NASA's Next Moon Mission Begins Thermal Vacuum Test

Photo of LRO as it was lowered into Goddard's Thermal Vac, which simulates both the vacuum and temperatures of space. Credit: NASA/Debbie McCallum

The spacecraft, built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., has been lifted into a four-story thermal vacuum chamber there for a test that will last approximately five weeks. Once sealed in the chamber, the satellite will undergo a series of tests that simulate the space environment it will encounter when it orbits the moon.

During the tests, NASA engineers will operate the spacecraft to ensure it is performing as planned. The project also will conduct mission simulations to further train and develop the team that will operate the spacecraft.

"This is an exciting time for our project," said Cathy Peddie, LRO deputy project manager at Goddard. "Thermal vacuum testing is one of our major milestones. Not only are we checking out LRO in a test facility that most closely matches its final destination, but we are getting more 'hands-on' time operating LRO as we will see it next year at the moon."

The orbiter will carry seven instruments to provide scientists with detailed maps of the lunar surface and enhance our understanding of the moon's topography, lighting conditions, mineralogical composition and natural resources. Information gleaned from LRO will be used to select safe landing sites, determine locations for future lunar outposts and help to mitigate radiation dangers to astronauts.

The orbiter will be shipped to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida early next year to be prepared for its April 24 launch aboard an Atlas V rocket. Accompanying the spacecraft will be the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, a mission that will impact the moon's surface in its search for water ice.

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Mars pioneers should stay there permanently, says Buzz Aldrin

The first astronauts sent to Mars should be prepared to spend the rest of their lives there, in the same way that European pioneers headed to America knowing they would not return home, says moonwalker Buzz Aldrin.

In an interview with AFP, the second man to set foot on the Moon said the Red Planet offered far greater potential than Earth's satellite as a place for habitation.

With what appears to be vast reserves of frozen water, Mars "is nearer terrestrial conditions, much better than the Moon and any other place," Aldrin, 78, said in a visit to Paris on Tuesday.

"It is easier to subsist, to provide the support needed for people there than on the Moon."

It took Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins eight days to go to the Moon -- 380,000 kilometres (238,000 miles) from Earth -- and return in July 1969, aboard Apollo 11.

Going to Mars, though, is a different prospect.

The distance between the Red Planet and Earth varies between 55 million (34 million miles) and more than 400 million kms (250 million miles).

Even at the most favourable planetary conjunction, this means a round trip to Mars would take around a year and a half.

"That's why you [should] send people there permanently," said Aldrin. "If we are not willing to do that, then I don't think we should just go once and have the expense of doing that and then stop."

He asked: "If we are going to put a few people down there and ensure their appropriate safety, would you then go through all that trouble and then bring them back immediately, after a year, a year and a half?"

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are sketching tentative plans for a manned mission to Mars that would take place around 2030 or 2040.

Based on experience culled from a planned return to the Moon, the mission would entail about half a dozen people, with life-support systems and other gear pre-positioned for them on the Martian surface.

Aldrin said the vanguard could be joined by others, making a colony around 30 people.

"They need to go there more with the psychology of knowing that you are a pioneering settler and you don't look forward to go back home again after a couple a years," he said.

"At age 30, they are given an opportunity. If they accept, then we train them, at age 35, we send them. At age 65, who knows what advances have taken place. They can retire there, or maybe we can bring them back."

Many scientists argue that sending humans to Mars is a waste of money compared with unmanned missions that deliver more science and point out the risks from psychological stress and damage to DNA from fast-moving sub-atomic particles called cosmic rays.

Aldrin, though, argued that given the time lag in communications between Earth and Mars, it made sense to have human explorers who could make decisions swiftly and on the spot.

And, he said, going to Mars provided a rationale for manned flights, which were designed to "do things that are innovative, new, pioneering."

On that score, Aldrin said the US space shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS) were a disappointment.

The shuttle "has not lived up to its expectations, neither has the space station," said Aldrin.

The United States will be without manned flight capability for around five years after the problem-plagued shuttle is withdrawn in 2010, while the ISS, still under construction, may cost as much as 100 billion dollars, according to some estimates.

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The Stink in Farts Controls Blood Pressure

By Amelia Tomas

A smelly rotten-egg gas in farts controls blood pressure in mice, a new study finds.

The unpleasant aroma of the gas, called hydrogen sulfide (H2S), can be a little too familiar, as it is expelled by bacteria living in the human colon and eventually makes its way, well, out.

The new research found that cells lining mice’s blood vessels naturally make the gas and this action can help keep the rodents’ blood pressure low by relaxing the blood vessels to prevent hypertension (high blood pressure). This gas is “no doubt” produced in cells lining human blood vessels too, the researchers said.

“Now that we know hydrogen sulfide’s role in regulating blood pressure, it may be possible to design drug therapies that enhance its formation as an alternative to the current methods of treatment for hypertension,” said Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Solomon H. Snyder, M.D., a co-author of the study detailed in the Oct. 24th issue of the journal Science.

Snyder and his colleagues compared normal mice to mice that were missing a gene for an enzyme known as CSE, long suspected as being responsible for making hydrogen sulfide. As they measured hydrogen sulfide levels taken from tissues of the CSE-deficient mice, the scientists found that the gas was depleted in the cardiovascular systems of the altered mice. By contrast, normal mice had higher levels of the gas, thereby showing that hydrogen sulfide is naturally made by mammalian tissues using CSE.

Next, the mice were subjected to higher blood pressures comparable to serious hypertension in humans. Scientists had them respond to a chemical called methacholine that relaxes normal blood vessels. The blood vessels of the CSE-lacking mice hardly relaxed, indicating that hydrogen sulfide is a huge contender for regulating blood pressure.

Hydrogen sulfide is the most recently discovered member of a family of gasotransmitters, small molecules inside our bodies with important physiological functions.

This study is the first to reveal that the CSE enzyme that triggers hydrogen sulfide is activated itself in the same way as other enzymes when they trigger their respective gasotransmitter, such as a nitric oxide-forming enzyme that also regulates blood pressure, Dr. Snyder said.

Because gasotransmitters are common in mammals all over the evolutionary tree, these findings on the importance of hydrogen sulfide are thought to have broad applications to human diseases, such as diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases.

The research was supported by grants from the U.S. Public Health Service and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research as well as a Research Scientist Award.

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Blue Bananas Surprise Scientists

By Andrea Thompson

Ripening bananas exhibit intense blue luminescence under UV light. Their luminescence arises from fluorescent chlorophyll catabolites which accumulate in the banana peels during ripening; their natural further conversion to nonfluorescent catabolites is specifically inhibited by a previously unrecognized chemical modification. Credit: (C) Wiley-VCH 2008

When a banana ripens, it turns yellow — unless you look at it under a black light, in which case, it appears bright blue, a new study has found.

The banana's blue glow was discovered by scientists at the University of Innsbruck in Austria and Columbia University in New York, the first team to look for this phenomenon in bananas. The researchers think the coloring is related to the degradation of chlorophyll that occurs as the banana ripens and could aid animals who eat bananas and can see in the ultraviolet range of the spectrum

Chlorophyll is the green pigment present in plants that allows them to obtain energy from light during photosynthesis.

As the banana ripens, the chlorophyll begins to break down — a process called catabolism — and the resulting products are concentrated in the banana peel. Under ultraviolet light, more commonly known as black light, these breakdown products fluoresce, or glow, blue.

"Surprisingly, this blue luminescence has been entirely overlooked," said study team leader Bernhard Kräutler of the University of Innsbruck.

Before the team's discovery, detailed in the Oct. 10 early online edition of the journal Angewandte Chemie, fluorescing chlorophyll catabolytes, or products of breakdown, had only been found in higher plants and were short-lived. While the banana's blue glow does diminish as it ripens, its catabolytes are unusually long-lived.

This long duration could be due to one of the breakdown products identified in the banana peel by the team, which has a stabilizing effect and has never been seen before as a chlorophyll breakdown product.

Just why this degradation occurs differently in the banana fruit than other plants, even banana leaves, isn't completely known, but Kräutler has a couple hunches.

"In contrast to humans, many of the animals that eat bananas can see light in the UV range," he said. "The blue luminescence of the banana fruit could give them a distinct signal that the fruit is ripe."

Another possibility is that the chlorophyll breakdown products also serve a biological function for the banana, as the stable products could help keep the fruit viable for longer, Kräutler said.

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A Pill to Selectively Erase Your Traumatic Memories

By Annalee Newitz

In a few years you might have a pill to help you forget your bad breakup just the way Jim Carey did in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. With a high dose of just one enzyme, scientists can now erase very specific memories while you're in the act of recalling them. The enzyme known as CaMKII is linked to learning and memory, and Georgia neuroscientist Joe Z. Tsien and his team used it to induce extremely targeted memory-erasure in mice. Tsien thinks the process might help humans lay traumatic memories to rest.

The researchers tested mice by shocking them while the mice heard a specific tone. They evaluated whether the mice remembered the shock by watching to see whether the mouse froze in fear upon hearing the tone again, or upon revisiting the chamber where it had been shocked. After being dosed with CaMKII while they recalled the fearful memories, the mice ceased to fear the tones and chamber. In a paper to be published tomorrow in scientific journal Neuron, Tsien proves that these memories weren't just temporarily blocked by the enzyme, but erased. No memories other than the targeted ones appeared to have been impaired.

Said Tsien:

Given the fact that so many war veterans often suffer from reoccurring traumatic memory replays after returning home, our report of selective erasure of fear memories in an inducible and rapid way suggests the existence of molecular paradigm(s) under which traumatic memories can be erased or degraded while preserving other memories in the brain.

Of course there might be nefarious applications of this memory-erasing procedure as well. Soldiers who fear war could be made to un-fear it, and people could be induced to forget political or family ties. In fact, once memory is malleable in such a granular way, people could literally give themselves personality reboots. Imagine what you would be like if you didn't have to remember that horrible childhood, or abusive boyfriend, or that you wanted to vote for the pro-science candidate in the election.

Inducible and Selective Erasure of Memories in the Mouse Brain via Chemical-Genetic Manipulation [via Neuron]

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Man's oldest friend: Scientists discover the grandad of modern dogs... from 31,700 years ago

By Eddie Wrenn

For hundreds of years they've been considered man's best friend, and now it seems dogs have been around longer than thought.

Scientists have discovered the oldest-ever remains of dogs dating back 31,700 years - that's 221,900 in dog years...

The remains push back the date for the earliest dog by 14,000 years, and suggest the forefathers of the modern canine were a lot stronger and a lot hungrier than next-door's Fido.

A Siberian husky, thought to most resemble the Paleolithic dogs of our forefathers

From studying the fossils, found at Goyet Cave in Belgium, the international team of scientists believe the animals subsisted on a diet of horse, musk ox and reindeer.

Lead author Mietje Germonpr?, a paleontologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, said: 'In shape, the Paleolithic dogs most resemble the Siberian husky, but in size, however, they were somewhat larger, probably comparable to large shepherd dogs.

'The Paleolithic dogs had wider and shorter snouts and relatively wider brain cases than fossil and recent wolves.'

Analysis of the animals' bones found that the earliest dogs consumed horse, musk ox and reindeer, but not fish or seafood. Since the European Aurignacian people are believed to have hunted big game and fished at different times of the year, the researchers think the dogs might have enjoyed meaty handouts during certain seasons.

DNA studies showed that the canids carried 'a substantial amount of genetic diversity,' suggesting that past wolf populations were much larger than they are today.

Germonpr? speculated that dog domestication began when the prehistoric hunters killed a female wolf and then brought home her pups. Recent studies on silver foxes suggest that when the most docile pups are kept and cared for, it takes just 10 generations of breeding for morphological changes to take effect.

'I think it is possible that the dogs were used for tracking, hunting, and transport of game,' she said.

'Transport could have been organized using the dogs as pack animals. Furthermore, the dogs could have been kept for their fur or meat, as pets, or as an animal with ritual connotation.'

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Digesting the termite digestome -- a way to make biofuels?

In a review to be published in Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining, Scharf and his colleague Aurélien Tartar describe how the enzymes produced by both termites and the micro-organisms that inhabit their gut – known as symbionts – could help to produce ethanol from non-edible plant material such as straw and wood.

"Through millions and millions of years of evolution, termites and their symbionts have acquired highly specialised enzymes that work together to efficiently convert wood and other plant materials into simple sugars," says Scharf. "These enzymes are of the most value to bioethanol production."

Current bioethanol production processes tend to use edible plant materials, such as starch from corn (maize) and sugar from sugar cane, which contain easily accessible sugar molecules that can be fermented to produce ethanol. However, using food crops to produce ethanol has proved highly controversial, with bioethanol being blamed for much of the recent rises in food prices.

The non-edible parts of many plants also contain a large number of sugar molecules, which could potentially be used to produce ethanol. But the problem is that these sugar molecules are far less accessible. This is because they're locked up within a substance known as lignocellulose, which provides structural support for plant cell walls.

Breaking this substance up into its component sugar molecules is far from easy. One approach involves pretreating the lignocellulose by heating it in combination with acids or bases and then exposing the pretreated material to various enzymes. Another approach is very fine grinding followed by enzymatic treatment.

Termites, on the other hand, don't seem to have too much trouble digesting wood and other lignocellulosic materials into their component sugars, as many homeowners can attest. The termite appears to favour the fine grinding approach in combination with its own unique set of enzymes. These enzymes are secreted by both termites and the symbionts that colonise their gut, and act on the lignocellulose that has been chewed to very small particle sizes by the termite.

Despite the small size of the termite gut and the difficulty in analysing its contents, a few research groups have attempted to study what Scharf and Tartar call the termite digestome. This is the pool of genes, both termite and symbiont, that code for the enzymes that break down and digest lignocellulosic material.

Using a variety of genomic and proteomic techniques, these groups have managed to identify a number of the main enzymes, many of which could prove useful for producing ethanol. This work has already provided strong preliminary evidence that the enzymes produced by the termites and their symbionts tend to work collaboratively, with the lignocellulosic material having to be partially digested by termite enzymes before it can be further digested by symbiont enzymes.

But the study of the termite digestome has really only just begun. "There are many directions that the science can now head," says Scharf. "First, we now have the ability to produce and test individual enzymes for their competency and roles in lignocellulose degradation. Once we identify major players (from termites and symbionts), we can test combinations that may have applications in making bioethanol production more feasible from existing feedstocks, and maybe even other feedstocks that aren't on our radar screens yet."

This kind of digestome analysis could also be applied to other insects that feed on woody material, such as wood-boring beetles, and certain wasps and flies, Scharf adds.

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Organic farming 'could feed Africa'

By Daniel Howden in Nairobi

Getty

New evidence suggests that organic practices - derided by some as a Western lifestyle fad - are delivering sharp increases in yields, improvements in the soil and a boost in the income of Africa's small farmers

Organic farming offers Africa the best chance of breaking the cycle of poverty and malnutrition it has been locked in for decades, according to a major study from the United Nations to be presented today.

New evidence suggests that organic practices – derided by some as a Western lifestyle fad – are delivering sharp increases in yields, improvements in the soil and a boost in the income of Africa's small farmers who remain among the poorest people on earth. The head of the UN's Environment Programme, Achim Steiner, said the report "indicates that the potential contribution of organic farming to feeding the world maybe far higher than many had supposed".

The "green revolution" in agriculture in the 1960s – when the production of food caught and surpassed the needs of the global population for the first time – largely bypassed Africa. Whereas each person today has 25 per cent more food on average than they did in 1960, in Africa they have 10 per cent less.

A combination of increasing population, decreasing rainfall and soil fertility and a surge in food prices has left Africa uniquely vulnerable to famine. Climate change is expected to make a bad situation worse by increasing the frequency of droughts and floods.

It has been conventional wisdom among African governments that modern, mechanised agriculture was needed to close the gap but efforts in this direction have had little impact on food poverty and done nothing to create a sustainable approach. Now, the global food crisis has led to renewed calls for a massive modernisation of agriculture on the hungriest continent on the planet, with calls to push ahead with genetically modified crops and large industrial farms to avoid potentially disastrous starvation.

Last month the UK's former chief scientist Sir David King said anti-scientific attitudes among Western NGOs and the UN were responsible for holding back a much-needed green revolution in Africa. "The problem is that the Western world's move toward organic farming – a lifestyle choice for a community with surplus food – and against agricultural technology in general and GM in particular, has been adopted across the whole of Africa, with the exception of South Africa, with devastating consequences," he said.

The research conducted by the UN Environment Programme suggests that organic, small-scale farming can deliver the increased yields which were thought to be the preserve of industrial farming, without the environmental and social damage which that form of agriculture brings with it.

An analysis of 114 projects in 24 African countries found that yields had more than doubled where organic, or near-organic practices had been used. That increase in yield jumped to 128 per cent in east Africa.

"Organic farming can often lead to polarised views," said Mr Steiner, a former economist. "With some viewing it as a saviour and others as a niche product or something of a luxury... this report suggests it could make a serious contribution to tackling poverty and food insecurity."

The study found that organic practices outperformed traditional methods and chemical-intensive conventional farming. It also found strong environmental benefits such as improved soil fertility, better retention of water and resistance to drought. And the research highlighted the role that learning organic practices could have in improving local education. Backers of GM foods insist that a technological fix is needed to feed the world. But this form of agriculture requires cash to buy the patented seeds and herbicides – both at record high prices currently – needed to grow GM crops.

Regional farming experts have long called for "good farming", rather than exclusively GM or organic. Better seeds, crop rotation, irrigation and access to markets all help farmers. Organic certification in countries such as the UK and Australia still presents an insurmountable barrier to most African exporters, the report points out. It calls for greater access to markets so farmers can get the best prices for their products.

Kenyan farmer: 'I wanted to see how UK did it'

Henry Murage had to travel a long way to solve problems trying to farm a smallholding on the western slopes of Mount Kenya. He spent five months in the UK, studying with the experts at Garden Organic a charity in the Midlands. "I wanted to see how it was being done in the UK and was convinced we could do some of the same things here," he says.

On his return 10 years ago, he set up the Mt Kenya Organic Farm, aimed at aiding other small farmers fighting the semi-arid conditions. He believes organic soil management can help retain moisture and protect against crop failure. The true test came during the devastating drought of2000-02, when Mr Murage's vegetable gardens fared better than his neighbours'. At least 300 farmers have visited his gardens and taken up at least one of the practices he espouses. "Organic can feed the people in rural areas," he says. "It's sustainable and what we produce now we can go on producing."

Saving money on fertilisers and pesticides helps farmers afford better seeds, and composting and crop rotation are improving the soil. Traditional maize, beans and livestock farming in the area have been supplemented with new crops from borage seeds to cayenne peppers and honey, with buyers from the US to Europe. Now he is growing camomile for herbal tea, with buyers from the UK and Germany both interested.

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Spanish scientists confirm the existence of electric activity in Titan

Researcher Juan Antonio Morente, from the Department of Applied Physics of the University of Granada, has informed the SINC that Titan is considered to be "a unique world in the Solar System" since 1908, when Spanish astronomer José Comas y Solá found out that it had an atmosphere, something non-existent in other satellites. "In this moon there are clouds with convective movements and therefore there can be static electric fields and stormy conditions", he explains. "It significantly increases the chance that organic and prebiotic molecules get formed, according to the theory of Russian biochemist Alexander I. Oparín and Stanley L. Miller's experiment", who managed to synthesize organic compounds from inorganic ones by using electric shocks. "Therefore, Titan has been one of the main objectives of the Cassini-Huygens combined mission of the NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA)", said the researcher.

An enormous resonant cavity

Morente says that, in order to detect the natural electric activity of planets such as Earth or satellites such as Titan, it is necessary to measure the so-called "Schumann resonances", a set of spectrum peaks in the extremely low frequency (ELF) portion of the Earth's electromagnetic field spectrum. Such peaks occur because the space between the surface of the Earth and the conductive ionosphere. The limited dimensions of the Earth cause this waveguide to act as a resonant cavity for electromagnetic waves, which present two basic components: a radial electric field and a tangential magnetic field, together with a weak tangential electric field un campo (one hundred times smaller than the radial component).

The electric field was measured by the sensor of mutual impedance (MIP), one of the instruments transported by the Huygens probe. The MIP consisted of four electrodes, two transmitters and two receptors, and there was a couple of transmitter-receptor in each of the pull-down arms en of the probe. The MIP sensor was preferably used to measure the atmospheric electric conductivity, but it also acted as a dipole antenna, measuring the natural electric field in the atmosphere.

"In a stable descent, without rolling, the MIP sensor would have been able to measure the peak tangential component of the electric field", says Morente, "but unfortunately a strong wind made the probe to roll and the electrodes measured a superposition of such tangential and radial component".

Flat spectrum

Despite this, the electric field spectrums directly received from Huygens were not due to the standards expected by scientists, as they were relatively flat and no Schumman resonances were observed. The Spanish research team, however, manage to design a proceeding to reveal Schumman hidden resonances, base don the separation of temporary signals so-called "early" and "late-time", which allowed them to obtain "the irrefutable proof" of that there is natural electric activity in the atmosphere of Titan.

This work, which has been subsidized by the former Ministry of Education and Science, the Andalusian Council and the European Union, also explains that the atmosphere of this moon of Saturn is an electromagnetic environment with high losses, and that its resonant cavity is less idean than that of the Earth.

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Lift-off! India launches first moon mission as it joins Asia space race

By Daily Mail Reporter

India has successfully launched its first mission to the moon today.

Chandrayaan-1, an unmanned cuboid spacecraft, blasted off from a Northern Indian space centre shortly before dawn. It will enter the moon's orbit after 16 hours of flight and will create a 3D map of the lunar surface over two years.

The craft was built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). India is following in the footsteps of rival China, as the emerging Asian power celebrated its space ambitions and scientific prowess.

India's maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre this morning

Chinese astronauts were feted as national heroes last month after their country's first space walk, and India does not want to be left behind.

'What we have started is a remarkable journey,' G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of ISRO, said.

The launch was greeted with patriotism in the media.

'Destination Moon ... Historic Day For India' blazed one TV channel.

Scientists whooped, hugged eachother and raised their arms in a victory salute as the rocket blasted off into the sky.

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However, the ISRO insists the mission is not just about national pride and will also have valuable scientific benefits.

The craft is carrying 11 scientific experiments that weigh 80kg, including a 29kg Moon Impact Probe.

One of the key objectives of the mission is to look for Helium 3 - an isotope which is very rare on earth but is sought to power nuclear fusion and could be a valuable source of energy in the future.

It is thought to be more plentiful on the moon, but still rare and very difficult to extract.

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Up and away: A probe on the Indian spacecraft will search for a rare isotope on the moon which could be a valuable source of energy for the Earth

The mission is also expected to carry out a detailed survey of the moon to look for precious metals and water.

'We are going to get a three-dimensional atlas of the moon's surface, which will be used for chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface,' Narayan said.

The project cost £46million, considerably less than the Chinese and Japanese probes in 2007.

As the spacecraft hovers around the moon for two years, a small Moon Impactor Probe will detach and land on the moon to kick up some dust, while instruments in the craft analyze the particles, ISRO says.

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ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair, second left, and his colleagues hold a model of India's maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, after its successful launch at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre

In April, India sent 10 satellites into orbit from a single rocket, and ISRO says it is planning more launches before a proposed mission to space and then onto Mars in four years time.

ISRO is collaborating with a number of countries, including Israel, on a project to carry an ultra-violet telescope in an Indian satellite within a year.

Watch video of the launch here...

It is also building a tropical weather satellite with France, collaborating with Japan on a project to improve disaster management from space, and developing a heavy lift satellite launcher, which it hopes to use to launch heavier satellites by 2010.

Perhaps remarkably in a country where hundreds of millions of people still live in desperate poverty and millions of children remain malnourished, the cost of the moon mission has scarcely been questioned.

'Poverty has also a lot to do with corruption and non-implementation of schemes, as we do have money for projects,' political commentator Anil Verma said.

Chandrayaan-1, pictured here being assembled, will orbit the moon once every 117 minutes

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Creationists declare war over the brain

"YOU cannot overestimate," thundered psychiatrist Jeffrey Schwartz, "how threatened the scientific establishment is by the fact that it now looks like the materialist paradigm is genuinely breaking down. You're gonna hear a lot in the next calendar year about... how Darwin's explanation of how human intelligence arose is the only scientific way of doing it... I'm asking us as a world community to go out there and tell the scientific establishment, enough is enough! Materialism needs to start fading away and non-materialist causation needs to be understood as part of natural reality."

His enthusiasm was met with much applause from the audience gathered at the UN's east Manhattan conference hall on 11 September for an international symposium called Beyond the Mind-Body Problem: New Paradigms in the Science of Consciousness. Earlier Mario Beauregard, a researcher in neuroscience at the University of Montreal, Canada, and co-author of The Spiritual Brain: A neuroscientist's case for the existence of the soul, told the audience that the "battle" between "maverick" scientists like himself and those who "believe the mind is what the brain does" is a "cultural war".

Schwartz and Beauregard are part of a growing "non-material neuroscience" movement. They are attempting to resurrect Cartesian dualism - the idea that brain and mind are two fundamentally different kinds of things, material and immaterial - in the hope that it will make room in science both for supernatural forces and for a soul. The two have signed the "Scientific dissent from Darwinism" petition, spearheaded by the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, headquarters of the intelligent design movement. ID argues that biological life is too complex to have arisen through evolution.

In August, the Discovery Institute ran its 2008 Insider's Briefing on Intelligent Design, at which Schwartz and Michael Egnor, a neurosurgeon at Stony Brook University in New York, were invited to speak. When two of the five main speakers at an ID meeting are neuroscientists, something is up. Could the next battleground in the ID movement's war on science be the brain?

Well, the movement certainly seems to hope that the study of consciousness will turn out to be "Darwinism's grave", as Denyse O'Leary, co-author with Beauregard of The Spiritual Brain, put it. According to proponents of ID, the "hard problem" of consciousness - how our subjective experiences arise from the objective world of neurons - is the Achilles heel not just of Darwinism but of scientific materialism. This fits with the Discovery Institute's mission as outlined in its "wedge document", which seeks "nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies", to replace the scientific world view with a Christian one.

Now the institute is funding research into "non-material neuroscience". One recipient of its cash is Angus Menuge, a philosophy professor at Concordia University, Wisconsin, a Christian college, who testified in favour of teaching ID in state-funded high-schools at the 2005 "evolution hearings" in Kansas. Using a Discovery Institute grant, Menuge wrote Agents Under Fire, in which he argued that human cognitive capacities "require some non-natural explanation".

In June, James Porter Moreland, a professor at the Talbot School of Theology near Los Angeles and a Discovery Institute fellow, fanned the flames with Consciousness and the Existence of God. "I've been doing a lot of thinking about consciousness," he writes, "and how it might contribute to evidence for the existence of God in light of metaphysical naturalism's failure to provide a helpful explanation." Non-materialist neuroscience provided him with this helpful explanation: since God "is" consciousness, "the theist has no need to explain how consciousness can come from materials bereft of it. Consciousness is there from the beginning."

To properly support dualism, however, non-materialist neuroscientists must show the mind is something other than just a material brain. To do so, they look to some of their favourite experiments, such as research by Schwartz in the 1990s on people suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Schwartz used scanning technology to look at the neural patterns thought to be responsible for OCD. Then he had patients use "mindful attention" to actively change their thought processes, and this showed up in the brain scans: patients could alter their patterns of neural firing at will.

From such experiments, Schwartz and others argue that since the mind can change the brain, the mind must be something other than the brain, something non-material. In fact, these experiments are entirely consistent with mainstream neurology - the material brain is changing the material brain.

But William Dembski, one of ID's founding fathers and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, praised Schwartz's work as providing "theoretical support for the irreducibility of mind to brain". Dembski's website shows that he is currently co-editing The End of Materialism with Schwartz and Beauregard.

Meanwhile, Schwartz has been working with Henry Stapp, a physicist at the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who also spoke at the symposium. They have been developing non-standard interpretations of quantum mechanics to explain how the "non-material mind" affects the physical brain.

Clearly, while there is a genuine attempt to appropriate neuroscience, it will not influence US laws or education in the way that anti-evolution campaigns can because neuroscience is not taught as part of the core curriculum in state-funded schools. But as Andy Clark, professor of logic and metaphysics at the University of Edinburgh, UK, emphasises: "This is real and dangerous and coming our way."

He and others worry because scientists have yet to crack the great mystery of how consciousness could emerge from firing neurons. "Progress in science is slow on many fronts," says John Searle, a philosopher at the University of California, Berkeley. "We don't yet have a cure for cancer, but that doesn't mean cancer has spiritual causes."

And for Patricia Churchland, a philosopher of neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego, "it is an argument from ignorance. The fact something isn't currently explained doesn't mean it will never be explained or that we need to completely change not only our neuroscience but our physics."

The attack on materialism proposes to do just that, but it all turns on definitions. "At one time it looked like all physical causation was push/pull Newtonianism," says Owen Flanagan, professor of philosophy and neurobiology at Duke University, North Carolina. "Now we have a new understanding of physics. What counts as material has changed. Some respectable philosophers think that we might have to posit sentience as a fundamental force of nature or use quantum gravity to understand consciousness. These stretch beyond the bounds of what we today call 'material', and we haven't discovered everything about nature yet. But what we do discover will be natural, not supernatural."

And as Clark observes: "This is an especially nasty mind-virus because it piggybacks on some otherwise reasonable thoughts and worries. Proponents make such potentially reasonable points as 'Oh look, we can change our brains just by changing our minds,' but then leap to the claim that mind must be distinct and not materially based. That doesn't follow at all. There's nothing odd about minds changing brains if mental states are brain states: that's just brains changing brains."

That is the voice of mainstream academia. Public perception, however, is a different story. If people can be swayed by ID, despite the vast amount of solid evidence for evolution, how hard will it be when the science appears fuzzier?

What can scientists do? They have been criticised for not doing enough to teach the public about evolution. Maybe now they need a big pre-emptive push to engage people with the science of the brain - and help the public appreciate that the brain is no place to invoke the "God of the gaps".

Evolution - Learn more about the struggle to survive in our comprehensive special report.

The Human Brain - With one hundred billion nerve cells, the complexity is mind-boggling. Learn more in our cutting edge special report.

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Sex, lies and storytelling: The sociology of talk shows

Professor Ian Hutchby, Professor of Sociology at the University of Leicester, will present his paper: Revealing revelations: 'Performed retellings' of significant announcements on a TV talk show.

In his talk, Professor Hutchby will discuss his findings on the way the revelation of personal information is managed by the protagonist.

He said: "There is now an established tradition of television talk shows in which secrets, affairs and other private things are 'revealed' for the watching audience. Sometimes, such things are also revealed for co-guests in the studio.

"In either case, revelations of this type can be linked to significant life effects. Two recurring themes in such shows are:

-- revelations of extramarital affairs which potentially have consequences regarding paternity of a couple's child or children;
-- revelations of homosexuality or transsexuality between couples living in an established heterosexual relationship.

"My paper focuses on one example of the latter, in which now-divorced women recount, in interaction with the show's host, how the revelation of their homosexuality to their erstwhile heterosexual partner - their husband - was managed.

"In the sequential organisation of such accounts, we sometimes see the phenomenon of performed retelling, in which a speaker uses para-verbal phenomena - prosody, gesture, facial expression - to inflect the same story in different ways.

"The analysis will consider the interactional work these performed retellings may be doing; in particular, the management of emotional labour in talk that is produced for an audience."

Professor Hutchby's research focuses on the relationship between language and social interaction.

He said: "I examine how the social processes involved in language use relate to the structures of human relations and social institutions. I have been analyzing radio and television talk since the early 1990s, and in my recent book Media Talk (Open University Press, 2006) I showed how this research is important for a range of issues in contemporary democracy, such as the relationship between journalists, broadcasters and their audiences, and the public role of media output."

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False Memories Can Influence Behaviour

Participants avoided egg salad sandwiches after false memories of sickness were implanted.

Even when human memory is working normally, it is still frequently unfaithful. Instead of the total recall of, say, a video camera we get something more like a symbolist, or even abstract painting. Sights, sounds and smells are refracted by our minds into memories that often tell more about us than the original events they apparently record.

Psychologists have found many processes that act like lenses, creating distorted memories of original events. These processes include things like cognitive dissonance, the consistency bias and misattribution. But what power do these distorted or false memories hold over the mind? How far are they able to weave themselves into the tapestry of our lives? In short: can false memories affect our everyday thought and behaviour?

According to the results of a new experiment reported in Psychological Science, false memories could have many and varied behavioural consequences: just like 'real' memories, they may well be able to reach forward to the present and dramatically change how we think and behave.

Implanting false memories

To investigate the power of false memories Dr Elke Geraerts and colleagues (Geraerts et al., 2008) first had to induce false memories in participants: in this case that egg salad made them feel sick.

To achieve this, participants were invited to take part in a study they were told was about 'food and personality'. They answered a number of questions about food which were apparently to be entered into a computer programme to produce a profile of their early childhood experiences with food.

A week later two-thirds of the participants were told in this profile that they had got sick after eating egg salad at an early age, while the remainder - the control group - were not. The experimenters then had to check who had accepted this false memory as one of their own, and who had not. Using questionnaires they discovered that almost half of the experimental group had taken the bait and created a false memory while the rest were 'non-believers'. This demonstrates, once again, just how easy it is to induce false memories in some people.

Avoiding egg salad

The second stage of this experiment took place four months later when the participants were contacted by a different experimenter apparently about a different study - of course this was just a ruse. Participants were told this study was about people's preferences for different types of foods. A variety of different types of sandwiches and drinks were on offer for participants to test and rate, but most of these were a distraction as the experimenters were most interested in those egg salad sandwiches.

After the participants had left they tallied up how many of each type of sandwich had been consumed. They found that those who had accepted the false memory about getting sick after eating egg salad sandwiches ate far fewer of these sandwiches than those in the control group or those who were 'non-believers'.

While the non-believers and control group ate, on average, about 0.4 egg salad sandwiches, the false memory group ate only about 0.1. They were certainly avoiding the egg salad as this pattern of consumption wasn't seen in any of the other types of sandwiches.

Re-imagining the past

What this study clearly shows is that not only is it possible to instil false memories in a significant minority of people, but that these false memories can have a marked effect on behaviour.

Naturally this should make us wonder which of our preferences, attitudes, or phobias even, might be based on false recollections. Could that distaste for yellow peppers have stemmed from a false memory of getting sick after eating them? Or could that desire for a seaside home be built on childhood beach trips misremembered as enjoyable?

What this experiment underlines is the idea that the way we remember, interpret and, perhaps, re-imagine the past has a profound effect on how we think and behave in the present.

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UK's ancient woodland being lost 'faster than Amazon'

John Vidal

Several acres of Two Mile wood outside Weymouth are under threat from plans to build a bypass. This remnant of ancient forest is known for its association with the writer Thomas Hardy. Photograph: Woodland Trust

Ancient woodland in Britain is being felled at a rate even faster than the Amazon rainforest, according to new research today. It shows that almost half of all woods in the UK that are more than 400 years old have been lost in the past 80 years and more than 600 ancient woods are now threatened by new roads, electricity pylons, housing, and airport expansion.

The report from the Woodland Trust comes as the government prepares to sign a compulsory purchase order to buy several acres of Two Mile Wood outside Weymouth to build a bypass. This remnant of ancient forest, known for its association with Thomas Hardy, is one of Britain's finest bluebell woods and is full of old beech, oak and hornbeam trees.

"Ancient woodland, designated as over 400 years old in England, is the UK's equivalent of rainforest. It is irreplaceable," said Ed Pomfret, campaigns director of the trust. "It's our most valuable space for wildlife, and home to rare and threatened species. Once these woods have gone, they will never come back. They are historical treasure troves."

Species such as the willow tit, marsh tit, barbastelle bat, Bechstein's bat, pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly and dormouse all rely on ancient woodland to survive.

The rate at which the UK has lost ancient woodland is one of the fastest in the world and compares unfavourably with the Amazon. Studies suggest that the Amazon has lost 15% of its area in the past 30 years and perhaps just 2% before that in the previous several thousand years.

Pomfret appealed to government for better protection of the remaining woods. "If these woods were buildings they would be protected to the highest grading. But natural heritage is not afforded the same importance, despite the fact many ancient woodland sites date back far beyond that of the built environment," he said.

Many of the woods are designated for their scientific and conservation importance but this does not guarantee protection. Nearly 85% of ancient woodland, including five of the 12 largest woods in England, has no designation at all. For those that are protected, "loopholes in the planning system allow this protection to be overridden if a developer can prove an economic need," said Pomfret.

The report says that in the last decade 100 square miles (26,000 hectares) of ancient woodland in the UK has come under threat, equivalent to an area the size of Birmingham. But pressure on the habitat is now growing said Pomfret.

Overall, only 1,193 square miles (308,000 hectares) of ancient woodland survive in Britain. Few are larger than 50 acres and only 14 woods are larger than 740 acres. Most have been continuously managed by humans for hundreds if not thousands of years.

Nearly half of the threatened woods are in the south-east, with more than 30 in East Sussex. There are 243 are threatened by road schemes, 216 by power lines, 106 by housing, 61 by quarrying and 45 by airport expansion.

The trust believes there could be many more ancient woods under threat than their research suggests, and is appealing to the public to help identify them. "We can't rely on any official body to help us. We need eyes and ears for woodland to help stop ancient woodland destruction on our doorsteps," said Pomfret.

"The pressure on these very valuable woods is great, but there are major restoration programmes taking place. We are encouraging the Forestry Commission and private owners to protect them, but we are aware that planning authorities still take other things into account when deciding on developments," said Keith Kirby, chief forestry officer at Natural England, the government conservation advisers.

The threats posed to the UK's ancient woodland

Aberdeen Western Bypass: Fifteen ancient woods at risk of damage by a new dual carriageway around Aberdeen. Currently at public inquiry stage.

Weymouth relief road: Two Mile Coppice ancient woodland would be partly destroyed by this road expansion linking Weymouth to Dorchester. The Woodland Trust, and other bodies, fought this case at public inquiry.

Lake Wood, Uckfield, East Sussex: Lake Wood is threatened by local council application for 750 houses. The planning application was rejected, the developers appealed and the result of a public inquiry is expected shortly.

Bramley Frith Wood, Hampshire: The National Grid wanted to expand its existing electricity sub-station into this wood, which is hugely valuable for wildlife and used to have an education centre where nationally important research on dormice was undertaken. The Woodland Trust opposed this and even took the government's biodiversity advisers to court to try to overturn the decision but National Grid is now pressing ahead.

Stansted airport, Essex: BAA is planning a new runway which would destroy five ancient woods and damage many more. They have submitted a planning application and the case will be considered at a public inquiry next year.

Horton wood, West Sussex: Threatened by a landfill site which wants to expand. The planning application is being decided without an environmental impact assessment.

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Attack of the Green Tech Geeks

Rewarding Trash: RecycleBank's Ron Gonen has big plans. | photo illustration by Mattias Clamer

By: Anya Kamenetz

"I had this idea that there were going to be these recycling carts all over the country with chips embedded in them," says Ron Gonen, CEO and cofounder of RecycleBank and a former Deloitte consultant. "Trucks owned by cities or haulers would have a mechanical arm that would go out and grab these carts, weigh them, and transmit that info wirelessly to my server. We would run an algorithm to convert the volume into points, and people would come to my Web site, and then I would have all these businesses accept those points. Nobody ever pulled me aside and said, 'Are you out of your freaking mind?' "

Gonen isn't crazy. In fact, he is one of a vanguard of green-tech geeks -- at both startups and established companies such as IBM -- who have developed sophisticated sensors and software systems to let individuals and companies measure and manage gas, electricity, and water usage; power-grid surges; traffic congestion; pollutants in rivers and other bodies of water; the effects of green roofs and solar panels; and, of course, the impact of increased recycling. These technologies aggregate the data they gather in easy-to-view interfaces, displaying relevant feedback in charts on a BlackBerry or in a 3-D virtual world.

The guiding principle behind these advancements is that "with better information, people will make better decisions," says Collin Breakstone, VP of business development for Agilewaves, a startup by three former NASA scientists who set out to give homeowners the same view into their energy use that Wal-Mart has of its supply chain. Research backs him up: Thirty years of studies about home energy show that simply seeing the impact of your behavior in real time cuts consumption by 5% to 15%.

Although a product such as Agilewaves' Resource Monitor can be installed in a home or small office for as little as $7,900, cities and large government agencies are the ideal customers for this basket of related technologies. Agilewaves hopes to market its product to municipalities, which need accurate predictions of energy use. IBM is introducing a Smart Planet label to link ongoing initiatives including a traffic-congestion-pricing system in Stockholm; a demand-based electricity-pricing scheme in the Pacific Northwest; and several water-management projects that will employ sensors and visualization tools in locations as diverse as New York's Hudson River and China's Yangtze. RecycleBank's Gonen has already wooed more than 70 cities and towns to use his service, with Dallas expected to come online this winter. Cities pay to put trash in landfills; RecycleBank diverts part of the waste and then shares in the savings.

RecycleBank's second revenue stream -- the targeted marketing data it collects along with customers' milk cartons -- signals the potentially controversial nature of smart technologies as they roll out to a wider audience. "As soon as you log in, we know things about you which almost no other Web site knows," Gonen says. "We know where you live, we know your email address, we know each week you've been home; we know how much you like to buy because we know how much you're recycling." There's a fine line between sensing and surveillance, especially when the government is the one screening the numbers, as New York mayor Michael Bloomberg discovered when his proposed congestion-pricing plan failed due in part to privacy fears.

For green-tech geeks, though, a nudge from Big Brother is unavoidable if these technologies are to radically improve the management of scarce resources. "A lot of the response to climate change depends on changing behaviors," says Colin Harrison, IBM's director of corporate strategy of earth, water, fire, and wind. "This is one of the most powerful levers we have to pull on."

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INSIDE WASHINGTON: Fast readers wanted

By DINA CAPPIELLO, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Rushing to ease endangered species rules before President Bush leaves office, Interior Department officials are attempting to review 200,000 comments from the public in just 32 hours, according to an e-mail obtained by The Associated Press.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has called a team of 15 people to Washington this week to pore through letters and online comments about a proposal to exclude greenhouse gases and the advice of federal biologists from decisions about whether dams, power plants and other federal projects could harm species. That would be the biggest change in endangered species rules since 1986.

In an e-mail last week to Fish and Wildlife managers across the country, Bryan Arroyo, the head of the agency's endangered species program, said the team would work eight hours a day starting Tuesday to the close of business on Friday to sort through the comments. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne's office, according to the e-mail, will be responsible for analyzing and responding to them.

The public comment period ended last week, which initiated the review.

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., whose own letter opposing the changes is among the thousands that will be processed, called the 32-hour deadline a "last-ditch attempt to undermine the long-standing integrity of the Endangered Species program."

At that rate, according to a committee aide's calculation, 6,250 comments would have to be reviewed every hour. That means that each member of the team would be reviewing at least seven comments each minute.

It usually takes months to review public comments on a proposed rule, and by law the government must respond before a rule becomes final.

"It would seem very difficult for them in four days to respond to so many thoughtful comments in an effective way," said Eric Biber, an assistant professor at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. Along with other law professors across the country, Biber sent in 70 pages of comment.

Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall told the AP on Tuesday that the short time frame for processing the comments was requested by Kempthorne and would set a record.

"There is an effort here to see if this can be completed" before the administration is out, Hall said. He said the goal was to have the rule to the White House by early November. In May, the administration set a Nov. 1 deadline for all final regulations.

How fast the rule is finished could determine how hard it is to undo.

A new administration could freeze any pending rules. But if the regulation is final before the next president takes office, reversing it would require going through the entire review and public comment period again — a process that could take months and that sometimes has taken years.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama already has said he would reverse the proposal. Congress also could overturn the rules through legislation, but that could take even longer. Sen. John McCain's campaign has not taken a position on the Bush administration's proposed change in endangered species regulations.

Environmentalists said the move was the latest attempt by the Bush administration to overrule Congress, which for years has resisted efforts by conservative Republicans to make similar changes by amending the law.

Criticism from environmental groups and Democratic leaders prompted the Interior Department to extend the public comment period from 30 days to 60 days.

"Somebody has lit a fire under these guys to get this done in due haste," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, executive director of Defenders of Wildlife and the head of the Fish and Wildlife Service under President Clinton.

The Interior Department received approximately 300,000 comments over the 60-day comment period, many critical of the changes. About 100,000 of them were form letters, Hall said.

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Electric black cab project makes progress

Londoners could be hailing the first battery-powered black cabs in early 2009

Andrew Donoghue

Plans to launch a fleet of electric black cabs in London are gathering pace with further meetings between UK officials and the co-owners of the company that makes the capital's iconic taxis.

According to an article in the Financial Times, Chinese company Geely, which co-owns black-cab-maker Manganese Bronze, has been in talks with UK government officials to discuss the launch of electric taxis in London next year.

"One of our ideas is to convert London taxis [to electric propulsion]," Li Shufu, the company's chairman, told the Financial Times. "We are doing research on this project."

Matthew Cheyne, Manganese Bronze's international development director, told BusinessGreen.com that a partnership between his company and electric vehicle specialist Tanfield Group, announced in April, is progressing and that the first electric black cabs could be on London’s roads early next year.

"We have given Tanfield some gliders [engineless taxis], basically vehicles that they can start doing some work on, but it is very much in the early stages, " said Cheyne.
According to information released in April the all-electric version of Manganese Bronze’s TX4 black cab – to be branded the TX4E – will have a top speed of 50mph and a range in excess of 100 miles on one battery charge.

Although there is not a specific date set yet for trials of the electric cabs, Cheyne confirmed that the companies were looking at early next year to introduce a fleet of ten prototype vehicles.

Given Geely's international reach the cabs may be deployed elsewhere in the world but London will offer a "good proving ground" for the technology, according to Cheyne, because of the intensity at which the fleet would be used and the potential infrastructure for recharging.

In June, London Mayor Boris Johnson invited manufacturers to put forward proposals for low-carbon cabs. "As well as significantly cutting carbon dioxide emissions, we're looking for taxis that are quieter and produce fewer air pollutants, which will be good news for anyone who spends time in London," Johnson said at the time.

Although the mayor reportedly discussed the electric cab project with Geely representatives while at this summer's Beijing Olympics, there does not appear to be a firm commitment from Transport for London (TfL), or any other authority, to actually purchase the electric cabs. "At the moment it is between us and Tanfield Electric. Logic would say that there is a benefit for Transport for London but at the moment it is us developing it," he said.

Relations between Manganese and TfL may have been strained after 12 TX4 cabs caught fire in September. Manganese was forced to launch a product recall at a cost of around £4m.

Once developed, the TX4E taxi will be powered by a Tanfield electric drive train and a lithium-iron-phosphate battery pack. Based on current electricity prices, the companies estimate the TX4E will cost less than 4p per mile to run but is likely to have a higher initial purchase price than the diesel-powered TX4.

A spokesperson for TfL said: "The Public Carriage Office (PCO) is keen to work with motor manufacturers to introduce taxis to London with lower fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, including electrically powered vehicles. Any manufacturer, existing or prospective, should bear in mind that vehicles must meet the London conditions of fitness."

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Cow burps are making a growing contribution to global warming

By Louise Gray

Greenhouse gases produced by cow burps are growing at a faster rate than the man-made emissions responsible for global warming, according to the latest research.

Various studies have looked at the affect carbon dioxide produced by humans is having on climate change.

	Methane emissions from cows burping are growing faster than CO2 emissions

But new research has found cows are just as bad by producing methane, a greenhouse gas with a longer lifetime in the atmosphere and therefore higher global warming potential.

Dr Andy Thorpe, an economist at the University of Portsmouth, found a herd of 200 cows can produce annual emissions of methane roughly equivalent in energy terms to driving a family car more than 100,000 miles (180,000km) on more than four gallons (21,400 litres) of petrol.

He added that while carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have increased by 31 per cent during the past 250 years, methane has increased by 149 per cent during the same period.

Methane in the atmosphere is believed to be responsible for one fifth of global warming experienced since 1750.

The main producers are domestic animals which emit large amounts of methane as they digest their food and then belch out most of it through their mouths.

Dr Thorpe said three quarters of animal methane emissions came from developing countries due to growing affluence and the "hamburger connection" that encourages countries to keep meat to export to the developing world.

He added: "If anything, methane emissions in the developing world are likely to increase."

The research, published in the journal Climate Change, is likely to reignite the debate over whether eating less meat could help combat climate change - as recommended recently by the UN.

It will also inform the UK government's plans to reduce greenhouse gases by 80 per cent by 2050, including in the agricultural sector.

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Top Ten Water Saving Tips

Written by Joe Mohr

We are dealing with our current financial crisis after it became a crisis. This reactionary style is very “American”. Therefore, I propose we do something “un-American” and attack the looming water crisis with more of a preventative strategy. In fact, that is our only option. It’s not like we have a choice to be reactionary in this potential crisis. We can’t borrow water like we can money.

Waiting for this issue to officially hit home will be too late. Our dehydrated brains will wonder (with increasing difficulty–because our brains are over 80% water) “how could we have prevented this?”

Here’s how.

Top Ten Daily Water Saving Tips

1. Showering–Shower with someone. Keep showers under 4 minutes. Purchase a low-flow showerhead.
2. Grooming–Turn off the water while you brush your teeth, shave, and while you lather up when washing your hands. Also, make sure there are aerators on all of your faucets.
3. Toilet–If it’s yellow let it mellow. When you need to replace a toilet purchase a low-volume or dual flush toilet.

4. Laundry–Only use when you have a full load.
5. Dishwashing–Only use when you have a full load. If you wash by hand (better choice) don’t let the water run while rinsing. Fill one sink with wash water and the other with rinse water.
6. Compost–Composting eliminates the need for a garbage disposal (water waster) and adds water-holding organic matter to the soil.

7. Outside–Plant native and draught tolerant plants. Only water your lawn when needed (you can tell when by walking across your lawn–if you leave footprints, it’s time to water).
8. Catching it–While waiting for the water in your shower or sink to get hot, use a large cup (sink) or bucket (shower) to catch the water. Also, install a rain barrel to collect rainwater from your gutters. Use the collected water to water your plants and/or wash your car.
9. Fixing it–Fix leaky faucets and toilets!
10. Teaching it–Make suggestions to your employer to conserve water at work. Encourage your city and local schools to develop and promote water conservation among children and adults. Share this article with family and friends (and enemies too–we all use the same water)!

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Starbucks Coffee: How Green Is Their Java?

Written by Sarah Lozanova

Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) is given credit by many for revolutionizing the American coffee drinking experience. The company however is both praised and criticized by environmentalists. Is Starbucks a leader of sustainability or greenwashed?

Disposable Cups

Starbucks stores use billions of cups annually. This requires enormous quantities of natural resources and energy before finding their way to landfills. Starbucks does however use cups that contain 10% post consumer recycled content.

Although this might sound like a meager quantity, Starbucks has helped shape the industry. This 10% achievement required authorization and testing by the Food and Drug Administration and had not been permitted previously.

“Starbucks should be commended for its ground-breaking efforts of working toward environmentally friendly packaging options that benefit both forests and the businesses that rely on them,” said David Ford, president and CEO of Metafore, a nonprofit group that collaborates with leaders in business and society to create innovative, market-based approaches that support forests and communities. “As a participant in our Paper Working Group project, Starbucks leadership in responsible purchasing of forest products gives other companies a clear path to follow.”

Starbucks also plans to reintroduce ceramic mugs and increase use of reusable mugs tenfold by 2010. They currently offer a $.10 discount for reusable mugs.

Impacts of Growing Coffee

Most Starbucks stores are located in areas where coffee is not cultivated. Coffee must be transported thousands of miles and is often grown in sensitive ecosystems. This inherently isn’t sustainable.

Starbucks however partnered with Conservation International to create Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices (C.A.F.E. Practices), a set of environmentally, economically, and socially responsible coffee purchasing guidelines.

Starbucks purchased 65% of its coffee under these guidelines in fiscal year 2007. On the global market, Starbucks is a relatively small player with around 1% of the global coffee market, yet they have found a way to leverage their might and influence the coffee industry.

Locally Owned Coffee Shops

It would seem that Starbucks would have a very negative impact on local Ma and Pa coffee shops, but this isn’t necessarily the case. Some cafes report soaring sales when a Starbucks moved in by attracting coffee drinkers to frequent the neighborhood.

Others unfortunately have been the victims of a predatory store placement strategy. Cafes that were behind on their rent had their leases revoked to make way for a new Starbucks. It seems the impacts of Starbucks on local competition must be taken on a case by case bases, helping some while hurting others.

Resource Consumption at Stores

Starbucks has been under strong criticism recently because of wasteful water practices. Water is run continuously on dipper wells, which are used to wash utensils. This adds up to an estimated 6.2 million gallons of water wasted each day.

On the bright side, Starbucks recently announced a goal to reduce energy use by 25% and purchase enough renewable energy credits for 50% of their energy needs by 2010. They are working with the U.S. Green Building Council to create a prototype for a LEED silver certified store that can be duplicated across its portfolio.

Employee Relations

Starbucks ranked #7 in Fortune Magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2008. Noteworthy practices by Starbucks include health insurance to part-time employees and domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples.

Does Starbucks Measure Up?

Starbucks is frequently targeted by environmentalists for unsustainable practices, but do they deserve this? The nature of the coffee industry is unsustainable in many ways, but Starbucks has helped lead the industry towards greener practices. I would like to see Dunkin’ Donuts ditch styrofoam and Nestle forgo genetically engineered coffee beans. Although there is certainly room for improvement, other companies have barely gotten started.

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Wading bird travels 7,000 miles nonstop to break flying record

David Adam

A bar-tailed godwit stands in shallow water. Photograph: Eric Hosking/Corbis

A bar-tailed godwit has been crowned the endurance champion of the animal kingdom after completing an epic 7,200 mile nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean from Alaska to New Zealand.

The wading bird's journey lasted more than eight days with no rest or food, and took it into a place in the record books. Scientists tracking the bird's flight said it was unprecedented.

Theunis Piersma, a biologist at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands who worked on the study, said: "There is something special going on here. For a vertebrate this kind of endurance is just extraordinary."

The long-haul flight of the godwits, from their breeding to feeding grounds, was first reported last year, but scientists have now analysed the journeys and have reported their findings in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Led by Bob Gill of the US Geological Survey, the scientists say: "These extraordinary nonstop flights establish new extremes for avian flight performance and have profound implications for understanding the physiological capabilities of vertebrates."

Curious about the role migratory birds play in spreading avian influenza, the scientists captured godwits in 2006 and 2007 and fitted them with satellite transmitters to track their journeys. On the southward leg, the birds flew nonstop for up to nine days and covered more than 7,000 miles. The scientists say the flight path shows the birds did not feed en route and would be unlikely to sleep.

Piersma said the birds would have flapped their wings nonstop for the entire journey, and that the resulting energy requirement was the greatest in the animal kingdom. The birds would have gobbled up energy at some eight times their resting basic metabolic rate (BMR) during their week-long exertion, he said.

Peak human performance is measured in professional cyclists, who can only manage about five times BMR for a few hours. "Lance Armstrong would be no competition for these birds," he said.

The scientists suggest that the central Pacific may act as a ecological corridor because, unlike coastal routes, there are few predators or diseases. But they say climate change could alter its suitability by changing the strength and frequency of winds.

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