the-BA : ScienceNewsDigest

In this week's news...David Attenborough speaks out, cancer drug is to be available on the NHS, and a new way to combat those pounds...

David Attenborough this week spoke out about his views on climate change as he stated “People say, everything will be all right in the end. But it's not the case. We may be facing major disasters on a global scale”, despite previously being a sceptic on the matter. In an interview with one of Britain’s greatest wildlife experts in the Independent; Attenborough, who has seen with his own eyes the effects of climate change on the world around us, said that it has only been in the past decade that he has come to think about the question of whether or not the actions which he, or anybody else, has been doing, could have contributed to the change in the climate of the planet that is undoubtedly taking place.

Climate change models have dramatically underestimated the extent to which global warming will raise temperatures, scientists warned yesterday. The Guardian stated that existing predictions are flawed meaning that temperature rises could be up to 2c higher than was previously thought.

What exactly are complimentary medicines and should the public really be funding their use was the question being asked in the Independent this week. Acupuncturists, herbalists and homoeopaths have been battling to defend their place in the NHS yesterday after doctors advised they be ditched. Complementary therapists rejected demands that their treatments go under the same scrutiny as orthodox medicine and insisted patients should have the right to choose. The row was triggered when the group of 13 doctors, including Sir James Black, winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1988, sent a letter to all NHS trusts calling on them to stop paying for complementary medicine and use the money saved for conventional treatments.

The first full British survey calculating the actual amount of CO2 produced by our households has just been carried out. The survey commissioned by British Gas, examined all 386 British local authorities, looking at energy consumed in terms of electricity, gas and solid fuel, and converting that to a CO2 equivalent. As featured in the Independent, the results showed that areas of affluence are the worst performers as it appears that people who have more money, spend more on energy. It showed that the difference between the areas of the UK with low domestic CO2 emissions and those producing high emissions is staggering, perhaps implying that those with more than adequate incomes see no need to save on energy.

Wonder drug Herceptin will now be available on the NHS much to the delight of cancer sufferers across the country as said in the Guardian this week. Trials of the drug in early stage breast cancer showed that after four years 85.3% of women given Herceptin were alive and cancer-free, compared with 67.1% of women given other drugs. There was a much smaller difference, of around 4.8%, in the survival rate. A number of women have fought primary care trusts which refused to pay for Herceptin until they were given the green light. Breast Cancer Care said there should be no reason for doctors not to prescribe it.

A code of conduct is to be set up due to a concern over the creation of new life forms says the Guardian this week. A coalition of environmental groups, trade unions and ethicists are warning that experiments with viruses and microbes are not being policed properly and could lead to the creation of dangerous new organisms, and even give terrorists the materials for biological weapons. Synthetic biologists said they welcomed the call for openness and said they were open to legislation when it was thought necessary.

In a turn of events, a drug used to treat insomnia has helped temporarily rouse three men who were each in a vegetative state following motor accidents, researchers claim. A drug named zolpidem activates dormant cells in the brain, a discovery that came about accidentally states New Scientist. However experts have challenged that the patients may not have been in a permanent vegetative state and that the patients perhaps may have shown signs of natural recovery.

The BBC stated this week concerns wildlife experts are having over the effects the drought conditions will have on UK flora and fauna. With two consecutive dry winters, the rainfall in England and Wales over the past 18 months have been the second lowest since 1976. As the wetlands are becoming unsuitable to attract birds, 2006 could be one of the wost breeding seasons on record say the RSPB.

High demand of a product used in a vast number of everyday products could lead to the extinction of the orangutan according to researchers this week. The Independent stated that Palm Oil is used in everything from Shampoo to biscuits. The burning of vast areas of virgin forest to supply the world's growing demand for palm oil has lead to the deaths of around 5,000 orangutans, with the situation made even worse by the building of new roads for access, opening up the jungle for poachers who kill orangutan mothers and sell their babies as pets to Asian families.

And finally…………

You really do need your beauty sleep! According to researchers a good nights sleep may well keep you slim as stated on BBC news online this week. The study has been the largest to track the effects of sleep habits on weight gain over a long period of time. They found women who slept five or fewer hours a night were a third more likely to put on at least 33lbs (15kg) than sound sleepers during that time. So a good nights sleep not only keeps you refreshed but may help you lose a few pounds too. I’m off for snooze………….zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

	Home

	News

	Science News Digest

	Science News Digest Archive

	The BA Science News Digest Survey