Plant has a bat beckoning beacon

29 July 2011 Last updated at 02:29 By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC Nature The dish-shaped leaves emit a powerful echo that helps the bat locate the plant A rainforest vine has evolved dish-shaped leaves to attract the bats that pollinate it, scientists have found.

Tests revealed that the leaves were supremely efficient at bouncing back the sound pulses the flying mammals used to navigate.

When the leaves were present the bats located the plant twice as quickly as when these echoing leaves were removed.

A team of scientists in the UK and Germany reported its findings in the journal Science.

The study is the first to find a plant with "specialised acoustic features" to help bat pollinators find them using sound.

Most bats send out pulses of sound to find their way around; the way they sense objects in their environment by sensing how these pulses bounce off them is known as echolocation.

"We already knew that plants used their brightly coloured petals to attract pollinators," explained Marc Holderied from the University of Bristol, one of the researchers involved in the study.

"What we've found is the echolocating equivalent to colourful flowers.

"We have a shape that produces an echo - an 'echoacoustic beacon'."

The scientists first notice the Caribbean plant, Marcgravia evenia, in a photograph in a Natural History magazine.

"We immediately recognised that this dish-shaped leaf could be a perfect bat attractor," he recalled.

He and his colleagues brought the plant into their laboratory and bounced to measure its acoustics - essentially firing sound pulses at it to see how they echoed.

The next step was to test how the bats responded to it.

The researchers set a test for a group of nectar-feeding bats (Glossophaga soricina) to measure how long it took them to locate a small feeder in a dark room.

They adorned the feeder either with the plants' dish-shaped leaf or with a normal (much flatter) foliage leaf from the same plant.

"Once we added the leaf, that really did the trick," said Dr Holderied. "The bats found the feeder in half the time."

"Now we know that the acoustic clues are important for pollination."

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New UK nuclear plant sites named

23 June 2011 Last updated at 13:34 GMT The Sellafield nuclear plant handles nuclear material and is part of a generation of older sites Ministers have announced plans for the next generation of UK nuclear plants.

The government confirmed a list of eight sites it deems suitable for new power stations by 2025, all of which are adjacent to existing nuclear sites.

The sites are: Bradwell, Essex; Hartlepool; Heysham, Lancashire; Hinkley Point, Somerset; Oldbury, Gloucestershire; Sellafield, Cumbria; Sizewell, Suffolk; and Wylfa, Anglesey.

The announcement comes three months after the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

The future of nuclear as a power source for countries around the world was called into question after the disaster which occurred in March when a Japanese earthquake and tsunami rocked the reactors at Fukushima, leaving radioactivity leaking from the plant.

The proposals for new UK nuclear power plants are part of a series of national policy statements on energy which have been published following a public consultation.

'Affordable energy'

The plans will be debated and voted on in Parliament, but ministers are hopeful that, with a pro-nuclear majority in the Commons, they will win the argument.

Energy Minister Charles Hendry said: "Around a quarter of the UK's generating capacity is due to close by the end of this decade. We need to replace this with secure, low carbon, affordable energy.

Continue reading the main story

We believe the nuclear programme is not safe - and Fukushima is the latest example of that - but it's also not needed”

End Quote Andreas Speck Kick Nuclear - Stop New Nuclear alliance "This will require over ?100bn worth of investment in electricity generation alone. This means twice as much investment in energy infrastructure in this decade as was achieved in the last decade."

Mr Hendry said industry "needs as much certainty as possible to make such big investments," adding that the plans "set out our energy need to help guide the planning process, so that if acceptable proposals come forward in appropriate places, they will not face unnecessary hold-ups".

Hinkley blockade

Andreas Speck from Stop New Nuclear - an alliance of eight groups opposed to the plants - said campaigners had expected the government to go ahead with its plans despite Fukushima.

"It was always clear," he said.

But Mr Speck said Stop New Nuclear would continue to oppose the plants "more than ever" and would blockade the Hinkley Point site on 3 October.

EDF Energy has already submitted planning applications to the West Somerset District Council for preparatory work on the planned new reactor at the site.

If EDF could be made to abandon its plans at Hinkley, the alliance hoped work at the other proposed sites would also be stopped, Mr Speck said.

"We believe the nuclear programme is not safe - and Fukushima is the latest example of that - but it's also not needed," he said.

Mr Speck said power could be generated without the use of nuclear energy, which he said was expensive and provided too few carbon reductions.

Divisive issue

The issue of nuclear power divided Conservatives and Liberal Democrats when they entered government together.

The coalition deal allowed a Lib Dem spokesman to speak out against any new nuclear plants, while Lib Dem MPs could abstain on the issue.

However, Lib Dem Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has since given his backing to new reactors.

He stressed that they would not be subsidised by the taxpayer, although MPs have warned that reform of the electricity market could favour nuclear power and amount to a hidden subsidy.

The new reactors are designed to maintain electricity supplies and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

It will come as an older generation of power stations is shut down.

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Japan plant confirms partial meltdowns

24 May 2011 Last updated at 03:59 GMT The problems with the Fukushima nuclear plant have raised questions over Tepco's future Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) has confirmed the meltdown of extra fuel rods in reactors at its damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The company said that the rods were in its Number 2 and Number 3 reactors.

Tepco has been trying to contain radiation from the plant, crippled by the 11 March earthquake and tsunami.

The company said that it planned to stick to its timetable of getting the radiation under control by January.

Tepco's announcement came on the same day that a team from the United Nations' atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), kicked off a visit in Japan.

100 hours Continue reading the main story

Based on our analysis, we have reached the conclusion that a certain amount of nuclear fuel has melted down.”

End Quote Ken Matsuda Tepco Earlier this month, Tepco had revealed that rods at its Number 1 reactor melted down. It was thought that a similar problem had occurred in the other reactors but it was difficult to confirm.

"Based on our analysis, we have reached the conclusion that a certain amount of nuclear fuel has melted down," Ken Matsuda, a Tepco spokesman told the BBC.

He said the analysis came from a report that Tepco was required to submit to Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (Nisa).

The spokesman added that most of the fuel from the Number 2 reactor had melted approximately 100 hours after the earthquake, which measured 9 on the Richter scale, struck Japan.

The meltdown in the Number 3 reactor took place about 60 hours after the quake.

Mr Matsuda said the new discovery would not alter Tepco's plans.

The company has said that it wants to reach a "cold shutdown" of the power plant by January, and has been trying to cool the reactors and get the unstable fuel rods back under control.

"This result does not change our work," he said.

Continue reading the main story Roland Buerk BBC News, Tokyo

Japan's government has faced some criticism at home, and from its neighbours, over its handling of the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power station.

The Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano has said the team from the International Atomic Energy Agency is being welcomed into the country to demonstrate transparency.

Led by Mike Weightman, Britain's chief inspector of nuclear installations, the 20 experts from a dozen countries are expected to visit the crippled plant.

They'll also meet officials as they compile a report which will be presented to member states of the IAEA next month.

The aim is to learn lessons to improve nuclear safety worldwide, and to share expertise.

Radiation monitoring Earlier in May, Tepco revealed that the damage sustained by the Number 1 reactor immediately after the earthquake and tsunami was far more severe than initially thought.

Professor Nobumasa Akiyama of Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo said Tepco's new revelation reinforces that idea.

In an effort to better understand the current situation in Japan specialists from the IAEA are joining other international experts in Tokyo for a fact-finding mission.

They are expected to submit a report on Japan's handling of the nuclear crisis to present to the IAEA's member states.

The group is expected to visit the Fukushima nuclear plant, though details have not been finalised.

Professor Akiyama said that the IAEA had come under criticism for its reaction to the Fukushima crisis.

"First of all, it has not been able to provide the information on what's going on on the ground," he said. "Secondly, it hasn't been able to provide a prescription for the solution of the crisis."

Mr Akiyama said the nuclear agency would be expected to provide more guidelines for nuclear safety after the visit to Japan this week.

He added that it may need to be beef up its funding and staff if it was going to be able to fulfil its mandate.

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Plant clinics boost food security

17 May 2011 Last updated at 03:32 GMT By Mark Kinver Science and environment reporter, BBC News A network of clinics will offer an early warning of potential outbreaks of plant pests and diseases A "plant clinic" scheme to improve food security in developing nations has received a ?6.8m boost from the UK and Swiss governments.

The clinics, similar to human doctors' surgeries, offer local farmers advice on how to treat pests and diseases.

Organisers hope to collate data from front-line "plant doctors" in order to provide an early warning system.

It is hoped that more than 400 clinics will be established in 40 countries over the next five years.

Trevor Nicholls, CEO of Cabi (Centre for Agriculture Bioscience International) - a not-for-profit science body - said the investment of ?1m from the UK government and ?5.8m from Swiss ministers was a "significant endorsement for the initiative".

Dr Nicholls said the "plant clinics" operated in a similar way to doctors' surgeries in human health.

"So far, there has not been a service like that or plants, but that is what we are looking to do," he explained.

"The farmers come to the plant doctors with whatever problem they are experiencing in their crops. As a result of that, it is very much more responsive to what is causing trouble for the farmers at that particular point.

"The clinic goes back to the same place week in and week out so it is a regular fixture that the farmers know that they go to."

Early warning system

Dr Nicholls said that, at present, there were clinics operating in 15 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

"Each clinic, over time, serves a huge number of farmers in the local area. We find that farmers are travelling anything up to 50 miles to attend these clinics, so certainly the advice the "doctors" are giving seem to be highly valued."

The clinics will operate as part of a "Plantwise knowledge bank", which is set to begin in June and act as a bio-security early warning system.

"In exactly the same way that a GP might pick up the first signs of an outbreak of bird flu etc, so the plant doctors can be there on the ground to pick up the first signs of a new pest, or something that has not been picked up previously," Dr Nicholls explained.

"The knowledge bank will be a valuable tool for plant doctors within a country to communicate with each other. Often, countries do not have the resources to set up a website so we are fufilling that function by allowing one person to to see what another person is doing in another part of the country.

"If you begin to see the spread of a pest, you can begin to ask questions about how it correlates to weather patterns, trade or people movements etc.

"This means that you might be able to identify areas that are at risk in the future, allowing you to take preventative measures."

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