Science – Page 306 – David Bradley

Lawrence McGinty and Global Warming

The UK’s ITN science news reporter Lawrence McGinty asked fellow science writers via the ABSW discussion group who it was that coined the phrase “global warming”. Jon Turney suggested that the first strong claim was made by a Brit called Callendar in the 1930s, but more intriguing is Martin Ince’s note that in 1886, Arrhenius wrote that all the coal that folk were burning might cause the Earth to get hotter. So, the concept of anthropogenic climate change certainly isn’t new.

Fierce Biotech

I’ve mentioned the Fierce Biotech freebie email biotech industry newsletter before, but it’s well worth reminding Sciencebase readers of what a great resource it is. It’s now available for free in the USA, Canada, Mexico, and the UK. All you have to do to qualify for a free year’s subscription is fill in your details on the form and provide a little feedback on your job function (so they can decide whether you qualify). Once you’ve done that, you’ll starting receiving the free email newsletter within a day or two. The Fierce Biotech ezine covers the latest industry news on a daily basis and your acceptance for a free subscription helps support Sciencebase.

Newsletter description – “FierceBiotech is an easy to read daily email service that brings must read biotechnology news to senior executives in the biotech industry…one quick email per day keeps you up to speed on biotech companies and the biotech industry.” This newsletter will save you time and effort in keeping ahead of the competition.

Tenth Planet

Rather a coincidence that Hubble images of the so-called tenth planet “2003 UB313” claiming that it’s probably not Pluto’s big brother at all but more like a slightly bigger twin, should be released the day before new results from German astronomers appear that show UB313 to be some 700 km wider!

Of course, the reporter covering the HST results will have known in advance (embargoed press release and all that) about the German results, but obviously wanted to scoop the story with another related item.

My sources tell me, however, that there are no authorized results from the HST measurement, as these will take another month to complete.

Watch out for my full report on the published, peer-reviewed work on UB313 in PSIgate Spotlight coming soon…

I Lurv Your Photo

You may not have been fooled by claims of love from anonymous email correspondents nor messages purportedly from Paypal urging you to check your security settings and sending you via their servers in Russia to verify your password, but would you be sucked in by this missive, which could appeal to anyone’s vanity, especially if they post a lot of photos on the web:

“Hello,

Your photograph has reached editing stage as part of an article we are
publishing for our February edition of the Guardians business section.
Can you check over the format and get back to us with your approval or
any changes?
If the picture is not to your liking then please send a preferred one.
We’ve attached the photo with the article here.

Kind regards,

William Morrison
Editor
www.Guardian.com”

This message (there are variations on the theme) came with a zip file attachment containing a rather malicious piece of software that goes by the name of Troj/Stinx-N. According to Sophos this worm “Turns off anti-virus applications, Allows others to access the computer, Downloads code from the internet, Reduces system security, Installs itself in the Registry”

The smoking gun, of cours, is that line “If the picture is not to your liking then please send a preferred one.” Anyone in the trade would know immediately that this was not a message from any real editor. Editors very, very, very, very, very, very, rarely give photographers (or writers, come to that) the option of submitting a “preferred” piece after editorial attention has already been given to the original submission. It just doesn’t happen.

You have been warned!

The bottom line is: DON’T OPEN EMAIL ATTACHMENTS
(unless you’re absolutely certain they’re genuine and can verify their veracity)

Check out the sciencebase site for more on spyware, trojans and worms

Protein Crystals Trapped

The bane of protein crystallographers is the common problem of proteins that simply will not crystallize. This is especially poignant when it comes to some of the more biomedically interesting of their number, such as the numerous membrane proteins, many of which do not succumb to even the most sophisticated crystallization techniques. Now, researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Surrey, both in the UK, have developed a new technique for crystallizing proteins, which could open up a whole range of materials to this powerful analytical technique.

Read my complete report in the Reactive Reports chemistry webzine

TiVo, PVR, and DVR

If you haven’t a clue as to what those acronyms mean, then check out our TiVo, PVR, DVR, personal video recorders, digital video recorders newsfeed, courtesy of PVRBlog. If you’re a fan of TV, then one of these machines could revolutionise your viewing habits, turning “13 channels of sh*t on the TV to choose from”* into a personalised menu of decent shows and movies!

*Roger Waters, The Wall, 1979

Fishy Smaller Fish

We reported on claims to have found the world’s smallest fish that appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B. The aquatic critter measured just 7.9 mm apparently and was found in a peat swamp in Southeast Asia. However, it seems the authors of the paper failed to note that a much, much smaller sexually mature angler fish was reported in the autumn of 2005 at just 6.2 mm to 7.4 mm in length.

So, what’s a few millimetres between friends? The female of the species in question, Photocorynus spiniceps presumably sees the significance, she comes in at a wopping 46 mm (some 7 seven times longer than her mate).

The smaller fish was reported in the journal Ichthyological Research and according to the study, the male is essentially a sexual parasite. He fuses for life to the back of his mate by biting on and turns the female into a hermaphrodite, providing her body with everything she needs to reproduce, she provides the food and navigational skills.

Again, size is everything for this arduous task, male spiniceps have testes so unfeasibly large that they almost fill his entire body cavity, even to the point of crowding out his other internal organs. Still, what fish is going to care about his internal organs when he’s perpetually mating and getting fed in the process?

Discovery of New Elements

A combination of physics and chemistry helped researchers identify the two “new” chemical elements – 113 and 115. The elemental discoveries took place at the Russian nuclear research centre (JNIR) in Dubna in 2003, but ongoing experiments are underway to provide additional evidence.

Heavy elements decay by emitting alpha particles (helium nucleus). American, Russian and Swiss scientists used this decay to prove the existence of elements 115 and its alpha decay product 113. In order to synthesize atoms of element 115 a rotating target disc of americium was bombarded with a calcium beam. Fusion between Americium and calcium produced a detectable quantity of 115 atoms.

However the formation of the atoms was not enough to prove the element’s existence as its atoms only exist for a tenth of a second and are difficult to detect. The radiochemical experiments proved much more successful yielding a provable five times as many atoms.

As expected, element 115 emits an alpha particle to decay to element 113. Four subsequent emissions produce dubnium, element 105. A copper plate was held behind the rotating americium disc to collect all element 115 atoms emitted from the target. The researchers then used liquid chromatography techniques to observe fifteen atoms of dubnium.

The decay pattern of these atoms supported the physics experiments, thus proving the earlier discovery of element 115 and its offspring element 113. All elements below atomic number 113 are already known.

Quite astonishingly a press release today from the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland seemed to imply that these elemental discoveries were recent and that somehow they were down to the PSI. This is, not the case. Dozens of researchers were involved in the discovery, which was reported on Sciencebase and elsewhere in September 2003.

Take a look here for a timeline of elemental discoveries

Chemistry World Calendar

If you’re a Chemistry World reader you may have their freebie wallplanner tacked to the pinboard in your lab. But, watch out when you’re booking meetings towards the end of June this year. In their efforts to get as many conference ads into the chart, publisher the Royal Society of Chemistry skips a beat, with Friday June 30 leaping to Wednesday July 1.

Of course, if you’re using the freebie wallplanner from almost any other learned society, you’d know that July 1 is on a Saturday this year.

Scientific Media News Release Service

Exposing yourself – Have you recently made an important discovery? Is your research now in press or accepted for publication? Does your research deserve to reach as wide an audience as possible?

If you answered, “Yes!” to any of these questions, then we can can help you create a news release that will grab the science headlines. The release can then be placed in the hands of science writers and journalists safe in the knowledge that the facts are straight and your results are highlighted not hyped. Your work could make the headlines in popular science magazines, papers, websites and many other outlets the world over, providing useful support for those funding applications that ask, “So what?”

When you hear your paper is accepted get in touch with us right away. Tell us briefly the purpose of your study, the reasons you think non-specialists and non-scientists will find it interesting, and whether there are any particular aspects of the work we should bear in mind when writing about the research. We can then tailor appropriate questions to you to get to the heart of the story and prepare the news release.

You can make the most of the process by sending us a preprint in advance (PDF is best, but Word and other formats are fine) and be assured that we will adhere strictly to any embargo conditions laid down by the journal in question. You can also assist in the preparation of the release by highlighting other pertinent references in the field. Any images that might be used to improve the visual impact of the release could also be suggested at this stage. The more information you provide the more we will have to create an accurate and exciting summary of your work. You may wish to list two or three relevant websites, including your own, that would help journalists who follow up the story. Most importantly, tell us how your findings might affect people in their every day lives or whether applications might ultimately be developed from it.

Please be aware that we will breach no journal embargoes and will work in conjunction with your institute’s press office or public relations department as appropriate. We will prepare a draft of the news release and return it to you for editing and approval. We will also coordinate with your news office as necessary to ensure the news reaches the widest possible media audience to coincide with the date of publication.

The David Bradley Science Writer partnership has been in the business for sixteen years writing for many markets including daily papers, magazines, websites and others including Science, New Scientist, American Scientist, Nature, and Proc Natl Acad Sci. We also have extensive experience of creating attention-grabbing news releases for the likes of the Institute of Physics and publicity materials for the National Academy of Sciences, Royal Society, Argonne National Laboratory, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), PSIgate, and Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (CCLRC). Senior partner David Bradley is a qualified chartered chemist and a member of the US National Association of Science Writers and the Association of British Science Writers. The Partnership also includes experienced proof-reader and editor Tricia Cross BS Dip RSA who ensures each news release is crafted with precision to reflect your science in the best possible light.