This week in European sciences -- week 31 and earlier
 

Overview
NY Times on a global ecology monitoring issue. Die Zeit brings an interview with EU research commissioner Busquin. Süddeutsche Zeitung reports on chemicals affecting fertility of man. FAZ describes the body talk of sharks. NY Times on reconstruction shredded papers by image processing. FAZ and Süddeutsche Zeitung report on a recent EU study on antibiotics in drinking water. Die Zeit describes the new German university ranking.

The U.S. administration organized a meeting in Washington, D.C., at which more than 30 countries agreed to expand monitoring of the atmosphere, the oceans and the land. The goal of the 10-year initiative is to improve and share data on "earth's vital signs", as Andrew Revkin reports in NY Times (August 1, 2003). A special focus is given fill gaps in the data collection of developing countries. Participants hope the effort will result in benefits such as better crop and weather forecasts. The key to such a global monitoring and data collection system lies in technological advances and in the abilities of the Internet system.
 

Body talk of sharks

In the year 2002 about 86 people have been attacked by sharks. But does this mean these animals are aggressive and of evil? Many think: yes. But as Joachim Müller-Jung reports (FAZ, July 23, 2003) there exist some rules of thumb how to "communicate" with them and thus prevent an attack. Even further: Erich Ritter, researcher at Zurich university, Switzerland, claims to have uncovered some "language" to understand the body talk of the sharks. Ritter and his team distinguish four zones around a diver and address to each of them a specific behaviour.
 

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
July 23 , 2003

A puzzle of 33 million shredded pages

Advanced image processing technology makes it possible to reconstruct shredded documents previously thought safe from spying eyes. In the U.S. it was the Enron desaster that inspired companies to set up for services to reconstruct the shreds, as Douglas Heingartner reports in NY Times (July 17, 2003). Recent corporate scandals "have shown that the paper shredder is still very much in use", writes Heingartner. People assume that the shreds are fundamentally unrecoverable. But "that's clearly not true", a HP researcher is cited.
Image processing and scanning technology have come up with new options to tackle even the most sophisticated shredding action in recent history: by the East German secret police, the Stasi, after the fall of Berlin wall in 1989. Shredding machines collapsed under the workload. Thus many papers are torn by hand. 33 million pages fill more than 16,000 bags. Since 1989 some bags have been recovered by manual work. In September German government is due to decide how to proceed with the documents. One possible candidate for the job is the Fraunhofer IPK research institute promising to sort, scan and archive the millions of pages in about five years.
 

EU citizens use about 12,500 tons of antibiotics each year. Relevant amounts leave the human body causing problems for the environment and even humans. More than 30 of those drugs can be detected on a level of micrograms per liter and more in rivers, as Joachim Müller-Jung (FAZ, July 1, 2003) reports. Three EU funded projects came now to the conclusion that adding the radical ozone might be the best way to get rid of the organic substances. The method may be applied in purification plans as well as in drinking-water production. The ozone cracks the organic molecules and destroys them.
But those good news tell not the whole story as Volker Mrasek (Süddeutsche Zeitung, July 8, 2003) explains. Important points are still open: What happens with the organic molecules in the cracking process? What fractions form and how do they act on the environment? Surprisingly the project's participants out of 13 countries obviously did not address this key question.
 

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
July 1, 2003

Süddeutsche Zeitung
July 8 , 2003

Some kind of ultimate lie detector is developed at QinetiQ, a former military research agency, now employing up to 8000 scientists devoted to civil projects. Alan Cowell reports in NY Times (July 4, 2003) on "an airline passenger seat studded with hidden sensors and linked to a computerized monitor screen that cabin staff can read for clues about their passengers."
 

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