|
This week in European sciences -- week 09|2004 |
|
Overview
|
|||
|
|
|
||
|
How to Unify European Research In the German
weekly Die Zeit (February
26, 2004) Hans Schuh comments the plan of the European commission
to establish a European research council. The council is supposed to unify
the research programmes of the different European nations. The aim is
clear: To make Europe the most attractive and competitive research community
in the world. Deadline for that idea is the year 2010 - no wonder that
a lot of conferences are being held in Brussels these days concerning
that topic. Looking to the facts reveals the importance of such a plan.
Almost 400,000 European researchers are working in the US - that's about
40% of the whole US research community. The first step is the plan from
the european commission to double the research budget in the upcoming
years. Good idea, states the author, but there is a lot more to do. Hans
Schuh demands for a better international funding system, e.g. it must
be possible for Germany to found Spanish research or the other way round.
"Who is preaching international research competition, has to give this
permission", Hans Schuh concludes. |
|
Die
Zeit |
|
|
The Triumph of Hope over Science Mark Derr
writes in an editorial for the NY Times (February
25, 2004) about his personal view of the recent achievement in cloning
embryonic cells. Derr was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease two years
ago. He comments on the claims of scientists that curing the disease will
be more likely in future, for instance, by developing stem cells into
brain cells to replace the ones that are affected by Parkinson's. "I don't
think cloning offers much hope for a cure for Parkinson's any time soon",
writes Derr. The possible health benefits seems remote: "Who is to say
that the new neurons won't die again after injected into my brain. (...)
No on yet fully understands how the brain malfuntions in people with Parkinson's
disease." And even if it worked, who could afford it. Derr states that
there are also scientific prospects in adult stem cell research. Hence,
he demands for a worldwide moratorium on human cloning. Scientists should
first "study the cloned animals and embryos that now exist." |
|
New
York Times |
|
|
Web service Makes Pollution in the EU Transparent Cornelia
Bolesch writes in Süddeutsche Zeitung (February
25, 2004) about the new established web service EPER by the European
Commission. EPER stands for European Pollutant Emission Register an is
accessible at www.eper.cec.eu.int.
According to EU environmental commissioner Margot Wallström the service
is aimed at giving transparent information about pollution and its sources
to the public. The register collects the pollution data from about 10,000
industrial sites in the EU and Norway. By the year 2006 also data from
the new member state shall be available. Every three years a update shall
be given. Bolesch stresses that besides the EU focus on competiveness
and prosperity of its economy the environmental data show the dirty downsides.
|
|
Süddeutsche
Zeitung |
|
|
Vaccination Strategies Save Lives and Money If the approximately
1.7 million Swedes aged over 65 were to be offered free vaccination against
the flu and pneumonia, 350 lives could be saved every year, reports Gunilla
Eldh in Dagens Nyheter (February
24, 2004). A study conducted by the Infectious Diseases Unit of the
Stockholm region showed that such a double vaccination decreases mortality
by 40 percent and that, if the diseases break out, symptoms are far less
severe. Such a vaccination strategy not only saves lives but also money
- an important consideration for the Swedish health services, which face
serious resource shortages. The costs for the vaccines are easily outweighed
by lower costs of hospital care. The savings for the Stockholm region
may amount to up to 50 million Swedish crowns (appr. 5.5 million Euros). |
|
Dagens
Nyheter |
|
|
Robots could
become soon scientist's best friend, or better a full working colleague.
Michael Lang reports in Süddeutsche Zeitung
(February
24, 2004) how 'intelligent' software or machinery may assist for the
lab work in future. Programmes may scan the Medline archive which contains
about 13 million medical papers for relations between drugs, diseases
and treatment. No human could do that properly. The software Iridescent
looks for particular words, groups of words and their relations. Another
software project succeeded in programmes that codes software on its own:
The programmer just put a structured task into the computer, hence the
software develops a suitable code. Developing time is thus shortened from
a year to a month, according to software supplier. A last example given
by Lang is a robot which performs in a lab biochemical experiments according
to a scientific strategy: watching a biochemical reaction, contructing
a hypothesis, and finally setting up an experiment to proof or unproof
the hypothesis. |
|
Süddeutsche
Zeitung |
|
|
The Role of Genetics in Public Health Manuela Lenzen
reports in FAZ
(February 24, 2004) about
a new discipline called Public Health Genetics that combines the results
of genetics research with the public health sector. She gives an example:
the screening of newborn children has become a privatized market where
companies promote their test kits. But this supply is not at all harmonized
with public health structures. For instance, if the outcome of a tests
shows for the baby a high, modest or small risk for a disease, there are
merely no established ways how to cope with it properly in public health.
The new discipline Public Health Gentics will fill the gap with quality
control, information for the public and networking of institutions. For
instance, people with a high risk should learn possiblities of prevention
as soon as possible, if they exist; those with low risk should obtain
appropriate information. Further, geneticists have to collaborate with
psychologists and social workers. In public health they have to get used
to do so. |
|
Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung |
|
|
News from the AAAS Meeting, and Wishes for an European Equivalent Sunday's
science section of Dagens Nyheter (February 22, 2004) is in its entirety
devoted to the AAAS meeting in Seattle. Karin Bojs writes a number of
short pieces on genetic
doping, the domestication
of wolves, dog
genetics, and threatened
languages. Karin Bojs also takes the opportunity to contemplate the
situation of science journalism in Sweden and in general. How, for example,
is one supposed to describe the current revolution in RNA science if most
people do not know what DNA is? Karin Bojs hopes that a European version
of the AAAS "science show" - the EuroScience
Open Forum, which will take place in Stockholm this August - will
turn into a similar magnet for the public and the media. |
|
Dagens
Nyheter |
|
|
Renaissance of and Controversy on Aspirin Acetylsalicylic
acid, a white, crystalline compound originally derived from the bark of
the willow tree Salix alba and far better known under the name Aspirin
is experiencing a renaissance, reports Inger Atterstam in Svenska Dagbladet
(February 22, 2004). In
the first decades of the 20th century, Aspirin was mainly used as a drug
against pain and fever. In the 70s there were first signs that Aspirin
may also provide protection against bloodclots, heart attacks and stroke.
Recently, Aspirin has been shown even to protect against some forms of
cancer and there is evidence that it affects the course of Alzheimer's
disease. Still, Swedish experts do not support the recent claims made
by Gareth Morgan in New
Scientist. Morgan thinks that salicylat should be classified as a
vitamin and that mass medication with Aspirin should be considered. Paul
Hjemedahl, professor of clinical pharmacology at Stockholm's Karolinska
Hospital, believes that the risks of large Aspirin intake such as stomach
and intestinal bleeding speak against mass medication. Only risk groups
should take Aspirin regularly. |
|
Svenska
Dagbladet |
|
|
Feedback |
|
We are glad to receive your comments! Send us an e-mail | subscribe | unsubscribe |