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6,442 articles from Guardian Unlimited Science
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WEDNESDAY 10. MARCH, 2010
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11:46
Jon Venables posed 'trivial' risk to public, according to psychiatric study
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10:30
Doomsaying precludes the possibility of ingenious solutions – and indicates a morbid vanity that we must be the saviours
Isn't it welcome to have Ian McEwan as an advocate for a little optimism in the climate change debate? His hope, expressed in his new novel Solar, that humanity will prove ingenious enough to solve the problem through the skill of coming generations is a welcome change from those who portray our descendants as helpless victims of our "excess".
Their injunctions to "save the world for our children and grandchildren" fly in the face of history, which repeatedly shows how progress – from the wheel to the internet – transforms the world picture as time marches on. The doom brigade has its moments, such as the collapse of the classical world in Europe, the Black Death and the first world war, but they are exceptions to learn from. And we have learned.
Not to the extent of mastering clairvoyancy, however. Like miserabilism, a constant in human behaviour is the inability of Today to successfully imagine Tomorrow. The archive of prophecy and science fiction contains some good guesses, but in general the seers get it wrong. Which of my grandparents, addressing me in the 1950s, could possibly have foreseen today's IT? Which of my grandparents' grandparents had a notion of the bicycle or national parks?
This is true of scientists as much as of the more general type of wise person. Science is too often mistakenly treated in the way that history was by those 19th-century Germans who thought that one day the whole truth could be set down. Certainty is not absolute. Scientists are ambushed by novelty – see Galileo, Pasteur, Darwin, Einstein – as often as the rest of us.
None of this is to argue against the risks of global warming or prudence in facing them. It is to warn against vanity, in the form of the exaggerated belief that it is all down to our generation: here, now, hurry, rush. It's also an appeal against pessimism, because of the limitations glumness places on the very potential which, odds-on, will prove the planet's salvation.
A writer in the Economist's most recent green supplement made this point neatly by questioning assumptions (rather reminiscent of Catholic dogma in Galileo's day) that spending the world's limited resources on Tomorrow rather than Today is necessarily morally right. The Economist's writer said: "Since future generations will probably be much richer than we are, it makes no more sense for us to sacrifice our wellbeing for them than it would to expect 18th-century peasants to go without gruel so we can buy more computers."
That is the sort of sally that deserves a wide hearing. If we stall Today's wonderful spread of international knowledge, travel and general prosperity, we risk a future like Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, where unknown Miltons remain mute and inglorious and village Darwins never get further than their shacks.
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01:09
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01:05
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01:05
I agree with George Monbiot (Comment, 9 March) about the problems of communicating science, but it is a pity he did not mention the large amount of outreach work being done by scientists these days to address the very issues he raises, much of it in collaboration with Café Scientifique, a network of voluntary local initiatives in towns up and down the UK, and, indeed, the world. There is a Hippocratic oath for scientists, although it is not yet compulsory. It is called the Pugwash Pledge, and can be found at (www.spusa.org/pledge).
"I promise to work for a better world, where science and technology are used in socially responsible ways. I will not use my education for any purpose intended to harm human beings or the environment. Throughout my career, I will consider the ethical implications of my work before I take action. While the demands placed upon me may be great, I sign this declaration because I recognise that individual responsibility is the first step on the path to peace."
He might also be pleased to hear that very few of us wear beards these days.
Jim Grozier
Organiser, Brighton Café Scientifique
• What Peter Preston (Wanted: an eco prophet, 8 March) appears to omit is the emergence of eco-crankism – the proliferation of eco-friendly initiatives by a new class of do-gooder apparatchiks advising backyard gardeners to grow £1 carrots, use fashion-styled cotton carrier bags, cycle in fume-choked streets and boycott budget airlines. With this obscurantism there is no way the message of a more equitable distribution of the earth's dwindling resources can get through.
Julian Siann
Edinburgh
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TUESDAY 9. MARCH, 2010
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17:04
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13:04
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12:55
As China selects two women to train female potential astronauts, an expert from the country's airforce claims women will deal better with space travel than men, citing better communication skills and the ability to deal with loneliness. Do you agree?
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09:30
At post-mortem, most elderly men have traces of prostate cancer but have died of other causes
There is a much-publicised screening test for early prostate cancer, but GPs hesitate before ordering the test on demand. A slightly raised PSA (a protein that healthy prostates produce in small amounts) may indicate early prostate cancer, but it will not tell you what to do about it. Surgical removal of the prostate has a mortality rate and may cause unpleasant side-effects, like impotence and incontinence. At post-mortem, most elderly men have traces of prostate cancer but have died of other causes. We would have done them no favours, if we had removed their prostates.
I saw Ernest, a 67 year old man, three moths ago. His brother, aged 60, had just been found to have inoperable prostate cancer, so Ernest wanted a check. He did not have much in the way of symptoms. His prostate felt soft and benign but his PSA blood test came back slightly raised. A biopsy showed prostate cancer but it was very early and had not spread.
There was talk of "watch and wait" but Ernest could not contemplate that. The urologist recommended an open prostatectomy. Ernest consulted Dr Google. He saw another urologist privately who does laparoscopic prostatectomies. This procedure, still in its infancy in the UK, looks promising and the urologists who are doing it are keen to practise. He saw a radiation oncologist privately. She mentioned brachytherapy, a specialised form of internal radiotherapy. The surgeons, who both talked of a "complete" cure, told Ernest that radiotherapy brought an increased risk of rectal cancer, and the possibility of chronic diarrhoea and urinary frequency. The radiotherapist talked of impotence and incontinence as a risk of surgery. The open prostatectomy surgeon talked of "tried and tested" procedures. The laparoscopic surgeon talked of the reduced risks of key-hole surgery.
Ernest did not know what to do. You could make good arguments for each treatment that had been offered. Or you can go to Paris where they are playing with lasers. Ernest said, "I've seen lots of specialists; they are all charming but I got the feeling that they are all selling their wares. What would you do, doc?"
If I was fit, like Ernest, I would have the open prostatectomy. Laparoscopic prostatectomy is not widely available on the NHS and in any case I am not sure I would want to be the material upon which surgeons learn a new technique. Ask me about it in a year or two.
Ernest had the open operation six weeks ago. He is not incontinent. As regards sexual performance, he has not yet tried, but he says there have been "stirrings". He is doing well. His PSA is zero and he feels he is cured. The only thing I am not sure of is whether it would have been better if we had never measured his PSA in the first place.
Names and some details have been changed. prostate-cancer.org.uk.
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09:18
Huw Irranca-Davies, wildlife minister, tells Jon Dennis about a plan to introduce an insect predator to attack Japanese knotweed
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01:45
How can normal people be made to act heroically?
In paying tribute to Michael Foot last week, David Cameron used an intriguingly double-edged phrase. He described the former Labour leader as "almost the last link to a more heroic age in politics" – a duly respectful compliment, but one that also hinted that Foot was from a bygone era where politics was done in brash primary colours rather than the thoughtful shades used today.
Of all the virtues, heroism is now the most remote. Heroes are either mythic or historical characters (Achilles or Gandhi) or they are superhuman (Spider-Man, or even 9/11 firefighters). What they are not is one of us. Our age has role models and it has celebrities, but it has no room for heroes.
Fighting to revive heroism is Philip Zimbardo, the septuagenarian who is probably the most famous living psychologist in the world. Zimbardo built his career on the study of evil; in 1971, he led the Stanford Prison Experiment, where long-haired students were put in a mock jail and divvied up as prisoners or guards at random. Within a few days, the "guards" were humiliating their "prisoners", refusing some permission to urinate and subjecting others to simulated sodomy.
That experiment and others convinced Zimbardo that ordinary people could be driven to evil acts if put in horrific situations. His latest work flips that principle and asks: how can normal folk be made to behave heroically? By heroism, the psychologist does not mean altruism but the risking of one's safety or status, sometimes for an ideal. Zimbardo talks of the "banality of heroism" – a neat inversion of Hannah Arendt's observation that the Nazi Adolf Eichman demonstrated "the banality of evil" – and points out that social scientists have done acres of research on evil but barely any on heroism. And to that end, he has been slaving away – heroically, one might say – lecturing policy-makers and raising research funds.
There is more to this project than academic papers, however. Matt Langdon works with Zimbardo and, as head of the Hero Construction Company, runs his own character-building classes for 10-14 year olds. "I always tell them that the opposite of a hero isn't a villain – it's a bystander," he says.
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01:05
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MONDAY 8. MARCH, 2010
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21:30
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18:10
Naposledy aktualizované zdroje
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Sci-Tech Today (dnes, 08:18)
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NYT > Science (dnes, 08:02)
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ScienceDaily (dnes, 06:22)
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Yahoo! (dnes, 06:09)
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EurekAlert (dnes, 06:00)
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CBC - Technology & Science News (dnes, 05:14)
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BBC Science/Nature (dnes, 01:09)
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PhysOrg (5. 9, 22:23)
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Discovery (5. 9, 12:17)
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ScienceNOW (4. 9, 00:22)
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National Geographic News (4. 9, 00:11)
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TIME (3. 9, 16:23)
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Astronomy.com (3. 9, 00:00)
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NASA (2. 9, 22:54)
