the-BA : Science News Digest

In the news this week: the EU funds stem cell research, stem cell research funds IVF treatment and online shopping funds a trip into space. Plus, electricity speeds up healing, extreme sports tire the heart and why elephants hate hills.

Following last week’s Presidential veto of government funding for human embryonic stem cell research in the US, on Tuesday the European Union agreed to continue funding the research on this side of the Atlantic, despite fervent opposition from some conservative member nations. The objections of countries including Germany and Italy, were dropped when the European commission gave its assurance that no EU funds would be used for the destruction of human embryos. Funding for this procedure, an essential part of stem cell research, will now have to be found outside the EU budget.

UK science minister Lord Sainsbury suggested that Europe’s comparatively liberal political environment might cause a ‘brain drain’ of US scientists to the UK. “If the US continues to take this very negative position I think within this field of regenerative medicine we will see scientists come from America and from other parts of the world, who would have gone to America, to the UK instead," he said in the Guardian.

In other embryology news, women undergoing IVF treatment are being offered the chance to halve the cost of the £3,500 procedure by donating some of their eggs for scientific research. The first ever license for such a scheme was approved by Britain’s fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, on Thursday, reports the Times. It will grant researchers at the North East England Stem Cell Institute in Newcastle permission to compensate women for eggs that will be used to create cloned embryos for stem cell research. The HFEA’s decision has proved controversial because it precedes a public consultation on the donation of eggs for research purposes, which is due to begin in September.
“It is a bit odd that you start a consultation and approve a licence before it starts. This is inconsistent with the stance of not paying for eggs for research,” said Peter Braude, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at King’s College London.

The number of experiments carried out on animals in British science labs has continued to rise according to figures released on Monday by the Home Office and reported in the Guardian. Nearly 2.9 million experiments were carried out on lab animals in 2005, a rise of roughly 1.4% from the previous year and the highest figure for 13 years.

The majority of experiments involved mice, rats and other rodents, while most of the remainder were on fish and birds. 4,650 procedures (less than 1% of the total) involved non-human primates, an increase of 11% from 2004.

The figures still represent a significant reduction on what was happening in the 1970s and are influenced by the number of animals which are used only for breeding genetically modified offspring. "The overall figure might seem large but when you analyse exactly the number of animals that have been put through severe procedures it is very, very, very small," said John Martin, director of the centre for vascular biology and medicine at University College London.

While we aren’t suggesting that you should stick your fingers in an electrical socket the next time you get a cut, it turns out that applying an electrical current to the skin has the potential to speed up the healing process, according to research published in the journal Nature and reported this week in New Scientist.

Josef Penninger of the Austrian Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in Vienna and Min Zhao of the University of Aberdeen have picked up on a phenomenon reported 150 years ago by German physiologist Emil Du Bois-Reymond, which indicates that natural electric fields play a vital role in healing wounds by attracting repair cells to damaged tissue. The researchers grew layers of mouse cells in the lab and, after “wounding” them, applied varying electric currents which were able to accelerate or completely halt the healing process depending on their orientation and strength.

Penninger and Zhao have also begun to reveal the mechanisms behind the effect by establishing that the expression of genes known to make repair cells migrate under the influence of chemical growth factors and attractants, can also be influenced by electric fields. The next step is to investigate ways of manipulating the phenomenon to accelerate healing.

Athletes carrying a particular type of ‘fitness’ gene are capable of pushing themselves so hard that they actually wear out their hearts, according to a team of researchers at Stanford University in California, who analysed the participants of a gruelling Scottish endurance race. Their study, reported by Nature News, used ultrasound to measure how well competitor’s hearts worked before the race and then re-tested them when they crossed the finish line, 480 kilometres and over 90 hours of running, cycling, swimming and kayaking later. The hearts of participants carrying the ‘fitness' gene, which is known to boost stamina and is more common among endurance athletes, tired out to a greater extent than those without, probably a result of the individuals’ ability to push themselves harder.

Although the results did not show that the drop in heart function is damaging, as the athletes' hearts returned to normal within a few days, they may give insights into diseases where the heart is over-exerted for long periods.

Not to be outdone by the launch of a prototype inflatable space hotel, reported previously in Science News Digest, another wealthy entrepreneur is reaching for the stars. New Scientist reports that Blue Origin, a company founded several years ago by Jeff Bezos, the billionaire CEO of online shopping website Amazon.com, has applied to build a launch site for its planned New Shepard space rocket, in scrubland 25 miles north of Van Horn, Texas.

A draft environmental assessment filed with the US Federal Aviation Authority reveals that the rocket will launch and land vertically, a method not used before by a spacecraft, with a flight lasting nearly 10 minutes and reaching an altitude of around 99,060 metres. A prototype rocket could make up to 10 sub-orbital test flights this year, while the real thing could begin commercial flights, taking passengers to the edge of space and back, as early as 2010.

In other science news:

Guardian science correspondent Alok Jha has been looking at the implications of global warming and scorching temperatures as the UK weather heats up.

BBC News reports on a new super-sticky plastic developed by defence firm BAE Systems and inspired by Gecko feet. Just one metre square of 'Synthetic Gecko' is enough to support the weight of a family car.

Europe’s largest pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline, claimed on Wednesday that it has created the most succesful vaccine so far against the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu and could have it ready for use by next year, reports the Independent.

A new study led by researchers at the University of Newcastle has shown that the homing ability of bumblebees allows them to navigate their way home over record distances of up to 8 miles, reports BBC News.

The Guardian reports that the rules governing drug safety trials using human subjects should be changed, according to The Expert Scientific Group, a committee set up to review drug trials in the aftermath of the Northwick Park Hospital incident.

And finally…

If you get exhausted climbing hills and would rather take a lift than use the stairs, just be glad you aren’t an elephant. A new study reported by Science suggests that the petulant pachyderms burn precious energy when climbing that they must replenish later by spending extra time foraging for food. Global positioning technology has revealed that, as a result, elephants consistently avoid all slopes with inclines over 33 degrees, even if this leaves lush vegetation just out of reach.

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