Science

• Brian Cox: 'health and safety' stopped Stargazing Live's search for aliens

  By Ian Steadman

  07 November 2012
  
  Leave a comment

  The BBC's aversion to swearing live on air may have prevented the discovery of intelligent alien life, according to Brian Cox. Sort of.

  The host of Stargazing Live was speaking to his friend Shaun Keaveny on the latter's BBC 6 Music breakfast radio show, and explaining that the BBC had thwarted an attempt to point the Jodrell Bank radio telescope at Threapleton Holmes B -- an exoplanet discovered by two viewers of the show. The reason? Apparently, health and safety legislation.

  "We've never pointed a radio telescope at it and you never know, and the BBC actually said, 'But, um, you can't do that, because we need to go through the regulations and health and safety and everything in case we discover a signal from an alien civilisation'," explained Cox. "I said, 'You mean we would discover the first hint that there is other intelligent life in the universe beyond Earth, live on air, and you're worried about the health and safety of it?!' They did have guidelines!"

  Continue reading

• Study: The Universe has almost stopped making new stars

  By Ian Steadman

  07 November 2012
  
  Comments 2

  Most of the stars that will ever exist have already been born, according to the most comprehensive survey of the age of the night sky.

  An international team of astronomers used three telescopes -- the UK Infrared Telescope and the Subaru Telescope, both in Hawaii, and Chile's Very Large Telescope -- to study trends in star formation, from the earliest days of the universe. Extrapolating their findings has revealed that half of all the stars that have ever existed were created between nine and 11 billion years ago, with the other half created in the years since. That means that rate at which new stars are born has dropped off massively, to the extent that (if this trend continues) 95 percent of all the stars that this universe will ever see have already been born.

  Several studies have looked at specific time "epochs", but the different methods used by each study has restricted the ability to compare their findings and discern a fuller model of how stars have evolved over the course of the entire universe's lifespan.

  Continue reading

• Chinese survey reveals heavy coastal pollution, red tides and water shortages

  By Liat Clark

  07 November 2012
  
  Leave a comment

  A national survey has revealed shocking statistics about China's coastal environment -- wetlands, coral reefs and mangrove swamps are rapidly shrinking, massive algae blooms regularly attack ecosystems and coastal cities often experience water shortages. The survey also takes the opportunity to reiterate Chinese territorial control over Taiwan and the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands.

  The findings are part of an eight-year-long national marine survey that was launched in 2004 by the Chinese State Oceanic Administration and was carried out by a team of more than 30,000. The rapid decline was flagged up back in 2010 when an earlier survey revealed that general water pollution levels in 2007 were double that of government predictions (they had failed to include the 13.2 million metric tons produced by the agricultural industry). At that time, the government was under pressure to deliver more accurate statistics that reflect the real impact of the country's booming urban and industrial growth; it had initially claimed to have reduced water pollution for the first time. The new survey reveals the extent to which that fact is false, and has been called the country's "most comprehensive marine survey so far," by marine ecologist Gao Kunshan of Xiamen University, not involved in the survey. Continue reading

• Smokers leave 'history of addiction' in their DNA

  By Olivia Solon

  07 November 2012
  
  Leave a comment

  Researchers from Imperial College London and the Human Genetics Foundation have found a number of sites in the DNA of blood that become chemically tagged as a result of smoking.

  The researchers -- who presented their work at the NCRI Cancer Conference -- say that these tags are also detectable in lung tissue and could be used to measure the increased risk of certain cancers, including breast, bowel and lung.

  One of the challenges of previous research is that it often asks people to fill out questionnaires about their smoking habits, which can lead to inaccuracies. This research suggests that it will be obvious from examining a person's DNA whether they have smoked or not.

  Continue reading

• Gesture analysis reveals what Obama and Romney care about

  By Liat Clark

  06 November 2012
  
  Comments 3

  An analysis of the body gestures of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney during the presidential debates suggests that how candidates speak could reveal what they really care about and affect whether or not voters believe what they say.

  Trending topics on Twitter provide a brief insight into what the public picks up on most often, or which words the candidates use the most. However, by studying the gestures corresponding to those key words, New York University computer scientist Chris Bregler and University of California, Berkeley movement therapist Peggy Hackney have interrogated the idea that body movement makes words more persuasive or seem more genuine. Continue reading