TOP 100 SCIENCE SITES
| |||
|
| |||
| |||
|
| |||
| Russia: No space for space tourists There is no space for tourists wishing to fly to the International Space Station, a top Russian space official said Thursday. rssfeeds.usatoday.com |
Violence follows common patterns Researchers uncover common patterns in the scale and timings of violent attacks across a variety of different conflicts. news.bbc.co.uk |
UK libel law has gagged me, says leading Danish radiologist A leading medical scientist is refusing to speak in England about findings from his work because he fears being sued for libel. Henrik Thomsen, a Danish radiologist, has said the health of patients in England is being put at serious risk because he and other scientists are prevented from sharing their knowledge, due to what they see as an increasingly draconian atmosphere in London's libel courts.His decision follows a claim against him in the high court from a subsidiary of the conglomerate General Electric, which alleges Thomsen defamed it at a conference of his peers in Oxford in 2007 by warning that a drug manufactured by GE Healthcare had potentially fatal side-effects. Thomsen told the other scientists that Omniscan, a contrast agent used to improve the legibility of MRI scans, caused a potentially fatal condition in some patients with kidney problems. He claimed the problem – nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) – emerged in around 30 patients where he worked at Copenhagen University hospital.GE Healthcare is understood to have already run up legal bills of more than £380,000 pursuing Thomsen, even though the case is unlikely to reach court for 18 months. Thomsen will have to meet the company's costs, which are likely to increase significantly, if he loses the case.His defence lawyers, Carter Ruck, have written to Jack Straw, the justice secretary, pointing out that although the potential side-effects of Omniscan have been publicly discussed on television and in the press in Denmark, and in the press in the US, there has been no legal action taken in either territory.Straw has announced plans to review England's libel laws, which he has said have "a chilling effect" on democracy."I am not giving lectures any more in the UK where it seems you can be sued for telling the truth," said Thomsen. "This is serious for me and my family, serious for patients and serious for society as a whole. My lecture in Oxford was about what I experienced over 18 months, and that story can't be changed. We thought we had an excellent drug and it turned out we disabled a lot of patients. The only way to improve treatment for other patients is to share this knowledge."GE Healthcare alleges Thomsen claimed it marketed Omniscan despite knowing about its adverse side-effects. It alleges he claimed the firm suppressed the information and concealed it from radiologists, and was therefore guilty of exposing patients who used the drug to a condition that causes tightening of the skin. It claims that Thomsen may also have defamed the company "by way of innuendo".The proceedings relate to a 15-minute presentation made by Thomsen to between 30 to 40 people at a "management in radiology" conference in Oxford in October 2007, and statements made in an article published in Thomsen's name in Imaging Management, a specialist magazine for managers in the field of radiology, with a circulation of about 1,000 copies within the jurisdiction of the English court.Thomsen's lawyer, Andrew Stephenson, said his client's defence would be that the presentation and article were covered by qualified privilege, which can protect freedom of speech.He said Thomsen would argue he had a duty to report his experience in managing the crisis which arose at his hospital when the link arose between Omniscan and NSF, and his audience had a legitimate interest in receiving that information.GE Healthcare claims the privilege does not apply because he acted maliciously."We are defending the integrity of General Electric against comment which we believe are defamatory," the firm said. "We wrote to Henrik Thomsen and asked him to retract his statements in writing. This is not something we have done lightly."Omiscan is one of several contrast agents sold by GE .The company said more than 120m doses of its range had been sold in the last 20 years, and 99.5% of patients suffered no side-effects.Medical researchLawDenmarkGeneral ElectricRobert Boothguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Engineers work out how to rebuild Haiti to withstand future shocks Construction techniques and practices will have to changeThe international effort to rebuild Port-au-Prince will be the biggest civil engineering project in the Caribbean for the next decade. That is the stark view of experts who have studied the devastation inflicted on the Haitian capital last week and concluded that only a full-scale reconstruction of the city, to robust quake-proof standards, will prevent future catastrophes.The earthquake that struck on Tuesday measured 7.0 on the Richter scale. This is severe, although the figure is far below the 9.3 event that caused the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. That released a thousand times the energy of the Haiti quake. Indeed, magnitude-7 earthquakes are relatively common. There are about 16 to 18 around the world every year.Several aggravating factors combined to make the Haiti quake particularly deadly, and these will be the focus of careful attention by the planners and engineers who rebuild Port-au-Prince.For a start, there is the proximity to the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden geological fault which runs east-west along the southern part of Haiti. The fault line separates two tectonic plates where vast slabs of the Earth's surface grind past each other in a horizontal motion. After 250 years without movement, the plates suddenly shifted last week, causing the earthquake."The epicentre was not only very close to the surface, it was close to the city, about 10km away from its centre," said Viggy Lubkowski, a geotechnical engineer who worked on the rebuilding of Aceh, the Indonesian city devastated by the 2004 tsunami. "That meant the earthquake would have struck with considerable energy."When a small earthquake occurs, there are usually three or four cycles of movement – up and down and also from side to side – in the ground. In the Haiti quake, there would have been at least 30 cycles. "If you shake or bend anything for that number of times, its weak spots will inevitably be exposed and there is a good chance they will break or collapse," added Lubkowski. "When the city is rebuilt, construction teams will have to be careful to ensure this problem is kept to a minimum."Expensive measures are beyond the means of Haiti, one of the world's poorest nations. Nevertheless, some key ideas are being discussed: ensuring a strip of land 30m-40m wide is kept clear of buildings on both sides of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault; preventing construction on hilly ground so that buildings will not fall on top of each other; and not using land prone to water-logging, which tends to liquefy when shaken during a major quake.Care needs to be taken with the techniques employed in putting up buildings. The steel bars used to make reinforced concrete should be barbed to prevent them slipping easily from their cement cases and buildings should be designed to take maximum shaking. Beams and columns need to be strong, while windows and doors should be regularly spaced. "Essentially, the city's new buildings should be erected to a proper seismic code," added Lubkowski.Special care should be taken with the construction of government buildings such as hospitals, police stations and army barracks. These provide safe havens where displaced people can gather during emergencies, he added.A very different approach would be to try to predict when an earthquake is going to occur and so give local people a chance to evacuate. Given the enormous complexity of the behaviour of tectonic plates, such a prospect remains a remote one, say seismologists – despite intense efforts over the years."A network of fault lines radiate away from the main fault that separates tectonic plates. When strain is released when two plates slip, this is often redistributed down this network, making it extraordinarily difficult to predict where and when an earthquake will take place," said Roger Searle, professor of geophysics at Durham University."That means our best protection against earthquakes is to be well Âprepared. Apart from ensuring building codes are followed, there should be regular drills in schools and elsewhere to teach the safest response during an earthquake – stay indoors until the quake ends; shelter in a doorway or under a table. It is also important to have robust infrastructure, so that landslides don't block roads or disrupt supplies of water and electricity."HaitiNatural disasters and extreme weatherEngineeringRobin McKieguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
King-sized fast food for fur seal Antarctic fur seals have been filmed catching and eating king penguins in the open ocean, behaviour not seen before. news.bbc.co.uk |