Inside Science

Philippine Environmental Heroes for 2011

2011-04-26T02:31:17Z

EarthSavers Movement founding chair, and now Climate Change Commissioner Heherson T. Alvarez, announced the eight recipients of this year's Fr. Neri Satur Award for Environmental Heroism. The Award, given annually for a decade now in observance of International Earth Day, is co-organized by the EarthSavers UNESCO DREAM Center, the United Nations National Commission (UNACOM), the Philippine Center of the International Theatre Institute (ITI), and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) headed by Secretary Ramon Paje, with the blessings of His Eminence Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales.

Alvarez said Dr. Gerry Ortega is being posthumously honored as an environmental leader and media practitioner promoting climate balance and sustainable development, particularly his opposition to destructive mining activities in the Province of Palawan.

"The Award is also being posthumously bestowed upon Dr. Leonard Co for his significant contributions to Philippine botany and his lifetime dedication to plant biodiversity conservation in the Philippines," said Alvarez, a former senator and environment secretary.

Joining Dr. Ortega and Dr. Co as this year's Fr. Neri Satur Awardees are Fr. Pete Montallana OFM, chairman of the Save Sierra Madre Network in recognition of his group's efforts to protect and preserve the remaining forests in the country particularly one of our major carbon sinks (forests absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen), the Sierra Madre forest range while Albay Gov. Joey Salceda was honored for his pioneering leadership in climate adaptation in local government in his province.

The Award was also bestowed upon the PLDT-Smart Foundation Inc. for being a leader in eco-education through community service projects such as "Doon Po Sa Amin" which encouraged the use of computer and internet technologies, while The Manila Times was recognized for its continued effort in environmental education through media, especially on the global issue of climate change.

Negros-based Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. was awarded for its efforts to promote and adopt renewable technologies through its project "Hydraulic Ram Pump" in providing the basic needs for water, sanitation and energy in rural communities. Ram pumps convey water from streams and brooks to higher elevations without any power or moving parts, simply by using basic principles of hydraulics.

Finally, the Climate Institute of Washington D.C. was recognized as a global leader in promoting climate balance and international awareness of climate change through several international media including symposia and conferences, which provide decision-makers with adequate information that help shape global action on climate change.

The Climate Institute is headed by John Topping Jr, a longtime friend of the Philippine climate community. Topping is a Yale and Dartmouth alumnus, receiving the first Martin Luther King award from Dartmouth. He was formerly the Staff Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) office of air and radiation under the Reagan administration. Another key member of the Climate Institute is Dr. Mike McCracken, formerly executive director of the U.S. Global Change Research Program and connected with Lawrence Livermore and UC-Davis. Both Topping and McCracken are co-editors of the book Sudden and Disruptive Climate Change (UK: Earthscan, 2008).

One of their programs in the Philippines is an innovative black soot reduction program involving a modification of jeepney diesel engines financed by private carbon credit mechanisms (outside of the Kyoto Protocol). A description of this project done by an Australian company locally can be read in this YaleGlobal article by Topping.

The Fr. Neri Satur Award, named in honor of the late priest-environmentalist and deputized forest ranger who lost his life in the hands of illegal loggers in the forests of Bukidnon in 1991, is given to individuals, groups or entities from different sectors in recognition of their exceptional contribution to protect our environment. The award trophy, depicting Fr. Satur embracing a tree, was a masterpiece rendered by National Artist for Sculpture Abdulmari Imao.

Other past awardees include Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, Archbishop Francisco Claver, Bishop Jose Manguiran, Bishop Ramon Villena, Fr. James B. Reuter, Fr. Ben Beltran, Sr. Aida Velasquez; eco-media writers Jerry Esplanada of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Katherine Andraneda of the Philippine Star; eco-friendly businesses like UNILEVER, SM Malls, MAP, GTZ; eco-entertainers-artists Francis Magalona, Kim Atienza, Richard Gutierrez; eco-advocates Architect Jun Palafox, Dr. Metodio Palaypay; science-educator Dr. Tomas Ongoco; and inventors Jun Catan and Ben Santos, among others.

Dennis Posadas is the author of Jump Start: A Technopreneurship Fable (Singapore: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009) and Rice & Chips: Technopreneurship and Innovation in Asia (Singapore: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007). A free audio excerpt of his latest ebook, Green Thinking: a business fable on clean energy, can be heard at http://greenthinkingfable.blogspot.com

Is Earth Hour just hype?

2011-03-24T09:16:09Z

So here we go again. We are being asked to switch off our lights for one hour this March 26, Saturday at 830pm and participate in Earth Hour, so that the Philippines will end up in the news as being one of its most avid supporters worldwide. Suddenly, companies are now on the bandwagon - after all, it is a cheap way to appear "green" to the public.

Do I have anything against Earth Hour? No, not at all. In fact, I do try to join in and turn off my lights, and participate in this symbolic exercise.

What I'm against is the hype machine that surrounds it. To top it off, people shutoff their 12W light bulbs yet drive off to attend an Earth Hour concert - thus generating more carbon in the process.

One thing you have to realize is that even if a large number of us shutoff our lights, it doesn't necessarily mean that a coal plant also shuts down for an hour - thus cutting off the carbon emission for an hour. No it doesn't work that way. One hour is really too short to shut down and restart an electric plant.

In the quest towards a low carbon economy, symbolism is fine - at the start. But if that's all you do year in and year out, you are just contributing to fueling the hype machine. Go beyond that. Go for permanent change.

When March 26 this Saturday 830pm comes, do join in and shutoff your lights. But after that, figure out a way how to permanently replace that light with an energy conserving one, and figure out how to reduce your waste lighting permanently. If you still have fluorescent bulbs, replace these with CFL's or better yet LED lighting. Consider investing in air conditioners, heat exchangers and other appliances with better energy saving ratios.

Unfortunately, it is cheaper for companies to be Earth Hour sponsors than to actually make permanent changes to their operations to allow them to consume less electricity.

Want to make Earth Hour better? Figure out what you are doing this year that makes you use and generate less carbon from last year.

Is Earth Hour just hype? It really depends on how you observe it. Symbolism that leads to action is fine. Symbolism that remains just that is simply hype.

Dennis Posadas is the author of Jump Start: A Technopreneurship Fable (Singapore: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009). A sample of his new Green Thinking fable ebook on clean energy can be read at http://greenthinkingfable.blogspot.com

When carefully engineered systems like nuclear reactors fail

2011-03-13T00:54:19Z

The failure of the cooling system at one of Japan's aging nuclear plants (built during the 70's) particularly the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after the recent earthquake illustrates some of the considerations when designing backup and failsafe systems. We want a system to be "fail safe" because there is a potential for harm or injury if the system does not perform as intended.

Typically, there are two schools of thought on systems failure. One is to determine the physics of failure of a system, and try to mathematically model it then design it in a way that makes it robust. This makes sense for single components, but becomes difficult if you are dealing with complex systems (e.g. airplanes, automobiles, nuclear reactors) that are built from many different components - often coming from different suppliers.

So a Boeing 747 may have an engine coming from GE, Pratt and Whitney or Rolls Royce, or a Toyota may have an airconditioning compressor coming from Sanden and tires from Bridgestone. In these cases, it would probably be almost impossible to model everything, so another school of thought is to design the system with enough engineering safety margins and redundancy to perform adequately to assumed worst case scenarios and to use statistics (e.g. Weibull and other distributions) to model failure rates and predict safety margins.

Test engineers often try to stress existing components before they put them into critical systems and try to verify that they will fail at a certain point, then tell the users to only use the component way below where it normally fails. So if a motor oil is designed to last for 15,000 km, you can assume that the test engineers have verified that many cars had been tested until the oil brokedown possibly at 20,000 km or greater, giving the guaranteed figure some margin of safety.

Aside from the safety and reliability factors built into systems by the design engineers, the operating engineers also try to make improvements even when the systems are already operational. These can include changes they make as the years go by, and new technologies are developed that are better or more reliable than older systems. Techniques that operating engineers can use include Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA). These are basically systematic discussion and mind mapping tools to allow engineers to share and discuss potential problems openly and propose changes. There is always a conflict between the engineers who wish to make safety changes, and management who often have to weigh the cost versus benefit of these changes. But it is always good to have your imaginative and creative thinking hats on when doing these activities.

For example, instead of having the need to manually push cooling rods on reactors when there is an emergency, some systems have them drop because of gravity. In the case of the Japanese reactors, motors and pumps had to be on to keep the water going. Another possible improvement is to have the coolant automatically drop by gravity because the valves open when power is lost. In this way, a system is designed to fail safely.

One important target that design and operational engineers need to spot is the danger of a single point failure. This is when you only have one component (e.g. a screw, a motor, a bearing, etc.) that can be the only thing separating you from safety and disaster. The obvious single point failures are easy to spot, the less obvious ones need to be worked on. If engineers know that a particular component could be a single point failure mechanism, they either build a redundant backup (e.g. an extra post on a building) or make the component more reliable (e.g. make the post stronger).

There are two approaches we often take when it comes to the reliability of components or systems. We speak of improving the component reliability rate (e.g. make microchips, jet engines, nuclear cooling systems, etc. more reliable) versus adding redundant (or backup) systems. Think of owning just one car that doesn't breakdown (or hardly breaks down) versus having two less reliable cars, but knowing that the likelihood that both will breakdown at the same time is unlikely. This was the consideration that Boeing engineers considered when they only put two engines on their 777 model, instead of four engines like in the 747. However, the individual engine reliability in the 777 is extremely high.

Things to remember: if you have two or more components operating in parallel (e.g. you have two cars, or two houses), the reliability of the combined system is greater than each component taken individually. So if you have two houses, and one falls down in an earthquake, you still have another house you can move into. Of course, redundancy is always expensive. Another thing to remember is if you have two or more components that are operating in series (e.g. to get to work you need to take the train and the airplane), the total reliability is less than each of the components. If one of the components fail, automatically the entire system fails because they are in series.

There are also what are called k out of n systems. For example, if the Titanic had hit the iceberg head on, only the front bulkhead would have been damaged. If it had eight bulkheads, and one was damaged, it could have reached port with 7 out of 8 bulkheads intact.

However, because the sailor on watch was looking at Leonardo de Caprio and Cate Winslet, the Titanic veered too late and the iceberg sliced through the side of the ship, damaging several bulkheads in the process.

When the disaster doesn't strike, it is often thought to be a statistically improbable scenario - until it happens. But if we begin to take all scenarios, even highly unlikely ones seriously, we will end up with very impractical and expensive systems.

Striking a balance - not compromising human health and safety, without ending up with a structurally engineered doghouse, is in everyone's interest.

Of course, if an unforeseen disaster strikes, and our favorite dog lies crushed in the rubble, we all wish we had spent the little extra time and money to make the system a little bit more safer and stronger.

Dennis Posadas is the author of Jump Start: A Technopreneurship Fable (Singapore: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009) whose latest ebook, Green Thinking fable (http://greenthinkingfable.blogspot.com) deals with clean energy. He was formerly at one time in his professional career, managing equipment system reliability in the semiconductor industry.

Scientists find 'drastic' weather-related Atlantic shifts

2011-01-06T11:08:10Z

Agence France-Presse

GENEVA--Scientists have found evidence of a "drastic" shift since the 1970s in north Atlantic Ocean currents that usually influence weather in the northern hemisphere, Swiss researchers said on Tuesday.

The team of biochemists and oceanographers from Switzerland, Canada and the United States detected changes in deep sea Atlantic corals that indicated the declining influence of the cold northern Labrador Current.

They said in the US National Academy of Science journal PNAS that the change "since the early 1970s is largely unique in the context of the last approximately 1,800 years," and raised the prospect of a direct link with global warming.

The Labrador Current interacts with the warmer Gulfstream from the south.

They in turn have a complex interaction with a climate pattern, the North Atlantic Oscillation, which has a dominant impact on weather in Europe and North America.

Scientists have pointed to a disruption or shifts in the oscillation as an explanation for moist or harsh winters in Europe, or severe summer droughts such as in Russia, in recent years.

One of the five scientists, Carsten Schubert, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Acquatic Sciences and Technology (EAWAG), underlined that for nearly 2,000 years the sub polar Labrador current off northern Canada and Newfoundland was the dominant force.

However that pattern appeared to have only been repeated occasionally in recent decades.

"Now the southern current has taken over, it's really a drastic change," Schubert told AFP, pointing to the evidence of the shift towards warmer water in the northwest Atlantic.

The research was based on nitrogen isotope signatures in 700 year old coral reefs on the ocean floor, which feed on sinking organic particles.

While water pushed by the Gulfstream is salty and rich in nutrients, the colder Arctic waters carried by the Labrador current contain fewer nutrients.

Changes could be dated because of the natural growth rings seen in corals.

"The researchers suspect there is a direct connection between the changes in oceanic currents in the North Atlantic and global warming caused by human activities," said EAWAG in a statement.

Genes predict hair colour, say scientists

2011-01-05T11:05:19Z

Agence France-Presse

PARIS--Samples of DNA can give a high-probability estimate of someone's hair colour, a finding that will be a boon for forensic scientists, according to a new study published on Tuesday.

DNA taken from blood, sperm, saliva or skin cells can determine with more than 90-percent accuracy whether a person has red hair or black hair, and with an accuracy of more than 80 percent as to whether their hair is blond or brown, say its authors.

The technique, published in the European journal Human Genetics, can even differentiate between hair colours that are similar, such as red and reddish blond and blond and dark blond.

"That we are now making it possible to predict different hair colours from DNA represents a major breakthrough because, so far, only red hair colour, which is rare, could be estimated from DNA," said Manfred Kayser, a forensic molecular biology professor at Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

The research is based on 13 telltale signatures of DNA in 11 genes, which matched hair colours in hundreds of Europeans. It was based on hair on the head, and further research is needed to predict the colour of body hair.

The scientists believe that a standardised DNA test for predicting hair colour could emerge in the near future, adding powerfully to the forensic toolkit.

Japan bio-scientists produce 'singing mouse'

2010-12-21T10:15:19Z

Agence France-Presse

TOKYO--Japanese scientists said Tuesday they had produced a mouse that tweets like a bird in a genetically engineered "evolution" which they hope will shed light on the origins of human language.

A team of researchers at the University of Osaka created the animal in their "Evolved Mouse Project", in which they use genetically modified mice that are prone to miscopying DNA and thus to mutations.

"Mutations are the driving force of evolution. We have cross-bred the genetically modified mice for generations to see what would happen," lead researcher Arikuni Uchimura told AFP.

"We checked the newly born mice one by one... One day we found a mouse that was singing like a bird," he said, noting that the "singing mouse" was born by chance but that the trait will be passed on to future generations.

"I was surprised because I had been expecting mice that are different in physical shape," he said by telephone, adding that in fact the project had also produced "a mouse with short limbs and a tail like a dachshund".

The laboratory, directed by professor Takeshi Yagi at the Osaka University's Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences in western Japan, now has more than 100 "singing mice" for further research.

The team hopes they will provide clues on how human language evolved, just as researchers in other countries study songbirds such as finches to help them understand the origins of human language.

Scientists have found that birds use different sound elements, put them together into chunks like words in human languages and then make strings of them to sing "songs", that are subject to certain linguistic rules.

"Mice are better than birds to study because they are mammals and much closer to humans in their brain structures and other biological aspects," Uchimura said.

"We are watching how a mouse that emits new sounds would affect ordinary mice in the same group... in other words if it has social connotations," he said, adding that ordinary mice squeak mainly under stress.

Considering that mutant mice tweet louder when put in different environments or when males are put together with females, Uchimura said their chirps "may be some sort of expressions of their emotions or bodily conditions."

The team has found that ordinary mice that grew up with singing mice emitted fewer ultrasounds than others, which could indicate that communication methods can spread in the same group like a dialect.

Uchimura dreams of further "evolution" of mice through genetic engineering.

"I know it's a long shot and people would say it's 'too absurd'... but I'm doing this with hopes of making a Mickey Mouse some day," he said.

Science of man-made life can proceed--US panel

2010-12-17T07:21:05Z

Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON--A White House panel said on Thursday the controversial field of synthetic biology, or manipulating the DNA of organisms to forge new life forms, poses limited risks and should be allowed to proceed.

An expert commission convened by President Barack Obama advised vigilance and self-regulation as scientists seek ways to create new organisms that could spark useful innovations in clean energy, pollution control and medicine.

Critics, including environmental advocates, accused the panel of not taking their concerns seriously and said that allowing science to police itself was tantamount to offering no oversight at all.

The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues "concluded that synthetic biology is capable of significant but limited achievements posing limited risks," it said in its first report.

"Future developments may raise further objections, but the commission found no reason to endorse additional federal regulations or a moratorium on work in this field at this time."

The 13-member panel of scientists, ethicists and public policy experts was created by Obama last year.

Its first order of business was to consider the issue of synthetic biology after the J. Craig Venter Institute announced in May it had developed the first self-replicating bacteria cell controlled by a synthetic genome.

Those opposed to Venter's techniques said the discovery was tantamount to "playing God," and creating novel organisms that could be dumped into the environment without adequate understanding of the ramifications.

Announcing the creation of the "first synthetic cell," lead researcher Craig Venter said at the time it "certainly changed my views of the definitions of life and how life works."

But the commission said Venter's team had not actually created life, since the work mainly involved altering an already existing life form.

"Thoughtful deliberation about the meaning of this achievement was impossible in the hours that elapsed between the breaking news and the initial round of commentaries that ensued," it said in its report.

"Of note, many scientists observe that this achievement is not tantamount to 'creating life' in a scientific sense because the research required a functioning, naturally occurring host cell to accept the synthesized genome."

Commission chair Amy Gutmann said the panel considered a range of approaches to regulating the new scientific field, from allowing unbridled freedom to imposing strict government regulation on experiments.

"We chose a middle course to maximize public benefits while also safeguarding against risks," she said.

"Prudent vigilance suggests that federal oversight is needed and can be exercised in a way that is consistent with scientific progress."

As to the risk of releasing modified organisms into nature, a scenario some have warned could spark biological threats or damage to the ecosystem, "scientists and ethicists advised careful monitoring and review of the research," the panel said.

The panel also urged greater cooperation among federal agencies that oversee product licensing and funding of synthetic biology, and collaboration with world governments and global groups like the World Health Organization.

"Educational classes on the ethical dilemmas raised by synthetic biology should be a mandatory part of training for young researchers, engineers, and others who work in this emerging field," it added.

A spokesman in the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy said the Obama administration was "grateful" for the report and highlighted the panel's conclusion that no new regulatory bodies were needed.

"We appreciate the commission's main conclusion that synthetic biology does not currently pose novel safety or ethical issues that require the creation of new oversight bodies," the spokesman said.

A coalition of 58 groups from 22 countries sent a letter of protest to the panel, saying "this process has not resulted in recommendations that recognize the serious threats synthetic biology pose to the environment, workers' health, public health, and social justice."

"We are disappointed that 'business as usual' has won out over precaution in the commission's report," said Eric Hoffman, biotechnology policy campaigner for Friends of the Earth and of the signatories.

"Self-regulation equates to no regulation."

'Stealth bomber' fungus sneaks into crops--study - Lead

2010-12-16T10:19:17Z

Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON--Major crop-killing mildews sneak into plants as "stealth bombers," disguising themselves to thwart plant defenses and cause mass destruction, said research published Thursday in the journal Science.

In a pair of studies, researchers describe how they mapped the genomes of two of the plant-destroyers and detail how the diseases shed giveaway genes that could trigger an immune attack in the plants they invade.

Powdery mildew plagues seem to arise from nowhere and can devastate barley, corn, grapes, potatoes and more, causing huge food losses worldwide particularly in cool, wet climates in North America, Europe and Asia.

Every year, 20 to 40 percent of the world's harvest is lost because of pests, and the new knowledge could help design tougher plants and more potent fungicides to halt their deadly creep.

The diseases -- Blumeria graminis (or barley disease) and Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis (a flowery, mustard-related plant considered a model for biology research) -- start with tiny parasites that cause dusty white spots on plant leaves and stems.

Farmers have tried to ward off such diseases by rotating crops and treating fields with fungicides, but often the plagues spread too quickly.

Now scientists know why. The organisms are able to disguise themselves so that the plant does not recognize a threat, allowing the fungus to get inside where it can wreak havoc and spread to other plants.

Parasites inside the genome transform themselves, shedding genetic traits so that the plant is confused and does not attack them, explained the study on barley disease that was led by scientists at Imperial College London.

"The mildew is able to evolve so quickly because multiple parasites within the genome, known as 'transposons,' help it to disguise itself and go unrecognized by the plant's defenses," said lead author Pietro Spanu.

"It is as if the transposons confuse the host plant by changing the target molecules that the plant uses to detect the onset of disease."

Downy mildew, another name for the type of disease caused by H. arabidopsidis, is an oomycete, or a fungal-like organism that has evolved from marine algae.

"Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis is one of the stealth bombers of the world of plant pathogens," said lead author Jim Beynon of Britain's University of Warwick.

"We can see much of how it has actually slimmed down some key elements of its genetic material in order to get around the plant's natural defenses -- essentially by stealth."

The research team also included The Sainsbury Laboratory, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, also known as Virginia Tech.

John McDowell, an associate professor in Virginia Tech's Department of Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science, said that by comparing the newly sequenced genomes to other plant pathogens, scientists learned why the mildew is so potent.

"Many plant pathogens contain large families of related genes that serve as powerful weapons but can also trigger equally powerful immune responses in the plant," said John McDowell.

"Our comparisons across multiple genomes revealed that many of these gene families have been reduced in size or completely discarded in H. arabidopsidis.

"This evolution towards stealth helps explain why this mildew and its relatives are widely distributed and cause diseases on many important crops."

Scientists are looking for a genetic solution to the crop-destroyers by developing strains of plants that are resistant to pathogens and pests, now that they know more about the plants' immune systems.

"Such crops will reduce the need to spray pesticides and fungicides and they will give better yields, as less will be lost to disease," said Dale Sanders of the John Innes Centre, a British plant science research institute.

US scientists create mice from two fathers

2010-12-14T07:45:20Z

Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON--US scientists have used stem cell technology to create mice from two fathers, an advance that they say could help preserve endangered species and even help same-sex couples have their own genetic children one day.

According to the study published Wednesday in the journal Biology of Reproduction, reproductive scientists in Texas were able to manipulate cells from a male (XY) mouse fetus to produce an induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell line.

These iPS cells are adult cells that have undergone some genetic reprogramming in order to enter an embryonic stem cell-like state.

Some of the cells that were grown from this new line spontaneously lost their Y chromosome, turning them into XO cells.

Those XO cells were injected into embryos from donor female mice and transplanted into surrogate mouse moms who gave birth to babies with one X chromosome from the original male mouse.

Those babies grew and later mated with normal male mice. Their offspring, both male and female, showed genetic contributions from two fathers.

The study was led by Richard R. Berhringer at the MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Researchers said that with a variation of their technique, "it may also be possible to generate sperm from a female donor and produce viable male and female progeny with two mothers."

However, the study cautioned that the ability to replicate the findings in humans was a long way off.

The "generation of human iPS cells still requires significant refinements prior to their use for therapeutic purposes," the study said.

Previous research has found ways to create mice without any fathers at all, as well as ways to create mice with two mothers.

First super-Earth atmosphere analysed--study

2010-12-02T13:22:06Z

Agence France-Presse

PARIS--Astronomers have for the first time analysed the atmosphere of a "super-Earth," the name given to rocky exoplanets only a few times larger than our own, according to a study released Wednesday.

The breakthrough is a key step in the quest to identify planets in other solar systems that could potentially host forms of life we might recognise, the researchers said.

"We've reached a milestone on the road toward characterising these worlds," said lead author Jacob Bean, a professor at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

The exoplanet in question, dubbed GJ 1214b, is some 42 light years -- four hundred trillion kilometers, or 250 trillion miles -- from our corner of the universe, with a radius about 2.6 times that of Earth.

Discovered last year, GJ 1214b circles a small, faint star, making it that much easier for scientists to tease out data about the atmosphere by analysing starlight as it passes the rim of the planet on its way to us.

Depending on the chemical composition and weather of the atmosphere, specific signature wavelengths of light are absorbed.

Using the European Space Agency's Very Large Telescope in Chile, Bean and colleagues were able to narrow the range of possibilities from three to two.

The first is that GJ 1214b is shrouded by water which -- given the nearness to its star -- would be in the form of steam.

It could also be a rocky world with an atmosphere consisting mostly of hydrogen, but with high clouds or haze obscuring the view.

What the exoplanet is not, the observations prove, is a "mini-Neptune" with a small rocky core and a deep, hydrogen-rich atmosphere.

"Although we can't say yet exactly what that atmosphere is made of, it is an exciting step forward to be able to narrow down the options for such a distant world to either steamy or hazy," said Bean.

In either case, it is more than unlikely that GJ 1214b hosts life forms.

"This planet is much too hot to be considered habitable," Bean told AFP. "In the regions of the atmosphere with pressures similar to what are seen at sea level on Earth, the temperatures are estimated to be more than 500 degree Celsius (930 degrees Fahrenheit)."

It circles its star every 38 hours at a distance of only two million kilometers, seventy times closer than Earth's orbit of the Sun.

Despite this, GJ 1214b is smaller, cooler and more Earth-like than any other known exoplanet.

Most of the more than 500 exoplanets discovered to date are "hot Jupiters", so-called because of their large, gaseous masses and extreme temperatures.

But as observational tools become more powerful, astronomers have begun to identify more and more rocky orbs similar to our own.

"We are working to discover and eventually characterise the atmospheres of planets that would be habitable," said Bean.

"We aren't there yet, but the goal is obtainable within the next decade," he said by email.

No exoplanet discovered so far falls within its solar system's "Goldilocks zone," where temperatures are not so hot that water evaporates, nor so cold that it freezes, but just right for the stuff of life to exist in liquid form.

Earth's atmosphere is 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen and one percent other gases, including carbon dioxide.

'Can't talk now Dad, I'm ovulating'--study

2010-12-01T10:47:36Z

Agence France-Presse

PARIS--Women instinctively shun their fathers when they are most fertile, even as they seek out the companionship of their mothers, a new study has shown.

The reasons, say the researchers, is evolution. Females in other species have also been observed to give a wide birth to male kin during periods of maximum fertility.

"The behaviour has long been explained as a means of avoiding inbreeding and the negative consequences associated with it," explained lead author Debra Lieberman, a professor at the University of Miami.

"But until we conducted our study, nobody knew whether a similar pattern occurred in women."

Lieberman and colleagues examined cell phone records of 48 women in their reproductive years, noting the date and duration of all calls with their fathers and, separately, their mothers over the course of a billing period.

They found that women called their dads less frequently during the days when the were ovulating, and would hang up sooner if the calls came the other way.

Overall, daughters were half as likely to ring up papa during high fertility days compared to the period of menstruation. What's more, the conversations that did occur lasted about half as long.

The researchers checked to be sure that the women were not giving their dads the slip in order to meet male suitors.

Nor were they simply trying to evade parental control: even when hormones were working overtime, the women were far more, rather than less, likely to give mom a ring.

Women have hard-wired mechanisms that protect against the risk of less healthy children, which tend to occur when close genetic relatives mate, the researchers concluded.

"It makes sense that women would reduce their interactions with male genetic relatives, who are undesirable mates," Lieberman said.

At the same time, when women are in their most fertile phase they are attracted to men with "masculine" qualities such as husky voices and competitive personalities, previous research has shown.

The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Psychological Science.

Jet-lag causes long term memory loss--study

2010-11-30T10:56:06Z

Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON--International travelers may feel tired and forgetful for up to a month after returning to a normal schedule because jet-lag causes long term changes in the brain, a US study said Wednesday.

Similar brain disruptions could be experienced by anyone who works alternating night-day shifts or unusual schedules, said the study which is the first to look at long-term effects of such lifestyle changes on brain anatomy.

"What this says is that, whether you are a flight attendant, medical resident, or rotating shift worker, repeated disruption of circadian rhythms is likely going to have a long-term impact on your cognitive behavior and function," said Lance Kriegsfeld, associate professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley.

The researchers subjected female hamsters to six-hour changes in schedule -- similar to a New York to Paris flight -- twice a week for four weeks.

As expected, the harried hamsters had trouble learning simple tasks that other, more rested hamsters aced during the four-week period.

But more surprisingly, the learning problems persisted for a month after they settled back into a normal schedule.

Researchers say they were able to track the changes to a drop in neurons in the hippocampus, which is the part of the brain responsible for memory.

"Compared to the hamsters in the control group, the jet-lagged hamsters had only half the number of new neurons in the hippocampus following the month long exposure to jet lag," said the study published in the journal PLOS One.

Researchers used hamsters because they have such precise circadian rhythms, driven by an internal, 24-hour clock that everyone possesses.

"They will produce eggs, or ovulate, every 96 hours to within a window of a few minutes," Kriegsfeld said.

Graduate student Erin Gibson pointed out that other studies have shown that people who experience regular jet-lag display memory loss and learning problems, "along with atrophy in the brain's temporal lobe, suggesting a possible hippocampal deficit.

"Our study shows directly that jet lag decreases neurogenesis in the hippocampus," she said.

The finding could have wider implications for shift workers and frequent long-distance travelers, who have already been found to suffer "decreased reaction times, higher incidences of diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and cancer, and reduced fertility," the study said.

To ward off the effects, Kriegsfeld advises allowing one day of recovery for every one-hour time zone shift. Night shift workers should sleep in a dark, quiet room to adjust their bodies to their altered schedule.

Scientists find eyeless cave fish in Indonesia's Papua

2010-11-26T12:04:31Z

Agence France-Presse

JAKARTA--Eyeless cave fish and a frog that carries its offspring on its back are among the new species a team of scientists have discovered in Indonesia's eastern Papua region.

The researchers from the Institute of Research and Development (IRD) in Montpellier, southern France, studied caves, underground rivers and jungles in the remote Lengguru area of New Guinea island.

"In terms of discoveries almost everything remains to be done in this area, which is very difficult to access but which has exceptionally rich biodiversity," IRD scientist Laurent Pouyaud told Agence France-Presse.

For seven weeks, the team including biologists, paleontologists and archaeologists explored the vast limestone "labyrinth" where species have evolved in isolation for millions of years.

In one previously undocumented cave they found a new species of fish which had developed without eyes or pigmentation.

"This is, to our knowledge, the first cave fish that has been discovered in Papua," Pouyaud said.

The team's archaeologists were "overwhelmed" by cave paintings and tools made of shell which provided further evidence of the ancient migration of people from Asia to the Australian continent some 40,000 years ago, he said.

The research was "the first step" in an ongoing project to study the region's biodiversity in conjunction with the Indonesian maritime affairs ministry and Institute of Sciences.

Papua's biodiversity is at risk from plans to expand plantations and mining operations in the area, Pouyaud said.

New drug fights SEAsia liver fluke

2010-11-25T11:29:20Z

Agence France-Presse

PARIS--Researchers said Thursday they had successfully tested a Chinese-developed drug against opisthorchiasis, a neglected tropical disease that threatens some 67 million people in Southeast Asia.

Tribendimidine is as safe and effective against the tiny worm that causes the disease as the frontline drug, praziquantel, marketed as Biltricide, they reported in a study published online in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Opisthorchiasis is caused by a fluke, known by its Latin name as Opisthorchis viverrini, that passes from freshwater snails to river fish, and then to humans if the fish is eaten raw or undercooked.

The fluke holes up in the liver and bile duct, where it reproduces, causing abdominal pain and diarrhoea but also, in the long term, boosting the risk of jaundice, gallstones and cancer.

Around 67 million people in Southeast Asia are at risk from the fluke, and nine million people have already been infected by it, according to a 2005 estimate.

The parasite is endemic to parts of Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, but especially in Laos, where as many as 50 percent of schoolchildren and 90 percent of adults are infected.

A team led by Jennifer Keiser from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute randomly assigned 125 infected schoolchildren in Laos' Attepeu province to receiving either tribendimidine, praziquantel or a drug designed to combat the parasite that causes malaria.

Tribendimidine scored the highest cure rate, of 70 percent, followed by praziquantel (56 percent). The three malaria treatments that were taken scored a cure rate of only four percent in two of the drugs and zero in the third.

Both tribendimidine and praziquantel also scored best in clearing the patient of parasite eggs, and were generally well tolerated, with "mild or moderate" side-effects.

The study was a "Phase II" trial in the three-phase process of evaluating a new drug for safety and effectiveness. Wider trials would be needed before it can be licensed internationally for this disease.

'Asian unicorn' and scaly anteater now on endangered list

2010-11-19T10:04:16Z

Agence France-Presse

LONDON--A miniature sloth, the "Asian unicorn" and a bushbaby known as the rondo dwarf galago were Friday added to the Zoological Society of London's list of genetically distinct and endangered mammals.

Three species of long-beaked echidna's are ranked equal first on the evolutionary distinct and globally endangered (EDGE) list, which identifies the world's 100-most unique and threatened mammals.

"EDGE mammals are one-of-a-kind and they represent the true diversity of life on earth," said Carly Waterman, EDGE Programme Manager.

"If we let these species disappear, their extraordinary features and unique behaviours will be lost forever," she added.

Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, named after British wildlife broadcaster David Attenborough, makes the list as does the virtually-blind Ganges River dolphin.

The saola, or "Asian unicorn," was unknown to western science until 1992. The reclusive beast lives in the jungles of Laos and Vietnam, but it is thought there are only a few dozen of them left in existence.

One of the more bizarre creatures on the list is the Chinese pangolin, also known as a scaly anteater. The mammal is being overexploited for its meat and for its skin and scales, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine.