The Science News Digest - 5 June 2009
Science Friction
Featuring widely in the scientific and mainstream press this week has been the libel case involving the British Science Association’s current President of the Maths Section, Simon Singh.
The controversy has been caused over the use of the word ‘bogus’ by Simon Singh in an article he wrote about the British Chiropractic Association’s claims that its members could use spinal manipulation to treat children with conditions such as colic, ear infections and asthma.
Singh used the word ‘bogus’ as he regards the treatments as having insufficient evidence to back their claims. However, in a preliminary hearing last month Justice Eady ruled that the word ‘bogus’ implies that the BCA was being consciously dishonest by backing treatments that it knew did not work.
Over the course of the week, support for Simon Singh has been rapidly gathering momentum from the scientific community and by yesterday he was also being backed by the likes of Stephen Fry, Ricky Gervais and Harry Hill as reported in The Telegraph.
An appeal is already planned for Monday and if this fails Singh intends to take the case to the European Courts. Quoted in the Guardian, he said; "We'll fight this until all the options are exhausted," The writer already faces a bill for legal costs in excess of £100,000.
Find out more in The Guardian.
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Chinese Cell-ebrations
Scientists in China are celebrating a breakthrough in their research into converting cells from adult pigs into any tissue in the body, giving the same possibilities as embryonic stem cells.
With Swine Flu persisting across the globe, this news couldn’t have come at a better time. The possibilities created by this breakthrough could not only aid research into human diseases and the farming of organs for xenotransplantation, but it also gives scope to develop pigs that are resistant to certain diseases.
Lead researcher Dr Lei Xiao, of the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, has said of his research; “it is entirely new, very important and has a number of applications for both human and animal health."
Using a virus introduced to the cell containing a cocktail of chemicals, Dr Xiao's team successfully reprogrammed cells taken from a pig's ear and bone marrow.
Tests confirmed that the reprogrammed cells had the ability to mimic any of the cell types found in the three layers of a developing embryo.
Other medical applications of this research include the cells being used to recreate human disease in pigs, which would enable scientists to perform tests for new therapies without using human subjects.
For more information visit BBC Online
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Never Ending Storage.
The next time you’re thinking about uploading some photos online, spare a thought for the relatives you could be embarrassing...in a billion years time! As ScienceNOW reports, researchers have devised a new technology using carbon nanotubes that gives us the ability to preserve data, potentially forever.
The possible applications of being able to preserve the bits of data such as those found on computer hard drives and DVD’s include the small feat of allowing us to document the entirety of human thought until the end of time.
In the quest for something more enduring, a team of physicists and materials scientists used the technique of placing a single iron crystal only a few billionths of a meter wide inside a hollow carbon nanotube. The iron nanocrystals then acted as data bits sliding from one end of the tube to the other in response to an electric current and registering either a "1" or a "0" in binary code.
Physicist and co-author Alex Zettl of the University of California, Berkeley says that both lab experiments and theoretical models show with "high confidence" that the device can retain data indefinitely, but more testing will be necessary.
To read more visit; ScienceNow
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Dodging the Bullet?
Reported in New Scientist this week, the US army has developed a viable alternative to artillery fire and airstrikes in the form of a rifle that can fire explosive bullets capable of detonating within a meter of its target. This new innovation allows soldiers to target enemy snipers hiding behind walls or in trenches while simultaneously reducing the prospect of causing civilian casualties.
The XM25 rifle’s gunsight utilises a laser rangefinder that calculates the exact distance to the obstruction. It then allows you to add or take away up to 3 meters from that distance to allow the bullets to pass round the obstruction and explode within proximity of the target.
Once the round has been fired, a radio signal is sent to a chip inside the bullet, allowing it to gauge the exact distance to the target. Furthermore there is a spiral groove inside the barrel, making the bullet rotate as it travels. As it also contains a magnetic transducer, the rotation through the Earth's magnetic field generates an alternating current and the chip uses fluctuations in this current to count each revolution. As the bullet knows the distance covered in one spin, it can therefore calculate how far it has travelled and detonate on target.
Found out more in New Scientist.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where Does Science Feature in Politics?
The main political parties in the UK have come under fire from the Guardian in the wake of the European Elections last Thursday. People turned out in their droves to vote, but it has been revealed that there was a startling lack of disclosure on where our candidates actually stand on key scientific issues.
According to the Guardian, the Conservatives’ European manifesto mentions the word science once, while it doesn’t even feature at all in Labour’s.
All of the main parties mention the importance of research in Britain’s ascension to a “knowledge-based economy” or other buzz words such as the sustainability of the environment, but none of them offer any clarity about their position on key issues such as stem cell research, genetic modification or nuclear research, despite the fact that the European Research Council is responsible for billions of Euros of spending in these any many other areas.
It was not just the main parties that were also proving cause for concern. In a questionnaire on various aspects of science submitted by the Guardian, some of the marginal parties highlighted some surprising attitudes.
Key members of the UK Independence Party have been reported to believe that man-made climate change is in fact a conspiracy, and the Green Party is proposing an EU-wide ban on research involving embryonic stem cells.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Food for Thought
News in the The Telegraph this week has given hope to millions of dieters, by announcing that scientists from Institute of Food Research and Nottingham University have found a way to modify food to make you feel fuller for twice as long.
The team discovered that some of the emulsifiers and stabilisers already used in processed food break down when they come into contact with stomach acid, while others do not.
By simply using ingredients that are more stable, it takes longer to break down and process them in the stomach, making you feel fuller for longer.
Tests were carried out using a test meal of olive oil and water mixed with two different stabilisers. One stabiliser allowed the meal to be broken down quickly into separate layers of oil and water, with the water being rapidly absorbed. The other stabiliser kept the oil and water bound in the stomach. One hour past the initial ingestion, there was still twice as much volume in the stomach containing the stable meal, making subjects feel fuller, less hungry and have less appetite compared to the unstable meal.
The study has been published in the British Journal of Nutrition.
And Finally… Monkey Business!
Researchers at the University of Portsmouth have made a new discovery…. by tickling young apes! The findings published in New Scientist have shown that laughter is in fact not a uniquely human attribute. By tickling 25 juvenile apes, including three humans, scientists found that the sounds they made seem to be shared by all great apes, suggesting laughter dates back some 10-16 million years.
Davila Ross and her team looked at 11 features of laughter and compared the similarities between humans and other great apes. The match between the acoustics of certain species was also found to mirror their DNA lineage, demonstrating that certain behaviors can be traced in the same way as anatomical features.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Featuring widely in the scientific and mainstream press this week has been the libel case involving the British Science Association’s current President of the Maths Section, Simon Singh.
The controversy has been caused over the use of the word ‘bogus’ by Simon Singh in an article he wrote about the British Chiropractic Association’s claims that its members could use spinal manipulation to treat children with conditions such as colic, ear infections and asthma.
Singh used the word ‘bogus’ as he regards the treatments as having insufficient evidence to back their claims. However, in a preliminary hearing last month Justice Eady ruled that the word ‘bogus’ implies that the BCA was being consciously dishonest by backing treatments that it knew did not work.
Over the course of the week, support for Simon Singh has been rapidly gathering momentum from the scientific community and by yesterday he was also being backed by the likes of Stephen Fry, Ricky Gervais and Harry Hill as reported in The Telegraph.
An appeal is already planned for Monday and if this fails Singh intends to take the case to the European Courts. Quoted in the Guardian, he said; "We'll fight this until all the options are exhausted," The writer already faces a bill for legal costs in excess of £100,000.
Find out more in The Guardian.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chinese Cell-ebrations
Scientists in China are celebrating a breakthrough in their research into converting cells from adult pigs into any tissue in the body, giving the same possibilities as embryonic stem cells.
With Swine Flu persisting across the globe, this news couldn’t have come at a better time. The possibilities created by this breakthrough could not only aid research into human diseases and the farming of organs for xenotransplantation, but it also gives scope to develop pigs that are resistant to certain diseases.
Lead researcher Dr Lei Xiao, of the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, has said of his research; “it is entirely new, very important and has a number of applications for both human and animal health."
Using a virus introduced to the cell containing a cocktail of chemicals, Dr Xiao's team successfully reprogrammed cells taken from a pig's ear and bone marrow.
Tests confirmed that the reprogrammed cells had the ability to mimic any of the cell types found in the three layers of a developing embryo.
Other medical applications of this research include the cells being used to recreate human disease in pigs, which would enable scientists to perform tests for new therapies without using human subjects.
For more information visit BBC Online
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Never Ending Storage.
The next time you’re thinking about uploading some photos online, spare a thought for the relatives you could be embarrassing...in a billion years time! As ScienceNOW reports, researchers have devised a new technology using carbon nanotubes that gives us the ability to preserve data, potentially forever.
The possible applications of being able to preserve the bits of data such as those found on computer hard drives and DVD’s include the small feat of allowing us to document the entirety of human thought until the end of time.
In the quest for something more enduring, a team of physicists and materials scientists used the technique of placing a single iron crystal only a few billionths of a meter wide inside a hollow carbon nanotube. The iron nanocrystals then acted as data bits sliding from one end of the tube to the other in response to an electric current and registering either a "1" or a "0" in binary code.
Physicist and co-author Alex Zettl of the University of California, Berkeley says that both lab experiments and theoretical models show with "high confidence" that the device can retain data indefinitely, but more testing will be necessary.
To read more visit; ScienceNow
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dodging the Bullet?
Reported in New Scientist this week, the US army has developed a viable alternative to artillery fire and airstrikes in the form of a rifle that can fire explosive bullets capable of detonating within a meter of its target. This new innovation allows soldiers to target enemy snipers hiding behind walls or in trenches while simultaneously reducing the prospect of causing civilian casualties.
The XM25 rifle’s gunsight utilises a laser rangefinder that calculates the exact distance to the obstruction. It then allows you to add or take away up to 3 meters from that distance to allow the bullets to pass round the obstruction and explode within proximity of the target.
Once the round has been fired, a radio signal is sent to a chip inside the bullet, allowing it to gauge the exact distance to the target. Furthermore there is a spiral groove inside the barrel, making the bullet rotate as it travels. As it also contains a magnetic transducer, the rotation through the Earth's magnetic field generates an alternating current and the chip uses fluctuations in this current to count each revolution. As the bullet knows the distance covered in one spin, it can therefore calculate how far it has travelled and detonate on target.
Found out more in New Scientist.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where Does Science Feature in Politics?
The main political parties in the UK have come under fire from the Guardian in the wake of the European Elections last Thursday. People turned out in their droves to vote, but it has been revealed that there was a startling lack of disclosure on where our candidates actually stand on key scientific issues.
According to the Guardian, the Conservatives’ European manifesto mentions the word science once, while it doesn’t even feature at all in Labour’s.
All of the main parties mention the importance of research in Britain’s ascension to a “knowledge-based economy” or other buzz words such as the sustainability of the environment, but none of them offer any clarity about their position on key issues such as stem cell research, genetic modification or nuclear research, despite the fact that the European Research Council is responsible for billions of Euros of spending in these any many other areas.
It was not just the main parties that were also proving cause for concern. In a questionnaire on various aspects of science submitted by the Guardian, some of the marginal parties highlighted some surprising attitudes.
Key members of the UK Independence Party have been reported to believe that man-made climate change is in fact a conspiracy, and the Green Party is proposing an EU-wide ban on research involving embryonic stem cells.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Food for Thought
News in the The Telegraph this week has given hope to millions of dieters, by announcing that scientists from Institute of Food Research and Nottingham University have found a way to modify food to make you feel fuller for twice as long.
The team discovered that some of the emulsifiers and stabilisers already used in processed food break down when they come into contact with stomach acid, while others do not.
By simply using ingredients that are more stable, it takes longer to break down and process them in the stomach, making you feel fuller for longer.
Tests were carried out using a test meal of olive oil and water mixed with two different stabilisers. One stabiliser allowed the meal to be broken down quickly into separate layers of oil and water, with the water being rapidly absorbed. The other stabiliser kept the oil and water bound in the stomach. One hour past the initial ingestion, there was still twice as much volume in the stomach containing the stable meal, making subjects feel fuller, less hungry and have less appetite compared to the unstable meal.
The study has been published in the British Journal of Nutrition.
And Finally… Monkey Business!
Researchers at the University of Portsmouth have made a new discovery…. by tickling young apes! The findings published in New Scientist have shown that laughter is in fact not a uniquely human attribute. By tickling 25 juvenile apes, including three humans, scientists found that the sounds they made seem to be shared by all great apes, suggesting laughter dates back some 10-16 million years.
Davila Ross and her team looked at 11 features of laughter and compared the similarities between humans and other great apes. The match between the acoustics of certain species was also found to mirror their DNA lineage, demonstrating that certain behaviors can be traced in the same way as anatomical features.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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