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This week in European sciences -- week 08|2004 |
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Overview
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The debate
on the construction site of the forthcoming fusion reactor Iter is still
open. Patrick Illinger explains in Süddeutsche Zeitung (February
20, 2004) the arguements of the competing 'partners' - the EU, China
and Russia at one side, the U.S., Japan and South Korea on the other.
The facility will cost about 4.7 million euros. France and Japan have
declared to spend about 48 percent of the sum if Iter comes to their country.
At present a compromise says when Iter goes to one country, a facility
to examine material properties of components to shield the high-energy
plasma goes to the other. But on Friday it was unclear what goes where. |
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Süddeutsche
Zeitung |
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Wrong Drugs Used in Performing Euthanasia Doctors that perform euthanasia use the wrong drugs for it: Study results from the University of Gent (UGent) and the Free University of Brussels (VUB) show that doctors who performed euthanasia (in Belgium the word 'euthanasia' isn't so ideologically contaminated like in other countries, for instance, Germany) often did it with unsuitable drugs, reports De Standaard (February 20, 2004). An anonymous survey among medical practitioners was done in 1998, when euthanasia (helping a patient to die, on the explicit request of the patient himself) was illegal in Belgium. The analysis of the results are now published in 'Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety'. It appeared that in 13 out of 17 cases, the doctors used morphine or similar products, in either very low or very high dosage. It it not proven that such doses of morphine shorten life. Because of the use of inadequate medication, the process of dying can take longer than expected, an emotional difficult situation for everybody involved. Experience in the Netherlands has shown what drugs are most suitable, but doctors in Belgium seemed not to be informed about this. The survey also showed that doctors end the life of terminal patients three times more often without the patients' request for it than with it. Since 2002, euthanasia (on explicit request from the patient and on a number of other conditions), is allowed in Belgium, but there are no study results on drug use since then yet. New Vaccine, New Epidemic The first vaccine for adults against whooping cough, pertussis, (Boostrix, from GlaxoSmithKline) is making it's entree on the Belgian market. Some researchers seemed to speak for the industry when they were spreading news in the media that everybody should get the vaccine, reports De Standaard (February 19, 2004). One researcher (who is suspected of being on very friendly terms with the vaccine producers) insisted that pertussis is on the rise in Belgium, but 'forgot' to mention that the increase in registred cases coincided precisely with the introduction of a new, supersensitive detection method (PCR) for the bacterium. The call for general vaccination contradicts the official opinion of the 'Hoge Gezondheidsraad', the council of experts that isssues advice to practitioners about the proper use of medication. Representatives of the Hoge Gezondheidsraad condemn the false call for general vaccination and the commercial pressure behind the introduction of the vaccine. Reader's question: How does Hypnosis Work? On the way
to solve a reader's question (How does hypnosis work?), De
Standaard (February 20, 2004) found out that hypnosis is commonly
used in medical practice. At the university hospital of Liège, patients
are undergoing surgery during which hypnosis replaces the general anaesthetics.
Local anaesthetics are still required, but overall, the dosages are lower,
also in the days after the operation, compared to when the patient must
be 'put to sleep'. Recently a neurologist at the university of Liège compared
brain scans of people unter hypnosis and people who just focus on something,
and hypnosis seems to activate particular brain regions, which gives some
insight in what hypnosis actually is. Doctors are trying to get hypnosis
freed of it's connotation of circus attraction or obsure alternative method,
and demonstrate that is has medical value. |
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De
Standaard |
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If you hop along the chain from corn to starch to sugar to ethanol to hydrogen you just realize a new discovered method of corn-to-fuel conversion. David Adam investigates in the Guardian (February 19, 2004) on the findings. Ethanol is already used as a biofuel and, for instance, as an additive in gasoline. Actually the downside of using ethanol that way has been the separation of water that accompagnies the alcohol. With the new method, producing hydrogen for fuel cells, the efficiency is increased, indeed. "We can potentially capture 50 percent of the energy stored in corn sugar, whereas converting sugar to ethanol and burning the ethanol in a car would harvest only 20 percent", an expert is quoted. Speaking out on Global Warming Diana Liverman
spent 20 years as a senior climate advisor in the U.S. Now she get back
to Oxford University, UK, to head the Environmental Change Institute and
explains in the Guardian (February
19, 2004) how the U.S. environmental science and policy declined from
a worldwide respected and well funded scientific area to an agony where
scientists fear to speak out on global warming. The scientists overthere
are "frustrated by the backlash against environmental science, research
budget cuts and by the American media's general lack of interest in environmental
issues", writes Liverman. Sir David King, the UK government's chief
scientist wrote recently in Science magazine: "Climate change is
the most severe problem we are facing today, more serious even than the
threat of terrorism." |
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The
Guardian |
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After the
hystery with SARS and the fear of the bird flu the awareness of a possible
threat by the recent outspread in Asia decreased considerably in the media.
But this is generally due to selective and short-lived attention of the
media, writes Joachim Müller-Jung in FAZ (February
18, 2004). He emphazises three points. First, the threat is still
there. The recent outbreak of bird flu and the culling of millions of
animals put a ultimatum to react. Due to the amount of infected birds
it's likely that already thousands of people carry the animal virus. And
when the outbreak's waves of bird flu and human flu interfer a dangerous
super virus may evolve to trigger a global pandemic. Second, the recent
experiences show that it's tricky for health officials and the media to
find the right balance between implementing effective strategies against
the outbreak and informing the public properly, and the steering of a
hystery. Third, behind the scences the World Health Organisation (WHO)
and national administrations prepare for measures against the next outbreak.
Virologists take for sure that the next wave will come. |
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Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung |
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Due to heavy
competion on the market razor-blade manufacturer Gillette opens its doors
at Reading, UK, for the inspection by journalists. They need some positive
media coverage. Hubertus Breuer reports in Süddeutsche Zeitung (February
18, 2004) on the science of the blades. About one hundred engineers
and scientists are devoted behind the factory doors for the best-cutting,
comfortable razor-blades. Interesting: Men use in their life a razor for
about 3350 hours, to shave all in all a 800 meter long beard. Although
the company uses high-tech instrumentation to investigate the shaving
process it's almost impossible to distinguish a real advance in shaving
technology or a faked advance simply due to marketing reasons. |
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Süddeutsche
Zeitung |
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Dennis Overbye
reports in the New York Times (February
17, 2004) on new speculation and challenges in astrophysics: Will
it all end in a Big Crunch, a death by cooling or even a Big Rip where
"a mysterious force permeating space-time will be strong enough to
blow everything apart, shred rocks, animals, molecules and finally even
atoms in a last seemingly mad instant of cosmic self-abnegation."
The so-called dark energy is a key factor for investigation, and astronomers
are eager to pin the parameters that define dark energy. |
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New York Times |
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At the AAAS
conference in Seattle reporters with the FAZ on Sunday (February
15, 2004) asked the leading experts on cloning and stem cell research
about the opionion on the recent advance towards therapeutic cloning.
As you have already guessed the answers range from 'Wow' to 'it's not
certain that it'll work'. Comments included by Ian Wilmut, Gerald Schatten,
Hans Schöler, Jose Cibelli, Laurie Zoloth, Donald Kennedy, Davor
Solter, Rudolf Jaenisch. |
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Frankfurter
Allgemeine |
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In an
interview
with Alexander Kissler from Süddeutsche Zeitung (February
14, 2004), the head of the German cancer research institute (DKFZ),
Ottmar Wiesler, states that the recent results fostering therapeutic
cloning are going in the wrong direction, anyway. The approach might be
interesting for fundamental research, but it's of no use for a possible
medical treatment, says Wiesler. "Every stem cell obtained by this
approach has a malfunctioning genetic programming." An implantation
of tissue is thus not possible. |
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Süddeutsche
Zeitung |
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Kofi Annan,
the Secretary-General of the United Nations, demands in an editorial of
Science magazine (February
13, 2004) a "true partnership of developed and developing countries,
a partnership that includes science and technology." According to
Annan this partnership is important in order to meet the eight 'millenium
development goals' which range from "halving extreme poverty to halting
the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all
to be met by the target date of 2015." The goals were set in the
year 2000, but progress has been mixed. "If every nation gains full
access to this broader world community of science and has the opportunity
to develop an independent science capability, its public can engage in
a candid dialogue about the benefits and risks of new technologies, such
as genetically engineered organisms or nanotechnology, so that informed
decisions can be made about their introduction into our lives." He
also refers to a recent report of the InterAcademy Council which suggests
that developing countries should allocate at least 1 to 1.5 percent of
their GDP for a science and tech capacity building. |
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Science |
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Science out
of Africa isn't well represented in the top science and medical journals.
Observers
vassume some bias against non-Western scientists. That's the reason for
setting up a publication of their own called African Health Sciences by
James Tumwine of Uganda. He gives NewScientist an interview (February
2004) about the obstacles he had to overcome and talks about African
needs to be self-reliant in medical research. |
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New
Scientist |
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