The BA Science News Digest - 31 October 2008
In the science news this week: an artificial heart that can regulate its rhythm, winter Arctic ice thickness 'plummets' and chimps remember past favours...
Scientists have developed an artificial heart that beats almost exactly like the real thing, using electronic sensors to regulate heart rate and blood flow. Its ability to detect the body's activity level (and therefore oxygen requirement) and change its rhythm accordingly sets it apart from previous artificial hearts.
Its developers Carmat – a company founded by France's leading cardiac surgeon, Professor Alain Carpentier, and Europe's aerospace and defence giant EADS – believe it could be fitted into the 20,000 patients worldwide who need a life-saving heart transplant but are let down by a shortage of donors.
Its inventors claim it is the closest thing yet to the human heart. 'If you show the graphs to a cardiac surgeon, he will say it's a human heart,' Professor Carpentier said. 'But no, it’s not a human heart, it’s the prosthesis.'
The devise is covered with a “pseudo-skin” of biosynthetic, microporous materials, to reduce the risk of rejection by the body's immune system and the formation of blood clots. An adequate power supply for the heart remains a significant hurdle – currently the battery could last for up to 16 hours, after which it would need recharging. Professor Carpentier's team are investigating options that don't require wires to cross the skin, as these pose an infection risk.
So far it has been tested successfully in calves and sheep. If clinical trials are approved, patients with terminal heart failure could receive an implant in two or three year's time. Providing the trials are successful, and Carmat can find about 100 million Euros to fund production of the device, the artificial heart could be available as a transplant alternative in 2013.
Peter Weissberg of the British Heart Foundation cautioned: 'This is the latest attempt to engineer an artificial heart that will do the heart's job effectively without any dangerous side effects. Despite their early promise in laboratory experiments most versions so far have not performed as well as predicted when tried in patients. Only properly conducted clinical trials will establish whether this version will live up to the claims made by its manufacturers.'
(Read more in the Times and BBC News)
--------------------
Satellite data has revealed that Arctic sea ice thinned dramatically last winter, and provides the first definitive proof that the overall volume of Arctic ice has decreased, according to University College London researchers.
'The ice thickness was fairly constant for the five winters before this, but it plummeted in the winter after the 2007 minimum,' Katharine Giles, lead author of the Geophysical Research Letters paper, told BBC News.
The findings showed that last winter the ice thinned by an average of 10 per cent (26cm) below the 2002-2008 winter average, with some regions thinning by as much as 20 per cent.
The measurements were recorded via a radar altimeter aboard the European Space Agency's (Esa) Envisat satellite. Using the time it takes electromagnetic wave pulses to be reflected back up to the satellite's receiver, the instrument allows calculation of the height of the ice above sea level. Since one tenth of the ice sits above the water, it is possible to use this to work out the location's overall volume and thickness of ice.
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Meanwhile, the Royal Society has announced plans for a feasibility study into which geo-engineering techniques might best help combat the worst impacts of climate change, reported the Guardian. Potential schemes include placing mirrors in space to reflect sunlight or seeding the oceans with iron to encourage the growth of algae that can soak up atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Earlier this year, in an introduction to a special edition of the Royal Society journal, Philosophical Transactions, Brian Launder of the University of Manchester and Michael Thompson of the University of Cambridge wrote: 'While such geo-scale interventions may be risky, the time may well come when they are accepted as less risky than doing nothing. There is increasingly the sense that governments are failing to come to grips with the urgency of setting in place measures that will assuredly lead to our planet reaching a safe equilibrium.'
The Royal Society working group, chaired by oceanographer John Shepherd of Southampton University, will investigate feasibility, as well as potential impacts and unintended consequences the techniques could have. The report is expected to be published next year.
'Some of these proposals seem fantastical, and may prove to be so. Our study aims to separate the science from the science fiction and offer recommendations on which options deserve serious consideration,' said Shepherd. 'We need to investigate if any of these schemes could help us avoid the most dangerous changes to our climate and to fully understand what other impacts they may have.'
--------------------
Also in the Guardian was the revelation that many common table wines contain metal contamination.
Scientists drew up a table detailing metal contamination in wines from various regions using information from published research papers. They then applied a measure known as the Target Hazard Quotient to determine whether levels were potentially hazardous.
Study leader Declan Naughton, Director of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Kingston University, London, said high levels of certain metals in the diet have been linked to Parkinson's disease and indirectly to heart disease, diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, and it was worrying that the widespread contamination in wines had not been brought up before. The metals that were of most concern were copper and manganese.
He added, 'We should be declaring levels of metal ions on wine labels and where necessary, we should be doing more to remove metal ions in the winemaking process.'
The authors wrote in the Chemistry Central Journal: 'Relatively high levels of potentially hazardous metal ions are frequently found in both red and white wines originating from various countries. For consumption of 250ml daily, these wines give very high THQ values and may present detrimental health concerns through a lifetime, based upon the metal content alone.'
--------------------
Marcus du Sautoy will take up the prestigious Simonyi Professorship for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University in December, stepping into the shoes of Richard Dawkins, who held the post for thirteen years.
The position was created specifically for Dawkins by the Hungarian computer scientist Charles Simonyi, to allow the biologist the time to continue writing and disseminating his work. He is well known for his strong views about religion. Mathematician du Sautoy, himself a successful author and TV presenter, says he is undaunted by Dawkins' shadow, and keen to steer his own course.
'I'm bracing myself for everyone asking me if I believe in God or not,' he said. 'I understand Richard's point, there are great fears about the power of the intelligent design movement in America, but my focus is mainly on trying to excite people about science, why I do it, how it impacts on your life.'
Many people will already be familiar with du Sautoy from the 2006 Royal Institution Christmas lectures, or from his current BBC4 series 'The Story of Maths'.
'For me, science is about discovery but it is also about communication,' said du Sautoy. 'A scientific discovery barely exists until it is communicated and brought to life in the minds of others.'
The BA's Chief Executive, Roland Jackson, welcomes the appointment: 'Marcus is a great science communicator and possesses the ability to make maths engaging to people of all ages, as we have seen on television and at our Festival of Science. Mathematics can sometimes appear one of the less accessible science subjects despite its central role, so I'm particularly pleased to see a mathematician take up the post.'
(Read more in the Guardian, and listen to an interview with du Sautoy about his new position)
--------------------
And finally...
Chimps have been found to keep a mental record of favours so that they can return them, according to researchers who monitored the grooming interactions of 14 wild chimpanzees on the Ivory Coast.
Before this study, it wasn't known whether primates could exchange kindnesses, or even remember exchanges beyond a single encounter. But behaviour such as grooming, scratching and removing fleas from other group members was found to be more balanced among pairs of individuals when measured long-term rather than on an immediate or short-term basis.
Dr Cristina Gomes, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said: 'Our findings strongly suggest that chimpanzees, like humans, are able to keep track of past social interactions, at least for a one-week period, and balance services over repeated encounters.'
As the Telegraph put it: 'The old adage “You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours” has kept humans happy in business for centuries... [and] our closest living relative are... even more like us than we thought.'
Scientists have developed an artificial heart that beats almost exactly like the real thing, using electronic sensors to regulate heart rate and blood flow. Its ability to detect the body's activity level (and therefore oxygen requirement) and change its rhythm accordingly sets it apart from previous artificial hearts.
Its developers Carmat – a company founded by France's leading cardiac surgeon, Professor Alain Carpentier, and Europe's aerospace and defence giant EADS – believe it could be fitted into the 20,000 patients worldwide who need a life-saving heart transplant but are let down by a shortage of donors.
Its inventors claim it is the closest thing yet to the human heart. 'If you show the graphs to a cardiac surgeon, he will say it's a human heart,' Professor Carpentier said. 'But no, it’s not a human heart, it’s the prosthesis.'
The devise is covered with a “pseudo-skin” of biosynthetic, microporous materials, to reduce the risk of rejection by the body's immune system and the formation of blood clots. An adequate power supply for the heart remains a significant hurdle – currently the battery could last for up to 16 hours, after which it would need recharging. Professor Carpentier's team are investigating options that don't require wires to cross the skin, as these pose an infection risk.
So far it has been tested successfully in calves and sheep. If clinical trials are approved, patients with terminal heart failure could receive an implant in two or three year's time. Providing the trials are successful, and Carmat can find about 100 million Euros to fund production of the device, the artificial heart could be available as a transplant alternative in 2013.
Peter Weissberg of the British Heart Foundation cautioned: 'This is the latest attempt to engineer an artificial heart that will do the heart's job effectively without any dangerous side effects. Despite their early promise in laboratory experiments most versions so far have not performed as well as predicted when tried in patients. Only properly conducted clinical trials will establish whether this version will live up to the claims made by its manufacturers.'
(Read more in the Times and BBC News)
--------------------
Satellite data has revealed that Arctic sea ice thinned dramatically last winter, and provides the first definitive proof that the overall volume of Arctic ice has decreased, according to University College London researchers.
'The ice thickness was fairly constant for the five winters before this, but it plummeted in the winter after the 2007 minimum,' Katharine Giles, lead author of the Geophysical Research Letters paper, told BBC News.
The findings showed that last winter the ice thinned by an average of 10 per cent (26cm) below the 2002-2008 winter average, with some regions thinning by as much as 20 per cent.
The measurements were recorded via a radar altimeter aboard the European Space Agency's (Esa) Envisat satellite. Using the time it takes electromagnetic wave pulses to be reflected back up to the satellite's receiver, the instrument allows calculation of the height of the ice above sea level. Since one tenth of the ice sits above the water, it is possible to use this to work out the location's overall volume and thickness of ice.
--------------------
Meanwhile, the Royal Society has announced plans for a feasibility study into which geo-engineering techniques might best help combat the worst impacts of climate change, reported the Guardian. Potential schemes include placing mirrors in space to reflect sunlight or seeding the oceans with iron to encourage the growth of algae that can soak up atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Earlier this year, in an introduction to a special edition of the Royal Society journal, Philosophical Transactions, Brian Launder of the University of Manchester and Michael Thompson of the University of Cambridge wrote: 'While such geo-scale interventions may be risky, the time may well come when they are accepted as less risky than doing nothing. There is increasingly the sense that governments are failing to come to grips with the urgency of setting in place measures that will assuredly lead to our planet reaching a safe equilibrium.'
The Royal Society working group, chaired by oceanographer John Shepherd of Southampton University, will investigate feasibility, as well as potential impacts and unintended consequences the techniques could have. The report is expected to be published next year.
'Some of these proposals seem fantastical, and may prove to be so. Our study aims to separate the science from the science fiction and offer recommendations on which options deserve serious consideration,' said Shepherd. 'We need to investigate if any of these schemes could help us avoid the most dangerous changes to our climate and to fully understand what other impacts they may have.'
--------------------
Also in the Guardian was the revelation that many common table wines contain metal contamination.
Scientists drew up a table detailing metal contamination in wines from various regions using information from published research papers. They then applied a measure known as the Target Hazard Quotient to determine whether levels were potentially hazardous.
Study leader Declan Naughton, Director of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Kingston University, London, said high levels of certain metals in the diet have been linked to Parkinson's disease and indirectly to heart disease, diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, and it was worrying that the widespread contamination in wines had not been brought up before. The metals that were of most concern were copper and manganese.
He added, 'We should be declaring levels of metal ions on wine labels and where necessary, we should be doing more to remove metal ions in the winemaking process.'
The authors wrote in the Chemistry Central Journal: 'Relatively high levels of potentially hazardous metal ions are frequently found in both red and white wines originating from various countries. For consumption of 250ml daily, these wines give very high THQ values and may present detrimental health concerns through a lifetime, based upon the metal content alone.'
--------------------
Marcus du Sautoy will take up the prestigious Simonyi Professorship for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University in December, stepping into the shoes of Richard Dawkins, who held the post for thirteen years.
The position was created specifically for Dawkins by the Hungarian computer scientist Charles Simonyi, to allow the biologist the time to continue writing and disseminating his work. He is well known for his strong views about religion. Mathematician du Sautoy, himself a successful author and TV presenter, says he is undaunted by Dawkins' shadow, and keen to steer his own course.
'I'm bracing myself for everyone asking me if I believe in God or not,' he said. 'I understand Richard's point, there are great fears about the power of the intelligent design movement in America, but my focus is mainly on trying to excite people about science, why I do it, how it impacts on your life.'
Many people will already be familiar with du Sautoy from the 2006 Royal Institution Christmas lectures, or from his current BBC4 series 'The Story of Maths'.
'For me, science is about discovery but it is also about communication,' said du Sautoy. 'A scientific discovery barely exists until it is communicated and brought to life in the minds of others.'
The BA's Chief Executive, Roland Jackson, welcomes the appointment: 'Marcus is a great science communicator and possesses the ability to make maths engaging to people of all ages, as we have seen on television and at our Festival of Science. Mathematics can sometimes appear one of the less accessible science subjects despite its central role, so I'm particularly pleased to see a mathematician take up the post.'
(Read more in the Guardian, and listen to an interview with du Sautoy about his new position)
--------------------
And finally...
Chimps have been found to keep a mental record of favours so that they can return them, according to researchers who monitored the grooming interactions of 14 wild chimpanzees on the Ivory Coast.
Before this study, it wasn't known whether primates could exchange kindnesses, or even remember exchanges beyond a single encounter. But behaviour such as grooming, scratching and removing fleas from other group members was found to be more balanced among pairs of individuals when measured long-term rather than on an immediate or short-term basis.
Dr Cristina Gomes, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said: 'Our findings strongly suggest that chimpanzees, like humans, are able to keep track of past social interactions, at least for a one-week period, and balance services over repeated encounters.'
As the Telegraph put it: 'The old adage “You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours” has kept humans happy in business for centuries... [and] our closest living relative are... even more like us than we thought.'
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