the-BA : Science News Digest

Dolphin (Image copyright: istockphoto.com)

In the science news this week: stress is bad for your memory, drinking a cuppa could help combat anthrax, and shape-changing robots that team up and save lives. Plus, the dophin that carried out a rescue operation to save beached whales…

7-16 March was National Science and Engineering Week, and there were lots of stories in the media relating to this.

As part of the week, the public could pose their Big Questions to the nation’s scientists and engineers on the Big Question Blog. In a related piece, the Times Magazine set out to answer some of the fundamental questions of life, the universe and everything with the help of nine of the country’s leading scientists. Read the article to find out what they had to say in response to questions that included: ‘Can we live forever?’, ‘Is there going to be a pandemic?’, ‘Can we save the planet?’, ‘When will robots do the housework?’ and ‘What is going on in teenagers’ brains?’
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Those of you wishing to know ‘when’ the world might end may also wish to check out this article in the Times. It reported that astronomers from Sussex University and the University of Guanajuato in Mexico have calculated that the Earth will probably be swallowed up by the dying Sun in 7.6 billion years. The researchers think that the atmosphere and water will disappear a lot sooner but since their predictions for that are still a billion years away I wouldn’t worry too much.
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A number of the questions asked on the Big Question Blog relate to whether extraterrestrials exist. Five experts working in integrative vertebrate biology, space medicine, robotics, astrophysics and at the Natural History Museum, gathered to discuss where they thought the most likely place to find alien life in our solar system might be and what the lifeforms might look like. Allowing their imaginations to roam, whilst basing their ideas on science, they came up with a dark underwater world on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, full of glowing jelly creatures such as giant jelly whales and ice spiders. Read more about their thought processes and ideas on the BA website and in the Telegraph.
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Later in the week, the Telegraph reported that vast amounts of water and simple organic molecules that are precursors of the building blocks of life have been found around the star AA Tauri. Located 450 light years away, the very young star is thought to be similar to our Sun. The evidence for the materials comes from analysis by Nasa’s Spitzer Space Telescope of the infra red light sent out by the disk of dust and gas that is forming planets around the star.

In related research, a team at Imperial College London have discovered that two ancient meteorites that crashed to Earth millions of years ago contained high concentrations of amino acids – the basis of proteins and enzymes.

‘We know that approximately 3.8 to 4.5 billion years ago the Earth underwent heavy bombardment from meteorites which brought molecules to our planet, just before life emerged on Earth,’ commented lead researcher, Dr Zita Martins. ‘Our work has shown that it may have been meteoritic amino acids and biologically useful compounds that spurred life into existence.’
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The Daily Mail reported on a £4.6 million experiment to create ‘the first real-life Transformers’. The EU-funded Symbion project, announced to mark National Science and Engineering Week, will attempt to build swarms of tiny robots the size of sugar cubes that can move around autonomously, communicate, and assemble themselves into larger intelligent machines. The robots could prove useful for medicine, space exploration and in search and rescue missions.

Professor Alan Winfield, a member of the team from the University of the West of England, said: ‘The robots have functionality on their own, but they can also combine together or adapt and change as the situation requires. Once the robots come together they will be more versatile – like a colony of cells such as those found in a jelly fish or a sponge. The different robots will cooperate to create the larger organism. In a sponge even if there is damage to some parts, the overall organism still survives. In this way the artificial robotic organisms might in theory become self-configuring, self-healing and self-optimising from both hardware and software perspectives.’
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Also launched this week was the Magical Memory Tour mass participation project. As reported in the Sunday Times, psychologists at Leeds University would like people to share their Beatles-related memories to help increase the scientific understanding of human memory, including how musical memories can shape a person’s identity.

Professor Martin Conway, who is overseeing the study with Dr Catriona Morrison, said: ‘One of the things we hope to analyse are which Beatles cues trigger the most memories and why? Is it a song, album or news event? Does this memory depend upon the age you were when the memory event occurred or is it more closely related to how strongly you feel about the Beatles or the memory itself?’

If you would like to contribute to what is hoped will be the biggest database of ‘autobiographical memories’ ever attempted, you can post your thoughts on the Magical Memory Tour website, where you can also view other people’s memories of the Fab Four. Participants should think about the first thing that comes to mind from their life that is related to the Beatles, whether about a particular album, song, news story or even band member.
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In other news, the Telegraph reported that neuroscientists have discovered that a chemical released in response to acute stress disrupts the formation and processing of memories.

Conducting their studies using mice and rats, the researchers found that stress-induced release of corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) in the brain’s primary learning and memory centre, the hippocampus, led to the rapid disintegration of synapses (junctions between brain cells crucial to memory collection and storage). Blocking the action of CRH prevented the learning and memory damage associated with stress.

Lead author, Dr Tallie Baram, of the University of California, said: ‘Stress is a constant in our lives and cannot be avoided. Our findings can play an important role in the current development of drugs that might prevent these undesirable effects, and offer insights into why some people are forgetful or have difficulty retaining information during stressful situations.’
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Scientists in the US revealed that they have identified 25 genes that influence lifespan in yeast and the commonly studied roundworm C. elegans, at least 15 of which have similar versions in humans. Interestingly, several of the genes are connected to the way the body responds to food. Previous studies have found that dietary restriction – limiting calorie intake – can both prolong lifespan and reduce the incidence of age-related illnesses.

The scientists hope that it will be possible to target some of these genes in the future to improve not only lifespan but also the ‘health span’ of individuals, so that they can remain healthy and free of age-related diseases for longer.
(The Telegraph)
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The Guardian reported that gene therapy has proven effective at treating mice suffering from spinocerebellar ataxia. The neurodegenerative condition is in the same family as Huntingdon’s disease, raising hopes that a similar approach could also be used to treat it.

A disabled form of the HIV virus was used to deliver the gene for the CRAG protein into the brain – injections were used to target delivery to affected areas. CRAG is naturally present in brain cells and is able to destroy the abnormal repeats in the genome that cause the progressive condition that leads to uncoordinated movement and speech, as well as vision and swallowing problems. In the study using mice, the Japanese researchers observed that the treatment led to a marked improvement in the animals’ symptoms of uncoordinated movement.

Although the research is promising, before a human version of treatment for either disease would be viable, safe delivery of genes would need to be established – currently there is concern that genes could insert in the wrong parts of the human genome, disrupting healthy genes and potentially leading to other problems such as cancer.
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The Telegraph reported that tea could be a helpful bioterrorism countermeasure as it can act as an antidote to anthrax, thanks to its high polyphenol content.

Team leader Professor Les Baillie of the Welsh School of Pharmacy, Cardiff University, revealed that the tea works against the anthrax bacterium, Bacillus antracis, when it has germinated and is causing an infection. He said, ‘You can drink enough to have an effect.’ However, the tea would need to be drunk black since milk inhibits its activity against anthrax. The team is also now testing the effects of tea on antibiotic resistant superbugs.
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Tawainese scientists reported in the journal Science that water stored around the world in reservoirs has stopped global sea levels rising by more than three centimetres in the past 50 years.

According to the article in the Telegraph, scientists have been struggling to explain the current rate at which sea level is rising. This new study suggests that attempts to account for it are even further off the mark than previously thought and it seems that ice melt or the thermal expansion of ocean water are contributing more than realised to the 1.8 mm annual rise in sea level.
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Putty-nosed monkeys living in Nigeria have been found to have a linguistic ability that has intriguing similarities to human speech. Their use of different combinations of calls to communicate different meanings is believed to be one of the first experimental demonstrations of rudimentary language ability in wild animals. They are able to convey their identity, what they have seen and whether they intend to flee, by combining different types of alarm call.
(Read more in the Independent)
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And finally…

The heart-warming tale of a friendly dophin who rescued a couple of beached whales.

When two pygmy sperm whales became stranded on a beach in New Zealand a group of people, including conservation officer Malcolm Smith, tried for an hour and a half to get them back to sea. But to no avail.

Both the whales and humans were tired and set to give up when, drawing inevitable comparisons with TV star Flipper, the bottlenose dolphin known to locals as Moko showed up. He came to the aid of the flagging whales and led them safely out to sea.

Mr Smith told the BBC, ‘I don’t speak whale and I don’t speak dophin, but there was obviously something that went on because the two whales changed their attitude from being quite distressed to following the dolphin quite willingly and directly along the beach and straight out to sea.’ He added, ‘She really did save the day.’