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This week in European sciences -- week 50 |
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Overview
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For Italians
travelling abroad, shooting the immigration officer a friendly smile will
no longer do, writes Giancarlo Mola in La Repubblica (December
12, 2003). Beginning in late 2004, new passports will be issued that
contain a microchip with the holder's photograph, personal data and a
digital fingerprint. In this way, a cross-check of the photograph on the
passport with the one stored on the chip plus an identification of the
fingerprint should make forgery virtually impossible. Within five years,
the old-style paper passports are supposed to be phased out completely.
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La
Repubblica |
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Never Mind the Facts - British Worries about MMR The British
population has become more and more aware and worried about MMR immunisation
(MMR stands for measles, mumps and rubella). An apparently questionable
study of a single scientist claims to see a link between MMR immunisation
and a higher risk for children to develop autism. However, the scientific
community and many studies from other countries don't support that view.
Anyway, the scientist receives good media coverage for his heroic attitude
which culminates in a TV drama broadcast next week in the UK on Channel
Five. Ben Goldacre, a doctor and contributing author for The Guardian,
tries
to put things right and criticizes the many misrepresentations by
the media (December 11, 2003). |
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The
Guardian |
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Sweating polar bears and lazy students Polar bears
love the cold - and they suffer from the heat. Peter Kornefel describes
in the German weekly Die Zeit (December
11, 2003) the situation of the polar bears in the Canadian Hudson
Bay. Owing to the global warming - the temperatures in the arctic region
has dramatically increased - the area of the ice-covered sea has decreased.
But the bears need the ice for hunting. The WWF wants to promote the polar
bear as a symbol for global warnming. "We see the bears getting thinner",
says a researcher. Maybe in a few years, polar bears will only live in
particular regions. No one knows, because in the past, the bears have
often proved to be very flexible. |
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Die
Zeit |
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Tiny Nanoproducts have Big Impact on the Future of Warfare According
to a report by Martin Lindinger in FAZ (December
10, 2003), the U.S. government has made nanotechnology its number
one research prioritiy for future weaponry. He comments that nanotech
seemingly is about to reinforce the competition for the latest warfare
techniques among the nations, and is thus of crucial importance for keeping
the role of the U.S. as a military superpower. In the visions of the U.S.
military, the soldier of the future is a superman using quite a lot of
nano-gadgets: Bullets don't harm him because of ultra-tight and ultra-light
clothes made of nanofibre work; his clothes contain sensors for diagnosis
and instruments for medication; also the clothes may change color according
to the environment. Lindinger states in his report that every area of
future warfare will "profit" from the nanotech developments.
Especially for land and aviation vehicles new materials that are tighter
and lighter than steel or aluminum are of particular interest. |
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Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung |
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At the Peak Time of the Nobel Season With the
award ceremony the Nobel season has finally reached its peak in Sweden.
The everincreasing importance of the Nobel Prizes for Swedish national
identity is reflected in the media coverage. Professor Erling Norrby,
former Permanent Secretary of the Royal Academy of Sciences, defends the
continued use of the Swedish - and in the case of the Peace Prize, Norwegian
- language during the award ceremony and the festivities (December
10, 2003). One of his arguments is that the prize-winners usually
hail from a number of different linguistic backgrounds and that hence
the use of Swedish marks both the common nature of the prizes and their
specific Scandinavian origin. |
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Dagens
Nyheter |
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U.S. Scrambles for Flu Vaccine U.S. health care providers face a rapidly shrinking supply of this year's flu vaccine, and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are in talks with Chiron Corp. to see whether they can import some surplus from their Great Britain firm. U.S. health officials are also in talks with Aventis SA trying to buy the company's emergency reserve it set aide last week, Betsy McKay reports in The Wall Street Journal (December 10, 2003). However, the available stocks "are relatively small," McKay writes. Aventis has a total of 250,000 vaccinations available, 150,000 of which were produced for infants ages six to 36 months. Chiron has approximately 400,000 doses. This year's influenza season started sooner as expected and is more severe than usual. The United States regularly produce around 80 million flu vaccine doses per year. Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the peak of the flu season has not been reached yet. "We expect more cases," she said. Merck Drug Fails Prevention Test For Alzheimer's Hopes that
anti-inflammatory drugs could help fight Alzheimer's were crushed after
a study by Merck & Co. showed "that its painkiller Vioxx didn't help
the prevention" of the disease, Peter Landers reports in The Wall
Street Journal (December
10, 2003). Vioxx works by inhibiting the Cox-2 enzyme, which can cause
inflammation. "Some scientists hoped that these Cox-2 inhibitors
would help treat Alzheimer's or at least prevent it form developing by
stopping inflammation of neurons in the brain. But the new study revealed
that Cox-2 does not play a significant role in Alzheimer's disease. |
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Wall
Street Journal |
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What's the Use of the MOX-nuclear Facility? During his
visit to China the German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, announced
the sale of the German nuclear facility at Hanau to the Chinese. The delicate
issue is that years ago the plant - producing mixed uranium oxide elements,
called MOX - was given up by German legislation. Also, the green coalition
partner of Schröder's social democrats is opposed to the buy-out.
In his report in Süddeutsche Zeitung (December
9, 2003), Martin Urban now looks for the benefit for Chinese industry
in buying and using the production site. |
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Süddeutsche
Zeitung |
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Many animals
live on our waste. Paul Bethge reports in Der Spiegel (December
8, 2003) about garbage disposal sites that attract all kinds of animals.
The rubbish is in part as nourishing as dog-food. Thus wild boars, dogs,
cats and other mammals dig for their daily fast-food. Storks and other
birds follow the refuse lorry instead of migrating south in the winter.
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Der
Spiegel |
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Facing the Next Flu Wave Coming About 110
labs worldwide register the occurrence and spreading of flu viruses worldwide.
To prepare appropriate vaccination for the next flu season in Europe this
winter, experts with the WHO had to decide in early spring from which
components to produce the vaccine, reports Volker Stollorz in FAZ on Sunday
(December 7, 2003). Not an easy task,
because research had not succeeded in breeding the particularly threatening
Fujian strain in chicken eggs. The breeding procedure with eggs is standard
for producing vaccines, but for the Fujian strain - named after the Chinese
location where it first came up - it didn't work. WHO officials therefore
decided to use a different flu strain for vaccination - a strain which
is almost the same in molecular structure but different from an immunological
point of view, writes Stollorz. In March production of millions of dosages
started using the A/Panama strain. In April Japanese WHO researchers isolated
Fujian with chicken eggs - too late to halt the production line. Now,
Fujian has already hit the U.S. and is spreading on the Nothern hemisphere
- health officials are optimistic that the vaccine will protect people. |
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Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung |
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