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This week in European sciences -- week 11|2004 |
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Overview
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The Man who Eradicated Smallpox "We
had a lot of battles and a lot of people who worked very hard and who
lived and died in the field. Terrific people", says D.A. Henderson
who headed the WHO campaign to eradicate smallpox in an interview with
New Scientist (March
13,
2004). He
gives an interesting account on what happened in the years 1973/74 when
"we all sprinted for the finish line."
Smallpox is now eradicated in the wild but Henderson is concerned of methods
to produce large quantities of smallpox viruses as biological weapons
by the former Soviet Union. "And there are a lot of unemployed scientist
who have the expertise to produce smallpox. (...) The only possible answer
is we have to do a lot more international networking in science, a lot
more exchanging of people working in labs." |
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New
Scientist |
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Three years ago, scientists from countries all over the world, including Austria, Czech, France, Germany and Belgium, agreed they could sequence the entire banana genome in 5 years time. But the ProMusa project never really got started, because institutions such as the FAO were not interested to fund the research. Nevertheless, some of the labs (in the U.S., Brazil, France, Austria) started the work on their own expenses, using fragments from a public banana genome (BAC-)library, reports Kim De Rijck in De Standaard (March 12, 2004). A team, led by Guido Volckaert en Rita Aert from the Katholic University of Leuven (Flanders, Belgium), are now the first to publish two stretches of banana genome sequence. The published sequence (advanced online publication in Theoretical and Applied Genetics) represents 0,03 percent of the entire banana genome. With their symbolic achievement, the scientists want to draw the attention to the lack of research funding and interest for the staple food of almost half a billion people in the Third World. De
Standaard makes it small |
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De
Standaard |
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Donald Kennedy,
editor of Science magazine, draws in an editorial some conclusions of
the recent scientific achievement in cloning and stem cell research (March
12,
2004) which also was
an huge PR success for his magazine and its publisher, the AAAS. Kennedy:
"The Korean experiment illustrates some important international differences
with respect to the legal status of this kind of research. It could have
been performed in Israel, Sweden, or the United Kingdom, but not in the
United States using federal funds or in Germany." He underlines that
the potential benefits of the research are huge, although treatments are
far away. He expresses some fears that top U.S. researchers feel under
pressure by the anti-cloning Bush legislation and, in the end, move to
other countries. |
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Science |
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Drug Trial Data Based on Male Values Often data in drug tests are taken from young, fit men, even if the drug is intended for the treatment of women, children or elderly people, writes Vivienne Parry in the Guardian (March 11, 2004). "The one-size-fits-all approach is limited and is likely to give way to individualised treatments based on genetic differences." UK Investment in Energy Research The UK goverment
is planning a major investment in energy research. According to Sir David
King, the government's science adviser, a 12 million pounds energy research
centre shall help compensating for "the scientific research that
has been lost with the privatisation of power companies", writes
Tim Radford im The Guardian (March
11, 2004). One main issue will be to study the links between energy
consumption and production and climate change because "it is the
biggest issue facing us this century", Sir David is quoted. |
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The
Guardian |
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Flexible Limits of Oil and Gas Resources There's no
lack of oil and gas resources for the next decades, reports Neue Zürcher
Zeitung (March
11, 2004). Until the 20th of this century the cost for the oil barrel
will stay roughly between 20 and 30 dollar. All depends on the amount
of exploitable oil resources. Estimates range from 2000 billion to 4000
billion barrel. If the latter becomes true the climax of exploitation
output will be reached in about 30 years, than exploratory efforts increases,
the output fades. To expand the range
of exploitation engineers have successfully applied deep sea exploitation
at several sites in the Atlantic and Pacific, writes
Simone Ulmer. At the moment studies are on the way to carry out whether
the so-called methane gas hydrates may be used as an energy resource.
First results made scientists optimistic. Anyway, the limits for using
fossil energy resources may not be set by their abundance but by their
impact on nature and climate in the next decades. |
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Neue
Zürcher Zeitung |
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Struggle over GMO Crops in Germany Hans Schuh
comments in Die Zeit (March
11, 2004) on the problems of implementig the laws concerning GMO crops
in Germany. Last year the EU decided on strict guidelines that have to
be "translated" into the national laws of the European countries. In Germany
a first proposal what such a GMO legislation could look like was published
a few weeks ago. Now, the German research foundation (DFG) criticises
the proposal: The plans "restrict the freedom of research" and contain
"an excessive amount of bureaucratic conditions". The author states that
it seems that the German government wants to keep GMO out of Germany -
but that contradicts the reality all over the world and prevents serious
research. |
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Die
Zeit |
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Swedish Controversy on Corporate Support of Medical Research The Swedish
Research Council has presented a report about the state of medical research
in Sweden (Dagens Nyheter, March
9, 2004). Thomas Olivecrona, one of the authors of the study, is especially
worried about the increasing share companies have in financially supporting
medical research. He is concerned that immediate applicability and marketability
of results become ever more important. This might lead in the long term
to a regrettable impoverishment of the Swedish research landscape. Thomas
Östros, minister for science and education, doesn't agree. He says that
the government takes on its responsibility and supports fundamental research
adequately and that also in other countries successful and highly regarded
universities cooperate with companies. |
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Dagens
Nyheter |
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Generally
considered as sceptics for new or emerging technologies, the German green
party (which is in coalition with Chancellor Schröder's social democrats)
consider more the benefits of nanotechnology than possible risks, writes
Christian Schwägerl in FAZ (March
8, 2004). That's surprising, especially as Greenpeace or other environmental
interest groups call for a moratorium on nanotech unless related risks
are investigated. According to Schwägerl the green party held the
first hearing on nanotech in Germany. Some of the parliamentarians got
first contact with nanotech by Michael Crichtons novel "Prey".
Surprisingly again, they associate with "nano" the phrase "small
is beautiful". The policy makers conclude to increase research efforts
but also an appropriate risk assessment. If necessary regulation of chemicals
has to be adjusted to the new materials. The Greens welcomed the option
to shape the visions of research at an early stage. |
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Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung |
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After 20
years of preparation it has become time to determine the place where the
fusion reactor Iter is going to be built either in France or Japan in
the not too far future (Dagens Nyheter, March
7, 2004). Maria Gunther Axelsson presents in a rather uninspiring
article the scientific and technical background of fusion reactors and
the political events surrounding the final decision on the location of
the reactor. "Politics" is blamed for delays in developing the technology,
but Einar Tennfors, a Swedish fusion researcher, admits that somebody
has to pay for research and development and take on accountability. |
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Dagens
Nyheter |
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Compiling the Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea Svenska Dagbladet's
Andreas Nilsson introduces Inga and Olle Hedberg from Uppsala University
who are responsible for editing a ten-volume flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea
(March 7, 2004). Olle
Hedberg's love affair with Africa started when he was able to participate
in an expedition to Eastern Africa in the late 40's. In the 60's the Hedbergs
asked by the Ethiopian government to compile a flora of the country. It
took then more than ten years to secure funding when finally the Swedish
Developmental Aid Agency SIDA stepped and financed the project. More than
80 scientists from 12 countries have contributed to the project. More
than 400 new species and subspecies have been described, several Ethopians
botanists were trained and a herbarium was built up in Addis Abeba. The
flora is not simply a catalogue of species, but also documents the uses,
particularly the medical uses of the plants. This is especially important
because this knowledge is rapidly vanishing. |
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Svenska
Dagbladet |
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The German
FAZ on Sunday (March
7, 2004) focuses on dinosaurs. Besides some nice pictures of still
living species, Hubertus Breuer reports on a new theory that the big killer
meteorite that hit the earth at the famous Chixculub crater in Mexico
and was believed to have eradicated the dinosaurs 65 million years ago,
was not the cause for the extinction of the dinosaurs. After studying
drilling cores from that region, a team of experts comes to the conclusion
that the saurians survived the big impact. As a proof the scientists found
traces of specific bacteria in the deep. The result of the new study that
has recently been published in Proceedings of the National Acadamy of
Sciences: A new discussion about the death of the dinosaurs is just beginning. |
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Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung |
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