FW: Campaign to save Barrier Reef from industry

 

 

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Posted on: Sunday, April 28, 2013 08:51
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: Campaign to save Barrier Reef from industry

 

Conservationists accused Australia of failing to protect the Great Barrier Reef from massive industrial development as they launched a multi-million dollar campaign to drum up awareness. The move follows UNESCO demanding decisive action to protect the world's largest coral reef from a gas and mining boom and increasing coastal development, or risk the embarrassment of seeing it put on its danger list. The government says it is "absolutely committed" to the reef and in February outlined to UNESCO how it planned to improve management and protection. UNESCO's World Heritage Committee will consider the response at its annual meeting in Phnom Penh in June. In the lead-up to the meeting and in an election year, the Australian Marine Conservation Society and WWF-Australia launched an advertising blitz to highlight increased "dredging, dumping and shipping in the marine park". "The reef is one of the seven natural wonders of the world, but our governments seem to have forgotten that fact," said Bob Irwin, father of late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, who is the face of the TV, radio, online and newspaper campaign. "The reef belongs to all of us, not to big industry to use as a dredge, dumping ground and shipping superhighway. The Australian people are the only ones who can make a difference to protecting the reef." Australia is riding an unprecedented wave of resources investment due to booming demand from Asia, with hundreds of billions of dollars worth of resource projects in the pipeline. Last year, UNESCO said the sheer number and scale of proposals, including liquefied natural gas, tourism and mining projects, could threaten the reef's status. The Australian Marine Conservation Society's Felicity Wishart claimed the Queensland state government was fast-tracking mega ports along the reef and planned to dredge and dump millions of tonnes of mud and rock in its waters. "In 2012, less than half a million tonnes of dredge spoil was dumped in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. In 2015 it's predicted that figure will explode out to 23.5 million tonnes -- a massive 50-fold increase," she said. "The Great Barrier Reef is a major tourist destination generating $6 billion a year and supporting 60,000 jobs. No one is going to want come half way around the world to see mega industrial ports." According to WWF-Australia, recent polling it conducted showed 91 percent of Australians think protecting the Great Barrier Reef is the country's most important environmental issue in 2013. The Queensland government was not immediately available to comment.

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FW: Iranian scientist freed by U.S. returns home - local media

 

 

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Posted on: Saturday, April 27, 2013 18:56
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: Iranian scientist freed by U.S. returns home - local media

 

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iranian scientist held for more than a year in California on charges of violating U.S. sanctions arrived in Iran on Saturday, Iranian media reported, after being freed in what the Omani foreign ministry said was a humanitarian gesture. Mojtaba Atarodi, 55, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Iran's Sharif University of Technology, had been detained on suspicion of buying high-tech U.S. laboratory equipment, previous Iranian media reports said. The trade sanctions were imposed over Iran's nuclear programme, which Iranian officials say is for peaceful energy purposes only but Washington says is secretly geared to developing the capability to produce nuclear weapons. Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency said Atarodi arrived in Tehran on Saturday, after a stopover in Muscat on Friday. Upon arriving at Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport on Saturday, Atarodi told reporters that he had tried to buy simple equipment for his personal lab to conduct academic research when he was detained by U.S. authorities, according to state-run Press TV. There was no immediate U.S. comment on Atarodi's case. Oman, a U.S.-allied Gulf Arab state which also enjoys good relations with Tehran, has previously helped mediate the release of Western prisoners held by the Islamic Republic. Omani authorities had worked with U.S. officials to speed up Atarodi's case and return him home, the foreign ministry in Muscat said in a statement carried by local media. He was released after follow-up approaches by Iran's foreign ministry, its spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA). In a report on its website dated January 7, 2012, Press TV said Atarodi was taken into custody on his arrival in Los Angeles on December 7, 2011, accused of buying advanced lab equipment. Iran and the United States severed relations after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew the pro-Western monarchy in Tehran. In 2011, Iran freed into Omani custody two U.S. citizens who had been sentenced to eight years in jail for spying. Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, among three people arrested while hiking along the Iraq-Iran border in 2009, were flown to Oman after officials there helped secure their release by posting bail of $1 million. They denied being spies. The third detainee, Sarah Shourd, had been freed in September 2010, also by way of Oman. (Reporting by Saleh al-Shaybani and Sami Aboudi; additional reporting by Zahra Hosseinian in Zurich and Yeganeh Torbati in Dubai; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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FW: State of war protects Chad's last elephants

 

 

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Posted on: Saturday, April 27, 2013 17:58
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: State of war protects Chad's last elephants

 

In an isolated wilderness in Chad, a war is being fought to save central Africa's decimated elephant herds from gangs of ivory poachers. The frontline is the southern Zakouma National Park: a 3,000-square-kilometre (1,900-square-mile) sanctuary that has lost 90 percent of its elephants in the last 10 years. Numbers plunged from 4,300 in 2002 to some 450 a decade later, thanks to a poaching bloodbath. The reserve now uses paramilitary-style tactics, with 60 guards who act like soldiers and a new 15-member rapid reaction force. "The poachers are heavily armed, determined, motivated," said Patrick Duboscq, a former police officer from France who trained the group. The shift to beef up the protection came two years ago when the South African conservation group African Parks took over management of Zakouma. The first step was establishing a permanent presence in the reserve, which had been abandoned in the summer wet season when most of the park is under water. Airstrips were built and the monitoring system was streamlined -- including fitting 14 elephants with satellite tracking devices that transmit their location six times a day. Being aware of the elephants' movements means that the anti-poaching patrols can be sent out to the right spots in and around the vast park. "The only way we can save the elephants in Chad is by knowing where they are going," said Lorna Labuschagne, head of logistics in Zakouma. As a result the elephant massacre has been stemmed -- just 13 have been lost since 2011. And the once highly stressed animals have started to breed. But the takeover did not go smoothly. In September 2012, six guards were killed in a suspected reprisal attack a few days after raiding a poaching camp northeast of the park. "It had a huge impact on our operations and on the morale of the guards. We were quite shocked that guards out there just to protect elephants were just slaughtered like that," said Rian Labuschagne, Zakouma's manager. The information collected then confirmed what the conservationists already knew: based in Sudan, the poachers are heavily armed, well-organised and have a good knowledge of the bush. Several are Janjaweed, the state-backed militias known for atrocities in Darfur in western Sudan, which was plagued by a bloody civil war for 10 years. "Now that they do not get the support of the Sudanese government, all those groups are still there, the Janjaweed are a sidelined group of people, very frustrated," he told AFP. "They have been involved in ivory hunting for years," he added. With cheap firearms and ammunition and the rocketing price of ivory, more people are getting involved. In response, the park's show of force has been accompanied by a strengthening of the information network among locals. "Even if we tripled the guards, physically you are not going to be able to protect these elephants in the last areas they move, you have to rely on good information and cooperation with the communities and with the local authorities," said Rian Labuschagne. "And that will enable you to put your guys in the right place at the right time." And there are worries that Zakouma's toughest fights may yet be ahead. Conservationists fear that once the gangs have torn through the region's easier targets, they will turn to Zakouma. According to the latest figures available, some 25,000 elephants died in Africa in 2011 alone, about five percent of the entire population, with central and west African elephants hard-hit. The bloodbath is being driven by poaching gangs who move with impunity between Sudan, Cameroon, Chad and the Central African Republic. "Zakouma is the only protected area" in Chad, said Stephanie Vergniault, a Frenchwoman who founded the SOS Elephants association. Some 89 elephants were killed in one night in Southwestern Chad in March by a gang of suspected Sudanese poachers who had killed more than 300 elephants in Cameroon last year. "One by one, all the other elephants in Chad are being slaughtered before our eyes," said Vergniault.

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FW: Permit delays raise US-Canada pipeline costs: company

 

 

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Posted on: Saturday, April 27, 2013 02:15
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: Permit delays raise US-Canada pipeline costs: company

 

Delays in greenlighting TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline will increase construction costs and postpone its in-service date by at least six months, the company said Friday. "Due to ongoing delays in the issuance of a (US) presidential permit for Keystone XL, we now expect the pipeline to be in service in the second half of 2015," TransCanada said in its quarterly financials. "Based on our pipeline construction experience, the $5.3 billion cost estimate will increase depending on the timing of the permit." TransCanada originally hoped to have finished by early 2015 building the 1,179-mile (1,897-kilometer) pipeline from the Canadian province of Alberta to the US state of Nebraska, where it would hook up with a new southern leg to bring the oil to refineries in Texas. But the proposal stirred up a lot of controversy. Pipeline supporters say the project would generate much-needed jobs for the sluggish US economy, while opponents warn it could have a dire impact on the environment and vital groundwater resources. The State Department is expected to make a final recommendation on the project to US President Barack Obama in the coming months.

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FW: C.Africa elephant population down 62% in 10 years: NGOs

 

 

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Posted on: Saturday, April 27, 2013 02:12
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: C.Africa elephant population down 62% in 10 years: NGOs

 

Poaching on an "industrial" scale has slashed the elephant population in the countries of central Africa by nearly two-thirds, a group of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) said on Friday. "A recent study shows that the population of forest elephants has dropped by almost two-thirds or 62 percent in the past 10 years, victims of large-scale ivory poaching," the group of eight NGOs said in a statement. "The situation is dramatic and worrying. It's very dangerous," Jerome Mokoko, assistant director of the Wildlife Conservation Society, told reporters at a news conference in Brazzaville. "Nearly 5,000 elephants have been lost in the northern zone of Congo between 2009 and 2011," said Mokoko. He added there were 80,000 elephants in the Central African Republic just 30 years ago but their number has been reduced to just a few thousand. "The Democratic Republic of Congo alone is home to 70 percent of the elephant population of central Africa. But now there are only between 7,000 and 10,000 elephants in the DRC," Mokoko said. Jules Caron, head of communications for the World Wildlife Fund in central Africa, said the elephant poaching situation had changed "dramatically." "We are no longer talking about small-scale poaching but poaching on an industrial scale, all run by highly organised and well-armed gangs of international criminals," added Caron. The NGOs said poachers were seizing on weapons, especially Kalashnikov rifles that have become widespread due to several civil wars flaring in the region. "The ivory trade begins and ends in south-east Asia, notably China and Thailand, respectively the world's biggest consumer and the world's biggest legal ivory market," Caron told AFP. He called on heads of state to "take on the fight against poaching, criminal activity surrounding animal parts and illegal trade in wild species."

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FW: India predicted to receive normal monsoon rains

 

 

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Posted on: Saturday, April 27, 2013 00:08
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: India predicted to receive normal monsoon rains

 

India will receive normal monsoon rains this year, the government said on Friday, boosting prospects of a stronger performance this year by Asia's third-largest economy. The pounding rains that sweep across the continent from June to September are dubbed the "economic lifeline" of India, which is one of the world's leading producers of rice, sugar, wheat and cotton. "The southwest monsoon rainfall for the country is most likely to be normal," said Science Minister S. Jaipal Reddy. "The monsoon rainfall is likely to be 98 percent with a margin of error of five percent," he added. But monsoon rains in the southern states of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu may be delayed or could be below normal levels, government officials said. More than 70 percent of Indians depend on farm incomes, and at least 60 percent of the nation's farms lack irrigation, meaning they depend entirely on the rains that fall in intense bursts over the wet season. Last year, India got below-normal rain in the first half of the June to September wet season. The rains picked up in some areas later, but large areas of west and south India did not benefit. The rains are crucial this year for central parts of the western state of Maharashtra, India's biggest sugar-producer, which is reeling from the worst drought in over four decades. The southern state of Andhra Pradesh is also parched. India's weather department defines normal monsoon as seasonal rainfall between 96 percent and 104 percent of the long-term, or 50-year, average. The Congress-led national government's hopes of over six percent economic growth this financial year -- up from an estimated decade low of five percent last year -- hinge on India receiving a normal monsoon. A good monsoon is particularly vital for the government this year ahead of the general elections in 2014 as it struggles to kickstart economic growth in the country of 1.2 billion people. Agriculture contributes about 15 percent to the nation's gross domestic product but the livelihood of hundreds of millions of Indians living in rural areas depend on the farming sector. Memories remain fresh of India's devastating drought in 2009 that came despite the meteorological department's predictions of a normal monsoon. The drought, the worst in nearly four decades, sent food prices rocketing and caused huge hardship for the country's poor.

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FW: Cargo spaceship docks with ISS despite antenna mishap

 

 

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Posted on: Saturday, April 27, 2013 00:01
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: Cargo spaceship docks with ISS despite antenna mishap

 

An unmanned cargo vehicle on Friday successfully docked with the International Space Station, in a delicate manoeuvre after its navigation antenna failed to properly deploy following launch, Russian mission control and NASA said. Russian cosmonauts Roman Romanenko and Pavel Vinogradov first oversaw a so-called partial "soft docking" of the Progress craft at 1225 GMT, careful to make sure the unopened antenna did not cause any damage. Around 10 minutes later the full docking was completed with "hooks closed" and the cargo ready to be taken on by the crew into the main station modules. "We have capture between the ISS and Progress," a NASA commentator said after the soft docking completed while the space station was over Kazakhstan. The full docking, which was considerably slower than normal, was then completed at 1234 GMT. The cosmonauts were on standby for possible manual docking, but in the end it was done automatically, a spokesman for Russian mission control told Russian news agencies. The failure of the Kurs antenna on the craft to properly deploy after launch from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan earlier this week had raised fears about whether the docking manoeuvre could be successfully carried out. It was also mooted a spacewalk could be required to check the antenna, but in the end mission control deemed that this would not be necessary. Launched on Wednesday, the Progress vehicle took two days to reach the ISS, bringing with it about three tonnes of cargo. Besides fuel, spare parts, oxygen and water, space station crew received packages from their families, books, fresh fruits and some specially requested foods. "By special request, we are sending some garlic and chili pepper sausages to the station," Alexander Agureyev of the Russian Academy of Sciences biological institute, which oversees the ISS rationing, told Interfax news agency. The cargo vessel, like its predecessors, will be filled with trash and released from the station on June 11, according to NASA. The crew of six at the ISS currently includes Russian cosmonauts Romanenko, Vinogradov, and Alexander Misurkin, as well as NASA astronauts Tom Mashburn and Chris Cassidy, both American, and Canada's Chris Hadfield, who is currently ISS commander.

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CBS Twitter accounts revoked

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Posted on: Sunday, April 21, 2013 22:36
Author: Technology Yahoo UK
Subject: CBS Twitter accounts suspended

 

The Twitter accounts of two popular television programmes in the US have been compromised and suspended. A CBS News spokeswoman confirmed that tweets sent on Saturday from the 60 Minutes and 48 Hours Twitter handles which said their accounts were compromised were correct. The tweets said the network was working with Twitter to investigate. Both accounts were suspended and inaccessible on Saturday night. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The CBS spokeswoman did not comment further. Earlier on Saturday, tweets from the 60 Minutes account seemed far-fetched, including one that claimed the US government was "hiding the real culprit of the Boston bombing".

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FW: Scientist behind polio vaccine dies

 

 

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Posted on: Sunday, April 14, 2013 11:27
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: Scientist behind polio vaccine dies

 

Hilary Koprowski, a pioneering scientist who developed a polio vaccine used two years before Jonas Salk's injectable version, has died in Philadelphia at 96. Dr Koprowski developed an oral vaccine using the live polio virus that was first used on humans in 1950. His son Christopher said his father's vaccine was the first to show clinical success. Salk famously developed an injectable version later, while Dr Albert Sabin was the first to have an oral vaccine licensed in the US. But Christopher Koprowski said his father was happy with the scientific recognition he received without the celebrity of his better-known fellow researchers.

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FW: Ecuador to launch first homemade satellite

 

 

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Posted on: Sunday, April 14, 2013 02:58
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: Ecuador to launch first homemade satellite

 

Ecuador will launch its first satellite into space from China in two weeks, President Rafael Correa announced Saturday. "It's not a satellite bought in another country, it's a satellite made in Ecuador," Correa said proudly during his weekly address of the homegrown engineering team. The "Pegaso" (pegasus) nanosatellite will be launched from China aboard an unmanned rocket at 0513 GMT on April 26. Measuring just 10 by 10 by 75 centimeters (four by four by 30 inches), and weighing 1.2 kilograms (2.6 pounds), Pegaso will beam live video images back to Earth from an onboard camera. The Ecuadoran Space Agency plans a second satellite launch in July.

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FW: 'Nanosponges' could help fight MRSA

 

 

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Posted on: Monday, April 15, 2013 01:27
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: 'Nanosponges' could help fight MRSA

 

Microscopic sponges that circulate through the bloodstream mopping up toxins can overcome the superbug MRSA, studies have shown. The ball-shaped "nanosponge", which is 3,000 times smaller than a red blood cell, soaks up dangerous chemicals and transports them to the liver where they are broken down. In tests on mice, US scientists successfully neutralised the alpha-haemolysin toxin produced by Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA). Pre-injection with the nanosponges allowed 89% of mice to survive normally lethal infections. Treatment after infection saved 44% of the animals. The sponges can also combat toxin from the food bug Escherichia coli (E.coli) and venom from poisonous snakes and bees. Study leader Professor Liangfang Zhang, from the University of California at San Diego, said: "This is a new way to remove toxins from the bloodstream. Instead of creating specific treatments for individual toxins, we are developing a platform that can neutralise toxins caused by a wide range of pathogens, including MRSA and other antibiotic resistant bacteria." The scientists aim to develop approved nanosponge therapies that can be used to treat human patients. "One of the first applications we are aiming for would be an anti-virulence treatment for MRSA," said co-author Dr Che-Ming Hu. "That's why we studied one of the most virulent toxins from MRSA in our experiments." The findings were reported in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. Each polymer nanosponge measures just 85 nanometres across, or 85 millionths of a millimetre. To evade the immune system, the sponge balls are disguised as red blood cells by wrapping them in corpuscle membranes. The cloaking allows the nanosponges to act as decoys, attracting toxins that would otherwise be drawn to red blood cells. The toxins inflict damage by punching holes through cell membranes. When they encounter a nanosponge, they break through its outer surface and become trapped. In this way, the harmful molecules are diverted away from vulnerable living cells. Eventually the nanosponges reach the liver, where both they and their toxic cargo are metabolised and rendered harmless. The tests showed no evidence of any damage to the liver.

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FW: Kidney grafts 'functioning in rats'

 

 

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Posted on: Monday, April 15, 2013 01:27
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: Kidney grafts 'functioning in rats'

 

Kidneys have been fashioned by scientists and observed functioning in rats. A first step has also been made towards constructing human kidneys in the laboratory. Scientists used a similar approach already employed to produce bioengineered parts of hearts, lungs and livers. The US team first stripped living cells from donor organs with a detergent solution, leaving a "scaffold" of collagen connective tissue. The scaffold was then seeded with kidney cells from newborn rats, and human endothelial cells to replace the lining of blood vessels. Next the organs were cultured for up to 12 days in a "bioreactor" while being nourished with oxygen and nutrients. During this time, the seedling cells grew and spread. Laboratory tests showed that the constructed kidneys were able to filter blood and produce urine. Transplanted into living rats, they continued to produce urine with no evidence of bleeding or clot formation. Study leader Dr Harald Ott, from Massachusetts General Hospital, whose work is reported in the journal Nature Medicine, said: "What is unique about this approach is that the native organ's architecture is preserved, so that the resulting graft can be transplanted just like a donor kidney and connected to the recipient's vascular and urinary systems. If this technology can be scaled to human-sized grafts, patients suffering from renal failure who are currently waiting for donor kidneys or who are not transplant candidates could theoretically receive new organs derived from their own cells." The scientists have made a start to applying the technology at larger scales by stripping cells from pig and human kidneys. In rats, the performance of the regenerated organs was significantly lower than that of normal, healthy kidneys. This could be due to the immaturity of the newborn cells used to repopulate the organ scaffolding, the researchers believe. Demand for transplant kidneys in the UK is far higher than the available supply of donated organs, both living and dead. Between April 2010 and April 2011 a total of 1,020 living kidney donations were made, and 1,667 organs were taken from recently deceased people. But this still left just under 7,000 people on the waiting list for a donation. People can survive happily with just one kidney, but kidney failure affecting both organs requires either a transplant or dialysis, during which blood is filtered outside the body.

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FW: Motorboats go silent on Venice's Grand Canal

 

 

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Posted on: Monday, April 15, 2013 00:32
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: Motorboats go silent on Venice's Grand Canal

 

Venice on Sunday enjoyed the sounds of silence as authorities imposed a five-hour ban on motorboats plying the Renaissance city's main waterway in a bid to raise awareness about noise pollution and architectural damage caused by waves. Boat traffic on the Grand Canal in the world-famous lagoon came to a standstill from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, with only public transport and electric-powered or hybrid vessels allowed to cut through the waters. "This day demonstrates the commitment of local authorities in the fight against the pollution and the backwash caused by boats," said local councillor Ugo Bergamo. The city offered free gondola rides to those wanting to cross the canal during the ban. Venice, whose resident population is just 58,000, is a major tourist attraction, receiving around 20 million visitors a year. The facades of its Renaissance buildings are under constant threat from the waves caused by boats -- whose speed is strictly limited -- as well as from rising water levels caused by global warming. The city, which rests on wooden piles driven into boggy ground, has been steadily sinking for centuries. Planning official Pierfrancesco Ghetti said he hoped Venice would increasingly be considered a "smart city" for its use of anti-pollution technologies.

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FW: Iron Age warriors point to glories of Gaul

 

 

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Posted on: Sunday, April 14, 2013 11:52
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: Iron Age warriors point to glories of Gaul

 

In a muddy field located between a motorway and a meander of the Seine southeast of Paris, French archaeologists have uncovered an Iron Age graveyard that they believe will shed light on the great yet enigmatic civilisation of Gaul. The site, earmarked for a warehouse project on the outskirts of Troyes, is yielding a stunning array of finds, including five Celtic warriors, whose weapons and adornments attest to membership of a powerful but long-lost elite. Archaeologist Emilie Millet is crouched at one of 14 burial sites that have been uncovered in recent weeks. At her feet are the remains of a tall warrior, complete with a 70-centimetre (28-inch) iron sword still in its scabbard. "I have never seen anything like it," said Millet, gazing at a metal-framed shield whose wood-and-leather core has long rotted away. Buried next to the warriors are several women, whose jewellery -- twisted-metal necklaces known as torcs, and large bronze brooches decorated with precious coral -- also speak of high status. In one grave, a woman was buried next to a man, separated by a layer of soil, speaking of a close but as-yet unfathomable bond. "This graveyard is exceptional in more ways than one," says the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap), which excavates sites of potential interest before the bulldozers are allowed in. The jewellery suggests that the dead were buried between 325 and 260 BC, in a period known as La Tene. Another clue may come from analysis of the scabbards, whose decoration changed according to military fashion. Designs in this period typically had two open-mouthed dragons facing each other, with their bodies curled. La Tene, whose name comes from an archaeological site in Switzerland, ran from about the 5th century BC to the first century AD, marking the glory years of the Celts. During this time, the Celts expanded from their core territory in central Europe to as far afield as northern Scotland and the Atlantic coast of Spain. They clashed with the emerging Roman empire, whose writers recorded the invaders as pale-skinned savages, dressed in breeches with bleached hair, who cut off their enemies' heads, preserving those of high rank in cedar oil. The barbarian image, though, has been dispelled by historical research in recent decades. It has laid bare a complex civilisation that had a mastery of metal and a trading system which spanned Europe and generated great wealth. The find at Bucheres raises several questions, for there has never been any trace of major Celtic settlement in this neighbourhood. The graves were uncovered at a depth of about two metres (6.5 feet) but if they had any external markers, none remains. An earlier civilisation, from the Bronze Age, left a line of burial mounds nearby, "which would have been visible for miles (kilometres) around," said Inrap archaeologist Cecile Paresys. Just as intriguing, the excavation has yet to find any pottery or evidence of food, which were often added to Iron Age burials to sustain the dead in the spirit world. No remains of children have been found, although this absence is common to Celtic necropolises -- something that anthropologists are at a loss to explain. Years of patient forensic work lie ahead to tease out clues about how these people lived and died. In the meantime, the remains are being recorded where they lie before being gently prised from the earth and preserved.

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FW: 'Sustainable fish' label comes under fire

 

 

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Posted on: Friday, April 12, 2013 23:55
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: 'Sustainable fish' label comes under fire

 

The world's biggest scheme to certify that seafish come from sustainable sources has come under fire in a scientific journal, where researchers say the label is too generous and may "mislead" consumers. Writing in the journal Biological Conservation, a team of scientists say that objections made to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) about its well-known labelling scheme fail to get properly vetted. Out of 19 objections filed to the MSC, only one has been upheld that has led to a refusal to certify a fishery, the study said. It also said there had been cases of mislabelling. Objections include lack of knowledge about the long-term impact of fishing; accidental catch of endangered sharks and turtles; and the impact of dredging or seafloor trawling on bottom-living species. "The MSC's principles for sustainable fishing are too lenient and discretionary, and allow for overly generous interpretation by third-party certifiers and adjudicators, which means that the MSC label may be misleading both consumers and conservation funders," the paper, published on Friday, said. The MSC was founded in 1997 as a joint project between the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Unilever, the food and household project giant, which wanted to buy all its fish from sustainable sources by 2005. Its goal is to reassure consumers that the fish come from well-managed fisheries that encourage stocks to regenerate. The MSC label, whose criteria were designed by environmental NGOs, academics and commercial interests, often carries a price premium at the shop counter. Fisheries seeking certification pay a fee, ranging between $15,000 and $120,000 (11,538 and 92,300 euros), and must also stump up for an audit, which likewise is carried out by external assessors. An individual or organisation that wants to raise an objection also has to pay a fee, capped at $7,500 (5,769 euros), but this can be waived in the event of financial hardship. Responding to the criticism, the MSC said its procedure was "independent, fair and transparent." It attacked the study on the grounds of methodology and said it also appeared to have a conflict of interest, as some of the researchers, or the NGOs that employed them, had filed about a third of the objections. In nine cases where objections had been raised, fisheries were indeed given certification but had had to meet 13 additional conditions, the MSC said. In addition, the MSC had refused certification to nine other applicants, even when no-one had lodged an objection, the group said. In other cases, fisheries had been required to supply additional data about the impact of trawling on the ecosystem. As of December last year, 183 marine fisheries had the MSC label and another 109 fisheries were seeking certification, which together would account for just over 10 percent of reported global catch.

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FW: EU states urge lawmakers to back pollution credit plans

 

 

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Posted on: Friday, April 12, 2013 23:27
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: EU states urge lawmakers to back pollution credit plans

 

Six EU states, including powerhouse Germany, called on European lawmakers Friday to back efforts to revive a faltering market in pollution credits so as to bolster the bloc's fight against global warming. Environment ministers from Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden said "eight years of efforts" were at risk if the European Parliament rejects the plan in a plenary vote on Tuesday. The European People's Party, the largest group in parliament, has said it will do just that because it opposes market intervention which could lead to higher overall costs. Let the market function and find its own level, it says, warning that high prices for pollution credits may only help push companies out of the EU. "We are determined to reject this plan and this vote is important," said Eija Ritta Korhola of the EPP. Brussels set up an Emissions Trading System (ETS) for CO2, the greenhouse gas, which first allocates an amount of pollution credits free to companies. If their emissions exceed this level, they can either buy more credits through the ETS to cover them, or choose to invest in new technology to reduce their pollution and save money in the longer-term. In practice, and in part reflecting the economic downturn, prices of the ETS credits have been very low, meaning companies see little incentive to invest in new, less polluting technology -- the ultimate aim. As a result, Brussels plans to freeze the sale of about 900 million tonnes of pollution credits in 2013-2015 in an effort to boost prices and make companies look again at the relative costs involved. "We need an effective signal on prices if we do not want to imperil our long term objectives," the letter from the six environment ministers said. EU officials say they expect Tuesday's vote to be "very close."

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FW: 'Sandy' removed from hurricane name list

 

 

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Posted on: Friday, April 12, 2013 18:17
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: 'Sandy' removed from hurricane name list

 

The destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy has prompted the World Meteorological Organization to remove the name from a rotating list of storm titles, the UN agency said Friday. "Sandy" will be replaced by "Sara" after meteorologists decided that the future use of the name could be upsetting. Sandy tore through the Caribbean before slamming into the east coast of the United States in late October, killing nearly 300 people in the region and resulted in economic losses of more than $75 billion in the United States alone. The decision to retire "Sandy" and use "Sara" the next time its turn comes in the rotation, in 2018, was made by the WMO's hurricane committee at its annual meeting in Curacao, in the Caribbean. The committee was set to adopt a report Friday that includes a section on how to improve warnings about post-tropical cyclones like Sandy, WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis told reporters in Geneva. "Sandy" is the 77th name to be retired from Atlantic tropical storm list, and joins the ranks of other devastating storms like "Irene", which hit in 2011, Igor and Thomas from 2010, Gustav, Ike and Paloma in 2008 and Dennis, Katrina, Rita and Wilma in 2005. The new name had been chosen by consensus, Nullis said, adding that discussions about what names to add to the list was a "constant source of email traffic" within the organisation.

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FW: Study to examine volunteer motives

 

 

Feed: Science Yahoo UK
Posted on: Friday, April 12, 2013 17:03
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: Study to examine volunteer motives

 

A university has been granted £750,000 for a study to understand why people volunteer to take part in research projects. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has provided the funding for the three-year project headed by economist Dr Joe Cox of the University of Portsmouth's Business School. Dr Cox said: "Hundreds of thousands of people all over the world are giving their time to help find a cure for cancer, or to better understand the nature of the universe, or patterns of global warming, but we don't yet have a detailed understanding of the processes that drive these initiatives, which are more complex than they may first appear. "The growth of the digital economy has dramatically affected the ways people interact with each other and engage in different activities, but little is known about the changing nature of volunteering and crowd-sourcing in this context. "This grant will allow us to formulate new economic models to explain the choices, motivations and behaviours of digital volunteers." The project will also investigate ways in which volunteering can be optimised and sustained through strategic interactions and interventions on the part of the managers of these resources. Dr Cox said that the findings would be of interest to the voluntary sector as well as commercial projects which make use of crowd-sourcing. Dr Cox said: "Technology has made it possible for the average person on the street to make a real contribution towards our understanding of the universe, the modelling of climate change and the development of a cure for cancer. "Our research will show how these initiatives can encourage more people to volunteer, as well as enhancing the depth of their engagement, which will help to push the boundaries of scientific knowledge and create significant social value."

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FW: Coal fights to keep power in US energy mix

 

 

Feed: Science Yahoo UK
Posted on: Friday, April 12, 2013 15:54
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: Coal fights to keep power in US energy mix

 

Four months after pledging to lead the United States on a path to sustainable energy, President Barack Obama faces a turning point on electricity generated from coal, one of the dirtiest of fuels. The White House was expected this week to finalize a rule to reduce emissions from all new coal-fired plants. But mixed signals on whether it will be enacted have led environmentalists to prepare litigation to force action. The rule was due to be finalized April 13. But the Environmental Protection Agency, in charge of crafting and implementing the rule change amid some hefty opposition from the coal industry, told AFP this week that there is no timeline for completing it. The uncertainty underscores the difficulty in achieving the downsizing of coal-fired electricity that environmentalists say is needed to address climate change. Rather than being phased out, politically powerful coal, backed by dedicated support from coal-state lawmakers on Capitol Hill, is clinging to its place in the energy mix, pushing back against the Obama administration's measures and promoting new infrastructure to boost coal exports. Last month, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia organized a campaign to pressure Obama to amend the power-plant rule to ease the requirements for new plants. Even without the new rule, coal use has been on the decline domestically. The share of coal-fired power in the US energy mix dropped from 48.5 percent in 2007 to 37.4 percent in 2012. During the same period, natural gas, which emits about half as much carbon as coal, increased from 21.6 percent to 30.4 percent. Natural gas has benefited from more competitive prices, thanks to the phenomenal rise of shale gas supplies, and the tougher environmental regulations on coal. Still, experts disagree on the prospects for the industry. "We suspect in the coming years there is likely to be lots of headline risk for carbon. But we see very little real restrictions likely," said a recent report from Jefferies that urged investors to buy coal industry equities. But Divya Reddy, an analyst at risk consultant Eurasia Group, predicted the long-term role of coal will "erode" as new environmental rules take effect. Even so, government experts say coal will be a major part of the mix for decades to come. The Energy Information Administration projects US coal use will increase four percent between 2011 and 2040. "We expect eventually gas prices are going to start edging back up," said Alan Beamon, director of the EIA's office of Electricity, Coal, Nuclear and Renewable Analysis. "And so some of the old coal plants will eventually recapture some of the market they used to serve." There are signs that coal is already recovering some of its market share, thanks to a doubling of natural gas prices in the past year. Coal producer Peabody Energy said demand "rebounded sharply" in the second half of 2012 and predicted higher coal consumption in 2013. The political battle has also extended to coal exports, which in 2012 approached historic highs. Emerging economies like China and India are huge coal consumers and Japan and some European countries are turning to coal to offset nuclear closures. Coal miners are pushing to build new transport and port facilities to expand exports, but those ideas are running into stiff environmental opposition. Advocacy group Friends of the Earth urged rejection of proposed sites in the Pacific Northwest, arguing "the dangers of coal exports affect our communities, health and entire planet." Four ports have been proposed in Oregon and Washington states. "The confidence is relatively high that one or more will be built," said Bob Hodge, editor of IHS Energy Publishing. But a Eurasia Group note pointed to an "uptick in noise" surrounding the controversial projects and predicted a "lengthy approval process."

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