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This week in European sciences -- week 07|2004 |
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Overview
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After the
recent cloning experiment by researchers in South Korea which succeeded
in cloning 30 embryonic cells, commentaries in the media were concerned
with ethical issues and risks, but also with prospects in cloning. In
an editorial for the Süddeutsche Zeitung
(February
13, 2004) Christina Berndt stresses the difference between reproductive
cloning (which means cloning of human beings) and therapeutic cloning
(cloning of embryonic cells to produce human tissue). The new results
focus on the latter but also enable the former: Now everybody can, at
least in principle, look up the recipe for cloning humans in Science magazine.
Berndt writes that it was a mistake that the UN didn't declare reproductive
cloning to be unethical because there wasn't any differentiation between
reproductive and therapeutic cloning. The latter is legal in countries
like the UK and Sweden; opponents are Germany and the U.S. In Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung Christian Schwägerl writes
in an editorial that with the success in cloning embryonic cells there
are two more steps neccessary to approve the claims of the theory of therapeutic
cloning. First, to cure a sick person with his or her own cloned tissue,
the same procedure will have to be successfull with the 'sick' genome.
Second, the cloned tissue needs to be implanted and function correctly.
Both will be tricky. El Pais comments
that research is far away from a possible treatment, but besides the technical
problems there's a lot of ethical debate about the question when and to
what end we are obliged to clone human cells. Most scientists agree to
prohibit reproductive cloning totally and the therapeutic version in the
meantime. Also Gazeta Wyborcza demands
an immediate ban of reproductive cloning. Besides ethical issues it's
obvious that therapeutic cloning is at full speed. The
Times considers
the wide knowledge gap between scientists and the general public. It cannot
be closed easily. Presumably scientists fullfill all ethical rules, but
citizens are unsure. Therefore it's the task of the goverments to explain
the potentials and limits of cloning. They have to convince people that
cloning doesn't endanger humanity. The Guardian
wellcomes
the opened way for treatments for long-term diseases such as diabetes,
Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. But it also reignites the simmering debate
about human cloning, writes Tim Radford. Also comments by Donald Kennedy,
chief-editor of science magazine, are quoted: "All they have done is create
a stem cell line from an early blastocyst... To get from that to an embryo
is a big step. A blastocyst of that stage could conceivably be used in
an attempt to implant but we have no idea whether it would implant or
not." |
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Süddeutsche
Zeitung |
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What's the
universe made of? 73 percent dark energy, 23 percent cold dark matter
and just about 4 percent atoms and molecules - according to current astrophysical
theories. Tim Radford tackles the issue again in The Guardian (February
12, 2004). He is supposed to show how little we know about the building
blocks of the universe, explained the history of "dark energy",
but surprisingly skipped the fact that new
controversy is questioning the overall findings. |
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The
Guardian |
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The Long Run Towards a Better Treatment A novel treatment
gives new hope to patients suffering heart attacks : A team of German
researchers found that Vasopressin, a widely known hormone, increases
the chance of survival by about 300 percent. In the German weekly Die
Zeit (February 12,
2004) Harro Albrecht describes the way that led the researcher to
this result. It was a winding path they had to go. The industry didn't
show any interest in participating in the study because the patents on
the substance had run out long before. The German science foundations
also declined. Disappointed, the researchers moved to Austria and tried
to manage the study with private sponsoring. They succeeded: Now the ambulance
staff can decide whether to inject Adrenalin (which is the standard way
to rescue lives) or Vasopressin in case of a heart attack. In Germany,
says Volker Wenzel, one of the researchers, the study wouldn't have been
possible. "Medical research in Germany is being administrated, not experienced",
he concludes. In an additional interview,
Max Einhäupl, president of the German science council, agrees. He
wants to abolish the rule that every student in medicine has to get a
doctoral degree. That would improve the quality of German clinical research,
he thinks. |
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Die
Zeit |
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Health and
eating behaviour get more and more closely related. A third of the expenditure
of German health assurances is due to false nutrition, writes Katlen Trautmann
in FAZ (February
11, 2004). No wonder that pharma and food companies react to that
issue and create a new prospering market: functional food or nutriceuticals.
Those foods are processed to diminish a critical component which, for
instance, may cause allergies, or to enhance its amounts of vitamins,
or add specific bacteria which make digestion easier. But, halt! Consumer
interest groups question the advertised benefit of the foods. They say
that most of the claimed benefits have no sound scientific basis. And,
whether a product succeeds in what it is meant to do may not be verified
by the consumer. A group of scientists, headed by Ruth Chadwick of Lancaster
University, UK, now published a study that advises governments to take
action against the misleading claims of companies. |
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Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung |
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The Quest for the Magic Island What makes
the discovery of the chemical elements 113 and 115 (with 113 and 115 protons)
important, and especially for scientists so exciting? Well, it's a step
towards the so-called island of stability. Who better to comment on and
explain it than Oliver Sacks in an editorial contribution to the NY Times
(February
8, 2004). The author of 'Uncle Tungsten" gives a brief but impressive
account of the history of the discovery of new chemical elements. In the
1960's physicists developed a shell theory of the atomic nucleus. They
calculated that a nucleus with the magic numbers of 114 protons and 184
neutrons might be long-lasting and stable. Hence, nearby an island of
stability appears in a sea of instable elements. In nature the stable
elements end with uranium with 92 protons. Sacks writes: "We search
for the island of stability because, like Mount Everest, it is there.
But, as with Everest, there is profound emotion, too, infusing the scientific
search to test a hypothesis. The quest for the magic island shows us that
science is far from being coldness and calculation, as many people imagine,
but is shot through with passion, longing and romance." |
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New
York Times |
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A design
professor of Yale university, U.S., claims that Microsoft's graphics programme
Powerpoint also takes a share in NASA's Columbia disaster. In February
2003 the space shuttle broke apart during re-entry into the earth's atmosphere.
Seven astronauts died. Julia Voss now reports in FAZ on Sunday (February
8, 2004) that important information on possible dangers for the shuttle
and its crew was passed earlier via Powerpoint files to NASA senior officials.
According to Edward Tufte of Yale, it is almost impossible to communicate
important information appropriately via this programme which has become
a common presentation tool in science and business. Tufte stresses that
it's not the graphics people who use the programme improperly but the
programme itself: the built-in design tools are useless for a clear development
of thoughts, reasons, conclusions and are no help for informational graphics.
The same showed up for a survey of manuals. |
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Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung |
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Interdisciplinarity
isn't a buzz-word any longer - according to Alan Leshner's editorial in
Science magazine (February
6, 2004) it's a real issue. More and more advances in science are
done by interdisciplinary teams. Just consider magnetic resonance imaging
or the humane genome project which involve physicists, chemists, biologist
and computer scientists. "Progress in any one domain is absolutely
dependent on progress in many other disciplines", writes Leshner.
He is the CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
(AAAS - The association will hold its annual meeting later this month).
Many papers in Science magazine, which is published by the AAAS, "involve
teams of scientists from many specialties, bringing diverse expertise
to bear in an integrated rather than merely parallel way." In consequence,
funding agencies should follow the path of interdisciplinary research.
Also, "review and reward systems based on eminence or publication
within one's own disciplinary 'silo' may penalize interdisciplinary work."
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Science |
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A Site for the Nuclear Fusion Reactor In March
the countries that are going to finance the International Fusion Reactor
(Iter) are supposed to finally decide about the location of the facility,
in Cadarache, France, or in Rokkasho, Japan. After investigating the political
pitfalls of the decision making - the decision is seemingly influenced
by the war against Iraq - the Economist (February
5, 2004) made a strict conclusion of the technolgical and economical
benefits of fusion research: "All in all, ITER seems more boondoggle
than boon. Governments should spend their research money on other things."
The Economist criticizes that after the first experiments in fusion research
in the 1950's the horizon for the commercialisation of fusion power has
been perpetually shifted 30 years onwards. A recent report of Britain's
Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology pushes that point even
further to 2043. That's enough. |
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The
Economist |
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