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	SciDev \| Latest news

	MIT \| Technology Review

	CABI \| Hand picked... and carefully sorted \| Web log

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	The Economist \| Science and technology \| News

	Discover \| Technology

	MSNBC \| Technology \| News

	Reason magazine \| Science

	The Future of Things \| Magazine

	Science News \| Online edition

	The Scientist \| Life sciences \| News

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	FirstScience \| News

	FirstScience \| Technology \| News



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	The Why Files \| Articles

	MIT Technology Review \| Top stories

SciDev / Latest news


Latest news on science, technology and the developing world

'Exciting' new odour sensors found in malaria mosquitoes
03 09 2010 Scientists have identified new scent receptors in mosquitoes that could help develop more agents to lure, repel and kill the insects.

Pakistan flood data wasted, say critics
03 09 2010 Scientists have amassed and processed plenty of data on the Pakistan floods, but there are bottlenecks to its use downstream, say scientists.

Could self-vaccinating cattle cut disease?
02 09 2010 Scientists in Malaysia are testing a live vaccine that spreads among cattle, protecting against a devastating disease.

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MIT / Technology Review


Technology Review exists to promote the understanding of emerging technologies and their impact.

Blog - Coughs 'n' Sneezes
19 06 2010 The best of the rest from the Physcis arXiv this week: Outperforming the Market Portfolio with a Given Probability

Blog - Smoking out Stem Cell Charlatans
18 06 2010 The International Society for Stem Cell Research plans to evaluate the claims of clinics offering experimental stem cell treatments of dubious value. From spinal cord injury in China to heart disease inThailand, desperate patients trolling the internet can find a number of clinicsand companies offering purported stem cell therapies of dubious value and greatexpense. According to Irving Weissman,president of the non-profit International Society for Stem Cell Research, thereare more than 200 purveyors of such treatments.

Blog - A New Bubble for the Space Launch Industry?
18 06 2010 Iridium boosts SpaceX, but will the industry repeat the boom-and-bust of the 1990s?

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CABI / Hand picked... and carefully sorted / Web log

One for the road – biofuel from whisky
04 09 2010 A team of scientists from Edinburgh Napier University has developed a biofuel (biobutanol) using the waste by-products from whisky production ("pot ale", the liquid from the copper stills, and "draff", the spent grains) from the Glenkinchie Distillery in East Lothian....

Sustainable food doesn’t mean saying no to technology
04 09 2010 The First Sustainable Food Chain Summit last week gave a clear message that to provide food sustainably for the future we need to use technology to bridge the gap between available resources and the amount of food we need to...

Decision day for Europe's largest collection of fruit and berries
12 08 2010 In the International Year of Biodiversity, a threat to one of the world's major collections of fruit and berry varieties has been widely reported in the media over the last week (see e.g. the BBC, Economist and Guardian). Pavlovsk Experimental...

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AlterNet / Environment / News


AlterNet is a news magazine and online community that creates original journalism and amplifies the best of dozens of other independent media sources. AlterNet's aim is to inspire citizen action and advocacy on the environment, human rights and civil liberties, social justice, media, and health care issues.

Five Ways You Can Help Pakistan (and the Rest of Us)
04 09 2010 The Pakistani people need our help. Here's what we can do today, and how to reduce the number of future disasters.

Dolphin Slaughter Resumes in Japan
04 09 2010 Activist Ric O'Barry delivered a petition to the US Embassy in Tokyo signed by 1.7 million people from 155 countries demanding an end to the hunt.

How Much Water Do You Use at Home? Here's a New Tool for Figuring Out Your Home Water and Energy Footprint
04 09 2010 How many of us really have a sense of what our water use is, or the energy and greenhouse gases embedded in that use?

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The Economist / Science and technology / News

Mental stimulation and dementia: Brain gain
02 09 2010 Stimulating the brain delays, but does not prevent, dementia AS THE baby-boomer generation contemplates the prospect of the Zimmer frame there has never been more interest in delaying the process of ageing. One consequence has been a dramatic rise in the popularity of brain-training games. But how effective really is a daily dose of cryptic crossword? Robert Wilson, a neuropsychologist at Rush University in Chicago, and his colleagues decided to find out, by following a group of people without dementia. Participants were asked to rate how frequently they engaged in cognitively stimulating activities. The researchers were looking for such things as reading newspapers, books and magazines, playing challenging games like chess, listening to the radio and watching television, and visiting museums. ...

The nature of the universe: Ye cannae change the laws of physics
02 09 2010 Or can you? RICHARD FEYNMAN, Nobel laureate and physicist extraordinaire, called it a “magic number” and its value “one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics”. The number he was referring to, which goes by the symbol alpha and the rather more long-winded name of the fine-structure constant, is magic indeed. If it were a mere 4% bigger or smaller than it is, stars would not be able to sustain the nuclear reactions that synthesise carbon and oxygen atoms. One consequence would be that squishy, carbon-based life would not exist. Why alpha takes on the precise value it does, so delicately fine-tuned for life, is a deep scientific mystery. A new piece of astrophysical research may, however, have uncovered a crucial piece of the puzzle. In a paper just submitted to Physical Review Letters, a team led by John Webb and Julian King from the University of New South Wales in Australia presents evidence that the fine-structure constant may not actually be constant after all. Rather, it seems to vary from place to place within the universe. If their results hold up to scrutiny they will have profound implications—for they suggest that the universe stretches far beyond what telescopes can observe, and that the laws of physics vary within it. Instead of the whole universe being fine-tuned for life, then, humanity finds itself in a corner of space where, Goldilocks-like, the values of the fundamental constants happen to be just right for it. ...

Climate-change assessment: Must try harder
02 09 2010 A call to reform the IPCC IF THIS week’s report into the workings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by a council of national academies of science were the sort of report children take home from school, its main themes would be expressed as “could do better” and “needs to show workings”. Stern parents might read it as calling for a Gradgrind-like clampdown; more indulgent ones as an inducement for the little darlings to try a little harder. At a meeting in Busan, South Korea, this October, the parents in question—the representatives of the IPCC’s member governments—will decide which sort they want to be. Read in detail, the report suggests that if they want credible climate assessments, a firm hand will be required. ...

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Discover / Technology


Discover Magazine \| Science, Technology, and The Future

Ad Depicts Google CEO as the Ice Cream Man From Your Nightmares | Discoblog
04 09 2010 Annoyed by Google’s revised stance on “net neutrality“? Pissed off by the company’s power to collect personal data in applications like Buzz (which can show others who you Gmail the most) and Street View (which shows the locations of cars and faceless people)? Worried about the news that a Street View project gone awry mistakenly [...]

Concrete Extremophile Bacteria = Walls That Repair Themselves | Science Not Fiction
04 09 2010 When William McDonough and other pioneers of the sustainable architecture movement first envisioned the concept of living, breathing buildings, it’s safe to say that they probably didn’t have structures teeming with actual living, breathing bacteria in mind. But don’t tell that to Henk Jonkers of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. What he and [...]

Coming Soon to Save Moore’s Law: Memristors | 80beats
02 09 2010 This week computer manufacturer HP announced it is teaming up with chip-maker Hynix to bring the first memristors, or memory resistors, to market within three years. Able to store information even without a source of power, memristors have been hailed as a way to keep up with Moore’s Law.Moore’s Law is that old adage, first [...]

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MSNBC / Technology / News

Texas opens inquiry into Google search results
03 09 2010 Google says Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is investigating whether its Web search rankings are fair.

Google settles Buzz privacy lawsuit
03 09 2010 Google has settled a lawsuit alleging privacy violations in connection with its Buzz social networking service, according to a court document filed on Friday.

Chinese satellites bump during secret maneuvers
03 09 2010 A Chinese satellite may have intentionally nudged another spacecraft during secretive space maneuvers in near-Earth orbit, according to analysts.

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Reason magazine / Science

The Hazards of Not Drinking
04 09 2010

This morning Radley Balko noted a new study, reported in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical andExperimental Research, that not only confirms the healthadvantage drinkers have over teetotalers but finds that even heavydrinkers tend to live longer than abstainers. The study, whichtracked 1,800 subjects for 20 years, beginning when they werebetween 55 and 65, is notable because it controlled for a long listof potential confounding variables, including socioeconomic status,past alcohol abuse, and pre-existing illness. "Even after adjustingfor all covariates," the researchers report, "abstainers and heavydrinkers continued to show increased mortality risks of 51 and 45%,respectively, compared to moderate drinkers." In other words,mortality among teetotalers was higher than mortalityamong heavy drinkers—a striking result, given the well-establishedhealth risks associated with excessive alcohol consumption.Time's JohnCloud and Slate's Brian Palmer discusspossible explanations for alcohol's health benefits, including itsimpact on HDL cholesterol, blood flow, stress, and socialintegration. In July I discussedthe perenially controversial treatment of alcohol's health benefitsin the federal government's Dietary Guidelines forAmericans, a new edition of which will be published soon. A2006 Reason Foundation study suggested thatdrinking has financial benefits as well. In 2008 I notedCloud's perceptive critique of "the all-or-nothing approach toalcohol."

Inconvenient Facts About Stem-Cell Research
04 09 2010 When he announced his policy expanding federal funding ofembryonic stem cell research, President Barack Obama was not timidabout proclaiming its benefits. It would, he announced, hasten "aday when words like 'terminal' and 'incurable' are finally retiredfrom our vocabulary." You thought Obama wanted to establish death panels? Actually, heseems to think he can confer immortality. That announcement, made in March of last year, dismantled thelimits imposed by the Bush administration. The change, in Obama'sview, was a triumph over ignorance and ideology. His executive order was, the president claimed, "aboutprotecting free and open inquiry" and letting scientists "do theirjobs, free from manipulation and coercion, and listening to whatthey tell us, even when it's inconvenient." When science wins, heled us to believe, we all win. Conspicuously absent from those declarations were facts thatObama would prefer to omit because they are—well, inconvenient. Butthose facts did not elude U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, whoon Monday said the revised policy violates federal law. What facts? A restriction approved by Congress in 1996, andrepeatedly renewed, says federal money may not be used for"research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed." Butthe point of Obama's new policy was to pay for experiments usingstem cells harvested from embryos that are killed in theprocess. The administration evaded the ban by stipulating that Washingtoncould fund such research as long as it didn't fund the part wherethe fetus is terminated. Judge Lamberth was not buying. Embryonic stem cell research, he noted, requires the destructionof embryos. The federal prohibition, he said, "encompassesall 'research in which' an embryo is destroyed, not justthe 'piece of research' in which the embryo is destroyed." So anyfunding of experiments using such stem cells is forbidden. Obama imagines that this research may make the word "terminal"obsolete—except, of course, when applied to the embryos that perishwhen their stem cells are taken for scientific inquiry. President George W. Bush's policy allowed research only on stemcell lines that had already been established. The idea was tofacilitate studies without creating incentives to destroyadditional embryos. Obama, by contrast, took the view that thedestruction of additional embryos (those "left over" at fertilityclinics) is essential to the march of science. What's wrong with destroying a 5-day-old embryo that would bediscarded anyway? Nothing, unless you think there is somethingwrong with killing a human embryo ostensibly for some greatergood. If there is nothing wrong with that, though, it's hard to seewhat's wrong with destroying an embryo that is 5 weeks old or 5months old, if its tissue could be used to help people who areseriously ill. In that case, why limit research to leftoverembryos? It would make more sense to let scientists create embryosand let them gestate for months, for the sole purpose of destroyingthem for their stem cells. Americans might bridle at that prospect, but proponents ofexpanded embryonic stem cell research have spared them from thecontemplation of such unpleasantness. Their campaign focuses onends, not means -- alleviating suffering, conquering disease,letting the blind see and the lame walk. Such advances are only speculative at this point. But theirallure is such as to discourage us from looking too closely at themethods needed to bring them about. It's easier to think in termsof excising tissue from blastocysts than in terms of killing humanembryos. In reality, they are the same thing. The problem with embryonic stem cell research is that the goalsare so desirable that they override our usual moral impulses. YuvalLevin, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center inWashington, wrote in 2006 in The New Atlantis, "It is veryhard for us to describe something higher than health, or moreimportant than the relief of suffering, so when relief comes at acost, even the cost of cherished principles or self-evident truths,we all too often pay up." The court decision against Obama's policy on stem cell researchis a rare exception, which may induce us to reconsider the wisdomof what we have sanctioned. "Our problem is not that we are lackingin ethical principles," says Levin, "but rather that we areforgetful of them." COPYRIGHT 2010 CREATORS.COM

North Carolina's Corrupted Crime Lab
04 09 2010 Greg Taylor served 16 years in prison after he was falselyconvicted of murdering a prostitute in Raleigh, North Carolina. Hewas releasedin February by a special three-judge panel after it wasdiscovered the blood police claimed to have found in his SUV wasn'tblood at all. In the wake of that debacle, North Carolina AttorneyGeneral Roy Cooper ordered two retired FBI agents to conduct aninvestigation on the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) crime lab.The report came out last week, and it is damning. The report found that SBI agents withheld exculpatory evidenceor distorted evidence in more than 230 cases over a 16-year period.Three of those cases resulted in execution. There was widespreadlying, corruption, and pressure from prosecutors and other lawenforcement officials on crime lab analysts to produce results thatwould help secure convictions. And the pressure worked. A stunningaccompanying investigation by the Raleigh News &Observer found that though the crime lab’s results werepresented to juries with the authoritativeness of science,laboratory procedures were geared toward just one outcome: putting as many people in prison as possible. The paperdiscovered an astonishingly frank 2007 training manual foranalysts, still in use as of last week, instructing researchersthat “A good reputation and calm demeanor also enhances ananalyst's conviction rate.” Defense attorneys, the manual warned,often “put words into the analyst's mouth to try and raiseinaccuracies.” The guide also instructs analysts to beware of“defense whores”—analysts hired by defense attorneys to challengetheir testimony. Forensic science in America is corrupted by a fundamentalconflict of interest. In far too many states, crime labs fall underthe auspices of law enforcement, usually reporting to the stateattorney general. A forensic analyst's real aim should be to followthe science, even if results prove disappointing to bosses who aretrying to secure convictions. But the pressure from prosecutors,even when it’s not overt (which it often is), produces bias even inthe work of the most fair-minded analysts. The relationships between SBI crime lab researchers and NorthCarolina prosecutors aren’t just cozy, they’re downright cuddly.The News & Observer reports that in one case twoblood-spatter specialists ran through multiple experiments in orderto produce even one that would make the blood patterns on adefendant's shorts support the prosecution's case. The two analystsare seen on video high-fiving after finally producing the desiredresult. For those clinging to the notion that analysis in a lawenforcement-managed laboratory can be independent, the newspaperuncovered prosecutor reviews of crime lab analysts indicating thecontrary. In 2003, for example, prosecutor Ann Kirby, wrote in areview of a drug analyst, "If Lisa Edwards gets any better on thewitness stand, the Johnston County defense bar is going to try andhave her banned from the county!" These weren't a few rogue analysts; the crime lab's problemsextend across a wide array of forensic disciplines. Until 1997, thelab's serology unit didn't release negative test results as amatter of policy. If tests showed that a substance that policeclaimed was blood wasn't in fact blood, analysts simply kept thoseresults to themselves. Greg Taylor was wrongly convicted precisely because of thispolicy. A substance that police falsely identified as blood wasfound in Taylor’s truck. But the field tests that police use tofind blood at a crime scene have a high margin for error. Moresophisticated lab tests showed that the substance wasn’t blood, buta SBI analyst testified at Taylor's innocence hearing thattechnicians were told to ignore these tests if they contradictedthe field-test results. In another case, an attorney for a woman accused of killing hermother was shocked to learn that the lab's DNA tests on blood foundat the crime scene matched his client. He called the lab and askedthem to retest. They refused. He was finally able to obtain a courtorder for a new test. It was negative. It turned out that a labtechnician had swapped the sample provided by his client with bloodtaken from the crime scene. The SBI crime lab scandal is only the most recent story offorensics malfeasance. In recent years there have been forensicsscandals in Virginia, Maryland, Mississippi,Oklahoma,Nebraska, California, Michigan,Texas, and at the FBI. And this is only a partiallist. At some point, it becomes sensible to conclude that thesescandals aren't the result of isolated bad actors, but of a systemthat produces them. Last year the National Academy of Sciences released a scathing report on the use of forensics in thecourtroom, finding systemic problems ranging from analystsroutinely overstating the implications of their test results, tothe widespread use of forensic specialties like bite-mark analysisthat have little basis in science at all. Most forensic disciplines were invented by police investigators,not scientists. Courts have allowed these disciplines to beadmitted into evidence before they've been subjected to any seriousscrutiny from the scientific community. The methods used in mostcrime labs disregard critical scientific principles such as blindtesting, competency testing, peer review, and statistical analysis.Yet when a forensic specialist testifies in the courtroom, histestimony usually carries the weight and veneer of actual science.(See here for somesuggested reforms.) North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper is a goodillustration of the political hurdles standing in the way of fixingany of these problems. Cooper deserves praise for ordering such acomprehensive investigation. It takes guts for a politican to riskbeing labeled “soft on crime,” especially a politician who is acurrent or former prosecutor. Still, Cooper was made aware of the problems in SBI as long agoas 2005, when he was pressed by local media and activists to lookinto how Floyd Brown, a developmentally disabled man who can'trecite the alphabet past the letter K, was able to articulate toSBI investigators a detailed confession about how he murdered anelderly woman in his neighborhood. Brown seved 14 years in a mentalinstitution before he was exonerated in 2007. Cooper didn't order an investigation into Brown's caseuntil last year, and even then only in the face of a lawsuit. And even after Cooper’s own damning report and the series offollow-on investigations by the News & Observer,Cooper is treating the SBI scandal as if it were a series ofisolated cases and not a systemic problem. Cooper told the paper hesees nothing wrong with lab researchers consulting with prosecutorsbefore performing their analysis, a practice proven to producebiased test results (SBI analysts are also discouraged fromconsulting with defense attorneys). He also objected to moving thecrime lab to a different government agency so that analystswouldn't be reporting to prosecutors, telling the News &Observer, "You don't want to hobble law enforcement byremoving key tools such as technology to prevent them from solvingcrime." No, you don't. But moving the lab wouldn't do that. Itwould merely prevent analysts from feeling they need to pleaseprosecutors by providing them with favorable test results. So will the lab at least open itself to peer review andobservation? John Watters, a 17-year veteran of North Carolina'sDepartment of Justice who, as the News & Observerreports, "fights requests for information not specifically listedin the discovery law that ensures that defense attorneys haveaccess to investigative reports," told the paper he'll resist anyeffort to allow outsiders to evaluate the lab's work. In fact, thelab banned outside observers in 2009. In a hearing the same year,Watters explained his reasoning:

"I'm telling you that the thing that concerns us most is theprecedent this would set, and the potential for harm...we've neverbeen a testing laboratory for the defendant. We are the state'slaboratory."

So long as government officials retain that mindset, we'llcontinue to see forensic scandals like the one currently unfoldingin North Carolina. Which means preventable mistakes will continueto send innocent people to prison, and allow guilty people toremain free. Radley Balko is a senior editor at Reason magazine.

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The Future of Things / Magazine


Online magazine dedicated to bringing original content on science, technology, and medicine from around the world. TFOT aims to provide comprehensive, accurate, and high quality coverage of emerging scientific and technological innovations.

Swine Flu Drug In Narcolepsy Probe
04 09 2010

"POTENTIAL link between swine flu vaccine and narcolepsy", ran the headlines last week reporting a spate of cases of the rare sleeping disorder in children. But anyone thinking of forgoing their regular flu vaccination as a result is being advised to think again. Reports of possible links between vaccines and illnesses often crop up because vaccines are so widely deployed. Over 30 million people across Europe received the Pandemrix swine flu vaccine in the past year.

Laser-powered Helicopter Hovers For Hours
04 09 2010

Lasers have recently shown they can down an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) - but they can also keep the drones up in the air. LaserMotive, based in Seattle, Washington, has kept a 22-gram model helicopter hovering for hours at a time on a few watts of laser power. LaserMotive won $900,000 from NASA last year by beaming power to a robot that climbed a 900-metre cable dangling from a full-scale helicopter. The technology could help power space elevators to lift objects thousands of kilometres.

Sony Take Out Google-powered Internet TV
04 09 2010

Sony's Internet TV is at IFA, demonstrating how Google TV might make your soccer-or football, rather-watching experience more interesting. No further details on the hardware side of things, but the UI looks polished, and more importantly, pretty useful. Stats-heavy programming like sports makes a great test scenario for the Google TV platform, allowing you to do the kind of surfing-while-watching you might attempt with a smartphone or laptop while watching a normal TV anyway.

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bioethics.net / News


Bioethics news from bioethics.net/American Journal of Bioethics

Social Networks Influence Health Behaviors
04 09 2010 Social networks may be good...or bad...for your health. It all depends on the behaviors your network is spreading. HT @k8ethics #bioethics

Childs Ordeal Shows Risks of Psychosis Drugs for Young
04 09 2010 Too Young, Too Many, Too Much--Are Psychiatric Drugs Costing Children Their Childhood?

First tests for stem cell therapy are near
02 09 2010 Optimism and angst surrounds stem cell trials as trials are stopped and started and funding is slashed.

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FirstScience / News

More 2007 meteor showers on the way!
03 09 2009 If you were disappointed that you missed the recent Perseid meteor shower, don�t fret there�s... _{-- Delivered by Feed43 service}

Can people be influenced by subliminal messages?
03 09 2009 Banned in many countries, it may have swung a US presidential election and could be the next big... _{-- Delivered by Feed43 service}

Chaos Theory Demystified
03 09 2009 Physics has been practised, in one form or another, for thousands of years. Throughout that... _{-- Delivered by Feed43 service}

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FirstScience / Technology / News


The latest articles on the science behind the innovations in technology that are transforming our lives from nanotechnology and genetics to computers and robots, on Firstscience.com

Whatever Happened to Virtual Reality?
03 09 2009 Virtual Reality is making a comeback! Twenty years after the first wave of hype, virtual reality... _{-- Delivered by Feed43 service}

Virtual You
03 09 2009 A digital human-image animation computer system under development at NASA's Jet Propulsion... _{-- Delivered by Feed43 service}

X-Ray Image of the Cosmos
03 09 2009 Scientists at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Centre have captured the first focused hard x-ray... _{-- Delivered by Feed43 service}

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Science magazine / News


Scientific news, commentary, and cutting-edge research

Ontario Scientists Retain Legislative Independence From Engineers
04 09 2010 OTTAWA—The Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) appears to have staved off legislation that would...

Creating Clearer Climate Computer Codes
04 09 2010 British software engineers Nick Barnes and David Jones have spent the past 3 years...

Podcast: Early Feasts, Mama's Boys, and an 'Impossible' Soccer Goal
04 09 2010 Listen to a roundup of some of our favorite stories from this week

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The Why Files / Articles


The Science Behind The News from the University of Wisconsin.

Farming in the city
03 09 2010 Urban farms are sprouting in the most unlikely places. Advocates say they help with nutrition, obesity and job training. They build community and help immigrants assimilate, cut energy usage, and cool the planet. But does the reality match the claims? Food is flowing, but what's new with farming in the city?

The Weather Guys: How can we determine how far away lightning is?
31 08 2010 How can we determine how far away lightning is? Make your own lightning Because of the vast differences in the speed of light and the speed of sound, the flash of lightning precedes the rumble of thunder. It takes sound waves five seconds to travel one mile, whereas the flash of lightning travels the same [...]

The Weather Guys: Would you explain the concept of heating degree-days?
27 08 2010 Would you explain the concept of heating degree-days? What do variations in heating degree days tell us? Each degree that the mean temperature is below 65 degrees F is one heating degree-day. So if today’s average temperature is 55 degrees F, the day accounts for 10 heating degree-days. Engineers determined that when the mean outdoor [...]

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