Science Matters
Created | Updated May 5, 2005
A weekly round-up of science news
Borneo
The World Wildlife Fund is raising the spotlight on Borneo, where 360 new species have been discovered in the last decade. The problem is that Borneo's forests are being cleared. The central forests are pristine and many more new species maybe found there - if they are allowed to survive.
Rats
In Mozambique rats are helping with the de-mining operations there. Normal detectors signal at any pieces of metal, which slows down the operation as all pieces have to be carefully dealt with as though they are explosives. The rats, however, only signal when they find an explosive so they save a lot of time. The rats can clear 100 square metres in 30 minutes with 100% accuracy, but even if they had a small lapse of concentration, the rats are light enough to survive any explosions.
Mice
Last week I mentioned the mice which go into suspended animation when breathing in Hydrogen Sulphide. Well there has been a debate about the validity of the research. It turns out that the mice go into the hibernation very quickly, in 3 minutes, which is not the gradual process which happens normally. So perhaps it is a result of being exposed to a toxic substance; after all, that rotten egg smell could make anyone want to shut down! It seems that more research needs to take place to see whether this really is suspended animation before anyone can talk about applying the techniques to humans whether its for the usual space travel ideas or to give time to people when injured to get them to safety.
Camels
Camels in the Australian outback are to be hunted and shot to protect farmland. They were introduced to Australia in the 19th century as they were good for transportation. They have no predators there, though, and have increased to 700,000. In a land where water supplies are scarce, that many camels is worrying farmers who need the water for their cattle.
Wild Animal Behaviour
The chemicals we pollute the environment with are effecting the behaviour of wild animals. For instance, small amounts of oestrogen in water makes the stickleback act more boldly. It risks coming out of hiding more often, leaving it more prone to attack from bigger fish or birds such as herons.
Lambs which were fed on grass fertilised by sewage containing hormone disrupters, (chemicals found in contraceptive pills for example) also behaved differently. The male lambs displayed more female characteristics.
It seems obvious that changes need to be made, but scientists who are employed by the industries responsible never find these effects. If you are not paid by the industry responsible, then you do, so until that anomaly is dealt with, nothing will change.
Rainforest
Good news in Brazil! An area of land the size of England (82,000 km squared) has recently gained protection, due to the establishment of 5 new conservation areas.
Global warming
The Earth is absorbing more energy from the sun then it is giving back into space. An experiment has now proved this by measuring the heat coming in and leaving the atmosphere; this proves the earth is heating up. The results are already being disputed, though, so I don't expect it to change anything.
Spaceflight Problems
Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic Company wants to license the technology used in SpaceShipOne, for his own commercial sub-orbital spaceflight service. However the US has straight rules for exporting technology, especially if it can be used in military applications. This affects the exchange of technical information as well, so even though we are allies, the US doesn't trust the UK to share information.
Virgin Galactic are not even allowed to view the technical plans and it has also caused problems with financing the project; the delays have so far cost 5 months and are likely to be longer. Bert Rutan, who designed SpaceShipOne, has had many problems with the US rules. The Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation was in charge of the flights of the space craft. It required its rules to be followed, even though they were the rules for an unmanned rocket launches and this was a passenger spaceship. The priorities should be quite different and yet they had to follow them even though they were inappropriate and focused safety issues elsewhere.
Space Snippets
The Mars Express radar is due for deployment after a year delay. It is to look for water and ice under the surface.
The British designed Skylark rocket has taken off for the last time, its 441st launch. Although government funding was dropped, the rocket has been carrying commercial experiments since the 1970s.
NASA's shuttle launch is delayed till July. It has been grounded since the 2003 accident. This time they aim to make Discovery as safe as possible.
And Finally
In Spain a man has invented a new washing machine which will not allow the same person to do the washing twice in a row. It's to prevent the woman from feeling frustrated at doing all the housework. However that's not useful if one person is ill or away and, at the end of the day, it's only loading a washing machine. I have only had one in the last few years and I can remember the hard work of doing all that by hand; loading a washing machine and pressing a button is easy compared to all that. If only the brains and money was going on something to help those who really need it for example in places without electricity where they do their washing by hand and don't even have the luxury of hot taps.
Sources
- BBC News
- New Scientist
- The Times Newspaper
- The Magazine of the Royal Geographical Society
- Grist Magazine – environmental news and commentary
