&cat=7&pid=16163&cache=true">
&cat=19&pid=16163&cache=true " alt="Case dropped against Simon Singh" class="alignleft" />
The British Chiropractic Association has dropped its libel action against the science writer Simon Singh. Dr Singh was being sued by the organisation because of comments he had made about the effectiveness of chiropractic in the Guardian in 2008. The case itself had sparked an intense debate about the role of libel actions in areas of scientific controversy. Dr Singh recently won an appeal that would have allowed him to use the fair comment defence in the case. On Thursday, the website of William McCormick QC, one of the barristers acting for Simon Singh, said the British Chiropractic Association has served a “Notice of Discontinuance”. This means the case is now over. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 15, 2010 | Posted in
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Millions of water voles, whales and wildcats are set to drop through letter boxes across the UK in the coming weeks – as the Royal Mail highlights the struggle for survival facing some of Britain’s wild mammals. As part of the 2010 International year of Biodiversity, 10 new First Class stamps show creatures for whom the future is by no means secure – as the Chief Executive of The Mammal Society, Marina Pacheco, explains. Images courtesy Royal Mail, Science Photo Library and Getty Images. Music courtesy KPM Music.Slideshow production by Paul Kerley. Publication date 13 April 2010. Links The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites More audio slideshows This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 13, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=15403&cache=true " alt="Ice mission turns on instrument" class="alignleft" />
The radar instrument on Europe’s Cryosat-2 spacecraft has been switched on and is reported to be working well. The satellite, which was launched last Thursday from Kazakhstan, will use the equipment to map the thickness and shape of the Earth’s polar ice cover. Controllers must now check all of Cryosat’s systems while a calibration team fine-tunes the radar. The science phase of the mission is expected to start in a few months’ time and continue through to at least 2013. Cryosat is the latest Earth observation venture to be flown by the European Space Agency (Esa). A command was sent from its operation’s centre in Darmstadt, Germany, on Sunday to activate the satellite’s SAR/Interferometric Radar Altimeter (Siral). The instrument then acquired sample data over the Antarctic and Arctic for relay back to Earth. “We’ve tried the instrument out in all its modes,” said Esa project manager Dr Richard Francis. “The very first time we switched it on, it worked brilliantly,” he told BBC News. Siral advances the technology flown on previous European radar missions, such as ERS and Envisat. It has an along-track (straight ahead) resolution of about 250m, which will allow it to see the gaps of open water between the protruding sea-ice floes of the Arctic. With centimetre-scale accuracy, the altimeter will measure the difference in height between the two surfaces so scientists can work out the overall volume of the marine cover. A second antenna on Siral offset from the first by about a metre will enable the instrument to sense the shape of the ice below, returning more reliable information on slopes and ridges. This interferometric observing mode will be used to assess the edges of Greenland and Antarctica where some rapid thinning has been detected in recent years. Cryosat’s Dnepr rocket gave the mission a perfect start by injecting the spacecraft about 100m above the requested 720km-high mean orbit. Controllers will now modify this orbit slightly to enable the radar instrument to perform at its best. Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 12, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=14546&cache=true " alt="Colour e-readers shift to video" class="alignleft" />
A colour e-reader that supports video and potentially web browsing has been shown off by Dutch researchers. The prototype uses screen technology – based on century-old science – that its makers say is up to four times more energy efficient than LCD screens. Once established in the e-reader market, Dutch firm Liquavista hope to see its displays integrated into other devices in the future. But analysts question whether consumers will be enticed by the greener gadgets. Liquavista said it expects the first e-readers using the “electrowetting” technology to be available by the middle of 2011 and the technology to then become more widespread. “You certainly could see this technology in your smartphone, in your mobile phone, in your web tablet, in your PC, in your notebook,” said Guy Demuynck, head of the firm. “But eventually you could see it in your home as your television screen in your living room,” he added Sunshine screen Electrowetting has been known about for more than a century but is only now being perfected by several companies, for instance, to create auto-focus lenses for cameras. It involves small electrical charges moving coloured oil within each pixel. Most current e-readers use e-ink technology – small black and white beads that are manipulated with electrical charges. Pages on current e-book readers can take up to two seconds to load each page. The new display can change images at a speed of up to 60 times per second, its manufacturers said. This is fast enough to run video, which typically needs a refresh rate of 50 or 60 frames per second. Liquavista uses the electrowetting to also add colour to a screen, but unlike liquid crystal displays (LCD) such as those on laptops, it can work without a backlight. When used in sunlight, the new type of display can bounce the natural light through the oil filters back at the reader. The brighter the sunshine, the more vivid the screen becomes; when used in a darker environment, the e-reader switches to the backlight automatically. Johan Feenstra, Liquavista’s founder, said the display combines the best of both technologies. “On the one side there’s the LCDs which bring video and colour, as we know from our TV screens. On the other side, there’s the electrophoretic displays [e-ink e-readers] which bring low power consumption and readability in all lighting conditions,” he said. The company said the technology is three to four more efficient than LCD screens because of the higher level of backlight passing through each pixel. James McQuivey, media technology analyst at tech research firm Forrester, agreed electrowetting has the potential to make the transition to devices and public displays such as billboards and bus stop posters. But, he predicted some obstacles: “The challenge is physics really – it’s to get things [oil] to respond quickly enough, and in sunshine – to get enough light to reflect back off the screen.” Green premium? Despite the novelty of a colour e-readers that play video, the efficiencies of electrowetting may be the factor that holds the greatest potential for this technology. Eventually, if placed into laptops these screens could deliver battery lives measured in days rather than hours. “Electricity is not freely available everywhere in developing countries so it means of course if you can run this device for a long time on your batteries,” said Mr Demuynck. He told the BBC that consumers increasingly expect new devices to have low power consumption. However, Mr McQuivey questions whether people are prepared to pay more for a greener device, where an alternative is readily available. “Consumers have become spoilt by LCD technology. They are used to charging their devices twice a day and won’t pay a huge premium for something that simply doesn’t need charging as often,” he said. “So the question is how quickly these new screen technologies can be produced at scale and at what cost,” he added. Liquavista said the manufacturing process is very similar to that for LCDs so existing production lines could be adapted rather than building new facilities. “That would give it a big advantage over competing new screen technologies like e-ink or OLED which require largely new production processes,” Mr McQuivey said. In the longer-term, Liquavista is exploring other possibilities for the technology with UK e-reader firm Plastic Logic. They hope to produce a flexible colour magazine that can update itself and run video within three years. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 9, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=14401&cache=true " alt="Climate deal fear as talks resume" class="alignleft" />
The first round of UN climate talks since December’s bitter Copenhagen summit opens in Bonn on Friday with the future of the process uncertain. Developing countries are adamant that the UN climate convention is the right forum for negotiating a global deal and want it done by the year’s end. But others, notably the US, appear to think this is not politically feasible. Some delegates are concerned that the whole process could collapse, given the divisions and lack of trust. “There is the political will among developing countries. They are working for an agreement that includes further emissions reductions under the Kyoto Protocol,” Martin Khor, executive director of the South Centre, an intergovernmental organisation of developing countries, told the BBC. “Whether there is political will among the industrialised countries is another matter,” he said. Developing nations have been pressing to agree a series of preparatory meetings this year – as many as five – in order that outstanding differences on the text of a new agreement can be worked out in time for the next major summit in Mexico, in November and December. But delegates here said that richer countries were resisting this, holding out for just one more meeting before November, which would leave no chance of agreeing a new global treaty or even agreeing a framework. Analyses released since the end of the Copenhagen summit suggest that without further constraints soon, it will be very difficult to keep the rise in average global temperatures since pre-industrial times below 2C, a threshold commonly cited as indicating dangerous climate change. Cross parties The US, in particular, is in a sticky situation regarding domestic legislation. An initial bill, introduced to the Senate last September, is widely seen as having no chance of passing. A cross-party group of senators has been drawing up a new one, containing concessions to some states and industries. But this version, if enacted, may reduce US emissions by considerably less than the 17% figure (from 2005 levels by 2020) that President Barack Obama pledged when he addressed Copenhagen. “There’s considerable uncertainty about whether there is going to be a US domestic bill that follows through on the president’s 17% commitment,” said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). “[The administration is] very sceptical about the ability to get a full-blown legal deal that replaces the Kyoto Protocol or builds on it, given the state of play back home.” As to whether growing scepticism about the science of climate change – evidenced in some US opinion polls – was slowing the legislative process, Mr Meyer suggested it was not. “The manufactured debate over the science is in our view just an excuse for [opposing senators] not to do what they weren’t going to do anyway,” he said. “The attempts to swing votes behind the new bill aren’t anything to do with climate science, they’re to do with alleviating concerns from industries the senators are close to.” BASIC instinct Immediately after the Copenhagen summit, the US appeared to have formed a powerful new alliance with the BASIC group of countries – Brazil, China, India and South Africa – that steered through the controversial and weak Copenhagen Accord on the summit’s final day. There were signs that this group saw the accord, with its voluntary nature, as more attractive than the traditional negotiations and supposedly binding commitments of the UN process. CLIMATE CHANGE GLOSSARY However, the BASIC countries have now affirmed that the UN climate convention (UNFCCC) should be the sovereign body for international climate talks. More than 120 countries have sent letters to the UNFCCC secretariat saying whether or not they endorse the accord. A majority do endorse it, but many with the rider that they see it as just a political declaration leading to a full-blown treaty at some stage, and certainly not be a replacement for such a treaty. Sources said the US was “bullying” small developing countries into endorsing the accord, claiming they would not be eligible for financial help from rich nations unless they did so. Whereas this accusation appears to be straining relations that were already stretched, there are signs that the EU is preparing to give ground on one of the major demands of developing countries – that further emissions cuts for rich countries are made under the Kyoto Protocol. In a strategy document released last week, the UK said it was prepared to consider the idea; and other EU leaders are also reportedly sympathetic. “This is a pretty good first step,” said Mr Khor. “It’s not enough, but if more countries in the EU take this position, that could be the foundation of something that could be a salvation to this situation.” However, if the EU did formally move in this direction, it would put the bloc at odds with traditional allies such as the US, Canada and Japan. The meeting here runs until Sunday evening. Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 8, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=11583&cache=true " alt="Warning over pupil fingerprinting" class="alignleft" />
Many schools are fingerprinting pupils without parents’ permission, teachers have warned. It is thought around 100 schools in the UK now use fingerprint identification systems for registration, borrowing library books and cashless catering. But there is no legal requirement for schools to seek parents’ consent for using biometric technologies. Critics say this is “outrageous” and have called for a “strong and explicit law” to cover this issue. Although there are no rules requiring head teachers to consult with parents on taking pupils’ fingerprints, there are strict rules on what schools can do with biometric information. ‘Explicit law’ Speaking at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) annual conference in Manchester, teacher Hank Roberts said fingerprinting should not be allowed in schools without full consultation with staff and written permission from parents. Mr Roberts, from Copland Specialist Science College in Brent, London, said: “It’s plain common sense for them to consult parents before introducing biometric systems. “It’s outrageous that children’s fingerprints can be taken without their parents’ or guardians’ consent.” Azra Haque from Hay Lane Special School in Brent said schools should have to involve pupils and parents in any decisions to use biometric technologies. “We really do need a strong and explicit law in this regard,”she said. Mr Hanks cited the Capital City Academy in Willesden, London, which faced anger from parents after it fingerprinted pupils without their permision. The school was subsequently forced to consult with parents and offer an opt-out for those who objected. Geoff Pye, a teacher from Essex, said fingerprint identification meant shorter queues at lunchtime and no problems with pupils losing swipe cards or having their dinner money stolen. “It’s a very useful tool – schools will use biometrics usefully. Let’s remember, it’s schools using it, not the police.” The union rejected Mr Hank’s and Ms Haque’s motion to raise the use of biometric technologies with Children’s Secretary Ed Balls “as a matter of urgency” and oppose the use of these technologies, without full consultation, with strike action if necessary. But conference delegates agreed to set up a working party to “formulate a policy on the matter”. Alex Thomas, principal of Capital City Academy, said: “Many parents, once they have seen the system in action, have supported the school in introducing the system. “Previously students were using (payment) cards, which could be lost or stolen. The biometric system prevents that happening and is much quicker. ‘Not illegal’ The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which promotes public access to official information, said it was not illegal for schools to collect pupils’ fingerprints without their parents’ consent. The ICO said there was nothing in the Data Protection Act that required schools to seek consent from parents before implementing a fingerprinting programme. But it said schools should be aware of the sensitivity of the issue. “It is important that the information is only used for purposes specified when it is collected,” the ICO said in a statement. “Schools should explain the reasons for introducing the system and how personal data is used and kept safe.” And it would be “heavy-handed” of schools not to respect the wishes of those pupils and parents who objected to fingerprinting initiatives, the ICO added. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
March 29, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=10484&cache=true " alt="Schools lack science practicals" class="alignleft" />
Science teachers are doing fewer practical experiments because of the demands of the curriculum, tests and badly behaved pupils, a poll suggests. Online research among 1,300 teachers by the government-funded Science Learning Centres found 96% said they faced obstacles to doing practical lessons. Two thirds blamed pressure from the curriculum while four in 10 blamed the demands of testing and marking. Pupils’ behaviour was cited by 29%, and one in four blamed a lack of equipment. Only one in 10 said health and safety fears were an issue. Director of the National Science Learning Centre Professor Sir John Holman said: “Learning science without practicals is the equivalent of studying literature without books. ” Activities such as ripple tanks, dissection and microbiology, which were once to be found in school science labs up and down the country, are becoming endangered species ” Professor Sir John Holman, Director, National Science Learning Centres “Experimental evidence is the mainstay of science and the UK has a very strong tradition of scientific practical work in schools. “It concerns me that, for a range of reasons, many teachers currently feel unable to dedicate as much time to practical work in the classroom as they would like. “Activities such as ripple tanks, dissection and microbiology, which were once to be found in school science labs up and down the country, are becoming endangered species.” The survey suggests that time for experiments falls as pupils go up through secondary school, the Science Learning Centres say. While 63% of Key Stage 3 teachers (teaching 11 to 14-year-olds) said they spent 40% of their teaching time on practical work, 43% of Key Stage 4 teachers said the same and just 28% of those teaching over-16s did so.
March 26, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=10353&cache=true " alt="Ada Lovelace voted tech heroine" class="alignleft" />
By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter, BBC News Ada Lovelace has emerged as the most popular role model in a day dedicated to celebrating women working in the fields of science and technology. So far, 2,239 people around the world have posted blogs, videos and podcasts online nominating their heroines. Additionally, events were held in London, Copenhagen, Dresden, Montreal and Brazil to mark the day, named after Ms Lovelace, held on 24 March. Ms Lovelace worked with mathematician Charles Babbage in the 1800s. Mr Babbage’s invention, the Analytical Engine, formed the basis of modern computing. Ada Lovelace is therefore credited with writing the world’s first computer program when she came up with a way of using the machine, which was never actually built, to calculate a mathematical sequence known as Bernoulli numbers. Other nominees included scientist Marie Curie, mathematician-turned-actress Hedy Lamarr, programmer Grace Hopper and Lisbeth Salander, fictional creation of the late author Stieg Larsson. Wonder women “For years I’ve worked in technology, and every time you see a list of the top people in tech, it’s dominated by men,” said Suw Charman-Anderson, who created Ada Lovelace Day in 2009 and runs the annual event. “There’s always a discussion about where the women in technology are. I thought, I know loads of women in technology. Why are we asking where they are” Ms Charman-Anderson invited people to nominate any woman in technology who had been a positive influence or inspiration – including teachers, parents and lecturers. She chose broadcaster Maggie Philbin as her own role model, having watched her present BBC science programme Tomorrow’s World during her teenage years. “Here was a woman who looked very cool and talked about technology articulately – technology was second nature to her,” she told BBC News. “This was someone who understood what was going on and could communicate very clearly.” ” Having a role model is important, it means you don’t question whether you can do something because you can see another woman doing it already ” Suw Charman-Anderson Ms Charman-Anderson was one of only two girls in her school year to study maths, physics and chemistry at A-level and now works as a social media consultant. “Having a role model is important, it means you don’t question whether you can do something because you can see another woman doing it already,” she said. Early inspiration Maggie Philbin told BBC News she was flattered by the nomination, although she had not considered herself to be a role model at the time. “When I watched Tomorrow’s World in the 60s and early 70s, it was just blokes. It was fabulous to watch, but at that stage I never imagined that it would have anything to do with me,” she said. “Look at the archives from the 60s – there are so many references to secretaries. That’s what I, as a 10-year-old, was consuming.” Ms Philbin’s interest in science was sparked because of an early, and unrealised, ambition to become a vet, she added. She now credits social media such as Twitter for introducing her to inspirational women such as Ms Charman-Anderson and Dr Sue Black, who orchestrated a social media campaign to save World War II code-breaking centre Bletchley Park. “These are my role models and technology heroines – they are using technology in a really ambitious and positive way. I’m learning a huge amount from them,” she said.
March 25, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=10351&cache=true " alt="Ada Lovelace voted tech heroine" class="alignleft" />
By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter, BBC News Ada Lovelace has emerged as the most popular role model in a day dedicated to celebrating women working in the fields of science and technology. So far, 2,239 people around the world have posted blogs, videos and podcasts online nominating their heroines. Additionally, events were held in London, Copenhagen, Dresden, Montreal and Brazil to mark the day, named after Ms Lovelace, held on 24 March. Ms Lovelace worked with mathematician Charles Babbage in the 1800s. Mr Babbage’s invention, the Analytical Engine, formed the basis of modern computing. Ada Lovelace is therefore credited with writing the world’s first computer program when she came up with a way of using the machine, which was never actually built, to calculate a mathematical sequence known as Bernoulli numbers. Other nominees included scientist Marie Curie, mathematician-turned-actress Hedy Lamarr, programmer Grace Hopper and Lisbeth Salander, fictional creation of the late author Stieg Larsson. Wonder women “For years I’ve worked in technology, and every time you see a list of the top people in tech, it’s dominated by men,” said Suw Charman-Anderson, who created Ada Lovelace Day in 2009 and runs the annual event. “There’s always a discussion about where the women in technology are. I thought, I know loads of women in technology. Why are we asking where they are” Ms Charman-Anderson invited people to nominate any woman in technology who had been a positive influence or inspiration – including teachers, parents and lecturers. She chose broadcaster Maggie Philbin as her own role model, having watched her present BBC science programme Tomorrow’s World during her teenage years. “Here was a woman who looked very cool and talked about technology articulately – technology was second nature to her,” she told BBC News. “This was someone who understood what was going on and could communicate very clearly.” ” Having a role model is important, it means you don’t question whether you can do something because you can see another woman doing it already ” Suw Charman-Anderson Ms Charman-Anderson was one of only two girls in her school year to study maths, physics and chemistry at A-level and now works as a social media consultant. “Having a role model is important, it means you don’t question whether you can do something because you can see another woman doing it already,” she said. Early inspiration Maggie Philbin told BBC News she was flattered by the nomination, although she had not considered herself to be a role model at the time. “When I watched Tomorrow’s World in the 60s and early 70s, it was just blokes. It was fabulous to watch, but at that stage I never imagined that it would have anything to do with me,” she said. “Look at the archives from the 60s – there are so many references to secretaries. That’s what I, as a 10-year-old, was consuming.” Ms Philbin’s interest in science was sparked because of an early, and unrealised, ambition to become a vet, she added. She now credits social media such as Twitter for introducing her to inspirational women such as Ms Charman-Anderson and Dr Sue Black, who orchestrated a social media campaign to save World War II code-breaking centre Bletchley Park. “These are my role models and technology heroines – they are using technology in a really ambitious and positive way. I’m learning a huge amount from them,” she said.
March 25, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=9907&cache=true " alt="UN to look at climate meat link" class="alignleft" />
By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News UN specialists are to look again at the contribution of meat production to climate change, after claims that an earlier report exaggerated the link. A 2006 report concluded meat production was responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions – more than transport. The report has been cited by people campaigning for a more vegetable-based diet, including Sir Paul McCartney. But a new analysis, presented at a major US science meeting, says the transport comparison was flawed. Sir Paul was one of the figures launching a campaign late last year centred on the slogan “Less meat = less heat”. ” I must say honestly that he has a point ” Dr Pierre Gerber, FAO The methane makers But curbing meat production and consumption would be less beneficial for the climate than has been claimed, said Frank Mitloehner from the University of California at Davis (UCD). “Smarter animal farming, not less farming, will equal less heat,” he told delegates to the American Chemical Society (ACS) meeting in San Francisco. “Producing less meat and milk will only mean more hunger in poor countries.” Leading figures in the climate change establishment, such as Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chairman Rajendra Pachauri and Lord (Nicholas) Stern, have also quoted the 18% figure as a reason why people should consider eating less meat. Apples and pears The 2006 report – Livestock’s Long Shadow, published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) – reached the figure by totting up all greenhouse-gas emissions associated with meat production from farm to table, including fertiliser production, land clearance, methane emissions from the animals’ digestion, and vehicle use on farms. But Dr Mitloehner pointed out that the authors had not calculated transport emissions in the same way, instead just using the IPCC’s figure, which only included fossil fuel burning. “This lopsided ‘analysis’ is a classical apples-and-oranges analogy that truly confused the issue,” he said. One of the authors of Livestock’s Long Shadow, FAO livestock policy officer Pierre Gerber, told BBC News he accepted Dr Mitlohner’s criticism. “I must say honestly that he has a point – we factored in everything for meat emissions, and we didn’t do the same thing with transport,” he said. “But on the rest of the report, I don’t think it was really challenged.” FAO is now working on a much more comprehensive analysis of emissions from food production, he said. It should be complete by the end of the year, and should allow comparisons between diets, including meat and those that are exclusively vegetarian. Different pies Organisations use different methods for apportioning emissions between sectors of the economy. In an attempt to capture everything associated with meat production, the FAO team included contributions, for example, from transport and deforestation. By comparison, the IPCC’s methodology collects all emissions from deforestation into a separate pool, whether the trees are removed for farming or for some other reason; and does the same thing for transport. This is one of the reasons why the 18% figure appears remarkably high to some observers. The majority of the meat-related emissions come from land clearance and from methane emissions associated with the animals’ digestion. Other academics have also argued that meat is a necessary source of protein in some societies with small food resources, and that in the drylands of East Africa or around the Arctic where crop plants cannot survive, a meat-based diet is the only option. Dr Mitloehner contends that in developed societies such as the US – where transport emissions account for about 26% of the national total, compared with 3% for pig- and cattle-rearing – meat is the wrong target in efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
March 24, 2010 | Posted in
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