|
This week in European sciences -- week 16|2004 |
|
Overview
Special Feature Fiona Fox (Science Media Centre, London, UK) on communicating nanotechnology - a guideline for scientists. >> debate on nanotechnology |
|||
|
|
|||
|
What's Wrong with the Placebo Effect? In the Guardian
(April
15, 2004), Ben Goldacre gives some comments on the efficacy of the
placebo effect. "If you wanted to maximize everyone's health, then doctors
would confidently lie to their patients about effectiveness of treatments".
The placebo effect will help to enhance the efficacy of treatments - in
the same way that red sugar pills are "more effective stimulants than
blue sugar pills." But this is in conflict with choice and informed consent.
After all, Goldacre thinks that "pseudoscientists and alternative therapists,
being expensive and long-winded, have more time to weave ceremony", which
is the nucleus of the placebo effect, and thus maximize it. |
|
The
Guardian |
|
|
Bad Education for German Doctors Germany has
about 300,000 doctors - but not all of them make it to be one in practice,
reports Werner Bartens in the German weekly Die Zeit (April
15, 2004). The reason: The education is unsufficient and lacks a training
of real-life situations. Now, new general rules for the approbation will
be established in summer 2005. This is a chance to improve the education
and helps the young medical students to become a real "human" doctor -
not only a good researcher, states the author. But although some progress
has already been done, the three most urgent problems of education are
still unsolved: Still, a doctors working day is too long - there is simply
no time for an engagement in education. Second: Most money from the government
is used for research, not for education. And third: Recently the budget
for the university hospitals has been reduced by ten percent - not a good
prospect to improve clinical training, says the author. |
|
Die
Zeit |
|
|
After last
year's announcement by astronomers that the universe might be shaped like
a soccer ball, a German research team of the University of Ulm suggests
that it may be indeed curved like a Pringle potato chip and shaped like
a medieval horn. According to a report by Stephen Battersby in New Scientist
(April
14, 2004) the assumption fit better to the measurement results of
the WMAP satellite which surveyed the cosmic microwave background radiation.
|
|
New
Scientist |
|
|
How Computers Will Change our World At present,
the UK's Royal Society runs a national forum "to discover the public
attitudes to the potential future benefits - and possibe dangers - of
increasingly computerized lives", notes the Earl of Selborne, the
chairman of the Royal Society's Science in Society committee, in a contribution
to the Daily Telegraph (April
14, 2004*). In meetings with scientists and policy makers people have
"the chance to say what they think of new technologies, whose development
they may be able to influence." What will happen until the year 2020
when computers form more and more an integral part of everyday lives? |
|
The
Daily Telegraph |
|
|
Unraveling the Mysteries of Consciousness Margaret
Wertheim profiles in the New York Times (April
13, 2004) Francis Crick who determined the structure of DNA and now
is obsessed with the nature of consciousness. The 87 year old Nobel laureate
teamed up with Christof Koch of Caltech "to find the neural correlates
of consciousness". While others question the approach to unraveling
the mysteries of consciousness, Crick goes as far as suggesting that "of
the 50 billion or so neurons in the brain, perhaps only tens of thousands,
or even a few thousand, give rise to the feeling of conscious awareness."
|
|
New
York Times |
|
|
Swedish Blueberries for Pharma Substances Blueberries
growing in the forests won't be enough to satisfy the future demand for
the tasty fruits. Peter Letmark reports in Dagens Nyheter (April
13, 2004) that the Swedish Agricultural University in Umeå is beginning
to plant blueberry bushes in abandoned agricultural land in Sweden's northernmost
province Norrland. The pharmaceutical industry is showing an increasing
interest in the berries because they are rich in anti-oxidants like vitamin
C and antocyanins, which is used in eyedrops (in World War II British
pilots were given large amounts of the Swedish berries before missions
to improve their eyesight during night). Also the textil industry is on
the list of future clients. It remains, however, to be seen if the cultivated
variety of the berry can live up to its wild relative. |
|
Dagens
Nyheter |
|
|
Side-Effects of Dietary Supplements People think
that dietary supplements - ranging from vitamins to herbal ingredients
- are safe, well-controlled and just effect their health in a positive
manner. But according to Andy Coghlan, reporting in New Scientist (April
12, 2004) on the issue, this is all but true. Generally the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S. is seen as a trend setter for global
nutrial regulations. The FDA now received a report from the U.S. Institute
of Medicine claiming that there are essentially no figures on the efficacy
or toxicity of the 29,000 dietary supplements sold in the U.S. - in a
market worth 18 billion dollars a year. The Institute recommends to listen
to consumers as whistle blowers and record their comments on side-effects
of the supplements. Also interactions of the supplements with medical
treatments are mostly not known. |
|
New
Scientist |
|
|
CO2 Absorption by Vegetation - The Regional Difference When the
Kyoto protocol was negotiated the demand was put forward that the ability
of forests and other ecosystems to absorb carbon dioxid should be considered
when emission quota for a country are set. Some estimates claim that up
to 36% of CO2 emissions are absorbed by vegetation. Susanna Baltscheffsky
now reports on research that questions this assumption (Svenska Dagbladet
- April 12, 2004). Duke
University's William Schlesinger found that forests in North Carolina
only grew faster in the first year after experimental increases in CO2.
Later the soils could not supply the nitrogen needed to sustain the growth,
especially in wet years; a similar result was found in a Californian grass
ecosystem. Schlesinger concludes that vegetation may perhaps only be able
to absorb 20% of atmospheric CO2. This, however, does not seem to be a
worldwide pattern. Mats Olsson, professor at the Swedish Agricultural
University, believes that Swedish forest will be a CO2-sink when the climate
warms up. According to him, the nutrient limitations detected in the US
won't play any role in a warmer future Sweden; trees will grow faster
and bind more CO2. |
|
Svenska
Dagbladet |
|
|
Concerns That Nanotech Label Is Overused Barnaby Feder
reports in the New York Times (April
12, 2004) on attempts to define nanotechnology and what to call nanotechnology
and what not. For instance, the rating firm Merrill Lynch introduced this
April a stock market index with 25 nanotech companies. Now, others are
claiming that some companies in that index have nothing to do with nanotech
at all. Thus, concerns rise that the nanotech label is overused. |
|
New
York Times |
|
|
Quantum Cryptography Yields First Products Maria Gunther
Axelsson reports on the first commercial applications of quantum cryptography
(Dagens Nyheter - April
12, 2004).The American company MagiQ and their Swiss counterparts
from idQuantique have just released their quantum encryption devices on
the markets. Anders Karlsson, professor for quantum photonics at Stockholm's
Royal Institute for Technology, expresses his satisfaction that the arcane
technology has become so mature that the first products can be tried out
with users (and he thus unknowingly refutes the claim
that only need-controlled and not fundamental research leads to marketable
products). |
|
Dagens
Nyheter |
|
|
Mysterious Claims by Swedish Industry The governance
of science is the topic of an article signed by a number of representatives
from Swedish trade unions, industry and applied research (Dagens Nyheter
- April 11, 2004). The
authors complain that scientists' own preferences control far too much
of the spending on science. Rather mysteriously, the authors claim that
most innovations of economic importance have their roots in industrial
research. They believe that the Swedish government should reevaluate its
science policy and demand that funds are channelled increasingly into
research that can be converted into growth-promoting products. |
|
Dagens
Nyheter |
|
|
About 28
million people in Africa are infected with HIV and await treatment. Now,
projects start to supply the drugs, but as Thilo Thielke reports in der
Spiegel (April
10, 2004) also the black market with the drugs is flourishing. Gangsters
and quacks claim to cure AIDS with amazing substances ranging from olive
oil to mixtures with unkown ingredients. |
|
Der
Spiegel |
|
|
Donald Kennedy
writes in an editorial for Science magazine (April
9, 2004*) about a weird situation in which U.S. legislation prohibited
any editorial relation to authors out from countries which are viewed
as "enemies" by the U.S. This has been the case since last fall.
But in the meantime, honourable organizations such as the IEEE and AAAS
protested against the ruling of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and
were successfull: The Treasury recognized "the need for international
scientific communication unobstructed by such restrictions" and withdrew
the ruling. |
|
Science
|
|
|
Feedback |
|
We are glad to receive your comments! Send us an e-mail | subscribe | unsubscribe |