the-BA : Science News Digest - 10 December 2006

Image of gorilla (copyright: istockphoto.com)

In the news this week: photographs suggest water flowed recently on Mars, Brazilian rainforest gets protected status and Ebola coupled with hunting threatens western gorillas with extinction. Plus, bio-bling takes personalised jewellery to a whole other level…

BBC News reported that images taken by NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft suggest water may have flowed recently on the surface of Mars. Two gullies were photographed in 1999 and 2001 and then again in 2004 and 2005. Comparison of the images show changes consistent with recent water activity, although some scientists believe the gullies could have been caused by liquid carbon dioxide.

In related news, reported in the Guardian, NASA announced plans to build a permanent moon base within 20 years. It would be the first permanent human presence on an extraterrestrial body, and would be used as a site from which to launch missions to Mars as well as analyse the Earth’s oceans and ice caps.

Meanwhile, Britain’s fourth ever astronaut finally headed towards the International Space Station on the space shuttle Discovery, following two days of delays due to bad weather. It was the first night launch since the Columbia disaster in 2003, reported BBC News.

A global analysis of ocean productivity using nearly a decade of satellite data has revealed that tropical and sub-tropical fish stocks are in decline because of global warming. This concurs with previous computer model predictions. The findings, published in Nature and reported in the Guardian, revealed that microscopic phytoplankton – the plants on which almost the whole ocean food chain depends, according to Duncan Purdie, a plankton expert at the National Oceanography centre in Southampton – scale down their production by 30 per cent or more in some ocean regions in response to rising temperatures, resulting in a knock-on effect for the rest of the food chain.

The Times contained news of Prince Charles’ pledge to minimise his contribution to global warming by cutting the number of domestic and international flights he takes. He also launched an initiative, backed by the Prime Minister and religious leaders, to encourage environmental accounting by businesses – where company accounts include details of environmental impact in terms of carbon footprints and effect on biodiversity.

Gordon Brown’s Pre-Budget Report contained a range of environmentally-related measures. These included doubling air passenger taxes, taking them to 10 pounds for economy flights within Europe and 40 pounds for long-haul economy flights to destinations outside Europe, reported the Times. Mr Brown said the increase would reduce carbon dioxide emissions from aviation by 1.1 million tonnes a year, although environmental groups were dismissive about the impact the tax would have. The Times also reported the announcement by the Chancellor of an exemption to stamp duty (for at least three years) for newly-built carbon-neutral housing.

A worldwide research effort to protect the world’s food supply from the detrimental impact of climate change was launched this week by an international consortium of scientists. Some 200 million pounds per year will go towards funding the development of crops that can withstand heat and drought, and finding more efficient farming techniques that will make better use of threatened soil and water supplies, reported the Guardian.

The Daily Telegraph reported that vast tracts of the Brazilian rainforest have been given protected status in an effort to curb the deforestation that threatens the Amazon. It has already lost 18 per cent of its tree cover and is disappearing at a phenomenal rate. Now segments of land in the northern Para state, which together amount to 15 million hectares (an area bigger than Portugal, Denmark and Switzerland combined), have been declared protected by the local government, although some logging can still occur legally provided the majority of forest is conserved. The area in question is home to endangered species such as the jaguar, the giant anteater and the black spider monkey.

In other news, the BBC reported that more than 5,000 African gorillas may have died as a result of contracting the Ebola virus in the Republic of Congo and Gabon. The virus causes severe internal and external bleeding and results in the death of up to 90 per cent of those infected. Since first recorded in 1976, Ebola has killed at least 1,200 people, and it is also blamed for many chimpanzee deaths. The recent study, published in the journal Science, indicates that the virus was transmitted directly from group to group of the endangered animals, and appeared to be spreading faster than in humans. Scientists warn that the added threat of commercial hunting may push the gorillas to extinction.

The largest and longest-running investigation into the effects of long-term mobile phone use has found they do not cause cancer. 420,000 mobile phone users in Denmark were followed for up to 21 years. The study found no increase in any of the forms of cancer that have been suggested as a potential hazard of mobile phone use, reported the Times.

However, scientists do believe that excess weight causes 3.8 per cent of cancers, and Cancer Research UK issued a warning this week that the obesity epidemic in Britain may result in 12,000 cases of weight-related cancer every year by 2010, reported the Guardian. Research in America revealed being obese (classified as having a body mass index of between 30 and 35), increases the risk of dying from cancer by a third. More than a fifth of men and a quarter of women in the UK are clinically obese and the number of obese children has tripled in the past 20 years.

"It is now well established that being overweight increases the risk of developing several types of cancer,” said Tim Key, an expert on cancer and diet at Cancer Research UK. “The effects on breast and womb cancer are almost certainly due to the increased production of the hormone oestrogen in the fatty tissue. We are less sure of the precise mechanisms in other obesity-related cancers, but we can confidently predict that the number of these cases will increase unless the rise in obesity in Britain can be reversed."

And finally…

It may not be your idea of romance, but couples are being given the chance to exchange rings made from their own bone grown in a laboratory. The biojewellery is part of a collaboration between scientists and artists attempting to craft complex forms from bone tissue, reported BBC News. The material is grown on scaffold material in a laboratory from bone cells obtained from wisdom teeth. Eventually the technique could provide people who need bone replacements with large bits of bone, until then, it could provide an unusual way to say, “I love you.”