the-BA : Science News Digest - 19 September 2008

Artwork - effective at distracting from physical pain? (image copyright: istockphoto.com/Sasha Martynchuk)

In the science news this week: the pain distraction benefits of art, an ant 'from Mars' and out-of-body experiences are put to the test...

If you weren’t able to attend the BA Festival of Science, you can catch up on some of what you missed by reading the Festival news stories.

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A number of talks from the Festival generated a lot of media attention, some of which was continuing a week on. One of these was an event that asked whether creationism could or should be dealt with in school science lessons.

Reverend Professor Michael Reiss, speaking as the Royal Society’s Director of Education, put forward the view that teachers should be prepared to discuss creationism in lessons. He told the Festival that around one in 10 British schoolchildren come from families with creationist beliefs. He said that, while a school biology teacher, he had ‘previously been rather evangelical about teaching evolution, trying to change pupils’ minds’ but that he had come to realise that this approach was unlikely to change the minds of pupils with strong creationist views, and that rather than dismiss creationism as wrong or stupid, teachers should be prepared to discuss it as another ‘worldview’.

He clarified his comments by adding that ‘science teachers discussing creationism as a "worldview"… is not the same as lending it any scientific credibility.' He also stressed that he was not suggesting that creationism be taught in science classes, merely discussed. ‘Creationism has no scientific basis,’ the Daily Mail quoted him as saying. ‘However, when young people ask questions about creationism in science classes, teachers need to be able to explain to them why evolution and the Big Bang are scientific theories but they should also take the time to explain how science works and why creationism has no scientific basis.’

Speaking to the Guardian, he said he believed ‘in taking seriously and respectfully the concerns of students who do not accept the theory of evolution, while still introducing them to it’. He added: ‘While it is unlikely that this will help students who have a conflict between science and their religious beliefs to resolve the conflict, good science teaching can help students to manage it – and to learn more science.’

However, Professor Reiss’s message was distorted in some areas of the media and a number of eminent scientists reacted to his remarks (as reported) by calling for him to stand down. The Royal Society later issued a statement saying that Professor Reiss’s comments had been open to misinterpretation and, while unintentional, this had led to damage to the Society’s reputation. As a result of this, they said Professor Reiss and the Royal Society had agreed that, in the best interests of the Society, he would step down immediately from his position as Director of Education.

In response, a number of other scientists stated their support for Professor Reiss, including the BA’s Chief Executive, Roland Jackson, who said the interest created should have been used as an opportunity to further a reasoned debate.

‘This individual was arguing that we should engage with and address public misconceptions about science - something that the Royal Society should applaud,’ commented Professor Robert Winston, Professor of Science and Society at Imperial College London.
(Read more at BBC News)

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Looking at beautiful art could serve as a distraction from physical pain, according to a small scale study conducted by researchers at the Neurophysiopathology Pain Unit at the University of Bari, Italy. 12 randomly picked student volunteers – six female and six male – were asked to pick the 20 paintings they considered most ugly and most beautiful from a selection of 300 works of art. The selection included paintings by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent Van Gogh. The volunteers were then asked to look at either the ugly or beautiful paintings, or a blank panel, while their hand was zapped with a short laser pulse – which created pin prick sensation.

The level of pain reported was a third less intense when the person had viewed beautiful paintings, compared to the ugly ones or blank canvas, and brain activity confirmed the reduced response to pain.
(Read more in the Telegraph)

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A new species of ant has been discovered in the Amazon rainforest, reported the Times. Named Martialis heureka – meaning 'eureka ant from Mars' – because of its strange appearance and the fact that the single specimen was found five years after the first suspected specimens had been lost (hence the eureka, 'I've found it', epithet), it is the first new, living species of ant to have been discovered since 1923.

The insect is pale, blind and lives in the soil, growing to between 2 to 3mm long. Analysis of its morphology and DNA has revealed that it doesn't belong to any of the 20 previously known sub-families of ant and suggest it split off from the main lineage of ants soon after they evolved from wasps over 120 million years ago.

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The first apparent picture of a planet circling a star like our own Sun has been obtained by Canadian astronomers using the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii. Most previous exoplanet examples imaged to date have been orbiting brown dwarfs.

Whereas the most distant planet in our Solar System orbits the Sun at around 30 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun, the new planetary candidate lies about 330 times this distance from its parent star. If confirmed, this could challenge current theories of star and planet formation, reported BBC News.

Lead researcher, David Lafreniere, said: 'This is the first time we have directly seen a planetary mass object in a likely orbit around a star like our Sun. If we confirm that this object is indeed gravitationally tied to the star, it will be a major step forward.'

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Scientists have revealed that differences in political leanings correlate with psychological traits. They found that 'nervous' people who were sensitive to sudden noises and threatening images were more likely to have conservative beliefs, whereas those who demonstrated lower physiological reactions to the same stimuli were more likely to be liberal and support things such as foreign aid, liberal immigration policies, pacifism and gun control.

46 volunteers with strong political beliefs were asked their opinions on a wide variety of controversial social and international issues. They were then given a laboratory test where electrical skin conductance was used to measure distress and arousal in response to frightening stimuli. Of 33 images they were shown, three were distressing or threatening: a large spider on the face of a frightened person; a dazed person with a bloody face; and maggots in an open wound.

A second laboratory test then tested their involuntary blinking startle response to a loud, unexpected noise.

The researchers, whose work was published in the journal Science, considered it likely that 'physiological responses to generic threats and political attitudes on policies related to protecting the social order may both derive from a common source'. It seems likely that genetic differences in brain activity may affect the bodily responses and political opinions. As the Times observed, 'a strong role for biology may explain why people change their core beliefs so rarely'.

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And finally…

Scientists are hoping to settle the debate as to whether out-of-body experiences actually occur or are simply false memories once and for all.

A coalition of British and US scientists will study more than 1,500 heart attack patients in 25 participating hospitals over the next three years to determine whether those who say they departed their body while clinically dead 'physically' left themselves behind, or simply imagined it during their resuscitation. To ascertain this, reports the Independent, pictures will be placed around hospital areas where heart attacks occur most frequently, in positions that will only be visible from above. If resuscitated patients are able to later describe the images, scientists will have to rethink their understanding of the mind, say project leaders.