I, Science - Issue 6 (Winter 2006/07)

Issue 6 • Winter 06-07

I,science The Imperial College science magazine

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I,science Issue 6 • Winter 06-07 Editor-in-chief Alex Antonov Managing editor Andy Sykes Section Editors Imperial Features Laura Flegg James Urquhart External Features Colin Barras Cristina Jimenez-Andres Interviews Charlotte Bathe Hannah Duffty News and Events Naomi Antony Liv Hov-Clayton Opinions Ceri Perkins Michelle Picard-Aitken Reviews Jenna Caldwell Edward Wawrzynczak Image Editor Tony Wu Contributors Kate Ambrose Louis Buckley Darryl Croft Holly Else Adam Kaye Tim King Ailsa Taylor Andrew Turley Rolf Williams I,science is produced and published in association with Felix, the student newspaper of Imperial College Felix Newspaper Beit Quad Prince Consort Road London SW7 2BB T: 020 7594 8072 E: felix@imperial.ac.uk Registered newspaper ISSN 1040-0711

From the Editor

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ELCOME TO the sixth issue of I,science. Two years and two Guardian student media awards nominations down the line (this year we were runners-up in the best magazine category), I,science is still here and, we hope, maturing from the fledgling idea that it started out as.

Yet the spirit of that idea is still with us – to make a science magazine that is more than just another science magazine and to write and discuss the research that takes place at Imperial, which we don’t get to find out about in our daily interaction with the college.

Our cover story is an interview with three artists who use magnetic resonance imaging to create sculptures. We talk to Simon Tegala, Marilène Oliver, and Annie Cattrell about how they use this cutting-edge technology in their art to produce sculptures that are arguably extending the line of self-portraiture in a new, original way, which captures the transient states of our bodies uniquely. Does the art get obliterated by the technology or vice versa? Read more on page 16. We also review Annie Cattrell’s last exhibition, Arresting, from which our cover image comes.

We make a virtual trip to Antarctica to catch up with the HMS Endurance and her captain, Nick Lambert, to find out about the latest projects the crew is involved in (page 12).

Closer to home, we meet up with meteorologist Phil Bland from Imperial’s Earth Sciences department to learn about his team’s meteorite tracking camera network, recently installed in the Nullarbor Desert in Australia. We also find out about Acrobot, the result of a 15-year long adventure in medical robotics. Will a robot surgeon greet you on your next visit to the operating theatre? (page 8) A recent Imperial study finds out that climate change is to blame for the mysterious death of millions of frogs in Europe (page 22). How can we best deal with controlling carbon emissions rates? (Opinions, page 24) We offer reviews of the latest climate change literature, including the much hyped Al Gore film, An Inconvenient Truth (Reviews, page 28).

Finally, I would like to thank everyone involved for their contributions and enthusiasm, and I hope that you will enjoy reading I,science. Whatever feedback you have to offer, please write to us and get involved! Alex Antonov

I,science is your student science magazine. We need your comments, suggestions and contributions. If you’d like to write for I,science, please contact us at i.science@imperial.ac.uk FRONT COVER ART Far by Annie Cattrell © Annie Cattrell The third photograph in a series of three black and white prints of the eyes of Cattrell and two of her relatives (one younger, one older), shown at the Arresting exhibition at Anne Faggionato’s

Copyright © Felix 2006 Printed by St Ives Roche Ltd, St Austell, Cornwall PL26 8LX

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I,science

Issue 6 • Winter 06-07

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Features

Interviews

08 | Robosurgeon

16 | Beauty in the MRI of the beholder

Is the future of surgery populated by the R2-D2 robots from Star Wars?

10 | Fireball hunters Imperial meteorologists explain how to hunt down a meteorite and work out where it came from

12 | Here comes the summer We catch up with the captain of HMS Endurance to learn about the ship’s latest endeavours in Antarctica

20 | The power of attraction A preview of SeaGen: the prototype of a rotordriven tidal generator, soon to be installed at tidal spots around the country

22 | Dead frogs society The latest casualties of climate change are… frogs

23 | The waters of the flood were upon the earth…

Can we prevent the London Olympic site becoming awash with the contents of our toilets?

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We talk to three London-based artists who use magnetic resonance imaging technology to make sculptures. And we’re not talking SciArt

Regulars 04-07 | News and Events News from Imperial and further afield. We go to Thrill Laboratory and see Annie Cattrell’s new exhibition

24-27 | Opinions How to tackle carbon emissions, the danger of greenwashing, the new science GCSE, science blogs, and breast cancer screening guidelines

28-31 | Reviews An escape to the Galápagos Islands, the latest Rough Guide, how space awareness will help the envirnoment, and whether Al Gore’s film was any good I,science 3 6/12/06 15:31:49

NEWS & EVENTS OPINIONS INTERVIEWS

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News from Imperial…

It is the beating of his mechanical heart!

NEW RESEARCH with artificial hearts gives increased hope of recovery for heart patients. The mechanical hearts, known as Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVADs), help to restore the function of failing hearts when used in combination with certain drugs.

The research, carried out by scientists at Imperial and the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust, treated fifteen patients with the combination therapy, where the LVADs were used to take over the hearts’ function for a period of time. Eleven of the patients A mechanical heart

recovered, enabling the eventual removal of the LVADs as the patients’ own hearts restored their normal functions, eliminating the need for a heart transplant.

Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub, from the Heart Science Centre at Imperial, said: “The improvement observed was far greater than what has been reported to date for any other therapy in patients with severe, but less advanced, forms of heart failure.”

He added, “The study also highlights the fact that ‘end stage’ heart failure can be reversed and that the heart has the capacity to regenerate itself.” LHC

New nanotechnology centre opens in London WHILE THE skyscrapers are mushrooming in the City of London, a new research centre which focuses on building small opened in November.

The London Centre for Nanotechnology is a joint venture between Imperial and UCL. Nanotechnology creates tiny devices at the atomic or molecular level with special qualities.

This technology is expected to revolutionise drug development, agriculture, and many other areas of industry.

Imperial and UCL hope that by pooling The new £25m building

their expertise in this £25 million centre, they will be an important player in developing these new technologies.

“We have a unique balance of experimental work and theoretical modelling, and it is this combination of skills which will enable the centre to tackle some of the most important challenges in technologies as diverse as energy, healthcare and information technology,” said Imperial’s Professor Tim Jones, co-director of the project. NP

Eradication of polio one step closer IMPERIAL RESEARCHERS, working with international partners, have found a possible solution to polio eradication in Northern India, one of the few places on earth where efforts have so far been futile. Published in the journal Science earlier this month, the research, led by Dr Nick Grassly from the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, concluded that poor sanitation and overcrowded living conditions in the states of Uttar, Pradesh, and Bihar are responsible for the virus spreading through water and food. Further infections and diarrhoea caused by poor hygiene conditions interfere with the efficacy of the vaccine, causing many children to get infected, even after immunisation.

One possible solution to the problem is to substitute the currently used vaccine, which contains weakened strains of all three types of the virus, for a version specific to fighting the Type 1 strain, now dominant in India.

The problem with current vaccines is that the three strains can interfere with one another inside the body, producing immunity to one strain but not to another.

Dr Nick Grassly said: “A focus on high coverage with this new vaccine has the potential to eliminate polio from India and bring the world one step closer to eradication.”

Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus which, after entering the body via the mouth, can invade the central nervous system and destroy nerve cells that activate muscles, causing paralysis and mobility impairments for life. There is no cure for polio, but it can be prevented through immunisation. BP

Imperial team’s “Bougie” wins top prize AN IMPERIAL cross-faculty team of students has won a global enterprise competition in Austin, Texas, for their development of a surgical device. Beating eighteen other teams from across the world, they faced judges from a wide range of disciplines, including engineers, patent lawyers, and venture capitalists.

The team, made up of students and professors from the Faculty of Medicine,

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Engineering, and the Tanaka Business School, have taken forward Professor Sir Ara Darzi’s idea of a sensor enabled surgical dilator, which allows surgeons to safely open blockages in the oesophagus during surgery.

The ‘Bougie’ can also provide feedback to the surgeon about the site of repair.

Currently, this work is done by passive devices, such as balloons. LHC

A child is vaccinated against polio

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…and beyond No TLC for broken-hearted fish RESEARCH FUNDED by the American Heart Foundation has identified how zebrafish can regenerate damaged heart muscle. It is hoped the same process can be used in humans where the irreparable damage and scarring caused by heart attacks is a major killer.

“Zebrafish can survive pretty massive injury to the heart – the loss of about a quarter of their ventricle,” says Kenneth Poss of Duke University. During the restoration process cells from the epicardium, a thin

membrane that surrounds the heart, undergo changes in gene expression which alters their function. These cells then invade the wound and generate the new blood vessels essential for the growth of new muscle. The mechanism relies on signalling between the different sets of cells. In human research little attention has been paid to the epicardium.

“These findings in fish should encourage more exploration of what adult epicardium can do,” says Poss. HE

Broken-hearted? Not for long…

When diamonds aren’t a girl’s best friend hand squeezing a water balloon that compresses some nuclear fusion parts but lets other reaction? bits expand in the Better not use spaces between sheet diamond your fingers. Solid to make a diamond will capsule for the do just fine, and fuel. That’s liquid diamond the message too, but you really from research don’t want to have undertaken a mixture of the at the US The right material for making a fuel capsule two. People have Department of Energy’s Sandia National Nuclear Security been trying to build fusion reactors for 50 years. Fusion reactions power the sun Administration Facility in Albuquerque. and stars. Two light atoms release energy The trouble is that between about 7 as they fuse together, but you have to get and 10 million atmospheres, diamond the reaction started and control it once exists as a mixture of solid and liquid it’s going. For that you need a symmetric states, which is likely to ruin your capsule implosion. JC carefully controlled implosion, like a

Vertical living

THINKING OF creating a

Booze-cruise with a bonus SNAPPED FROM a P&O ferry in the Bay of Biscay, this is thought to be only the third ever image of a breaching Cuvier’s beaked whale. What is even more remarkable is that a Blue whale and Northern Bottlenose whale were seen on

A Cuvier’s beaked whale surfacing

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the same trip to Bilbao. The observations were logged by scientists from the charity Marinelife who, over the past decade, have recorded 30 of the world’s 84 known whale, dolphin, and porpoise species in the bay. Marinelife’s senior scientist, Dr Tom Brereton, says: “These exceptional sightings underline the importance of our work and the unique biodiversity of the Bay.” The monthly survey is conducted by volunteers who sail aboard a P&O ferry. The route between Portsmouth and Bilbao is served twice a week, and Marinelife provides a Wildlife Officer on board to help passengers observe some of the best and least known of marine mammals. RW

Sticky inspiration FIRST GECKOS, and now beetles have become the latest animals to inspire scientists in creating new types of sticky materials. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart have joined forces with Gottlieb Binder GmbH in Holzgerlingen, a fastener systems company, to develop a new type of adhesive surface inspired by beetles’ sticky feet.

The material could be used for sticking objects to walls or even for climbing robots. Beetles’ feet are covered in tiny mushroom-shaped microhairs that look like little suction cups. Beetles can walk up walls just like Spiderman with the help of these microhairs.

Mimicking this type of surface was not easy, but the researchers think they’ve finally succeeded in manufacturing it using a special mould.

The adhesive can be used over and over again, leaves no marks, and can be washed with soap and water.

The scientists have already used the new material to help small robots climb glass walls, but say they’re still “a long way from large-scale production”. EB

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Thrills and spills

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LEASURE. FRISSON. Excitement.

If you’re after the ride of your life, then what will you feel?

Unfortunately, probably not what was experienced at the opening of Fairground:Thrill Laboratory.

Tha Dana Centre, the adult only bar and discussion forum on Queen’s Gate, held a three-week long event to explore our fascination with thrill, via the medium of the fairground ride. Over the course of the three sessions, the themes ‘Pleasure’, ‘Frission’ and ‘Excitement’ were subjected to the rigorous testing of the ‘Thrill Laboratory’.

The event kicked off with a multimedia investigation of how we experience ‘Pleasure’.

The staff of the Dana Centre had transformed their premises into an approximation of a fairground, complete with live DJ, bright lights, and fast food canapés.

Bizarrely however, one’s enjoyment of a sneaky toffee-apple was soon disturbed by a balloon waving, white jumpsuit-sporting ‘Thrill Technician’, exhorting you to have ‘fun’, or later, to pull funny faces (terrified, surprised, thrilled).

The emphasis this evening was on interaction,including a ride on the ‘Miami Trip’ hooked up to videolink and heart monitor. However well intentioned, this particlular reviewer did feel as if she’d stumbled into a primary school popuated by 30-something science nuts.

The main attraction of the event, apart from the enormous ‘Miami Trip’ parked outside, was a hand picked selection of academics, each giving a short presentation on ‘Pleasure’. At 10 minutes long, these were perfect for an evening audience – long enough to inform, and even to entertain, but short enough to prevent thoughts straying back to the bar.

Subjects covered included the relationship between Pleasure and Crime, and whether or not machines and robots can experience emotion. Most interesting however was Claire O’Malley’s talk on our interpretations of facial expressions, and how easy it is to confuse surprise and fear.

The Thrill Laboratory was an ambitious event, not un-beset by technical problems and unsmoothed edges. Once these teething problems have been outgrown, this event should mature into a fascinating, and even fun take on our hedonistic pursuit of thrills.

Krystyna Larkham

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NEWS & EVENTS

Top: A series of three prints – black and white close-up photographs of the eyes of Cattrell and two of her relatives (one older, one younger).

Below: Centred, the back part or Annie Cattrell’s model of her heart produced by rapid prototyping from MRI scans

Arresting Metal plates hanging in a line, arcs scorched out of them by the passage of the Sun on a Midsummer’s day; perfect cubes of solid glass trap clouds; a scanned heartbeat, frozen in space and time, made physical… Sounds improbable? Arresting, Annie Cattrell’s exhibition of art-meets-science, doesn’t correspond to artistic or scientific norms. But it does live up to its name.

As you enter the unassuming fourth-floor gallery Anne Faggionato, staring you in the face is a series of three prints: black and white close-up photographs of the eyes of Cattrell and two of her relatives (one older, one younger).

These pictures perfectly sum up the feel of the exhibition – nature, beautiful, bizarre, and laid bare, but also captured, arrested to give a powerful sense that what is being viewed is only a snapshot of a greater process – that ageing has its own beauty, too often overlooked.

The theme of process underlies much of Cattrell’s work, which uses cutting-edge technology to bring out of the laboratory images normally only seen by those at the forefront of scientific research. Cattrell has seen a way in which magnetic resonance imaging data, normally locked away electronically in research labs, could be used to create sculptures. This is put to great effect in Centred (left), a model of Cattrell’s heart, captured as it beats, embedded within the 3D data technicians would ordinarily filter out, giving permanence to something otherwise so impossibly transient and beautiful.

Recently recognised by an award from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Cattrell’s work is certainly set to grow and develop in original ways. This exhibition is a rare treat for lovers of the arts and the sciences alike.

Adam Kaye l Interview with Annie Cattrell and other MRI artists, page 16

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Robosurgeon Is this the future of surgery?

Cristina Jimenez-Andres investigates new developments in the field of medical robotics

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N 1991, Professor Justin Cobbs, then a trainee surgeon at University College Hospital, learnt in a conference about the existence of RoboDOC, a medical robot developed in the US. That got him very excited about the new prospects that robots could bring to surgery, and he soon found out that someone in the UK was carrying out very successful research in a similar field. Dr Brian Davies, now Emeritus Professor of Medical Robotics at Imperial, had engineered a robot to remove human tissue from a patient for the first time in the history of surgery.

Soon afterwards, Professor Cobbs, now chair in Orthopaedic Surgery at Imperial, contacted the research engineer, and this was the beginning of a fruitful research relationship in medical robotics.

After fifteen years of team work, involving the two of them, as well as more than twenty PhD students and many fellow researchers, Acrobot has emerged as the final result of this scientific adventure. However, do not

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imagine this robotic device as Star Wars R2-D2 robot with a scalpel and coordinates information in the visor.

Acrobot is a medical robot designed for partial knee replacements, but it can be seen as an intelligent tool that gives the responsibility for the procedure to the surgeon, while actively constraining him to cut within a safe region. The robot does not move autonomously; instead, it reacts to the actions of the surgeon holding a handle attached to the device. The major benefit of the constraining system is that it prevents human error and provides the means for a smaller incision. Small errors in the placement of the new implant can produce a large variability in the comfort of the patients when they return to their daily lives.

You may well think that it would be easier for the doctor to have an intelligent robot designed and programmed to substitute him during the operation, leaving him to play no further part than to hold an emergency button. However, hands-on experience indicates the

opposite. The first robot implemented by Professor Davies had this characteristic, but as he pointed out: “Although surgeons had thought that this feature was desirable, their unease with being observers of a procedure that was largely in the control of the robot programme soon became apparent.� That is why they developed Acrobot as a new system which allowed the surgeon to have full control of the operation.

During the design of the robot, engineers working in Davies’s group ventured into the operation theatre during real surgical procedures in order to understand how surgeons work and incorporate this knowledge back into the mechanics and electronics of the robot.

Surgeons, in turn, went to the mechanics labs to get trained in the manipulation of the device, which requires a high degree of technical expertise and a bit of specific maths that is not provided by medical training.

As one can imagine, medical robots are designed in a very different way to

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FEATURES REVIEWS industrial robots. Robots in the industry are usually programmed to move heavy loads and perform repetitive tasks. In these cases, extreme accuracy of their movement is not paramount for a successful outcome. Obviously, when it comes to design a robot which is going to interact directly with a patient, the design considerations are somewhat different. In a surgical procedure, minor errors, which in the industrial scenario would not make a difference, may have major a major impact on the outcome of the operation, and thus on the final physical condition of the patient. For these reasons, safety is a parameter of prime importance in the development of medical robots. In order to ensure the tight standards that a surgical procedure requires, the medical robot should be design to carry out particularly slow and predictive motions and be equipped with many safety systems, such as duplicate sensors and hardware watchdogs.

So far, the Acrobot has been a success, as confirmed by the first clinical data released in February 2006. Those results showed that using Acrobot, the implant placement was more accurate than that achieved by conventional surgery. In medicine, any new technique fighting to be introduced in real practice needs to bring a considerable benefit for both the doctor and the patient. That is why every time Acrobot was used in the operation theatre, an evidence-based assessment was carried out. However, it is not trivial to check the accuracy of the implant placement with the poor spatial possibilities offered by twodimensional X-ray images. Dr Davies’ team overcame obstacles by developing a novel approach for the evaluation of implantation accuracy based on low dose computer tomography (CT) scans. This method generates three-dimensional

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Man and machine: Professor John Cobbs with Acrobot

images of the bone without exposing the patient to higher levels of radiation than conventional X-rays.

Engineers are very proud of their new device. But what does a surgeon think about Acrobot? The reply leaves no room for doubt. Professor Cobbs, who has been actively involved in the development and clinical trials of Acrobot, says: “Robotics allow one to plan and perform operations perfectly every time, making the operation just right for the individual patient. Right now, they take a bit longer, but, thanks to medical robotics, soon we will be doing operations better and faster.”

Now, the final challenge faced by the research team is almost at hand – if everything goes as planned, in one year

Acrobot will be commercialised.

All seems to indicate that robots in surgical operations are here to stay. One of the many contributors to the successful design of Acrobot is Dr Ferdinando Rodriguez, currently a lecturer in Medical Robotics at Imperial. He is very positive about the future impact of robots in medicine: “The twenty-first century will be characterised by very significant technological advances in this area, which will extend, complement, and in some cases substitute, current medical practice.

The future of medical robots is bright.”

But, please, do not imagine a future where a medical robot will say, “Hi, my name is P2X, and I will be your surgeon today.”

Exp

Facing page: Acrobot in action during surgery A Computer generated image of the femur and tibia showing the position of the implants (in green). A moulded plastic insert (shown in white) lies between the two implants to aid free movement B Image showing the ideal position of the femur implant (white) and the actual position achieved using Acrobot (green)

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C The ideal position of the femur implant (white) and the actual position achieved with conventional surgical procedures (green) in real operations Comparison of diagrams B and C shows that Acrobot improves the accuracy of implant placement. It is hoped that this improvement will lead to a longer working lifespan for the implant, benefiting patients

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Fireball Hunters A meteorologist from Imperial College is involved in a new venture to recover meteorites in the Australian desert. Colin Barras investigates

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ITY THE poor Earth. Until comparatively recently it was believed to be a sprightly 6,000 years old, but by the late twentieth century, it had aged horribly. According to the best current estimates, the Earth formed around 4,567 million years ago. If there is any consolation for the Earth, it is that meteorites are even older.

The oldest meteorites are around 4,568 million years old and provide us with a unique window into the early, preEarth solar system. During this chaotic period, there might have been hundreds of Mars-sized planets spinning around the inner solar system.

The study of meteorites provides valuable information about the manner in which these early planets formed and ultimately developed into the solar system we recognise today.

Meteorologists are faced with a problem, however.

They don’t know where in the solar system each meteorite came from. Out of context, a meteorite is of limited use. It is like a Roman amphora found in an antiques shop on the King’s Road. Although an archaeologist might be able to learn something from the amphora’s design, this is nothing compared to what he could learn if the amphora were linked to a specific archaeological site. Information about trade routes, religious beliefs, prehistoric diets, or even changes in fashion, is all lost without this context.

However, there is a solution to the meteorologists’ context problem. If they can observe the orbit of the incoming meteor before it hits the ground, when it appears as a fireball in the sky, it is possible to work out where in the solar system it came from. It

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is also possible to track forward and work out roughly where the fireball will hit the ground, which is a great help for the meteorite hunters.

Such cases are known as meteorite ‘falls’, as opposed to the more common meteorite ‘finds’, in which the meteorites are simply found on the ground, possibly several hundred years after they arrived. There are

“It’s early days. If you came to me next year and we still hadn’t found anything then I’d start to get a bit nervous”

just 1,050 meteorite falls, but over 30,000 meteorite finds. It is clearly not enough just to stare up at the sky and hope. Blink and you miss the fireball, which can be seen for only a few seconds. To solve this problem, meteorologists have devised a network of cameras to constantly monitor the heavens. This way, they can guarantee that when a fireball appears in the sky above the area being monitored, they will be able to track its progress.

This is not new technology. The first attempts to track fireballs in this way were in 1950s Czechoslovakia.

Similar networks followed in the United States and in Canada. Over the last 60 years, hundreds of fireballs have been observed in the night sky by these networks.

However, this apparent success is deceptive. Just four meteorites have been recovered on impact. The Canadian project ran from 1971 to 1985, and in that time managed to recover a single meteorite. Given that the camera network can pinpoint the location of impact to around 1 km2, this poor recovery rate seems surprising.

Dr Bland explains: “People have used this sort of network in comfortable places. You can drive out in your car on your way home from work and check your cameras. But you can’t find the bloomin’ meteorites when they land!” The problem lies in the dense vegetative cover in monitored areas, which does a very good job at hiding all but the largest of meteorites.

Now a new team including Dr Bland has decided on a simple solution: set up a camera network in an area that is favourable for meteorite recovery. “You’re after a big area that’s fairly poorly vegetated. And it’s got to have fairly stable politics,” Dr Bland says.

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Images from the camera network. Below: a fireball (on the left) close to the southern celestial pole.

Facing page: a fireball (lower half of image) photographed during an electrical storm.

The Sahara has the right geographical features, but lacks the stable politics. So the team focussed on the Nullarbor Region of Western Australia.

Cameras in such a remote area have to be self-reliant and robust, because they can’t be serviced regularly. “We scraped together the money for one camera and put it out there in 2003,” Dr Bland continues. “That proved we could put something out for a long period of time and get good images. We set up two more a few months back.” The cameras are difficult to reach,

and so the team stay in contact with them remotely.

The three cameras photograph fireballs entering the night sky, and these images are used to triangulate the fireball’s position, its orbit, and its trajectory. The information allows the

The camera network in operation 1 Each camera in the desert network captures an image of the incoming fireball. Because the cameras are widely spaced, each has a unique perspective on the fireball’s position and direction of motion 2 The cameras send these images to the researchers via satellite. The researchers collate the images captured from different perspectives to work out the original trajectory of the meteor. They can trace this forward to calculate roughly where the meteor will land…

3 …and trace it backwards to work out the orbit of the meteor prior to impact. The results indicate where in the solar system the meteor came from

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team to calculate very accurately where the fireball will hit the ground, ready to be found on the next fieldwork session. Dr Bland exudes excitement mixed with apprehension as he talks. The apprehension is understandable, given the failures of previous fireball networks: “It’s early days. If you came to me next year, and we still hadn’t found anything, then I’d start to get a bit nervous.”

Yet the potential rewards are great: a constantly growing collection of meteorites with spatial context. Ultimately, the team may be able to use this information to show that the orbit of a given meteorite corresponds to the orbit of a known asteroid. In effect, they will have samples from these asteroids without having to go to the time and expense of a NASA mission.

And the information will greatly increase our knowledge of the early solar system, which will make the Earth seem young once again. ■ l You can read the blog of the team’s recent trip to the Nullarbor Desert on http://piclib.nhm.ac.uk/meteorite-blog/

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Here comes summer HMS ENDURANCE is the Navy’s Antarctic patrol ship, a 6,000-tonne icebreaker that heads south each autumn for the Antarctic summer, carrying a ship’s company of over 118 scientists, photographers and artists. Rolf Williams, an officer in the Royal Naval Reserve, writes the first in a series of articles following the scientific endeavours of Endurance

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WAS AT the Natural History Museum’s Darwin Centre when it happened – the curator of mineralogy dropped a fragment of igneous rock into the palm of my hand, and quite unexpectedly I was overwhelmed by a distorted sense of time. This simple act had connected me quite suddenly and physically with an historic moment of national and naval significance.

This fragment had been chipped from an exposed face on the Antarctic continent in 1912 by one of Captain Scott’s fated team, as they raced south.

The fragment was with them as their eyes fell upon the Norwegian flag at the South Pole, and it lay inert on their sled as, with each dying step northwards, they refused to abandon their valuable scientific load.

I could not help but wonder, as I looked

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down at the inoffensive item, whether without that extra 16kg of geological samples, they might have survived the last 11 miles to the next stash of supplies. The unseasonable weather crippled Scott and his team who are now immortalised for their race against Amundsen; however, Scott’s primary goal had always been science. The minerals and fossils he discovered remain significant to this day, and the Royal Navy continues the tradition of scientific exploration in Antarctica.

I was recently privileged to work aboard HMS Endurance, the navy’s Antarctic patrol ship, prior to her sailing. The 6,000-tonne icebreaker heads south each autumn for the Antarctic summer, carrying a ship’s company of over 118 scientists, photographers, and artists.

She is a very special ship, unique to the

Royal Navy. Captain Nick Lambert, her commanding officer, says: “Our work in Antarctica is fascinating, contemporary, and relevant, and we have the honour to follow in the steps of many illustrious predecessors, albeit in much greater comfort and safety. Great names such as Cook, Ross, Scott, and Shackleton were the early exponents of exploration combined with scientific discovery, the forerunners of the work that we do today.”

Tasked by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the British Antarctic Survey, the UK Hydrographic Office, and the Ministry of Defence, Endurance is a truly national asset. The big issues of our time are, arguably, global warming and climate change. Endurance makes a significant contribution to our understanding of both. The British Antarctic Survey scientists that she

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“Every day is different, it’s quite normal to experience all four seasons in a single day, the scenery is fantastic, the fauna and flora abundant and appealing, the geography and seascape remarkable” Captain Nick Lambert

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deploys and supports in remote fieldcamps on the Antarctic Peninsula are engrossed in work that greatly improves our knowledge of these phenomena.

Analysis of ice and sediment cores reveals evidence of climate and temperature change over many thousands of years, and the evidence is used to inform models that predict the likely impact of global warming on our present environment.

Besides the human expertise brought with Endurance each season, the ship carries a number of technical assets. A state-of-the-art multi-beam echo sounder is housed flush against the ship’s keel. The echo sounder transmits a ‘fan’ of sound that extends from 25 degrees below the horizontal plane out to the port side, through the vertical (under the keel), to 25 degrees below the horizontal on the starboard side of the ship. A receiver (also in the keel) collects the echoes, and a powerful processor generates extremely accurate, colour coded, three-dimensional pictures of the seabed. The processor automatically stabilises the image, compensating for the ship’s heave, pitch, and yaw, and blends differential Global Positioning System (GPS) data into the solution to position accurately each data point on the seabed.

The system fitted produces a swath width of between three to four times the water depth, giving Endurance the capability to produce lanes of data up to 1200m across that are ideally suited to the narrow inlets and bays of Antarctica. The UK Hydrographic Office then converts Endurance’s survey data into modern charts for safer navigation by the many cruise ships that operate in the region.

Endurance carries two Lynx helicopters

onboard that are critical to the work of the British Antarctic Survey. A team of seventeen works to keep the helicopters flying in some of the harshest weather conditions, not least the catabatic winds that discharge themselves off the ice sheets without warning and with violent affect. Captain Lambert sent this update from the Antarctic Peninsula: “Six scientists and their equipment have been airlifted into satellite field stations on King George Island, the South Shetlands, to collect core samples that will reveal 10,000 years of Antarctic history. The Lynx are also operating the BBC Planet Earth team’s most advanced camera. The camera has four times the magnification of earlier models without suffering from helicopter vibration.

This means wildlife that is disturbed by the proximity of a helicopter can now be filmed successfully and with high definition from a much greater distance.”

The BBC team will film a population of 6 million fur seals while remaining undetected. The footage supports the scientific study of the seal population, which has exploded in the last half century, theoretically filling the niche left by those whales that were hunted to near extinction. Understanding the behaviour of these seals may reveal what their impact is on the ecosystem and on commercial fishing.

For many who imagine a fleet tasked only for warfighting, the thought of the Royal Navy in Antarctica might not make sense at first. However, the Royal Navy is by design a versatile maritime force.

Ships are more regularly employed in humanitarian aid, counter narcotics, and terrorism and peacekeeping operations.

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Above: Multi-beam echo sounder images of (from left to right) (a) Deception Island, a volcanic crater with secondary cone centre right (b) a volcanic cone on the seabed in Deception Island’s main crater (the colours refer to depth). Below: one of the Lynx helicopters in action Previous spread: HMS Endurance ensconced between the ice in Antarctica and fur seal (right)

The Navy’s scientific tradition is alive and well in the shape of five hydrographic survey vessels and Endurance, which Captain Lambert describes as the pinnacle of his 30-year career: “I’ve met many people from all walks of life who strive to maintain the peaceful and scientific status of Antarctica. Every day is different, it’s quite normal to experience all four seasons in a single day, the scenery is fantastic, the fauna and flora abundant and appealing, the geography and seascape remarkable. The ship works alone, 9,000 odd miles remote from the UK, dependent on her own resources and the skills of her people to safely achieve her tasking – what more could a captain want?”

Perhaps to discover something entirely new to science? Endurance may be about to do that. Back at the Darwin Centre, at the event hosted by the Antarctic Heritage Trust, I talked to marine expert David Mehans – the man who discovered and filmed the wrecks of HMS Hood and the SS Bismarck. He has in his keeping an echo sounder image from Endurance that suggests the presence of something on the seabed that will require his skills with Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) to investigate further. It would be premature for me to reveal at this juncture what the image may show, but you can count on me to check in again with Endurance in the next couple of months for an update, so don’t miss the next edition of I,science when all will be revealed! ■ l You can keep abreast with the ship and her activities and see the latest stunning pictures on www.visitandlearn.co.uk

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Beauty in the MRI of the beholder Charlotte Bathe talks to three Londonbased artists who use medical imaging to build sculptures, offering new perspectives on the insides of our bodies

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RT AND science are perhaps unexpected bedfellows.

Yet institutions such as the Science Museum are inviting artists to produce work for exhibition in their spaces. This summer, the Wellcome Trust will open a new public venue opposite Euston Station where Darwin’s walking stick and a DNA sequencing robot will be displayed alongside a Marc Quinn sculpture made from HIV drugs.

Why all this interest in art by science institutions? It may reflect changing attitudes towards science communication – a shift from public education towards public engagement with science. An artwork that presents science in a different, perhaps more personal, context aids the public engagement programme by provoking questions and stimulating dialogue.

But what about the artists? Why are they seeking out scientists for their advice, technical assistance and collaboration on projects that straddle the art-science boundary? To find out, I spoke to three London-based artists who have worked with MRI.

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I met Simon Tegala in the Science Museum where his piece Fuel Drop Explosion has just been installed in the Energy Gallery. “The piece basically involves a digital screen where we see a drop of fuel slowly falling from the top… It falls through the space on the screen, and at a certain point it explodes, and you hear the noise of the explosion throughout the gallery.” Next to Simon’s artwork is a touch-screen monitor that encourages the user to think about how energy is transferred from molecules in the drop of fuel to heat in the explosion.

This is one of many works by Simon that have a science connection. His MRI piece is a self-portrait and includes various representations of the artist’s brain: twodimensional slices, graphic animations, and three-dimensional models. The glass models are displayed in cabinets like precious jewels, reminding us how vulnerable our brains would be without the protection of the skull.

According to Simon, his work is not about science, nor is it about technology.

“The actual technology part of it I always want to keep invisible. Pieces of artwork which are only about displaying

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Tegala’s Self Portrait – a multimedia work including two-dimensional slices through the artists’ head, film animations, and glass models of his brain displayed in a Tiffany-style booth

Simon Tegala Graduated from Goldsmiths in 1995. Now works in London Recent work: Fuel Drop Explosion: commissioned for the Science Museum, on display in the Energy Gallery

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Other work: Anabiosis: for a two-week period in 1998, Tegala’s heart was monitored and the data was transmitted digitally to an electronic sign in a public site in London

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‘look what I can do with this piece of technology’ I find intensely boring.” He also criticises “sci-art projects” which are “unsuccessful because a lot of the art is just there to illustrate the science; to make a scientific theory beautiful in some way.”

So what is his work about? “Everything is about an emotional relationship.” The science and technology, it would seem, are accidental. Simon is particularly interested in the relationship “between public and private spaces”, a theme he explored in Anabiosis – an electronic sign in a public place displaying Simon’s fluctuating heartbeat that was digitally transmitted over a two-week period.

By contrast, Marilène Oliver’s work is very much about MRI technology.

She’s exploring “what it means for us to see our body sliced up…, what these new views of us can suggest, and how they’re changing our perception of each other and of ourselves. The inside of our bodies is becoming really clean; there’s no abjectness – we don’t necessarily associate blood with the insides of our body anymore… With the inside of my own body I think of black and white rather than a bloody cross-section… It’s more and more removed, more sanitised.”

MRI may represent the inside of the body as misleadingly ‘clean’, but Marilène’s sculptures have a mysterious and ghostlike quality. As you walk around them, the image constantly moves and flickers in and out of vision.

Annie Cattrell is also interested in how medical imaging might offer an alternative perspective on the body, and this is a theme of her recent exhibition.

“The idea of the show, Arresting, is stopping time just to look at things, things which are in a state of flux… If you look at it, does it give you another view of something, does it allow you to understand it better, or is it just about being able to contemplate?” MRI enables us to press the pause button on the inside of our bodies – to take a snapshot of a place that is constantly moving and changing.

In the centre of the gallery is a model of Annie’s heart, frozen like ice, but at the same time demonstrating the dynamic nature of a beating organ. The heart is flanked by strange horizontal projections.

These are three-dimensional renderings of the “blobby bits” which appear around the heart when viewed using MRI. Annie explains, “It’s difficult to know what’s anatomy and what’s slightly altered through technology, and I like that.”

Marilène is also intrigued by this strange “blobby stuff ”, which she calls her “heartbeat artifact”, and she has produced three-dimensional models of her artifacts

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“MRI enables us to press the pause button on the inside of our bodies – to take a snapshot of a place that is constantly moving and changing”

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using Rapid Prototyping. I held out my hand and in the palm she placed a blue, thimble-sized blob with contours. It looked like a hillock that had jumped from the page of an Ordnance Survey map. Fascinating.

What creates these artifacts? It may be that the force of blood pumped by the heart affects the surrounding area, and the MRI scanner picks this up.

Yet nobody seems to know for sure and radiologists aren’t looking for the answer. “The radiologist sees these artifacts as really irritating because they disturb the important images… which are diagnostic… this is something they spend all their life trying to get rid of.” But Marilène wants to investigate. Perhaps we each produce our very own “whirlpool”: “Different hearts, different people, different patterns.” She wants what the radiologists are trying to eliminate.

Such occasional conflicts of interest are surely inevitable given that artists and medical scientists have different goals.

In general all three artists found the scientists they worked with responded positively, often enthusiastically, to their projects.

Nevertheless, finding a common ground and language, a “bridge”, with scientists can be a challenge for artists such as Annie, who has described herself as a “runner between worlds”. “That’s not what I consider myself to be, but sometimes what it feels like.”

But Annie has a foot firmly in both worlds having been brought up by an artistic mother and a father who worked as a medical physicist and who, “had he been alive today, he’d probably be working with MRI.”

Annie Cattrell Trained as a fine artist at the Glasgow School of Art, has MA in Fine Art from University of Ulster and MA in Glass from Royal College of Art. Annie is currently an Arts and Humanities Research Council research fellow in art, science and technology. Through this fellowship she is exploring the use of rapid prototyping (see inset) as a means of making

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sculptures using MRI scans of the interior and exterior of the living body.

Recent exhibitions: Arresting: Annie’s exhibition in Anne Faggionato’s Gallery near Oxford Street includes photographic work and sculptures of various parts of the human body.

(See review on page 7)

For Annie, it is the “commonality of the visual representation of the body” that provides the connection for her artistic ventures with science. And the visual representation of the body has a long tradition in the history of art. Over the centuries, artists have tried to “get the quality of something that’s alive in a static object”. Traditionally, this is done with pencil or paint, but medical imaging technology offers a new and exciting mode of representation.

Simon too sees his MRI piece as part of long-established artistic practice. “The ambition was to make a self-portrait that had never been done before in the classical tradition of self-portraiture from Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Andy Warhol…”

Earleir, I suggested that science institutions might use artwork to provoke questions and stimulate dialogue. For Centred: a sculpture of Annie’s heart, frozen in time by an MRI scanner and rendered threedimensional using RP

MRI and Rapid P Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) MRI uses some fairly impressive physics to visualise the inside of living bodies. An electromagnet is supercooled to around -260˚C by immersion in liquid helium, at which point its component wires lose all electrical resistance. This magnet generates an incredibly strong field – 10,000 to 30,000 times the magnetic field of the Earth – aligning some nuclei with respect to the magnetic field.

The area under examination is then subjected to pulses of radio-waves, causing the nuclei to ‘tip’ out of alignment and ‘wobble’. By measuring the time taken to return to their steady-state, the nuclei, and therefore the atom, can be identified. Medical MRI normally measures the nuclei of hydrogen atoms in water and fats.

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FEATURES REVIEWS Simon, Marilène and Annie this reflective aspect is important. Simon: “It [my artwork] doesn’t necessarily give answers.

It provokes more questions and that for me is a successful art piece. Something that when you walk out of the gallery it still resonates in your mind and causes you to think about it.” Annie hopes that her exhibition, Arresting, will cause us to contemplate those things, such as the heart, guts and mind, which we normally take for granted.

All three artists’ works stimulate reflection, but they also remind us how incredible the human body really is. In the context of medical diagnosis or scientific research, MRI snapshots are commonplace and easily taken for granted. But when MRI data is used by artists and represented in a different context, we can step back to contemplate the technology and marvel at the human body. This wonder at the world is what motivates many scientists, but it is too often lost in the day-to-day grind of laboratory work. ■

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Marilène Oliver 1999 Graduated from St Martins College of Art & Design 2001 Completed MA in Fine Art Printmaking at the Royal College of Art Currently doing a practiceled PhD

Recent work: Leonardo’s Great Lady: a 3D reconstruction in 80 slices of one of Leonardo’s anatomical drawings, in collaboration with cardiac surgeon Francis Wells.

On display at the Museum of History of Science in Oxford in 2006

d Prototyping By looking at the unique molecular ‘wateriness’ or ‘fattiness’ of each tissue, MRI is able to map the human body, safely and non-invasively, in incredible detail.

Rapid Prototyping (RP) Developed in the 1980s as a means of effectively making a ‘3D photocopy’ of almost any given shape. The shape can be a real object (which must be scanned) or entirely virtual (existing as a series of ‘volume elements’).

Either way, data representing the shape’s volume is fed into a computer program, which transforms the volume into a series of very thin crosssections. These can then be recreated physically by building up successive layers of a synthetic material, which are then fused together to make the final object. l Adam Kaye Winter 06-07 16-19-MRI.indd 19

Top: Family Portrait – a series of four sculptures of Marilène Oliver’s family members made up of axial MRI scans of their bodies. Each sculpture is comprised of 90 slices, each slice screen printed with bronze ink onto acrylic sheets.

Left: Leonardo’s Great Lady, a 3D reconstruction of Leonardo’s anatomical drawings

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The power of attraction As we slowly make the move away from fossil fuels, SeaFlow may help us one step further. Liv Hov-Clayton finds out

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UNAR POWER may sound more like a hippie philosophy than the driving principle behind a structure soon to be jutting out of the sea at the Strangford Narrows, off the east coast of Northern Ireland. As wind and solar power have developed into relatively low cost alternatives to fossil and nuclear energy over the last couple of decades, tidal power has lagged behind. This may change as SeaGen, the commercial prototype of a rotor-driven tidal generator, becomes a reality within the next year.

As long as the moon (with a little bit of help from the sun) tugs the water up and down the British coastline, the UK’s potential to harvest tidal power is significant. However, efforts to utilise this energy have so far had limited success.

As tidal generators are usually located in a hostile environment, their maintenance has been a major stumbling block. Peter Fraenkel is the Technical Director of Marine Current Turbines Ltd (MCT), the company behind the development of SeaGen. He has tried to address this fundamental problem. “Floating devices have no platform for anyone to stand on. The only option, even if a fifty-pence fuse blows, is to disconnect it, take it to shore, fix it, take it out again and put it back, and that’s a very expensive operation.” Similarly, the maintenance of fully submerged tidal generators requires expensive and potentially dangerous diving operations in strong currents.

SeaGen has been designed to address these issues – its turbines are fixed on

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a column installed in the seabed, with rotors that can be raised up the column and suspended out of the water for maintenance access. “Our problem is reduced to waiting for good enough weather to get out and get on to it.”

First tried and tested with SeaFlow, SeaGen’s somewhat uglier older sister, the column-mounted rotor has proven worthy of further development. SeaFlow was constructed off Lynmouth, Devon, in 2003, and the lessons learnt from it have been valuable: “With the benefit of hindsight, SeaFlow was not put in a very clever place, as it is exposed to the Atlantic, and we couldn’t get to it in the winter. Strangford Narrows, where SeaGen will be located, faces south-east and has hills alongside it; it is almost like a river, and it is very energetic, which is good for getting performance characteristics. We don’t think there will ever be a situation when the weather is so bad we could not go out there in a small boat and get on to it.”

So does this exclude tidal generation in every location around the UK that is open to the Atlantic? Fraenkel believes that once the generators are in commercial use, they will not need such frequent visits. “Because SeaGen is a commercial prototype, the development programme needs us to get on to it in order to test things and modify them.”

Based on principles similar to those of a wind turbine, SeaGen’s column-mounted rotors are placed under rather than above water, and because water is much denser than air, the rotor blades can be shorter.

The depth of water also restricts the

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FEATURES REVIEWS size of the rotor blades. Unlike a wind turbine, however, the tidal generator only needs to deal with flows in two directions. SeaGen’s older sister, the SeaFlow, could only utilise flow one way, as the turbine’s column would disrupt the flow to the turbine when the current came in the other direction. This problem has been solved by suspending SeaGen’s rotors on an extension arm away from the column, allowing them to swing through 180 degrees and move with the current in either direction. As a bonus, this design makes room for two rotors – one on either side of the structure, allowing SeaGen to generate far more power than SeaFlow.

MCT had hoped to install the SeaGen early in 2007, but the seal-pupping season, extending from March to midJuly, may put a stop to these plans.

Fraenkel has little patience with this policy, and he feels that some of the environmental hoops his company has had to jump through are out of proportion. “We may not be allowed to install [SeaGen] during the seal pupping season in case we might disturb the seals; now at Strangford there are two great, big ferries, which run 18 hours a day, with

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very noisy propellers. They pour copper sulphate all over the car ramps to stop marine growth; and yet we get questioned very intensely if we might have some minute quantity of fowling which could cause some harm. Which we don’t.”

Fraenkel is certain that SeaGen’s impact on wildlife will be limited. A worry about wind turbines has been the danger for birds to fly into them and get hurt or killed. Studies have proved that unless these structures are positioned directly in areas of migration and feeding, the birds avoid the rotor blades. Sea creatures, particularly those who move in areas of strong currents, have a well developed ability to locate and stay clear of moving as well as stationary obstructions. “We are not talking about a desk fan running at 2,000 rpm; the rotors are running at 10 rpm, which is very slow.”

If successful, SeaGen may receive company, and the Strangford Narrows and other tidal hotspots around the UK may be dotted with cost-effective SeaGens. As with wind turbines, tidal power generators are unlikely

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to prove cost efficient unless a number of them are erected in each location. This way savings can be made on expensive and time consuming items, such as consent applications and infrastructure connecting the generators to the grid, and the cost of the technology should come down as more turbines are installed.

As with the expansion of wind farms, a discussion on whether the visual presence of these structures is desirable may or may not ensue. But if MCT has it their way, the cost of the SeaGen will decrease as more British homes can look to the powers of the moon for warmth and illumination. Sounds like a hippie philosophy to me, firmly rooted in the very real seabed around the UK coastline. ■

Clockwise from above: An artist’s vision of how SeaGen will look once it’s operating in the Strangford Narrows; SeaFlow, the older version of SeaGen, with its rotor raised; and SeaFlow jutting out of the water in Lynmouth.

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Dead Frogs Society Holly Else investigates the mysterious death of millions of frogs in Europe

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LIMATE CHANGE is headline news. Heat waves, flash floods, hurricanes – all results of the Earth’s struggle to cope with the stresses and strains of the disposable, jet-set lifestyle led by the first world. But there are more subtle effects, too. The planet’s biodiversity is suffering. Recent research at Imperial shows that European frogs are dying out.

The study, published online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B in October 2006, was carried out in the Spanish Peñalara Natural Park, where amphibians are dying from an infectious disease, chytridiomycosis. This relatively new disease to Europe is caused by a fungus and is a major driver of extinction amongst amphibians. Using 25 years of observational data from 1976 to 2003, researchers have found that the disease has spread with devastating effects. This spread is a result of climate change. The midwife toad, prevalent in 1997, now lies close to extinction, and in more recent years there has been a sharp decline in the numbers of spotted salamanders and common toads in the area.

Chytridiomycosis was first found in the area during 1997, and its presence correlates with a significant increase in the number of hotter, sunnier days.

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, the fungal pathogen that spreads the disease, grows on keratin in the amphibians’ skin.

Its effects are deadly as the fungus compromises the amphibians’ ability to regulate water and oxygen intake.

It can be spread by close contact during mating and also lurks in the larvae of ponds. As winters have become warmer, the pond water never falls to a low enough temperature to kill the

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pathogen off. So, during July and August, when the tadpoles in the pond metamorphose, they become infected by the disease. Amphibians are cold-blooded animals, and their body temperature reflects their environment. It was originally thought climate change could quell the spread of the chytridiomycosis as the fungus cannot tolerate high temperatures. But, in response to the hotter weather, toads cool themselves

“For years, naturalists have called amphibians the health indicators of the environment, their permeable skin being highly sensitive to environmental change”

down by actively seeking damp places to hide, and the fungus survives.

Scientists are unsure of how exactly the fungus arrived in Europe. A possible candidate is the North American Bullfrog, an invasive species that can carry the fungus without developing the disease.

The bullfrog is farmed and traded internationally for use in restaurants and the pet market. Recent quarantine guidelines have been introduced that suggest testing for chytridiomycosis, but they are not legally binding. Worryingly, in September this year scientists from the Zoological Society of London detected Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in Britain.

For years, naturalists have called amphibians the health indicators of the environment, because their permeable skin is highly sensitive to environmental change. In 2004, the Global Amphibian Assessment showed that 33% of the world’s amphibians are threatened. The research in Spain hoped to address the possibility that climate change could be partly responsible for this threat.

One of the authors of the research paper, Dr Matthew Fisher from the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial said: “You can’t overstate how serious this pathogen is – it is the worst infectious disease ever recorded among vertebrates in terms of the number of species impacted and its propensity to drive them to extinction.

When you look at the reality of the disease, it’s the hardest hitter there is, and the amphibian tree of life is being very severely pruned by it.”

In January 2006, research published in Nature found the iconic, brightly coloured harlequin frogs of Central and South America were critically endangered as a result of the fungal disease.

Extinction of the midwife toad would be a bitter blow for biodiversity. The toads are key predators in the food chain. They feed on many invertebrate species that humans consider pests, such as mosquitoes, flies, worms, and slugs.

Without the toads to keep their numbers down, the pest population would thrive, resulting in widespread effects on agriculture and health. “In the long-term the whole balance of the ecosystem would shift, new species may establish and the evolutionary trajectories of many species would be forever changed,” commented Dr Fisher.

“This is a wake-up call that we are losing biodiversity fast. Climate change appears to be changing patterns of disease and previously resistant species are becoming highly infected and even, in a number of cases, becoming extinct.” ■

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The waters of the flood were upon the earth…

In August 2006, the city of New Orleans was devastated by flooding.

With torrential downpours becoming more frequent in the UK, can London’s Victorian drainage system take the strain? Kate Ambrose looks at how researchers at Imperial are hoping to stop our sewers from bursting

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N 1858, politicians in the House of Commons were driven from their seats by the horrific stench of sewage being discharged into the Thames. As a result of this political disruption, the engineer Sir Joseph Bazellgatte developed the London sewer system.

Considered by some one of the seven wonders of the industrial world, this intricate network of 13,450 miles of pipes has served the city for over 100 years. But the bowels of our city are again unhappy, used and abused by an ever increasing population, deposits of fat and household debris, and a greater volume of waste has left the pipe system choking.

More inhabitants and the change in our waste disposal habits are only part of the problem – the climate is changing, too.

London’s Victorian combined drainage system deals not only with water flushed from our homes – it also channels some of the rainwater from our streets to the ground below, and during periods of flooding the consequences and impact on our rivers are pungently noticeable.

In the last 50 years this problem has been steadily addressed through the construction of dedicated ‘surface water only sewers’ which serve our ever expanding network of roads and housing estates. However, with the advent of global warming, it is becoming clear that these sewers are not enough. The London Climate Change Partnership has estimated that by 2080 the number of extreme storms crossing the UK could increase from five to eight each year.

These extreme and sporadic storms can cause a sudden and unexpected increase in the volume of water flowing from the streets down into sewer pipes. When the volume of water going into the sewers is greater than the volume of the pipe, the drainage system becomes backed up or surcharged, pouring back out onto the street, and sometimes taking the raw

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sewage with it. Engineers call this type of flooding “pluvial flooding”. Unpredictable and localised, it can occur in a matter of hours, giving scientists, emergencies services, and the general public very little chance to respond. The need to find ways to reduce the destruction caused by this kind of flood has inspired civil engineers at Imperial to develop advanced models for predicting areas at risk.

Professor Cedo Makismovic, leading the team of civil engineers at Imperial, explains: “The problems of pluvial flooding are on the increase – climate change may increase the risk of short intensive storms.” Professor Makismovic believes that his modelling techniques will help to find the areas in the drainage system most susceptible to pluvial

“The embarrassment of the £2 billion Olympic site becoming awash with the contents of London’s toilets is obviously of concern to the Olympic committee” flooding and give engineers the tools to design slight modifications to these areas in order to minimise any flood damage. The approach essentially uses a more complex version of the technology that we use in car Sat-Nav systems. Data is processed from aerial and satellite imaging and radar signals and is then used to produce a very accurate model or 3D map of the ground terrain, which engineers can use this to predict where pockets of water or “ponding” may occur.

The model also predicts how the shape and size of a “pond” or a group of “ponds” interacts with others and with the sewer

system under different rainfall conditions.

Professor Makismovic hopes that this new system can help civil engineers make flood risk predictions and assess the size and extent of damage caused by these extreme weather events. Authorities can make preventive modifications to the areas most at risk of pluvial flooding and form contingency plans to minimise damage if flooding occurs.

It is easy to see the need for a sophisticated model to manage these unpredictable and devastating natural disasters. Professor Makismovic explains that the risk to London is a real one, especially east London: “The Olympic site is susceptible to urban flooding and accidental spillage of raw sewage from combined sewer overflow during heavy storms and high water levels in Lee rivers.”

The embarrassment of the £2 billion pound Olympic site becoming awash with the contents of London’s toilets is obviously of concern to the Olympic committee, who are currently considering using Makismovic’s model to develop future solutions to solving this pungent problem.

Technology may be advancing, but we have a long way to go until we can control the weather. With episodes of extreme weather becoming more frequent, we need to examine ways to protect ourselves and manage the risk of flooding. We have witnessed all too recently the horrific damage to human life and infrastructure that urban flooding causes a city; could protection and planning be the key to preventing this disaster striking London?

Over one hundred years after its original design, our ageing sewer system needs to be modified, so that it can cope with our modern day problems.

Let’s hope it doesn’t take the foul smell of sewage diffusing through the halls of Westminster to catalyse a change this time. ■

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Contraction and convergence For those who deny that climate change is happening, look away now. Climate change is real, it’s happening, and it’s human-induced.

It’s going to be a problem. Darryl Croft explains why it’s not too late…

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F NOVEMBER’S Stern report had one important message, it was this: climate change needs to be tackled urgently, so as to avoid much bigger economic costs in future years. This is in addition to the massive ecological and social disaster that is likely to be unleashed if no action is taken. A global solution is needed that encompasses serious emissions reduction targets. Voluntary reductions by individual countries – essentially the model for Kyoto – will not suffice.

Who has the answer? For ‘smarties’ like me, the answer is Contraction and Convergence (C&C), an emissions reduction framework, proposed by some policy experts as a replacement for Kyoto, once it expires in 2012. It promises to deliver in all the areas that Kyoto has failed: it is global in extent, requiring both developing and developed countries to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions; it prescribes a meaningful reduction plan for global emissions determined by a negotiated ‘safe’ CO2 concentration in the atmosphere; and it encourages trading of carbon credits to allow countries that have exceeded their emissions allocation to buy credits from those countries with spare ones.

So how does C&C work? As its name suggests, it is based on both ‘contraction’ and ‘convergence’. ‘Contraction’ states that atmospheric CO2 concentration must not exceed a certain ‘safe’ value and that to achieve this, global emissions must contract over time. The fundamental principle of the framework is that global CO2 emissions should be distributed on a per capita basis – every person in every country should be allowed to emit the same amount of CO2. Since this is not currently the case, the framework includes a date by which all countries need to bring their per capita emissions to the same level – ‘convergence’ date.

These principles translate into a simple mathematical model within which emissions quotas are allocated to all nations on an increasingly equitable basis until the convergence date.

The 1992 Rio Declaration recognised that developed and developing countries have “common but differentiated responsibilities” in tackling climate change. The declaration acknowledged that the predominant cause of climate change has been the profitable use of cheap fossil fuels by developed countries, and that it would be hypocritical to ask developing countries to commit to fossil fuel limitations or reductions at the expense of their own vital economic growth. As a result, developing countries were not required to make any emissions reductions under the Kyoto Protocol.

“C&C will encourage developed and developing countries alike to look towards low carbon, efficient technologies” Recent economic expansion in China, Brazil, and India has led many to blame these countries for climate change and escalating CO2 emissions. In fact, emissions in China, Brazil, and India were respectively 0.9, 0.4, and 0.3 megatons of carbon (MtC) per person in 2003, in contrast to emissions in the US, Germany, and UK, which stood at 5.4, 2.7, and 2.6 MtC per person. This leads to the crux of the climate change argument – how to

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ensure we avoid catastrophe whilst reducing the inequality in current emissions and not committing developing countries to a cycle of poverty.

It is in addressing this balance that C&C could prove successful. If emissions allocations are determined by a country’s population, every person on earth will essentially have the ‘right to pollute’ by an equal amount.

As we move towards the convergence date, countries emitting more than their allowance will have to buy carbon credits from those countries not using their full share. It is clear that in practice this will see developed countries (with high per capita emissions) buying credits from developing countries (with low per capita emissions).

Why is this an effective system? By placing a value on carbon, it will encourage all countries, developed and developing, to look towards low carbon, efficient technologies. Why is it a fair system? It fits with the notion of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’.

Any transfer of capital from the developed to the developing world would go some way to redress the current double injustice: that developed countries are the predominant cause of climate change and have reaped the economic rewards, yet developing countries will be those most affected by its impacts.

Ultimately, if the world is serious about tackling climate change, we require a global emissions reduction framework – and a framework based on equity is the only just solution. ■

Greenwashing A paler shade of green. By Andrew Turley

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ITH THE exception of a few staunch sceptics and their overzealous followers, few would deny that the Earth’s global temperature is rising and that the human-induced greenhouse effect is at least partly responsible. Each of us needs to ask ourselves: what actions are we prepared to take, either through political pressure or through consumer choice, to combat the problem?

Predictably, these choices are not as clear-cut as they may seem. Concerned consumers grappling with tricky ethical decisions are increasingly being warned to beware of “greenwashing”, the process by which corporations market their product via bold environmental claims that in reality lack credibility. It is not a new practice; companies have been putting a positive environmental spin on their businesses for years, but as the climate change debate moves away from the hemp sandals and tie-dyed T-shirts of yesteryear into the mainstream, we are sure to see the practice rise.

George Monbiot, writer and activist, has established a website to highlight this problem (www.turnuptheheat.org). He does not limit himself to corporations but also seeks to expose individuals who “make inflated claims about their environmental performance” and “help corporations to greenwash their public

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their effects on the environment.

New legislation, given royal assent earlier this month, provides hope in this area. The Companies Act will force commercial businesses to report the environmental and social impact of their operations, enabling consumers to identify more easily the inconsistencies of greenwashing. This is a first, and highly necessary, step toward addressing this issue. ■

Twenty-first century science Now doesn’t that sound exciting? Holly Else travels back to secondary school to find out

Good intentions aren’t enough to keep the Earth out of the oven image”. Several big names come in for criticism. According to Monbiot, Toyota has misled the public in its marketing of the Prius, a fuel-efficient hybrid car, and Tesco Chief Executive Terry Leahy’s claims concerning reductions in the environmental impact of their stores are highly dubious, given their current practices. B&Q, BAA, Virgin, BP, and David Cameron are all on Monbiot’s list, as is, perhaps more unexpectedly, the sociopolitically outspoken lead singer of Coldplay, Chris Martin.

Monbiot criticises Martin’s hypocrisy in singing songs about the unwillingness of individuals to take action over climate change, whilst driving one of the most inefficient 4x4s available and making scores of unnecessary flights in his private jet.

Bastions of moderate environmental activism, Friends of the Earth also produce some interesting material on the issue of greenwashing (www.foe.co.uk). They highlight Shell’s sponsorship of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition as typifying industry hypocrisy. Shell spends a fraction of its worth on a tiny “renewables” division whilst claiming to put sustainability at the heart of their enterprise, a paradox that does not stand up to scrutiny.

“If Shell attempts to sell me the idea that it is backing renewable technology, I won’t buy it until I’ve seen some evidence” Is there any difference between such intentionally misleading PR and the marketing we encounter sweetening all the other consumer items we routinely purchase? A classic example is McDonald’s recent fervent efforts to promote the nutritional virtues of their food. I know that eating a hamburger is not a healthy option, and if McDonald’s tried to tell me otherwise, I would be extremely sceptical until I had seen supporting nutritional data. Similarly, if Shell attempts to sell me the idea that it is backing renewable technology, whilst continuing to make billions from its petrochemical industries, I won’t buy it until I’ve seen some evidence.

For this reason, greenwashing is not to be feared in the long-term; in the short term, it merely acts as a smoke screen for those consumers requiring absolution for their inaction.

When people are sufficiently motivated, they seek out the data to inform themselves, but the government also has the responsibility to ensure that companies are transparent about

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UAL AWARD GCSE Science is out, and Twenty First Century Science is in. Fourteen- to sixteenyear-olds up and down the country are now studying ‘food matters’ and ‘radiation and life’ as part of the revamped GCSE. In an effort to popularise science, the new syllabus is all about scientific literacy rather than understanding. Pupils learn about the science that impacts upon their culture and environment and are taught to debate topical issues, such as cloning. The government has chosen this pioneering method in light of the falling numbers of teenagers choosing to study science after GCSE. It hopes to make science education more relevant and give pupils an education more “worthwhile for their future adult lives”. But all this comes at a cost – a loss of academic content. Imagine the outcry if Shakespeare were axed in favour of Bridget Jones! No other subject does it, so why should science?

“You just can’t debate something like cloning with students of a lower ability.

They don’t care enough to debate it” To me, it sounds a little contradictory. The new syllabus is aimed at those who haven’t got a natural aptitude for science, yet it also aims to encourage more students to take it up at A-level.

Surely that doesn’t make sense? Twenty First Century Science, with all its glitter and bells, may well encourage more kids to continue studying science but, without a proper grounding, even more will stumble and fall when making the gigantic step from GCSE to A-level.

My cousin is a chemistry teacher at a comprehensive school. I could hardly get a word in edgeways when I asked her about the new subject. “Bitty, repetitive and completely dumbed down,” she told me. “The whole thing they push is the debates, but you can only debate with the higher level classes, and they’re mainly all pursuing science anyway. You just can’t debate something like cloning with students of a lower ability. They don’t understand it, and they don’t care enough to debate it.”

She has been teaching the Edexcel 360 science syllabus (very similar in content to Twenty First Century Science) for 6 months and thinks it repeats most of what the students have already learnt in years 7 to 9. This makes lessons boring for both parties, and worse still is the fact that the subjects don’t connect in any discernable way. In her experience, the kids have the same attitude to either syllabus: it is boring, and they moan.

The restraints of health and safety in the classroom mean that science is never going to be fun, as it could be.

Maybe we should congratulate the government for trying to encourage more students into the subject that we at Imperial all love. Yet I can’t help but wonder how long the fad will last and how much this little enterprise will cost. ■

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Science blogs Use or abuse? An online investigation by Michelle Picard-Aitken

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LOGS ARE proliferating at a dizzying rate and cover just about every subject under the sun – and the stars!

Science has not been spared, with blogs popping up on topics as diverse as astronomy, animal behaviour, chaos theory, and something called “the existentialada of lumen development”!

This, of course, begs the question: are blogs a good way to communicate science? From my own experience as a webuser, and after several feverish hours of surfing the science blogosphere, I think I can safely answer, no – and yes.

The “no” part of my answer is fairly straightforward and applies to any topic discussed in blogs. There is no quality control on blogs, no obvious way of knowing if you can trust the author and his or her science. This can easily lead to abuses, such as blogs funded or influenced by chemical companies, lawyers and lobbying groups, and so on, all of which are quite good at spinning science to promote their own interests. And as science is about discovering and interpreting true facts rather than about making them up, this can lead to some serious misunderstandings.

Happily, for conscientious readers, it’s actually pretty easy to find some great science blogs. Some are kept by well-known science writers, including Carl Zimmer and Ben Goldacre.

Many are written by groups of scientists, to help lighten the load or to add credibility to the site. The Scienceblogs site (www. scienceblogs.com) currently hosts 48 blogs and is a good place to start looking for one that suits you.

“Once you look at these quality blogs, it turns out that they actually offer some pretty sweet advantages over other types of media” Once you look at these quality blogs, it turns out that they actually offer some pretty sweet advantages over other types of media. The first is that they are highly personal and allow the blogger a lot of freedom: posts can be short or long, witty or angry (or both!), factual or analytical… Blogs have a voice, and this helps make their contents lively, compelling, and original, qualities that are not always associated with science itself.

Blogs also hold the solution to their own credibility problem – web links! Sources and references are just a click away, and many blogs are often reactions to science reported by other, usually more reputable, sources. This makes it easy to use blogs as quick and easy portals to more in-depth science.

Finally, the blogosphere is also a great networking tool: many

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of them allow you to comment directly following the post and mention your own blog (if you have one), thus connecting you to a network of like-minded science enthusiasts, free of any institutional or geographical limitations.

So, even though blogs are essentially the opposite of peerreviewed science journals, they remain a useful and entertaining tool for announcing, debunking, sharing, discussing, eulogising, or simply rambling about science. ■

Science blog goodness Scienceblogs: includes awarding-winning Pharyngula, The Scientific Activist and Carl Zimmer’s “Loom” www.scienceblogs.com Real Climate: the latest news on climate science www.realclimate.org Panda’s Thumb: defending evolution and more www.pandasthumb.org

Breast screening Ailsa Taylor is unhappy with the new NHS guidelines on family history breast cancer

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AST OCTOBER, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) announced that women aged 20 to 49, who have a strong family history of breast cancer, are to be offered annual MRI scans on the NHS. For high-risk women, dealing with the threat of breast cancer is a way of life. Many have lost close family members to the disease or considered preventive mastectomies to eliminate the risk.

Research shows that MRI scans are more effective than mammography at detecting breast cancer in younger women, who tend to have denser breast tissue. Thus, for the first time, these women are to be offered a realistic alternative to unreliable mammography screening or the extreme surgery that was previously recommended.

While the updated guidelines have been hailed as a great success by the campaigners against breast cancer, they have received some criticism from the medical community. Dr James Mackay, a consultant clinical genetic oncologist and senior lecturer at University College London, thinks that the guidelines are “complicated and sometimes difficult to understand”.

Women who have a mutation in the BRCA2 gene tend to develop a particular type of tumour that is picked up more effectively by mammography than by MRI. According to the guidelines, women with a family history of the BRCA2 mutation will continue to be offered mammograms but not the more expensive MRI screening.

These women are unlikely to be reassured when other women in similar high risk categories are being offered the MRI scans.

They should be given the choice in the matter, rather than be unconditionally excluded.

The breast cancer genes currently known all come from a particular family of genes involved in the repair of DNA. Some women carry mutations in other DNA repair genes that aren’t specific to breast cancer. Since X-rays from mammography can cause damage to DNA, some critics argue that these women should also be considered for annual MRI scanning. According Dr Mackay, “It is possible that women who lack elements of the DNA repair process may be more susceptible to tissue damage from X-rays, although this has not yet been proven.”

The introduction of MRI screening is a huge triumph and one which could save lives. Yet the updated NHS guidelines for family history breast cancer are far from perfect. ■

Winter 06-07 6/12/06 13:41:09

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Seventy-three million sharks are killed each year for their fins

Shark finning Fin trade spells the end for sharks.

A wake up call from Louis Buckley

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HE SHARK is hauled on deck, thrashing wildly.

Taking care to avoid its snapping jaws and abrasive hide, two fishermen approach. One places his foot on the creature’s back to hold it still, whilst the other skilfully begins to slice through its fins. The shark gasps and writhes in pain, and the deck is awash with blood, but in a matter of minutes the procedure is over. Valuable shark fins, destined to line soup bowls in the finest Asian restaurants, have been procured, and the bulky body of the shark, worth little as meat, is discarded overboard and sinks from view.

This scene is played out innumerable times every day around the world, and its consequences are catastrophic. Global shark populations are plummeting – some by as much as 90% – and, as sharks are at the top of the food chain, these losses have serious implications for marine ecosystems. However, shark finning doesn’t only raise environmental concerns; the dumping of millions of these animals at sea by foreign boats has resulted in dwindling catches in many developing countries, where people rely on fish as their primary source of protein.

The driving force behind this phenomenon is China’s unprecedented economic growth. Once a rare delicacy and an essential component of the Emperor’s banquets, shark fin soup has become common on the table of aspirational Chinese, eager to demonstrate their newfound wealth. Top-notch shark fin

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doesn’t come cheap, though – it can sell for more than £50 per bowl. While you would rightly expect something exceptional after paying such a price, shark fin is in fact entirely tasteless and merely adds gelatinous texture to the broth.

According to the latest estimates of fisheries scientists, as many as 73 million sharks are killed to make this inessential luxury every year. It hasn’t always been this way, though. At one time, catches of whole sharks provided sufficient fins to supply global markets. However demand from China is now such that finning has proliferated worldwide, as it is in fishermen’s interests to save space for high value fish such as tuna by discarding sharks, minus fins, from their catch. Many organisations are now lobbying the United Nations for a global ban to control this practice – a goal that I personally support.

“Shark fin is in fact entirely tasteless and merely adds gelatinous texture to the broth” Although I would like to, I am not going to dictate that people mustn’t eat shark fin soup – I would justifiably be lampooned for cultural imperialism. After all, the Brits definitely aren’t about to stop eating cod and chips. However, I am hopeful that the reader might consider the consequences of eating shark fin soup more carefully and perhaps even lend his or her support to a global ban on shark finning. For it is apparent that unless current consumption is curbed and strong legislation introduced, sharks will disappear from our seas forever, with potentially devastating consequences for the marine environment and poor coastal communities worldwide. And then, of course, there will be no shark fin soup for anyone. ■

I,science 27 6/12/06 13:40:56

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Winter 06-07 6/12/06 13:28:28

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Enchanted world in peril Edward Wawrzynczak is transported to a tropical ‘Garden of Eden’ Galapagos: The Islands that Changed the World Produced by Patrick Morris Running Time:  mins

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HE OPENING scenes of this documentary leave no doubt that you are entering another world, as the narrator’s voice solemnly intones: “Ninety degrees West, one degree South… a world lost in the vastness of the Pacific… home to the strangest life imaginable… governed by nature’s brutal forces… islands which have transformed our understanding of life on earth.” This is the story of the Galápagos Islands.

The series Galapagos: The Islands that Changed the World actually interweaves several narratives. There is the story of the islands themselves: their ancient volcanic origins, their geological and natural histories, and their inevitable fates. Each island seems to have its own personality and biography. It is also the story of the unique creatures that have made their lives on this remote archipelago. Indeed, there are many tales to tell because the inhabitants are as different as their varied habitats.

And there is the human story: our impact on the Galápagos and the islands’ role in the genesis of the greatest life story of all – the story of evolution.

The young Charles Darwin famously travelled as naturalist aboard HMS Beagle on a voyage that surveyed the islands, which lie some 600 miles to the west of South America. This expedition eventually led him to the idea that different species could originate from a common ancestor as a result of geographical isolation. So, the Galápagos can rightfully claim a part in the origin of The Origin of Species. For a time, an abundant supply of food on land and in the sea also attracted frequent maritime visitors. Our forebears were so rapacious, however, that they managed to wipe out entire populations of the islands’ iconic giant tortoises. They also introduced alien species that seriously damaged the indigenous flora and fauna.

Galapagos contains tremendous original footage in keeping with the BBC’s high reputation in the field of natural history.

The filming ranges from space to sea floor, explores lush forests and barren outcrops, contrasts explosive volcanic eruptions with intimate courtship rituals, and observes the creation of life as well as its brutal extinction. The islands are a filmmaker’s dream: situated at a point near the Equator where four ocean currents meet, there is no shortage of dramatic action. In one memorable scene, sea lions cavort joyfully beneath the surface of the sea and expertly surf atop massive waves breaking towards the seashore.

Without the distraction of music or commentary, there is just the whooshing sound of fast-moving water to accompany the pictures.

A real strength of this series is that fascinating shots of animal behaviour, many of which will be new even to natural history enthusiasts, are never far from the screen. The artfully intertwined stories unfold gradually over the course of the three 50-minute episodes in a most entertaining way. Although there is some repetition for the sake of continuity, this is kept to a minimum, and the action never drags. The DVD also comes with a bonus – an illuminating one-hour documentary Lonesome George and the Battle for Galapagos. As the last of his race of giant tortoises, Lonesome George is a living embodiment of species extinction and has become a celebrated symbol of conservation efforts on the islands.

Overall, one is left awed by the immensity of geological forces, by the tenacity of the creatures that cling to life in truly challenging environments, and, not least, by the amazing diversity of the archipelago’s ecosystem. At the same time,

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“Our forebears were so rapacious… that they managed to wipe out entire populations of the islands’ iconic giant tortoises” it is easy to feel a little dispirited. The Galápagos Islands are under renewed threat from the activities of mankind. Growing settlements and expanding tourism are putting increasing pressure on natural resources and sit uneasily with efforts to restore and preserve the islands’ unique ecological heritage.

Even if a balance can be struck between these interests, the mere fact of our presence makes it more likely that diseases with the potential to devastate native species will reach these once insulated shores.

If you are interested in experiencing the Galápagos Islands, there is no need to travel. Galapagos will show you more than you can ever see from the beach or from a cruise ship. And if you want to know the reason that iguanas have to climb into volcanoes, why all the flowers of the Galápagos are yellow, and how the islands got their name in the first place – well, these are just a few more of the wonderful stories told in this brilliant documentary series. l Galapagos is now available on DVD

I,science 29 6/12/06 13:28:08

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Urban Spaceman Edward Wawrzynczak learns what space awareness can do for the environment Space on Earth

by Charles S. Cockell Macmillan / isbn ---X

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A Heated Debate Tim King on the latest Rough Guide The Rough Guide to Climate Change

by Robert Henson Rough Guides / isbn ---

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O YOU think that you understand climate change?

Think again. Reading this authoritative, lively, factual, comprehensive, and above all up-to-date guide is bound to broaden your horizons. Whatever part of the scientific spectrum you occupy, from computer geek to ethereal ecologist, The Rough Guide to Climate Change will teach you something new and inspire you with its holistic thinking that transcends traditional subject boundaries.

Written by a scientist, the book concentrates on the evenhanded appraisal of evidence. Unlike the recent offerings from James Lovelock and George Monbiot, it is far from being a polemic. Rather, it concisely provides the facts that will enable you to make up your own mind about how much, and in what way, a change in climate will change your life.

The first section comprises sixteen user-friendly pages that neatly set the scene and is worth reading in full. But the rest of this ‘rough guide’ is not to be read from cover to cover like a novel. As it is well indexed, you can simply dip in and out of the sections that interest you. The style is informal, brisk, and student-friendly. There are plenty of helpful maps, graphs, photographs, and diagrams, and the text is leavened with more than sixty case studies, such as ‘Painting the Little Ice Age’.

Most of the book deals with long-term climatic trends, human activity, extreme events, and, of course, the atmosphere and the greenhouse effect. The final part outlines the debates about climate change and the potential solutions, both political and technological, ending with a section on what each of us can do.

This is the point. Many decisions you make will be coloured more or less by your personal feelings about climate change.

Should you make a fuss about how energy-efficient Imperial is? What sort of light bulbs should you buy? What is your personal carbon footprint? Is it ethical to fly? What sort of car is acceptable? Scientists are particularly well-placed to understand these issues and to explain them to anyone who will listen.

The science in The Rough Guide to Climate Change is sophisticated – regard it as part of your education. Global warming is so important that you almost have a duty to buy this book. It is excellent value, and, in the long run, it will save you money. ■

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HARLES COCKELL is a scientist on a mission – a space mission, of sorts.

As an astrobiologist and an expert on extreme environments, he urges us to look to the stars to save our planet. But whereas others see space exploration as quite separate from environmentalism, Cockell sees them as two sides of the same coin.

The book journeys through conventional territory by first reviewing the value that exploring the Earth brings to space missions. ‘Analogue’ environments that resemble the surfaces of the Moon or Mars give us the opportunity to test new technologies. They also help us to explore how human beings cope with prolonged isolation and confinement. And microbes living in extreme environments on Earth give us clues to possible life in other parts of the cosmos and where to look for it.

What about the value of space exploration to the Earth?

Surprisingly, Cockell does not propose that the benefits of spin-off technologies justify the expense. Instead, he points to the undoubted benefits that orbiting satellites have brought to navigation and communication, and to environmental and climate monitoring, all in the last fifty years. The study of other planets in the Solar System, and in other star systems, is now helping us to understand more about the Earth’s atmosphere.

While the author is clearly enthusiastic about space exploration, he is realistic and does not shirk to point out the negatives. For example, as we venture into space, we end up polluting it. The Earth’s geostationary orbit is already littered with potentially hazardous debris. And we have happily dumped spent spacecraft on the surfaces of moons and planets. The commercialisation of space can only exacerbate this problem.

Of all the synergies between Space and Earth exploitation, it is the management of scarce resources that is perhaps the most relevant today. Space stations already operate on a ‘green’ basis, recycling water and exhaust gases. In the not too distant future, ‘space greenhouses’ and ‘space composting’ will become essential for the recycling of biomass during long manned space trips. Space exploration therefore promises to teach us about the important goal of sustainable living on the Earth.

Building on these practical connections, Cockell argues for a “new cosmic ethic of environmental protection” – one that recognises the intrinsic value of our Earth and of other worlds. He hopes that our new space-faring society will act as a responsible steward of both, and he addresses how, as well as being environmentally aware, we can become more ‘space aware’.

For the most part, Cockell provides a reasoned account and sticks to the facts. At times, though, he looks so far into the future – asteroid mining, cold fusion and terraforming – that the book borders on science prediction, if not science fiction.

Dreams may make life worth living, but the concerns that we have about our planet today demand urgent action without which we are unlikely to see those dreams fulfilled.

Space on Earth is informative and thought-provoking and provides an optimistic counterpoint to the current torrent of doom-laden prognostications. We need to find new ways of thinking to tackle the environmental problem we are facing.

Looking at Planet Earth from the perspective of the human space adventure might just be part of the solution. ■

Winter 06-07 6/12/06 13:26:50

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Although Al Gore lost the election, he hasn’t lost his ambition to influence US foreign policy

The Truth Hurts Louis Buckley finds out whether Al Gore’s film justifies all the hype An Inconvenient Truth Directed by Davis Guggenheim Running Time:  mins

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NDULGING IN a bit of casual conjecture one afternoon, an American friend asserted: “If Gore had become President, after 9/11 he would have sold energy efficiency to the American people as a matter of national security.”

Obviously no one will ever know whether Al Gore would have succeeded, or indeed would have even attempted to wean America off a diet of volatile middle-eastern oil. But if An Inconvenient Truth is anything to go by, then my friend may well have had a point.

Dismayed by widespread scepticism of climate change in political and media circles and suffering in the aftermath of his 2001 presidential defeat, Gore resurrected his lifelong interest in the issue and took to the road – or rather, the lecture circuit.

He carried with him a message that is simple but compelling, especially for a public jaded by the interminable ‘war on terror’: global warming is an urgent problem, more dangerous than alQaeda, and one that requires global, especially American, action.

Davis Guggenheim’s film presents a record of this lecture road-show, showing Gore touring the world, Apple PowerBook in hand, tirelessly warning people of the oncoming environmental catastrophe. Equipped with an array of

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photographs, computer simulations, some excellent graphs, and even a clip from Futurama, Gore puts together a cogent argument, presenting the science with clarity and wit. There is nothing essentially new here for those familiar with the issue.

He covers standard territory – à la Book of Revelations – but highlights some more unusual lines of thought, such as the suspected role that changing weather systems have had in compounding the conflicts in Darfur and Niger. It must be said, however, that the sight of Gore taking so many planes and taxis is at times rather incongruous.

To prevent factual overkill, the film is punctuated throughout with Gore’s personal epiphanies. For example, he relates the parable about how his family grew tobacco on their farm in Tennessee, despite knowing the threats to human health, until his sister died of lung cancer – a sharp jolt that dispelled all complacency. These asides do work to add colour to the film, and while they are deeply earnest, they thankfully never stray into the mawkish territory sometimes so beloved of Hollywood audiences. Still, I challenge you to sit through the exit music without wincing.

To his credit, Gore never lapses into the kind of despondency that can befall those who undertake a thorough investigation of this problem. In fact, he is very positive, perhaps excessively so, and is at pains to stress that humanity has everything it needs to combat global warming – everything except political will, of course. Drawing on past successes from American history, he issues a clarion call for individuals to stand up and make a difference. All very American, you might say, but all very necessary, too.

You may well be justified in asking why Gore didn’t achieve more during his eight years in office, but his almost evangelical conviction to spread the word about climate change “person by person, city by city, family by family” cannot be welcomed enough in these apathetic times. Gore views this as a moral issue, and rightly so, I believe. ■ l An Inconvenient Truth is now available on DVD

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