3D Magazine / Science Illustrated by Gintaras Elmonas

science illustrated Negative Calorie Foods Issue: 6 March 2013 / $10

NEGATIVE CALORIE FOODS

Joe Johnson terry westbrook Gintaras elmonas

AUTHOR/ editor/ designer/

A Few Words From Magazine Editors Joe Kennedy Mike Smith

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CREATOR / CURATOR / DESIGNER: Joe Kennedy Mike Smith Gintaras Elmonas

THANKS TO WRITERS / PHOTOGRAPHERS / COPYEDITOR Joe Jones & Miky Goodman “TwoDicks” Photography Rick Rubio & Jimmy Van / “Future Design” Joe Kennedy Mike Smith Gintaras Elmonas http://www.scienceillustrated.com / @scienceillustrated

Space / Galactic

Nature

Culture / History

Technology / Energy

The Long Exploration.

09 Giant Star Discovered.

02 Surprises Emerge From The Red.

Black Hole Only 32 Years Old.

03 New Source of Nitrous Oxide.

Travel to the Stars with Antimatter.

Oliver Knickel, MARS500, 2009.

12 How do birds reproduce?

Preparing For Mars.

Turning Men into Machines.

Preparing For a Mission to Mars.

New Source of Nitrous Oxide.

Travel to the Stars with Nuclear.

Preparing For Mars.

Travel to the Stars on a Space Sail.

16 Destination: Alien Stars.

The Long Exploration.

03 Giant Star Discovered.

02 Surprises Emerge From The Red.

Black Hole Only 32 Years Old.

Travel to the Stars with Antimatter.

The Long Exploration.

02 Surprises Emerge From The Red.

The Long Exploration.

02 Surprises Emerge From The Red.

06 Giant Star Discovered.

03 Giant Star Discovered.

Medicine

People

Black Hole Only 32 Years Old.

The Long Exploration.

Travel to the Stars with Antimatter.

02 Surprises Emerge From The Red.

06 Giant Star Discovered.

03 Giant Star Discovered.

Black Hole Only 32 Years Old.

08 Giant Star Discovered.

The Long Exploration.

02 Surprises Emerge From The Red.

Travel to the Stars with Antimatter.

CONTENTS

2/A Giant Star Discovered. Charles Gan Delis

4/B 25 Negative Calorie Foods. Joe Kennedy

6/A The Long Exploration. Ed Danzler & Kimmy Jones

8/D Loggerhead Sea-Turtle. National Geographic

2/A Giant Star Discovered. Charles Gan Delis

4/B 25 Negative Calorie Foods. Joe Kennedy

6/C The Long Exploration. Ed Danzler & Kimmy Jones

8/D Loggerhead Sea-Turtle. National Geographic

2/A Giant Star Discovered. Charles Gan Delis

4/B 25 Negative Calorie Foods. Joe Kennedy

New in Space And About Galactic Writers / Joe Johnson Jimmy Young Nick Gary Mo Noy

SPACE AND GALACTIC. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960.

SPACE & GALACTIC

Space & Galactic

Surprises Emerge From The Red Dust

When the Mariner 9 space probe entered into its orbit around Mars in November 1971, it was met with cheers from the control center in California. The probe had been on its way for six months, and it was the first ever to orbit Mars. A month later, hope had turned to dismay. Mars was bathed in the biggest dust storm ever observed, and the cameras caught nothing but a compact blanket of dust. In December, as the storm began to wane, four dark patches emerged. As the atmosphere cleared, scientists realized what they were seeing — four giant craters at the peaks of four volcanoes, each between 40 and 50 miles wide. The largest loomed 17 miles high, nearly three times taller than Mount Everest.

SCIENTISTS WERE CLOSE TO GIVING UP. Six years earlier, in the summer of 1965, the first 21 close-ups of Mars were received, as the Mariner 4 space probe circled the planet. Disappointingly, the best images only revealed a crater-covered world very similar to the moon. Mariner 4 also measured the atmospheric density to be just 0.05 percent of Earth’s but with 30 times as much carbon dioxide. Mars seemed dead, nothing like the planet imagined in films and novels. The images showed no traces of a dying world, where old civilizations had struggled to send the last of the planet’s water through large canals from the ice-covered poles down to the warmer desert regions. In actuality, the average temperature of the planet was -193 degrees F, the temperature at which carbon dioxide freezes. The poles were not made of water ice; they were made of dry ice. There was no sign of life and little interesting geology.

TWO VERY DIFFERENT HEMISPHERES. In 1969, when Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 surveyed more than 10 times the area of Mars as their predecessors, they confirmed these findings. The spacecraft also took 58 additional close-up photos and performed chemical analysis on the polar ice caps to verify that they were indeed made of frozen carbon dioxide. A set of photographs from Mariner 9 showed more of the planet’s topography. The four big volcanoes were only the beginning; many other landscapes appeared, not least of which was a giant six-mile-deep canyon stretching just south of the equator. (Today, the canyon is called Valles Marineris in honor of the Mariner probes.)

In 1972, scientists were able to produce the first Mars globe, which showed how the planet had been misrepresented in the first images. Mariner 4, 6 and 7 mainly photographed the southern hemisphere, but when all of Mars was mapped, it became clear that there was a big difference between the crater-covered southern landscapes and the northern hemisphere, dominated by big volcanoes, canyons and flat lava plains. It also appeared that the planet had been covered not by rivers but by flooding. The United States was not alone among nations attempting to explore Mars. From 1971 to 1973, six Russian space probes arrived on the planet, with limited results. Mars probes 3 and 6 landed on the planet but failed to work, and the other Russian probes only sent a few images back to Earth. The United States came to dominate the exploration of space, especially during the race to get to the moon, during a time when space exploration generated much interest. NASA funded two highly sophisticated and costly probes, which were to land on Mars primarily to look for signs of life.

AUTHOR: JOE JOHNSON

Space & Galactic

A massif that looked like a face. TRACES OF A WATERY WORLD.

A CONTROVERSIAL BIOLOGICAL EXMENT.

CURIOSITY.

Another key discovery indicates that Mars may not be totally dried up yet: the small grooves that can be seen in many places on crater walls. Here, it is evident that something flowed out of the crater wall and dug a trench reaching to the bottom. Such markings are also seen on Earth and are known to be made by water. On Mars, both the atmospheric pressure and the temperature are too low to allow water to flow freely on the surface.

The two probes were named Viking 1 and Viking 2, and both consisted of an orbiter, which kept orbiting Mars, and a lander. In 1976, Viking 1 and 2 accomplished successful landings and subsequent experiments, but instead of solving mysteries, they left one behind that is still unsolved.

Spirit and Opportunity were not sent to Mars to seek out traces of life; that task will fall to the next big rover, which will arrive on Mars in 2012. Curiosity is designed to travel large distances and will be programmed to look for microorganisms just like the Viking probes.

But it has been suggested that a mix of water and different salts could remain liquid long enough to make a trench before evaporating. At any rate, the many trenches indicate that right beneath the surface there may be considerable quantities of ice or water that may emerge from time to time.

Viking 1 and 2 brought instruments meant to analyze the surface of Mars in search of traces of living organisms; the starting hypothesis was that organisms on Mars would behave more or less like those on Earth when given food and sunlight. The lab involved three different biological experiments. The first, called a pyrolytic release, entailed submerging Martian soil into a chamber containing radioactive carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide as well as Martian atmosphere for 120 hours. Because Marsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; atmosphere was made mainly of the latter, any microbes in the chamber would likely ingest the radioactive gas. Once the atmosphere was removed from the container, any remaining radioactive organic materials might indicate life. The second experiment, a gas exchange, involved dropping soil into a nutrient broth in a container, which was monitored with an instrument that measured the compositions of the gases inside. If the gases changed, it could indicate that microbes were digesting the nutrients.

The probe, called Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM), will be armed with an instrument designed to detect life. SAM will look for key chemical traces of life, including nitrogen, phosphorous, sulfur and carbon. SAM will also identify different isotopes, or flavors of a particular element, in the Martian atmosphere, which may give clues as to its evolution. Finally, it will look for methane, a gas that can be produced by microorganisms or geological processes such as volcanic activity. To generate a precise map of the methane-generating areas, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) will launch a new probe together in 2016 called ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), which will be designed by ESA and launched from the United States. In 2018, two more rovers will follow, equipped to look for signs of life like Curiosity, but they will also be able to collect and analyze drill samples from the ground. If there is life, the chances of finding it are probably greater beneath the surface, where it would be protected from ultraviolet radiation and fluctuating temperatures.

New in Nature And About Animals Writers / Joe Johnson Jimmy Young Nick Gary Mo Noy

NATURE Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960.

NATURE

Discovered in the Greater Mekong This rate of discovery marks Asia’s land of rivers as one of the last frontiers for new species discoveries on our planet. The Greater Mekong region of Southeast Asia through which the Mekong river flows comprises the countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and China (including Yunnan province). The region is home to some of the planet’s most endangered and charismatic wild species including tiger, Asian elephant, Mekong dolphin and Mekong giant catfish, in addition to hundreds of newly discovered species. Between 1997 and 2009 an incredible 1,376 species were discovered by science across this region alone.

oday the Greater Mekong region.

However, while these discoveries highlight the unique biodiversity of the Greater Mekong they also reveal the fragility of this region’s diverse species and habitats. The plight of the wild tiger, whose numbers have dropped by a dramatic 70 percent in a little over a decade, and the extinction of the Javan rhino in Vietnam during 2010 are urgent reminders that biodiversity is still being lost at an alarming rate from man-made pressures. Rapid, unsustainable development and climate change impacts are profoundly affecting biodiversity and ecosystem services and consequently the millions of people who depend on them. The Greater Mekong region is warming and experiencing more extreme floods, droughts and storms as a result of shifting rainfall patterns. These changes are exacerbating agricultural expansion and unsustainable infrastructure pressures on natural ecosystems and the services they provide. Today the Greater Mekong region is an integral part of one of the top five most threatened biodiversity hotspots in the world.

The central importance of the region’s shared natural resources cannot be overstated. The economic and social development of the Greater Mekong depends on the continued productivity of its inter-connected ecological systems. Only intact, healthy, and diverse natural ecosystems can provide the resilience to ensuing climate change while ensuring continued access to water, energy, food, commodities, and livelihoods for over 300 million people.

B The central importance. Sound regulatory frameworks implemented via harmonized policies across the Greater Mekong will help the region’s countries adequately address complex, challenging, regional-scale issues like habitat loss and fragmentation, unsustainable natural resource use, and climate change. Addressing these challenges requires stronger regional collaboration at the broader, ecosystem scale; countries cannot effectively solve these problems thinking only within their own borders. Regional collaboration needs high levels of political support. It also needs to be formalized through a regional agreement that is supported by an effective institutional framework mechanism. Only this can ensure future security for the millions of people that rely upon the Greater Mekong system. A new monkey, a self-cloning skink, five carnivorous plants, and a unique leaf warbler are among the 208 species newly described by science in the Greater Mekong region during 2010. In total 145 plants, 28 reptiles, 25 fish, 7 amphibians, 2 mammals and 1 bird have been discovered in the last year.

AUTHOR: MIKE JACK

NATURE

CURIOSITY 03

TRACES OF A WATERY WORLD

A CONTROVERSIAL BIOLOGICAL EXMENT

Today the Greater Mekong region is an integral part of one of the top five most threatened biodiversity hotspots in the world.

New in Culture And About History Writers / Joe Johnson Jimmy Young Nick Gary Mo Noy

CULTURE & HISTORY Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960.

CULTURE & HIST O RY

CULTURE & HISTORY

A quantum leap. nanoscience.

The electronic properties.

nanostructures with dimensions.

Bright light emission by III-V semiconductors is possible thanks to their electronic properties, which distinguish them favourably from non-light-emitting (but widely used in electronics) silicon. The electronic properties can be further engineered by fabricating nanostructures. For example, the light emission wavelength of GaAs can be altered by sandwiching its thin layer, a ‘quantum well’ (QW), between two layers of another semiconductor, AlGaAs.

In order to achieve such quantum confinement, nanostructures with dimensions of a few nm were necessary. Thus, development of nanostructure applications and exploration of new physics went hand-in-hand with advances in crystal growth techniques such as molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and device nanofabrication such as electron-beam lithography.

By fabricating structures with different thicknesses of GaAs, light emission peak can be shifted easily by 100nm (for comparison, the whole visible spectrum spans only 350nm). Such spectacular wavelength tuning is a result of ‘quantum confinement’ or inhibition of motion of electrons inside a nanostructure in one or more directions by imposing large energy barriers, occurring at the boundary of two semiconductor compounds.

Quantum confinement also made possible reliable operation of lasers and LEDs at room temperature and above. Particularly favourable for high temperature operations are devices containing arrays of ‘quantum dots’ (QDs), zero-dimensional, few-nm-sized islands embedded in a bulk semiconductor, providing strong quantum confinement. Use of QDs has brought to reality another long-sought-after opportunity for fabrication of monolithic devices combining thin layers of light-emitting III-V compounds deposited by MBE directly on cheap silicon substrates. QWs grown on Si carry too many structural defects. QDs are less sensitive to such defects due to their small lateral size, and recently efficient III-V-on-Si QD lasers were fabricated. Silicon substrates can also be used for another class of III-V nanostructures – nanowires.

AUTHOR: Alexander Tartakovskii

CULTURE & HISTORY

In the last 5-10 years, exploration and exploitation of new phenomena occurring in semiconductor nanostructures have been at the forefront of emerging quantum technologies. Thriving in nutrient-poor waters.

new phenomena occurring.

Nitrogen is essential to the growth and development of all organisms, but many corals live in waters where this element is not readily available. Indeed, it is surprising that living things can thrive in such environments at all.

Materials made of group III and V elements such as gallium arsenide (GaAs) or indium phosphide (InP) have been finding wide use in photonics and microwave devices for the last 50 years. In the last 20 years the family of III-V materials has received a new addition of nitride compounds such as gallium nitride (GaN). Currently, III-V lasers and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) cover a wide range of wavelengths from violet 400nm to near infrared 1500nm, and III-V microwave sources reach into THz frequencies. Fabrication of nanostructures based on these compounds has matured, opening the way to quantum-device applications and physics exploration at the frontiers of nanoscience. The UK’s III-V community has contributed significantly over the years to the development of this field, and is very active in capturing the long-term opportunities arising from emerging quantum technologies, for which strong foundations are laid by the relatively more traditional material base of III-V semiconductors.

“The corals have two options,” Dr Kopp stated. “They can feed on plankton (heterotrophic nutrition), which will make nitrogen fixed in plankton biomass available to them, or they can assimilate nitrogen-containing compounds (autotrophic nutrition), such as ammonium and nitrate, directly from the seawater and incorporate it in into their tissue.”

Symbiotic algae can also take up ammonium and nitrate from the surrounding seawater and subsequently pass some of it on to the coral host. In this way algae help corals thrive in very nutrient-poor waters, a fact which has been known for some time. “Our study shows with unprecedented detail the sub-cellular dynamics of nitrogen up-take, storage and exchange between the symbiont algae and the coral host,” explained Professor Meibom. “The observations show how the algae are the most efficient in taking up ammonium and nitrate from the seawater and have the capability to store this nitrogen is nitrogen-rich crystals.

New in Culture And About History Writers / Joe Johnson Jimmy Young Nick Gary Mo Noy

TECHNOLOGY & ENERGY

Technology and energy

wireless sensor networks A new research project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) will use wireless sensor networks to improve safety in electricity substations. The programme, which is being headed by the University of Huddersfield, has been awarded £670,000 to investigate and develop more cost-effective methods of detecting faulty insulation. Wireless detectors can help technicians to combat ‘partial discharge’: a problem which sometimes occurs when cable insulation and other power equipment becomes old or damaged.

Research Council (EPSRC). Wireless detectors can help technicians to combat ‘partial discharge’: a problem which sometimes occurs when cable insulation and other power equipment becomes old or damaged. The large-scale installation of wireless sensor networks could help to improve safety standards and reduce the number of blackouts that occur by detecting potentially dangerous and destructive faults in substation equipment. During the course of the four-and-ahalf-year project, academics will work to develop easy-to-install and cost-effective wireless fault detectors that can be implemented ubiquitously across the United Kingdom’s electricity substation network. Such systems could be controlled and monitored from a central location, negating the need for technicians to conduct onsite inspections. In an interview with ScienceOmega.com, lead researcher Ian Glover, Professor of Radio Science and Wireless Systems Engineering at the University of Huddersfield, detailed some of the practical and economic benefits that detection systems could offer. He began by explaining more about the challenges posed by partial discharge.

D Wireless detection.

“Partial discharge occurs when there’s a void in a piece of insulation and the dielectric characteristics of that void are different from those of the surrounding insulation,” said Professor Glover. “Under these circumstances, the electric field is usually higher in the void than it is in the surrounding insulation, but the dielectric strength of the material in the void is lower. When the insulation is subject to a strong electrical field, a discharge, or ‘spark’, can occur across the void. However, there is no discharge across the rest of the undamaged insulation. That is why it is called partial discharge: because it only occurs across the faulty section of insulation. “Usually, when partial discharge takes place, it is reasonably benign,” he continued. “However, aggressive substances such as nitrogen oxides are produced during the sparking process, and these substances can erode – and in doing so, enlarge – the surface of the void. Once this process begins, insulation tends to degrade rapidly, and this can lead to ‘complete discharge’. The resultant flash of current from the metallic electrodes can be catastrophic: it can trip the transformer and in extreme cases, equipment can explode.”

Traditionally, technicians have had to search for signs of partial discharge manually using radio receivers and headphones. Such checks have to be conducted onsite at the substation in question, and usually take place at relatively long intervals: for example, annually. Wireless detection systems, on the other hand, operate around the clock and can be monitored from a central location. Despite these potential benefits, the success of any system depends upon its efficacy. In light of this, I asked Professor Glover how wireless technologies compare with manual detection methods. “There are two problems with manual detection methods: consistency and continuity,” he replied. “People tend to sample in space and time rather coarsely, so it’s easy for things to get missed. With a network of wireless sensors, assuming that the density is sufficient, insulation could be monitored continuously and ubiquitously. This technique has proven effective in the past, and there are already commercially available sensors such as Transient Earth Voltage (TEV) detectors and High Frequency Current Transformers (HFCTs), that can monitor partial discharge. These types of detector require physical contact with the item of plant being monitored.

AUTHOR: James Morgan

Technology and energy

Cheap but effective.

Professor Glover.

distances of several metres.

“I am as confident as I can be prior to doing the research,” he explained. “This is a four-and-a-half-year programme that is being supported by the EPSRC, and the definitive answer to your question will not be apparent until we’ve completed the work. Even so, our educated assessment is that we will be able to produce effective sensors cheaply enough to make this technology commercially attractive.”

“We intend to develop a new type of completely free-standing radio receiver,” Professor Glover continued. “The advantage of a free-standing device is that it doesn’t connect, either electrically or physically, to any other piece of equipment. This means that the sensors can be installed and rearranged without any interruption to the existing electricity supply. Present free-standing technologies measure the time that it takes partial discharge signals to travel from their source to several antennas.

“Firstly, we will set up artificial sources of partial discharge in the laboratory,” concluded Professor Glover. “We want to explore various approaches to the detection of those sources at distances of several metres. Our initial task, therefore, will be to design and prove the performance of a radio-based sensor that is cheap to manufacture yet capable of detecting partial discharge at a range of up to 20m.”

My final question concerned the stage at which the project currently stands. What are the team’s next steps?

Based on the differences between these times of flight, multilateration can be used to locate the source of the partial discharge. We would like to develop a system that can obtain the same results using only discharge-signal amplitude. If we succeed in doing this, we should be able to produce sensors that are simpler and cheaper than those currently available. Consequently, we will be able to deploy more sensors at more locations. Our ambition is to arrive at a cheap wireless sensor that could be mass produced and deployed throughout all electricity substations.” I went on to ask whether the savings that would result from more effective detection would outweigh the costs of installing wireless systems at all UK substations. Whilst he emphasised that only the results of the research would answer this question conclusively, Professor Glover seemed optimistic that this would be the case.

“It has been calculated that during a 100-year period, up to 40 per cent of Glasgow’s heating needs could be met by this energy resource,” he replied. “It has the potential to make fuel costs more affordable for huge numbers of people. Moreover, there is existing evidence to this effect. The residents of Glenalmond Street have had this system installed for over a decade now. Whilst I am only talking about 17 houses – it is quite a small setup – the residents have reported that their heating bills have dropped to approximately £150 per year. Heating homes in this way is much cheaper than using gas or electricity.” Finally, I asked Aaen whether other UK cities are likely to follow suit if he and his colleagues find Glasgow to be a suitable host for this expansive geothermal heating infrastructure. As he explained, locations across the home nations could take advantage of their mining heritages.

...people fear what they don’t understand. If you were to ask 100 people on the street: ‘What is radioactivity?’

New in Culture And About History Writers / Joe Johnson Jimmy Young Nick Gary Mo Noy

MEDICINE

a growing global issue. kidney disease

8000 delegates are expected to gather this weekend for the 50th annual congress of the European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association (ERA-EDTA) in the heat and bustle of Istanbul, where ScienceOmega.com is lucky enough to join them. This year, Turkey enthusiastically welcomes the chance to host the event and to raise awareness of kidney diseases, as Congress Chair and President of the Turkish Society of Nephrology, Professor Gultekin Suleymanlar was keen to emphasise. “It’s a great honour for us to hold the ERA-EDTA congress here in Istanbul,” he said. “This is a major congress; I would say it is one of the most important scientific meetings in the world.”

issues terribly worse.

governments and healthcare.

our sneaky enemy.

In his welcome speech to press preceding the opening of the conference, Professor Raymond Vanholder, incumbent President of the ERA-EDTA, stressed the fact that kidney disease remains somewhat forgotten despite its links with several other health problems, including hypertension, diabetes and heart disease.

Figures like these, Professor Suleymanlar cautions, are ones that governments and healthcare systems need to be worried about, as the societal and economic burden of end stage renal disease (ESRD) continues to grow. In the last decade, more than 1.3 trillion US dollars have been spent on the treatment of kidney diseases.

“There is a link between these disorders and the problem with kidney disease is that it makes the other issues terribly worse, because they are much more difficult to treat,” he observed.

“In the next 10 years and beyond, this problem is going to have massive economic repercussions,” Professor Suleymanlar stated. “Awareness is quite problematic, however. In Turkey, awareness of chronic kidney disease is around two per cent.”

Professor Suleymanlar’s address in turn focused on chronic kidney disease (CKD) as an ever-increasing problem both in Turkey as in the rest of the world. A CKD Prevalence Study (CREDIT) which was undertaken by the Turkish Society of Nephrology has found that the disease occurs in around 15.7 per cent of the country’s adult population, a figure which stands above the international average of between 10-13 per cent. This is equivalent to one in six, or 7.3 million, people in Turkey.

One particular obstacle to kidney health in Turkey is high levels of salt intake. According to a 2008 study, SALTurk (Salt Intake and Blood Pressure in the Turkish Population), average salt intake per day among Turkish men and women stands at 18 grams - an undesirable world record when the recommended daily intake is calculated at no more than 5-6 grams.

“Our job is to improve scientific work in this area,” Professor Vanholder acknowledged. “We have a tremendous task ahead of us, especially in terms of understanding the process behind kidney disease’s progression, unraveling appropriate ways to prevent progression, and recognising progression by means of biomarkers.” While improving diagnosis and prevention by scientific means is essential, ERA-EDTA and Professor Vanholder recognise the need for political involvement and of awareness-raising among the general public.

AUTHOR: Katy Edgington

MEDICINE

Look out for more news and interviews from the ERA-EDTA congress next week. importance and prevalence.

A CONTROVERSIAL BIOLOGICAL EXMENT.

CURIOSITY.

“In increasing the awareness of the global population about the importance and prevalence of kidney diseases we have a role to play, but we also have the task of convincing authorities - regional, national and European - about the significance of this problem,” he said. “As well as stimulating research, this means trying to harmonise political attitudes within Europe towards organising and reimbursing treatment of these disorders.

“We have a role to fulfill in countries where we have a special link - especially in parts of Latin America, Africa and Asia - where we can play a part in education in particular. It is comforting to see more and more delegates each year coming from these regions to attend our congress.”

In more commonly administered HD therapies, blood is pumped through a dialyser acting as a partially permeable membrane with wastes being removed and clean blood being returned to the body. PD, meanwhile, uses the patient’s own peritoneum as the partially permeable membrane. Those undergoing this treatment have a catheter implanted, and dialysis solution is introduced (and waste removed) via this permanent tube in the abdomen. The process can be carried out either while the patient sleeps in an automated manner or in manual daily ‘exchange’ processes.

“We face a bit of a crisis as this treatment costs a lot of money, but there must be ways to decrease the cost, not only by prevention but also by working on the current treatment system and increasing the rate of transplantation across Europe.” Often referred to as ‘the gateway between the east and west’, Istanbul is a fitting venue in which to acknowledge that is not just in Europe that concerns about kidney health are pertinent. In many developing countries limited access to renal replacement therapies (RRTs) means that the incidence of ESRD is much higher, along with the socio-economic burdens this confers.

Professor Cengiz Utas, Vice-President of the Turkish Society of Nephrology, described salt as ‘our sneaky enemy’. Although the high salt intake among the Turkish population may be attributable in part to a penchant for bread (average intake per day is 400 grams) and other salty foods, Professor Utas related that 54 per cent of this excess salt is added during the cooking process. With average salt intake at nine to 12 grams in most western countries, Turkey is not the only place where hypertension as a result of too much dietary salt is a problem. “Our job is to improve scientific work in this area,” Professor Vanholder acknowledged. “We have a tremendous task ahead of us, especially in terms of understanding the process behind kidney disease’s progression, unraveling appropriate ways to prevent progression, and recognising progression by means of biomarkers.”

New in Culture And About History Writers / Joe Johnson Jimmy Young Nick Gary Mo Noy

P E OP LE

PEOPLE

Homophobia in schools and sports clubs A new study has revealed that homophobia – especially in the form of homophobic language – is common amongst schoolchildren and sports players. A team of Bournemouth University (BU) students, whose research was commissioned by ‘Time for Change – Now!’ founder Alan Mercel-Sanca, visited schools and sports clubs to explore the prevalence of homophobia. The academics discovered that more than half of school-age pupils hear homophobic language on a daily basis. Moreover, one in five respondents admitted to hearing homophobic language at their sports clubs.

rules and punishments.

Climate of homophobia.

The research was conducted by BU Sport Management students John Bryson, Jenifer Kesik, Sam Brooks, Will Jay, Mark Wardman and Char Catley. The team notes that in many schools and sports clubs, rules and punishments for the use of homophobic language are not in place. The findings also draw attention a lack of school-based education regarding the issue. Tackling homophobia, the students argue, is not always seen as a priority within the sporting arena. Consequently, discriminatory behaviour is sometimes left unchallenged or ignored.

At present, there are no openly gay football players in the Barclays Premier League, and less than one per cent of the athletes who competed at the London 2012 Olympic Games described their sexual orientation as homosexual. Professional sportspeople frequently cite this climate as one of the main obstacles to a more open discourse on sexuality. More than half of the schoolchildren surveyed reported witnessing homophobia on a daily basis. Perhaps even more worryingly, a similar number of pupils admitted to using homophobic language themselves. As Dr Jones explained, it is possible that the prevalence of homophobia is actually higher than the study’s results suggest.

“Some people see it as culturally acceptable to use homophobic language,” Dr Ian Jones, Associate Dean for Sport at BU, told ScienceOmega.com. “Our researchers noticed a big difference between the ways in which people view homophobia and racism, for example. The use of racist language is taboo. It’s socially controlled in the sense that if somebody were to make a racist comment to one of their fellow pupils or team mates, that person would be reported and dealt with. Racism is seen as something that is very serious, and rightly so. Homophobia, on the other hand, has a tendency to be viewed as being ‘a bit of a laugh’. One frequently used word was ‘banter’. If one of your peers makes a mistake, it is seen as acceptable to call them gay.”

“The million-dollar question is whether people are underreporting this sort of behaviour,” he said. “This represents one of the most significant difficulties when undertaking research of this kind. You have to weigh up what people say against what they actually do. I think that it’s pretty safe to assume that individuals have a tendency to underreport their own homophobic behaviours. This could, therefore, be more of a phenomenon than our findings suggest. Even if you design your research carefully and include elements such as anonymous questionnaires.

F 07

The key approaches have been sign language, picture-based communication training, and methods designed to improve motivation and success. It’s been hypothesised that learned helplessness plays a role in some children’s difficulties. Traditional interventions have asked these children to produce full words or clear approximations of words, but they struggle very hard and sometimes produce only simple speech sounds. Taking that into account, some practitioners provide access to toys, foods or other rewards simply for trying to make sounds close to the target sound.

AUTHOR: James Morgan

PEOPLE

Exploring the wider context.

‘Not seen as a priority’.

Improving education.

Whilst the true level of homophobia might be a matter for debate, the team’s findings demonstrate that a significant issue does exist. Is this a problem that is confined to schools and sports clubs, or is homophobia endemic within other areas of society?

“We must also face the fact that tackling homophobia is not seen as a priority within sport,” he continued. “One of the things that we struggled with during the course of our research was simply getting people to talk about the subject. Some respondents were uncomfortable acknowledging the problem, but one governing body – which I won’t name – actually stated that it wasn’t a priority. There is a tendency for homophobia to get sidetracked because people see racism as the issue of the moment. Consider the ‘Kick It Out’ campaign. I would imagine that the vast majority of football fans think that this is an initiative solely concerned with eradicating racism from the game. I doubt that very many would say that it deals with homophobia as well; the emphasis is on race. Homophobia is seen as less important: a lesser crime, if you like.”

“Secondly, we must improve education around the subject,” he continued. “Players should be taught not to refer to one another using homophobic language. This message needs to be integrated within the fabric of sport education in exactly the same way that racism is at present. Homophobia is an important issue and people need to treat it seriously.”

“For a number of reasons, I think that homophobia is probably more prevalent in sport than it is in other areas,” Dr Jones replied. “Firstly, a masculine culture exists across many different sports. Because of this culture, people believe that calling somebody ‘gay’, for example, has a greater impact than saying something that doesn’t make reference to their sexuality. Secondly, there are fewer social controls within sport than there are in other areas of life. If you were homophobic in the workplace, the repercussions would be far more severe than if you were to use the same language on a football pitch. Unfortunately, it is common for this sort of behaviour to be accepted within a sporting context.” I went on to ask Dr Jones whether conflicting messages from governing bodies are hampering efforts to eradicate discriminatory behaviour from sport. For instance, in 2011, FIFA President Sepp Blatter received widespread criticism after suggesting that racist incidents between players could be solved ‘with a handshake’. Are views like this too common within the upper echelons of sport?

So what can be done to convince sport’s governing bodies that this is an issue that deserves to be taken seriously? How might the problem of homophobia be moved further up the sporting agenda? “First of all, we need to find out how prevalent this problem is – across all levels of sport,” said Dr Jones. “Our findings show that there is a problem and that it is a significant one. We need to devise a way to methodologically uncover the full extent of homophobia within sport. We must also engage with those outside of sport: perhaps people who’ve been put off or who have left sport because of this type of treatment.

Finally, I asked what Dr Jones and his BU colleagues intend to do next. As he explained, his team needs to secure funding so that they can further develop their research. “Our initial investigations have opened up a range of potential research avenues,” he concluded. “Our next step is to secure funding so that we can conduct exactly the type of research that I’ve just been talking about. We also want to carry out work that will facilitate future education in this area. Of course, I’m talking about an ongoing process. It’s going to take a fair amount of time before we see huge amounts of progress. However, I am absolutely confident that this is an achievable goal.”

there are fewer social controls within sport than there are in other areas of life.

People Photographers / Mike Smith Jason Terry

ABOUT Whilst the true level of homophobia might be a matter for debate, the teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s findings demonstrate that a significant issue does exist. Is this a problem that is confined to schools and sports clubs, or is homophobia endemic within other areas of society?

New in Culture And About History Writers / Joe Johnson Jimmy Young Nick Gary Mo Noy

P E OP LE

Medicine Photographers / Dwyane James Lebron Wade

ABOUT While improving diagnosis and prevention by scientific means is essential, ERA-EDTA and Professor Vanholder recognise the need for political involvement and of awareness-raising among the general public.

New in Culture And About History Writers / Joe Johnson Jimmy Young Nick Gary Mo Noy

MEDICINE

Technology and Energy Photographers / Joe Marbury Eddy Gorro

ABOUT I went on to ask whether the savings that would result from more effective detection would outweigh the costs of installing wireless systems at all UK substations. Whilst he emphasised that only the results of the research would answer this question conclusively, Professor Glover seemed optimistic that this would be the case.

New in Culture And About History Writers / Joe Johnson Jimmy Young Nick Gary Mo Noy

TECHNOLOGY & ENERGY

Culture and History Photographers / Mo Noy

ABOUT Nitrogen is essential to the growth and development of all organisms, but many corals live in waters where this element is not readily available. Indeed, it is surprising that living things can thrive in such environments at all.

New in Culture And About History Writers / Joe Johnson Jimmy Young Nick Gary Mo Noy

CULTURE & HIST O RY

Nature Photographers / Jimmy Young Nick Gary

ABOUT The central importance of the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shared natural resources cannot be overstated. The economic and social development of the Greater Mekong depends on the continued productivity of its inter-connected ecological systems. Only intact, healthy, and diverse natural ecosystems can provide the resilience to ensuing climate change while ensuring continued access to water, energy, food, commodities, and livelihoods for over 300 million people.

New in Nature And About Animals Writers / Joe Johnson Jimmy Young Nick Gary Mo Noy

NATURE

Space and Galactic Photographers / Joe Johnson

ABOUT The four big volcanoes were only the beginning; many other landscapes appeared, not least of which was a giant six-mile-deep canyon stretching just south of the equator. (Today, the canyon is called Valles Marineris in honor of the Mariner probes.)

New in Space And About Galactic Writers / Joe Johnson Jimmy Young Nick Gary Mo Noy

SPACE & GALACTIC

Space / Galactic

Nature

Culture / History

Technology / Energy

The Long Exploration.

09 Giant Star Discovered.

02 Surprises Emerge From The Red.

Black Hole Only 32 Years Old.

03 New Source of Nitrous Oxide.

Travel to the Stars with Antimatter.

Oliver Knickel, MARS500, 2009.

12 How do birds reproduce?

Preparing For Mars.

Turning Men into Machines.

Preparing For a Mission to Mars.

New Source of Nitrous Oxide.

Travel to the Stars with Nuclear.

Preparing For Mars.

Travel to the Stars on a Space Sail.

16 Destination: Alien Stars.

The Long Exploration.

03 Giant Star Discovered.

02 Surprises Emerge From The Red.

Black Hole Only 32 Years Old.

Travel to the Stars with Antimatter.

The Long Exploration.

02 Surprises Emerge From The Red.

The Long Exploration.

02 Surprises Emerge From The Red.

06 Giant Star Discovered.

03 Giant Star Discovered.

Medicine

People

Black Hole Only 32 Years Old.

The Long Exploration.

Travel to the Stars with Antimatter.

02 Surprises Emerge From The Red.

06 Giant Star Discovered.

03 Giant Star Discovered.

Black Hole Only 32 Years Old.

08 Giant Star Discovered.

The Long Exploration.

02 Surprises Emerge From The Red.

Travel to the Stars with Antimatter.

CONTENTS

2/A Giant Star Discovered. Charles Gan Delis

4/B 25 Negative Calorie Foods. Joe Kennedy

6/A The Long Exploration. Ed Danzler & Kimmy Jones

8/D Loggerhead Sea-Turtle. National Geographic

2/A Giant Star Discovered. Charles Gan Delis

4/B 25 Negative Calorie Foods. Joe Kennedy

6/C The Long Exploration. Ed Danzler & Kimmy Jones

8/D Loggerhead Sea-Turtle. National Geographic

2/A Giant Star Discovered. Charles Gan Delis

4/B 25 Negative Calorie Foods. Joe Kennedy

A Few Words From Magazine Editors Joe Kennedy Mike Smith

CREATOR / CURATOR / DESIGNER: Joe Kennedy Mike Smith Gintaras Elmonas

science illustrated Negative Calorie Foods Issue: 6 March 2013 / $10

NEGATIVE CALORIE FOODS

Joe Johnson terry westbrook Gintaras elmonas

AUTHOR/ editor/ designer/