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This week in European sciences -- week 46 |
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Overview
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One Year After the Tanker Prestige Disaster At the anniversary
of the catastrophe of sunken oil tanker Prestige near the Spanish coast
FAZ sends his Madrid correspondent Paul Ingendany to the seaside for a
report (November
13, 2003). It is depressing because the government blocks information,
Igendany got relevant information mostly from unnamed sources, including
scientists who refused seeing their names in the media. Ingendany concludes
that "the bare truth is that one year after the disaster Spain is
not better prepared to react to coming catastrophes than before."
The government claims to put huge efforts into research of, for instance,
ecological recovery, but as an unnamed scientist told "Science is
only cosmetics. They pay for being silent." |
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Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung |
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Tim Radford,
science editor with the Guardian, presents his all-time favourites in
science scams (November
13, 2003). They go back to 1726 when German Johann Beringer of Würzburg
found outside the Bavarian town Würzburg fossils (rank
7). He wrote a book, but the finds "had been planted fraudulently
by spiteful colleagues" and are now known as 'lying stones' (Lügensteine).
Another German, Jan Henrik Schön, made up the results himself (rank
5). The rising star in Physics at the Bell Laboratories, U.S.,
fraudulently tuned his research in molecular electronics, which was uncovered
last year. Other scams follow Radford's British view: (1)
The Piltdown man mystery - a faked missing link between humans and its
primate ancestors, found 1912, revealed 1953. (2)
The 1971 'discovered' stone age tribe in the Philippines, the Tasaday,
made the cover of National Geographic. Revealed after dictator Marcos
fled in 1986. (3) The crop circles
in wheat fields in southern England. (4)
Fraudulent studies in the inheritance of IQ by a British research. The
claimed and 'proved' inheritance is still an open question. (6)
The film of an autopsy on an alien which crashed earth in Roswell, U.S.
(8) Different approaches for a perpetual
motion machine. (9) Distortion of
science in agriculture by Soviet biologist Lysenko. And finally (10),
the faked production of the heavy ion elements 116 and 118. |
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The
Guardian |
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Science's Latest Hype: Neuromarketing and The Label-Brain The question
is old: When we get in the supermarket, why do we choose Coke and not
Pepsi? Over the last years, brain researchers tried to come up with an
answer. It's called 'neuromarketing' and accuses different regions in
our brain to determine us in buying more Coke or Pepsi. In die Zeit (November
13, 2003), Ulrich Schnabel writes about this new trend in neuroscience.
His judgement: The state of knowledge is rather low. By using magnetic
resonance imaging only, for instance, one can't determine if someone is
laughing or crying. Bad news for the marketing. |
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Die
Zeit |
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Ever wondered
where the plastic bottles end up that you dutifully take to the recycling
bin? Well, it's not unlikely that they will be engraved with Madonna's
latest album or Beethoven's 9th, writes Alessio Balbi in La Repubblica
(November
12, 2003). The Japanese manufacturer Ricoh has experimented with recycled
plastic for manufacturing CDs and found that it's perfectly feasible to
turn old plastic bottles into containters of music and entertainment.
In this way, the environmentally friendly company hopes to cut production
costs and also to attract more ecologically minded customers. That CDs
should become cheaper as a result of recycling is unlikely, though. Already
today, the production costs for a CD are as low as a few cents, the retail
price being determined by other factors. |
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La
Repubblica |
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What About the Risks of Nanotech? In a study
published this week, the German bureau of technology assessment (TAB),
an advisory body of the parliament, draws a rather positive picture of
nanotechnology in Germany. Besides the U.S. and Japan, Germany is one
of the top global players in nanotech research, writes Christian Schwägerl
in FAZ (November 12, 2003). The study
shows that nanotech has a broad potential in very diverse research areas
such as functional surfaces and materials, energy production, warfare,
sensors and life sciences. Anyway, two warnings are given: There is already
a lack of studies on possible risks of nano particles for the environment
and human health and also on their production and use. "Addressing
the risks and safety issue is mandatory for receiving full benefit of
the great economic potential of nanotechnology", writes Schwägerl.
Second, to keep the lead in nanotech research it is seen as an obstacle
by the ministry of research (BMBF) to cut down funding. This year, BMBF
spends 89 million euros on nano materials. |
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Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung |
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Faith and Healing: Can Religion Improve Your Health? There is
some debate ongoing in the U.S. whether religion may affect people's health,
reports Claudia Kalb in a cover story of Newsweek (November
10, 2003). Over the past decade researchers have conducted hundreds
of studies to find any medical benefit for the beliefers: Can religion
slow cancer or reduce depression? Or speed recovery from surgery? Today,
the scientific community is still devided: "Some scientists believe
that religion has no place in medicine and that steering patients toward
spiritual practice can do more harm than good", writes Kalb. Others
believe that there is growing evidence in religion’s positive health effects
"and that keeping spirituality out of the clinic is irresponsible".
Even the National Institutes of Health (NIH) asked researchers earlier
this year to definitively assess the state of the faith-and-health question.
One of the results as pointed out by Kalb: "People who regularly
attend church have a 25 percent reduction in mortality - that is, they
live longer - than people who are not churchgoers." |
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Newsweek |
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Does Swedish Police Illegally Use Biobank Register? The Swedish police's potentially illegal use of the PKU-register continues to occupy the media. Per Snaprud gives an account of the troubles the register finds itself in Dagens Nyheter (November 9, 2003). Hundreds of people have demanded that their samples are removed from the register. Many are angry that they never got to know that the police had no qualms of using the stored material without consent. These events have also put the register's so far doubtful scientific merits into the spotlight. It is clear that individual newborns benefit from the tests, but so far the stored blood samples have not been used much in research. In the 28 years of its existence only 12 papers have made use of the stored blood samples. The benefits of such registers might only materialize in the future. Until then, so Mats Hansson, docent for medical ethics at Uppsala University, ethical and legal rules have to be clear so that confidence in research can be maintained. He mentions Iceland's deCode Genetics as a model: the genetic data stored in the company cannot be coupled to individuals. The information necessary to connect an individual to the genetic data is held in a public authority. Ringing
of birds is a low-tech, but nonetheless vital and useful research
tool in ornithology. Åke Ekdahl reports from Ottenby bird observatory
on the Baltic island of Öland and the Ringing Center at Stockholm's Museum
of Natural History how the analysis of recovery data can provide insights
into the responses of migrants to global environmental change (November
8, 2003). Every year, around 100,000 birds are ringed in Sweden and approximately
3000 ringing recoveries are reported from all over Europe and Africa.
The recoveries supply basic information on migratory flyways, the life
expectancy of birds, their causes of death and population dynamics and
may thus guide conservation efforts. |
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Dagens
Nyheter |
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Overactive Nerve May Cause Migraine, Research Suggests Approximately
10 to 12 percent of all Swedes suffer from migraine. Inger Atterstam reports
in Svenska Dagbladet (November
9, 2003) on new strategies to combat this very unpleasant and painful
disease. Ten years ago, the treatment of migraine was revolutionized through
the introduction of triptan drugs. This class of drugs counteracts the
abnormal expansion of blood vessels in the brain, which were supposed
to be the cause of the agonizing attacks. New research shows that overactivity
of the trigeminus nerve may the underlying cause of migraine. This hypothesis
can also better explain the diversity of symptoms accompanying or preceding
migraine attacks, such as oversensitivity to light, sounds and smells
and especially the aura phenomenon. This visual phenomenon precedes migraine
attacks in at least 70 percent of sufferers and attempts are made to develop
drugs which affect the underlying processes in the brain stem. |
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Svenska
Dagbladet |
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The Question of Happiness in Bioethics Debate Jörg
Albrecht considers in FAZ on Sunday (November
9, 2003) the revival of the bioethics debate in Germany. What are
the aims of research in stem cell therapy and cloning? Albrecht finds
the standard general answer "We need it for progress and innovation
in medicine" unsatisfactory. He discards the attitude as too mechanistic
- putting some money in and looking what comes out. Also, the absence
of suffering and disease does not imply happiness. The Council on Bioethics,
an advisory body to the U.S. president, recently released the report "Beyond
Therapy" on the pursuit of happiness (www.bioethics.gov),
and to what extend biotechnology may contribute. In their representation,
happiness means intelligence, beauty, smartness, success at work and in
family planning. For every malfunction medicine may develop an appropriate
drug or therapy. But, doesn't that look like a brave new world? |
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Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung |
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