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This week in European sciences -- week 18|2004 |
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The
Guardian portrays Susan Greenfield, the Oxford neurochemicist, disclosed
for candidature with the British Royal Society and now put of the shortlist.
FAZ portrays the biotech science scene in Dresden.
Die Tageszeitung writes about pregnancy and HIV infection
of the mother. The Economist dreams of the prospects
of industrial biotechnology. Die Zeit on how a holywood
movie might influence the U.S. governments climate policy. The
Guardian about what we know about global warming. New
Scientist is concerned about nuclear energy policy in an enlarged
European Union. FAZ on science in the new EU member
states. NZZ on new mathematics with primes. FAZ
about successfull fund-raising for stem cell research in the U.S. which
rules out public funded projects. Der Spiegel about
computer science and affective computing. Science in
a special issue all about the strange world of pulsars, and a policy forum
on scientific teaching. Special Feature Alfred Nordmann (U Darmstadt, Germany) regards nanotech as a diversity of technologies >> debate on nanotechnology |
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British Science and Media Star Susan Greenfield Tim Radford
profiles the British expert in neurochemistry Susan Greenfield in the
Guardian (April
30, 2004). Greenfield is a quite eminent player in British science,
science policy and communication. She was on the shortlist of candidates
for a fellowship with the Royal Society. The nomination used to be confidential,
but information on her candidature leaked to the public. It is reported
that people who dislike her nomination revealed her candidature. Radford
concludes: "Significantly, the only name on the list of 535 original
candidates to be revealed is Susan Greenfield's. Significantly, the only
name now known to be not on the final shortlist is hers." |
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The
Guardian |
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Creative Research Environment in Dresden Reiner Burger,
FAZ's correspondent in Saxonia, profiles (April
30, 2004) the prospering research environment in Dresden, especially
research in biotechnology and the creative connections to culture life
in the city. To create new insights into science, scientists should work
like artists, a research director of the well-known Max-Planck-Institute
(MPI) of molecular cell biology and genetics says. The MPI and surrounding
institutes as well as computer industry - Intel and AMD have set up major
facilities - show up that Dresden develops a first place in German science
and technology. |
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Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung |
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Pregnants with HIV Give Birth to Healthy Children Most of
the 8000 HIV positive women in Germany got the virus because of hetero-sexual
intercourse, writes Gisela Sonnenburg in Die Tageszeitung (April
30, 2004). If those women also get pregnant by unprotected sex, the
foetus in in danger. But as Joachim Dudenhausen of the Charité
Hospital in Berlin is quoted: "Indication of HIV is not any longer
a reason to stop the pregnancy." There is a huge chance to give birth
to the child which is then HIV negative. As doctors have learned the risk
to infect the child is highest during labour which opens the orifice of
uterus. By applying a Caesarian two or three weeks before the calculated
date of birth around 150 children, healthy, without HIV, were born since
2000 at Charité Hosptial. That's good news for the develloped Western
societies, but while the treatments need appropriate medication of the
mother during precnancy, most people in Africa who would also need it
cannot afford it. |
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Die
Tageszeitung |
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Dreams of a Revolution in Industrial Biotech Companies
explore hot springs, ocean beds, soda lakes, tundra, rainforrest, well,
every biosphere for genes "that might be of use for investors and
customers", writes The Ecomomist (April
29, 2004) and dreams of the next revolution in biotech and now its
industrial applications. The prospects are sweet as industrial biotech
seems to promise the decrease of the industrialized countries' dependence
on fossil fuel - especially that oil that's processed by chemical companies.
"Industrial biotechnology will shake up the chemical industry,"
foresees the paper. "It may provide a route to a future less dependent
on fossil fuels, and one that puts less climate-changing carbon dioxide
into the atmosphere." Bacteria like Escherichia coli might process
glucose (which is the 'oil' in biotech industry) into other substances
like enzymes, vitamines or antibiotics. Studying bacteria or funghi the
researchers learn about the basic metabolism pathways. Finally, they can
"pick-and-mix biochemical pathways from different organisms and put
them together in a single bacterium, as a computer programmer might assemble
a piece of software from pre-written sub-routines." |
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The
Economist |
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The new
Hollywood movie "The day after tomorrow" from the German director Ronald
Emmerich makes George W. Bush nervous, writes Christoph Drösser in the
German weekly Die Zeit (April
29, 2004). The reason: Up to now the U.S. media didn't seem to be
interested in the environment policy of the Bush government. Neither the
unratified Kyoto protocol nor the Pentagon report about possible risks
of global warming caused serious discussions about the U.S. policy. This
could change within the next weeks, states the author - due to Hollywood.
The new movie (starting worldwide on May 27) is dealing with the consequences
of global warming. The story: Within a few days the U.S. get into a new
ice age - New York is white and unhospitable and the liberty statue gets
swallowed by the sea. The apocalyptic vision could help global warming
to get back on the agenda, writes Drösser. First indications of nervousness
in the government are already visible: Employees of the U.S. space agency
Nasa are forbidden to talk to the media about possible risks of global
warming. |
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Die
Zeit |
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What We Know about Global Warming Tim Radford
and Paul Brown gather in a report for The Guardian (April
29, 2004) what is known about global warming and why people and governments
"haven't done anything about it yet." First, the authors state
that "global warming is according to the British prime minister Tony
Blair "now the greatest long-term threat facing the planet."
The problem on the global warming issue is no longer science, every politician
on the planet agrees with the basic scientific facts: Rising levels of
greenhouse gases will increase global average temperatures. The problem
is "getting the international political will together" for action.
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The
Guardian |
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Enlarge EU Operates 156 Nuclear Reactors As a result
from the enlargment of the European Union, that EU is now "the world's
leading nuclear generator", writes Rob Edwards in New Scientist (April
28, 2004). 156 reactors run which produce around 32 percent of electricity
in the EU. The EU is bound by a commitment to develop a "powerful
nuclear industry" which is based on the 47-year old Euroatom treaty
- one of the founding treaties of the European community. Edwards notes
that many say Euratom is anachronistic, contradictory and should be abandonned,
and predicts "confusion on nuclear energy policy will intensify."
At the moment, five new members don't produce nuclear energy (Poland,
Estonia, Latvia, Malta and Cyprus). But Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania
and Czechia rely on nuclear power - some of them with old Soviet-style
reactors. |
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New
Scientist |
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Top Science in Eastern Europe: Poland, Czechia, Estonia Jjoachim
Müller-Jung reports on science in the European accession countries
Poland, Czechia and Estonia (April
28, 2004). For instance, the International Institute of Molecular
and Cell Biology near Warszawa which attracts scientists from outside
Poland, is very successful in fund-raising and is also devoted to foster
the scientific offspring in Poland. Early as 1999 the European Commission
started funding 34 research institutes in the accession countries (184
have applied for the support). But beside those "centers of excellence"
education and research facilities in the Eastern countries are poor. Policy
makers fear a "brain drain" of scientists and students to the
Western EU with better infrastructure in education and science. Others
have some more enthusiasm like the head of the University of Tartu in
Estonia. He wants his University to play a major role in modern science
disciplines like IT, genetics, bio-engineering, material sciences and
neuro sciences - "all modern kinds of science", Jaak Aaviksoo
is quoted. On the other hand, Estiona felt a significant migration of
young scientists to the U.S. |
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Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung |
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Neue Zürcher
Zeitung reports (April
28, 2004) on new findings out of the world of prime numbers (1,2,3,5,7,11,...).
A British and a U.S. mathematician showed that their exist "arbitrarily
long arithmetic progressions of primes" (arxiv.org).
A complicated piece of mathematics, but proper explained in its key issues.
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Neue
Zürcher Zeitung |
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Hilmar Schmundt
notes in Der Spiegel (April
26, 2004) an interview with Rosalind Picard, a computer scientists
at MIT, U.S., who investigates in her working group "affective computing"
how we may "talk" to our digital friends nowadays and in future.
"Computers should have more sensitility", says Picard. For instance,
when a printer gives up printing, he could say "Excuse me!".
According to Picard enhances feedback by computers their acceptance. On
point is, who to give computers input about the emotions of their human
counterpart. Another is, what appropriate feedback might be given by the
computer. Picard give the prognosis that we get used to communicate with
affective computers in about ten years. |
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Der
Spiegel |
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Research
on stem cells is all but easy in the U.S. due to harsh restrictions by
the Bush government. Richard Friebe reports in FAZ on Sunday (April
25, 2004) how scientists at Havard (and others across the country)
try to circumvent the prohibition. The U.S. government just refuses public
funding for stem cell research project but essentially there is no law
to rule out any research on the issue. Hence, scientists look for private
funding or money from the federal states. Especially Havard University
succeeded in starting it's own, private funded stem cell project. Friebe
estimates around 100 million dollars of raised money. |
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Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung |
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The Crab
Nebula, whose image is shown on Science magazine's cover, is the remnant
of supernova explosion recorded by the Chinese in the year 1054. In the
20th century astronomers identified a so-called pulsar in the nebula's
core, write Linda Rowan and Robert Coontz in an editorial for Science
magazine (April
23, 2004*). Science has devoted a special issue to the fascinating
world of "whirling neutron stars sending out steady pulses of emissions"
- 30 times per second in the case of the Crab's pulsar. Today, astronomers
have identified about 1400 pulsars at the sky. "A neutron star, with
an average diameter of 12 kilometers and a mass similar to the Sun's,
has an interior dominated by neutrons packed as much as 10 times more
densely than a typical atomic nucleus. This form of matter is so exotic
that laboratories cannot recreate it; to understand it, neutron star aficionados
must depend on theory and astronomical observations," write the authors. Scientific Teaching There's much
data around on science education and science teaching, showing how students
may profit from well-instructed science teaching courses (Science - April
23, 2004*). But "many scientists are still unaware of the data
and analyses that demonstrate the effectiveness of active learning techniques",
states Science, and asks: "So why do outstanding scientists who demand
rigorous proof for scientific assertions in their research continue to
use and, indeed, defend on the basis of the intuition alone, teaching
methods that are not the most effective?" |
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Science
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