Science News Digest 14th June 2010
In the science news this week, a worrying decline in the global snake population, a new laser bomb detector, new research on the real effects of caffeine and finally... the secret to being a note perfect rock star is...sleep?
A sssslippery sssslope.
According to a global study by the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and institutions in Australia, France, Italy and Nigeria, the world’s snake population is declining markedly.
The team looked at 17 different populations covering 8 different species over the last 30 years and saw that the populations dropped significantly around 1998 for unknown reasons.
They have issued a call to action for people to work on deciphering the causes of this ‘alarming’ shift, with some populations falling by more than 90% - with only one showing any sign of a rise.
One serious cause for concern is the decline in population in conservation areas, as this indicates that a loss of habitat is not the only cause for the decline, indicating much wider and potentially more difficult problems to solve.
According to the BBC, similar steep declines observed in frogs and newts in an earlier period were eventually found to be caused by the fungal disease chytridiomycosis.
Dr Chris Reading, the project leader said; "The purpose of this paper was to say 'this is what we've found', and to say to other herpetologists 'now go and look at your own data',"
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Smell the coffee
Research from Bristol university has shown that your morning coffee ‘hit’ doesn’t make you anymore awake or alert than non coffee drinkers, it simply counteracts the caffeine withdrawal from the previous day.
"Someone who consumes caffeine regularly when they're at work but not at weekends runs the risk of feeling a bit rubbish by Sunday," said Peter Rogers, who led the research at Bristol University. "It's better to stick with it or keep off it altogether."
Those who use coffee as an ‘emergency hit’ only manage to give themselves heightened feelings of anxiety and withdrawal symptoms the next day.
The study groups, containing 379 people were a mix of ‘medium- high’ caffeine drinkers and ‘little to no’ caffeine drinkers. They were then given either a dose of caffieine or a placebo.
The caffiene did not raise levels of alertness among users anymore than it did for those given the placebo, however, the medium-high caffience drinkers did suffer withdrawal symptoms such as tiredness and headaches than those given the usual dose.
However, according to the Guardian, ‘Medium-to-high level caffeine users, however, did not become any more anxious after caffeine, implying that regular consumption helps build up a resistance to its anxiety-inducing effect.’
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Every cloud....
A team of physicists from St Andrews University have created an artifical nose for a robot sniffer dog. Using a low-cost laser, the device can detect hidden explosives by tracing the cloud of vapours emitted around the weapon as reported in the Daily Mail
The technology could not only improve airport security, but help detect landmines and roadside bombs which emit dilute hidden clouds of vapour into the air.
Dr Graham Turnbull who led the team said: 'Floating above a landmine in Iraq or Afghanistan, there's a very weak, dilute cloud of vapours of explosive molecules that the bomb is made from…we have shown that our lasers can rapidly sense these TNT-like molecules, frequently used in explosives, at extremely low concentrations.'
Using a special kind of light-emitting plastic called polyfluorene- - they have created a laser that reacts within seconds by dimming its light if it comes into contact with even the tiniest amount of vapor.
As an added bonus over current detection methods, the polyfluorene, is already widely used in plastic electronics and is therefore relatively cheap.
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And finally.....
Guitar Hero
Apparently all rock stars need to play the perfect concert is… a good night’s sleep.
Researchers from Trent University in Canada have found that people who play the guitar after 12 hours sleep have a 68% accuracy in hitting the right notes, while those who have been awake for 12 hours only had a 63% accuracy.
The scientists say the findings suggest that sleep plays an important part in learning ‘motor’ skills
Dr Kevin Peters, one of the team working on the study, said "Consistent with previous studies, these results demonstrate a significant link between sleep and motor learning.
"This is important as these results indicate that sleep can help consolidate the skills that people encounter in their daily lives.
"We intend to follow up on this in the future by examining how the amount of time spent playing the game affects brain activity during subsequent sleep."
Read more in the Telegraph
A sssslippery sssslope.
According to a global study by the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and institutions in Australia, France, Italy and Nigeria, the world’s snake population is declining markedly.
The team looked at 17 different populations covering 8 different species over the last 30 years and saw that the populations dropped significantly around 1998 for unknown reasons.
They have issued a call to action for people to work on deciphering the causes of this ‘alarming’ shift, with some populations falling by more than 90% - with only one showing any sign of a rise.
One serious cause for concern is the decline in population in conservation areas, as this indicates that a loss of habitat is not the only cause for the decline, indicating much wider and potentially more difficult problems to solve.
According to the BBC, similar steep declines observed in frogs and newts in an earlier period were eventually found to be caused by the fungal disease chytridiomycosis.
Dr Chris Reading, the project leader said; "The purpose of this paper was to say 'this is what we've found', and to say to other herpetologists 'now go and look at your own data',"
--------------------------------------
Smell the coffee
Research from Bristol university has shown that your morning coffee ‘hit’ doesn’t make you anymore awake or alert than non coffee drinkers, it simply counteracts the caffeine withdrawal from the previous day.
"Someone who consumes caffeine regularly when they're at work but not at weekends runs the risk of feeling a bit rubbish by Sunday," said Peter Rogers, who led the research at Bristol University. "It's better to stick with it or keep off it altogether."
Those who use coffee as an ‘emergency hit’ only manage to give themselves heightened feelings of anxiety and withdrawal symptoms the next day.
The study groups, containing 379 people were a mix of ‘medium- high’ caffeine drinkers and ‘little to no’ caffeine drinkers. They were then given either a dose of caffieine or a placebo.
The caffiene did not raise levels of alertness among users anymore than it did for those given the placebo, however, the medium-high caffience drinkers did suffer withdrawal symptoms such as tiredness and headaches than those given the usual dose.
However, according to the Guardian, ‘Medium-to-high level caffeine users, however, did not become any more anxious after caffeine, implying that regular consumption helps build up a resistance to its anxiety-inducing effect.’
------------------------------------
Every cloud....
A team of physicists from St Andrews University have created an artifical nose for a robot sniffer dog. Using a low-cost laser, the device can detect hidden explosives by tracing the cloud of vapours emitted around the weapon as reported in the Daily Mail
The technology could not only improve airport security, but help detect landmines and roadside bombs which emit dilute hidden clouds of vapour into the air.
Dr Graham Turnbull who led the team said: 'Floating above a landmine in Iraq or Afghanistan, there's a very weak, dilute cloud of vapours of explosive molecules that the bomb is made from…we have shown that our lasers can rapidly sense these TNT-like molecules, frequently used in explosives, at extremely low concentrations.'
Using a special kind of light-emitting plastic called polyfluorene- - they have created a laser that reacts within seconds by dimming its light if it comes into contact with even the tiniest amount of vapor.
As an added bonus over current detection methods, the polyfluorene, is already widely used in plastic electronics and is therefore relatively cheap.
--------------------------------------
And finally.....
Guitar Hero
Apparently all rock stars need to play the perfect concert is… a good night’s sleep.
Researchers from Trent University in Canada have found that people who play the guitar after 12 hours sleep have a 68% accuracy in hitting the right notes, while those who have been awake for 12 hours only had a 63% accuracy.
The scientists say the findings suggest that sleep plays an important part in learning ‘motor’ skills
Dr Kevin Peters, one of the team working on the study, said "Consistent with previous studies, these results demonstrate a significant link between sleep and motor learning.
"This is important as these results indicate that sleep can help consolidate the skills that people encounter in their daily lives.
"We intend to follow up on this in the future by examining how the amount of time spent playing the game affects brain activity during subsequent sleep."
Read more in the Telegraph
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