Stem cell trial for MS treatment

29 July 2011 Last updated at 05:00 GMT By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News Bone marrow stem cells may be able to protect and repair A major clinical trial will investigate whether stem cells can be safely used to treat multiple sclerosis (MS).

It is hoped eventually to slow, stop or even reverse the damage MS causes to the brain and spinal cord.

The trial, involving up to 150 patients across Europe, is due to start later this year.

Dr Paolo Muraro from Imperial College London said: "There is very strong pre-clinical evidence that stem cells might be an effective treatment."

Researchers will collect stem cells from the bone marrow of patients, grow them in the laboratory and then re-inject them into their blood.

The stem cells will make their way to the brain where it is hoped that they will repair the damage caused by MS.

Continue reading the main story

These experiments have confirmed that these stem cells hold that potential - but these need to be confirmed in large scale clinical trials”

End Quote Dr Doug Brown MS Society The research has been part-funded by the UK's MS Society, which is concerned about the availability of unproven stem cell treatments.

In recent years many people living with MS have been attracted to overseas stem cell clinics which claim to cure long-term conditions in exchange for large amounts of money.

But there is no proven stem cell therapy available for MS anywhere in the world.

The MS Society hopes these new trials will eventually lead to a proven treatment - and a reduction in the draw of overseas treatments.

Common condition

MS is the most common neurological condition to affect young people in the UK.

Three million people are thought to be affected worldwide and up to 100,000 in the UK.

The condition is caused by the body's own immune system attacking and damaging a substance called myelin in the brain and nerve cells.

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I am delighted that we have at last progressed stem cell research to this stage, which will bring much-needed hope to so many people affected by this devastating condition”

End Quote Sir Richard Sykes Chair, UK Stem Cell Foundation The myelin damage disrupts messages from the brain to the body which leads to a number of symptoms such as sight loss, bladder and bowel problems, muscle stiffness and eventually physical disability.

Drugs are available to alleviate the symptoms - but they do not prevent the progression of the condition.

Experiments in test tubes and laboratory animals suggest stem cells extracted from bone marrow may be able to offer a more effective treatment.

Their role in the bone marrow is to protect the cells that make blood. But they also seem to protect myelin from attack by the immune system.

There is also some evidence that these cells might also be able to repair damaged tissue.

Hold potential

Dr Doug Brown, of the MS Society, said: "These experiments have confirmed that these stem cells hold that potential - but these need to be confirmed in large scale clinical trials."

There is some way to go, however, before laboratory promise can be translated into a treatment that can be offered to patients.

The international team will begin so-called phase two clinical trials in six months' time designed to determine whether the treatment is safe and effective.

It will take five years to carry out and assess the results of the trials after which large phase three trials may be required.

But Dr Muraro believes that the stem cell approach has real potential.

He said: "The great hope is the fact that we are exploiting a biological system that has evolved over millions of years and harnessing it for treatment that takes advantage of the stem cells' flexibility."

Sir Richard Sykes, chair of the UK Stem Cell Foundation, said Dr Muraro's research was the first of its kind to take place in the UK.

"Given the high incidence of MS in the UK in comparison to other countries, I am delighted that we have at last progressed stem cell research to this stage, which will bring much-needed hope to so many people affected by this devastating condition."

Correction 29 July 2011: This story has been amended after the MS Society corrected a statement it had made suggesting stem cells from the brains of aborted foetuses had been used in research it was funding. The society said that adult neural cells were in fact being used.

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Nature's primes

27 July 2011 Last updated at 09:25 GMT Prime numbers are found hidden in nature, but humans have made spectacular use of them, writes mathematician Marcus du Sautoy.

Ever since humans evolved on this planet we have been trying to make sense of the world around us.

We have attempted to explain why the world looks and behaves the way it does, to predict what the future holds. And in our search for answers we have uncovered a code that makes sense of the huge complexity that confronts us - mathematics.

By translating nature into the code of numbers we have revealed hidden structures and patterns that control our environment.

But not only that. By tapping into nature's code we have been able to change our surroundings, have built extraordinary cities, and developed amazing technology that has resulted in the modern world.

Buzzing quietly beneath the planet we inhabit is an unseen world of numbers, patterns and geometry. Mathematics is the code that makes sense of our universe.

In the forests of Tennessee this summer, part of this code literally bursts from the ground. Nashville is usually home to the sound of blue grass and honky tonk.

But every 13 years, the banjos and basses get drowned out for six weeks by the chorus of an insect that has fascinated me ever since I became a mathematician. Only found in the eastern areas of North America, this cicadas survival depends on exploiting the strange properties of some of the most fundamental numbers in mathematics - the primes, numbers that are only divisible by themselves and one.

The cicadas appear periodically but only emerge after a prime number of years. In the case of the brood appearing around Nashville this year, 13 years. The forests have been quiet for 12 years since the last invasion of these mathematical bugs in 1998 and the locals won't be disturbed by them again until 2024.

This choice of a 13-year cycle doesn't seem too arbitrary. There are another two broods across north America that also have this 13-year life cycle, appearing in different regions and different years. In addition there are another 12 broods that appear every 17 years.

You could just dismiss these numbers as random. But it's very curious that there are no cicadas with 12, 14, 15, 16 or 18-year life cycles. However look at these cicadas through the mathematician's eyes and a pattern begins to emerge.

Because 13 and 17 are both indivisible this gives the cicadas an evolutionary advantage as primes are helpful in avoiding other animals with periodic behaviour. Suppose for example that a predator appears every six years in the forest. Then a cicada with an eight or nine-year life cycle will coincide with the predator much more often than a cicada with a seven-year prime life cycle.

These insects are tapping into the code of mathematics for their survival. The cicadas unwittingly discovered the primes using evolutionary tactics but humans have understood that these numbers not just the key to survival but are the very building blocks of the code of mathematics.

Every number is built by multiplying primes together and from numbers you get mathematics and from mathematics you get the whole of science.

But humans haven't been content simply with observing the importance of these numbers to nature. By understanding the fundamental character of these numbers and exploring their properties humans have literally put them at the heart of the codes that currently protect the world's cyber-secrets.

Continue reading the main story A treasure hunt is running alongside the showThere are three visual clues in each episode as well as other cluesThe prize is a specially commissioned mathematical sculptureThe cryptography that keeps our credit cards secure when we shop online exploits the same numbers that protect the cicadas in North America - the primes.

Every time you send your credit card number to a website your are depending on primes to keep your details secret. To encode your credit card number your computer receives a public number N from the website, which it uses to perform a calculation with your credit card number.

This scrambles your details so that the encoded message can be sent across the internet. But to decode the message the website uses the primes which divide N to undo the calculation. Although N is public, the primes which divide N are the secret keys which unlock the secret.

The reason this is so secure is that although it is easy to multiply two prime numbers together it is almost impossible to pull them apart. For example no one has been able to find the two primes which divide the following 617-digit number:

25,195,908,475,657,893,494,027,183,240,048,398,571,429,282,126,204,

032,027,777,137,836,043,662,020,707,595,556,264,018,525,880,784,406,

918,290,641,249,515,082,189,298,559,149,176,184,502,808,489,120,072,

844,992,687,392,807,287,776,735,971,418,347,270,261,896,375,014,971,

824,691,165,077,613,379,859,095,700,097,330,459,748,808,428,401,797,

429,100,642,458,691,817,195,118,746,121,515,172,654,632,282,216,869,

987,549,182,422,433,637,259,085,141,865,462,043,576,798,423,387,184,

774,447,920,739,934,236,584,823,824,281,198,163,815,010,674,810,451,

660,377,306,056,201,619,676,256,133,844,143,603,833,904,414,952,634,

432,190,114,657,544,454,178,424,020,924,616,515,723,350,778,707,749,

817,125,772,467,962,926,386,356,373,289,912,154,831,438,167,899,885,

040,445,364,023,527,381,951,378,636,564,391,212,010,397,122,822,120,

720,357

The primes are the atoms of the arithmetic. The hydrogen and oxygen of the world of numbers.

But despite their fundamental character they also represent one of the greatest enigmas in mathematics. Because as you count through the universe of numbers it is almost impossible to spot a pattern that will help you to predict where the next prime will be found.

We know primes go on for ever but finding a pattern in the primes is one of the biggest mysteries in mathematics. A million-dollar prize has been offered to anyone who can reveal the secret of these numbers.

Despite having cracked so much of nature's code the primes are as much an enigma today as when the cicadas in the forests of Tennessee first tapped into them for their evolutionary survival.

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Climate unit releases more data

27 July 2011 Last updated at 19:28 GMT By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News Some of CRU's critics do not endorse global warming - others want scientific practice to change The University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit, target of "ClimateGate", has released nearly all its remaining data on temperature measurements following a freedom of information bid.

The unit works with the UK Met Office to compile one of the world's most used records of global temperature change.

Most temperature data was already available, but critics of climate science want everything public.

Data from Trinidad and Tobago is being released against the country's wishes.

Following the latest release, raw data from virtually all of the world's 5,000-plus weather stations is freely available.

The only exceptions concern 19 weather stations in Poland, for which the Polish national weather service has declined to release data, for reasons it has not elaborated.

The requests were made two years ago by Jonathan Jones, a quantum computing specialist at Oxford University, and Don Keiller, a biologist at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.

Continue reading the main story

This ruling might have unintended and potentially damaging consequences for international collaboration”

End Quote Trevor Davies UEA They demanded that the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) release data that had been sent to other researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology in the US, concerning weather stations from 30 degrees north to 40 degrees south of the equator - a belt around the world.

"It was very much a matter of principle," Dr Jones told BBC News

"This dataset wasn't particularly interesting, but we thought the data in general should be available, and we thought people shouldn't have to make FoI requests for it.

"So when earlier requests were turned down by the University of East Anglia (UEA) on what I thought were foolish grounds, I decided to push this to the limit."

Public order

The limit was reached last month when the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) ruled that UEA had to release the data.

The Met Office, as the UK's national weather service, had approached the owners of data from more than 1,500 weather stations around the world - both inside and outside the zone covered by the FoI requests.

Many had given data to the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) on the understanding that it would not be made public - the main reason being that they charge for the information.

CRU data has been crucial in designing and validating computer models of the climate system

About 60% either failed to respond, or responded equivocally. Some were willing to have it go public, while Trinidad and Tobago asked categorically for it to be kept private.

UEA argued that breaking pledges of privacy could damage international relations, and relations between UK research institutions and partners overseas.

But the Information Commissioner ruled that public interest in disclosure outweighed those considerations.

Trevor Davies, UEA's pro-vice chancellor for research, said the potential for damaging relations was still a concern.

"This particular ruling might have unintended and potentially damaging consequences for international collaboration," he said.

"We regret having to release data from Trinidad and Tobago against that state's express wish; but we want to place beyond all doubt our determination to be open with our data and to comply with the ICO's instruction."

Data from 3,780 weather stations had been released earlier this year via the UK Met Office, while US portals such as the Global Historical Climatological Network also put raw readings into the public domain.

Concluding remarks?

The release marks the latest chapter in a story that has run for several years, with critics of climate science trying to force institutions to release raw weather station data rather than figures that have been processed and analysed.

The issue peaked just before the 2009 UN climate summit in Copenhagen, when a batch of e-mails and other documents was stolen from a CRU server and made public - the affair dubbed "ClimateGate".

Even though virtually all raw station data is now out there, this may not be the final chapter.

"I think people are far more interested in CRU's corrections, in homogenisation of data, and far more interested in their paleo-climatic data," said Dr Jones.

"And this process will carry on until the climate science community starts behaving like proper scientists."

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Images from inside Chernobyl's exclusion zone

29 July 2011 Last updated at 08:23

The first Scottish Nature Photography award winners.

Readers' pictures on the theme of flight

Your pictures on the theme of floating

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Biophilia

28 July 2011 Last updated at 08:18 GMT By Liam Allen Arts reporter, BBC News Biophilia will be Bjork's seventh studio album Biophilia, Bjork's fusion of nature and machines, marks the singer's latest foray into electronic music.

The ambitious project, from Iceland's most famous export, includes a forthcoming album with 10 songs - inspired by the natural world - with corresponding iPad and iPhone applications.

It also features, among other things, educational workshops and a series of live concert residencies in major world cities, which began at the Manchester International Festival at the end of last month.

Fittingly, it was in that rainy city - 20 years earlier - that a young Bjork fell in love with the dance and electronic music that has become so central to her success.

Continue reading the main story

I remember going to Manchester and 808 State taking me around and me just seeing things that I'd never seen that I'd hoped existed”

End Quote Bjork She was there to record a guest vocal for seminal Manchester band 808 State, who were at the forefront of the city's house music explosion in the late '80s and early '90s.

Their collaborations Ooops and Qmart appeared on the band's 1991 album ex:el.

"I remember going to Manchester, and 808 State taking me around, and me just seeing things that I'd never seen - that I'd hoped existed," says the singer, who enjoyed early success with indie band The Sugarcubes.

"So I would be up until early morning... sometimes from just the enthusiasm for the music."

The four-to-the floor rhythms were a big influence on her 1993 solo album Debut, a number three UK hit which spawned singles including Big Time Sensuality, loved by underground and radio DJs alike.

"You would go to a cellar at like 5 or 6 in the morning, some DJ would go on and he would just mix together two wrong songs that were not supposed to be," says the singer, recalling some of her favourite moments in the city.

"And he would have this synthesizer and play on top of it, and you just really felt that no one had done that before."

Bjork sees those times as "my roots" and "definitely one of the things that brought me up, and formed me".

While all her albums have followed Debut into the UK top 10, she's under no illusions that the Biophilia album - which will be released on 27 September - together with its myriad of multi-media spin-offs, is an easy sell.

"Unfortunately, when people are writing about the project, it comes across as being extremely complicated," she says.

"But actually, the intention is to simplify things through touch-screen."

Continue reading the main story ... fame: "I lived here and I guess I was an A-lister and at one point I had 20 paparazzi in my garden."... bridging divides: "I'm trying to find a new touching point between acoustic and electronic, and pretending I'm sort of a Kofi Anan."... partying: "I felt like the English nation was offering me an invitation to become their little A-list villager. I took a part of it for a year and it was fun, fun, fun."... her Biophilia project: "I thought first it would be a music museum for kids in Iceland. Then, for a year or so, I thought it would become a 3D movie."The abum was inspired by touchscreen devices which preceded the iPad, enabling musicians to play sounds by pressing the screen.

"Because I don't play the piano or guitar, and usually I've always written my music when I am just walking outside, I've finally found something that's appealing to me as an accompaniment," she says.

"I can just scrabble with my fingers - it's a breakthrough for me."

Algorithms from nature can be fed into software to create a musical pattern which is then manipulated through the touch-screen, she says.

"They can take the algorithm of gravity or a pendulum - which is pretty complex - and then put it onto a touch-screen, and you can play with it with one finger."

Each of the album tracks - which include Thunderbolt, Virus and Moon - have "a different programme based on that natural element.

"You've got 10 songs with 10 natural elements; their structure is that natural element."

Beautiful ballad

Yet, despite the seemingly complex nature of the songs', the two tracks released as singles so far are eminently listenable.

Bjork's biggest UK hit was It's Oh So Quiet, which reached number four in 1996

Crystalline - "underneath our feet, crystals grow like plants" - begins with naturalistic chiming bells before developing into a full-on drum and bass rock-out.

Cosmogony is a beautiful ballad, complete with full brass backing, which compels "heaven, heaven's bodies" to "whirl around me".

While one reviewer described the Manchester world premiere of the songs as "massively self-indulgent", many more were gushing in their praise of "moments of simple, transcendent beauty".

But with more concert residencies to be announced, other cities may struggle to match Bjork's Manchester experience.

"It was excellent to be there, especially for a whole month, being with all my old mates. We had the wrap-up party with Graham Massey from 808 State DJing and old friends came along - it was amazing."

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Doubts over 'ancient' books in Israel

26 July 2011 Last updated at 23:04 GMT By Kevin Connolly BBC News, Jerusalem The metal books, the Lead Codices, range in size and are covered in ancient lettering In the cool living room of a stone-built house in Northern Israel I might just have held in my hands the keys to the ancient mysteries of Christianity.

And then again, I might not have.

With the blinds shuttered against the glare of the midday sun my host, Hassan Saeda, lays out a collection of extraordinary books which he says are about 2,000 years old.

Flowing of hair and neat of beard, he bears a distracting resemblance to an illustration of Christ from an old children's Bible. It lends the scene an air of extra gravity.

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I spent so much time and so much money to prove these are real. There are a lot of professors and one of them told me that I'm living in a fantasy”

End Quote Hassan Saeda Owner of metal books The books - bindings, pages, covers and all - are made entirely of various metals.

They are inscribed - or engraved, stamped or embossed - with various simple pictures and writing in a variety of languages including Greek and Old Hebrew.

And they are astonishingly heavy. Some are no larger than a credit card but some are the size of large-format modern paperbacks. The largest that I handled probably weighed 4 or 5kg (about 10lbs).

You can see why the publishing industry was eventually won over by the flexibility and portability of paper.

Family heirloom?

But that is where the supply of undisputable concrete fact about the collection - which some people refer to as the "Lead Codices" - more or less runs out.

Mr Saeda, for example, says the books have been in his family for 120 years, after his grandfather discovered them in a cave.

Other people who have met him to discuss the books say he found or bought them in Jordan within the last five years and smuggled them into Israel.

Mr Saeda is sticking to the current version of his story in which he acknowledges that many experts who have seen the metal volumes consider them to be fakes.

The texts might tell the story of the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem - or not

His faith is undimmed.

"I spent so much time and so much money to prove these are real. There are a lot of professors and one of them told me that I'm living in a fantasy.

My answer to him was: 'I think you got old and your eyes don't see anything.' I took my book and went away. Many professors say it's a fake. Why? I don't know why. But this is a real book."

Mysticism and magic swirl in the dark air as Mr Saeda enlarges on the possibilities he sees in the codices.

They might contain the real story of the destruction of the Jewish Second Temple by the Romans, he says.

Or they could fill the gaps in our knowledge of the early Christian movement. They might even hold the key to universal happiness.

If they are real, that is.

The 'True Cross'

The Holy Land is one of the homes of archaeology. Indeed for years, one of the main purposes of the science was to search for tangible evidence that would prove the truth of the stories of the Bible.

Antiquarians warn shoppers to buy with caution because the market is flooded with fakes

And there has always been money in it too.

There are enough pieces of the "True Cross" in circulation to make a wooden aircraft carrier. And enough nails to put it together.

British taxpayers will wince at the thought that a king of England once paid 100,000 gold coins for the "real" crown of thorns from the New Testament.

There are stories of not one but several foreskins of Jesus which have been recovered, sold and venerated and of the feathers of the wings of the Archangel Michael being preserved in Pennsylvania.

For every seller, it seems there is a buyer.

Continue reading the main story

The greater, the more sensational the story, the more the chances of it being real are miniscule ”

End Quote Lenny Wolfe Israeli antiquarian So I went to see Lenny Wolfe, an antiquarian who lives and trades in Jerusalem and who painted a gripping picture of a Middle East antiques market where the unwary and the inexpert tread at their peril.

Factories in Syria knock out fake antiquities to order and every month brings new stories of caves in the remote valleys of Jordan where golden treasures are hidden that will change the way we see the world.

Mr Wolfe has seen the lead codices and decided not to invest. He is a philosopher as well as a trader, interested in the foibles which inspire people to seek out antiquities which may well be fake and to pin their hopes on them.

Or, as he put it: "The greater, the more sensational the story, the more the chances of it being real are miniscule. I'm very interested in the behavioural or anthropological aspects of the antiquities trade."

Mr Wolfe is writing a book, entitled Forgeries and Controversies in Biblical Archaeology. "There are enough controversies and forgeries to make this a lengthy tome," he says.

Golden rule

Joe Zias, an anthropologist who served for 25 years as a senior curator at the Israel Antiquities Authority, is equally sceptical.

The golden rule in archaeology, he says, is simple - when you hear extraordinary claims, ask for extraordinary proof.

Mr Zias says the world of archaeology has changed since Hollywood gave us first Indiana Jones and then the Da Vinci code.

Israel's 2000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls were found half a century ago in caves in the West Bank

No longer is the archaeologist a nerdy toff with a shovel and a Shorter Oxford Dictionary of Latin. Suddenly he or she, is a swashbuckling figure solving the sinister mysteries of antiquity.

They are still searching for the Holy Grail of course - except that now the Holy Grail is not just the find itself but a story of danger and adventure in the process of searching that secures you a deal for a book or a documentary.

Joe Zias says the odds are always against any such finding turning out to change the way we look at ancient history as the Dead Sea Scrolls once did.

He says he has seen many people bringing artefacts to his museum during his quarter-century as a curator, but the only genuine one was a fragment of Byzantine pottery found by a tourist on Mount Sinai.

"It wasn't going back to the time of Moses, but in 25 years that's the only thing I ever saw that was authentic," he says.

Now there are those who believe - just as Mr Saeda does - that the Lead Codices are genuine and that they hold important secrets about the ancient world.

But the search for truth in the Holy Land has been littered with fakes and forgeries for hundreds of years and when great claims are made for a new discovery, the burden of proof lies with the finders. And the burden is a heavy one.

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Search under way for jubilee wood

30 July 2011 Last updated at 01:33 GMT The ambitious 500-acre woodland would take three or four years to complete The Woodland Trust is searching for a 500-acre site to plant half-a-million trees in a flagship woodland that will celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

The ideal location would be an accessible location near a large population, a spokeswoman said.

The team hoped to begin planting trees on the chosen site in the autumn.

As well as planting the jubilee wood, the trust is also looking for volunteer hosts for a further 59 60-acre "diamond woods" across the UK.

"While the jubilee wood is going to be a national, living monument to the Queen, we also want it to be used and enjoyed by people," explained Georgina Mcleod, the trust's head of jubilee woods.

She added that apart from the site being near to people, accessible and suitable for woodland creation, there were very few criteria.

"As we will be buying this site, we do not mind who we buy it from - a local authority, private landowner, whoever - as long as we can afford it," Ms Mcleod told BBC News.

The 500-acre (200ha) project is earmarked to cost in the region of ?5m, she estimated.

"This includes buying the land, planting the trees and other logistics too, such as putting in footpaths and engaging the local community.

"The total will also pay for some sort of jubilee interpretation; how do we make this site really, really special? How do we make it somewhere that people want to visit and will be a memorable legacy to the Queen."

An estimated 500,000 trees will be planted over a three-to-four year period. They will be primarily native broadleaf species, such as ash, oak, rowan, birch and hornbeam.

60-60 vision

The Woodland Trust is also looking to establish a further 59 smaller woodlands to complement the large, flagship one.

"This is where there might be local authorities or landowners who would want to host one of these. We are going to create the huge 500-acre one, and we want 59 other locations to create a 60-acre (24ha) woodland each," Ms Mcleod explained.

She said that they had about 20 sites confirmed and were still looking for more offers.

On a smaller scale still, Ms Mcleod explained that the trust would be giving away free tree planting packs to local communities that wanted to establish a wooded area to commemorate the jubilee. In total, the project was looking to plant six million trees.

The project is thought to be the first of its kind. However, a committee was established to oversee tree-planting to mark the coronation of King George VI in 1936.

A 642-page book was published in 1939 that listed the location and species of every single tree that was planted, not just in the UK but in other parts of the British Empire.

Ms Mcleod explained that the Queen Mother was the patron of the 1936 campaign, and that Princess Anne had agreed to follow in her grandmother's footsteps and be the patron of the 2012 jubilee project.

The tree-planting is expected to get under way from November, when this year's planting season would normally start.

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A star is formed

28 July 2011 Last updated at 13:40 GMT By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News Number 16 goes into position. Another 50 will follow in the next 18 months One of the grand astronomical projects of the 21st Century is open for business.

The Alma radio telescope facility high up in Chile's Atacama Desert has put its 16th antenna in place, giving it a configuration that allows it to do some very capable science.

Eventually, it will have 66 dishes.

This will give the observatory an unprecedented view of the cool Universe - all the gas and dust that goes into building stars and planets.

It will also enable astronomers to see events in the very early cosmos that are beyond the detection of current technologies.

"There's nothing really magical about the number 16, but the sensitivity gain on current instruments is so great it would be a shame not to start doing some serious science with Alma," said Dr John Richer, the UK Alma project scientist based at Cambridge University.

Alma (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) is a co-operative venture that includes the scientific and engineering inputs of Europe, East Asia, North America, and the host nation, Chile.

Alma's 12m-dishes and their associated receiver systems and electronics are manufactured around the world before being shipped for final integration in South America.

The finished antennas are driven up on to Atacama's Chajnantor plateau by special 28-wheeled trucks, in which the drivers must sit in oxygenated cabins to cope with the thin air found at Alma's 5,000m-high location.

A star is formed

Number 16 has the distinction of being the "first European antenna" to make it up the mountain.

The 15 already in position have made some observations but these were more technical in nature, explained Professor Brian Ellison, Alma's UK Project Manager based at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

"Those observations were early engineering checks to assess that the systems were working as expected," he said.

"Obviously, as you do more science, that tends to reveal more [flaws] that engineers can go back and work on."

The air on Atacama's Chajnantor plateau is thin and extremely dry - perfect for astronomy

The facility is designed to detect millimetre and submillimetre signals from the sky with multiple antennas.

By combining those signals in a process known as interferometry, Alma can mimic the capabilities of a single, giant antenna with a diameter equal to the distance between the dishes.

In the 16-antenna configuration this distance at its maximum separation is just 400m; when Alma is completed in 2013, the separation will be more than 15km.

This will give the observatory unrivalled sensitivity and resolution.

Key early targets will be the "birthing clouds" of new stars, and the discs of dusty debris that emerge around these newborns to produce planets.

The European Space Agency currently operates an orbiting telescope called Herschel that has returned remarkable pictures of these same star-forming regions, but Alma will be capable of subjecting them to forensic investigation.

"Herschel is making maps of big star-forming complexes," said Dr Richer.

"What Alma will do is zoom in on the interesting areas and make ultra-high-resolution images that show not just a blob where the galaxies or the molecules are, but resolves in very, very fine detail the structure of those objects, whether it's the gas discs forming around stars or the collisions between galaxies at [great distance]."

Alma will also go after events in the very early Universe, in particular the so-called "Epoch of Re-ionisation".

This was a period about 400-plus million years after the Big Bang that saw a fundamental change in the cosmic environment - when the intense ultraviolet light from the first stars turned the dominantly neutral hydrogen gas then pervading the Universe into the diffuse intergalactic plasma we detect between the stars today.

Rich science

The world's astronomers have scrambled to be part of the early science observations.

Almost 1,000 proposals have been submitted - far more than can be accommodated in the initial nine months of viewing time.

Dr Richer is not surprised by the rush to use Alma. He is in no doubt that it will become one of the premier facilities in the front line of science.

"It doesn't have quite the same profile as, say, the Large Hadron Collider and it doesn't have the same price tag," he told BBC News.

"Nonetheless, it is the most complex observatory ever constructed on the ground in terms of its engineering and scale.

"We're doing this because we believe it will have commensurate scientific returns. Over the next 20 years, Alma will deliver an incredible wealth of new discoveries."

Europe's participation is co-ordinated through the European Southern Observatory organisation, which runs a number of other astronomical facilities in Chile, including the nearby Very Large Telescope (VLT).

Europe's Herschel telescope is mapping the "cold cosmos". Alma will zoom into the most interesting places and objects Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

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'Tonne of ivory' smuggled to US

26 July 2011 Last updated at 21:39 GMT An art dealer has been arrested and accused of smuggling a tonne of African ivory into the US for sale at his Philadelphia store.

Victor Gordon, 68, paid a conspirator to fly to Africa, purchase raw ivory and have it carved to his specifications, prosecutors said.

The conspirator dyed the carvings in order to make them appear old before smuggling them into the US, they said.

Traffic in ivory is tightly restricted under US and international law.

"It's safe to say dozens of elephants sit before you," Edward Grace, deputy chief of law enforcement for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, told reporters in Philadelphia.

There, officials displayed for reporters intricately carved whole tusks and smaller sculptures and figurines that agents had seized from Mr Gordon's shop and from his customers.

Elephants are protected under the 1975 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Ivory more than 100 years old can be sold can be legally imported into the US.

The government hopes to seize all the allegedly smuggled ivory

"The amount of the elephant ivory allegedly plundered in this case is staggering and highlights the seriousness of the charged crimes," United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta Lynch said.

"We all have a responsibility to protect endangered species, both for their sake and for the sake of our own future generations."

Ms Lynch's office described the seizure of the ivory in the case as one of the largest in US history.

According to an indictment filed in federal court in New York, Mr Gordon paid an unidentified co-conspirator $32,000 (?19,500) to undertake several trips to purchase "raw" ivory in central and west Africa between May 2006 and April 2009.

The co-conspirator had the ivory carved and stained to disguise its newness, then smuggled it into the US through JFK International Airport in New York.

It was then delivered to Mr Gordon's retail store in Philadelphia, according to the indictment.

In April 2009, federal fish and wildlife officers seized hundreds of ivory tusks and carvings from Mr Gordon's shop in Philadelphia.

As the investigation progressed over the next year-and-a-half, agents seized more pieces from his customers in the states of New York, Kansas, California and Missouri.

Mr Gordon was arrested on Tuesday and charged with 10 counts of violating US anti-ivory smuggling laws, including statutes aimed at protecting endangered species and enforcing the CITES.

If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

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DNA test links ageing and poverty

26 July 2011 Last updated at 23:16 GMT The ageing process can be measured by studying chromosomes Scientists in Glasgow have developed a new test of the ageing process based on DNA evidence.

They have said it could provide faster feedback on public health measures.

Until now, evidence of health improvement has involved waiting a generation or more to measure how many people become ill.

Work by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health has confirmed the link between social factors and the rate at which people age.

Their findings have been published in the Public Library of Science.

The scientists measured the length of telomeres, the tails on the ends of chromosomes, in sample groups in the Glasgow area.

The Telomeres tend to become shorter over a person's lifetime, indicating the speed of the ageing process.

The Glasgow researchers found that, over a 10-year period, telomeres shortened by an average of 7.7% in people whose household income was below ?25,000. For those on higher incomes, the shortening averaged 0.6%.

Changes in diet

A similar trend in telomere lengths was found in comparisons of those in rented housing with home owners, and of those with the poorest diets and those who ate well.

Continue reading the main story

This study is a first for Glasgow and indicates that socio-economic conditions do affect the rate at which you age”

End Quote Dr Paul Shiels Glasgow University Dr Paul Shiels, of the Institute of Cancer Studies at Glasgow University, said: "We show that accelerated ageing is associated with social status and deprivation in Glasgow.

"This is most prevalent in the over-55s and those with household incomes under ?25,000.

"This effect is exacerbated by diet - simply not eating your five portions of fruit and veg a day."

The test gives an indication of ageing within population groups, but does not accurately measure the life expectancy of an individual, because of natural differences in telomere length.

Dr Shiels said: "Its value is at a population level, where large numbers of subjects allow us to observe trends over a period of time.

"It is a tool for looking at the impact of changes in diet, for example.

"This study is a first for Glasgow and indicates that socio-economic conditions do affect the rate at which you age."

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Pollinators 'lured away by farms'

31 July 2011 Last updated at 00:30 GMT By Mark Kinver Environment reporter, BBC News The researchers say their findings could be applied to habitats around the globe A study has challenged the idea that areas such as farmland provide pollinating insects with a "corridor" between fragmented habitats.

Researchers suggested that the pollinators in their survey were "fickle foragers" and would concentrate on areas rich in pollen and nectar.

The team warned that these behaviour could have an impact on rare native plants that are pollinated by insects.

The findings have been published in the journal Current Biology.

The team of researchers from Oxford University and Earthwatch UK said their findings were a surprise, as the result challenged the long-held assumption that areas that were rich in resources would encourage the movement of pollinators from one group of native trees to another.

However, they added, it actually created a barrier effect for non-specialist feeders.

"Looked at from an insect's point of view, it makes sense," explained co-author David Boshier.

"These insects are not trying to pollinate a particular species of tree, they are just foraging. So if they leave a patch of native forest and fly across farmland which happens to be rich in resources, they are likely to collect pollen and nectar there rather than carry on to another patch of native forest."

However, Dr Boshier added: "Conversely, areas of sparse resources - such as (conifer) plantations - have less to offer so the pollinators are more likely to continue their journey and reach other patch of the native forest."

Pollination patterns

The researchers focused their attention on the pollination of Gomortega keule, an endangered species of tree whose natural stands only survive in patches of native forest in central Chile.

The study warns disruption to pollinators' behaviour could threaten Gomortega keule's long-term survival

The trees' primary pollinators are hoverflies. By sampling seeds, the team was able to develop an understanding of how pollen was transported across the study area.

"If you can imagine about 900 trees, and all of the potential connections between those trees, then you end up with a lot of data regarding where pollinators are moving or not moving," explained co-author Dr Tonya Lander.

"We used that data to build a model and, on average, these look like the patterns that are emerging," she told BBC News.

"In general, there was more pollination happening when trees are separated by tree plantations, and less pollination happening when the trees were separated by agricultural land."

The team explained that they decided to call this effect the Circe Principle, after a nymph in Homer's Odyssey who seduced Odysseus on his journey home from his adventures.

Another member of the team, Dan Bebber from Earthwatch, said: "This study shows that new landscape models need to take into account the positive contributions and benefits of landscapes defined as 'non-habitat', as well as how best they can be managed.

"Our results identify possible actions to improve the interactions of landscapes of endangered species such as G. keule, and other species pollinated by common insects."

The team now hope to carry out further studies to test whether the Circe Principle applies to other environments.

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Arctic fire hints at warming cue

28 July 2011 Last updated at 16:33 GMT By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News In the summer of 2007, more than 1,000 sq km of Alaskan tundra burned near Anaktuvuk River An exceptional wildfire in northern Alaska in 2007 put as much carbon into the air as the entire Arctic tundra absorbs in a year, scientists say.

The Anaktuvuk River fire burned across more than 1,000 sq km (400 sq miles), doubling the extent of Alaskan tundra visited by fire since 1950.

With the Arctic warming fast, the team suggests in the journal Nature that fires could become more common.

If that happens, it could create a new climate feedback, they say.

Fires in the tundra are uncommon because the ground is covered in snow and ice for large periods of the year.

Continue reading the main story

Melting can lead to other huge changes... releasing carbon that's been frozen since the Pleistocene”

End Quote Michelle Mack University of Florida Temperatures are low even in summer, and the ground can also remain wet after the ice has melted.

But 2007 saw unusually warm and dry conditions across much of the Arctic - resulting, among other things, in spectacularly fast melting of Arctic sea ice.

This created conditions more conducive to fire, and when lightning struck the tundra in July, the Anaktuvuk River fire ignited.

"Most tundra fires have been very small - this was an order of magnitude larger than the historical size," said Michelle Mack from the University of Florida in Gainesville, who led the research team on the Nature paper and is currently conducting further field studies in Alaska.

"In 2007, we had a hot, dry summer, there was no rain for a long period of time.

"So the tundra must have been highly flammable, with just the right conditions for fire to spread until the snow in October finally stopped it."

Nasa satellites image Arctic ice, water, land - and the Anaktuvuk fire, the black portion at bottom-right

According to the team's calculations, the statistics of the fire are remarkable.

It is the largest on record, doubling the cumulative area burned since 1950.

It put carbon into the atmosphere about 100 times faster than it usually escapes from the ground in the Arctic summer, and released more than 2 million tonnes.

Although a small contribution to global emissions, this is about the same amount as the entire swathe of tundra around the Arctic absorbs in a single year.

The melting of Arctic sea ice suggests 2007's record may be broken this year

There is some vegetation on the summer lands, which did burn; but the main fuel is carbon in the ground itself.

The Anaktuvuk fire burned down to a maximum depth of 15cm (6in), and was burning carbon sequestered away over the last 50 years.

What this implies for the future is uncertain.

Climate models generally predict warmer temperatures across the Arctic, which could increase the frequency of fires and so a net loss of carbon into the atmosphere - reinforcing global warming.

On the other hand, plant life could flourish under these conditions, potentially increasing absorption and sequestering of carbon from the atmosphere.

In a news story published well before the Nature paper came out, another of the US research team, Gaius Shaver from the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, said the northern region of Alaska could become "vastly different from the frozen, treeless tundra of today.

"And it's one that may feed back positively to global climate change."

On reflection

Another impact of the fire that has yet to be fully assessed is that the blackened soil absorbs more solar energy than normally vegetated tundra.

This abets melting of the permafrost layer below.

"Once permafrost melts beyond a certain depth on a slope, then all of the organic layer slides down the slope like a landslide," Dr Mack told BBC News.

"This whole issue of melting can lead to other huge changes in drainage, in areas of wetlands - releasing carbon that's been frozen since the Pleistocene [Epoch, which ended more than 10,000 years ago]."

The latest data on Arctic sea ice, meanwhile, reveals that 2011 could well see a melting season that will beat the 2007 record.

Currently, about the same area of sea is covered in ice as at the same point in 2007, which the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) ascribes to "persistent above-average temperatures and an early start to [the] melt".

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Dolphin hunts with electric sense

26 July 2011 Last updated at 23:23 GMT By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News The depressions, or crypts, are the site for this newly-discovered sensory ability A South American dolphin is the first "true mammal" to sense prey by their electric fields, scientists suggest.

The researchers first showed that structures on the animal's head were probably sensory organs, then found it could detect electric fields in water.

Electroreception is well known in fish and amphibians, but until now the only mammal example was the platypus.

Writing in the Royal Society's journal Proceedings B, the scientists say other cetaceans may show the same ability.

The Guiana dolphin (Sotalia guianensis) lives around the east coast of South America, and resembles the much more common bottlenose variety.

Like all of the toothed cetaceans, it hunts and locates using sound.

But the researchers have now shown that at close range, it can also sense electrical signals.

They are not as sensitive as sharks and rays, but can detect signals of the same size as those produced in water when fish move their muscles.

"It feeds in the bottom [of the sea] a lot, and it lives in water where there can be a lot of silt and mud suspended," said project leader Wolf Hanke from the University of Rostock, Germany.

"And echolocation doesn't work at very close range, so this is where electrolocation would come in."

Sensible science

Captive Guiana dolphins are rare; but they have been kept at the zoo in Muenster, also in Germany.

The zoo is among those that have been criticised by animal rights campaigners in recent years, who argue against keeping dolphins in captivity.

The researchers became curious about the function of small depressions in the dolphin's rostrum - the forward-projecting part of the head containing the jaws.

When one of the animals died, the rostrum was examined, with tissues being stained to show the structures inside these depressions.

The depressions - known as crypts - carry whiskers when the dolphins are growing in the womb, but the whiskers later drop off.

The dolphin was sometimes fitted with a plastic "shield" to block any electrical signals

But the crypts looked as though they were still involved in sensing something.

To see whether they were in fact electroreceptors, the researchers turned to the zoo's single remaining Sotalia.

They trained it to put its head on a "rest station", where electrodes delivered a tiny electrical signal into the water.

When a signal was present, the dolphin received a reward if it swam away; if not, it received a reward for staying put.

Later, a plastic shield was placed above the lines of crypts, blocking any electrical sensing. It remained still every time.

The experiments proved that the Guiana dolphin could sense the electrical signals, and that the crypts were indeed the organs responsible.

The researchers plan next to investigate whether other cetaceans possess the same capacity.

"We believe that they might, as it seems very useful for the dolphins," said Dr Hanke.

"We might in the future make plans to travel to South America to study the dolphins in the wild."

The acid test would be to fit the animals with tags that carry a variety of instruments, and see how they use their novel electric sense to hunt.

The platypus, which also uses electroreception, is a monotreme, a sub-group of mammals that lay eggs.

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Monkey research 'can be improved'

27 July 2011 Last updated at 12:02 GMT By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News No clear medical benefits have emerged from nearly 10% of research projects involving monkeys A review of the use of monkeys in UK medical research says the practice should continue and finds the current work to be generally of good quality.

But the independent report voiced concern that no clear scientific, medical or social benefits had emerged from nearly one in 10 projects.

It also said that in a minority of experiments, the justification for using monkeys was "not compelling".

The review was led by Professor Sir Patrick Bateson.

The current president of the Zoological Society of London was commissioned by the main bodies that fund medical research in Britain.

They wanted him to assess whether the studies on non-human primates (NHPs) were necessary, high-quality and yielded significant advances in medical science.

Animal welfare groups opposed to experimentation on monkeys called again for the practice to be banned outright. They described Prof Bateson's review a "chilling insight into primate research".

Brain studies

Although the proportion of monkeys used in research compared with other animals is low, less than 0.1%, there is concern that they suffer more than other species during experimentation, and so should only be used if those studies are expected to yield important medical benefits and if there is no other way of carrying out the research.

The review suggested that this standard might not have been achieved in all cases. "Not everything is rosy in the garden," Prof Bateson told reporters.

He reviewed experiments on monkeys carried out between January 1997 and December 2006. Just under 3,000 animals were used in experiments in that period.

Continue reading the main story

Funders and researchers should avoid overstating and generalising the medical benefit of research on monkeys”

End Quote Prof Patrick Bateson Report Author The bulk of the research focused on neuroscience. Research on great apes is not permitted in the UK and so monkeys provide the next best animal models to study the human brain.

Researchers often cite the widespread prevalence of neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, as a justification for research in this area.

However, Prof Bateson said that the "size of the problem should not be accepted as the sole justification for individual areas of research".

He added: "Funders and researchers should avoid overstating and generalising the medical benefit (of research on monkeys). Instead, statements should be based on the actual scientific basis for funding decisions."

Considerable suffering

Prof Bateson and his team looked at 31 neuroscience studies. Half of the experiments involved considerable animal suffering. These were assessed as having a high scientific value.

Monkeys provide the best animal model for study of brain disorders

But in most cases, according to Prof Bateson, there was "little direct evidence of medical benefit". He did concede, though, that there might not have been sufficient time for the advances gained in scientific understanding to be translated into new drugs or treatments.

The report recommends a body to be set up to assess whether commissioned research will lead to improvements in healthcare.

Prof Bateson's review found a few instances of research that caused a high degree of suffering, but was not judged to be the highest-quality science.

One example was of UK-funded research on reproduction carried out overseas.

It involved performing a hysterectomy in which the mother and its foetus were, in the words of the review, "compromised". The study was undertaken to train students and repeated a study that had been carried out a decade earlier.

According to Prof Bateson, "it is not acceptable knowingly to fund work outside the UK that would not be legally responsible or ethically acceptable in the UK".

Continue reading the main story

Despite the use of peer review to assess whether projects we fund are worth doing, it is inevitable that some of it does not work out”

End Quote Medical Research Council The report also said scientists had a "moral responsibility" to publish all their results on experiments involving monkeys even if they were not positive or not deemed interesting.

Research results are often not published when the experiments do not yield positive results, but Prof Bateson's point is that because some of these details are not put in the public domain, it could lead to other researchers repeating the experiments and so causing unnecessary suffering.

Strengthened procedures

Responding to the report, the Medical Research Council (MRC) said: "Despite the use of peer review to assess whether projects we fund are worth doing, it is inevitable that some of it does not work out."

The MRC added that it would continue to work to ensure all grants using non-human primates made clear the expected scientific, medical or social benefit, and that if these benefits were not realised, the reasons why should be explored to ensure lessons were learnt for the future.

In a joint statement, the main funders of monkey research in the UK - the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and the Biological and Biotechnology Research Council - said improvements to procedures had already been made.

"We have strengthened our procedures for assessing all grant applications requesting use of [monkeys], cats, dogs and equines," their statement read.

"These applications are now reviewed by the independent National Centre for the Refinement, Reduction and Replacement of Animals in Research (NC3Rs).

"Any concerns are explored with the applicants, and funding is not awarded unless these are properly addressed. We will continue to work with the NC3Rs to ensure that all research we fund using NHPs is assessed appropriately and the research undertaken is of the highest standard in terms of science and animal welfare."

The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection said primate research was a blind alley that had no merit.

Chief Executive Michelle Thew said: "This report is a chilling insight into primate research in the UK. Regulations to protect primates are failing.

"It is shocking that 25 years after legislation was introduced to give primates special protection, many experiments are being carried out that have a devastating impact on them with little or no human benefit. The only measure that would completely protect primates, and ensure more productive medical research, is an outright ban."

In general, the number of animal experiments carried out in the UK rose by 3% last year, according to government figures.

Just over 3.7 million scientific experiments on animals were started in Great Britain in 2010, an increase of 105,000 on the previous year.

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Chernobyl horses poached for meat

27 July 2011 Last updated at 00:28 By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC Nature The horses were released to "increase the biodiversity of the exclusion zone" A herd of Critically Endangered wild Przewalski's horses in the Chernobyl exclusion zone is under threat from poachers, say scientists.

Researchers in Ukraine say that the population may be in decline because poachers have been removing the animals faster than they are breeding.

Thirty-one horses were taken from a Przewalski's horse reserve and from a local zoo.

They were released into the zone in 1998 and 1999.

Scientists from the state-run SSSIE Ecocentre in Chernobyl say the horses were introduced to "enrich the biodiversity" of the exclusion zone surrounding Chernobyl nuclear power station's damaged nuclear reactor.

The zone was evacuated in 1986 after reactor number four exploded.

Professor Tim Mousseau, a biologist from the University of South Carolina who visits the zone to work at least twice a year, says that the herd he has spotted has been "getting smaller" in recent years.

Continue reading the main story

A readily available supply of horsemeat is tempting for people”

End Quote Professor Tim Mousseau University of South Carolina "Many people in this part of Ukraine are very poor," he told BBC Nature on a recent trip to the exclusion zone.

"So access to a readily available supply of horsemeat is tempting for people."

But Sergiy Paskevych, a researcher from the National Academy of Science in Ukraine and the author of a website dedicated to ecology and wildlife in the exclusion zone, told BBC Nature that poachers probably travelled long distances to the exclusion zone and took the carcasses away to be sold.

Mr Paskevych explained that the most recent data on the horses suggested that there were 30-40 individuals in the zone. This represents a severe decline in their numbers from a maximum of 65 animals in 2003.

"It is difficult to say what [factors] affect the lives of these animals," he said.

"Maybe it's the wolves - there are a lot of its in the exclusion zone - or maybe it's disease.

"Of course, the anthropogenic factor [of hunting] cannot be excluded."

Igor Chizhevsky, a biologist from Chernobyl's Ecocentre who studies the zone's wildlife, said that poaching could be affecting the wild horse population there.

Mr Chizhevsky confirmed that Ukrainian researchers had found several dead horses that had been shot by poachers. He added that it was difficult to determine how many horses were now left.

"For three years, no one has counted the population," he told BBC Nature.

Biologist Zbyszek Boratynski captured this footage of the wild herd close to an abandoned farm in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

"So we don't know."

Mr Paskevych suggested that the zone should become a reserve "with a research centre for the study of nature and radioecological consequents of nuclear disaster".

"But today, the exclusion zone is not a reserve, and there are almost no scientists [with the] knowledge and ability to explore the area," he said.

"In the current situation... the future of Przewalski's horses is very vague."

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Crisis 'will not end nuclear age'

26 July 2011 Last updated at 10:45 GMT IAEA chief Yukiya Amano visits Fukushima nuclear plant

The UN's top nuclear official says the world's reliance on atomic power will continue to grow, despite the crisis at Japan's Fukushima plant.

Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said many countries believed nuclear power was needed to combat global warming.

Mr Amano visited the Fukushima plant on Monday for the first time since it was crippled by the earthquake and tsunami.

He said he supported Tokyo's plan to shut the plant by January.

Since the 11 March disaster caused partial meltdowns at three of Fukushima's reactors, a global debate has raged about the future of nuclear power.

Germany has announced plans to abandon nuclear entirely, and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has floated the idea of a nuclear-free Japan.

PM under pressure

After meeting Mr Kan on Tuesday, Mr Amano told reporters: "It is certain that the number of nuclear reactors will increase, even if not as quickly as before.

"Some countries, including Germany, have reviewed their nuclear energy policy, but many other countries believe they need nuclear reactors to tackle problems such as global warming. Therefore, securing safety is more important than anything."

Continue reading the main story 11 Mar: Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant struck by huge earthquake and tsunami16 Mar: 20km (11-mile) evacuation zone declared around plant17 Apr: Plant owner Tepco says crisis will be under control by end of the year20 May: Tepco boss Masataka Shimizu resigns as firm posts huge losses 2 Jun: Naoto Kan survives no-confidence vote over his handling of crises6 Jul: Government announces "stress tests", pushing back restarting of reactorsIAEA officials said they expected the world's reliance on nuclear power to grow because China and India were pressing on with their power programmes.

During 2009, 12 nuclear plants began to be constructed, nine of which were in China, the IAEA said.

In Japan, the earthquake and tsunami knocked out the cooling facilities at the Fukushima plant, eventually causing explosions and leaks of radioactive material.

Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes around the plant.

Within the past week, Japanese officials say they have now achieved stable cooling in the reactors and claim to be on course for a "cold shutdown" by January.

No-one has died as a result of the nuclear crisis, but the quake and tsunami flattened towns and villages along Japan's north-eastern coast, killing more than 15,000 people.

Japan is struggling to recover from the disaster, with the prime minister under constant pressure to resign, hampering his attempts to organise recovery efforts.

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Feathers fly in first bird debate

27 July 2011 Last updated at 20:58 GMT By Matt McGrath Science reporter, BBC World Service An artist's impression of the new creature from China. How will it change our view of the origin of birds? A chicken-sized dinosaur fossil found in China may have overturned a long-held theory about the origin of birds.

For 150 years, a species called Archaeopteryx has been regarded as the first true bird, representing a major evolutionary step away from dinosaurs.

But the new fossil suggests this creature was just another feathery dinosaur and not the significant link that palaeontologists had believed.

The discovery of Xiaotingia, as it is known, is reported in Nature magazine.

The authors of the report argue that three other species named in the past decade might now be serious contenders for the title of "the oldest bird".

Archaeopteryx has a hallowed place in science, long hailed as not just the first bird but as one of the clearest examples of evolution in action.

Wobbling perch: Archaeopteryx is one of the most famous fossils ever unearthed

Discovered in Bavaria in 1861 just two years after the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, the fossil seemed to blend attributes of both reptiles and birds and was quickly accepted as the "original bird".

But in recent years, doubts have arisen as older fossils with similar bird-like features such as feathers and wishbones and three fingered hands were discovered.

Now, renowned Chinese palaeontologist Professor Xu Xing believes his new discovery has finally knocked Archaeopteryx off its perch.

His team has detailed the discovery of a similar species, Xiaotingia, which dates back 155 million years to the Jurassic Period.

By carefully analysing and comparing the bony bumps and grooves of this new chicken-sized fossil, Prof Xu now believe that both Archaeopteryx and Xiaotingia are in fact feathery dinosaurs and not birds at all.

"There are many, many features that suggest that Xiaotingia and Archaeopteryx are a type of dinosaur called Deinonychosaurs rather than birds. For example, both have a large hole in front of the eye; this big hole is only seen in these species and is not present in any other birds.

Continue reading the main story

Several species discovered in the past decade could now become contenders for the title of most basal fossil bird.

Epidexipteryx - a very small feathered dinosaur discovered in China and first reported in 2008 (above). It had four long tail feathers but there is little evidence that it could fly.

Jeholornis - this creature lived 120 million years ago in the Cretaceous. It was a relatively large bird, about the size of a turkey. First discovered in China, and reported in 2002.

Sapeornis - lived 110 to 120 million years ago. Another small primitive bird about 33 centimetres in length. It was discovered in China and was first reported in 2002.

"Archaeopteryx and Xiaotingia are very, very similar to other Deinonychosaurs in having a quite interesting feature - the whole group is categorised by a highly specialised second pedo-digit which is highly extensible, and both Archaeopteryx and Xiaotingia show initial development of this feature."

The origins of the new fossil are a little murky having originally been purchased from a dealer. Prof Xu first saw the specimen at the Shandong Tianyu Museum. He knew right away it was special

"When I visited the museum which houses more than 1,000 feathery dinosaur skeletons, I saw this specimen and immediately recognised that it was something new, very interesting; but I did not expect it would have such a big impact on the origin of birds."

Other scientists agree that the discovery could fundamentally change our understanding of birds. Prof Lawrence Witmer from Ohio University has written a commentary on the finding.

"Since Archaeopteryx was found 150 years ago, it has been the most primitive bird and consequently every theory about the beginnings of birds - how they evolved flight, what their diet was like - were viewed through the lens of Archaeopteryx.

"So, if we don't view birds through this we might have a different set of hypotheses."

There is a great deal of confusion in the field says Prof Witmer as scientists try to understand where dinosaurs end and where birds begin.

"It's kind of a nightmare for those of us trying to understand it. When we go back into the late Jurassic, 150-160 million years ago, all the primitive members of these different species are all very similar.

"So, on the one hand, it's really frustrating trying to tease apart the threads of this evolutionary knot, but it's really a very exciting thing to be working on and taking apart this evolutionary origin."

Prof Xu first saw the specimen in a museum. He knew right away it was special

Such are the similarities between these transition species of reptiles and birds that other scientists believe that the new finding certainly will not mean the end of the argument.

Prof Mike Benton from the University of Bristol, UK, agrees that the new fossil is about the closest relative to Archaeopteryx that has yet been found. But he argues that it is far from certain that the new finding dethrones its claim to be the first bird.

"Professor Xu and his colleagues show that the evolutionary pattern varies according to their different analyses.

"Some show Archaeopteryx as the basal bird; others show it hopped sideways into the Deinonychosaurs.

"New fossils like Xiaotingia can make it harder to be 100% sure of the exact pattern of relationships."

According to Prof Witmer, little is certain in trying to determine the earliest bird and new findings can rapidly change perspectives.

"The reality is, that next fossil find could kick Archaeopteryx right back into birds. That's the thing that's really exciting about all of this."

View the original article here

Case against protection

29 July 2011 Last updated at 12:54 GMT This will be the last post for a few weeks as holidays beckon.

So why not leave you with perhaps the biggest question in the environmental book - where is the natural world heading, if nothing much changes?

Simply protecting land and sea won't be enough to stem the loss of nature, according to a study just out in the Marine Ecology Progress series.

Read it one way, and it's one of the most depressing things you'll have seen, if you're concerned about the biosphere's future.

Currently, about 13% of the world's land surface is under some form of protection, about half of which is under what a recent study evaluated as "strict" protection.

At sea, it's a different story, with protection hovering around the 1% level - depending on how you define it.

So if land protection is in one sense a success story, being a rare example of an internationally agreed target that has been met and indeed exceeded, what impact is it having on biodiversity loss?

The various graphs in the paper, some of which I've copied in here, tell the story better than any of its words.

Even as protected areas expand, indices of biodiversity such as the Living Planet index decline

In region after region, the line indicating protection tracks upwards, even as measures of biodiversity point the other way.

So is there any point in protecting habitat?

When I called up one of the authors, Camilo Mora from the University of Hawaii, he was at pains to point out that an end to protection was not on his agenda.

"Protection is necessary - but far from sufficient," seems to be the overall message.

"We're definitely not saying we shouldn't protect areas - the problem is that we're investing all our human capital into those areas," he told me.

"We're putting all our eggs in one basket, which is dangerous; but even more dangerous is that there's a hole in the bottom of the basket."

The force they flag up as driving the world's biological diversity to the edge and perhaps beyond is, simply, that we are consuming too much.

That won't be a revolutionary message to some.

But the authors believe it's something that many more policymakers and ordinary citizens have to put at the centre of their thinking if the sixth great extinction is not to exceed the five previous ones in scale and rate.

Another of the authors, Peter Sale from the Canadian Institute for Water, Health and the Environment, put it like this:

"We are just taking too much - managing forests in such as way as they degrade, same with coastal waters, and we have to stop doing this as a species.

"I don't have a solution - I have struggled for some time trying to think what is the way to get people to realise how important this is - but if we don't find it soon, the future is a very grim one.

"We're talking about losing 50% of species in the next half century - that's faster than any previous mass extinction event - and anybody who thinks we can go through a mass extinction and be perfectly fine is just deluding themselves."

Cutting consumption does not appear on the agenda of most governments

There's some implied criticism for mainstream conservation groups here.

The authors suggest these groups concentrate too much on protected areas, and ignore the issue of over-consumption.

In my own experience, that's not entirely correct.

It's more that conservation, being an element of the political process, is in large part the art of the possible.

And while getting governments to set areas aside for tigers or sharks is doable, there are few ready to lend an ear to the politically suicidal idea of reducing their citizens' consumption.

It's also controversial inside the wide umbrella of civil society.

Organisations such as Oxfam, for example, which campaign on climate change, are there in large part to advance the cause of the global poor - and that doesn't mean reducing their consumption of food or fuel.

Changing the nature of what we consume is seen in some quarters as more feasible - eating locally-produced food, powering society with renewables rather than fossil fuels - but so far, it's making merely a dent in the overall upwards trend of us guzzling more and more stuff.

And this is only augmented by the growth of the world's human population, set to top seven billion before the end of the year.

As with domestic politics, attempts to get sustainable consumption onto the international agenda have thus far been an almost total failure.

The next big set-piece chance to discuss it is the Rio+20 summit next May.

The issue has been mentioned and discussed by governments in the preparatory process, and there are nods to it in some of the outline documents.

For example: "...certain types of consumption and investment must be restricted to avoid excessive resource depletion and waste, whereas environmentally-friendly investment and consumption should expand..."

But you would have to ask how urgent, how quantified, how serious this really sounds...

...especially when you set it alongside one of the papers cited in the new Sale and Mora paper - that by 2050, the human race will be consuming so much of nature's resources than in order for this to come at a sustainable rate, we would need to be drawing on the resources of 27 Earths.

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UK launches woodland carbon code

28 July 2011 Last updated at 14:02 GMT By Mark Kinver Environment reporter, BBC News Forests cover almost one half of Europe's land area, but only cover about 12% of the UK The UK Forestry Commission has published guidelines for schemes that plant trees in order to absorb carbon.

The Woodland Carbon Code is designed to address some of the criticisms levelled at carbon offsetting projects.

Organisation such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) argue that woodlands are about more than just being carbon sinks.

MPs have said it was hard to verify claims of carbon uptake due to a lack of meaningful regulations.

The Forestry Commission says the new code is designed to provide a "consistent national approach, as well as clarity and transparency to potential investors about just what their money should buy them".

In order to comply with the code, the commission added that woodland projects had to be managed to national standards, use established methods for estimating the amount of carbon captured by the trees, and be independently verified.

In order to be considered by the code's administrators, project managers will have to register each offsetting scheme, stating its exact location and long-term objectives.

Once approved, the commission added, the project would then be listed in a national online register.

The announcement coincided with the publication of government guidance for organisations on "reporting greenhouse gas removals and emissions from domestic woodland creation".

More than sinks

Responding to the publication of the code, Dr Nick Atkinson from the Woodland Trust said the guidelines would help re-energise the woodland sector of the voluntary carbon market.

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The important thing to remember is that woodlands are not just carbon sponges - they are also vital in supporting a range of threatened wildlife”

End Quote Martin Harper, RSPB "The Woodland Carbon Code puts woodland creation on the map as part of the UK's response to climate change," he said.

"Businesses looking to voluntarily support tree planting can have confidence in the claims made around carbon removal whilst at the same time demonstrating their environmental commitment to their customers."

However, the RSPB was a little more cautious in its welcome. Conservation director Martin Harper warned that planting trees in the UK to offset carbon emissions would not solve climate problems, and must not put wildlife at risk.

"The important thing to remember is that woodlands are not just carbon sponges - they are also vital in supporting a range of threatened wildlife," he said.

"They must also be planted in the right places - much of our wildlife-rich natural landscapes such as lowland heathland have been destroyed by irresponsible, poorly planned tree-planting."

He added: "Unfortunately, this code does not go far enough when it comes to promoting the restoration of some important wildlife habitats like peat bogs.

"UK forestry has a vital role in addressing climate change, not by planting new woodlands, but by restoring peat bogs that were inappropriately drained and planted with forestry.

"These important carbon stores can and should be restored, both to help tackle climate change and to provide important sites for wildlife."

Commenting on the launch of the code, Forestry Commission chairwoman Pam Warhurst said that tree-planting projects were beneficial for organisations for a range of reasons.

"They can reduce their carbon footprint at low cost, improve the environment and enhance their environmental reputation," she said.

Quick fix?

However, offsetting schemes that involved tree planting had been criticised for being an easy option, allowing companies to reduce their carbon footprint without changing their day-to-day operations.

In a 2007 report on voluntary carbon markets, MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee concluded that some schemes were "less than robust" and threatened to undermine any potential environmental gains.

Later that year, the Forestry Commission commissioned Professor Sir David Read to review the role that UK forests could play in mitigating human-induced climate change.

In 2009, the University of Sheffield professor of plant science published his findings, and concluded that woodland creation offered a "highly cost-effective and achievable abatement of GHG emissions when compared with potential abatement options across other sectors".

Ms Warhurst said that progress had been made since then, culminating in the launch of the code.

"We now have the means to capitalise on some very significant funding opportunities and attract very new woods and forests for everyone's benefits," she suggested.

The UK's woodlands, which cover about 12% of the nation's land area, are estimated to absorb about 2% of its annual greenhouse gas emissions.

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