This week in European sciences -- week 34
 

Overview
The Guardian considers how France could have saved its heatwave victims. The Independent on a speculation of cloud-creating bacteria. NewScientist reflects the consequences out of the recent heatwave in Europe. euobserver.com reports on a EU proposal to install a reaction unit on natural catastrophes. Der Spiegel interviews climate researcher Hans von Storch on adaption on climate change. In addition:The Wall Street Journal writes on the best way to hospital when suffering a heart attack. NY Times on a second case of SARS in Canada. Also NY Times writes about a gene therapy treatment against Parkinson's disease. Also a NY Times report on the close approach by Mars. The Washington Post on long lasting protection against smallpox.

Drink water and sweat - or just head for the next shopping mall

Tim Radford reports in the Guardian (August 21, 2003) how France could have saved its several thousands victims of the heatwave. "You must sweat. Therefore you have to replace the water you lose by sweating. Water is essential. Otherwise you cannot cool," physiologist Frances Ashcroft of Oxford University is quoted. That is the only way the body may cool when ambient air temperature is above body temperature. Especially elderly people shall head for the next air-conditioned shopping mall.
 

Increasing Your Odds in a Heart Attack

It may be more important for heart attack victims to get to a hospital that performs angioplasty, a procedure that uses balloon-like devices to clear blocked arteries, than to get to the nearest hospital. In an article in the Wall Street Journal (August 21, 2003, front page), Juliet Chung and David Armstrong report that according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine to get to the right hospital is more important than to get to the closest hospital when experiencing a heart attack. Chung and Armstrong quote Dr. Robert Bonow, chief of cardiology at the Northwestern University Medical School, as saying that "he would bypass the small community hospital closest to his home if he were having a heart attack and instead go to a larger facility that performs angioplasty." This conclusion suggests that people familiarize themselves with area hospitals ahead of time, and learn which one would cover their insurance and offer angioplasty in case of a heart attack.
 

Wall Street Journal
August 21, 2003

Second Case Like SARS Turns Up in Canada

Canadian health officials announced that a second nursing home has reported a relatively mild upper respiratory problem caused by a SARS-like virus. It is the second nursing home in the Vancouver area that reported that illness. Lawrence Altman reported in NY Times (August 21, 2003) that in a telephone interview Dr. Perry Kendall, the British Columbia health officer, said that about nine of the 100 residents in the second nursing home have contracted the respiratory infection. It is a mild upper respiratory infection with little coughing and no pneumonia.
 

We love the work by Fred Pearce, mostly uncovering the unexpected. Now he reports in The Independent (August 20, 2003) whether and how viruses or bacteria may travel thousands of kilometers by the winds? And he goes one step further: Is it possible, that even bugs may have evolved to create the building-blocks of clouds as a means of transport?
 

The Independent
August 20, 2003

The Heatwave: A Warning for the Future

Researchers say that the recent heatwave in Europe is a salutary warning of the changes to come, writes Andy Coghlan in NewScientist (August 20, 2003). With drier conditions in the south of Europe, it will be difficult to maintain dairy production, and there will be parts of southern Europe where agricultural production is no longer viable. "It's dangerous to push these things under the carpet because we need to start planning now for the impacts of climate change," Jørgen Olesen of the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences in Tjele is quoted. On the other hand in nothern Europe yields of sugar beet and oilseed rape have increased by the warm temperatures. Both productivity changes have been predicted by Olesen and colleagues in 2002.
 

NewScientist
August 20, 2003

Gene Therapy Used to Treat Patient With Parkinson's

The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved a Phase 1 trial for a new gene therapy experiment that infuses 3.5 billion viral particles directly into a human's brain to fight Parkinson's disease. Each particle holds "a copy of a human gene meant to help relieve the tremors, shuffling gait and other abnormal movements caused by Parkinson's disease," reported Denise Grady and Gina Kolata in The New York Times (August 19, 2003, front page). The first of 12 people with severe Parkinson's has already received the treatment at New York Presbyterian Hospital. The main goal of the experiment is to test the procedure's safety. According to Dr. Michael G. Kaplitt, assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medical Center and director of stereotactic and functional neurosurgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital, researchers do not expect this procedure to become a cure for Parkinson's, but a new treatment to built upon. First results are expected within three months. But some gene therapy experts are concerned about the new procedure. Dr. C. Walter Olanow, chairman of the department of neurology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine said that the experiment was crazy. Skeptics say there was not proof that the experiments work in monkeys. They are worried about potential harm to people such as the spreading of the viruses in the brain.
 

Let's direct our binoculars on Mars

There is nothing new for science when Mars and Earth approach closest in this august for the last 60,000 years, as John Noble Wilford points out in NY Times (August 19, 2003). But it is fascinating. Mars got larger and redder than ever. The planet is now more luminous than Jupiter and Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Amateur astronomers with telescopes are able to observe mountains, the broad desert basins and the southern polar ice cap - mostly frozen carbon dioxide. Hence, let's join the next Mars-gazing party.
 

EU unit proposed to fight natural catastrophes

After the heatwave and drought in most parts of Europe the EU commissioner for regional policy, Michel Barnier, suggests to install a Eurocorps unit to fight catastrophes on European level. As Honor Mahony reports on euobserver.com (August 19, 2003), the unit shall react on natural catastrophes such as earthquakes, floods, storms, extreme heatwaves and fires. Barnier wants to reserve money in the next European budget for risk prevention, but is realistic to say that this is a competence of the EU member states.
 

euobserver.com
August 19, 2003

How to face climate change

Climatologist Hans von Storch states in his interview with the German magazine, Der Spiegel (August 18, 2003), that this summer's heatweave was surely not due to climate change. "The dry and hot summer had occured anyway, that is nature. The proceeding climate change just enhanced the temperatures by about one degree Celsius." The scientist points out that he and his colleagues are only offering possible scenarios. Things could turn out completely different. True is: Climate will probably become warmer. If people don't react carbon dioxid concentrations will increase fourfold until the end of this century. The temperature average will go up by three degrees Celsius. "People still do not talk on adaption on climate change," says Mr Storch. That is the problem. He is optimistic: "We'll manage that", there are decades of time to face the unavoidable.
 

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