The Western World has been fretting about SARS and Avian Influenza for some time now, but all the while there’s been another bug that we thought we had previously conquered sitting in the wings evolving drug resistance, and it could be far deadlier.
Category Archives: Science
India Launches First Commercial Satellite Payload
Here’s some interesting news:
India has gone into business in outer space, launching its first commercial rocket. The rocket was carrying an Italian astronomical satellite that will be used to gather information about the origins of the universe. India is the fifth entry into the commercial satellite launch business after the US, Russia, China, Ukraine and the European Space Agency.
I hadn’t realised Ukraine was in the business too..
It’s the wrong leech, Gromit!
Oops, it looks like there’s been a bit of a mix up with the humble leech in medical research!
In the slimiest and perhaps costliest case of mistaken identity in modern biology, hundreds of scientific papers and years of research could be thrown into doubt, for they may have been based on experiments carried out on the wrong leech
It’s the wrong leech Gromit, and they’ve gone wrong! (Apologies to The Wrong Trousers)
“What has been sold and used as Hirudo medicinalis is usually another species, Hirudo verbana,” said Dr Siddall, who led an international team of researchers in examining dozens of specimens procured from leech farms in Europe and the United States. “Indeed, we have never received a true medicinalis from a commercial supplier,” he said, adding a few leeches from a third species, H. orientalis, from Turkey or Azerbaijan, may also have crept into the mix.
There is an upside to this (asides from the increasing volume of medical papers as they try and correct their previous research and try and work out what compound came from which species):
“With three species rather than one, there may three times as many interesting compounds to be discovered and harnessed,” he said.
Squids and Cats
A great physics quote courtesy of New Scientist:
Despite the fact that the SQUID supports a macroscopically measurable current, it may in fact be a small cat
Perhaps a huge SQUID of a chaotic nature could be called a Cthulhu ?
Man Arrested for Feeding Homeless People
The ABC is reporting that a man has been arrested in Orlando, Florida, for feeding “30 unidentified persons food from a large pot utilising a ladle” (according to the arrest warrant).
The Orlando law, which is supported by local business owners who say the homeless drive away customers, has been challenged in court by civil rights groups. It allows charities to feed more than 25 people at a time within 3.2 kilometres of the Orlando City Hall only if they have a special permit. They are able to receive two permits a year.
Police mounted a surveillance operation to catch him and even took a sample of the food to use as evidence against him in court.
The sort of prejudice against homeless people that seems to have lead to this law getting passed is pretty typical, there was an interesting story in New Scientist recently talking about the neural side of prejudice, and a surprising way of breaking the freezing out of such people in the mind:
Psychologist Susan Fiske from Princeton University and colleagues got students to view photos of individuals from a range of social groups, while using functional MRI to monitor activity in their medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a brain region known to light up in response to socially significant stimuli. The researchers were shocked to discover that photos of people belonging to “extreme” out-groups, such as drug addicts, stimulated no activity in this region at all, suggesting that the viewers considered them to be less than human. “It is just what you see with homeless people or beggars in the street,” says Fiske, “people treat them like piles of garbage.” In new experiments, however, she was able to reverse this response. After replicating the earlier results, the researchers asked simple, personal questions about the people in the pictures, such as, “What kind of vegetable do you think this beggar would like?” Just one such question was enough to significantly raise activity in the mPFC. “The question has the effect of making the person back into a person,” says Fiske, “and the prejudiced response is much weaker.”
You will need to be a subscriber to New Scientist to be able to read the whole thing online.
Solomon Islands Earthquake Activity
According to the USGS maps for the Solomons and PNG there have been 22 quakes greater than mag 4.8 in the 15 hours or so since the mag 8.0, here’s a quick graph of magnitude versus time after the first quake (click for a larger version)..
This graph was brought to you by cat, awk, tac and OpenOffice.org Calc and Draw.
XmdS – eXtensible multi-dimensional Simulator
XmdS looks like an interesting package:
XMDS is a code generator that integrates equations. You write them down in human readable form in an XML file, and it goes away and writes and compiles a C++ program that integrates those equations as fast as it can possibly be done in your architecture.
Personally I thought it might be drawing a long bow to call XML “human readable”, but some of the examples aren’t too bad at all.
Tsunami Alert Cancelled for East Coast of Australia (QLD, NSW, TAS) (Update 10)
There has been a magnitude 7.6 8.0 quake near the Solomon Islands. The ABC is reporting that the Bureau of Met has issued a tsunami alert for the Australian Barrier Reef and Willis Islands and that the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre has also issued an alert.
The centre said it had no confirmed information a tsunami was generated but said authorities should take appropriate action in response to the possibility.
Update 1: The BoM’s tsunami alert says:
Based on the magnitude and location of this earthquake, tsunami could start affecting these locations at the following local time: Willis Island from 0832am 02/04/2007
The Bureau is seeking confirmation that tsunami have been generated. Tsunami Warnings will be issued, if necessary, by the Regional Offices of the Bureau in affected States. People in coastal areas in threatened regions should then listen for further advice from state emergency service authorities.
Update 2: BoM has confirmed that a tsunami was generated, but the only measured height so far was at Honiara in the Solomon Islands with a 15cm zero-to-peak at 7:13am EST.
The Bureau of Met has its own Tsunami Alert Site and the alert now says:
TSUNAMI THREAT TO EASTERN AUSTRALIA and Willis and Barrier Reef Islands, Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands.
Update 3: The Tsunami alert now includes Tasmania.
TOP PRIORITY
TASMANIA TSUNAMI WARNING
Issued at 9:16am on Monday the 2nd of April 2007
For people in eastern coastal areas of Tasmania.
An earthquake of preliminary magnitude 8.1 occurred at 06:40 am EST near the Solomon islands [8.1S 157.2E] generating a tsunami.
A series of waves associated with this tsunami will impact Eastern Australia today, reaching the Eastern Tasmanian coastline from about 12:30 pm.
Dangerous waves and currents may affect beaches, harbours and rivers for several hours from the time of impact and low-lying coastal areas could be flooded.
The waves can be separated in time by between ten to sixty minutes and the first wave of the series may not be the largest.
People should keep listening to the local media for updated information and
advice and follow instructions and advice from emergency services
This warning will be updated by 11:00 am.
There is also an ABC news report about the tsunami alert that confirms that the Solomon Islands has been hit, though details of any damage are sketchy.
Update 4: There are now alerts online at BoM for NSW, TAS and QLD. The QLD one is encouraging, it now says:
Willis Island Meteorological station reported NO noticable affect of waves at 9am by which time the Tsunami should have passed. They are checking to see if there has been any affect to beaches.
Update 5: The BoM’s reports for QLD are looking better again, Cooktown isn’t showing signs of a destructive tsunami meaning the overall chance of a destructive tsunami is lessened. The NSW warning is still fairly general though.
Update 6: The quake has been revised up to magnitude 8.0.
Update 7: It looks like the Solomon Islands may not have been this lucky, according to the BBC.
“There was 10ft of water rushing through town,” – Harry Wickham, Gizo
Update 8: The USGS has reported mag 5.8, mag 6.4 and mag 6.7 quakes, amongst others, also in the Solomons Island region (though north-west of the 8.0 quake).
Update 9: The QLD alert now says:
TSUNAMI THREAT TO QUEENSLAND and Willis and Barrier Reef Islands has eased. No destructive Tsunami is expected. […] No reports of significant sea level rises have been received from the Northern Tropical Coast of Queensland. Some rises of about 20 to 30cm have been observed.
Update 10: As of 1350 EST the BoM is now saying that the tsunami alert has been cancelled.
Small surges in sea level height and minor abnormal currents have been detected along the Queensland coast.
It’s not as good news in the Solomon Islands though.
The quake, with a magnitude of 8.1 on the Richter scale, levelled buildings and damaged a hospital on Gizo Island, north-west of the Solomons capital Honiara, while a tsunami sucked homes into the sea as thousands of panicked residents fled for higher ground.
Ribena In NZ Court (Updated)
It would have worked, if it hadn’t been for those pesky kids.. 🙂
The global drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline faces a court case tomorrow over misleading advertising, after two 14-year-olds found its popular drink Ribena contained almost no vitamin C.
Ribena advertises itself as having lots of vitamin C:
In fact, each serving of Ribena Blackcurrant fruit juice provides the full Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of vitamin C
But it now faces 15 charges related to misleading advertising in an Auckland court, risking potential fines of up to NZ$3 million ($2.1 million).
Update:
So GSK ‘fessed up to the 15 counts and copped a fine which was probably small change to them:
The judge fined the company a total NZ$227,500 ($163,700) for misleading advertising.
“An Inconvenient Truth” Wins Best Documentary Oscar
The film, An Inconvenient Truth, former US Vice-President Al Gore’s dire warning about the threat of climate change, has won the Oscar for best documentary. Making use of a vast body of scientific data, the film represents a stinging rebuttal to the dwindling and increasingly discredited band of skeptics who refuse to acknowledge the extent of climate change.