BlueSci Issue 13 - Michaelmas 2008

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Issue 13 Michaelmas 2008

Global Warming First Predicted in 1895

Cuckoo Trickery Co-evolution in Action

Science in the Media

Influential Science Reporting

. Space. Travel ScientistsSaliva’s at PlaySecrets Technology Aubrey. Scent de Grey . Biofuels . Science Organ Donation Carving Power of Flow Appetite Control. The andBlood the Web

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CONTENTS

Issue 13 Michaelmas 2008 FEATURES Carved by the Flow ..............................................................

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Ciara Metcalfe describes the role of blood flow during tissue formation

Mission to Mars Lindsey Nield explores our expanding horizons and if we’ll ever make the move to Mars

Kidneys Wanted Organ transplantation is not an entertaining business, as Tricia Peters explains

Click and Sniff Mico Tatalovic weaves the future of the smell-o-web

The Perfect Crime?

Jo Illingworth looks at the evolution of cuckoo trickery .......................................................................................

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FOCUS........15 If much of our daily dose of science is brought to us in the news, how good are the reports that we hear? FOCUS follows the journey of science topics into the mass media.

REGULARS News Book Reviews Technology Undergraduate A Day in the Life of...

Away from the Bench Arts and Reviews History The Pavilion Initiatives Dr Hypothesis

Scientific Soundbites .................................................................................

Michio Kaku and Béla Bollobás ..............................................................

Virtually Science .........................................................................................

Your Research Projects ............................................................................

A Conservation Manager .........................................................................

It’s a Dirty Job ............................................................................................

Are Great Scientists Like Children? ......................................................

More Than Just an Equation ....................................................................

Science Inspires Art ..................................................................................

Chasing Chemical Contaminants ...........................................................

Answers to Your Scientific Stumpers ....................................................

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EDITORIAL

Amy Chesterton Editor

If you have recovered from the frenzy surrounding CERN’s particle accelerator, switched on (and off) in September, you may have started to wonder what all the media hype was about. Dubbed the ‘big bang machine’ and the ‘supersmasher’, the world’s largest experiment is set to reproduce conditions moments after the creation of the Universe.

Newspaper headlines had us believing that a black hole was unavoidable, swallowing us out of existence. Unsurprisingly it went by without a flicker, leaving the scientists to tinker with their new toy, and leaving us in Cambridge to commence another academic year.

But just how seriously did the public take these emptythreat headlines? Were the

blown-out-of-proportion messages discarded, or taken seriously? In this issue, BlueSci investigates this matter, and tackles the media’s role in communicating science to the public in our FOCUS article “Science for the masses”.

We also explore smelly technology in “Click and Sniff ”, Arrhenius’s great prediction in “More Than Just an Equation” and the ongoing battles of the cuckoo in “The Perfect Crime?”

So, whether you’re a devoted BlueSci fan, or new to the University, take five minutes out of your busy schedule and have a read…

Nora Schultz Managing Editor HERE AT BlueSci, we are extremely excited about the many brilliant opportunities for fun and fascinating science communication projects that the brand new academic year will bring. I would like to invite you first to sit back with this issue and enjoy the ride. As in previous terms, excellent submissions for Cambridge’s popular science magazine came pouring in, and we are delighted to once again be able to offer great bonus contents on www.bluesci.org.

Please do visit our website to discover more engaging stories and some very special podcasts, and bookmark us to follow Michaelmas 2008

our weekly local science news service throughout term-time.

If your perusal of BlueSci’s tales has whetted your appetite for science communication, there couldn’t be a better time than now to get involved.

Join BlueSci for our series of fabulous workshops. Some are hands-on sessions on writing, recording, filming and editing science stories, and others are interactive presentations from inspirational speakers. Write for us, join our editorial and production teams and keep an eye out for the BlueSci committee positions, advertised later this term. For more information, email info@ bluesci.org. We look forward to working with you!

Issue 13: Michaelmas 2008 Editor: Amy Chesterton Managing Editor: Nora Schultz Business Manager: Michael Derringer Advertising Assistant: Chris Adriaanse

Sub-Editors: Terry John Evans, Jon Heras, Rose Spear, Arthur Turrell, Frances Wesley

Second Editors: Alexandra Lopes, Lindsey Nield, Silke Pichler, Juliet Redhouse, Rose Spear, Chloe Stockford, Euvian Tan, Mico Tatalovic, Omar Yousaf

Dr Hypothesis: Mike Kenning News Team: Chris Adriaanse, Rachel Swain, Euvian Tan Focus Editor: Ashley Winslow Undergraduate Editor: Daniel Shanahan

Production Team: Terry John Evans, Jon Heras, Kelly Neaves, Lindsey Nield, Rose Spear, Katherine Thomas, Djuke Veldhuis Pictures Editor: Adam Moughton

Submissions Co-ordinator: Maya Tzur Publicity: Amy Zhou President: Jon Heras

ISSN 1748-6920

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ON THE COVER

Healing a Broken Heart Jon Heras discusses our cover illustration and the concept of using cell scaffolds to grow new hearts for patients, by using their own cells

“The research has the Cover image showing detail of unrendered 3D mesh

Heart disease is one of the largest killers in the UK, with 12,000 deaths each year. Researchers at the Center for Cardiovascular Repair at the University of Minnesota have pioneered an ambitious technique for growing functional, beating hearts, which attempts to overcome the shortage of organ donors. The research has the potential to prevent many deaths worldwide, and to control the heart disease epidemic afflicting western culture.

Living tissue is stripped away from a donated heart, leaving a matrix of

potential to prevent many deaths worldwide” In a truly Frankenstein-inspired moment, once the engineered heart is stimulated to beat it will continue without further input. So far, only rat hearts have been experimented upon, and these have lived independently for up to 40 days. Research continues on pig hearts (which are of a similar size to human hearts, and are a viable transplant option for humans), and into obtaining suitable stem cells from patients. The research still has some way to go – a replacement operation every

40 days would be a trifle inconvenient – but remains a truly inspired piece of tissue engineering.

“Once the engineered heart is stimulated to beat it will continue without further input” The image on the cover, while it looks like microscope data, is in fact a computer-generated image, showing an artistic interpretation of cells growing on the fibre scaffold. The surface was sculpted on a PC using tools analogous to pushing and pulling with fingers. A cluster of cells was created to reflect the traditional scientific view of a cell, but with features to hint at engineered structures. This resultant knobbly surface was then textured, lit and raytraced to produce the final translucent result. Et voilà, a pseudo-scientific impression of a cell scaffold.

Find out more at www.e-nox.net.

Jon Heras is a chemical engineering PhD graduate, turned science illustrator UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

EQUINOX GRAPHICS

protein fibres as the scaffold. These fibres are non-patient specific and will not create an immune response, which is a major complication in organ transplants. This fibre scaffold is the framework upon which new living heart muscle is grown. Heart muscle is regenerated by injecting patient stem cells into this matrix, and providing essential nutrients for growth via the existing network of blood vessels.

A rat heart in three stages of decellularization via a process developed

by Professor Doris Taylor and her colleagues at the University of Minnesota.

In the left photo, the heart chambers are labelled showing the aorta (AO), left ventricle (LV), right ventricle (RV), left atrium (LA) and right atrium (RA). The middle photo shows areas where cells remain (pink) and where they have been removed (white). The right photo shows the hear t matrix after all the cells have been removed.

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www.bluesci.org

NEWS

A Purple Sandpiper

Researchers from Cambridge, Durham and the RSPB have shown that climate change has stuck its claws into British bird populations. Birds such as the Snowy Owl, the Redwing and the Purple Sandpiper, which breed in the colder, more northern latitudes of northeastern England and Scotland, were found to be declining in numbers.

The researchers looked at how the warming temperatures of the UK, have been paralleled by changes in the populations of over forty bird species between 1980 and 2002.

However, it’s not all bad news; some bird species normally native to southern latitudes prefer our new, milder climate.

The number of Little Egrets, a small

Is evolution to blame for schizophrenia?

During the last six million years human brains have evolved to be larger in size, and require more energy. This may be the cause of neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, in which human-specific cognitive abilities are impaired, claims research published in the Journal of Genome Biology.

Higher cognitive abilities – such as being able to talk and have complex social relationships – have increased the energy demands placed on our brains.

The relatively short time in which our brains have had to adapt has meant that the energy supply has not been properly optimised – pushing it to its limits.

A restricted energy supply can affect cognitive ability, with consistent reports of reduced blood flow in the prefrontal cortex in schizophrenic patients.

A collaboration of scientists from Cambridge, Leipzig and Shanghai compared the brains of healthy and schizophrenic patients with those of

New strategy to observe membrane proteins

were initially protected with very high concentrations of detergent micelles, which closely mimic the hydrophobic nature of cellular membranes. Upon removal of this protective layer in the gas phase, the researchers found that the complexes remained intact and could be isolated.

Mass spectroscopy allows the mass of charged species to be very accurately measured and has been used to determine the structure, topology and interaction networks of protein complexes.

This finding paves the way for a more comprehensive investigation into their structural and functional properties and, as membrane proteins account for about 60% of all drug

Scientists from the University of Cambridge and the University of Bristol have developed a new method of studying membrane protein complexes. Membrane proteins form complexes with other molecules inside the cell and within the cell membrane, which do not normally survive the measurement process.

The team led by Carol Robinson, chemistry professor at the University of Cambridge, identified a new strategy for maintaining the structural integrity of membrane proteins during mass spectroscopy. The membrane proteins Michaelmas 2008

white heron originally bred in Southern Europe, has been rapidly rising, since the first breeding pair was spotted on Brownsea Island, Dorset in 1996.

Whilst this research is significant for bird watchers and environmentalists alike, it was also used to validate a statistical model of population variation. The researchers used climate envelope models which predict species’ distribution – past, present and future – based on their current habitats. The researcher’s model correctly calculated how rising average temperatures have altered bird populations. The model’s success means it can be used to predict how changes in the UK climate will affect both the size and range of populations in years to come. RS

Chimpanzee and Rhesus Macaque monkeys looking for evolutionary and medical evidence.

“Our new research suggests that schizophrenia is a by-product of the increased metabolic demands brought about during human brain evolution,” said Philipp Khaitovich, leader of the collaboration.The team found a change in the expression levels of genes relating to energy metabolism in schizophrenic brains.

When compared to monkey brains, these genes were seen to be significantly different as a result of rapid evolution. CA

targets, a new method to aid drug discovery. ET SONIA AGUERA

MJOBLING, WIKI COMMONS

Britain’s bird populations linked to climate change

An artistic representation of a sodium channel, a particular example of a membrane protein.

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BOOK REVIEWS the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”

This book explores the frontiers of scientific knowledge in order to clarify the differences between the imminent,

motion machines and precognition violate the laws of physics as we currently understand them and are probably impossible. However, he refuses to accept that scientific laws are infallible and

“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible”

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You don’t have to be a science fiction fan to enjoy Physics of the Impossible, but it probably helps.

Chapter one begins with a quotation from Arthur C. Clarke that perfectly encapsulates the spirit of this interesting and informative book, “The only way of discovering the limits of

the unlikely and the impossible. Its strength is that it doesn’t indulge in wild speculation, but carefully analyses how some amazing contraptions might work in real life. The author, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, surveys an assortment of fantastic ideas and concludes that some of them might soon become reality.

According to Kaku­, force fields, cloaks of invisibility, light sabers and teleportation devices do not violate the known laws of physics and therefore could be created sometime in the next century or so.With some modifications, the hover board from Back to the Future II and Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder might someday become commonplace. Kaku states that perpetual

Inspired by the author’s meetings with various mathematicians at the University of Memphis, this book

is about the beauty of mathematics and how to solve even the silliest of problems. It is to be enjoyed like a cappuccino, and not like an espresso – sip by sip, not all at once.

The author puts together intriguing problems, some of which he solves using mathematical skills and others which are left open to solution. One example comes from the question, “If a Christian is running around an arena and a hungry lion is released into the arena, can the lion ever catch the Christian if they both run at the same maximum speed?”

Interestingly, for some time there was a solution to this problem that suggested one answer, but eventually another solution was proposed that proved the opposite to be true! Can you work it out?

The beauty of this book is not only the variety of problems and the every day appeal of many of them, but also that the questions and answers are provided separately so one can have a go

gives examples where an open-minded approach has led to important new discoveries about how the Universe works.

Physics of the Impossible is aimed at the non-specialist reader. Nevertheless, there is sufficient technical information to make its conclusions entirely credible. Perhaps its greatest asset is the way it conveys its author’s enthusiasm for the scientific method and celebrates the incredible possibilities available to the human intellect.

Michio Kaku, Physics of the Impossible, Penguin, 2008, £20 RRP Peter Basile is a graduate student in the Faculty of English

at them alone first. If this doesn’t work, the reader can look at hints and partial solutions before giving in and checking the actual answer – if there is one!

One doesn’t have to be a mathematician to appreciate the intrigue of the problems this book poses. However, in order to follow and understand many of the solutions I would recommend at least a strong GCSE mathematics knowledge. Apart from that, the book seems an excellent way to engage in elegant mathematics and provide some yoga for your brain.

The jury is still out on whether reading this book in a café would make you look cool or geeky.

Béla Bollobás,The Art of Mathematics: Coffee Time in Memphis, Cambridge University Press, 2007, £19.99 RRP Mico Tatalovic is an MPhil student in the Department of Zoology www.bluesci.org

TECHNOLOGY

Virtually Science Mico Tatalovic looks into the technology of virtual reality

“The boundary between virtual reality and the real world has blurred” Jump back to 1962. In the days when television began to draw audiences away from the cinema, Morton Heiling, a young cinematographer inspired by innovative cinema concepts such as 3D Cinerama, invented Sensorama, the world’s first virtual reality machine.

Sensorama had moving seats, 3D film, wind and scent sensations all working to enhance the cinematic experience.

In Heiling’s vision, cinema would reveal the scientific world to man “in the full sensual vividness and dynamic vitality of his consciousness.”

Fast forward to 2050. With the help of science, the boundary between virtual reality and the real world has blurred. The digital representations of people – the avatars – have rights equal to those of humans. Avatars learn from the experiences and acts of their human counterparts. They allow people to be in more than one place at a time and work as spokespeople for their human counterpart. Such is the vision of the future that recently won first prize in the New Scientist and Microsoft ‘Visions of the Future’ writing competition.

Back to the present day. Popular science magazines write about online, multiuser, virtual worlds as cyber ‘test tubes’ and ‘laboratories”’used to study society and human behaviour whilst dedicated peerMichaelmas 2008

reviewed journals like CyberPsychology & Behavior explore the issue academically.

Several interactive games and online communities exist and some claim millions of people are spending increasing amounts of time online, living virtual lives. Dr Edward Castronova, an associate professor of telecommunications at Indiana University USA, wrote Exodus to the Virtual World about the dangers and delights of moving to virtual reality. In an interview with the BBC, Castronova said that some people use virtual worlds as refuges to escape the reality of their own lives.

Inevitably, some people will spend less time in the real world and more and more time online. Colonising this ‘virtual frontier’, as

“Millions of people are spending increasing amounts of time online” Castranova calls it, may be dangerous to the health of those who spend too much time in their virtual world.

However, used responsibly, virtual worlds may benefit society in many ways including the potential to aid scientific endeavours, develop failsafe practices and observe human interactions without intruding or communicating directly with the people.

Virtual worlds enable the exploration of different scenarios, allowing the best course of action to be found in complex situations such as city developments and military fighting.They are increasingly used in science and medical education for concepts that are difficult to visualise or comprehend in the real world, or simply to make them fun.They also allow us to explore human social interactions such as altruism and autism without the observer disrupting or altering the outcome.

Many people visit online exhibits set up by renowned science museums and institutions such as Exploratorium and NASA.These exhibits allow for the creation of experiences and exhibits that would be impossible in real life, such as a journey through a human cell, or walking on the surface of Mars. Some virtual worlds such as Second Life allow users to bypass potentially embarrassing situations they may experience in the real world. For example, teenagers may talk to doctors in an online clinic about their sexual health.

Sensorama was a vision that failed, partly due to a lack of technology that was unable to convincingly produce an immersive experience. Virtual worlds of the present day have come a long way to appear more credible, however there is still room for improvement.

Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are working on artificial intelligence to make avatars more responsive and fun to be with.

So, just as we now have automatic sliding doors and robots thanks to sci-fi visionaries, maybe we will soon have intelligent holographic avatars interacting with humans as equals.

ADAM MOUGHTON

In virtual worlds practically anything is possible. But can virtual reality also help us to improve our understanding of the natural world, or even advance science and medicine?

Mico Tatalovic is an MPhil student in the Department of Zoology 7 07

ADAM MOUGHTON

Carved by the Flow Ciara Metcalfe describes the role of blood flow during tissue formation Whether it’s the aggressive downpour of torrential rain into sun-baked ground, or the leisurely meandering of majestic rivers towards the ocean, the flow of water over the Earth’s surface has a massive influence over the shape of our landscape. Just as water flow has the capacity to carve out new formations, it is thought that the flow of blood through our bodies can shape our internal landscape.

“Blood flow through our bodies can shape our internal landscape” Julien Vermot, California Institute of Technology, who recently presented a seminar at the prestigious MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, has been helping to unravel the mysteries surrounding this astounding phenomenon.Vermot, uses the zebrafish, Danio rerio, as a model system in which to investigate the role 8

of blood flow during the formation and development of the embryo – a process known as embryogenesis, the early stages of an organism’s development. This small, and rather lovely looking fish presents an ideal biological research system; there are striking parallels between early human and fish development, it’s easy to breed, and its genetics are well understood and easy to modify. The zebrafish embryo is also transparent, allowing observation of events within the fish, which is crucial to the investigation.

Combined microscopy and fluorescencelabeling of zebrafish blood cells allow the flow of blood to be traced through the developing heart.The zebrafish heart is a relatively simple tube-like structure with two muscular ‘pumping chambers’ – the atrium and the ventricle – separated by a set of valves. In the adult heart the valve plays an important role in ensuring oneway blood flow, from atrium to ventricle to outflow tract, and not back into the atrium.

In the early stages of heart development, however, there is no valve and so some blood flows backwards as the heart pumps.

Vermot and colleagues noticed that blood flow follows a very specific pattern at the boundary between

“There are striking parallels between early human and fish development” the two heart chambers during the embryo’s development. This precise point, the atrioventricular boundary, is where the valve will form later in development. Blood flows forward, stops momentarily, and then flows backward, before going forward again.

This pattern of flow is unique to the boundary region and does not occur anywhere else in the developing heart.

Elsewhere blood flows in one direction, stops and then resumes in the same direction. The researchers found that if they manipulated this very specific pattern of flow at the boundary, by changing temperature, the blood www.bluesci.org

SONIA AGUERA & STEVE BASKAUF

viscosity or by using drugs, the heart valve did not form.

It has now been established that cultured vascular cells – those that line blood vessels – can change their genetic program in response to frictional stresses

“The elegance and simplicity of the system is astounding” imposed by fluid flow. These cells are able to differentiate between a steady laminar flow and a more turbulent flow, and modify their gene expression profiles accordingly. Aided by these previous findings,Vermot and coworkers were able to identify a gene that is activated in the developing heart, in the very region of the unique flow pattern, exactly in the spot where the valve will develop. If the flow is in any way disrupted, this gene is not activated and no valve will develop.

This suggests that cells in the atrioventricular boundary region can sense the pattern of blood flow across them and respond to that flow by activating the gene responsible for the valve formation.

Thus, the flow of blood through the heart controls the exact placing and development of the valve. The elegance and simplicity of the system is astounding.

This exquisite mechanism of using blood flow to mould the organs of the body is not restricted to the heart.

Michaelmas 2008

Left: illustration of a zebrafish heart showing the two chambers. The atrioventricular boundary region is characterized by a unique pattern of blood flow. Right: adult zebrafish.

A close examination of the zebrafish embryo reveals tiny beating whip-like structures in various regions of the developing fish. These structures, called cilia, are extensions of cells themselves.

The beating of the cilia generates movement, or flow, of the surrounding liquid and, like the pumping of the heart, creates flow that influences the development of nearby structures.

Incidentally, mutations in proteins important to cilia function are associated with numerous developmental disorders in humans, including hydrocephalus and renal cystitis, highlighting the importance of correct fluid flow in embryogenesis.

Despite the discovery of this amazing mechanism, many questions still remain

unanswered. How exactly do cells ‘sense’ flow? How is sensing at the cell surface connected to the gene’s activation?

Where else in the body is the flow profile responsible for generating new ‘landmarks’? These are some of the questions that researchers hope to address in the future; perhaps they will uncover more surprising and magical parallels between our external environment and the intricacies of embryogenesis.

To see live imaging of a zebrafish heart go to the Microscope Imaging Station at www.exploratorium.edu/imaging_station Ciara Metcalfe is a PhD student at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

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ADAM MOUGHTON

Mission to Mars Lindsey Nield explores our expanding horizons and whether we’ll ever make the move to Mars Thousands of people choose to emigrate each year. The Office for National Statistics reported an all-time high in 2006 with 207,000 Britons choosing another country for residence.

Popular destinations were Australia, Spain and the United States; but what if the choice was greater? Could we emigrate to other planets in the future?

The human desire to explore and discover has led us to map the globe’s continents and oceans, turning our attention to the skies. Great advances have been made since our first steps into space and, if plans drawn up by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) go to schedule, the next decade will see humans living on the Moon.

The space race was born in the midst of the Cold War with the United States of America and the Soviet Union battling to prove their superiority. The Soviets gained the initial lead by putting the first man-made object – Sputnik – into orbit in October 1957 and the first man into space on 12 April 1961. However, when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon 10

on 21 July 1969, the competition was over and the USA declared the victors.

Despite the initial rivalry, co-operation followed. In 1975, the first collaborative docking between American and Soviet spacecraft took place, paving the way for future international missions. The 1990s saw the first two modules of the International Space Station (ISS) connected in orbit and since late 2000

“Radiation is a potential show stopper” the ISS has had a constant human presence on board and has grown to include American, Japanese and European laboratories. The ISS is the first human habitat outside of our planet and will serve as a base for future missions.

In 2004 President Bush announced plans to return humans to the Moon as a stepping stone to Mars. He called for robotic missions to the lunar surface later this decade to pinpoint locations

for human explorers to investigate. The plan also calls for an extended human presence on the Moon, requiring extensive research into the problems astronauts would face living there for long periods.

“Radiation is a potential show stopper”, says John Charles of the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Space is filled with high energy particles emitted by the sun during solar flares and cosmic rays from exploding stars.

Particle radiation penetrates the human body damaging cells which can lose the ability to perform normally or repair themselves. The Earth’s magnetic field shields us from most of these particles, its atmosphere blocking out the rest.

The atmosphere of Mars is about 1% as dense as Earth’s so will cut out some of these particles, but the Moon has no atmosphere at all. For humans to live on the Moon, their whole environment will require shielding from this radiation.

Any missions travelling further afield will be exposed to even greater levels of radiation as ships will not have the www.bluesci.org

The Phoenix Lander: a robotic spacecraft that landed on Mars this year.

protection of the planet. Aluminium is the material of choice for building spacecraft since it is lightweight and strong but to reduce the radiation passing through, it will need extra shielding.

One possibility is a form of reinforced polyethylene developed at Marshall Space Flight Center which absorbs 20% more cosmic rays than aluminium and is ten times stronger. So perhaps space ships of the future will be made of plastic or at least have plastic shielding, something that is already implemented on the ISS.

“Could we emigrate to

other planets in the future?”

To properly explore the Moon, spacesuits will need updating. Astronauts with the Apollo missions minimised the time spent on the surface to reduce exposure to radiation but any future missions will require greater periods outside to complete the exploration.

Today’s suit is built for space where astronauts work with their hands whilst floating. A new suit must be designed for exploring planets enabling walking, riding, climbing and digging. Not only does the current spacesuit reduce mobility but astronauts on the space station currently spend three hours preparing for every hour of space walking they perform. “The goal is to reverse the ratio” says Mike Gernhardt, an astronaut and principal investigator in the design process. By designing suits with more incorporated parts the astronauts can reduce the time spent assembling them.

On the Moon solar power will be an important method of producing Michaelmas 2008

electricity for the lights, life support systems, communications and rovers of the lunar outpost but will only work during the day. Even at the Moon’s South Pole, night covers the surface in darkness for more than 100 hours so researchers must find a way to efficiently store power. The solution may lie with a special fuel cell system originally designed for use on a high-altitude solar-electric airplane. The fuel cell was developed at NASA’s Glenn Research Centre and demonstrated in 2005 by electrical engineer David Bents and his team. The cell works by combining hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, leaving water and heat as by-products. What makes this fuel cell special is that it is a fully closed-loop regenerative system meaning that it can also work in reverse using electricity to divide water into hydrogen and oxygen, which are then fed back into the cell to produce more electricity.

“On the Moon, you would start with a tank of water. You’d use the solar arrays to make hydrogen and oxygen during the day, then use the hydrogen and oxygen to make electricity during the night when there’s no sun” says Bents. “Ideally, if nothing broke and nothing wore out, it could run forever without being refuelled.” The first fuel cell tested ran continuously for five days and nights proving the cell’s potential as an energy storage device. The system will need to run for much longer if it is to be used in the lunar environment and Bents and his team are currently working on a prototype.

Expeditions to Mars are still at least 50 years away and we will rely on what we learn from lunar outposts to plan

human missions to the red planet. In the meantime, robotic rovers and orbiters will be used to uncover clues to the geology and biological potential of the planet. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the Phoenix Mars Lander are just two of the missions currently sending back data. The MRO has already identified a delta inside a crater which once held a lake. Ancient rivers would have ferried clay-like minerals into the lake forming the delta.

These clays tend to trap and preserve organic matter, making the delta an ideal site for future missions to search for signs of life. The Phoenix is already looking for those signs by investigating the ice that lies beneath the soil in the northern plains of Mars. Each new discovery brings the idea of life on other planets to the forefront of our minds.

Plans for future space missions certainly include sending astronauts to the Moon and Mars but will we ever live elsewhere? The technological advances needed may well begin to appear in the next century with research going into human habitats and new forms of propulsion enable us to travel larger distances. But colonising a new world is still well in the future. With the expanding population of Earth we might reach a point where demand for the planet’s dwindling resources may make space exploration a necessity, but for now it is just an exciting field of discovery to inspire us all.

Lindsey Nield is a PhD student in the Department of Physics NASA

NASA

One of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers which has been exploring the surface of Mars since 2004

11

S

TOM WILK

Organ transplantation is not an entertaining business, as Tricia Peters explains In June 2007, Dutch television station BNN made the headlines with the advertisement of a new primetime reality TV show. In De Grote Donor Show (The Big Donor Show), a terminally ill 37-year-old woman, Lisa, was to play a role similar to The Apprentice boss Sir Alan Sugar – except that herein she would determine not which of two final contestants vying for a business world boon would receive an illusory position, but which of three contestants dying of kidney complications would be granted an organ upon her impending death.

“The burden of kidney disease has multiplied in the Western world” Bizarrely, only one contestant could win. One kidney was up for offer; Lisa would take the other to her grave. In making the decision, this woman and this television production (and those viewers who paid to text-message their advice regarding who was most 12

worthy) would be assuming the God-like role of determining fate…

Inevitably, news media worldwide caught wind of the show, and controversy ensued.

This particular news story piqued my attention for a variety of reasons: my interest in health and medicine, my loathing for reality television, and most directly, my personal experience having a family member waiting patiently on a kidney donor list in the United States after being diagnosed five years ago with a kidney disorder. With the help of this television broadcast, and many families sharing personal stories, the dire state of organ donation became a topic of conversation throughout the Netherlands and beyond.

Whether caused by genetic diseases, high blood pressure, or complications associated with the increase in obesity and diabetes, the burden of kidney disease has multiplied in the Western world. Kidney Research UK reports that chronic kidney disease is increasing by 5% each year, and the number of Americans being treated for kidney failure more than doubled

between the years 1992 and 2005.

Where prevention and treatment fail, the result is a backlog of patients facing

“The gap between transplants performed and patients in need continues to rise” a lifetime of blood dialysis or awaiting an organ transplant. In the USA, national data show that for 2004-2005, the number of individuals on a waiting list for a donor kidney rose by 8.5%, now totalling 73,000. Although the number of transplanted kidneys has also increased, the gap between transplants performed and patients in need continues to rise, and more patients are dying on donor lists.

It is overwhelmingly clear that a high demand for kidneys exists globally, and that the response so far has been shockingly inadequate. Considering the potential for voluntary donation (most of us possess two kidneys but www.bluesci.org

“An opt-out organ donation system seems nothing but logical” dialysis. Despite one recommendation urging that we “embrace organ donation as a usual, not an unusual, event” directly addressing the issue of reforming the UK’s system of consent was delayed and depends largely on a report from an Expert Working Group due later this year.

Michaelmas 2008

JAMIE MARLAND

require only one for survival), we must wonder if this supply shortage is really necessary. In fact, figures show that the waiting list in the USA could be eliminated if a mere 0.06% of healthy American adults aged 19-65 were to donate one of their kidneys.

Yet despite limited health risks to the donor and improved organ- and patient-survival rates following living donor transplants, a lack of incentive on the part of donors as well as ethical issues regarding matters of intent have complicated the process.

Cadaveric kidneys (from dead organ donors) provide the majority of transplanted organs, but currently the supply cannot meet the demand.

While admittedly complex in terms of ethical and religious considerations, the number of potential donor kidneys lying six feet under should provide enough impetus for reorganisation of the organ donation process. An ‘opt-out’ donation system seems nothing but logical, and evidence from nations with such policies, including Austria and Spain, has shown increased annual organ donations each year since conversion to a system of presumed consent. Recently in the UK, the government-established Organ Donation Task Force (ODTF) delivered 14 recommendations for organ donation reform. These included a target to increase donation by 50% over the next five years. In response, the government has pledged £11 million towards this effort, with projected savings of approximately £500 million anticipated to derive primarily from reducing the costs associated with

Patients with kidney failure must undergo lengthy haemodialysis every week

While the ODTF recommendations and the funding provisions are encouraging, any delay in the debate over presumed consent is frustrating for those individuals who would benefit from a quicker reorganisation, especially when considering the many problems and debates that surround voluntary kidney donation.

To begin with, charity and altruism provide little motivation for most individuals to donate an organ. Next, strict matching criteria in terms of blood and tissue type and antibody titres add further difficulty to the co-ordination of transplants. Third, the concept of paired exchanges or ‘swap lists’ to provide better matches for willing voluntary donors has been met with much legal and ethical debate, because of worry that this sort of trade may lead to creation of a commercial marketplace for exchanging organs. Fourth, the idea of regulated or compensated donation is met with ethical scorn by those who argue that even if regulated, receipt of payment for organs would disproportionately enlist the poor; nonetheless such an incentive has increased the living donor pool and eliminated the waiting list in Iran.

Fifth, the phrase ‘transplant tourism’ to describe an industry developed to meet a need, has created further negative

associations. In an extreme example, reported by the New York Times, an illegal “kidney ring” in India assumed the guise of offering work to poor men to steal their organs to supply this need.

“Embrace organ

donation as a usual event” So given all these obstacles stacked against voluntary donation, we must wonder why there has been a delay in establishing the opt-out system. At the conclusion of the first (and only) episode of De Grote Donor Show, the audience learned that this show was not in fact reality TV, but that Lisa was an actress and the show was intended to raise awareness of the many issues surrounding organ donation.

Yet for the contestants – all truly in need of a kidney transplant – and for the thousands of individuals worldwide suffering end-stage renal disease, this is their reality. De Grote Donor Show was a one-off, never to be aired again, but for the response of the UK government and health organizations worldwide, we will all stay tuned.

Tricia Peters is a PhD student in the MRC Epidemiology Unit 13

UNDERGRADUATE

One of the largest crabs found during the research

In January 2008, the popular science magazine Scientific American reported findings of a research group which challenged the widely held belief that proteins cement bone mineral together. The results from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Chemistry suggested that sugars, called glycosaminoglycans, could in fact be the magic glue.

If it is indeed sugars which are binding the mineral, could subtle differences in these sugars explain why our ears remain cartilaginous, yet our ribs become bone?

Medical student Marianne Neary

Stellar Collisions Many theories have been proposed to explain the origin of super massive stars; those with a mass many times that of our Sun. One such theory involves a process whereby small stars form individually, before colliding with one another and merging. However, stars are generally few and far between which poses the question; what could cause them to come close enough to merge?

One model involves young star clusters. Any interstellar gas still present around the periphery of the system falls into the cluster, increasing its potential energy. When the potential energy vastly exceeds the kinetic energy, the system becomes too heavy to support its own

British seaside holidays tend to be more rain than sunshine. One thing that keeps children happy is the hours spent crabbing: collecting crabs of all shapes, sizes and colours from the beach and rock pools and finally releasing them in the evening when parents refuse to take them home. But this British pastime has come under threat as conservationists warn of the damage done to the crabs.

Research found that over-crowding in buckets could stress smaller crabs and lead to fights between the males.To get an idea of the damage done, traps were laid in areas where crabbing was actively carried out and in less prone control areas.

Bone, Sweet Bone set out to answer such questions by investigating whether the nature of glycosaminoglycan molecules could affect the mineralisation of cartilage and thereby influence the formation of bone.

A sophisticated technique called Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging Spectroscopy (NMR spectroscopy), allowed Marianne to measure proportions of different molecules in hard tissue with minimal sample damage.

After the analysis of cartilage from various animals, ranging from rays to weight and begins to collapse. Rapid contraction makes the central regions increasingly dense, possibly achieving sufficient density for mergers to occur.

Olaf Davis runs simulations of star clusters undergoing this potential energy growth. His work investigates the number of collisions needed before the system ceases collapsing and begins to re-expand.

The results indicate a strong dependence of the number of collisions on the ratio of the mass-doubling time to the relaxation timescale; a measure of how quickly kinetic energy is transported through the cluster.

Further work is intended to examine the effects of binary star systems on the rate of energy transfer in more detail and attempt to apply the model to data from real clusters.

Captured crabs were checked for size and noticeable damage. Crabs in the area of heaviest crabbing were found to be missing more limbs indicating that crabs are being indirectly injured by this seaside sport.

“We are not saying people shouldn’t go crabbing but there are concerns at how they are treated,” said researcher Will Pearse, adding, “In the sea, males grapple with each other and the weaker one retreats. But they cannot run away in a bucket and keep fighting, leading to limbs being torn off or shed as a form of defence.”

Helen Green and Will Pearse are students in the Department of Zoology horses, it was found that the sulphation pattern of a type of glycosaminoglycan, chondroitin sulphate, does correlate with the extent of mineralisation.

This novel finding, if verified, could influence disciplines ranging from tissue engineering to the prevention of diseases such as atherosclerotic plaque calcification, which affects arterial blood vessels.

So are our skeletons really “Bone, Sweet Bone”? It appears to be the case, but as yet, we’re still a long way from home.

Marianne Neary is a third year medical student reading Part II Physiology Development and Neuroscience

NASA, C.R. O’DELL & S.K. WONG (RICE UNIVERSITY)

HELEN GREEN

Crabby Crabs

The Orion Nebula Cluster, on which some simulations were based. Light hilights the clouds of dust and gas.

Olaf Davis is an undergraduate student in the Institute of Astronomy

Bonus Content: Read more undergraduate research reports on www.blusci.org/undergrad 14

www.bluesci.org

ADAM MOUGHTON

This summer, after the long awaited arrival of their GCSE results, an estimated 55% of sixteen-year-olds stopped any formal science education. Recent years have seen a trend of fewer and fewer people choosing to continue to study science, leaving the majority equipped with only a basic understanding. But even those members of the public completely uninterested in science will form and voice opinions about newsworthy science.

This term BlueSci looks into science communication and the role the media has in educating the masses.

Michaelmas 2008

Just Enough Education to Peform You don’t need a PhD in theoretical physics to appreciate that science has an impact on our everyday life. The public are aware of the value of science, and most people agree that science and technology have made our lives healthier, easier and more comfortable.

For scientists, fundamental understanding and the quest for knowledge are reason enough to conduct research. The public, however, are more concerned with how a scientific finding can impact, and ultimately improve, their quality of life.

While scientists share results, findings

and ideas through scientific journals and at conferences, the public are often left to learn what they can from one of the world’s largest educators: the media.

Although popular science is big business, and increasingly so, the targeted audience already has some interest in science. Broadcasters produce high quality, well-researched programmes, newspapers have weekly science supplements and popular science books make it onto best-seller lists. Information is plentiful, but doesn’t always reach the masses. For the people who gave up science education a long time ago and 15

have little in interest popular science, their only exposure to science is from the headlines, an altogether different beast.

Scientific unknowns, controversial subjects and moral dilemmas can cause mass hysteria, paranoia and concerns relating to choice, or the lack of it. This is the science that makes the headlines.

The big science stories of the last decade have all shown aspects of this: the measles, mumps & rubellea (MMR) vaccine, mad cow disease, genetically modified crops and cloning. But are the people who read these headlines getting a fair representation of the science involved and subsequently forming balanced opinions?

Surprisingly, breaking science stories are written by news journalists rather than science journalists, even though at this point, it is critical to

“When a story first breaks, this is when most people are listening” get the science right. Research shows that when a story first breaks, this is when most people are listening and when public opinion is the most impressionable. If the science is poorly presented, or out of context,

the general public can become misinformed. First impressions persist, and opinions made at this time become hard to rectify.

Compounding the problem of poorly presented information is the 24 hour news cycle – deadlines are tighter and journalists are fighting to stay one step ahead. Understanding a publication on a specialist subject with unfamiliar vocabulary is not an easy task, even without time pressure. Mistakes happen.

Science is, however, treated slightly differently to most other news.

Press releases, issued by journals and universities, summarising their latest results come with an embargo – normally

ADAM MOUGHTON

Under Embargo

Should scientists be able to talk to whoever they like about their research? The journals that publish their articles do not always think so.

In the first instance a journal is a business and must ensure that the articles printed are of interest to their customers. Thus, there are strict rules concerning how, and with whom, scientists may discuss their submitted work. Most notably, journals require that authors do not speak to the press until a week before their article is to be

16

published to prevent early publication of newsworthy research.

This delay – the embargo system – compensates science journalists with extra time. Each week, journals such as Nature and Science send a press release to journalists worldwide summarising the most interesting articles of their coming issue. The journalists gain privileged access to headline science news, under the restriction that they do not publish these findings until a specified date – usually

the night before the journal’s publication. This allows journalists time for background research for an article, hopefully improving accuracy, whilst giving the journal and authors added publicity. Additionally, the delay ensures that the original journal article and the news story are published simultaneously.

This system was formalised in 1969 by Franz Ingelfinger, the then editor of The New England Journal of Medicine. After being scooped by the Medical World News, the journal published a set of guidelines stating that any material already published elsewhere would not be accepted.

If an embargoed story is published before the specified date, or an author solicits press coverage, the embargo is considered to be broken. This can have serious consequences. The journalists involved will be denied future press releases and publication

of the author’s work will be refused by the journal in question, and possibly others. Scientists must therefore be extremely careful when discussing work with journalists that is still under review.

Many science journalists feel that this system is antiquated. Some journals are relaxing their embargo policies, particularly in the physical sciences. They now simply request that the authors wait until a paper is released to the printer before initiating publicity. Many journals offer online access to their articles, which can be posted weeks before they appear in print. The internet has given scientists new ways to communicate their research via collaborative websites and preprint servers.

If this encourages change in the way that science is reported, perhaps the future of the embargo system itself may be under review.

Lindsey Nield

www.bluesci.org

a couple of days – preventing the information from being prematurely released (see Under Embargo box). This gives the journalists time to understand the research and contact scientists for quotes and clarification.

But accuracy is not the only barrier to unambiguous science reporting.

Just because a science story is factually accurate doesn’t mean that it can’t also be incomplete, confusing, misleading or biased.

The press are given unprecedented freedom to write what they like in a way that broadcast media (TV and radio) are not. In Britain, broadcast media must be impartial, balanced and fair, while newspapers must only avoid defamation and contempt. Newspapers can adopt a specific editorial line, particularly when an issue enters the political or ethical sphere. Choosing to place emphasis on a particular viewpoint can influence the judgment of its readers. The public are aware of this; the newspapers they read fall somewhere on the political spectrum.

This can provide a biased view of the issue or confused and conflicting messages from different media sources.

Even when journalists strive to present a well rounded story, it can sometimes be detrimental. Giving equal weight to all viewpoints can cause confusion about the significance of a study and the scientific consensus on the matter. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the reporting of the MMR vaccine where the overwhelming scientific view considered the vaccine to be safe, but news coverage was expanded on the lone study suggesting a link with autism. The weight of scientific opinion was not well transmitted to the public.

Furthermore, while striving to make their news stories more engaging, many journalists used concerned parents as sources to generate sympathy.

The emotive language of pressure groups and of those directly affected by events has a strong influence over where the debate’s middle ground lies.

The measured stance of a scientist countered by the dramatic language of many such groups has a tendency Michaelmas 2008

JOHANNA

FOCUS

to shift the majority view towards the emotive response. The language of science is in probability, significance, likelihood, measure and restraint but provides a less persuasive voice when compared to the opinionated voices of affected or concerned individuals.

“People are reliant on the media’s portrayal of scientific issues” So where does this leave those that quit science education? To a greater extent, these people are reliant on the media’s portrayal of the scientific issues.

Returning to the original scientific paper to draw their own conclusions is simply not an option for most people.

This is a challenge even for highly qualified scientists on subjects outside their area of expertise. The language of the paper can be impenetrable, and subtle approximations and significance can be lost without a thorough grounding in the subject.

Besides, would most people be able to easily source a scientific manuscript?

Probably not, leaving the media to provide the sole link between the public and the science; the worry being that the science can get sidelined as sensationalism sells.

To make matters worse, the response to the media’s sensationalist arguments by government scientists is generally viewed with public scepticism. The public presume government officials have ulterior motives. During mad cow disease, foot and mouth, Salmonella and E. coli outbreaks in recent years, the public thought the government was acting in favour of the food producers. Although research shows that the majority trust scientists from universities, scientists in general have lost their pedestal, and the unconditional trust they once had (see Science Journalism through Time box).

Recent years have seen reports and changes on how to make sure the ‘right’ messages get through. In 2000, the House of Lords Select Committee published a review on ‘Science and Society’ looking at science and the media as well as communicating uncertainty and risk. The Science Media Centre has been strengthening the public voice of science since 2002 by offering an accessible science PR service for national press journalists, specifically targeting the science in the headlines and making sure the facts are right and there has been a shift to transparency and openness.

The situation is undeniably complex and it is easy to criticise the media and patronise the public. But do 17

EQUINOX GRAPHICS

Figure compares public opinion on sport and science in Europe.

The percentages for sport are comparable, but for science the public’s interest out-weighs the information they receive.

Source: Eurobarometer 55.2

18

Ben Goldacre on Bad Science Ben Goldacre, a medical doctor and award-winning writer of the weekly ‘Bad Science’ column (The Guardian), informs us about the misinterpretations of science in the media. BlueSci talks to Ben about science writers, editors, and how science can improve its relationship with the media.

Why do you think there is so much ‘bad science’ reporting in the media?

The reality is, lots of journalists know very little about science or medicine and they don’t let that stop them from speculating, or from presenting themselves as experts. But I think there is a second, more interesting problem.

There are a lot of very good specialist science correspondents, but whenever a story becomes a major contentious issue, like the MMR vaccine or GM food, the coverage gets taken out of the hands of the specialist journalists.

When the ‘Frankenstein Food’ saga hit the front pages in the late 1990s, not a single one of the news or column pieces were written by specialist health or science journalists after the first two days. And if you talk to veteran health and science journalists who were around at the time, they will tell you that they were clambering on the doors of the editors’ offices, saying, “let us write about it”, but they were refused.

So do you think there should be more specialists writing articles, as opposed to science journalists, who are ‘generalists’?

What the world needs are more editors and fewer writers. And those editors should be working with people that are experts in their field and helping them describe their material in their own words. I genuinely believe that in the whole of the popular media, BBC Radio 4 does science better than anywhere else. And there is a very important reason for this, which is that 80% of the science documentaries on Radio 4 consists of nothing but quotes from the scientists that are involved

BEN GOLDACRE

the public believe everything they read, or is it simply a vocal minority?

And what are we to do to ensure that scientific accuracy is not lost in the turmoil of the headlines? Some, like science columnist Ben Goldacre believe that “more editors and fewer writers” could change science reporting for the better (see Ben Goldacre on Bad Science).

The recent mushrooming of science communication courses for scientists and journalists alike certainly reflects a desire to improve the quality of public discussions about science topics.

As Star Wars director George Lucas said, “Anybody in the media has a very large megaphone that can reach a lot of different people, and so whatever they say, whatever they do, however they conduct themselves, whatever they produce has an influence, and it’s teaching somebody something.” So if those 55% of Brits who quit their formal science education at age sixteen indeed turn to the mass media as their science teacher from that point on, these rising efforts to implement quality control in science communication can only be a good thing.

Ben Goldacre, journalist and medical doctor

in the work themselves. A structure is put around that by producers, editors and the presenter, but there is honesty there. All of the interesting material is being produced by scientists themselves, and I think that is very important.

Do you think the media is actually doing scientific research more harm than good?

What journalists write has a massive effect on what the public believes.

There is absolutely no doubt that the poor quality of the science and health coverage in the media is a serious public health issue. To be honest, I think that one of the most important things that you can do is point out when they get things wrong and add your own shake into the mix; go off and write articles for national newspapers or write a blog explaining your own stuff.

One thing that worries me a bit is this obsession with the idea that everything should be in ‘popular media’, about getting it to the masses. I am not sure this is true; I don’t think people are obliged to be interested in all the stuff.

And I often think it is more satisfying to communicate to a smaller number of people who are really interested in what you have to say. www.bluesci.org

FOCUS Amongst all the sensationalist reporting, is there a way to educate the public, without misinterpretation?

If you are a working scientist or a doctor who’s involved in that sort of stuff, you understand it well, you can write your own thing, you can be critical, you can write more general pieces, just to promote the general notion. But this will never get as much coverage as the front cover scare stories. They will always win.

There are no two ways about it. They win, they absolutely win. Every week on

the front page of the newspaper, every week in their glossy magazine, their ideas are there in the authority of print. And I am just one geezer with a column in the corner of The Guardian. They win hands down and it will never change.

So you think that the media and their faulty misinterpretations win against the experts, the scientists and the doctors?

Yeah. There is no doubt that these problems will continue, and I suspect that they will get much, much

worse because newspapers are really struggling to stay afloat commercially, you know, and bullshit sells much better than common sense.

Article written by PhD students Chris Adriaanse in the Department of Chemistry and Victoria Russell in the Department of Physics.

Interview by Chloe Stockford, a PhD student in the Department of Chemistry.

It’s 1840 and life is changing. The world is shrinking. Ships cross the Atlantic and steam trains zip along railways. Farming, textiles, transport, mining, medicine... everything is benefitting from the industrial revolution.

Newspapers are able to travel the length of the country on new locomotive trains, arriving within a day of their release, delivering news across the country about science and the technological advances.

Onwards to World War I. This is the era of the aeroplane, the machine gun and poisonous gas, all recent developments in science and of fundamental importance in the ‘war to end all wars’. Two years after the war ends, Edwin Scripps founds the Science Service – the first syndicate to distribute science news.

A seed is planted, which goes on to be the boom in science journalism seen during the 1930s.

In the following decades, science journalism surges, gaining a professional footing with the foundation Michaelmas 2008

of the National Association of Science Writers in America. By 1945 science journalism has carved out its own identity with independent recognition from the Science Journalism awards. New Scientist is founded just over a decade later and scientific reporting remains optimistic.

The 1960s is a time of rebellion, preconceptions are challenged and old ideals are thrown out of the window. Reporters no longer unquestioningly reiterate what they are told. Objectivity is key. In 1966 Henry Pierce of The Pittsburg Post voices the growing concern in science journalism when he says, “We, bless us, go in with our bright baby-blue pencils poised, faithfully recording anything our scientists – our gods – tell us. Never does it occur to us that these guys, too, may have motives that are less than noble.”

Disillusionment with science grows. By the 1970s scientists no longer seem infallible. Public opinion of science is turning less favourable, as concern for

ADAM MOUGHTON

Science Journalism Through Time

the environment heightens.

Reports of fraudulent scientific results hit a public reeling from the Watergate scandal. Advances in molecular biology prompt headlines to the tune of ‘tinkering with life’, conjuring up images of Frankenstein’s monster.

During more recent years, science journalism has been a mixed bag. The arrival

of the internet is changing everything we do and the information available.

This increasing amount of data is causing problems, particularly in relation to validity and provenance.

The relationship between science and the media is becoming far more complex than mere reporting.

Kat Austen

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Mico Tatalovic weaves the future of the smell-o-web For a truly immersed experience of playing a computer game or watching a movie, senses have to be stimulated. Apart from sight, sound and touch, our sense of smell also plays an important role. It is considered the most primitive of all these sensesconnected directly to our emotional core, and by-passing the conscious control of our feelings.

So, could smell-ovision be coming to a screen near you?

Imagine shopping for perfume and flowers online, desperate to get the right choice for your Valentine.

Downloading scent in the way we download music may help with the decision, smelling for yourself instead of relying on reviews.

The idea may not be so farfetched. Some companies have already developed technologies necessary for digitising scents.

Californian based DigiScent developed iSmell, a personal scent 20

synthesiser, in the late 1990s and TriSenx developed ScentDome, a scent-producing USB plug-in that lets a customised mix of primary odours waft out of a cartridge when prompted.Telewest Broadband are currently developing ScentDome further to allow the sending of scented emails.

Chad Raube, director of internet services at Telewest Broadband told the BBC “This could bring an extra whiff of realism to the internet.”

So perhaps a scent-producing plug-in will become a standard part of a computer’s periphery, as common as printers or speakers. In fact, ScentDome’s power to transform digital information into real life scents can already be fully enjoyed at sites such as Scenttv.tv. In Japan, the main scent gadgets are Kaori Web, produced and trialled in cybercafés by K Opticom and NTT Communications’ USB Aroma Geur which can be connected to radios and releases scents appropriate for the melody and tone of the music from Tokyo FM. The idea of aroma-enhanced entertainment goes back as far as a hundred years, even before sound was introduced to the cinema. In 1906 a family theatre in Pennsylvania used rose essence to accompany their news reel of Pasadena Rose Bowl, and in 1929 cinemas in New York and Boston tinkered with orange blossom and lilac scent respectively.

In the 1940s, Swiss scientist Hans Laube, who studied the science of smell, developed a machine he called Scentavision. Film producer Mike Todd Jr. renamed the machine smell-o-vision and used it for his film Scent of Mystery in 1960, using 30 different scents.The machine consisted of a rotating drum which housed the bottles of different scents, connected to the film tape for accurate timing.The scents had to travel through plastic pipes, before reaching the audience from under their seats. Aroma-Rama was a similar contraption, invented by Charles Weiss and used in the film Behind the Great Wall.

TOM WILKS

However, neither of these technologies were well accepted by audiences or critics.

The scents, once released, would linger about and mix with other scents causing unpleasant smells, allergic reactions and nausea for some people in the audience.

The release of scents was also accompanied by a hissing sound which would distract

“Could smell-o-vision be coming to a screen near you?” from the movie. In the case of AromaRama, the scent took a while to diffuse and would reach some people too late, when the appropriate moment in the movie was already gone. So although media hype predicted scents to be as important as sound in cinema evolution, the first public appearance of ‘smellies’ also marked their immediate demise.

The next attempt to perfume the screen came when John Waters paid homage to smell-o-vision with the Odorama gimmick for his 1981 film Polyester.

Odorama supplied the audience with scratch-and-sniff cards (hugely popular in the 1980s) at the beginning of the movie.

The cards had 10 scents covered by 10 numbers which had to be scratched when the corresponding number flashed on the screen to get a whiff of scent related to that point in movie. Pizza, leather, flowers, grass, gas and faeces were amongst the featured aromas. The cards were printed with an emulsion of essential oils that formed millions of tiny scent bubbles.

Once the cards are scratched, the bubbles rupture and release volatile scents that then find their way to people’s noses.

Smell-o-vision and Odorama have only been used in a handful of films since but personalised computer scents sent over internet-cyber-scents-may soon be as common as online shopping. www.bluesci.org

Michaelmas 2008

would people want to pay lots of money just to be able to smell things coming out of their laptop? And who would stand unpleasant smells that might form and hang around their room if they indeed bought ScentDome? There is also potential for exploitation by forprofit businesses; x-rated websites could send whiffs of pheromones that would enhance libido and promote addiction to pornography, supermarkets could tempt customers with smells of fresh produce and travel agencies could send smells of summer beaches or alpine ski resorts to make their products irresistible.

There is no doubt that smell would enhance virtual experiences such as computer games and online film.

Multi-sensory experiences capture the attention of their audiences, and olfactory stimulation has been shown to positively affect learning and memory.

Also, aromatherapy might become available over the Internet, providing antimicrobial scents to disinfect the air or soothing scents and chemicals like oxytocin to help with mental states such as depression and phobias.

The inner lining of the nasal passage

TRISENX

Digital scents in user interfaces include peripheral devices connected to a computer and able to release scents based on digital information received by the computer. Just as a printer mixes primary colours, so these scent releasers mix primary odours, stored as oil-based fragrances in cartridges inside the device.

These cartridges can be replaced as needed.

The smells are mixed in a mixing chamber and then fanned out into the room through an olfactory ‘speaker’: the ‘reeker’.

Humans have around 1000 different odour receptor proteins on their 10 million or so olfactory neurons. By looking at the 3D structure of some of these proteins, the creators of DigiScent were able to determine the shape of odours that bind to these receptors, effectively creating a human smell index.

And yet, although the technology is here, scented Internet is still not very popular. DigiScent’s company went out of business in 2001, just two years after they featured on the cover of Wired magazines with their digital scent technology. There are also numerous websites ridiculing the idea of digital scents such as sniff-and-cough.com. Why

The TriSenx ScentDome

in humans has an area of 150 square centimetres covered in tiny blood veins which provides a quick and easy way for drugs to enter our bodies.There are around 120 trials of nasal drug administration ranging from anti-virals against flu, SARS and ebola to antibiotics against MRSA, going on at the moment worldwide.

It seems noses are set to become more important for our health and well being, and if the likes of ScentDome take off, more important for our use and enjoyment of the internet as well.

Mico Tatalovic is an MPhil student in the Department of Zoology

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ADAM MOUGHTON

Jo Illingworth looks at the evolution of cuckoo trickery Darwin’s theory of natural selection aims to explain the amazing adaptations of organisms to their environment. However, many evolutionary stories are a far cry from adaptive perfection. Animals sometimes behave in ways that decrease rather than increase their chances of passing on their genes, and yet these behaviours persist from generation to generation. Current evolutionary biology often focuses on these apparent exceptions to natural selection and attempts to explain them in the light of modern evolutionary theory.

One particularly challenging example is found in the unusual parental behaviour of some birds. Raising young can be very demanding – most birds make many trips to and from the nest to provide food for their growing chicks, often at great personal cost. Why then do some birds expend all this energy for chicks that are not their own? Reed warblers, such as those of Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire, are one such example of evolution gone awry.

The reason is that reed warblers are targeted by cuckoos. Cuckoos are brood parasites; they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. The female cuckoo watches the warbler build a nest and lay a clutch of eggs. Once the eggs 22

have been laid, the cuckoo makes her visit to the nest and stealthily replaces one of the host’s eggs with one of her own. The cuckoo chick hatches first, and proceeds to systematically push all of the host’s eggs out of the nest. And yet the parent warblers continue to raise this invader unfazed, as if it were their own, contributing great time and energy investment with no personal

“Evolutionary stories are a far cry from adaptive perfection” reproductive reward. They have been tricked. The cuckoo on the other hand has spawned a fully-grown chick, carrying her own genetic material, with minimal parental investment.

The maladaptive behaviour of reed warblers, and of various other host species, can be explained if we look at natural selection acting on the cuckoo as well as on the host. The mechanisms at work have been likened to an evolutionary arms race in which cuckoos and hosts co-evolve, engaged in a constant battle to outwit each other with deception and detection. The

cuckoo’s behaviour puts pressure on the host to defend itself by detecting parasitic eggs and chicks, and in turn there is pressure on the cuckoo to overcome such defences by ever improving its deceptive act. Cuckoos and hosts are thus in continuous conflict, each exerting selective pressure upon the other, and with each species in turn temporarily overcoming the successes of the other.

If a host is being tricked, the cuckoohost co-evolution is at a stage where the cuckoo has the upper hand.

Egg colour is an important feature in this co-evolutionary system. For a host bird to defend itself against cuckoo trickery, it must identify and reject the foreign egg. Arnon Lotem at Tel Aviv University in Israel studied great reed warblers, and found that they learn the appearance of their eggs when lay their first clutch. Hosts that reject eggs that differ from their own resist cuckoo parasitism, and the rejection trait spreads in subsequent generations. This gives the host an advantage over the cuckoo.

However, the cuckoo may then regain its advantage. A cuckoo that, due to variation in certain genes, lays eggs that happen to match those of the host species, is more likely to have her egg accepted. This trait then spreads www.bluesci.org

“Cuckoos and hosts engage in a constant battle to outwit each other with deception and detection” explain the observed behaviour of the reed warbler. In the future, due to the reproductive disadvantages for the reed warbler, the duped birds may evolve further defences. For example, species that are targeted by cuckoos often show greater individual variation in egg appearance. Different females of a host species may lay eggs with different patterning, creating a kind of individual egg signature. This enables the host female to distinguish between her eggs and the cuckoo egg, which mimics only the general features of her species.

“The cuckoo chick systematically pushes all of the other eggs out of the nest” Whilst different individual hosts have different characteristics, each individual can also show remarkable flexibility.This is a key finding by Nick Davies who works in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge and has extensively studied cuckoos and their hosts.

“Individual hosts can vary their defences depending on their assessment of the likelihood of cuckoo parasitism.We didn’t expect that individuals would be able to do this – it came as a surprise,” he explains.

Rejecting eggs too readily could cost the host one of her own eggs, but on the other Michaelmas 2008

PER H. OLSEN

hand if her defences are too low the whole clutch could be lost due to an accepted cuckoo egg. It appears that individuals get the balance right by altering their behaviour to fit the situation.

There is one host species, however, that appears to be at a very early stage in the evolutionary arms race. Dunnocks do not show flexibility in their egg rejection behaviour – in fact they do not show any egg rejection at all.They will accept any foreign egg and so each cuckoo that lays in a dunnock’s nest will be successful.

Accordingly, the cuckoo host-race that targets dunnocks has not evolved to lay blue eggs to match those of the dunnock, as no advanced trickery is required yet.

Modern genetic techniques may allow scientists to confirm that dunnocks are a relatively recent target of cuckoos, at the early stages of the co-evolution process.

As Professor Davies explains, “We need to do more molecular genetic analysis of the various host-races of the cuckoo to test whether the cuckoos that specialise on dunnocks are less distinct, which is what you’d predict if they are a younger race. Ideally, we’d like to construct a family tree of all the host-races, using DNA sequences.”

What, then, is the future of the dunnock and its cuckoo host-race? Less than 1% of dunnock nests are parasitised by cuckoos, so there is no immediate threat to the dunnock as a species. If the dunnock situation does in fact demonstrate the early stages of an evolutionary armsrace, we can predict that the dunnocks will evolve egg rejection traits, and the cuckoos will evolve to lay blue eggs.

However, we can never be sure of the path that evolution will take. For example, hosts like the reed warbler have evolved egg discrimination, but not the ability to recognise and reject foreign chicks in their nests. If a host had accepted a cuckoo egg, perhaps because it matched her own, she would benefit from this extra level of defence. She could abandon the foreign chick, and not waste her resources on it. Davies points out that unlike reed warbler chicks, cuckoo chicks have no mouth-spots. Any reed warbler that only fed chicks with mouth-spots would not be tricked, but this ability to discriminate between chicks has not evolved. This may be because the genetic changes necessary

A reed warbler feeding a cuckoo chick W.B. CARR

throughout the cuckoo population using that particular host. Different ‘hostraces’, or gentes, of cuckoo have been identified, with each targeting a different host species. In many cases, the eggs of each host-race closely match those of the respective host species. Reed warblers lay green eggs and the cuckoo that targets them does too. Similarly, the cuckoo that targets Meadow pipits lays brown eggs to match those of its host.

Egg-matching by cuckoos temporarily gives them the upper hand, which may

A cuckoo egg in a dunnocks’ nest

for this trait are yet to arise by mutation, or because such a trait conflicts with other pressures of natural selection. Either way, the current behaviour of the reed warbler is far from perfect.

So contrary to common expectations, natural selection acting on members of one species is not perfect, directed, or even tidy. Adaptation is a dynamic process, and maladaptive behaviour in one species may be the result of temporary exploitation by another. Intriguing advances in our understanding of cuckoos and their various hosts shed light on the nature of behavioural evolution. When a species is so affected by the behaviour of others in its environment, could it ever reach what we call behavioural perfection?

Jo Illingworth is a Natural Sciences graduate. She specialised in Experimental Psychology.

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A DAY IN THE LIFE OF...

A Conservation Manager CONSERVATION LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME

Marianne Carter explains her work at the Conservation Leadership Programme

Marianne Carter in northwest Brazil

The Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) supports the work of young people who want to build a career in conservation. Each year, the CLP awards grants of up to £25,000 to teams working in conservation hotspots around the world, often providing the crucial first round of funding for new projects. In addition to the financial support, CLP offers training in fieldwork and project management skills. Award winners also have access to a growing international network of CLP alumni and the organisations that support the CLP. Marianne Carter has been managing the CLP since 2000. She is based at their headquarters with BirdLife International in Cambridge, but spoke to BlueSci during her trip to the annual workshop session, which this year was in Chattanooga in Tennessee, USA. You have recently attended the CLP annual workshops. What was your typical day like?

We organise workshops for several weeks before the annual meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology. Forty-five past and present winners trained with us, from at least 18 different nationalities. Most days 24

would start with an early morning birdwalk in the Appalachian mountains, then a group breakfast and workshops, covering topics such as project planning, fieldwork skills and communication training. In the evenings there would be activities ranging from formal project presentations to cultural nights with music, dance or kung fu! People rarely made it to bed before half-past one - it’s been intense!

first project – that’s where we step in and are prepared to take the risk.

How does this compare with a typical day in the office?

A huge chunk of that is answering emails from our 6000 alumni! Some people look for expertise in particular areas, such as statistical analysis or community work.

Others ask for fundraising ideas, feedback on publications, references or for help in obtaining papers that they cannot access.

The rest of my day I work on the strategy of the programme and, together with my team, manage our funding activities.

Can you give an example of an inspiring project you’ve supported?

There are so many amazing ones! One group of students in the Philippines, who we have worked with since 2003, have completely turned around people’s attitude to flying foxes. In the beginning the locals hated the bats, wanted to eat them and thought they were evil. Now everybody wants to protect them, they have a network for monitoring them and a significant population of the world’s biggest bats is essentially safe.

How did you end up in this job?

I read geography at university and went to Zimbabwe for 18 months to do conservation projects working with local communities. I did a Masters in environmental management at the University of Nottingham and then researched wildlife conflicts in Zimbabwe for another 7 months. After this, I applied for jobs in the UK, and have been in my current role ever since.

How has the programme changed in the time you have led it and why?

When I joined, we were still called the BP Conservation Programme and were giving awards to European or US student groups to work with people in the host country. With spreading internet access, it is easier to apply directly and most people we fund are now local to the projects.

Our main aim is to fund people at the very beginning of their conservation career. It’s hard getting support for your

What do you think are the top challenges for conservation?

For us, the main focus really is to raise local awareness of important conservation issues. We are hoping to effectively build an army of local people who are aware and who can make changes.

What are your top tips for young conservationists hoping to build a career in this field?

Volunteer, go and get experience. It’s so competitive, especially in Europe, but what really gets you to the top of the list is independent experience. Independent student expeditions happen much less often now. It’s harder to get money and easier to go on organised trips, but if you can organise your own project, it’s so worth it. UK students can still get funded by us if they collaborate with teams in the host countries and our partner organisations all have small scale project ideas. I definitely recommend getting in touch with them.

Find out more about the CLP at www. conservationleadershipprogramme.org Nora Schultz is a PhD student in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience www.bluesci.org

AWAY FROM THE BENCH

It’s a Dirty Job...

I remember it as if it were yesterday.

It was five o’clock in the morning and I was watching the sun rise over the still, sleeping city of Hull. On my right there were rolling green hills and in the distance I could just make out the North Sea beginning to sparkle in the morning light. The vista was only slightly marred by the fact that I was viewing it from the top of a coastal storage tank holding thousands of gallons of raw sewage.

Although I was only half way through

“Why would anyone want to take sewage samples?” my twelve-hour shift, the scene in front of me almost made up for it.

“Come on!” called my partner, drawing my attention away from the view and back to the somewhat less attractive task of taking the next sample, “If we don’t get this one quickly we’ll miss the pump.”

My colleague was in a rush because the pumps only operate at certain times of the day and if we missed one it would leave a publication-unfriendly gap in our results.

There are several highly technical ways to take a sample from a tank holding large amounts of sewage, but we had decided to keep it simple. Our equipment consisted of just two items: a jug and a long stick.

Molecular structure of tri-butyl-tin (C12H28Sn)

Michaelmas 2008

We tied the former to the latter, took a deep breath and lowered it into the tank through a small hatch at the top.

By now you are probably asking yourself why anybody would want to be taking sewage samples, let alone so early in the morning. I asked myself the same question several times while working on this particular assignment, and kicked myself more than once for not choosing a project that could only be studied on a warm beach somewhere abroad.

There was a good reason for me to be there though: I was trying to find out how a chemical known as tri-butyl-tin (TBT) behaves during the wastewater treatment process.

A potent biocide, TBT is an important component in antifouling paints, which are used to keep boat-hulls free of marine creatures such as barnacles.

Large amounts of marine creatures on a boat’s hull slow it down considerably, increasing fuel use and associated carbon dioxide emissions. TBT stops this happening although it is unfortunately also very persistent in the environment and causes a multitude of harmful effects to non-target organisms. These include potentially lethal shell thinning in oysters and imposex in whelks and related organisms, which is a condition where females develop male physical characteristics. As a consequence, the International Maritime Organisation restricted its use in antifoulant paints in 1989 and aim to ban it completely by the end of this year.

However, TBT and related compounds (collectively known as organotins) are still used in paper mills, breweries, textile manufacture and leather-processing facilities. It is therefore often present in industrial wastewater and can still find its way into the environment. The extent of the industrial applications of organotins, combined with their high toxicity, has

BART SADOWSKI

Oliver Jones delves into the murky world of sewage waste contaminants

led to widespread concern and this is why I found myself taking samples in this strange and smelly place.

The main aim of the project was to discover the extent to which TBT and related organotins are degraded as they pass through sewage works, and to see if such organotins and their breakdown products concentrated in the solid or the liquid phase during treatment to help ensure that each is correctly disposed. We also hoped the research would lead to new insights into the general behaviour of pollutants in sewage treatment plants.

Of course it’s not just TBT which is regulated. Water companies are required by law to ensure their effluents are free from many different pollutants. This is as it should be, but next time you are enjoying the beach, or messing about in the river, spare a thought for the people who help to keep the water clean. To borrow a well-worn phrase, it’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.

Oliver Jones is a postdoc in the Department of Biochemistry 25

ARTS AND REVIEWS

Are Great Scientists Like Children?

Natalie Vokes delves into the world of scientists at play Great scientists are often said to have something a bit childlike about them. Writers have described Albert Einstein as such, along with James Watson of DNA discoverers, Watson

considered from another angle, one might wonder, are children in some ways like scientists? The answer, I think, lies in play.

Consider a child playing with a new

“Scientists and children belong together because they are the best learners in the universe”

TATIANA BOYLE

and Crick. A study of scientific and artistic innovations found ‘a childlike component in each’, and Sir Isaac Newton himself declared, “I know not what I appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore.”

Such statements present a startling contrast to the complexities of their scientific discoveries, and provoke the question: What exactly is the childlike characteristic that these great scientists have supposedly retained? Or

26

and intricate toy, studded with levers and brightly coloured knobs. Most children will sit with that toy for some time, face furrowed, tongue sticking out, attention rapt, turning it around, pulling at this, pushing at that. Each part will be investigated thoroughly and carefully. If such exploration yields an unexpected outcome – say a bell’s clang or a moveable part – the child will repeat the steps that produced the noise, over and over, delighted at having done so. Or consider another childhood game: designing and carrying out a project. Children will spend hours planning an activity, assembling equipment, developing the rules, gathering information, and rehearsing the objectives. Often, this planning stage takes so long that very little time is spent on the actual activity. More important, and more exciting, is the design process of developing new ideas.

Most scientists will recognise aspects of themselves in such play.

Developmental psychologists, aware of such similarities, have identified some commonalities between how scientists and children interact with the world. One such commonality can be described by Piaget’s theories.

Jean Piaget, the famous developmental theorist, identified two types of

intellectual development: assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation involves incorporating experiences and data into existing mental frameworks. As very young children and as adults, our experiences are mostly assimilation; we learn new words, new colours, and new facts, which we incorporate neatly into our already-constructed representation of the world. Accommodation, on the other hand, alters such representations.

Science, at its best and most innovative, is accommodative; Newton’s laws of motion changed how we understand the world, as did atomic theory and the discovery of DNA. Trumbull, another psychologist, summarises well the accommodative nature of scientific thought, declaring that scientists are “people who play with ideas in order to change the complex into the simple.” Children’s play too can be accommodative. They might use imagination or experiment to explore different ways of thinking about the world. Testing out their ideas – moving one lever, pressing another button – ­allows them to develop and ­change their understanding and representations.

Research from cognitive scientists supports the view that children learn about the world through science-like play. The book The Scientist in the Crib explicitly makes the connection, stating that children “think, draw conclusions, make predictions, look for explanations, and even do experiments. Scientists and children belong together because they are the best learners in the universe.”

The book’s argument is that children learn like scientists, forming ideas about the world, doing experiments, www.bluesci.org

“Scientists are people who play with ideas” of skills necessary to be a successful adult (and scientist). Play, bolstered by such work, has now become the target of advocacy groups concerned that children no longer get enough opportunities for unstructured play.

They fear that without play, children will become slugs glued to the computer screen, never having learned trust, empathy, how to interact with others, how to make up a story, or to think creatively. The fantastic sales of the Iggulden brothers’ The Dangerous Book for Boys suggests the widespread yearning for play, at least among the adults buying the book.

Theories of development and cognition focus on the utilitarian aspects play: what it is good for.

Even definitions of play – which, like all definitions, are both elusive and controversial – are subjective.

Some define play as an act of ‘limited immediate function’; for others, play activities ‘are internally motivated, Michaelmas 2008

ADAM MOUGHTON & KURT STUBENRAUCH

and altering or preserving their ideas in light of their findings. Children practise this method through play, hitting objects to see what sound they make, or playing with water and sand to discover their physical properties.

Others highlight the naïveté and openmindedness of juvenile inquiry. Rather than drawing on outside resources and others’ ideas, children approach play with only their own curiosity and eagerness. Scientific biographers and writers emphasise this open-mindedness in their subjects. One, writing on the physicist Richard Feynman, declared, “When Richard Feynman faced a problem he was unusually good at going back to being like a child, ignoring what everyone else thinks and saying, ‘Now, what have we got here?’”

Such theories highlight similarities between a child’s playful discovery and the work of a mature scientist. They illustrate how a child’s play can serve different functions, helping children learn about the world in a seemingly scientific way while developing the host

self-directed, spirited, and characterised by some degree of divergent ‘as-if ’ thinking’. Such definitions capture important features of play, and important arguments for promoting play. They do not, however, capture the feeling of actually playing, as descriptions of experiments do not capture the excitement of scientific discovery. For a child playing, the most salient feature of play is that it is fun.

Not necessarily roll-on-the-floorlaughing fun, but the kind of intense focus that makes one return over and over to the playroom.

This feeling – an intense but somehow uplifting concentration – is called ‘flow’.

Developed by Csikszentmihalyi, a famous psychologist with an unpronounceable name, flow describes the feeling of ‘being in the zone’, that is, being so absorbed in a task that feelings of distraction, discomfort, tiredness, and hunger simply disappear. For adults, this state is elusive. We can spend hours practising a sport but emerge as all elbows and feet on the field, or study but only feel slower and more stupid.Yet, under the right circumstances, in moments of attention and motivation, when our skills and the task at hand align, we can achieve flow. Scientists are among those who often describe ‘flow-like’ states when working. Accounts of scientific discoveries often describe an intense focus on answering a question, feelings of

absorbed concentration and excitement before being struck with a great idea. For children, particularly children absorbed in play, flow is even easier to achieve.

Some theorists think that this kind of absorption as a child may motivate children to become scientists, or may even be a necessary prerequisite for experiencing flow as an adult.

I wonder if it might be this sense of fun that unites a child’s playful exploration of the world with the work of great scientists. The philosopher and mathematician Alfred North

“Children approach play with only their own curiosity and eagerness” Whitehead once wrote, “‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ is a silly proverb. ‘Necessity is the mother of futile dodges’ is much closer to the truth. The basis of growth of modern invention is science, and science is almost wholly the outgrowth of pleasurable intellectual curiosity.”

Perhaps in this respect we can learn from our knee-high companions, and temper the scientific method with some good old-fashioned play.

Natalie Vokes is a Part II student in the Faculty of Philosophy 27

HISTORY

More Than Just an Equation Chloe Stockford looks at the contributions Arrhenius made to science throughout his lifetime In 2002 the United States acknowledged for the first time that global warming is largely due to manmade pollution. This phenomenon and its causes are still a hotbed of debate, both politically and scientifically, but after decades of dispute most people now accept that global warming is very much a reality.

This admission has been a long time coming. Predictions of the greenhouse effect and global warming first emerged over a hundred years ago. Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius was the first to argue, in 1895, that increasing the amount of ‘carbonic acid’ in the atmosphere would increase the temperature of the planet.

Arrhenius is readily associated with his self-named equation, a core equation used in physical chemistry, which describes how the speed of a chemical reaction varies with temperature.

However, this Nobel prize-winner’s other, and some may argue more significant, findings about a) ionic dissociation and b) global warming, are less familiar.

Born in Vik, southern Sweden, in 1859, Arrhenius was a child prodigy and taught himself to read by the age of three. After excelling at school in maths, physics and chemistry, he entered the University of Uppsala in 1878, aged seventeen. During his time there he studied how electricity travelled through solutions. Faraday had studied this topic a century earlier and deduced that electricity, like matter, must be present in the form of tiny molecules. He spoke of ‘ions’ that were the particles that carried electricity 28

through solutions. But what exactly were these so-called ions?

Svante August Arrhenius (1859–1927)

As a young doctoral student Arrhenius seeked to resolve this open question.

He came up with the theory of ‘ionic dissociation’ (see box) whereby some substances dissociate into ions when dissolved. Aware that his ideas were far from those accepted at that time, Arrhenius prepared his theory carefully,

“Predictions of global warming first emerged over a hundred years ago” endeavouring to make it as acceptable as possible to a potentially hostile audience.

Despite this attempt his examiners were not impressed. After a painstaking four hour examination they awarded him only a fourth-class degree (non sine

laude approbatur – “approved without praise”) the lowest possible mark.

But Arrhenius experienced a spell of good fortune: a new division of science, perhaps more tolerant of Arrhenius and his radical theories, was emerging. Two dynamic scientists, named Ostwald and Van’t Hoff, had become very intrigued by his theory of ionic dissociation.

These three scientists worked together for a decade until in 1895 Arrhenius obtained the position of Professor at the University of Stockholm. Many of the elderly professors still disapproved of his theories, but nevertheless in 1903 he won a Nobel Prize for his theory of ionic dissociation. The theory still caused controversy; there was much discussion into whether the prize should have been awarded for physics or chemistry.

Per Theodor Cleve, a Swedish chemist of the time remarked in his speech at the Nobel banquet, “These new theories suffered from the misfortune that nobody really knew where to place them. Chemists would not recognise them as chemistry; nor would physicists recognise them as physics. They have in fact built a bridge between the two.”

A new division of science had been born: physical chemistry. Arrhenius along with Ostwald and Van’t Hoff, such controversial thinkers of their time, began the first steps into integrating different disciplines.

Along with work on ionic dissociation, Arrhenius also had a number of other interests, such as cosmology, meteorology, geophysics and climatology.

He presented many theories on these subjects, including the radical idea that life was brought to earth from space! www.bluesci.org

TOM WILKS

3 1 2 4 5

The greenhouse effect: solar radiation passes through the atmosphere (1) and either warms the Earth (2) or is reflected away (3). Infrared radiation is emitted by the Earth as it cools (4) and interacts with greenhouse gas molecules, causing them to vibrate and re-emit the energy (5). Some is re-absorbed by the Earth and atmosphere, causing a warming effect.

However, it was another of his ideas that would go on to cause much controversy and debate throughout the twenty-first century. In 1895 he presented a paper, “On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air upon the Temperature of the Ground.” This was to be one of his most important pieces of work, even though it was done as just a hobby.

Within this article he considered the radiative effects of carbon dioxide and water vapour on the Earth’s surface temperature. He performed calculations making necessary assumptions, and concluded that the temperature in the arctic regions would rise eight to nine degrees Celsius if carbonic acid increased two and a half to three times its then value.

Despite this work being based on his calculations and observations from works of great scientists including mathematician Joseph Fourier and physicist John Tyndall, it did not get acclaim from geologists of the time.

Although just a hobby, he pursued his pastime, pondering on carbon dioxide and its effect on the climate. He published many books on this subject along with books on different fields. In 1906 he published Worlds in the Making, which targeted a wide-ranging, nonscientific audience. Here he explained Michaelmas 2008

his theory that the human carbon dioxide emission would be vast enough to avoid a potential ice age.

Fourier and Tyndall had already suggested that gases contained in the atmosphere could act as heat protectors of the atmosphere. However, Arrhenius was the first person to propose that human carbon emissions, somewhat amplified by the current industrial progression, could be responsible for an increase in temperature. The striking irony of Arrhenius’ predictions is that he thought that this effect of carbon dioxide warming the earth was a positive alteration to the climate.

He believed that the warmer climate would expand crop growth, feeding the growing population.

Svante Arrhenius’ most acclaimed scientific contribution was electrolytic dissociation, making him one of the fathers of physical chemistry as we know it today. He caused much controversy in his life, first for suggesting that ions could be charged, and then for bridging the gap between physics and chemistry. As such, he was one of the first people to study an interdisciplinary science, a practice that has become widespread today. He

is regarded as the discoverer of the greenhouse effect, work that he was merely doing as a hobby, considered nonsense by geologists at the time.

“Arrhenius also had a number of other interests, such as cosmology, meteorology, geophysics and climatology” He may not go down as a Feyman, Hawkins, or Einstein of modern science, but as one of the first winners of the Nobel Prize, he made significant contributions both with his theories and how we think about science. His ideas, thought of as too revolutionary when proposed, predicted, one hundred years in advance, the global warming that has only just been acknowledged.

Svante Arrhenius died in 1927, aged 68, in Stockholm after serving 22 years as director of the Nobel Institute of Physical Chemistry.

Chloe Stockford is a PhD student in the Department of Chemistry

Ionic Dissociation Arrhenius made the observation that some substances such as sodium chloride (NaCl, common salt) conduct electricity in water but others, such as sucrose, do not. These were named ‘electrolytes’ and ‘non-electrolytes’ respectively. Raoult, a French chemist also interested in the behaviour of solutions, had previously found that when a substance was dissolved in water, the freezing point of that solution was lowered by an amount proportional to the quantity of substance dissolved in it. Doubling the quantity of an added substance appeared to double the lowering of the freezing point.

Arrhenius found that this was only true of non-electrolytes. For NaCl, he found that for the amount of substance dissolved, the lowering of freezing temperature was twice that expected. This was also true for potassium bromide (KBr) and sodium nitrate (NaNO3), but barium chloride (BaCl2) and sodium sulphate (Na2SO4) lowered the freezing point by thrice the amount expected. Arrhenius came to the conclusion that to produce this effect, each molecule must split into different particles—split into two to produce twice the expected lowering of freezing point and split into three to produce thrice that expected.

However he realised that after dissolving salt in water, metallic sodium and gaseous chlorine were not present in the solution. He believed that sodium and chlorine must instead exist in a charged form, with quite different properties from their uncharged counterparts, which conduct electricity.This observation of ‘ionic dissociation’ was to be the theme of his doctoral thesis.

29

THE PAVILION

Science Inspires ...Art

GALAXY

TACTILE GALAXY

“Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do.

Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom.”

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“Man will begin to recover the moment he takes art as seriously as physics, chemistry or money.”

“It is frequently the tragedy of the great artist, as it is of the great scientist, that he frightens the ordinary man.”

Ernst Levy

Loren Eiseley

Artwork: AMANDA SMITH; Background and text: KAT AUSTEN

EAGLE NEBULA

Bonus Content: View more science inspired art, including a contemporary dance inspired by quarks on www.blusci.org/pavilion 30

www.bluesci.org

INITIATIVES

Chasing Chemical Contaminants Silke Pichler discusses the penny-sized chip which can detect tiny traces of potentially dangerous substances

OWLSTONE NANOTECH

From the threat of chemical warfare and explosives, to chemical contaminants in your food; the ability to detect potentially harmful chemicals has become increasingly important in today’s world. Owlstone Nanotech has

Owlstone’s tiny silicon FAIMS sensor

developed a technology that can identify chemicals in extremely small quantities, all in a detector less than the size of a one pence piece.

Founded by University of Cambridge engineering graduate students in 2004, Owlstone has designed a detector that is one hundred times smaller and a thousand times cheaper than other available detectors. The United States Department of Defense obviously loves the idea – it currently has a $3.7 million contract with Owlstone Nanotech for the detection of chemical warfare agents, toxic chemicals and explosive vapours.

The technology on which Owlstone is based has a unique electrode design, the main advantage being the small size.

Because the sensor is made from silicon using micro-fabrication techniques, Michaelmas 2008

Owlstone has been able to substantially reduce the size of their detectors compared to competitors (see Box).

To identify the presence of a specific chemical the detected signal from an unknown sample is compared with that of known chemicals, held in a ‘library’ of molecular signatures.

Alternatively, the system can be taught what a ‘normal’ signal looks like for any given environment-say the air inside a house-and trigger an alarm if the signal deviates from this standard.

So far, Owlstone has developed several products based on the idea, which have applications in defense, industry and everyday life.

‘Lonestar’ for example is a portable gas analyser that can be taken along for screenings in a wide variety of suspicious situations, including monitoring of food and drink safety.

According to Danielle Toutoungi, project manager for new product development at Owlstone, further

applications of the invention include homeland security applications and, in the longer term, medical applications of the system. Breath analysis is one potential usage, to monitor or diagnose diseases. For example, acetone in

“Mobile phone based chemical detectors could become a part of everyday life” exhaled air is a marker for diabetes, and hydrogen cyanide may play a similar role in cystic fibrosis.

Thanks to the small size of the Owlstone chip, future devices could be connected to mobile phones and allow chemical detectors to become companions of every day life.

Silke Pichler is a postdoc in the Department of Genetics

Jiggle Those Ions Most current devices for chemical threat detection use ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), which measures how fast an ion moves in an electric field.

The molecules of the sample are first ionised and then passed into a chamber where they are subjected to an electric field. Different chemicals are separated due to the mobility of their ions along a straight path, which is dependent on the ion mass, size and shape. Different species arrive at different times at the detector for measurement. Owlstone uses a variant of ion mobility spectrometry, called Field Asymmetric Ion Mobility Spectrometry (FAIMS). In FAIMS, the ions are separated based on their mobility in an alternating electric field; between a high- and a low-electric field. The ions follow a zigzag path, which enables the size of the device to be reduced without a corresponding loss of resolution (which is what would happen with standard ion mobility spectrometry if you tried to make the device smaller).

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LETTERS

Dear Dr Hypothesis, I’ve been reading lots of stories in the paper recently about black holes and that the end of the world thanks to the boffins at CERN. Is Armageddon really upon us?

Worried Wilma DR HYPOTHESIS SAYS: It’s quite true! There is a possibility that CERN will create black holes but only on the nanoscale. Black holes emit intense radiation, known as Hawking Radiation, from time to time loosing energy and mass. These back holes would be so small that they would evaporate immediately. All the boffins would see is an intense gamma ray burst.

Dear Dr Hypothesis, I’m getting on in life and feel the need to reduce these facial wrinkles! I have a needle phobia though so I’ve ruled out Botox. Is there a way to avoid the needles?

Vain Victor

DJUKE VELDHUIS

DR HYPOTHESIS SAYS: Dear Victor, never fear! Scientists at the Massachussetts Nanomanufacturing Centre have your answer. They’ve attached nanoparticles to the Botox

“Erm, well yes sir, I admit this situation is not ideal ... but isn’t everyone always going on about a unified Europe?”

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DJUKE VELDHUIS

Dr Hypothesis toxin, allowing it to be absorbed through the skin, which was not possible before (hence those nasty injections!). Once it’s passed the regulations, you’ll be able to dab away the wrinkles with face cream!

Dear Dr Hypothesis, I’m all for these new biofuels. If we can power the world without using fossil fuels, we can become more self-sufficient as a species, in addition to the (perhaps controversial) benefits in terms of climate change. But isn’t there a better way of producing them, rather than dedicating whole crops just to make bioethanol?

Ecofriendly Eddie DR HYPOTHESIS SAYS: Well Eddie, help may just be on its way. SunEthanol is a company based in Massachussetts which is currently marketing an organism called Clostridium phytofermentans which they claim will digest any old plant matter and make lovely ethanol, making a great addition to a composter.

The process is anaerobic, and occurs naturally in the soil where these bugs are found. Biotastic!

Dear Dr Hypothesis, I’m a pretty slight guy, and so am interested in the emerging exoskeleton technologies. My understanding though is that too much power is required to do all the mechanical work for a truly mobile suit to be made. What improvements are being made?

Weedy Will DR HYPOTHESIS SAYS: There are a few advancements in the pipelines. Lithium ion batteries are under constant improvement, getting smaller and lighter all the time. Also check out Boston Dynamics ‘Big Dog’ for improvements in the computercontrolled balance department. In terms of new kinds of motor, Ray Baughman from the University of Texas has a neat new trick-metal muscles. These nickeltitanium alloy plates respond to changes in temperature, which he’s currently controlling by allowing methanol on the surface to be oxidised when it comes into contact with air, heating the metal.

Cooling occurs when the methanol supply is stopped, allowing the return to the original shape. Currently he’s able to produce a force about 500 times that of human muscle tissue.

Email Dr H with all your scientific conundrums drhypothesis@bluesci.org www.bluesci.org