I shall be travelling for the next two weeks in temperatures significantly higher than the minus 23 degrees Celsius we had last night in middle Sweden.
Blogging will be necessarily light.
Light blogging for the next two weeks: off to warmer climes
December 2, 2010Tenacious life: Microbe swaps phosphorous for arsenic
December 2, 2010
Mono Lake: Image via Wikipedia
The New York Times has the story that has been buzzing all day:
Scientists said Thursday that they had trained a bacterium to eat and grow on a diet of arsenic, in place of phosphorus — one of six elements considered essential for life — opening up the possibility that organisms could exist elsewhere in the universe or even here on Earth using biochemical powers we have not yet dared to dream about.
The bacterium, scraped from the bottom of Mono Lake in California and grown for months in a lab mixture containing arsenic, gradually swapped out atoms of phosphorus in its little body for atoms of arsenic.
Scientists said the results, if confirmed, would expand the notion of what life could be and where it could be. “There is basic mystery, when you look at life,” said Dimitar Sasselov, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and director of an institute on the origins of life there, who was not involved in the work. “Nature only uses a restrictive set of molecules and chemical reactions out of many thousands available. This is our first glimmer that maybe there are other options.”
Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a NASA astrobiology fellow at the United States Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., who led the experiment, said, “This is a microbe that has solved the problem of how to live in a different way.”
This story is not about Mono Lake or arsenic, she said, but about “cracking open the door and finding that what we think are fixed constants of life are not.”
Dr. Wolfe-Simon and her colleagues publish their findings Friday in Science.
Gerald Joyce, a chemist and molecular biologist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., said the work “shows in principle that you could have a different form of life,” but noted that even these bacteria are affixed to the same tree of life as the rest of us, like the extremophiles that exist in ocean vents.
“It’s a really nice story about adaptability of our life form,” he said. “It gives food for thought about what might be possible in another world.
Phosphorus is one of six chemical elements that have long been thought to be essential for all Life As We Know It. The others are carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and sulfur.
While nature has been able to engineer substitutes for some of the other elements that exist in trace amounts for specialized purposes — like iron to carry oxygen — until now there has been no substitute for the basic six elements. Now, scientists say, these results will stimulate a lot of work on what other chemical replacements might be possible. The most fabled, much loved by science fiction authors but not ever established, is the substitution of silicon for carbon.
Phosphorus chains form the backbone of DNA and its chemical bonds, particularly in a molecule known as adenosine triphosphate, the principal means by which biological creatures store energy. “It’s like a little battery that carries chemical energy within cells,” said Dr. Scharf. So important are these “batteries,” Dr. Scharf said, that the temperature at which they dissolve, about 160 Celsius (320 Fahrenheit), is considered the high-temperature limit for life.
Arsenic sits right beneath phosphorus in the periodic table of the elements and shares many of its chemical properties. Indeed, that chemical closeness is what makes it toxic, Dr. Wolfe-Simon said, allowing it to slip easily into a cell’s machinery where it then gums things up, like bad oil in a car engine.
A bacterium known as strain GFAJ-1 of the Halomonadaceae family of Gammaproteobacteria, proved to grow the best of the microbes from the lake, although not without changes from their normal development. The cells grown in the arsenic came out about 60 percent larger than cells grown with phosphorus, but with large, empty internal spaces.
By labeling the arsenic with radioactivity, the researchers were able to conclude that arsenic atoms had taken up position in the microbe’s DNA as well as in other molecules within it. Dr. Joyce, however, said that the experimenters had yet to provide a “smoking gun” that there was arsenic in the backbone of working DNA.
Despite this taste for arsenic, the authors also reported, the GFAJ-1 strain grew considerably better when provided with phosphorus, so in some ways they still prefer a phosphorus diet.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/science/03arsenic.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Some good news from Cancun: Japan refuses to extend Kyoto protocol
December 2, 2010Jun Arima, an official in the government’s economics trade and industry department, in an open session at Cancun bluntly stated that “Japan will not inscribe its target under the Kyoto protocol on any conditions or under any circumstances.”
Kyoto stop
The Guardian is concerned which is a good sign in itself:
The brief statement…. was the strongest yet made against the protocol by one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases.
“For Japan to come out with a statement like that at the beginning of the talks is significant,” said one British official. “The forthrightness of the statement took people by surprise.”
If it proves to be a new, formal position rather than a negotiating tactic, it could provoke a walk-out by some developing countries and threaten a breakdown in the talks. Last night diplomats were urgently trying to clarify the position. The move provoked alarm among the G77, the grouping of developing countries who regard the Kyoto protocol as the world’s only binding agreement on climate change cuts. Japan gave no reasons for making its brief statement on the second day of the talks, but diplomats said last night that it represented a hardening of its line. “Japan has stated before that it wants only one legal instrument and that it would be unfair to continue the protocol,” said one official who did not wish to be named.
China and Brazil led developing nations in saying Japan’s refusal to help extend the Kyoto Protocol to curb greenhouse gas emissions may halt work on a global accord to combat global warming.
A total of 37 developed countries, including Japan, ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, agreeing to set limits on fossil fuel emissions. The Kyoto accord expires in December 2012 and with no other agreement to replace it, delegates at the United Nation climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, say extending the protocol is crucial.
“The Kyoto Protocol is the very basis of the framework to address climate change through international cooperation,” China’s envoy, Su Wei told reporters in Cancun. “If the pillar is collapsed, you can guess the consequences.”
WWF wants every single King Crab to be exterminated!!
December 2, 2010King crabs are too successful as a species and therefore must be exterminated says the WWF. Biodiversity is threatened says the alarmist message! It will not be long before they start demanding the extermination of humans who are encroaching on other species.
Yngve Pedersen fishing for King Crabs: image SvD FOTO: BJÖRN LINDAHL
From Svenska Dagbladet (free translation):
They are large and are served as a delicacy all over the world. Along the windy Finnmark coast in northern Norway, they have become a welcome sideline providing a turnover of 100 million kronor just as a raw material. It does not help. Exterminate every single one, believes the World Widlife Fund.
We are talking about king crabs, giant crabs, originally from Kamchatka on the Russian Pacific coast. From 1961 to 1969 they were transplanted into the Barents Sea to provide the residents of Murmansk with more food sources. 2500 adult crabs were transported by air and the Trans-Siberian railroad, and were released into the sea.
The population of the Kola Peninsula was briefed by radio and all the fishermen were asked to inform the authorities if they found any crabs. Five years passed without any being found. But then in 1974 a fisherman caught a queen crab. The shell of that crab is still kept at the Polar Research Institute in Murmansk.
But in the early 1990’s, the number of crabs exploded. Today the Russian quota is 3.2 million crabs per year. In Norway, they catch just over 300 000 crabs. The problem is that the crabs are voracious and will eat almost anything they can find on the seabed.The WWF has now reported Norway to the International Council on Biological Diversity and has demanded that the species be exterminated as an “alien” species and it has been blacklisted by the Council. “It is crazy to let the stock grow further. Nine out of ten species in the Varanger Fjord has disappeared, “says Nina Jensen of WWF Norway.
But Norwegian marine biologists at Havsforskningsinstituttet in Bergen think it is just an exaggeration. “It is not true that nine out of ten species have disappeared. But the crabs have significant negative consequences, but what we know about nature is that it will recover when the crabs have left the area”, said Jan H. Sundet.
The largest crabs can weigh seven kilos, but after the stock began to be taxed, the average weight remained at 3-4 kg. The maximum paid was 90 NOK per kg. Svenska Dagbladet followed crab fisherman Yngve Pedersen from Bugøynes, located in Finnmark about fifty km from the Russian border, as he brought up a large catch of crabs in the Varanger Fjord.
“I started to fish for crabs 1998. This year I have a quota of 2800 kilos, for which I get at least 50 kronor a kilo. So I earned 200 000 kronor on crab this year. Compared with other kinds of fishing, it is an easy job. A dead cod is placed on a hook as bait inside the large cage. The crabs crawl in and most are not able to crawl out again. An orange buoy marks the location of the cages and all that is needed is to hoist it up and empty it over the catch table. Injured crabs with missing claws are discarded. “It is perhaps 10-15 percent of them. But the claw grows back”, said Yngve Pedersen.
He himself has an ambivalent relationship with the crabs. “They do great damage to the nets when we fish cod and eat all the bait when fishing by line. But our crab quota is in a sense a compensation for that. But the crab are not at home here, so if it were possible to eradicate them I would not have anything against it. “But I do not think it is possible. The Russians do not have any such plans and new crabs arrive all the time. We may be able to reduce the stock so that it pays better to catch them, that’s all”.
Qantas prepares for legal action against Rolls Royce
December 2, 2010The Trent 900 fix is not going to be cheap for Rolls Royce. I am still maintaining my estimate that the total cost for the engine manufacturer will be in excess of $300 M.
Australia’s Qantas Airways Ltd. Thursday said it has taken measures that would allow litigation against Rolls-Royce Group PLC if it fails to reach a commercial settlement over the recent failure of a Trent 900 engine powering one of its A380 super jumbos. Qantas confirmed in a statement it is in talks with Rolls Royce over the “financial and operational impacts” of the engine failure.
Also Thursday, the international carrier said it plans fresh inspections on the Trent 900 engines after Australian safety regulators said they have identified a possible manufacturing flaw.
Qantas was forced to ground its fleet of six A380s last month after an engine on board flight QF32 exploded above Batam Island, Indonesia shortly after the airplane took off from Singapore, en route to Australia on November 4. Two of the mega airliners have since returned to service.
The explosion has put U.K., Derby-based Rolls-Royce engines under the microscope as airlines around the world that operate the Airbus A380 run a raft of safety tests. Airbus is a division of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co.
A statement of claim has been filed by Qantas and an injunction by the Federal Court of Australia granted, ensuring the carrier can pursue legal action if settlement does not emerge, it said in a statement.
Australian safety investigators now believe the cause of the November mid-air drama may have been a manufacturing defect with an oil tube connection on some Trent 900 engines. That problem could cause oil leakage, cracking and possible engine failure from an oil fire, the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau said Thursday.
“The safety recommendation of the ATSB is consistent with what we have said before. We have instituted a regime of inspection, maintenance and removal which has assured safe operation. This programme has been agreed in collaboration with Airbus, our airline customers and the regulators,” a Rolls-Royce spokesman said.
Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and even Airbus (EADS) can have claims on Rolls Royce and all may well have to resort to legal action to reach settlements. Qantas and Airbus have the greatest potential claims. Whether Rolls Royce knew about defects in advance of the accident on QF32 will be a key issue to determine if the engines delivered by Rolls Royce were actually “fit for service”. If the engines were not “fit for service” it opens the door to an even greater levels of claims on Rolls Royce.
Another form of life based on Arsenic?
December 2, 2010
The Arecibo message as sent 1974: image via Wikipedia
The Telegraph has an eye-catching headline (naturally):
‘Life as we don’t know it’ discovery could prove existence of aliens
But even without the exaggerations and the splash headlines, the possible existence of a form of life intimately connected with Arsenic would have enormous consequences on the definition and abundance of life in the universe and on how to go about searching for extra-terrestrial life.
NASA has sent the internet into a frenzy after it announced an “astrobiology finding” that could suggest alien life exists – even on earth.
The discovery could prove the theory of “shadow” creatures which exist in tandem with our own and in hostile environments previously thought uninhabitable. The “life as we don’t know it” could even survive on hostile planets and develop into intelligent creatures such as humans if and when conditions improve. In a press conference scheduled for tomorrow evening, researchers will unveil the discovery of a microbe that can live in an environment previously thought too poisonous for any life-form to survive.
The bacteria has been found at the bottom of Mono Lake in California’s Yosemite National Park which is rich in arsenic – usually poisonous to life.
Somehow the creature uses the arsenic as a way of surviving and this ability raises the prospect that similar life could exist on other planets, which do not have our benevolent atmosphere. Dr Lewis Dartnell, an astrobiologist at the Centre for Planetary Sciences in London, said: “If these organisms use arsenic in their metabolism, it demonstrates that there are other forms of life to those we knew of. “They’re aliens, but aliens that share the same home as us.”
The US space agency has created a buzz with its announcement of a press conference early tomorrow morning (Australian time) to discuss a scientific finding that relates to the hunt for life beyond the planet Earth.
“NASA will hold a news conference at 2pm EST (6am AEDT) to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life,” it said on its website.
But Nasa has declined to elaborate further on the topic, other than to say astrobiology is the ”study of life in the universe, including its origin and evolution, where it is located and how it might survive in the future”. The vague announcement has sent the blogosphere in a flurry of speculation about its potential meaning.
Blogger Jason Kottke tipped NASA would announce the discovery of arsenic on Titan, or possibly chemical evidence of bacteria utilising it for photosynthesis.
That speculation was quickly picked up and repeated by a number of other bloggers and internet sites. However Kottke theory has been rebuffed by Alexis Madrigal, senior science writer for The Atlantic, who tweeted that he had read the Science article relating to the Nasa announcement. ”I’m sad to quell some of the @kottke-induced excitement about possible extraterrestrial life. I’ve seen the Science paper. It’s not that,” he tweeted.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science, which publishes the journal in which the research will appear, told ABC News in the US that it had received numerous inquiries about the “mostly erroneous online and/or tabloid speculation about the forthcoming research”.
For NASA TV streaming video and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv at 2pm EST today (2nd December).
“Critical safety issue” with Trent 900 could lead to “catastrophic failure”: Qantas to make further inspections
December 2, 2010The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has determined that there is a “critical safety issue” with the Rolls Royce Trent 900 used on the Qantas A380 aircraft which could lead to a “catastrophic failure”. Qantas has been ordered to carry out further inspections.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said a misaligned component had thinned the wall of an oil pipe in the exploded engine, causing “fatigue cracking” that prompted leakage and a fire “central to the engine failure”. “This condition could lead to an elevated risk of fatigue crack initiation and growth, oil leakage and potential catastrophic engine failure from a resulting oil fire,” the ATSB said, noting it was “understood to be related to the manufacturing process.”
The Bureau issued a directive urging Rolls-Royce to “address the safety issue and take actions necessary to ensure the safety of flight operations in transport aircraft equipped with Rolls-Royce Trent 900 series engines.” Qantas said it would immediately conduct further engine investigations as a result of the findings, but stressed it was just a precautionary measure and “there is no immediate risk to flight safety.”
“Qantas currently has two A380 aircraft in operational service, following the grounding of the fleet on 4 November. Both A380 aircraft will be inspected at the Qantas Jet Base in Sydney,” the airline said. “Inspections will commence this afternoon.”
The flagship carrier said it would determine whether further action would need to be taken after inspections were complete and it had consulted both Rolls-Royce and regulators. “Qantas does not anticipate at this stage that the inspections will have an impact on international services. However contingency arrangements will be in place, if needed,” it said.
The findings come just five days after Qantas resumed A380 flights, though the carrier has barred the superjumbo from trans-Pacific trips to Los Angeles due to the extra engine thrust required. It had grounded all six of its Airbus superjumbos after the November 4 blast over the Indonesian island of Batam, which forced an A380 to return to Singapore airport trailing smoke.
Checks revealed problems with 16 of the total 24 Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines powering Qantas’s A380s — four per plane — meaning the turbines would have to be replaced or modified.
Qantas chief Alan Joyce on Saturday said he was “100 percent comfortable” with the A380s’ operation.
As reported by the WSJ, Qantas has already said that they will be claiming compensation from Rolls Royce.
UK MP’s continue with their expense claim shenanigans
December 1, 2010Of course UK MP’s are not alone among politicians who make creative and extravagant expense claims. I would suspect that Members of the European Parliament in particular could teach the UK MP’s more than a few tricks in this regard.
But The Telegraph reports the UK MP’s still spend considerable time pushing the envelope of what is an allowable expense – even after the supposed crack-down on expenses.
A list of 1,574 claims, rejected by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) in the space of five months, shows that politicians have attempted to claim back money for their mortgage repayments, first-class travel and excessive hospitality.
The document, obtained by The Times newspaper, which lists a total of rejected claims worth £116,359, also reveals how parliamentarians submitted duplicate claims and did not provide suitable documentary evidence to back up their claims.
One MP was refused £338 for a shredder, while another tried to claim £1,057 for advertising. A third asked for £1,085 for ”contingencies”. All claims, which were submitted between May and September this year, were refused by Ipsa – the body set up to administer MPs expense claims.
The unsuccessful claims amounted to 7% of the total submitted by MPs during the period.
a limed oak toilet seat
- £97: Derek Conway (Ind, Old Bexley & Sidcup) two ‘limed oak toilet seats’. Also spent £76 on two loo roll holders at Peter Jones in London
- 55p: Andrew Selous (Con, South West Beds) claimed for a mug of Horlicks in the House of Commons tea room one evening in March this year
- 99p: Danny Alexander (Lib Dem, Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey) bought Mr Muscle cleaning fluid from a 99p shop
- £43.56: James Arbuthnot (Con, Hampshire NE) successfully claimed for three ‘Genius 4 piece garlic peeling & cutting set’ bought on QVC shopping channel
- £760: Alan Milburn (Lab, Darlington) went on a shopping spree in John Lewis in March 2009 including Nigella Lawson measuring spoons and a Jamie Oliver frying pan
- £175: Julie Kirkbride (Con, Bromsgrove) claimed for a Samuel Heath Curzon extending shaving mirror from John Lewis
- £5: Ben Chapman (Lab, Wirral South) claimed for a three pack of ‘waffle’ coat hangers from John Lewis
- £2,300: Crispin Blunt (Con, Reigate) claimed for ‘brickwork’ including work on his ‘water wheel structure’ and terracotta fireplace
- £2: Phil Hope (Lab, Corby) claimed for a Hamburger Maker from John Lewis, together with a £5 swivel peeler and two £6 tea towels
- £24: Lindsay Roy (Lab, Glenrothes) bought a Babyliss Salon Dry hairdryer despite having thinning hair. His claim was rejected by the fees office
- £105: Douglas Alexander (Lab, Paisley & Renfrewshire South) claimed for having the chimney swept at his designated second home in Scotland
- £562.23: Kali Mountford (Lab, Colne Valley) bought an LCD TV in West Yorkshire but said it was for her designated second home in London
- £2.95: David Ruffley (Con, Bury St Edmunds) bought an ‘anti moth proofer’ from Peter Jones of Sloane Square. A few months later he bought another six anti-moth sachets costing £24
- £420: Lynne Jones (Lab, Birmingham Selly Oak) claimed for Farrow & Ball Toile Trellis wallpaper in April 2008, and also claimed £28.80 for a food mixer
Settled Science? Smoking declines, lung cancer cases increase
December 1, 2010
I am afraid I find that whenever I hear the claim of “science being settled” – whether in medicine or astronomy or climate or physics – I am immediately suspicious that a political agenda is being pursued. Recent examples only convince me that there are few “scientific conclusions” free of a political agenda any more.
A new survey in the Upsala- Örebro healthcare region of Sweden has found that though smoking has been declining since the 1970’s, the number of cases of lung cancer have increased by 41% since the mid 90’s.
Svenska Dagbladet reports (free translation):
To some extent this survey reflects smoking behaviour of a few decades ago since lung cancer typically develops only after several decades of intense smoking. But Associate Professor Gunnar Wagenius, chief physician at the University Hospital cancer clinic in Uppsala, is still surprised, given that smoking among men has fallen since the 1970s, while lung cancer cases have stopped falling and even started to rise again.“It suggests that there are one or more additional factors other than smoking, which slowed this decline. What these factors might be is as yet very mysterious”, he told the Upsala Nya Tidning.
Lung cancer increased among women most as a consequence of changes in smoking habits. In the study, the researchers analyzed statistics from the regional registry for lung cancer, which started in 1995. The 598 registered cases in the seven counties in the healthcare region had risen to845 cases last year.The study will be reported later today at the National Medical conference in Gothenburg.
Nasa/University of Colorado establish Sun-Climate Research Center
November 30, 2010The “settled science” of climate change seems to be opening up to real science – at last. Nasa and the University of Colorado are establishing a new research centre dedicated to studying the effect of the sun on climate.
And about time too.
Perhaps they could let the 15,000 gathered in Cancun know about the importance the Sun may have!
Today the University of Colorado Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center announced the formation of a new collaborative research center dedicated to the study of the Sun’s effect on Earth’s climate. The Press release goes on to say:
The newly announced Sun-Climate Research Center, a collaboration between LASP and Goddard, will focus on research areas such as how solar variations shape Earth’s atmosphere and climate. This image of the sun is from the LASP-built NSF Precision Solar Photometric Telescope (PSPT). (Courtesy NASA/GSFC Scientific Visualization Studio; source data courtesy of HAO and LASP PSPT project team)
The center, called the Sun-Climate Research Center (SCRC), will be directed by Peter Pilewskie, a LASP research scientist and CU professor, Robert Cahalan, Head of Goddard’s Climate and Radiation Branch, and Douglas Rabin, Head of Goddard’s Solar Physics Laboratory.
Pilewskie said, “The exciting thing about this collaboration is that we believe it will promote studies to help answer a key question about the climate system: how does Earth’s atmosphere respond to the sun’s variability, and how does that affect climate? This question is particularly important now, as we seek to quantify the human-induced impact on Earth’s climate.”
The SCRC, which has been made possible by a Federal Space Act Agreement, will foster collaboration between Earth-atmosphere and solar sciences at the two institutions. Opportunities will include a scientist exchange program between the organizations, the ability for post-doctoral scientists and graduate students in science, engineering, and mission operations to move between LASP and Goddard, annual international Sun-Climate research symposia, and the ability for the two institutions to collaborate more fluidly on future research opportunities.
Robert Cahalan, SCRC co-director and Goddard scientist, said, “In recent years Goddard and LASP have worked together on several Earth and Sun missions. Now we look forward to continuing to drive growth in this key interdisciplinary field of Sun-Earth research, bringing new focus to the study of multiyear changes in the Sun and their influence on Earth’s climate.”
With a limited number of such agreements between U.S. universities and any of NASA’s ten field centers, the SCRC represents a rare and innovative step, underscoring LASP’s ability to develop high-caliber research and programmatic opportunities with Goddard.
Daniel Baker, LASP Director, said, “LASP has developed some remarkable areas of expertise that are key to studying the sun and its effect on climate and on human activities. By working with our colleagues at Goddard, we can leverage our skills—and help take an important step toward greater cooperation between NASA centers and leading university research teams.”
The k2p blog 