the-BA : Science News Digest

Spring: better late than never? (Copyright: iStockPhoto.com)

In the news this week, the Chancellor’s “green” budget, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s thoughts on creationism and the dangers of watching Davina...

Chancellor of the Exchequer and would-be Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week announced details of his tenth Budget. After much speculation about whether this would be a “green” budget, the Chancellor announced a series of measures, including a (small) increase in the vehicle excise duty on gas-guzzlers and money for micro-generation technologies. But did he go far enough?

Richard Black, Environment Correspondent for BBC News Online analyses the Budget. As he points out, the Budget received a mixed welcome. But he quotes Greenpeace UK's executive director Stephen Tindale as saying: "This Budget may be the first sign that we're about to get a Prime Minister who acts on climate change instead of just talking about it."

Tindale was not the only person to attack Tony Blair’s green credentials this week. Radiohead star Thom Yorke revealed that he had been invited to Downing Street last September in his role as ambassador for Friends of the Earth. But as the Guardian reports, Yorke turned down the invitation, dismissing Tony Blair as a man with "no environmental credentials" and saying that ‘dealing with Labour spin doctors had made him feel ill.’

More alarming climate change news came at the end of the week (every week needs at least one doomsday scenario, after all). As the Daily Telegraph reports, London is just one area of Britain which could see itself drowned unless major steps are taken to curb carbon dioxide emissions this century.

Some times, it seems that we just can’t help ourselves. The UN this week said that humans are responsible for the worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs, as PeopleandPlanet.net reports.

A couple of years ago, the BA, together with the Woodland Trust, ran “Spring into Science” as part of National Science Week, looking for signs of spring as they appeared across the UK. The results seemed to support the belief that spring is arriving earlier and earlier, affected by climate change. Not this year, though, as the Times reports...

‘Spring bulbs that would usually have caused thousands of flower beds to burst into colour last month have been delayed by up to six weeks because of the unusually cold winter, leaving many gardeners to guess whether spring, marked by [Monday’s] equinox, has really sprung.’

But at last, as mild weather moves in this weekend, it seems like spring has finally arrived.

Creationism was back in the news this week as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, came out as saying that he does not believe it should be taught in schools, as the Guardian reported.

The following day, the Telegraph reported that Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, also joined the debate, saying he was "totally opposed" to creationism. ‘Mr Clarke, who said that he did not believe in God, insisted that science was the basis for progress and praised Charles Darwin as one of the greatest scientists in history.’

Some good news at last about bird flu. It seems our fears over how bid flu might become the next human pandemic may have been overrated. New Scientists reports this week that scientists have identified why the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus proves so deadly and yet so difficult to transmit between humans...

‘[Scientists have] concluded that poor binding of the H5N1 high in the respiratory tract might be why the virus has so far not been able to spread easily between people – a major factor keeping it from becoming pandemic.’

And finally, if you’ve been holed up at home this winter, gorging on a diet of Davina and Eastenders, beware: researchers have identified a link between watching soaps and chat shows and declining mental capacity.

As ConsumerAffairs.com reports, the research was looking at the TV viewing habits of elderly women. However, the researchers say it isn’t clear whether watching these shows causes the dip in brainpower, or whether people with weaker cognitive abilities simply find these shows appealing.

I wonder... could that be why I find Richard & Judy’s “You Say, We Pay” so challenging these days?

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