By Tessa R. Salazar
Philippine Daily Inquirer

First in a series

MANNY “Pacman” Pacquiao has been making all the right moves in the boxing ring. When the time comes he has to move out of it, what should be his next best move?

Become a sports scientist, what else. Does this sound like a jab at the moon? Not to two sports scientists who have been keenly following Pacquiao’s ascendancy in his sport.

Filipino molecular biologist and sports scientist Custer Deocaris, based in Tsukuba University in Japan but currently in the Philippines under the Balik Scientist program of the Department of Science and Technology and professor Angelita B. Cruz of the College of Human Kinetics at the University of the Philippines in Diliman urged the boxing hero to become a symbol that would herald the “golden era of sports science in the country.”

Deocaris, who presented his publications on exercise during his Dec. 8 lecture “Neurogenesis and the rewards of running: Can exercise make you smarter?” at the UP Institute of Chemistry, had returned to the Philippines to present results of his scientific team’s study on how exercise improves memory and learning.

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Agence France-Presse

CHICAGO–Tickle a locust’s hind legs and two hours later it will be transformed into an insect ready to form a crop-devastating swarm.

While researchers know why — the tickling simulates the jostling that usually solitary locusts experience when limited food suppliers force them to crowd — they have puzzled for decades over how the radical biological transformation occurs.

A study released Thursday by the journal Science found that the brain chemical serotonin triggers the switch from aversion to attraction.

“Serotonin profoundly influences how we humans behave and interact, so to find that the same chemical in the brain is what causes a normally shy antisocial insect to gang up in huge groups is amazing,” said study co-author Swidbert Ott of Cambridge University.

The researchers discovered that locusts in swarm mode — called gregarious locusts — had serotonin levels three times higher than those in a solitary behavior phase.

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MANILA, Philippines – Iloilo professor Alexis Belonio is the first Filipino to win the prestigious Rolex Award for inventing a stove that converts rice husks into environmentally friendly cooking gas.

Founded in 1976, the Rolex Award is given to “visionaries” who have undertaken groundbreaking projects.

As an Associate Laureate, Belonio received $50,000 and a steel and gold Rolex chronometer at the awarding ceremony.

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By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net

GOVERNMENT agencies and state universities and colleges (SUCs) must align their research and development (R&D) funding efforts, a lawmaker said.

Senator Edgardo Angara said this year is a tough time and requires the country’s R&D policymakers to limit research priorities to extend the value of limited resources.

“We are in the midst of a recession this 2009 and we have a limited R&D budget. Given this, we must spend it wisely and ensure R&D efforts benefit the industry and create jobs,” Angara said.

This year, the focus of researches include solar and wind energy and vaccine research.

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Agence France-Presse

SYDNEY — A sharp slowdown in coral growth on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef since 1990 is a warning sign that precipitous changes in the world’s oceans may be imminent, scientists said Friday.

Strong evidence points to the cause being a combination of warmer seas and higher acidity from increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, Australian Institute of Marine Science researchers reported.

“The data suggest that this severe and sudden decline in calcification is unprecedented in at least 400 years,” said Glenn De’ath, principal author of a paper published Friday in the international journal Science.

The research shows that corals on the reef have slowed their growth by more than 14 percent since the “tipping point” year of 1990 and on current trends the corals would stop growing altogether by 2050.

“It is cause for extreme concern that such changes are already evident, with the relatively modest climate changes observed to date, in the world’s best protected and managed coral reef ecosystem,” said co-author Janice Lough.

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