott. “But occasionally it might do something that a human being would never be so stupid as to do”.
See the BBC for more.
--------------------------------------
The Universe – six seconds in
Astronomers have been able to glean insights into the state of the Universe just six seconds after its creation, by not detecting strong gravitational waves, reports the Times.
Einstein predicted these ripples in his theory of relativity. They’re believed to stretch and squeeze space and time as they pass, and the largest waves to be created by violent events such as supernovae explosions or collisions between two black holes.
The American Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) have been hunting for these since 2005. They haven’t yet found any, which disproves certain theories of what happened during the early growth of the Universe.
Previous work has managed to peer only as far back as about 380,000 years after the big bang.
“Gravitational waves are the only way to directly probe the Universe at the moment of its birth; they’re absolutely unique in that regard” said Professor David Reitze, spokesperson for the LIGO scientific collaboration.
The strength of any waves detected will reveal the structure of the young Universe, and how it got its current “lumpy” condition.
Professor Jim Hough, of the University of Glasgow, who contributed to the research, said that upgrades to the instruments in 2014 were almost guaranteed to find gravitational waves, even if they didn’t before then.
The LIGO detectors use vast L-shaped instruments, with arms up to four kilometres long. When the tiny ripples are sensed, one arm shrinks while the other lengthens – by minute distances just one ten thousandth of the diameter of an atomic nucleus.
--------------------------------------
Liver let die
Modern lifestyles are to blame for cases of liver cancer being three times the number today than they were in 1975, according to statistics published by Cancer Research UK and reported in the Guardian.
“Three main risk factors for liver cirrhosis – alcohol, obesity and hepatitis C infection – are getting more common in the UK. We are seeing more people with cirrhosis and, in turn, more with primary liver cancer”, said Matt Seymour, Cancer Research UK’s professor of gastrointestinal cancer medicine at the University of Leeds.
Whilst secondary liver cancer – where cancer from other parts of the body spreads – is relatively common, cancer which originates in the liver was unusual till recently.
“Cutting down on alcohol and watching your weight will help to reduce the risk of a wide range of cancers, including primary liver cancer”, said Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at the charity.
Don Shenker, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, also stressed there was a need for action. “We’re facing a public health crisis in terms of alcohol-related cancers and other health conditions because of cheap, easily available alcohol and a lack of information to go with it”.
Seymour also said that the numbers were likely to grow, due to a delay between exposure to risk factors and cancer onset. “It might take between 20 and 40 years for liver cancer to develop after infection with hepatitis C. So even if new cases of infection stopped, the number of cases would continue to rise for some years”.
--------------------------------------
Pigeon toed pterosaur?
Another similarity between birds and dinosaurs has been found, as fossil footprints of a pterosaur reveal it landed like a modern bird.
The pterosaur has been revealed to stall in the air before touching down. The scientists believe this as scratch marks made by the dinosaur’s claws show it was travelling too fast to come to an immediate stop, and that it made a small, ungainly hop before halting.
This indication of in-flight stalling shows the animals were “strong, manoeuvrable flyers”. The same technique is still used by birds 140 million years later.
Crayssac in France is the site of the pterosaur prints, as well as hundreds of tracks from other Jurassic creatures.
Also revealed by the prints was that the dinosaur could use it’s wing arms as a pair of front legs, in a manner more similar to birds and mammals than modern lizards.
Read all about it in the Independent.
--------------------------------------
Science of the dead
Scientists have been working on how to deal with a lethal, rapidly spreading infection – of zombies.
The mathematical exercise concludes that a plague of the undead would lead to the collapse of civilisation unless dealt with quickly and aggressively. The authors wrote in their scientific paper that our only hope would be to “hit them hard and hit them often”.
But, seriously, the work could be used to help scientists model the spread of unfamiliar diseases through human populations. A zombie plague shares features with an infectious disease epidemic, including the fact that the fictional creatures can turn the living into the undead with a single bite.
Professor Robert Smith? (the question mark is a part of his surname) and colleagues wrote: “We modelled a zombie attack using biological assumptions based on popular zombie movies. We introduce a basic model for zombie infection and illustrate the outcome with numerical solutions.”
According to Professor Neil Ferguson, one of the UK government’s chief advisors on controlling the spread of swine flu, the study does have parallels with some infectious diseases.
Commenting on the research, he added: “My understanding of zombie biology is that if you manage to decapitate a zombie then it’s dead forever. So perhaps they are being a little over-pessimistic when they conclude that zombies might take over a city in three or four days.”
Have a look at the BBC for the whole story.
Roaring loses
Kenya could lose its entire lion population in the next 20 years, writes the Telegraph.
Growing human settlements, increasing farming, climate change and disease are pushing the animals too far. According to the Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) an average of 100 lions are lost every year.
“The trend of lion population decline is disturbing and every effort needs to be made to ensure that Kenya either stabilises its population at the current population of 2,000 lions or increases the numbers to an ecologically acceptable level” stressed Paul Udoto, a spokesperson for KWS.
Human settlements are increasing rapidly in the region, and drought is pushing the lions closer to waterholes near these.
Persecution is also a problem. Speaking of the decline, Laurence Frank, project director of Living With Lions, a Kenya-based conservation organisation, said: “The reason is simple, lions eat cattle, and as the numbers of people grow, the numbers of cattle grow. Alongside that there are ever more efficient ways, including poisoning, to kill lions”.
Conservationists are currently finalising a fresh strategy to protect the animals, due to be launched next month. This includes tracking lions fitted with radio collars in parts of the region.
“Quick and decisive action needs to be taken to create public awareness as well as formulation of national guidelines on lion conservation and management in the long term” emphasised Udoto.
--------------------------------------
Robo cops
A nearing future of autonomous systems – such as lorries which drive themselves and robots that perform surgery – will bring a fresh raft of legal and ethical issues, warns a new report.
Fully autonomous rapid transport systems already exist at Heathrow Airport. The Royal Academy of Engineering says that it could be as few as ten years before automated freight transport is on our roads, and that robotic surgery will begin to need less human intervention.
“We’re all used to automatic systems – lifts, washing machines. We’re talking about levels above that”, said Lambert Dopping-Heppenstal of the Academy’s engineering ethics working group. “It’s about systems that have some level of self-determination”.
These are slowly moving from science fiction to science fact, and the report says discussion of the issues surrounding them are becoming more urgent.
Professor Will Stewart, a fellow at the Academy, and report co-author Chris Elliott, believe that autonomous systems will be better in some fields, on average, than humans. But it could lead to a legal mess if things do go wrong.
“If a robot surgeon is actually better than a human one, most times you’re going to be better off with a robot surgeon” commented Elliott. “But occasionally it might do something that a human being would never be so stupid as to do”.
See the BBC for more.
--------------------------------------
The Universe – six seconds in
Astronomers have been able to glean insights into the state of the Universe just six seconds after its creation, by not detecting strong gravitational waves, reports the Times.
Einstein predicted these ripples in his theory of relativity. They’re believed to stretch and squeeze space and time as they pass, and the largest waves to be created by violent events such as supernovae explosions or collisions between two black holes.
The American Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) have been hunting for these since 2005. They haven’t yet found any, which disproves certain theories of what happened during the early growth of the Universe.
Previous work has managed to peer only as far back as about 380,000 years after the big bang.
“Gravitational waves are the only way to directly probe the Universe at the moment of its birth; they’re absolutely unique in that regard” said Professor David Reitze, spokesperson for the LIGO scientific collaboration.
The strength of any waves detected will reveal the structure of the young Universe, and how it got its current “lumpy” condition.
Professor Jim Hough, of the University of Glasgow, who contributed to the research, said that upgrades to the instruments in 2014 were almost guaranteed to find gravitational waves, even if they didn’t before then.
The LIGO detectors use vast L-shaped instruments, with arms up to four kilometres long. When the tiny ripples are sensed, one arm shrinks while the other lengthens – by minute distances just one ten thousandth of the diameter of an atomic nucleus.
--------------------------------------
Liver let die
Modern lifestyles are to blame for cases of liver cancer being three times the number today than they were in 1975, according to statistics published by Cancer Research UK and reported in the Guardian.
“Three main risk factors for liver cirrhosis – alcohol, obesity and hepatitis C infection – are getting more common in the UK. We are seeing more people with cirrhosis and, in turn, more with primary liver cancer”, said Matt Seymour, Cancer Research UK’s professor of gastrointestinal cancer medicine at the University of Leeds.
Whilst secondary liver cancer – where cancer from other parts of the body spreads – is relatively common, cancer which originates in the liver was unusual till recently.
“Cutting down on alcohol and watching your weight will help to reduce the risk of a wide range of cancers, including primary liver cancer”, said Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at the charity.
Don Shenker, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, also stressed there was a need for action. “We’re facing a public health crisis in terms of alcohol-related cancers and other health conditions because of cheap, easily available alcohol and a lack of information to go with it”.
Seymour also said that the numbers were likely to grow, due to a delay between exposure to risk factors and cancer onset. “It might take between 20 and 40 years for liver cancer to develop after infection with hepatitis C. So even if new cases of infection stopped, the number of cases would continue to rise for some years”.
--------------------------------------
Pigeon toed pterosaur?
Another similarity between birds and dinosaurs has been found, as fossil footprints of a pterosaur reveal it landed like a modern bird.
The pterosaur has been revealed to stall in the air before touching down. The scientists believe this as scratch marks made by the dinosaur’s claws show it was travelling too fast to come to an immediate stop, and that it made a small, ungainly hop before halting.
This indication of in-flight stalling shows the animals were “strong, manoeuvrable flyers”. The same technique is still used by birds 140 million years later.
Crayssac in France is the site of the pterosaur prints, as well as hundreds of tracks from other Jurassic creatures.
Also revealed by the prints was that the dinosaur could use it’s wing arms as a pair of front legs, in a manner more similar to birds and mammals than modern lizards.
Read all about it in the Independent.
--------------------------------------
Science of the dead
Scientists have been working on how to deal with a lethal, rapidly spreading infection – of zombies.
The mathematical exercise concludes that a plague of the undead would lead to the collapse of civilisation unless dealt with quickly and aggressively. The authors wrote in their scientific paper that our only hope would be to “hit them hard and hit them often”.
But, seriously, the work could be used to help scientists model the spread of unfamiliar diseases through human populations. A zombie plague shares features with an infectious disease epidemic, including the fact that the fictional creatures can turn the living into the undead with a single bite.
Professor Robert Smith? (the question mark is a part of his surname) and colleagues wrote: “We modelled a zombie attack using biological assumptions based on popular zombie movies. We introduce a basic model for zombie infection and illustrate the outcome with numerical solutions.”
According to Professor Neil Ferguson, one of the UK government’s chief advisors on controlling the spread of swine flu, the study does have parallels with some infectious diseases.
Commenting on the research, he added: “My understanding of zombie biology is that if you manage to decapitate a zombie then it’s dead forever. So perhaps they are being a little over-pessimistic when they conclude that zombies might take over a city in three or four days.”
Have a look at the BBC for the whole story.
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