Search
Menu
Settings
Tip
6,152 articles z Guardian Unlimited Science
- title
- Guardian Unlimited Science
- tags
- description
- Articles published by Guardian Unlimited Science
- last updated
- July 30, 2010 (01:05)
- homepage
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/science?gusrc=rss&feed=science
- feed url
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/rss
- date added
- September 13, 2007 (14:53)
- meta
- alexa, technorati, rojo
-
WEDNESDAY 20. JANUARY, 2010
-
01:05
Remains of Alfred the Great's granddaughter returned
-
01:05
-
01:05
-
01:05
-
13:41
-
14:08
-
19:44
-
22:00
-
23:44
-
THURSDAY 21. JANUARY, 2010
-
01:05
-
01:05
-
06:05
-
12:44
-
13:58
-
18:00
-
18:34
-
18:44
In the rural backwater of Jericho, Vermont, a self-educated farmer began photographing snowflakes in 1885
-
22:30
-
FRIDAY 22. JANUARY, 2010
-
01:05
Sharp rise in problem blamed on kids indoors playing computers and parents using too much sunscreen
Computer-obsessed children who spend too long indoors and over-anxious parents who slap on excessive sunscreen are contributing to a sharp rise in cases of the bone disease rickets, doctors are warning.
Vitamin D deficiency, which causes the condition, could be rectified by adding supplements to milk and other food, a research team at Newcastle University suggests.
There are several hundred cases of the preventable condition among children in the UK every year, according to a clinical review paper in the British Medical Journal by Professor Simon Pearce and Dr Tim Cheetham.
"More than 50% of the adult population [in the UK] have insufficient levels of vitamin D and 16% have severe deficiency during winter and spring," they say. "The highest rates are in Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England. People with pigmented skin are at high risk as are the elderly, obese individuals and those with malabsorption."
Most vitamin D is synthesised in the body by absorption of sunlight. Some comes from foods such as fish oil. People with darker skins need more sunlight to top up their vitamin D levels.
One of the main reasons for the reappearance of rickets ?? once considered a disease of the industrial poor in 19th-century cities ?? is the changing ethnic makeup of the population, Pearce explained.
The most commonly affected are people of Asian or African descent who live in northern cities. He has examined cases among young Somali speakers who live in east Newcastle. But changing lifestyles are also contributing to lowering vitamin D levels in the general population.
"Some people are taking the safe sun message too far," Pearce said. "It's good to have 20 to 30 minutes of exposure to the sun two to three times a week, after which you can put on a hat or sunscreen.
"Vitamin D levels in parts of the population are precarious. The average worker nowadays is in a call centre, not out in the field. People tend to stay at home rather than going outside to kick a ball around. They stay at home on computer games."
Pearce has written to the Department of Health proposing that vitamin D is added to milk. It is already added as a supplement to artificial baby milk. He has also asked the Royal College of Paediatrics to record cases of rickets but said figures were not being collected.
"A more robust approach to statutory food supplementation with vitamin D (for example in milk) is needed in the UK," the paper concludes.
Meanwhile, figures obtained by the Tories show the number of patients leaving hospital with malnutrition has hit record levels in the last year. Those affected are primarily elderly people. The NHS figures show that last year 175,000 people were malnourished on entry to hospital but nearly 185,500 were in a similar condition on discharge, meaning more than 10,000 patients were more malnourished after medical treatment.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds -
01:05
Humankind is indeed at the apex of creation, in Christian terms, or, from the secular viewpoint, not only at the apex of biological evolution but also the sole being to have developed a social, or socio-historical, life. George Monbiot (Comment, 19 January) appears to question this self-evident fact, on the grounds that the sector of humankind which he terms "industry" misuses that unique position in such a way as to threaten our very existence. However, the behaviour of "industry", thus defined, should not be taken to represent what is specifically human; it represents, on the contrary, a reversion to the antisocial, even instinctual, motivational force of greed which is found in abundance elsewhere in the natural world. Conversely, there is no point moving down below the "apex of creation" for salvation from these forces; only we have a hope of doing that ?? chimpanzees and dolphins cannot do it, unfortunately.
Dr Hugh Goodacre
University College London
????Helen Owen (Letters, 21 January) prays to know what is the Christian worldview which places humankind at the apex of creation. Perhaps the beginning of an answer is to be found in biblical texts such as Psalm 8:5-6 ("You have made human beings a little lower than God and ?? given them dominion over the works of your hands") and Genesis 1:26 ("God said 'Let us make humankind in our own image ?? and let them have dominion over [everything]'"), texts which have consistently been used to legitimate the very antithesis of the care for nature of which Helen speaks. The subject is comprehensively dealt with by John Shelby Spong in his book The Sins of Scripture. The attitude of "no regard for the natural world" is still depressingly widespread in conservative western Christian circles and stems, in my view, from a purely theistic understanding of God that fails to take seriously the reality of incarnation that is Christianity's sine qua non.
Fr Alec Mitchell
Manchester
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds -
01:05
The BBC's landmark series about our cosmic neighbourhood is a fascinating look at the planets themselves, and at the people who taught us about them
This is the story of the solar system: how it was made, what it is made from, how it might evolve. It is also the story of the human ingenuity involved in finding all of this stuff out. How do you take pictures of a planet when its surface is so hot it would melt a probe? How do you survey the furthest planets when rocket power can only propel a probe to Jupiter?
The Planets was the BBC's landmark science series to end the 20th century. Today, we're spoilt by regular pictures of our neighbouring worlds, but The Planets still cuts it as a near-definitive report card for the state of human knowledge on Earth's celestial family. Even the special effects ?? probe flybys, planet close-ups and lots of big bangs ?? don't look dated. Just as compelling are the first-hand accounts of the scientists and engineers who worked out the staggering mechanics of sending probes to distant worlds, poring over grainy images and endless data to find out facts we now take for granted.
Venus's surface temperature can hit 400C and its atmospheric pressure is almost 100 times that on Earth. No probe could survive there and several Russian Venera missions failed, while others sent back images for an hour before melting. So Nasa's Pioneer mapped the surface using radar instead, orbiting from a distance. And how did they reach the furthest planets? By using the gravity of the gas giants to accelerate a probe from one planet to the next. But the "slingshot" can only work if everything is properly aligned, something that takes place once every 175 years. Fortunately, this happened in the 1970s, which allowed Voyager 1 to send back the first close-ups of Jupiter and Saturn.
It's not all geology and rockets, though ?? it's hard to keep a straight face at the haircuts, beards and plastic helmets (with horns) worn by all the jubilant scientists in the Nasa control room, as Viking successfully lands on Mars in 1976. This is, after all, as much a story about people as it is about planets.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds -
01:05
-
01:39
Sibutramine blamed for increasing patients' chances of suffering a heart attack or stroke
One of the country's most commonly prescribed anti-obesity drugs has been banned across Europe after it was blamed for increasing patients' chances of suffering a heart attack or a stroke.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) ordered doctors across the continent to stop prescribing sibutramine and told pharmacists not to dispense the drug, which is marketed in the UK as Reductil.
The watchdog's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) acted after a study of 9,800 patients said the risks of sibutramine outweighed its minimal benefits.
About 86,000 people took the drug last year. It is prescribed alongside lifetsyle changes for patients who are classed as clinically obese, because they have a Body Mass Index of at least 30, and also in profoundly overweight people who also have a condition such as type 2 diabetes or abnormal levels of fat in their blood.
Users should not worry and should arrange to see their family doctor to be put on an alternative treatment, according to EMA advice last night, which was endorsed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Dr June Raine, from the MHRA said: "Evidence suggests that there is an increased risk of non-fatal heart attacks and strokes with this medicine that outweigh the benefits of weight loss, which is modest and may not be sustained in the long term after stopping treatment."
Anyone currently using the weight-loss aid should not face any implications for their health if they decided to stop taking it before seeing their GP, Raine added.There has been concern about the safety of sibutramine since it was first licensed for use in the EU in 1999. Initially it was felt that the drug's benefits overrode the risks involved.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds -
12:14
-
16:38
MoD site associated with chemical and biological warfare research begins mission to save bushes from extinction threat
It is associated with top secret programmes designed to keep Britain at the forefront of chemical and biological warfare.
But scientists at the Ministry of Defence's Porton Down site are currently engaged in a less classified mission ?? to save the juniper bush, the berries of which are used in cooking and to make gin.
A project has been launched by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) to grow thousands of new juniper bushes.
An estimated fifth of the UK's juniper bushes are to be found at Porton Down near Salisbury but new specimens have been struggling to take hold.
So, working with the charity Plantlife, the DSTL is trying to find out why the bushes are in decline (rabbits are the No 1 suspect), and is aiming to plant thousands of new bushes.
The juniper is one of three native British conifers and was one of the first plant species to recolonise Britain after the last ice age.
Unusually at Porton Down, there are two age ranges of juniper, one which 100 years old, established before the rabbits arrived in numbers, and another 50 years old, which seized hold during the myxomatosis outbreak of the 1950s and 60s.
Junipers have a natural lifespan of around 100 years so if action is not taken it is feared the plants at Porton Down may be extinct within 50 years.
Carl Mayers, the project leader at the Dstl, said seeds were being gathered, sown and protected using cages to keep the rabbits and voles at bay. A polytunnel may also be installed to grow on seedlings and cuttings.
He said: "As well as growing thousands of new juniper bushes from seeds and cuttings, our field research will help to understand better the decline in juniper numbers across Britain ?? is it just due to rabbits or are there other factors such as climate change?"
Tim Wilkins, a species recovery co-ordinator for Plantlife, said: "Porton Down is a fantastic site for juniper, supporting the largest population of bushes in southern England, but even here there is an acute lack of seedlings and it is only a matter of time before bushes die through old age. Without action now, juniper faces extinction across much of lowland England by 2060.
"The loss of juniper would represent more than the loss of a single species: it supports more than 40 species of insect and fungus that cannot survive without it."
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds -
SATURDAY 23. JANUARY, 2010
-
01:05
-
01:07
Whether you support or detest such experiments, it's important to know if they are well conducted
Like many people, you're possibly afraid to share your views on animal experiments, because you don't want anyone digging up your grandmother's grave, or setting fire to your house, or stuff like that. Animal experiments are necessary, they need to be properly regulated, and we have some of the tightest regulation in the world.
But it's easy to assess whether animals are treated well, or to assess whether an experiment was necessary. In the nerd corner there is another issue: is the research well conducted, and are the results properly communicated? If it's not, then animals have suffered ?? whatever you believe that might mean for an animal ?? partly in vain.
The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research was set up by the government in 2004. It has published, in the academic journal PLoS One, a systematic survey of the quality of reporting, experimental design and statistical analysis of recently published biomedical research using laboratory animals. It's so not good.
But the study is pretty solid. The papers they found covered a huge range of publicly funded research, behavioural and diet studies, drug and chemical testing, immunological experiments, and more. Some of the flaws they found were bizarre. Four per cent of papers didn't mention how many animals were used in the experiment, anywhere. The researchers looked in detail at 48 studies that did say how many they used: not one explained why they had chosen their particular number of animals. Thirty-five per cent of the papers gave one figure for the number of animals used in the methods, and then a different number of animals appeared in the results. That's pretty disorganised. They looked at how many studies used basic strategies to reduce bias in their results, like randomisation and blinding.
If you're comparing one intervention against another, for example, and you don't randomly assign animals to each group, then it's possible you might unconsciously put the stronger animals in the group getting a potentially beneficial experimental intervention, or vice versa, thus distorting your results.
If you don't "blind", then you know, as the experimenter, which animals had which intervention. So you might allow that knowledge, even unconsciously, to affect close calls on measurements you take. Or maybe you'll accept a high blood pressure reading when you expected it to be high, knowing what you do about your own experiment, but then double check a high blood pressure measurement in an animal where you expected it to be low.
Only 12% of the animal studies used randomisation. Only 14% used blinding. And the reporting was often poor. Only 8% gave the raw data, allowing you to go back and do your own analysis. About half the studies left the numbers of animals in each group out of their tables.
I grew up friends with the daughters of Colin Blakemore, a neuroscientist in Oxford who spoke out to defend animal research at great personal risk.
My first kiss ?? not one of these sisters, I should say ?? was outside a teenage party in a church hall, in front of two special branch officers sitting in a car with their lights off.
People who threaten the lives of 15-year-old girls, to shut their father up, are beneath contempt. People who fail to damn these threats are similarly contemptible. That's why it sticks in the throat to say that the reporting and conduct of animal research is often poor; but we have to be more grown up.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds -
01:10
-
SUNDAY 24. JANUARY, 2010
-
01:05
Science Museum, London SW7 This small but important show educates and amuses in equal measure
They gave us our number system; built the first university; left us with the names for many of the stars we see at night; formalised the use of zero in mathematics; and provided us with a huge array of words, from giraffe to crimson and from traffic to cheque. For a millennium they chronicled the work of the ancient Greeks, Indians and Chinese while developing their own expertise in surgery, water and wind power, optics, agriculture and other subjects. While Europe shivered in the dark ages, the Arab world kept scholarship alive. Hence the importance of 1001 Inventions, the Science Museum's homage to Muslim science ?? which turns out to be surprisingly enjoyable.
For a start, there are the goodies that curators have been able to move from the vaults to help illustrate the exhibition: a beautifully ornate astrolabe, used to measure the position of stars and planets; an 11th-century alembic used to distil chemicals; and a plate with rows of numbers all adding up to the value of 194. All fascinating stuff.
However, there is a more spectacular side to the exhibition, which is aimed, unashamedly, at family audiences. For example, there is a marvellous reconstruction of the great clock designed by al-Jazari. Powered by water, the 16ft high machine marks each half hour with rattling drums and moving serpents.
Even more spectacular is the exhibition's astronomy display. In a darkened room, stars shine on a huge screen. Simply by moving a hand, a visitor can then select one of several constellations and move each across the screen until it fits over the correct part of the sky. It sounds easier than it is, but is utterly absorbing fun.
In all, this is a quite wonderful little exhibition, filled with surprises. It is easy on the eye but is still dense with information (there are over 100 pages of information deftly secreted around the displays).
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds -
01:06
Robin McKie is disappointed by a collection of essays published to mark 350 years of the Royal Society
On a damp weeknight in late November in 1660, a dozen men gathered in rooms at Gresham College in London to listen to a lecture, on astronomy, by a 28-year-old whizz kid called Christopher Wren. The talk clearly went well, for the group decided to formalise future meetings and to continue to pursue common interests ?? in experiments, in natural philosophy and in the gathering of "useful knowledge". Thus the Royal Society ?? "the most venerable learned society in the world and its finest club," according to Bryson ?? was born, mainly out of the desire of a few affluent dilettantes to hobnob with one another.
The idea of the society met with the approval of Charles II, who granted it a royal charter, though the society might still have ended in obscurity had not its first members insisted on some strikingly rigorous and far-sighted rules. They made English, not Latin, their primary language; they insisted on carrying out careful, systemised experiments; and ?? most important of all ?? they checked out one another's work, thus inventing peer review, the keystone of modern scientific endeavour.
The long-term impact of these guidelines, which brought clarity and transparency to science, has been extraordinary. Over its 350-year history, a total of 8,200 individuals have been members of the society; they include Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, James Watt, Alexander Fleming and John Locke. If you want proof that Britain's got talent, the Royal Society is truly the place to look. At present, it has 1,400 fellows, selected from the best scientists and engineers in the UK and Commonwealth. Of these, 69 are Nobel prize winners. When the society utters, we should listen.
Yet this was not always the case. For much of its history, the Royal Society was concerned less with the impact of science than it was with the minutiae of academic procedure. Indeed, only in the past few decades has it demonstrated real political clout, particularly with the election of Bob May as president in 2000. An Australian-born mathematician, his robust pronouncements on GM crops, climate change and natural selection helped bring rationality to debates that could otherwise have become lost scientific causes. Today, the Royal Society is as influential an organisation as it has ever been. Hence the anniversary celebrations planned for 2010, Bryson's book being a foretaste.
Made up of 21 essays, plus a Bryson introduction, the book contains a glittering array of scientific writing talent. These include an analysis by Margaret Atwood of the myth of the mad scientist; geologist Richard Fortey on the virtues of good specimen collecting; Richard Dawkins outlining Darwin's precise contribution to the development of the theory of natural selection; and Steve Jones expounding on the mysteries of biodiversity.
So why does Seeing Further turn out to be a bit of a disappointment? It has certainly been put together with care. It should be a page-turner. Yet it is hobbled by major flaws. For a start, there is no discernible pace or structure to the assembling of its essays. The book is also low, to the point of non-appearance, in human interest and is just a little bit too smug for its own good.
Then there is the creeping feeling of worthiness that slowly envelops the reader, as you encounter, again and again, noble minds revealing the wonders of nature. It is like reading a piece of upmarket vanity publishing. I wanted to like it more but couldn't. It is not that Seeing Further is bad. It is just that it is not good enough. The Royal Society, in keeping with its remarkable origins, needs something more special than this.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds -
01:06
-
01:08
-
18:08
-
18:58
-
20:38
Just how much life can you find in an ecosystem of one cubic foot? That is the question photographer David Liittschwager set out to answer when he took a 12-inch metal frame to a range of different environments on land and in water, in tropical climes and temperate regions and began to chart the living organisms.
The answer? An astonishing amount. In each place he visited, the photographer, best known for his large images of rare animals and plants, was amazed at the diversity and abundance of life that passed through such a small area.
In five distinct and contrasting environments, from a tropical forest to a city-centre park, Liittschwager set down his green-edged metal cube, and started watching. Each creature that passed through the cube was counted and charted with the help of his assistant and a team of biologists. Over a three-week period the team photographed each inhabitant that passed through the cube, down to creatures measuring a mere millimetre.
In total, more than a thousand individual organisms were photographed, and the diversity of each environment can be seen on nationalgeographic.com. "It was like finding little gems," Liittschwager said.
The team started out at Central Park in New York ?? or more specifically, in the Hallet nature sanctuary, a 3.5-acre deciduous woodland area, populated with trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally. There they found the tufted titmouse and eastern grey squirrel, creatures as big as a raccoon and as small as a leopard slug.
In Moorea, in French Polynesia, they discovered a vast array of species (pictured) thought to only be a very small selection of the reef's full diversity. Among their findings were the inch-long file clam, the whitespotted boxfish, sacoglossan sea slug and the frankly terrifying post-larval octopus.
While in the tropical cloud forest of Monteverde, in Costa Rica, most of the of the animals in the treetop ecosystem were as small as a fingertip, there were hawk moths, sharpshooter leafhoppers and burio tree seeds.
The fine-leaved vegetation of the fynbos of Table Mountain in South Africa, thought to hold one of the richest concentrations of plant diversity in the world, revealed the purple flower of the alice sundew, and no shortage of cape zebra cockroaches. Finally, in the fresh water of Duck River in Tennessee, one of the most biodiverse waterways in the US, swam golden darters and longlear sunfish as well as the bigeyed chub.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds -
20:50
Source for emperor Trajan's Aqua Traiana arose from aquifer at site used to worship water spirits, say O'Neill brothers
For almost four centuries scholars have sought the headwaters of the Aqua Traiana, a stone channel which carried spring water down to Rome from near Lake Bracciano. Now, two British film-makers say they have beaten the archaeologists in discovering the source of the water feeding the ancient city's greatest aqueducts.
While researching films on Roman aqueducts, Mike and Ted O'Neill got access last year to a series of reservoirs and tunnels below a long-abandoned medieval chapel near the town of Bracciano.
Local people believed the complex was created in late Renaissance times. But Ted O'Neill, 37, who has made a study of ancient hydraulic engineering, said he was struck by the criss-cross patterned wall facing of the tunnels. "It is known as opus reticulatum. And opus reticulatum says 'I am [ancient] Roman'," he said.
The London-born brothers took Italy's leading authority on classical aqueducts to the site. Prof Lorenzo Quilici, of Bologna University, said yesterday: "It is a truly exceptional discovery. There is no doubt that the construction techniques used are ancient Roman."
Quilici said the abandoned chapel, known as the Madonna of the Flower, was originally a nymphaeum, a place dedicated to the water spirits of classical mythology. "On either side it widens into two basins that are roofed with quite extraordinary vaults, still decorated with Egyptian blue [calcium copper silicate] paint," said Quilici.
Prof Allan Ceen, of Pennsylvania State University, said of the site: "It is so richly decorated the emperor almost certainly came here for the inauguration of the aqueduct." That was in AD 109, under the emperor Trajan, 19 centuries before its rediscovery. To celebrate the event a fountain was built on Janiculum hill where the aqueduct entered the city. A coin was minted showing a god atop tumbling water, reclining under a broad arch. It had been assumed the arch belonged to the fountain. But the O'Neill brothers believe the coin depicts the nymphaeum, a theory Quilici thinks should be taken seriously.
Not the least important aspect of the complex is that the water, which came from an aquifer, seeped into the reservoirs on either side of the nymphaeum through bricks laid with gaps between them. "It was a filter," said Quilici.
The original Aqua Traiana, one of Rome's 11 great aqueducts, snaked around Lake Bracciano collecting water from other springs before heading south. At the entry point to the ancient city the aqueduct fell steeply down Janiculum hill, the water powering a chain of flour mills.
The aqueduct continued to be used into the 20th century. But under Pope Paul V (1605-21), the headwaters were dispensed with and the water supply came from Lake Bracciano instead.
The water from the aquifer under the Madonna of the Flower chapel was diverted to Bracciano, and today still supplies the town. The complex is now part of a pig farm whose owners use the old nymphaeum as a rubbish tip. Tree roots are pushing through the Egyptian blue decoration. "The chapel and aqueduct are in danger of crumbling. They desperately need to be restored," said Ted O'Neill.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds -
21:47
Iraqi lawmakers have demanded the withdrawal of a UK-made bomb detection device after the British government said it doesn't work and its manufacturer was arrested on suspicion of fraud.
The Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, tonight ordered an investigation into the mass purchase of the ADE651 wand, made by ATSC, which had been sold in bulk to Iraqi security forces, before Britain imposed an export ban last week amid new doubts about its effectiveness.
The security and defence committee of the Iraqi parliament alleged that there had been corruption in the tendering process, which has seen some ministries stand by the devices despite a spate of devastating attacks in which car bombs passed through multiple checkpoints that had used the detector.
The US military has been scathing, claiming the wands contained only a chip to detect theft from stores. The claim was based on a study released in June by US military scientists, using x-ray and laboratory analysis, which was passed on to Iraqi officials.
"The examination resulted in a determination that there was no possible means by which the ADE651 could detect explosives and therefore was determined to be totally ineffective and fraudulent," Major Joe Scrocca, a US military spokesman in Baghdad, told the Associated Press.
The US military, and private contractors that guard Baghdad's international zone and airport road, use tried-and-tested sniffer dogs to keep explosives out.
But elsewhere in Baghdad, police or soldiers man virtually every checkpoint with one of the wands, which retail at around $40,000 (?24,840) each.
Hussein al-Falluji, a member of the security and defence committee, said: "These devices have caused nothing but big problems in Iraq. They have failed to detect bombs and thousands of Iraqis have been killed ?? it has been proven they are a 100% failure."
The furore erupted after a BBC Newsnight investigation took the wand to a Cambridge University computer lab, which demonstrated beyond doubt that it contained nothing that could detect components used to make explosives.
Despite the scientific condemnation, the Iraqi interior ministry was standing by its bulk purchase of around 3,000 devices, claiming it had successfully detected 773 bombs.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds -
MONDAY 25. JANUARY, 2010
-
01:05
It is not the case that I have refused to tackle bovine TB in badgers (Letters, 21 January). On the contrary, the government is determined to make progress in eradicating bovine TB, not least because of the serious impact it has on farmers.
My decision against a badger cull was made after careful consideration of the scientific evidence, practicality and public acceptability, following discussions with farmers, vets and wildlife groups. We have tried badger culling, but the conclusion of the Independent Scientific Group ?? based on the evidence from these trials ?? was that badger culling "cannot meaningfully contribute to the future control" of TB in cattle in Britain.
We are therefore trying an alternative approach to the problem, by investing ?20m over three years to develop badger and cattle vaccines. We will start vaccinating badgers in six areas of England, working with farmers, later this year. We are also taking steps to try to reduce the incidence and spread of bovine TB, working with the industry and vets through the Bovine TB Eradication Group, and I have accepted all the recommendations of its first report. This includes providing better support to affected farmers.
Hilary Benn MP
Secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds -
01:05
Simon Jenkins not only has a disturbingly selective aural capability but a disappointingly dismal imagination (A world of screens and plastic has fed a cultish craving for relics of the past, 22 January). Neil MacGregor's A History of the World in 100 Objects radio programme celebrates the objects within their context and encourages the listener to wonder at why, for example, an ice-age carver should produce a sculpture of two beautifully represented reindeer from a mammoth bone. Not only were the aesthetic issues touched upon in this programme but also the evolutionary processes surrounding the development of the human brain's capacity to make such an object. There was comment too on the metaphysical aspects of creating an object that was more than just an object. This was a world away from venerating the sculpture simply because it was there and it was "real". Other instalments have been equally rich.
These are not episodes of "priestly interpretation" but near-perfect examples of why these objects are important, not just to museum curators but humanity at large. Mr Jenkins should get away from his screen more.
Nigel Ganly
Upton Pyne, Devon
????Neil MacGregor's "cathedral" will soon be blessed with a new repository for its ancient relics. The saintly British Museum has been beatified by the secretary of state in his refusal to call in for review Camden council's inexplicable decision to grant planning permission for its huge new glass growth, so alien to Bloomsbury.
Hugh Cullum
Chair, Bloomsbury Conservation Area Advisory Committee
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds -
01:05
What are evolution's 10 greatest inventions? The eye? Opposable thumbs? Our special guest, Nick Lane is on hand to give us the lowdown on everything from sex to photosynthesis, why we have hot blood and the emergence of consciousness.
Nick is a biochemist at University College London and has written extensively on subjects such as mitochondria and oxygen. His latest book, Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution, is a handy guide to the most important evolutionary breakthroughs.
Presenter Alok Jha is joined in the studio by the Observer's science editor, Robin McKie, and the Guardian's science correspondent, Ian Sample.
In this week's newsjam of the week's major science stories, there are claims that fish oil may be the elixir of youth; we learn that a common household chemical found in everything from sofas and carpets to pots and pans has been linked to an increased risk of thyroid disease; the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has said it will publish online the details of thousands of potential drugs that might cure malaria; and finally, most men in Britain are descended from the first farmers to migrate across Europe from the Near East 10,000 years ago.
Finally, Pascal Wyse takes us on a tour of an exhibition of ancient artefacts from the Islamic world that have shaped science. 1001 Inventions at the Science Museum in London gives a taste of "the forgotten story of a thousand years of science from the Muslim world".
Feel free to post your comments below.
Join our Facebook group.
Listen back through our archive.
Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.
Subscribe free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).
-
01:10
Extra-terrestrials likely to possess human foibles such as greed, violence and a tendency to exploit others' resources, conference to be told
Governments should prepare for the worst if aliens visit Earth because beings from outer space are likely to be just like humans, a leading scientist is claiming. .
Extra-terrestrials might not only resemble us but have our foibles, such as greed, violence and a tendency to exploit others' resources, says Simon Conway Morris, professor of evolutionary paleobiology at Cambridge University.
And while aliens could come in peace they are quite as likely to be searching for somewhere to live, and to help themselves to water, minerals and fuel, Conway Morris will tell a conference at the Royal Society, in London tomorrow.
His lecture is part of a two-day conference at which experts will discuss how we might detect life on distant planets and what that could mean for society. "Extra-terrestrials ?? won't be splodges of glue ?? they could be disturbingly like us, and that might not be a good thing ?? we don't have a great record."
The US space agency's search for alien life is based upon the mantra "follow the water", a strategy reflecting the fact that, on Earth, where there's water there's life. Recent missions have revealed ice on the noon and Mars.
Astronomers have detected more than 400 planets outside our solar system, some of which sit in the "Goldilocks zone" where the temperature is neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to form.
Conway Morris will argue that alien life is most likely to occur on a planet similar to our own, with organisms made from the same biochemicals. The process of evolution will even shape alien life in a similar way, he added.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds -
10:31
Science fiction writers, Hollywood and television have already warned us what to expect
-
11:43
-
13:52
-
15:30
-
16:35
-
17:02
Some of the creatures photographed by David Liittschwager in one cubic foot in Moorea, French Polynesia
-
18:26
-
19:38
-
20:20
Copper and silver coins, terracotta urns and clay and limestone figurines found in homes, sheds and vehicles
Authorities in Cyprus have smashed a smuggling ring, recovering dozens of ancient artefacts it planned to sell for ??11 million (?15.5m).
In what is believed to be the largest antiquities theft case of its kind in the Cyprus's history, police seized objects dating back thousands of years from homes, storage sheds and vehicles where they were being hidden.
The artefacts include copper and silver coins, terracotta urns and clay and limestone figurines believed to date from the copper age to around 400BC.
Ten suspects were arrested in raids over the weekend, and authorities are searching for five others.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Recently updated
-
ScienceDaily (dnes, 04:22)
-
PhysOrg (dnes, 02:23)
-
BBC Science/Nature (dnes, 01:09)
-
Yahoo! (dnes, 01:09)
-
-
CBC - Technology & Science News (dnes, 01:00)
-
Discovery (dnes, 00:35)
-
National Geographic News (dnes, 00:24)
-
ScienceNOW (dnes, 00:22)
-
NYT > Science (29. 7, 23:44)
-
Sci-Tech Today (29. 7, 21:30)
-
TIME (29. 7, 11:00)
-
EurekAlert (29. 7, 06:00)
-
Astronomy.com (29. 7, 00:00)
-
Technology Review Feed - Tech Review Top Stories (5. 7, 06:10)
