| Microbes are eating BP oil without using up oxygen By SETH BORENSTEIN 2010-09-07T22:15:23ZWASHINGTON (AP) -- Government scientists studying the BP disaster are reporting the best possible outcome: Microbes are consuming the oil in the Gulf without depleting the oxygen in the water and creating "dead zones" where fish cannot survive.... hosted.ap.org |
How flies help homicide detectives Forensic Entomologist Amoret Whitaker of the Natural History Museum explains how the study of the fly's life cycle, can help homicide detectives catch murderers. bbc.co.uk |
Intellectual Poverty | Lily Asquith Lily Asquith makes an impassioned plea for science. Time to watch Alom Shaha's film again, perhapsScientific research is not a luxury, without it we wouldn't have anything, not even hope. Those who think the world is moving too fast for them, it's not going to slow down if UK science is blown out of the water, it's going to keep on going while we sit there and descend.Particle physics does an unfathomable amount of good for everybody. Without particle physics research everyone would have died from the cancers that are treated by proton therapy, we wouldn't have the World Wide Web, iPods, satellites, or chocolate*. How can that even be quantified?There's a lot of kerfuffle at the moment about the "brain drain" - UK scientists leaving for America or Europe because they can't get a job in the UK any more. This is undoubtedly a real effect, but perhaps doesn't seem that relevant to the average UK tax payer. Or MP.I've left the UK already, because the 6 pounds an hour I was earning as a barmaid just wasn't enough to pay off the debt I got into learning my subject. I'm well aware that particle physics seems abstract and unnecessary to most people, so I'm doing something about that. Projects that cost a lot, like the LHC and the royal family and so on, should be appreciated by everyone who pays for them. We weren't really making that possible and that was wrong.It's a common line that those in favor of LHC funding push: we wouldn't have the www if it weren't for UK particle physics. Nobody really cares about that now, because everyone knows that the web is free and belongs to everyone, and nobody really cares how it got there. But the web is really just the tip of the iceberg. When I look at some of the people I know and they are working 70-80 hours a week and are eyewateringly smart and dedicated, I want them to have some sleep because I care about them, but I feel excited. It excites me that these amazing people are working on new ideas and thinking and developing them all the time.Even the ones who aren't brilliant at physics are vital. Software engineers cost a bloody fortune compared to physics PhD students/postdocs. That's why we are forced to spend half our lives (almost exactly, including the time most people spend sleeping) coding (writing computer programs using c++), which is an activity that at least 50% of physicists find abhorrently difficult, at first anyway. I am one of those, I didn't know how to do email until I started my PhD and spent the entire first year of it wishing I was dead.The UK is fucked financially. We all feel it. People are going to suffer because there isn't enough left on the credit card to keep us living to the standard we are used to. It'll last for ages, then it will improve and then it will get worse again. But there is hope where there are people who are dedicated and highly trained in providing solutions to seemingly intractable problems such as these and such as the much worse ones that will face us in the future.The Peoples' concern is quite rightly with ensuring that as many people as possible have access to healthcare, education and a job, therefore the people in charge of allocating money in this country will wonder how they can justify spending money on cutting-edge scientific research when there are people dying of cold because they can't pay their gas bill. I completely understand the problem of being a bit too preoccupied with just getting by to start doing something crazy like thinking about further than two weeks into the future. I've been about as deep in poverty as a person can get in the UK for a large part of my life. It's quite hard to think about hardcore research when you are shattered and disillusioned and wondering if you can afford to make dinner for two or just eat your kid's leftovers. And yes it is that bad.What UK science means to me is hope, and I for one don't mind tightening my belt a bit now if it means there is a brighter and better future for my daughter and her friends, and her children if she has them, and their friends, if they have them…So when those deciding where to spend the last dregs of the overdraft look at everyone with their hands out they will probably try and put a sticker on particle physics that says "not necessary". If they do that then we are all going to die.*I made that up about the chocolate.Jon ButterworthLily Asquithguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
'Ten years' to solve nature loss A UN biodiversity meeting opens in Japan with warnings that the loss of nature is hurting human societies as well as the natural world. bbc.co.uk |
Jesus returns for Last Supper upsize WE'VE been overeating our way through ever-larger portions over the past 1000 years, a US study revealed after studying more than 50 paintings of the Biblical Last Supper. news.com.au |