This weeks tidbits from the wider world....
Poo Permit
Are migratory birds helping to spread the H5N1 bird flu devastating east Asian poultry flocks? And could they carry it as far as Australia? A study to find out by analyzing droppings from migratory birds that return to Queensland's Heron Island each summer could be delayed for a year by bureaucratic wrangling. Renowned flu expert Graeme Laver, formerly of the Australian National University, planned to collect fresh droppings using no more than a plastic sheet. This week he received a permit from Queensland Parks and Wildlife service, only to be told by the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries that he will be liable for prosecution unless he gets approval from the department's animal ethics committee, which could take months. "It's ridiculous, all we want to do is collect bird poo," says Laver. He claims the authorities fear finding H5N1 will deter tourists, while they say they are merely following the rules.
Back jaw
A jawbone grown in the back of a man disfigured by cancer surgery has allowed him to eat solid food for the first time in nine years. Patrick Warnke's team at the University of Kiel, Germany, seeded a titanium scaffold with bone minerals and bone marrow cells, grew it in a shoulder muscle for seven weeks and the implanted it, they report in The Lancet.
Tokyo village
There is a 90 per cent chance that Tokyo will be devastated by a magnitude 7 earthquake in the next 50 years. Japan's Earthquake Research Committee made the prediction on 23 August based on an analysis of data from the five quakes of magnitude 6.7 to 7.2 that have struck the Tokyo region since 1885.
Round beg in round hole. Round peg out of square hole.
"The mind boggles that scientists...could have chucked highly active waste into silos with no thought as to how to get it out." Chief nuclear safety inspector Laurence Williams on how radioactive waste imported for reprocessing is stored in the UK
Extra protein
"There are hazards that are more of a problem than the minor issues associated with foreign genes... Rats get into grain silos and get processed during milling" Food safety scientist Guill Le Roux of AgResearch in New Zealand on genetically modified food.
Questions they can't answer
from New Scientist Magazine
Are migratory birds helping to spread the H5N1 bird flu devastating east Asian poultry flocks? And could they carry it as far as Australia? A study to find out by analyzing droppings from migratory birds that return to Queensland's Heron Island each summer could be delayed for a year by bureaucratic wrangling. Renowned flu expert Graeme Laver, formerly of the Australian National University, planned to collect fresh droppings using no more than a plastic sheet. This week he received a permit from Queensland Parks and Wildlife service, only to be told by the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries that he will be liable for prosecution unless he gets approval from the department's animal ethics committee, which could take months. "It's ridiculous, all we want to do is collect bird poo," says Laver. He claims the authorities fear finding H5N1 will deter tourists, while they say they are merely following the rules.
Back jaw
A jawbone grown in the back of a man disfigured by cancer surgery has allowed him to eat solid food for the first time in nine years. Patrick Warnke's team at the University of Kiel, Germany, seeded a titanium scaffold with bone minerals and bone marrow cells, grew it in a shoulder muscle for seven weeks and the implanted it, they report in The Lancet.
Tokyo village
There is a 90 per cent chance that Tokyo will be devastated by a magnitude 7 earthquake in the next 50 years. Japan's Earthquake Research Committee made the prediction on 23 August based on an analysis of data from the five quakes of magnitude 6.7 to 7.2 that have struck the Tokyo region since 1885.
Round beg in round hole. Round peg out of square hole.
"The mind boggles that scientists...could have chucked highly active waste into silos with no thought as to how to get it out." Chief nuclear safety inspector Laurence Williams on how radioactive waste imported for reprocessing is stored in the UK
Extra protein
"There are hazards that are more of a problem than the minor issues associated with foreign genes... Rats get into grain silos and get processed during milling" Food safety scientist Guill Le Roux of AgResearch in New Zealand on genetically modified food.
Questions they can't answer
- How did life begin?
- How many species are there?
- Are we still evolving?
- Why do we sleep?
- Is intelligence inevitable?
- What is consciousness?
- What is sex for?
- Can we prevent ageing?
- What is life?
- Is there life on other planets?
Answers on a 1420 megahertz carrier signal to....
from New Scientist Magazine
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