bluesci issue 02 - lent 2005
DESCRIPTION
Cambridge University science magazine FOCUS: A Cure for Climate ChangeTRANSCRIPT
Issue 2 Lent 2005
in association withCambridge’s Science Magazine produced by
www.bluesci.org
Hangover Hell
• Robots: the Next Generation? • Mobile Medicine •• Climate Change • Forensic Science •
The morning afterthe night before
Einstein100 years of E=mc2
Our OriginsThe genes that make us human
Editorial ............................................Cambridge News ...........................Events ...............................................Focus .................................................On the Cover .................................A Day in the Life of... ....................
Away from the Bench ...................Initiatives ..........................................History .............................................Arts and Reviews ..........................Dr Hypothesis ................................
Outsmarting the CheatsEmma McIlroy investigates the future of performance enhancing drugs in sport....................
Patent PendingAlistair Moore discusses the patenting of inventions arising from scientific research.............
Robots: the Next Generation?Anna Lacey goes in search of artificial life..........................................................................................
The Genetic Origins of HumanityAndrew Lin explains how small genetic changes go a long way towards making us human..
Hangover HellCharley Barber examines the remedies for the morning after......................................................
Mobile MedicineKatherine Borthwick finds out how a simple text message helps the medicine go down.....
Nature’s Motor: Putting a Spanner in the WorksJonathan Gledhill on interfering with ATP synthase, the motor that makes our cellular energy...
What Children Leave BehindJoanna Maldonado-Saldivia investigates the long lasting effects of pregnancy.............................
Features
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The front cover shows Paul Cuddon’s image of a neuron (green) resting on a bed of astrocytes (red).The nuclei of both types of cell appear in blue.To find out more, turn to page 20.
Want to write for BlueSci?WWee aarree ccuurrrreennttllyy llooookkiinngg ffoorr ssuubbmmiissssiioonnss ffoorr oouurr EEaasstteerr TTeerrmm iissssuuee..WWee nneeeedd ttoo rreecceeiivvee ssuubbmmiissssiioonnss bbyy 55ppmm oonn 2288 FFeebbrruuaarryy 22000055.. WWeewwaanntt aarrttiicclleess oonn aallll kkiinnddss ooff sscciieennccee,, bbuutt iinn ppaarrttiiccuullaarr wwee aarree iinntteerreesstt--eedd iinn rreecceeiivviinngg ccoonnttrriibbuuttiioonnss ccoonncceerrnniinngg tthhee pphhyyssiiccaall sscciieenncceess.. SSoo wwhhaatteevveerr yyoouurr sscciieennttiiffiicc ppaassssiioonn,, wwhhyy ddoonn’’tt yyoouu sshhaarree iittwwiitthh oouurr rreeaaddeerrss??
New for 2005: BlueSci onlineRead all the articles on our website
Photograph CompetitionWWoouulldd yyoouu lliikkee ttoo sseeee yyoouurr pphhoottooggrraapphh oonn tthhee ffrroonntt ccoovveerr ooffBBlluueeSSccii?? WWiitthh aa pprriinntt rruunn ooff tthhoouussaannddss,, wwhhaatt bbeetttteerr ooppppoorrttuunniittyy ttoohhaavvee yyoouurr wwoorrkk ddiissttrriibbuutteedd tthhrroouugghhoouutt CCaammbbrriiddggee?? MMiiccrroossccooppyy,,MMRRII,, vviieewwss ooff tthhee ggaallaaxxyy…… tthhee cchhooiiccee iiss yyoouurrss!! TToo eenntteerr,, sseenndd yyoouurrppiiccttuurree aanndd aa bbrriieeff eexxppllaannaattiioonn ttoo ccoommppeettiittiioonnss@@bblluueessccii..oorrgg bbyy 2288FFeebbrruuaarryy 22000055..
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From The Managing Editor
The first issue of BlueSci was launched lastterm and was enthusiastically received.Weare thrilled with the response, and are gladthat you, the readers, agree with us thatthere’s a real niche for what we’re tryingto achieve. We hope that in givingCambridge scientists a chance to expressthemselves we have managed to entertainnon-scientists and scientists alike, andhave also provided a forum for everyonein Cambridge to find out about eventsacross the University.
We have no intention of restraining ourambitions this year, and have plenty of ideas toestablish ourselves firmly in the Cambridge sci-ence community. Firstly, we’re hoping thatimproving our distribution will mean thatthere will be more copies in hands in alldepartments, so no more scowling across the
tea table at that postdoc who sneaked back tothe lab with the last copy! Secondly, we’veappointed a webmaster and have lots of ideasfor improving our website (www.bluesci.org).Thirdly, we’re trying to broaden the scope ofour articles to include both more on the phys-ical sciences, and to appeal to budding sciencejournalists out there. So if you are interested incontributing to BlueSci, especially in either ofthese areas, or have ideas for the coming year,then please get in touch.
Finally, thanks again to Varsity and CUSP,without whose support the magazine wouldnot exist.
Looking forward to a scientifically enlight-ening 2005!
Louise [email protected]
Issue 2: Lent 2005
Produced by CUSP & Published by
Varsity Publications Ltd
Editor:Edwina Casebow
Managing Editor: Louise Woodley
Submissions Editor: Ewan Smith
Business Manager: Eve Williams
Design and ProductionProduction Managers:
Tom Walters, Jonathan ZwartPictures Editor:Sheena Gordon
Production Team:Victoria Leung,Tasleem Samji,
Helen StimpsonWebmaster:
Mark Woodbridge
Section EditorsCambridge News:Laura Blackburn
Events:Carolyn Dewey
Focus:Ewan SmithFeatures:
Joanna Maldonado-Saldivia,Helen Stimpson, Owain Vaughan
On the Cover:Jonathan Zwart
A Day in the Life of…:Nerissa Hannink
Away from the Bench and Initiatives:Tamzin Gristwood
History:Emily Tweed
Arts and Reviews:Owain VaughanDr Hypothesis:
Rob Young
CUSP Chairman:Björn Haßler
Varsity Publications Ltd11/12 Trumpington Street
Cambridge, CB2 1QATel: 01223 353422Fax: 01223 352913
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(Varsity Black EPS Newest.eps)
When the BlueSci team gathered to judgethe photographs for our cover competi-tion, we were impressed by the diversityof images we’d received. Cambridge’s sci-entific community is certainly very het-erogeneous! With such a high standard ofentry, it was difficult to pick a winner. Ithink you’ll agree that Paul Cuddon’sphotograph of neurons is stunning. Asalways, you can learn more about it byreading our ON THE COVER article.
The human brain, which contains billions ofneurons, cannot fail to be one of the most capti-vating objects of scientific study. How though,does it make us different from our closest rela-tives in the animal world? Andrew Lin’s com-pelling article on THE GENETIC ORIGINS OF
HUMANITY offers an intriguing insight into thebiological basis of this complex problem.
EINSTEIN is considered to be one of themost cerebrally gifted scientists of all time.2005 marks the hundredth anniversary of hismost ground-breaking papers. To mark thisunique occasion, our HISTORY section has bro-
ken with its Cambridge connections to take aspecial look at the physicist’s remarkable lifeand work.
Back in the scientific world of 2005,Katherine Borthwick reports on the latestinnovative applications of modern technologyin MOBILE MEDICINE; Emma McIlroy exam-ines how scientists are researching new tech-niques to detect athletes who use PERFORM-ANCE ENHANCING DRUGS, and Alistair Mooreconsiders the pros and cons of filing forPATENTS. If that’s not enough to whet yourneuronal appetite, look beyond the humanmind and enter the world of ARTIFICAL INTEL-LIGENCE in Anna Lacey’s insight into the nextgeneration of robots.
If your abstemious New Year’s resolutionshave already been broken, take cheer, and turnto Charley Barber’s article on HANGOVER
CURES to soothe your fragile nerve cells.I hope you enjoy this brain stimulating issue!
Edwina [email protected]
BlueSci is published by Varsity Publications Ltd and printed byCambridge Printing Park. All copyright is the exclusive property ofVarsity Publications Ltd. No part of this publication may be repro-duced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or
by any means, without the prior permission of the publisher.
From The Editor
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Cambridge News
Minute Microcages DevelopedThe development of multi-fingered microcages by Dr Jack Luo and colleagues in theDepartment of Engineering could offer a much better alternative to the instrumentscurrently available for holding minute objects such as biological cells. The device ismade from a metal and Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) bimorph layer deposited by aprocess used in industrial microelectronics.The DLC layer forces the fingers to curlinward, forming a cage 20-40 microns in diameter, the width of a wool fibre. Themicrocage opens when a pulsed current is applied to the device, which can be usedfor holding specimens without applying direct force, thus avoiding damage. Specimenscan then be tested, probed, injected or transported. Currently, the operating tempera-ture is too high for use on biological specimens, but development of the device isongoing to make it more suitable. The new technology could have applications notonly in biology and medicine, but also in nanoscience.
Role for Volcanoes inOrigins of LifeResearchers from the Department ofEarth Sciences have shown that volcanoesmay have played an important role in theorigin of life on Earth by fixing nitrogen.All life needs nitrogen to survive, butmost organisms can’t use atmosphericnitrogen as it is in the wrong form.Bacteria and fungi in the soil can fixnitrogen into a form that plants can use,which in turn is used by animals furtherup the food chain. In the primordialsoup, however, no such bacteria existed,so where did the fixed nitrogen comefrom? Tamsin Mather and David Pylemeasured the composition of gases abovea hot lava lake at the Masaya Volcano inNicaragua and found that there was ahigher level of fixed nitrogen in the vol-canic plume than elsewhere. The heatfrom the volcano allowed the formationof fixed nitrogen, and the results suggestthat volcanoes could have been as impor-tant as lightning and asteroid impacts infixing nitrogen for use by the earliestmicro-organisms.
Dancing on the BrainAn unusual collaboration between DrRosaleen McCarthy from theDepartment of Experimental Psychologyand choreographer Wayne McGregormay lead to new insights into how thebrain processes and comprehends move-ment.The Choreography and Cognitionproject, funded by the Arts andHumanities Research Board and ArtsCouncil of England, examined howdancers retain movement and how theyput movement together. When thedancers were asked to visualise a routinewhilst repeating a word over and over,they found they could run the routinethrough in their minds with no interrup-tion. However, when they repeated thevisualisation whilst tapping a sequence ofdots on a page, they found that thesequence in their minds became disrupt-ed. Dr McCarthy hopes that this will helpto understand how the brain thinks aboutmovement whilst the body is carryingout different tasks, thus helping patientswith brain injury or movement disorders.
Pocket-Sized Projectors
The Cambridge based company LightBlue Optics has developed a tiny videoprojector, the size of a cigarette packet,without the need for expensive light bulbsor bulky lenses.Traditional digital projec-tors use a bulb, a wheel of colour filters anda lens to magnify the image. However, thebulbs can cost up to £400 and have a shortlife. Not only is the new projector morerobust, but it is also smaller and more cost-effective. It works by creating a 2-D holo-graphic image of a picture, using diffractedlight from a laser that illuminates a smallliquid-crystal-on-silicon microdisplayinside the unit. Sharp images are producedwithout the need for bulky lenses, and thehologram chip inside the projector cangenerate 200 frames per second. It mightbe possible to downsize even further andintegrate the projector into mobilephones.The company expects the projec-tors to be in the shops in two to four years.
www.lightblueoptics.com
BioScaffolds
Medical student Chris Zagorski has set upa company with colleagues from hisCambridge MIT Institute exchange studiesthat has great potential to help breast cancersufferers. Chris came up with the idea ofdeveloping a tissue scaffold that could helpbreast cancer sufferers who had undergonemastectomies to grow new breast tissue.This idea has great benefits as it will helpheal the physical and psychological woundscaused by intense cancer treatment, as wellas negating the need for artificial implants.Along with MBA student Harry Sloan andProf. Ioannis Yannas, Zagorski founded thecompany BioScaffolds.The team is hopingto develop the technology in the UK, fol-lowed by Europe and the US. It will take atleast five years for the technology to beavailable, although once prototypes havebeen developed and undergone clinical tri-als it is hoped that this will pave the way fortechnology to help regenerate other bodytissues, such as the liver.
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Events
10 March Tinnitus, the Phenomenon ofPhantom Auditory SensationDr Ian Winter8.45pm, the Nihon room at Pembroke.Contact [email protected]
Talks held every second Thursday duringfull term at 6.30pm. For more informa-tion, see www.jcsu.jesus.cam.ac.uk/jcss
Regular talks will be given, with speak-ers including Dr James Martin, ProfessorRichard Frackowiak and Professor AndrewBriggs. Email Jamie Muir [email protected] for further details.
For talks on everything from Philosophyand SPS to Chemical Engineering, go to:www.cam.ac.uk/societiesfor all societies available in Cambridge;www.cam.ac.uk/cambuniv/seminars.htmlfor the University’s departmental seminar list, andwww.srcf.ucam.org/scisoc/linksfor the CU Scientific Society lists.
Concerned with the ethical, social andglobal implications of science and tech-nology, they hold regular meetings todiscuss these issues and invite guestspeakers to talk on related topics.For details visitwww.cam.ac.uk/societies/pugwash
Every Wednesday from 7.30pm is opennight. Use telescopes to see the sky andenjoy a 30-minute talk from a memberof the department.
See www.cuesonline.org for details of events.
A charitable organisation based at Britishuniversities. Run by students with thebacking of expert academics and profes-sionals, EWB aims to find technical solu-tions to developing world problems andto involve engineering students and pro-fessionals in development work. Fortalks, project lectures, and informationabout overseas placements, go towww.ewb-uk.org/cambridge/events.php
10 FebruaryTalk by Dr Tim Hunt, Nobel Prize win-ner for Medicine3 MarchTalk by The Governmental Advisor forScienceDate To Be ArrangedThe (In)famous Wonky Willies Talkby Mr WhittakerFor more on these and other talks go towww.srcf.ucam.org/medsoc
19 MarchFree, fun,hands-on science for all.CHaOSare looking for enthusiastic science stu-dents to demonstrate fun experiments tothe public for just three hours at the endof term.Email [email protected] or go towww.chaosscience.org.uk
On the radio, Sundays 6-7pm on96.0FM www.thenakedscientists.com/listen16 JanuaryCyborgsProfessor Kevin Warwick from theUniversity of Reading discusses the cre-ation of man-machine interfaces and hisown personal experience of embeddingmicrochips in his body.27 JanuaryJurassic Park: Fact or Fiction?David Norman, paleontologist, and AlanCooper, expert on ancient DNA,explore the feasibility of recoveringDNA from ancient remains and recreat-ing the dinosaurs.6 MarchHypnosisPeter Naish, psychologist and hypnotist,discusses the art of hypnotism, anddemonstrates it live on air.
Live in Cambridge:17 January Cyborgs8-9.30pm Borders Bookstore.1 FebruaryParallel Universes8-9.30pm Borders Bookstore.
This year celebrates the 100th anniversaryof the publication of three of Einstein’sground-breaking papers: Brownianmotion, the photoelectric effect and spe-cial relativity. To find out more, turn tothe History section on pages 24-25.Events in Cambridge include:27 JanuaryTo the 5th Dimension and BeyondProfessor Andy Parker 24 FebruaryThe Physics of Music Wendy Sadler5 MarchExploring UniversesProfessor John BarrowAll at the Cavendish Laboratory, PippardLecture Theatre. For details see www-outreach.phy.cam.ac.uk
17 JanuaryFrom Particles to Strings: Can weFulfil Einstein’s Dream?Dr David Berman5-6pm, Centre for MathematicalSciences. Free, but ticket only, [email protected] of the Millennium Maths Project.For further details of this and otherevents go to www.mmp.maths.org
16-23 MarchEvening lectures as part ofCambridge Science Week.See below for details.
16-23 MarchFrom Archaeology to Zoology, scientistsand students will offer activities exploringmillions of years of the Earth’s history.This year, the festival travels to the future,exploring advances in medical scienceand looking at the possibilities of somewell-known science fiction storiesbecoming a reality.
There will be over 100 laboratorytours, demonstrations, hands-on activi-ties and public lectures. Hands-on activ-ities include making green slime, turningcoins gold and extracting DNA frombananas. Kids are also given the chanceto build a hovercraft, a dancing robot ora model of the solar system.Visit www.cambridgescience.org to find outmore, email [email protected] to getinvolved.
EINSTEIN YEAR
CAMBRIDGE SCIENCEFESTIVAL: TIME TRAVEL
THE NAKED SCIENTISTS
CRASH, BANG, SQUELCHSCIENCE FESTIVAL
MEDSOC
INSTITUTE OFASTRONOMY
THE STUDENT PUGWASHSOCIETY
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITYENGINEERING SOCIETY
THINKING OUTSIDE THEBOX
PETERHOUSE KELVINCLUB
STOKES SOCIETY OFPEMBROKE
JESUS COLLEGE SCIENCESOCIETY
ENGINEERS WITHOUTBORDERS
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The Earth’s climate is changing,causing dramatic alterations to thenatural landscape. With potentiallycatastrophic events predicted by theUN’s Intergovernmental Panel onClimate Change (IPCC) that mayaffect billions of people, govern-ments from around the world havebecome actively involved in attemptsto remedy the problem. Preparing tospend billions of pounds, many havesigned up to the Kyoto Protocol,which becomes legally binding on16 February 2005.
The scale of the issueDuring the last 100 years, the Earth’stemperature has risen by a global aver-age of 0.6ºC.The IPCC predicts that itwill continue to rise by between 1.4ºCand 5.8ºC over the next century. Thismeans that the Earth is already warm-ing faster than at any other time in thelast thousand years, with the 1990s thewarmest decade since records began.Even if the Earth does warm up by onlya further 1.4ºC, this increase wouldmark the most rapid change in 10 mil-lennia.
Although a 0.6ºC rise in temperaturemay not sound significant, in 2004 theArctic Climate Impact Assessment(ACIA) stated that this has already beenenough to melt glaciers and icecaps,and to cause a decrease in summerArctic sea ice by 20% over the past 30years. This in turn has warmed andacidified oceans, caused a rise in sealevels and produced extreme weatherphenomena across the globe, includinghurricanes, heat waves and prolongeddroughts. These changes are all consis-tent with a warming climate near theEarth’s surface. Furthermore, accordingto scientists at the National Institute ofHealth and Medical Research, therewere nearly 15,000 additional deathsduring August 2003 in France alone, asa direct result of the soaring tempera-tures that summer.
A 1.4ºC increase in temperaturewould result in even greater catastro-phes. The IPCC predicts increasinglyviolent storms, droughts and flooding
and disruption of water supplies. Mostof those who would suffer are in poor-er countries, particularly LatinAmerica, Africa and Asia, as it is thesecountries that will bear the brunt of theclimate changes.
After reviewing the available scientif-ic data, the IPCC concluded that,“there is new and stronger evidencethat most of the observed warmingobserved over the last 50 years is attrib-utable to human activities”, especiallythe increase of greenhouse gases in theatmosphere. These findings have beenconfirmed by other committees ofexperts, such as the United StatesNational Assessment Synthesis team setup by the US Congress.
While human activity has increasedthe concentration of all greenhousegases, of particular concern is thatatmospheric concentrations of carbondioxide are rising faster than at anytime in Earth’s history. Although it isaccepted that carbon dioxide levels nat-urally fluctuate, current levels havebeen increasing over 200 times fasterthan the background rate, a fact clearlydemonstrated by ice core studies likethe Law Dome Ice Core project.
This increase is mainly the result ofburning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil andnatural gas, which release carbon diox-ide into the atmosphere. These energysources are used for almost everythingwe do – from powering our cars andheating our homes, to fuelling thepower stations on which we rely foreveryday life.
Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrousoxide and water vapour all occur natu-rally in the atmosphere, and all play animportant role in keeping the Earthsome 33ºC warmer than it would beotherwise by acting as a layer of insula-tion, trapping some of the heat reflect-ed off the Earth. However, humans havedramatically altered the natural balanceof greenhouse gases through increasingatmospheric concentrations of carbondioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.Indeed, according to data from NASA,humans release over 6.5 billion tonnesof carbon dioxide a year into the
atmosphere.The increase in concentra-tion of greenhouse gases leads togreater insulation around the Earth,resulting in the rise in temperature.Theatmosphere allows solar energythrough, but as it is reflected off theEarth, the wavelength of the radiationalters so it cannot pass back outthrough the atmosphere into space.Instead, it remains trapped causing anincrease in temperature.
In an attempt to combat climatechange, many countries, including theUK, are preparing to invest substantialresources to reduce the levels of green-house gases that are emitted, particular-ly carbon dioxide. The Kyoto Protocolis the result of a meeting of over 160nations, who agreed in 1997 that indus-trialised countries would reduce theircollective emissions of greenhouse
Kyoto: a Cure for Climate Change? Carolyn Dewey discusses the science behind one of the major challenges for global politics in the 21st Century
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During the last 100 years, the Earth’s temperature has risen by
a global average of 0.6°C
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Climate Change?
gases by 5.2% compared to the year1990. However, although signed in1997, the Kyoto Protocol will onlybecome legally binding on 16 February2005,with those that have ratified theProtocol having until 2012 to achievethis reduction.
In the UK, the government isattempting to achieve its targets by, forexample, using less coal for electricitygeneration, and replacing this methodwith renewable energy sources such aswind power.
Is Kyoto the cure?Some countries, including the US, haverefused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.This lack of commitment demonstratesthat the implementation of global poli-cy to combat climate change has notbeen without international dispute,
amongst both scientists and politicians.In the past, this controversy was part-
ly centred on the question of whetherhuman activity was responsible for cli-mate change, or whether it was theresult of variation in solar radiation.
Those who believed that human activ-ity was to blame thought that if man-made emissions were cut, then theeffects of climate change could be rad-ically reduced. This is one of the keyideas behind the Kyoto Protocol. Of
course, climate change is not justcaused by humans. Since the Earth’s cli-mate system is driven by the sun, it isaffected by solar variability. Anotherimportant factor affecting the climate isvolcanic eruptions, which can inject
large amounts of dust into the atmos-phere.
The IPCC have more recently con-cluded that the change in climate is theresult of both human and natural activ-ity. Their 2001 results illustrate that
major challenges for global politics in the 21st Century
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the change in climate is the result ofboth human and natural activity
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anthropogenic influences, such asgreenhouse gases and sulphate aerosols,provide a plausible explanation for asubstantial part of the temperaturechanges over the past century.They findthat the best agreement between modelsimulations and observations isobtained when both anthropogenicinfluences and natural influences, suchas solar variation and volcanic activity,are combined. The IPCC also cautionsthat although the influences includedin their study are sufficient to explainthe observed changes, this does notexclude the possibility that other influ-ences may have also contributed.
The climate changes on many differ-ent timescales, some of them millions ofyears long. It is well-known that thereare processes that affect climate changeover such times, and this is the subjectof paleoclimatology. For instance, theEarth’s position and orientation relativeto the sun are not fixed, but vary inwhat are known as Milankovitch cycles.Milankovitch cycles play an importantrole in explaining ice ages and otherclimate variability over thousands ofyears. However, for the prediction ofclimate change in the 21st century,long-term effects like the Milankovitchcycles are thought to be much lessimportant than the aforementionedanthropogenic and natural influences.
The climate is a very complex sys-tem, and the warming of the globe mayaffect it in unexpected ways. A particu-lar worry is that global warming maydisrupt the global circulation system,
known as the ‘Ocean Conveyor’. Thiscan contribute significantly to thewarming and cooling of the Earth.TheOcean Conveyor transports vastamounts of heat around the planet viathe Gulf Stream, warming the NorthAtlantic region by as much as 9ºC, andresulting in milder winters and warmersummers. For the Ocean Conveyor tofunction, there must be a critical con-centration of salt water, but as the Earthwarms up and glaciers and ice capsmelt, increasing amounts of fresh waterare released into the oceans, dilutingthe salt water. As a result, the Conveyorshuts down, causing substantial coolingthroughout the North Atlantic region.Records from a variety of sources show
that this shutdown has happened sever-al times before, and appears to be hap-pening again. Data collected in 2002found that the North Atlantic had beendiluted dramatically by fresh water,with evidence of a slow-down of theOcean Conveyor reported in 2001.However, it is difficult to make an actu-al prediction as to when the Ocean
Conveyor will shut down, as the exactcritical concentration of salt water onwhich it depends is not yet known. Soin the longer term, the NorthernHemisphere at least may be headingtowards a cooling climate, rather than awarmer one.
So, what now? Most national governments are com-mitted to the Kyoto Protocol, and toreducing the emission of man-madegreenhouse gases. But is the Kyoto pro-tocol good enough? A model by TomWigley, one of the authors of the IPCCreports, shows that an expected temper-ature increase of 2.1ºC by 2100 would
be diminished by the Kyoto Protocol toan increase of 1.9ºC.This latter temper-ature is the predicted increase for 2094without emission reduction. Therefore,the temperature increase that the plan-et would have experienced in 2094would simply be postponed by sixyears.
The statistician Bjørn Lomborg hasestimated that the implementation ofthe Kyoto Protocol may cost up to onetrillion US dollars worldwide. Hebelieves that the cost in the US alonewould be greater than that of providingglobal access to clean drinking waterand sanitation – a measure that couldprevent two million deaths a year andprotect half a billion people from seri-
ous illnesses like cholera. This raisesmany questions, perhaps most signifi-cantly that if the Kyoto Protocol willnot stop climate change, but merelydelay it, would the money needed toimplement it be more beneficially spenton providing global access to cleanwater, and maybe preparing for theinevitable?
ConclusionIt is clear that the Earth is gettingwarmer, with potentially devastatingconsequences for billions of people,especially those in developing countriesand those who live in low-lying areas.Human activity has been shown tocause an increase in the amount ofgreenhouse gases in the atmosphere,most notably carbon dioxide, and thereis robust scientific evidence thatdemonstrates that the change in globaltemperature is connected to bothhuman influences, like the increase ingreenhouse gases, and natural influ-ences, such as solar variability. So, whatare we to do? Should developed nationstry to do something about climatechange? Should there be a stricterKyoto-style protocol? Or should wejust accept that climate change isinevitable, and work on alleviating itsadverse effects? If there is a balance,what is it?
If you had to spend the money, whatwould you do?
Carolyn Dewey is a medical student basedat Addenbrooke’s Hospital. Additional
research and writing by Björn Haßler
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the introduction of the Kyoto Protocol may cost up to one trillion
US dollars worldwide
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if the Kyoto Protocol will not stop climate change would the money bemore beneficially spent on providing
global access to clean water?
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Further ReadingThe Intergovernmental Panel onClimate Change
www.ipcc.ch
United Nations FrameworkConvention on Climate Change
http://unfccc.int
EU carbon trading scheme http://europa.eu.int/comm/
environment/climat/emission.htm
09www.bluesci.org
Outsmarting the CheatsMushrooms, plant seeds, dried figs anddogs’ testicles might not appear to havemuch in common. Yet for GreekOlympians 2000 years ago, these werethe equivalent of doping. Times havechanged though, and in what has becomea highly lucrative business, the methodsand drugs available to enhance athleticperformance are becoming increasinglysophisticated. The scandals of Athensmay have left the front pages, but theproblem remains. Modern day cheatshave tricks up their sleeves, but scientistsare working hard to find methods tocatch them out.Will they have outsmart-ed the cheats by the time the Olympicsreach Beijing in 2008?
Among the most popular performanceenhancing drugs are peptide hormones,including erythropoietin (EPO), humangrowth hormone (HGH) and insulin-likegrowth factor 1 (IGF-1). These are all natu-rally made by the body, but cheats inject analmost identical synthetic form, which aug-ments the body’s natural levels and potenti-ates their effects. EPO is naturally producedby the kidneys and stimulates erythropoiesis;the production of red blood cells. By inject-ing EPO, athletes can increase their red bloodcell count and thus improve their ability tocarry oxygen, which is an attractive prospectin endurance events. HGH is naturally pro-duced in the brain by the pituitary gland, andstimulates the growth of muscle, cartilage,and bone. Cheats commonly use it toincrease muscle size and reduce musclefatigue. Of course, all this doesn’t come with-out a price.Aside from the prospect of a life-time ban, there are plenty of downsides todoping. HGH, for example, can cause heart,liver and kidney damage, various cancers andabnormal growth of the hands and face.These are the hard-hitting consequences,which are often forgotten in the pursuit ofglory.
These ‘designer’ drugs are either almostidentical to those naturally produced by ourbody, making it impossible to detect them assynthetic, or are so recently developed thatthey are virtually unheard of in the scientificcommunity. Scientists at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) are faced with thechallenging task of developing tests to detectchemicals which either appear to be invisibleor they don’t even know exist! “Urine is cur-
rently the main matrix we use for drug test-ing, but blood will be increasingly used as wedevelop tests for previously undetectablesubstances. Hair, saliva and sweat detectionmethods are being considered for future use,”explains Dr Olivier Rabin, ScientificDirector for WADA.
The main area of research at present is thedevelopment of a reliable test for HGH, butit’s not an easy task as Dr Richard Holt, Headof the Growth Hormone 2004 project, dis-covered: “The first problem we came upagainst was that HGH isn’t excreted in oururine, so we couldn’t use urine testing.Secondly, HGH is secreted in pulses, mean-ing that levels within the body can varytremendously. Thirdly, both stress and exer-cise increase HGH levels, so you can imaginethat during a major competition, an athlete’sHGH will naturally increase. Finally HGHthat the cheats administer is identical to nat-urally produced growth hormone. All thismakes our job of finding an accurate testvery difficult indeed.”
To date, two approaches have been fol-lowed to detect exogenous growth hor-mone: the isoform method and the down-stream markers method.The isoform methodrelies upon the fact that our body naturallyproduces many molecules of growth hor-mone, which vary in weight. These areknown as isoforms, and the naturally pre-dominant one weighs 22 kiloDaltons (kDa).The injected form of HGH consists purely ofthe 22 kDa form, and causes all the other iso-forms to disappear from the circulation.Thus, by looking at the ratio of the differentisoforms, the presence of exogenous HGHcan be detected. Unfortunately, this methodonly detects HGH injected up to 24 hoursbefore, a risk very few athletes are willing totake. Instead, they are more likely to takeHGH in training several weeks before com-petition.
Dr Holt’s research group has been pio-neering the downstream markers approach.Unlike the isoform method, this test looks atthe secondary effects of HGH on the body,and is concerned with the stimulation ofprotein production, particularly IGF-1 andprocollagen type 3.The fundamental princi-ple behind the test is that subjects injecting
exogenous HGHwill have unusuallyhigh concentrationsof these two mark-ers. “The beauty ofthis method is thatalthough it takeslonger for these mark-ers to rise, it also takeslonger for them tofall. So we have agreater chance ofcatching the cheats,”says Dr Holt.
This research isencouraging but DrHolt and his col-leagues at WADA maysoon face another hur-dle: gene doping, thealtering of an individ-ual’s genetic make up togain genes that will ulti-mately enhance their per-formance. Gene dopingcan be achieved in twoways: either by directlyinjecting the gene into themuscle or tissue, or by deliv-ering it to all the tissues via avirus. Although talk of genedoping may conjure images of‘super-humans’, and the topicis often treated as futuristic,there is no escaping thefact that mice and baboonshave already proved success-ful subjects for gene therapy. So, justhow ridiculous is the idea that ath-letes might use it? “Sadly, gene dop-ing is a real possibility,” sighs DrRichard Budgett, Director of MedicalServices at the British OlympicAssociation. “Therapeutic genetictreatments are rapidly improving, whichis great. Unfortunately there’s very littleto stop someone injecting a gene forEPO instead.”
Research into finding a test for gene dop-ing is already under way, but the problem sci-entists face seems almost insurmountable:howdo you detect which genes the athlete wasborn with and which they weren’t? “I’ve nodoubt there will be those willing to use genetherapy for non-therapeutic applications,” saysDr Rabin. According to a recent statementfrom the International Olympic Committee,antigen detection, gene chips and protein iden-tification are all being used to try and findeffective tests. Despite this, one is left with thefeeling that there will always be those who willstop at nothing to go stronger, higher andfaster.
Emma McIlroy is a third year NaturalScientist specialising in
Experimental Psychology
Modern day cheatshave tricks up their
sleeves, but scientistsare working hard to
find methods tocatch them out
“
”
‘designer’ drugs areeither almost identical
to those naturallyproduced by ourbody… or are so
recently developedthat they are virtually
unheard of
“
”
Emma McIlroy investigates the future of performance enhancing drugs in sport
JonathanZ
wart
10 Lent 2005
Soon after starting tumourresearch, I was asked what Iwould do if I invented a curefor cancer. Setting aside the improb-ability of such an event, I was forcedto admit that I didn’t know. Would Iwrite to Nature and present my ideato the world? Or write to the PatentOffice and secure the invention asmy own?
As cynical as it sounds to think oflegal ownership before potential bene-fit, an invention lacking legal protectionmay never be funded, and withoutfunding it may never be more than justa good idea.The question of whether to
patent faces many researchers duringtheir career.Although in industry it maybe second nature, in academia thechoice is more difficult and not alwaysunderstood. So what is involved? Andwhat are the pros and cons for scientistsin academia?
The ‘intellectual property’ generatedby many kinds of creative endeavour canbe protected in a number of ways, fromcopyright to patents, design rights andtrademarks. For inventions emerging
from scientific research,patenting is a useful way to secure
ownership and protection.Under UK law, invention ownership is
acknowledged by letters patent, in whichthe inventor publicly discloses details ofthe invention. In return, a limitedmonopoly is granted allowing the inven-tion to be ‘exploited’ (manufactured andsold) for a defined period (usually 20years) in the UK. Crucially, the monop-oly can be defended to stop competitorsdeveloping similar products. An inven-tion need not be a wonder drug or rev-olutionary gadget to qualify for patent.Even the simplest idea can be filed, solong as it is ‘novel’ (has not been docu-mented before), ‘inventive’ (is not anobvious advance) and has commercialapplication.
However, filing is not an overnightprocess and there is no guarantee of suc-cess.Applications are made in writing tothe Patent Office specifying what isbeing claimed, and a patent attorney isusually required to draft this preciselyworded document. Securing UK rightstakes around a year, and internationalprotection a further 18 months or more.
Importantly, although successful appli-cations are published publicly, details ofthe work must be kept secret prior tofiling so that the invention is considerednovel. Public disclosure before this dateinvalidates the application. Forresearchers who make their namethrough publishing in academic jour-nals, this requirement may make filing
for patent an unattractive prospect.Finally, while filing at the Patent Officeis free, paying an attorney, assessing theapplication internationally and renewinga granted patent cost thousands ofpounds.
Cambridge Enterprise, part of theUniversity’s Research Services Division,helps University members to file for apatent, handle legal details and suggestssponsorship sources to defray the costs.Part of its mission is to “enhance theUniversity’s contribution to societythrough knowledge transfer from theUniversity to the community”.Certainly, while the rights to a patentedinvention can be licensed for commer-cial production, an unpatented inven-tion may never get off the drawingboard because it lacks financial backing.The legally defensible monopoly grant-ed by a patent is the all-important pre-requisite for commercial development.
Andrew Thomas, a Cambridge PhDgraduate, patented part of his doctoralresearch work with a pharmaceuticalfirm. He says,“It’s gratifying that what Idid in the lab may now be developedcommercially. It could become a realproduct benefiting real people.”
Dr Charles Smith of the University’sCavendish Laboratory agrees. His groupestablished a spin-out company todevelop technology arising from theirwork in semiconductor physics. “Oneway of doing academic research is tomove on to other projects if it becomestoo applied,” says Smith. “Manyresearchers don’t know how to makethe commercial leap. But it’s just asinteresting, and now it has applications.Perhaps we can start solving problems.”
Patenting may not be the naturalchoice for university scientists in the raceto publish. But it is a practical way totranslate knowledge out of the academicivory tower into real world products withbeneficial application. Less a profit drivengrasp for commercial success, and more adecision for development and protection,it is undoubtedly a choice worth consid-ering. With University help and numer-ous information sources available, thedecision can be made with an under-standing of what is involved.
And whether it’s a cure for cancer orsomething far less revolutionary, everyinvention deserves its chance to changethe world.
Alistair Moore is a PhD student in theDepartment of Biochemistry
Jona
than
Zw
art
The question ofwhether to patent
faces manyresearchers during
their career
“
”
Even the simplestidea can be filed“
”
Alistair Moore examines what is involved in patenting inventions arising from scientific research
Patent Pending
The Terminator, C-3PO and HAL:Hollywood’s robot stars. Scientists andengineers have spent years attemptingto turn this science fiction into reality,but have we really come any closer tocreating an artificially intelligent being?
Amateur scientist and self-proclaimed“nerd with a mission”, Steve Grand hascome closer than some. Close enough, infact, for Richard Dawkins to label him“the creator of what I think is the nearestapproach to artificial life so far”. Grand’saim is to create a machine ‘brain’; amachine capable of self-organising into aseries of more specialised machines, withonly sensory information as a guide. Lucythe orang-utan is the first step on hismammoth quest.
Lucy (pictured on the right) comes fullyequipped with binaural hearing, monocu-lar vision, virtual muscles, touch and tem-perature sensors, and even a voice.Information from the environment isdetected by these sense devices and passedto her brain. The brain itself consists ofover 50, 000 virtual neurons, which worktogether to form an array of neural cir-cuits. Grand aims to show that these cir-cuits can interact to produce outcomesthat are unpredictable. In other words, thatcomplexity can arise from apparently sim-ple beginnings.With this intellectual tool-box behind her, Lucy can distinguish abanana from an apple, a simple feat for ahuman,but impressive for a robotic orang-utan. How does she do this?
The answer lies in the building of Lucy’svirtual brain. Grand used conventionalcomputer programmes to simulate differ-ent brain structures.This included a modelof the superior colliculus, the part of thebrain that receives visual information andstimulates motor responses.The visual partof Lucy’s ‘brain’ enables her to differentiatebetween apples and bananas, while themotor part allows her to move her eyesand arms to a visual point in space.
But why would Lucy want to point at abanana rather than an apple? It is certainlynot due to Lucy having a penchant fortropical fruit. Instead, Grand has had tobuild a preference for bananas into herprogram, as the reasoning behind whyorganisms choose one option over anoth-er is far beyond our current understand-ing.The programming integrates to allowLucy to distinguish boundaries, recognisetwo fruit shapes, realise her intrinsic pref-erence for the long, yellow fruit and final-
ly point at the banana. Joining togetherthese fairly simple components makesLucy special: separate areas of her ‘brain’are programmed with individual func-tions, and yet together they interact tocombine visual sensation with movement.
In many ways this does not seem likeground-breaking robotics. After all, thereare many pre-programmed house robotsthat can sense the environment andrespond accordingly. Even Grand admitsthat Lucy only points at bananas becausethis is what she was wired up to do.Despite
this, Grand’s virtual orang-utan stilldeserves a place in history. Although Lucywas given pre-programmed machinery, shedidn’t actually know anything about applesand bananas, and so had to work it out forherself.Grand argues that this shows neuralcircuits organising themselves into some-thing more complex, and is thus an exam-ple of development and learning.
The difficulty arises in knowing exactlywhat it is ‘to learn’. Definitions and mech-anisms of learning and intelligence havelong been debated by philosophers andscientists. Without understanding what itmeans to say ‘I learn’ on a descriptive ormechanical level, it is impossible to judgewhether Lucy has learnt or not.
Lucy’s true importance lies in her givingus a tantalising glimpse of how we think.If simple circuits can allow a robot torecognise a banana and point at it, thenthere is no reason to think that our ownbrain cells cannot create more complicat-ed networks and outcomes.
So should the Cambridge applicants ofthe future worry about competing forplaces with robots? Grand thinks not. If areal breakthrough in artificial intelligenceis to be made, scientists must work out theprocesses behind learning, intelligenceand creativity. “Until then, there’s thesmall matter of making Lucy smartenough to pick up the application form!”says Grand.
Understanding the brain through exper-imenting with circuits seems a worthwhilecourse for now.After all, evolution did notget the wiring perfect first time. Perhapsone day an amateur in a shed will strikelucky and get it right.Anna Lacey is a third year Natural Scientist
specialising in Zoology
11www.bluesci.org
Robots: the Next Generation?Anna Lacey goes in search of artificial life
Lucy the orang-utanis the first step on
his mammoth quest
“”
Lucy’s true importance lies in
her giving us a tantalising glimpse of
how we think
“
”
Stev
eG
rand
12 Lent 2005
The Genetic Origins of Humanity
Even setting aside the knotty philo-sophical problem of what makes ushuman, there is still a biological puz-zle: how did we acquire the featuresthat set us apart from our nearest rela-tives, the chimpanzees? Humans andchimps share 98.5% of their geneticmaterial, more than many other siblingspecies pairs.That number increases to99.4% if you consider only the stretch-es of DNA containing the informationto synthesise proteins. How could thistiny remaining difference account forall the peculiarities of Homo sapiens:walking upright, brain size, intelli-gence, language and complex society?
A general answer lies in the way genesbuild organisms. The development of anorganism is controlled by the intricatedance of genes turning on and off inexactly the right place and time. A verysubtle change in this dance, a geneexpressed slightly longer or over a slightly
smaller area, can have profound changesin the end result. Until a few years ago,this general answer was all we had,but now, with full genomesequencing capabilities and mod-ern molecular biology tech-niques, we are starting to getfresh insights into the fasci-nating question of whatmakes us unique.
One of the most intrigu-ing of these answers con-cerns a gene namedFOXP2. This gene appearsto be involved in humanlanguage ability, as demon-strated by a recurringmutation that causes inher-ited language impairments.Furthermore, the nor-mal human FOXP2protein differs fromthe version thatother primateshave byo n l y
two amino acids (protein building blocks).By statistically analysing the traces of evo-lutionary change in modern humangenomes, scientists have estimated that thehuman population underwent intense nat-ural selection in favour of our unique ver-sion about 100,000 years ago, the time thatmany anthropologists believe languagedeveloped.
FOXP2 encodes a transcription factor, aprotein that promotes the expression ofother genes. In other words, FOXP2 is a‘master switch’ that directs part of thedevelopmental dance of genes. In humanfoetuses, FOXP2 is expressed in areas ofthe brain that will become important forfine motor control, such as the cerebellumand the caudate nucleus in thebasal ganglia. Indeed, peo-ple with defectiveF O X P 2have anabnor-ma l l y
small cerebellum and caudate nucleus, asseen by brain imaging. Perhaps FOXP2helps to direct the development of thisbrain circuitry, and the unique human ver-sion subtly alters the development so thatwe can make the specialised mouth andtongue movements required for speech.Nimble tongue muscles are only onerequirement of speech, and there is no evi-dence to suggest that FOXP2 is the only‘language gene’. In any case, we still needto understand the genes that FOXP2 reg-ulates before we know how these differ-ences arise.
Meanwhile, researchers have also beenpursuing genes that might be responsiblefor the difference between our out-landishly large brains and those of other
primates. For example, an internationalteam of scientists led by GeoffreyWoods at Leeds University foundthat a mutation in a gene calledASPM makes the brain abnormally
small, indicating that it regulatesbrain size. Like FOXP2, this
gene has also undergoneintense selection in human
evolution, with several‘sweeps’ of new versions
through early humanpopulations everyfew hundred thou-sand years, the lastsweep being200,000 to500,000 yearsago. ASPM was
also under selec-tion pressurebefore humanssplit off fromc h i m p a n z e e s ,
suggesting that itincreased brain sizein the great apes aswell. Biologists
hypothesise thatASPM may controlbrain size by regulat-
ing cell division inthe developing
brain.
Andrew Lin explains how small genetic changes go a long way towards making us human
Varsity Archive
Humans and chimpsshare 98.5% of the
same genetic material“
”
H owe ve r ,evolution takes
place within con-straints, and the brain can only grow as bigas the skull cavity. One critical step inallowing the extraordinary brain expan-sion in human evolution was to weakenour jaw muscles. Powerful jaw musclesexert strain on the skull, inducing thickbone that constrains brain growth.Human jaws are more delicate than thoseof our ape cousins, suggesting that weak-ening our jaws allowed our brains to getbigger. Hansell Stedman and colleagues atthe University of Pennsylvania haverecently found that MYH16, a critical
muscle proteinfound in non-human primatejaw muscles, ismissing inhumans. It was
probably knockedout approximately
two million years ago,about the time when our brains
started to grow.These studies have revealed for the first
time a few specific genes that give humanssome of our uniqueness. Still, we shouldhesitate before focusing on them as thegenes that make us human. In fact, a statis-
tical comparison between the human andchimpanzee genomes has revealed hun-dreds of other genes that have undergoneselective pressure in human evolution.These have diverse functions from hearingand smell to bone development andmetabolism.With this word of caution inmind, these case studies demonstrate that afew subtle tweaks to the genome canwreak dramatic changes. So the next time
you see a chimpanzee, marvel at how sim-ilar, and yet so different, you are.
Andrew Lin is an MPhil student in theDepartment of Anatomy
Vars
ityA
rchiv
e
Human jaws are more delicate than those of our ape cousins,
suggesting that weakening our jawsallowed our brains to get bigger
“
”
14 Lent 2005
You probably know the feeling. Youralarm clock is ringing and it’s time toface the morning. Suddenly, memoriesof the previous night come floodingback, along with a pounding headacheand raging thirst.You struggle to lec-tures with wobbly limbs and waves ofnausea, making that tired old vow,“Never again. Never again.”
Despite our many scientific advances,there has never been a scientifically based,experimentally verified hangover cure. Itsimply isn’t in our best interests to findone. The hangover is our body’s way oftelling us that we have poisoned our-selves. Through understanding the sci-ence behind hangovers, how can wemake them disappear?
The first ‘cure’ is the most obvious:pure and simple water. One of the mainproblems with alcohol is that it causesdehydration. Ethanol is a diuretic. It actson the brain’s pituitary gland and blocksproduction of anti-diuretic hormone(ADH). Normally,ADH acts on the kid-ney to reabsorb water that otherwise endsup in the bladder. When this hormonalhydrostat is disabled, we start needing thetoilet a lot more than usual. We end upexpelling more water than we drink. Todeal with this drought, the body borrowswater from other parts, such as the brain,causing it to shrink temporarily. Thebrain is not able to sense pain, but it is
thought that dehydration shrivels the thinmembrane, the dura, which covers it. Asthe dura shrivels, it causes tension in painsensitive fibres that attach it to the skull.This is why it feels like your brain mightburst out of your head.
Whilst it is a good idea to down a cou-ple of pints of water before retiring tobed, plain water is often not enough forthe most vicious hangovers. Frequent vis-its to the toilet cause not only dehydra-tion, but also loss of vital ions from thebody. Ions such as potassium and sodiumare key to the way nerves and muscleswork, and slight imbalances could explainsome symptoms such as headaches,fatigue and nausea. At the same time,alcohol depletes our reserves of sugar.
While alcohol is being metabolised, theproduction of new glucose is inhibitedand glycogen, the sugar storage in theliver, is depleted.Acute alcohol consump-tion, especially in combination withsugar, augments insulin secretion andcauses temporary hypoglycaemia. Thiscan explain the weak and wobbly feelingof the morning after the night before.Given the loss of ions and glucose, itmight be a good idea to drink an isoton-ic sports drink rather than plain waterbefore going to bed.These drinks are fullof vital ions and sugar, and could go someway to correcting the balance before it’stoo late.
Many ‘hangover cures’ have been mar-keted over recent years, but for most ofthem one can only rely on manufactur-ers’ claims regarding their effectiveness.Many are simply vitamin supplements,which purport to speed up the body’sclean-up operation.Alcohol causes deple-tion of some vitamins, so it won’t do anyharm to take a multivitamin tablet beforebed, but you can’t rely on it to work mir-acles. Some remedies make use of the fil-tering properties of carbon to reduce thenumber of impurities the body has toprocess. Alcoholic drinks contain naturalby-products of the fermentation processas well as ethanol. These contaminantsinclude methanol, aldehydes, acetone,histamine, tannins, iron, lead, cobalt andsulphites, with darker coloured drinkssuch as whisky and red wine having morethan clear drinks. Charcoal based reme-dies claim to remove some impurities toreduce their impact on the body whileyou sleep.
One supplement that is claimed to aidthe prevention of hangovers is N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC). This is an amino acidsupplement sold in health food shops.NAC is supposed to work by boosting thebody’s ability to mop up harmful chemi-cals called free radicals, which build up inthe liver as it breaks down ethanol.Normally, free radicals are removed byglutathionine, but after a heavy night’sdrinking the reserves of glutathionine runlow. NAC is useful because it is formedfrom cysteine, an amino acid that formsthe core of glutathionine.With the extracysteine available from NAC, glutathion-ine remains plentiful, and can carry out itsclean-up operation for longer.This couldalso explain the use of old remedies, suchas an English fried breakfast or raw eggs,as eggs are naturally rich in cysteine. As abonus, fried breakfast also boosts blood
Hangover Hell
Charley Barber explores the remedies for the morning after
The hangover is our body’s way oftelling us that we have poisoned
ourselves
“”
Hel
enSt
imps
on
15www.bluesci.org
sugar levels.Wash it down with fruit juice,and you’re well on your way.That’s if youcan stomach it of course.
Taking painkillers is one of the mostobvious, and often necessary cures, but itisn’t always a good idea to rely on them assome are more effective at relievinghangovers than others. Combinations ofparacetamol and caffeine can be effectivebecause the caffeine acts as a vasocon-strictor, reducing the size of the poundingblood vessels. However, doctors warnagainst using paracetamol as it mayamplify alcohol’s damaging effect on theliver. Like alcohol, caffeine is also adiuretic, so it will add to the problem ofdehydration.As an alternative, aspirins arein a class of anti-inflammatory drugscalled prostaglandin inhibitors. Thesemight help reduce inflammation in orderto ease the headache in the morning.
The final and perhaps most dubiouscure is the ‘hair of the dog’. Many peoplebelieve that a small amount of alcohol themorning after will get rid of the hangoverand allow you to face the day. Perhaps notthe best tactic for Saturday morning lec-ture-goers, but there is science behind theidea. Research has shown that somehangovers kick in long after ethanol hasbeen cleared from the body.Here the cul-prit tends to be methanol. In dealing withtoxins, the liver cleans out in a strictorder, starting with ethanol. When iteventually reaches methanol, this is bro-ken down into formic acid, which isbelieved to be the cause of some moresevere hangover symptoms. The logicbehind the ‘hair of the dog’ is that anoth-er dose of alcohol switches the liver backto breaking down ethanol, preventing thebuild up of more formic acid. However,be warned, the relief is only temporary;eventually the liver will return to break-ing down the methanol.
Clearly, none of these cures are perfect,but a combination of them all might be agood idea. In the end, only time willallow your body to detoxify itself.
Charley Barber is a third year NaturalScientist specialising in Zoology
1. Britain’s binge drinking culture iscosting the country £20 billion a yearThe long term effect of heavy drinkingis serious and the NHS estimates itspends £164m a year treating alcohol-related conditions.2. Binge drinking is defined as drinkingmore than 10 units of alcohol in a sin-gle session for men and 7 units forwomen One unit is equivalent to 8 g of ethanol,which is about half a pint of beer.Thecurrent recommendation for alcoholconsumption in men and women is 21and 14 units per week respectively.Minimal effects may occur at a bloodalcohol concentration (BAC) of about45 mg per 100 ml and 10 times this cancause death.3. Alcohol is absorbed mostly throughthe stomach and small intestineWhen you have a drink, about 20% ofthe alcohol is absorbed directlythrough the upper gastrointestinaltract, mostly the stomach, and the restthrough the small intestine.About 5% isexcreted by the kidneys and 5% by thelungs as vapour,which is the basis of thebreathalyser test.4.Alcohol is mainly broken down in theliver by alcohol dehydrogenase This enzyme converts ethanol toacetaldehyde, which in turn is brokendown by aldehyde dehydrogenase toacetic acid (a component of vinegar).
5.Alcohol affects both higher and lowercentres of the brain Alcohol enhances the action of GABA,an inhibitory neurotransmitter, and dis-turbs the processing of sensory infor-mation, resulting in unconsciousnessand amnesia. In the cerebral cortex,alcohol depresses the behaviouralinhibitory centres, so you becomemore talkative, more self-confident, andless socially inhibited. It also slowsdown the processing of informationfrom the five senses, and can inhibitthought processes. As alcohol affectsthe limbic system, you may experienceexcessive anger, aggressiveness, with-drawal, and memory loss. Finally, alco-hol affects the cerebellum, leading touncoordinated muscle movements andloss of balance.6.Alcohol causes dehydrationAlcohol acts on the pituitary gland to
reduce circulating levels of anti-diuretichormone (ADH). When ADH levelsdrop, the collecting ducts of the kidneysdo not reabsorb as much water, result-ing in an increase in urine production(diuresis) and dehydration. In fact, thehangover headache is caused by waterloss from the brain due to excessivealcohol consumption.7.The human body can adapt to contin-ued exposure to alcohol The body’s increased tolerance to alco-hol involves an elevated level of alcoholdehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydro-genase, as well as an augmented brainactivity. As the body becomes moreefficient at eliminating the high levels ofalcohol in the blood, you need to drinkmore to experience the same effects asbefore. This can contribute to addic-tion. These adaptations are accompa-nied by behavioural changes.8. Long-term heavy alcohol cosumptioncan affect the liver, heart and brainThe most common form of diseaseassociated with alcohol abuse is livercirrhosis, which is the scarring of theliver associated with destruction of itsnormal architecture. Atrophy of greyand white matter in the brain andincreased risk of stroke can also result.Alcohol is also thought to lower levelsof aldosterone and increase levels ofcorticosterone in the blood vessels andincrease the vasoconstrictor response
to noradrenaline. This leads to highblood pressure,which further increasesthe chances of stroke and heart failure.9. Moderate alcohol consumption isthought to be beneficial to health The French are known to consumefoods high in saturated fats and choles-terol, yet they have a low mortality ratefrom coronary heart disease. Severalred wine components show promisefor their possible cardioprotectiveeffects, for example polyphenolic com-ponents such as bioflavonoids andproanthocyanidins. Components ofgrape skin, such as resveratrol andnitric oxide, are also important, as thelatter has a relaxing effect on theendothelium of arteries.
Ryan Patel is a third year NaturalScitentist specialising in Pharmacology
In the end, only time will allow yourbody to detoxify itself“
”
Nine Things You ShouldKnow About Alcohol
Abi
nand
Ran
gesh
Mobile phones have revolutionised ourlives in many ways. They are invaluablewhen you miss your train or when yourcar breaks down. For a small group ofpeople in two very different parts of theworld they are turning out to be, quiteliterally, a life-saver.
A major problem facing health servicesworldwide is that a considerable number ofpatients don’t take their medication as pre-scribed.This means that serious illnesses arenot treated as effectively as they might be.Aworrying example of this is the persistentlyhigh level of tuberculosis (TB) in SouthAfrica.An extremely effective TB treatmentexists, but it relies on patients taking med-ication consistently for six months. Thetrouble is that a significant proportion ofpatients don’t complete enough of theircourse of drugs to cure them, keeping lev-els of TB unnecessarily high. In an effort toalleviate this problem the World HealthOrganisation recommends that a doctorobserves patients taking their medicineeach day. Unfortunately, this means dailytrips to a health care centre, which areinconvenient for patients, and a burden onalready stretched health resources.
Frustrated with this conventional andtime-consuming approach, Dr DavidGreen, a GP from Cape Town, pioneeredan innovative solution to the problem. Heinvestigated the reasons why people werenot taking their medication, and discov-ered that in many cases they simply forgot.He thought up the idea of sending his
patients text messages each day, remindingthem to take their medication, in this casethe TB drug Rifafol. Initially he used thesimple message, “Take your Rifafol now,”but after feedback from his patients, pro-gressed to messages that combined themedication reminder with disease infor-mation, lifestyle tips, general knowledgeand even the occasional joke.
The scheme was a tremendous success.The 32 patients initially enrolled havereached the end of their six month courseof medication. All completed the fullcourse and all but one are free from TB.Afurther 70 patients are taking part in thestudy and are showing equally promisingresults. When I asked Dr Green why hebelieved that the scheme was so successful,he said: “It is based on good science withrespect to why people don’t take theirmedicines. It is very simple, low cost anduses a device [the mobile phone] that ispopular and readily available. All that andhard work and passion!”Encouraged by hissuccess,Dr Green has gone on to provide asimilar service for patients suffering fromHIV, high blood pressure, arthritis, and dia-betes.
Forgetting to take medication regularlyis also a significant problem here in theUK. As well as being detrimental to thepatient, it is enormously costly to healthcare providers. According to some figures,the NHS spends a staggering 4% of itsbudget on medication that is effectivelywasted by not being taken as prescribed.Dr
Ron Neville, a GP from Dundee,has takenadvantage of the fact that text messages areparticularly popular amongst young peopleto pilot a scheme to help teenagers managetheir asthma, a disease which affects 15% ofunder 18s and can be controlled reasonablywell with regular medication through aninhaler. Dr Neville decided to use a virtualfriend called Max to remind patients viadaily text messages to use their inhaler.Thirty teenagers took part in the study,
receiving reminders such as,“Bonjour, c’estMax. Hav U taken Ur inhaler yet?” Likethe Cape Town study, they could alsoreceive lifestyle messages about sport,celebrity gossip and horoscopes, as well ashealth advice on dealing with asthma.Thestudy, reported in the British Medical Journal,showed very positive results, with inhaleruse improving considerably. As Dr Nevilleexplains,“We tried to make the disease andits treatment comply with the patient, notthe other way around.”
Both studies have attracted considerableinterest from groups worldwide. Indeed,groups in Spain and Korea have recentlypublished results of trials using text mes-sages for the management of diabetes and asreminders to attend hepatitis vaccinationsessions. However, as Dr Green warns, “Asubstantial effort is needed in setting up andmaintaining such schemes.” His company,On-Cue, have tried supplying reminders toother countries, but found that they weredisappointingly unsuccessful, probably dueto the lack of personal attention and driverequired to keep the system going. As DrGreen recalls, there were times at the begin-ning when the system would crash and hebecame the system, sitting at his desk send-ing the messages manually every half hour,day and night! Despite the teething prob-lems, it does seem that text message med-ication reminders could prove an innovativeand successful way for health services toimprove patient compliance. So next timeyou hear that familiar beep beep of a textmessage, spare a thought for those forwhom that message could mean muchmore than you might imagine.
This article was entered into The DailyTelegraph BASF Awards and is reproduced here
with kind permission of The Daily Telegraph
Katherine Borthwick was a PhD studentand postdoc in the Cambridge Institute for
Medical Research, and has recently taken upa postdoc position at Manchester University
16 Lent 2005
Mobile MedicineKatherine Borthwick finds out how just a simple text message helps the medicine go down
patients don’t complete enough oftheir course of drugs
to cure them
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MAYS [email protected]
We want your science writing!This year the MAYS editors are welcoming submissions for poetry, prose andgraphic literature. We hope to publish a broad range of writing, both creativeand non-fiction. For twelve years the MAYS has published the best studentwriting from Oxford and Cambridge. It is sold across the country anddistributed to literary agents and industry professionals.
Deadline for submissions: 30 January 2005
We are also seeking an arresting cover design and innovative ideas about thebook’s overall presentation.
Application deadline for publication designer: 24 January 2005
In each and every one of the billionsof cells in the body there are thou-sands of copies of a biological motor200,000 times smaller than a pinhead,an enzyme complex called ATP syn-thase. This motor rotates surprisinglyfast (approximately 6,000 revolutionsper minute!) and is essential for life.However, research at Professor SirJohn Walker’s laboratory suggests thatdisrupting this tiny machine might bea way to kill cancer cells, lower cho-lesterol levels and reduce the damagecaused by heart attacks and strokes.
ATP synthase is normally found withincellular compartments known as mito-chondria, which burn molecules derivedfrom carbohydrates and fats in food usingthe oxygen we breathe. This process,known as molecular respiration, releasesenergy, which is used to create an imbal-ance of protons (positively charged hydro-gen atoms, H+) across the mitochondrialmembrane in which ATP synthase isembedded.This is analogous to the imbal-ance of water across a dam.ATP synthaseuses the downhill flow of protons fromone side of the membrane to make theenergy currency of biology, a small mole-cule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP).ATP is then distributed throughout thecell and used to drive the many funda-mental processes that define life.The pro-duction of ATP by ATP synthase is themost prevalent chemical reaction in thebiological world and this motor is one ofthe most abundant proteins on earth,found in almost all organisms from bacte-ria to plants and mammals.
ATP synthase uses rotation of its partsto produce ATP. Rotation is not afavourite motion in living organisms:there is no animal with wheels, no birdwith a propeller and no fish with a screw!Remarkably, atomic level pictures showhow the enzyme is reminiscent of man-made motors, and strong evidence sup-ports a mechanism analogous to a water-wheel, which harnesses the energy offlowing water to drive a shaft.
Although ATP synthase normallyresides in the mitochondria, it is becom-ing increasingly evident that this enzymecan be found elsewhere within cells, play-ing quite a different role. Recently, ATPsynthase has been identified on the sur-face of cells that form blood vessels. It hasbeen suggested that it assists in energyproduction, enabling these cells to growand proliferate creating new blood ves-sels.The formation of new blood vessels,
termed angiogenesis, is a vital part ofwound healing, but it is also required fortumour growth.All cells, including cancercells, require a supply of blood vessels foroxygen and nourishment. Without thissupply network, a tumour cannot growbeyond a certain size and is unable tomigrate to other locations around thebody to create secondary tumours.Disrupting this enzyme on the surface ofthese cells could conceivably slow oreven halt tumour growth.
Meanwhile, problems can still arise inthe mitochondria. Strokes and heartattacks may be caused by a lack of bloodflow to the brain and heart respectively,which starves parts of these organs ofoxygen, leading to irreversible damage.As a result, brain and heart cells die, often
with fatal consequences. How might thisbe related to ATP synthase? Withoutoxygen, respiration cannot occur in themitochondria.Therefore, once tissues areoxygen starved, the imbalance of protonscollapses and the production of ATPceases.Worse still, ATP synthase starts torun backwards, breaking down ATP.Most cells typically have no more than
two minutes supply of ATP and so thisbreakdown must be prevented, a roleperformed by its natural inhibitor pro-tein IF1. IF1 is a protein that acts as a‘spanner in the works’, preventing rota-tion and breakdown of ATP.This protein,therefore, helps to limit the loss of valu-able ATP when tissues are deprived ofoxygen. Perhaps other molecules can bedesigned to specifically prevent thisbreakdown of ATP, and also to help slowtumour growth in cancers.
ATP synthase has also been found onthe surface of liver cells, where it isbelieved to facilitate the uptake of choles-terol by breaking down ATP. Cholesterolthat is taken up by the liver is brokendown and excreted, and ATP synthaseappears to play a role in maintaining nor-mal cholesterol levels in the blood.Excessive intake of fatty foods is well-known to lead to elevated cholesterollevels and subsequently, a greater risk ofheart disease. Stimulating this enzyme inthe liver, perhaps using enhancer mole-cules, may help to maintain lower choles-terol levels.
In another interesting development,this molecular motor has been used topower nanomechanical devices and alsoforced to rotate using external magnets.In addition, a switch has been successful-ly engineered into an ATP synthase frombacteria, allowing chemical control ofthe motor.These critical steps are bring-ing us closer to the realisation of biomol-ecular motor powered structures. Theintricate workings of this incrediblemachine need to be unravelled beforeany biotechnological applications can beimplemented.
Jonathan Gledhill is a PhD student in theMRC-Dunn Human Nutrition Unit
18 Lent 2005
Nature’s Motor:Putting a Spanner in the Works
Jonathan Gledhill reports on why we may want to interfere with ATP synthase, themotor producing our cellular energy
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Nature’s Motor: ATP Synthase
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In 1995 Dr Diana Bianchi was tryingto develop new non-invasive methodsof prenatal diagnosis. She and her col-leagues at the Children’s Hospital inBoston examined blood samples from32 pregnant women and tested forthe presence of cells with a Y chro-mosome, a good indicator that thewomen were carrying a male foetus.
Bianchi found male cells in 17 of thepatients, but when she compared herresults with those of the amniocenteses,she noticed that only 13 of the womenwere actually pregnant with boys. Theother four women carrying cells with aY chromosome had all been pregnantbefore: two of them had given birth tosons and the other two had had termina-tions. Bianchi then went on to analyseblood samples from eight non-pregnantmothers with sons.To her surprise, maleDNA was present in six of the women,including one who had her last child, aboy, 27 years before the test.
Although the presence of foetal cellsin the maternal circulation duringpregnancy is a phenomenon docu-mented as far back as 1969, the persist-ence of these foetal cells years, evendecades, after pregnancy was a relative-ly novel concept. Soon after the publi-cation of Bianchi’s findings, Dr LeeNelson from the Fred HutchinsonCancer Research Center in Seattlepublished a report on the associationbetween enduring foetal cells and theincidence of certain auto-immune dis-eases in the mother. It had long beenknown that women are more suscepti-ble to this type of disease than men, andthese new findings offered a possibleexplanation for this phenomenon.
Nelson examined female patients withscleroderma, a disease characterised bychronic inflammation of the skin thatadvances to attack the internal organs.The symptoms of scleroderma resemblethose of graft-versus-host disease, acomplication arising after bone marrowtransplants, in which the immune cellsfrom the donor attack the recipient’sorgans. Scleroderma most commonlyaffects women after their childbearingyears, and Nelson discovered that thepatients carried up to 30 times as manyfoetal cells in their blood as healthy
women.This suggested that sclerodermacould in fact arise from an immune reac-tion to the foetal cells.
The term microchimaerism, after themythical Greek creature chimaera (con-sisting of the head of a lion, the body ofa goat and the tail of a serpent), has beenadopted to refer to the persistence offoreign cells in the body.Microchimaerism is closely involvedwith several auto-immune diseases suchas scleroderma.
Auto-immune diseases related tomicrochimaerism can occur in the childas well as in the mother, albeit to a less-er extent. In all cases, there is a strong
correlation between the severity of theauto-immune disease and the number offoreign cells the patient is carrying. Howthese cells succeed in escaping detectionand elimination by the immune systemis a more complicated question.
Our body recognises ‘self ’ from ‘non-self ’ via a combination of genes knowncollectively as the major histocompati-bility complex (MHC). Each individualcarries two versions of each gene, creat-ing a great diversity among individuals,rather like an immune fingerprint.When cells from the immune systemcome across others with a differentMHC, they tag the invading cellsfor destruction. However, inscleroderma patients, thefoetal and maternal cellsare compatible at thelevel of one gene,DRB1, thus the foetalcells are not efficientlyrecognised and mayremain in the circulationfor a prolonged period.
It is not knownwhether microchi-maerism is a directcause or a by-productof auto-immune dis-eases. Bianchi, now aprofessor at TuftsUniversity School ofMedicine in Boston,is focusing on thehealing potential offoetal cells. Her teamexamined female micewhich were past their breedingage and had suffered from
severe liver injury. The relative level ofmale foetal cells in the liver increaseddramatically after injury, suggesting thatthe invading cells had been ‘recruited’ tohelp with the healing process.
This correlates with an observationmade in humans, where a mother suffer-ing from hepatitis C was found to becarrying male foetal cells in her recover-ing liver. Bianchi’s team is now seekingto demonstrate that the increased pres-ence of foetal cells in injured organsresponds to a need for new cells to repairthe damaged tissues. Rather than diseasecausing agents, she suggests that thefoetal cells may act as stem cells.
Whether foetal cells cause the moth-er more harm than benefit is not yetclear, nor do we know if they play anactive role in women’s health or aresimply innocent bystanders. Perhaps, byuncovering the mechanisms of actionof these long lasting cells, scientists canshift the balance in favour of women’swell-being.
This article was entered into The DailyTelegraph BASF awards and is reproduced here
with kind permission of The Daily Telegraph
Joanna Maldonado-Saldivia recently fin-ished her PhD in the Gurdon Institute of
Cancer and Developmental Biology
19www.bluesci.org
What Children Leave BehindJoanna Maldonado-Saldivia investigates the long lasting effects of pregnancy
a mother suffering from hepatitis C wasfound to be carrying
male foetal cells in her recovering liver
male DNA was presentin six of the women,
including one who hadher last child, a boy, 27years before the test
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The three hundred occupants of theBabraham Institute conduct theirbiomedical research in surroundingsthat are a little out of the ordinary: a19th century stately home in a smallvillage just to the south ofCambridge. There I met PaulCuddon, a final year PhD studentwho is completing his studies underDr Martin Bootman at the world-renowned Laboratory of MolecularSignalling. With the help of DrSimon Walker, the group’s imagingspecialist, Cuddon has taken photo-graphs of neurons at the extraordi-nary level of detail seen on the frontcover. These images allowed him tovisualise the fine level of interactionbetween two of the principal celltypes of the brain, the neuron andthe astrocyte.
As Cuddon explained to me, the pho-tograph featured on the front cover showsneurons in green, and their nuclei – just10 micrometres in diameter – in blue.The neurons communicate with eachother both via tiny fibres called neuritesand larger, one micrometre diameteraxons that lead away from the cell nucle-us. The red wool-like structures seen inthe photograph are astrocytes, supportivecells that provide neurons with vitalnutrients and oversee the formation ofneuron-neuron connections.
Cuddon has been examining the roleof calcium ions in the development ofhippocampal neurons, which are neces-sary for learning and memory consolida-tion in the brain. Calcium is essential forthe normal function of a wealth of bodi-ly processes, including muscle contrac-tion, bone structure, fertilisation, and cell
communication. It is not surprising then,that these ions also play a critical part inneuronal development by controlling thephysical growth of embryonic cells.
However, measuring ionic fluctuationsin intact brains is not easy. So instead,Cuddon cultured neurons on glass cover-slips at low and high densities, both withand without the supporting astrocytes.Such models of the brain then allowedhim to compare the development of neu-ronal networks with neurons grown inisolation. Mature high density culturesbest represent the brain cells’ native envi-ronment, and after two weeks, the cul-tured cells begin to exhibit synchronisedoscillations of intracellular calcium.Cuddon monitored these changes byapplying a calcium sensitive dye, whichmakes changes in intracellular calciumvisible under a microscope.
So how were his impressive photo-graphs created? Cuddon explains thatneurons and astrocytes were labelledwith different primary antibodies, via atechnique known as immunofluores-cence. Each antibody binds only to aspecific protein expressed by a giventype of cell, or part of a cell, such as the
nucleus. The neurons are then washedwith different fluorescently tagged, sec-ondary antibodies that bind uniquely toeach primary antibody. Finally, the cellswere illuminated with three differentcolours from a laser. Since each second-ary antibody only emits light at a dis-tinct wavelength, one is able to image aspecific type of cell, or part of a cell,with each of the three laser colours. Astate-of-the-art computer combines theseparate red, green and blue images toproduce a photograph of the astrocytes,neurons and nuclei, which appear inred, green and blue respectively. It iseven possible to focus the lasers at dif-ferent depths through the cells, lettingCuddon and Walker build up three-dimensional movies of the neurons.
Cuddon’s photographs allow him todetermine the exact densities of neu-rons and astrocytes on each glass cover-slip.This has led to a number of impor-tant discoveries. Most significantly, thelonger the high density neurons werekept in culture, the more advancedtheir calcium signalling pathwaysbecame. Although the lower densityneurons survived damaging prolongedstimulation better than their high den-sity counterparts of the same age, theydid not develop the same normal intra-cellular signalling machinery. Thismeans that a high density is essential fora new neuron to develop correctly.Thered wool is also important: the astro-cytes helped the low density neurons tolive longer and maintained the healthof the adult neurons.
Once Cuddon’s work is published, hewill leave the Babraham to move to theCambridge Institute for MedicalResearch, where he hopes to carry outmore clinical research into therapies forneurodegenerative diseases, such asAlzheimer’s, Huntington’s andParkinson’s. It is in this that Cuddon’scurrent research into the role of calci-um ions in the development of hip-pocampal neurons may prove vital.Perhaps, by manipulating neuronaldevelopment, treatment for these so farincurable diseases may even becomepossible!
www.babraham.ac.uk
Jonathan Zwart is a PhD student in theCavendish Laboratory
Side view of a neuron and its nucleus (blue)
Calcium is essentialfor the normal
function of a wealthof bodily processes
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20 Lent 2005
All in the MindPaul Cuddon of the Babraham Institute tells Jonathan Zwart about the neurons pictured on the cover
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Paul Cuddon at work
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The Forensic Science Service (FSS) aimsto contribute to crime detection, convic-tion of criminals and exoneration of theinnocent. In 2003, the FSS dealt with140,000 cases and continued to run aresearch facility responsible for manyforensic science breakthroughs andinnovations, particularly in the field ofDNA technology. Helen Butler works asan assistant forensic scientist at theirHuntingdon lab, one of seven laborato-ries across England.
What initially interested you in becoming aforensic scientist?
During my O-levels, my dad fitted thephone system in a FSS lab, and brought mehome their leaflet because I was interestedin biology and chemistry. I went on to do aNatural Sciences degree at Girton College,but wasn’t accepted for my first FSS appli-cation. Instead, I worked as a research assis-tant in molecular biology, investigatingwater contamination for 18 months.Then,the London (FSS) lab advertised for posi-tions, I applied and began my career withthe service.Was that the traditional entry route?
Yes, although some come into the servicewith just A-levels, and many people do theforensic science degree at the University ofEast Anglia. Most people have chemistry orbiology degrees, and some have PhDs. Adegree is required to become a reportingofficer (RO).How many people work directly with you inthe Huntingdon lab?
There are 60 assistants in the EvidenceRecovery Unit (literally, gathering evi-dence), and 40-50 reporting officers, whoare usually the only people who presentfindings of evidence collection in court.Weare split into four teams of recovery andreporting units. We always work with thesame team of reporting officers, and theteams have a mix of specialists in the vari-ous evidence types,mine being fibres analy-sis and blood work.Do you have a typical day?
No, it depends on the caseload. Forexample, a few days ago I received a coupleof case files, so first I spent some time get-ting it clear in my mind what the ROwanted me to look for. I then collected theitems of evidence from our store.The firstcase was an armed robbery during whichtwo people had tried to rob a pizzeria. Abalaclava had been found nearby, so I had tosearch it for hairs, blood and saliva. Ichecked for saliva with a test that reactswith amylase (an enzyme) to give a colour
marker.We had a reaction, so I extracted thecellular material and sent it off for DNAanalysis.The second case was evidence froma fight between two males, and I had tolook for blood on the knives found, but Ihaven’t had the results yet. ROs will some-times tell you about the findings, but most-ly we don’t get much feedback on theresults of our tests.When you work on a bigcase though, you may hear the outcomefrom the press.Are there any particular skills that you thinkare definitely needed for a career in forensicscience, like patience or attention to detail?
For fibres you certainly need a lot ofpatience. If you think about how manyfibres and debris you could get off a car seat,you can spend days searching them with alow power microscope.How are you trained?
We are trained in house.With fibres forexample, I trained for six to eight weeks.Wehave mock cases, and we don’t do any workon real cases until we have proved we arecompetent. Even then, we have five to 10cases that are mentored.Is it stressful because you know that yourwork will go to court?
I like to think there is purpose to mywork. I find it a plus to have cases whereyou might find the evidence to place some-one at a crime scene.When you see case details, how do you copewith what has happened to that person?
I don’t think you’d come into this job ifyou couldn’t step back from it. There aresome people who just deal with chemistrycases and don’t think they can cope withthe blood or sexual assault cases. You dohave to switch off a bit.What would you say the biggest benefits anddownsides of your job are?
Benefits are that it has a meaning to me;it’s why I wanted to do the job. I like thatit’s hands on, I like the chemistry side of itand I have the patience to do the fibres as Ienjoy the challenge. Downsides are thatmany people here are on shift work, so we
can get more people into the lab space.They work one weekend in four, and nine-and-a-quarter hour days, which is a longtime to be concentrating. But I work parttime now, so it’s not as bad for me.Are you or anyone in your lab involved in
researching new techniques?We don’t tend to do research here,but we
sometimes have students for a few months.One was looking at scratching and howlong evidence remains under fingernails,while another worked on fibres remainingin hair after contact. That is the kind ofthing presented at forensic science confer-ences.Who decides which cases you work on?
The cases go to the ROs and it dependswhether it’s a reporting officer in my team,and whether I have the specialist training towork on some or all the aspects of the case.Who goes to a crime scene?
It depends how serious the crime is.Usually it is dealt with by the police’s ownscene of crime officers.They respond to themajority of cases: taping fibres, point ofentry, footprints. Then if the police wantsome more specialist knowledge they willcall in a RO. Sometimes a RO will take anassistant if it’s a big scene.Do you think forensic science TV showsincrease interest in your career?
It’s always been popular.When I appliedin London there weren’t many pro-grammes around, and I think there were800 applicants for 12 jobs. It is one of thosejobs that people think,“Oh wow!” but it isperhaps a little more routine than peopleexpect and there is as much paperwork asanywhere else. It’s certainly not likeAmanda Burton!
If you would like to find out more aboutworking for the Forensic Science Service, visit
the careers section of the FFS website atwww.forensic.gov.uk
Nerissa Hannink is a postdoc in theDepartment of Plant Sciences
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21www.bluesci.org
A Dayy in the Life of....
A Forensic ScientistNerissa Hannink
talks to Helen Butler about her work with theForensic Science Service
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22 Lent 2005
At Home With the AshaninkaIt had been one of those days; 6am startand straight to the lab after breakfast. Ihad hardly moved since, just identifiedand recorded frogs found the nightbefore. It wasn’t the usual Cambridgelab, all white coats and humming com-puters. My bench was bamboo lashedtogether with vines, and a nearby treeprovided hooks for my equipment. Oh,and the nearest phone, computer orpower socket was a day’s journey away.
The lower montane forest of centralPeru is not the kind of place you expectregular mail, so I was surprised when a let-ter arrived from the community a fewhours away. It was from Mago, a frog spe-cialist, who had worked with us for severalweeks in the field before returning withour samples to Lima’s Natural HistoryMuseum. One species interested her par-ticularly, a cadaverous looking tree frog asbig as your palm, found on one of our latenight sojourns up the river. This specieswas found perched on an overhangingbranch, calling to find a mate. Although
similar to a relatively common species,Mago told us that on closer inspection shebelieved that this was an entirely differentgenus, and most likely a new species to sci-ence!
This was, without a doubt, one of thehighlights of the expedition I took part inlast summer. Like many biology students, Ihave always held a secret desire to discovera new species, so to be part of that teamwas a dream realised.
However, our expedition was by nomeans a glory hunt for new species. Wewere working in the Cordillera deVilcabamba, a remote mountain range jut-ting out from the Andes into the upperAmazon basin.The 5000 m peaks form adistinct island habitat where many endem-
ic species and isolated populations mightbe expected. Its tortuous terrain has pro-tected it from much human impact, andallowed the native Ashaninka people to liveundisturbed.But, the last 25 years have seenmany changes to the region, including aninflux of settlers, cocaine growing and ter-rorist activity.Thousands of Ashaninka losttheir lives at the hands of SenderoLuminoso, the Shining Path terroristorganisation. Now, thanks to the help ofthe Asociacion para la Conservacion delPatrimonio del Cutivireni (ACPC), anorganisation dedicated to the developmentand aid of the Ashaninka, much of the vio-lence is over.
However, a range of problems stillremain. Ranking high amongst these ishow the Ashaninka should develop theirforest.To pay for the improvements peoplewant, such as primary education, basichealth care and electricity, they have fewoptions.They can log their forests or growdrugs.However,ACPC want them to con-sider a third way.The rugged forest, and theAshaninka communities themselves, pro-vide a truly unique location for any natu-ralist or adventure traveller. Ecotourismcould provide a more sustainable incomefor these people.
Our expedition planned to collect thefirst biological data of any kind from thearea, concentrating on potential eco-tourism sites which would feel the brunt ofany development. We collected informa-tion about the frog populations, as frogs,
with their obligate aquatic developmentand porous skin, have been shown to besensitive to small environmental changes.
One great part of the project was theopportunity to live and work amongst theAshaninka people. We got to know ourguides well, to understand their deepknowledge of the forest, and to appreciatetheir amazing practical skills with machetesand natural materials. Yet, most have hadonly very basic schooling, and have littleknowledge of the world outside Peru.Theywere fascinated by our pictures of familyand friends, and by the postcards ofCambridge colleges, but particularly thefact that the forests of England do not havemonkeys! We also spent a couple of enjoy-able days teaching some basic biology inthe community schools and showing thechildren the frogs we had found.
The expedition was the most challeng-ing and rewarding experience I have everhad.We organised the expedition throughCUEX, the Cambridge UniversityExpeditions Society, from whom wereceived much valuable advice. I nowrealise that you don’t have to be SteveIrwin or Ray Mears, or run marathonsbefore breakfast to carry out such a trip,just be willing to give it a go and not giveup when your plans have to change, as theysurely will! Tropical rainforests and theirpeople, like the Ashaninka, are underthreat. Students can make a real difference,carrying out real scientific work them-selves, that no one else will do.
I would like to thank our patrons andsupporters,without whose help this projectwould not have been possible.
For more information about the project, orlinks to sites about the Ashaninka people,
visit www.srcf.ucam.org/ashaninka
Michael FitzPatrick is a third year NaturalScientist specialising in Zoology
Michael FitzPatrick shares his memories from an expedition in Peru
the nearest phone,computer or powersocket was a day’s
journey away
ecotourism could provide a more
sustainable income
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A tree frog of the genus Osteocephalus – a new species?
Arriving at the Ashaninka community of Coriteni Tarso
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Initiatives
23www.bluesci.org
The recent establishment of a ‘virtualdepartment’ at Cambridge University,uniting researchers in biology, medi-cine, physics and engineering, is recog-nition of an emerging discipline. TheCambridge Computational BiologyInstitute (CCBI) is co-ordinatingefforts across almost all scientificdepartments, with the involvement ofno fewer than 16 professors represent-ing an impressively wide spectrum ofknowledge and experience.This is co-operation on an unprecedented scale,but what is the motivation for suchinitiatives, and can they help to count-er overspecialisation in scientificresearch?
There are countless examples empha-sizing the importance of cross-disci-pline collaboration for scientificprogress.Any description of Watson andCrick’s discovery of the structure ofDNA should include the fact that nei-ther Nobel Prize winner was a quali-fied crystallographer. In practice, their
respective backgrounds in zoology andphysics no doubt provided importantinspiration in making their break-through. In the 50 years since this rev-olutionary insight, biology, and espe-cially genetics, has attracted researchersfrom hugely varied backgrounds.Recent challenges have led to theinvolvement of individuals from inde-pendent and sometimes unexpectedfields. Hence, the arrival of statisticians,
computer scientists, and even physicistsin traditionally ‘wet-lab’ dominatedenvironments.
In reality, if specialists are to work inunison they need to be co-ordinated: thistakes vision and a broad knowledge base.Sydney Brenner, another Nobel Prizewinner in genetics, raised some relevantissues during the recent Cambridge-MITInstitute Distinguished Lecture. Whilstapparently bemoaning the dominance ofresearch valuation by journal publication,which can result in overspecialisation, hewas optimistic about computational biol-ogy. Brenner’s view that all biologists willhave to conduct computer simulatedexperiments in the future, was accompa-nied by advice to all aspiring bioinfor-maticians to “go and work in a lab”.Thisstressed the advantages of being a gener-alist and embracing varied approaches toresearch.
So are there any examples of such col-laboration and generalisation? The mostobvious example in biology is that ofgenome analysis, including the muchheralded endeavours of the HumanGenome Project. Establishing the com-plete human genomic DNA sequencehas required considerable computationalresources, even though the sequenceitself, at about three gigabytes, is not hugeby modern standards. However, decodingthe sequence to discover exactly what itrepresents is a much more complicatedtask. Fortunately, help is at hand througha variety of computational approaches.The location of genes can be roughlyestablished using statistical methods.Cross-referencing of experimental resultswith the wealth of existing literature canbe performed using techniques fromcomputational linguistics. Further exam-ples are easy to find, but the prevalenttheme is that we have more analyticaltechniques and resulting experimentaldata than we can manually interpret andorganise. Vital as this experimental data
obviously is, recognising patterns andtrends appears to be highly significant indeciphering the genomic code, therefore,the involvement of computational spe-cialists is essential.
The CCBI has been active since the startof this academic year with funding from thefour science schools of the University.The
institute is committed to encouraging andfacilitating new cross-Cambridge researchprojects, bringing together individuals fromwide-ranging fields of expertise.The CCBIhas a mandate to develop relevant academ-ic courses, promote industrial liaisons andorganise workshops to advance theexchange of ideas between departments.The institute is running a new MPhil incomputational biology, an 11-monthcourse providing suitable preparation for aPhD or a career in industry, and modules incomputational biology are now beingoffered to undergraduate engineers. Thesuccess of these initiatives will take time toquantify,but if Brenner is correct then indi-viduals will increasingly need to turn toexperts in other disciplines in order to facechallenges in their own fields. Hopefully,thanks to the CCBI and similar ventures,this may prove less of a novelty for those inbiology than in many other disciplines.
www.ccbi.cam.ac.uk
Mark Woodbridge is a software developer inthe Department of Genetics
Mark Woodbridge discusses how computational biology is inspiring a new era of collaboration
The Virtual Department
Establishing thehuman genome has
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Born in Ulm, Germany on 14 March1879, Einstein was fascinated by themysteries of nature from a young age.However, he resented the rote learn-ing that dominated his school cur-riculum, preferring instead to con-struct and solve his own simple alge-braic problems from scratch. Despitehis disdain for formalised schooling,his aptitude for mathematics wasquickly recognised by his teachersand in 1896 won him a place at theprestigious Swiss Federal PolytechnicInstitute in Zürich to study physics.
He was not particularly diligent when itcame to attending lectures, leading one ofhis tutors to describe him as “a lazydog…[who] never bothered about math-ematics at all.” Unfortunately, this assess-ment of the young Einstein was shared byother members of the university staff andmeant that when he graduated in 1900,he was unable to secure a job at theInstitute as he had intended. Einsteinspent several years teaching physics andmaths here and there, before landing aposition at the Swiss Patent Office inBern after some string-pulling by a for-mer school friend.The job was perfect forEinstein: not being that much of a chal-lenge for him, it provided ample time tothink about physics! It was here at thepatent office that he was to develop andpublish some of his most famous ideas.
Einstein’s annus mirabilis arrived in1905 when, at the age of just 26 andstill with only an undergraduate degreein physics to his name, he published aseries of papers that would revolu-tionise the field of physics. He wouldlater say of this time that it was as if “astorm broke loose in my mind.”Certainly, Einstein’s activities this yearwere characterised by a furious produc-tivity: the three key papers which wereto make this young scientist’s namewere all published within just fifteenweeks.
The first of these papers gave a newaccount of the nature of light, anaccount able to explain a tricky physicalpuzzle, called the photoelectric effect,that had been troubling physicists foryears. In this paper, Einstein proposedthat light was not a wave as traditional-ly thought, but instead consisted of tiny,discrete packets of energy called pho-tons.This paper was to form the basis ofthe modern discipline of quantummechanics and to win Einstein theNobel Prize for physics in 1921.
The second publication detailedEinstein’s explanation of the phenome-non known as Brownian motion: therandom and jerky movement of smokeparticles in air, or pollen grains in water.Einstein showed that this motion wasdue to the particles being constantlybombarded from all sides by other mov-ing particles, and in doing so convincedmany scientists of the existence of atomsand molecules.While the atomic theoryof matter is something we take for grant-ed nowadays, before Einstein’s paper thistheory lacked experimental evidence andwas doubted by a significant section ofthe scientific community.
The third paper produced by Einsteinin 1905 was perhaps the most revolu-tionary of all, containing the theory ofspecial relativity. So what was so specialabout special relativity? Relativity as aconcept originated with Galileo, whorecognised that all motion is relative andcannot be detected without reference toan outside point. For example, if you
were travelling on an aeroplane youwould not be able to tell whether or notthe aeroplane was moving withoutlooking outside. Einstein built on theseideas to show that the laws of physicsand the speed of light are universal con-stants, and thus that space and time arenot absolute as previously thought.
This innocuous-seeming theory hassome radical and far-fetched implica-tions. For instance, the faster you travelrelative to the speed of light, the moretime slows down! However, as Einsteinhimself once said, “If at first an idea isnot absurd, then there is no hope for it.”
Special relativity was also to providethe foundation for another of theground-breaking breakthroughs thatEinstein made this year: the theory ofmass-energy equivalence, better knownas E=mc2. For an explanation of the sig-nificance of this legendary formula, seeAndy Hodge’s article, E = mc2, on thenext page.
What is especially amazing aboutEinstein’s work in 1905 is that all thesediscoveries were made while he wasworking alone at the patent office, iso-lated from other physicists and from the
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Einstein’sMiraculous
YearEmily Tweed takes a look atthe ideas that made AlbertEinstein an international icon
I have no special talents. I am only
passionately curious.- Albert Einstein
The most incomprehensible factabout the universe is
that it is comprehensible - Albert Einstein
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What Does it All Mean? E=mc2: Einstein first published the equation in a 1905 paper entitled Does the Inertia of a BodyDepend Upon Its Energy Content? The ‘E’ stands for energy, the ‘m’ for mass and the ‘c’ for thespeed of light in a vacuum, the fastest speed in the universe at which particles can travel.Einstein developed the equation from the theory of special relativity that he had devised ear-lier that year.
collaborative experience that underliesmost scientific breakthroughs. Somehave even suggested that this detach-ment from any kind of scientific com-munity was necessary for Einstein to beable to conceive and develop suchunorthodox theories.
One thing is for sure: Einstein wenton to become one of the most famousscientists who has ever lived, pioneeringthe general theory of relativity andbeginning the quest for a ‘unifying the-ory’ to integrate all of physics, a questthat physicists are still pursuing today.Moreover, as an active campaigner forsocial justice and nuclear disarmament,his impact extended far beyond physics.Adorning a million posters,T-shirts andcoffee mugs, he captured the publicimagination in a way few other iconshave; he embodied (and perhaps stilldoes) the popular perception of what itmeans to be a genius. But it was in thatmiraculous year of 1905 that the seedsfor Einstein’s extraordinary legacy weresown with three revolutionary papersoverturning contemporary assumptionsabout the way in which the universeworks, making the rest of the world situp and take notice of this brilliantyoung patent clerk.
For more information on Einstein andEinstein Year 2005 go to
www.einsteinyear.org
Emily Tweed is a second year Natural Scientist
Andy Hodges reveals all you need to know about the mysterious E=mc2
Histo
ry
www.bluesci.org
Mass-Energy Equivalence What the equation tells us is that energy and mass are equivalent.This raises the intriguingpossibility that energy could be converted into mass and vice versa. As it turns out, a verymodest mass can be converted into a huge amount of energy.This is the science behind theprocess of nuclear fission, in which atoms are split under controlled conditions in order to gen-erate energy.The source of this energy is the mass difference between the heavier raw mate-rials and the lighter products of decay.
The Sky at NightE=mc2 has not only influenced how we think about abstract scientific concepts like mass,energy, space and time, but also provides a physical explanation for the beauty of a starlitnight or sunny summer’s day. Inside the centre of stars, a process called nuclear fusion occursin which the nuclei of several hydrogen atoms fuse together to make heavier helium atoms.Each helium atom formed has a lower mass than all of the hydrogen atoms from which it isformed put together.This difference in mass is converted into highly energetic photons (lightparticles), explaining why stars, including our sun, shine as they do.
A Universal Speed Limit One important result of the special theory of relativity is that the faster you move relativeto a stationary observer, the more mass you acquire. For example, if you and a friendweighed the same at rest on the surface of the Earth and then one of you went runningacross that surface, he or she would weigh more than the person standing still! The ‘m’ inthe equation represents the mass you have whilst travelling at a particular speed relative tothe observer.The application of this principle has some interesting implications.As an objectapproaches the speed of light, its mass increases at a faster and faster rate so that if it wereto reach the speed of light, its mass would be infinite. Since force is directly proportional tomass, the force needed to accelerate it would have to be infinite too. This explains why it isimpossible for an object to reach the speed of light: infinite forces are a bit hard to come by!
The Cutting EdgeParticle accelerators, some of the most important tools of modern physics, also make use ofthe principle of mass-energy equivalence that E=mc2 embodies.Within these huge machines,subatomic particles are crashed together at tremendous speeds, often of the order of halfthe speed of light. Relativistic effects come into play here, as particles travelling at this speedhave more mass than when they are travelling at low speed, so when they collide with otherparticles they impact with more energy. One extreme example of this is the collision of suchparticles with their ‘anti-particle’: when this occurs, all of the mass-energy in the particles isconverted into heat and light energy! Such an efficient mode of energy production maypower our cities in the future – if we are able to procure an anti-matter source.
Andy Hodges is a third year Natural Scientist specialising in History and Philosophy of Science
The unkempt white hair, the bushymoustache, the slightly other-worldly expression: even 50 yearsafter his death,Albert Einstein is aninstantly recognisable figurearound the world. And with 2005designated Einstein Year to com-memorate the centenary of hisannus mirabilis in which he pub-lished three of his most influentialpapers, Einstein and his achieve-ments are back in the public eyeonce more.
But as his friend, the philosopherBertrand Russell, once said,“Everyone knows that Einstein didsomething astounding, but very fewpeople know exactly what it washe did.” In celebration of EinsteinYear, we look at Einstein’s life andlegacy, as well as the physics behindhis famous equation, E = mc2.
Einstein and the Bomb More famous, however, is the splitting of atoms under uncontrolled conditions: the reactionresponsible for the devastating effects of the atomic bomb.The use of the bomb on Hiroshimaand Nagasaki marked the end of World War II, resulting in huge loss of life and changing theface of modern warfare forever. Einstein subsequently declared himself a pacifist, remarkingpoignantly:“If I’d have known they were going to do this, I would have become a shoemaker.”
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Simon Singh’s book is a history of theevolution of the Big Bang theory, fromthe earliest mythological attempts tounderstand the structure of the universeto the model in place by the 1990s.
As a biologist with a limited knowledgeof physics and cosmology, the topic alwaysseemed rather inaccessible to me.However,following Simon Singh’s clear, concise andintriguing presentation style at theCambridge Union in November, I wastempted to learn more.
Everyone has heard of the Big Bangtheory (ironically, a term coined by sup-porters of the rival Steady State theory, andintended as a criticism), yet most areunclear about where the theory standswith cosmologists today. The bookaddresses this without avoiding technicaldetail, managing to make the materialaccessible to all, including those with littlebackground in science.
Each of the five comprehensive chap-ters is helpfully summarised in an amus-ing comic style, but do not be tempted toskip the detail if you want to gain agreater understanding. The depth of
explanation accompanying the variousideas is perhaps laboured at times, but forthose to whom this topic is new, therepetitive style, more commonly used inverbal presentations, helps to consolidatethe message. Those familiar with thephysics may find the oversimplified detailsuperfluous. However, the history sur-rounding the science is in itself fascinat-ing.What’s more, this is a down-to-earthhumanistic portrayal of science, the char-
acters involved and the rivalries present inthe pursuit of knowledge and discovery.
Ultimately,Simon Singh’s book is a clear,but perhaps rather long-winded attempt topresent the scientific method in action:how a new theory is suggested, refuted andtested, before being discarded or accepted,and all the drama that this can possess.
Rachel Mundy is a second year NaturalScientist
The Essential Turing is a collection ofthe key writings of Alan Turing andhis correspondence with contempo-raries, covering computing, logic, phi-losophy, artificial intelligence andcode breaking. Spanning the whole ofTuring’s life, the book is broadlychronological, but is interspersed withessays by Copeland. These essays,Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Life,Enigma and Computable Numbers: AGuide, provide a lucid preparation forthe writings that follow.
This is not a popular science book; thefirst of Turing’s writings to appear is OnComputable Numbers, with an Applicationto the Entscheidungsproblem, in which hedevelops what came to be known as theTuring Machine. This paper, like manyof those that follow, is heavy on maths,formal logic and number theory.However, there are some less mathemat-ical gems interspersed. History of Hut 8 toDecember 1941 by Patrick Mahon, a con-temporary of Turing’s at Bletchley Park,was declassified only in 1996 and pro-vides a first-hand account of Hut 8’sbreaking of naval codes. The rest of theEnigma section is filled with similar pri-mary sources, which would make fasci-
nating further reading for anyonegripped by recent popular accounts ofthe wartime code breaking at Bletchley,including a letter from Turing and hiscompatriots to Churchill.
The final sections, on artificial life andintelligence, deal with Turing’s fascina-
tions during the latter years of his life.The essay, Computing Machinery andIntelligence, expounds the ‘Turing Test’, agame Turing controversially suggestedmight be the criterion on whichmachine intelligence should be judged.
This book gives any reader with a rea-sonably strong mathematical back-ground the opportunity to study logic,artificial inelligence and the very funda-mentals of computer science in thewords of the man who developed them,and to see in action the processes thatled to the development of these ideas.However, the more mathematical ele-ments should not frighten off the casualreader, and anyone with an interest inthe life of Turing would not be disap-pointed by the wealth of informationsurrounding the maths and science thatCopeland has woven in. On dippinginto a particular section, the reader islikely to be gripped, and to emerge sev-eral pages later even more amazed at theman who produced such a wide range ofinnovative fundamental ideas in such ashort life.
Tom Walters is a Research Assistant in the Department of Physiology
The Essential TuringEdited by B. Jack Copeland (Oxford University Press, 2004, £14.99). Reviewed by TToomm WWaalltteerrss
By Simon Singh (Fourth Estate, 2004, £20).Reviewed by RRaacchheell MMuunnddyy
Big Bang
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Nanotechnology: what exactly isgoing on behind the hype? This booksuccessfully outlines the currentresearch on matter from one to 100nanometres in size (one nanometre isa millionth of a millimetre). It providesa much needed injection of realisminto the ‘grey goo’ debate. The authorpoints out how scientists are laughablyfar from creating evil nanobots, whileadmitting that they have raised expec-tations in the competitive search forfunding.
The main focus of the book is to pro-vide a visualisation of the nanoworld and
the current efforts to understand it.Thereis a clear introduction to the microscopyneeded to observe this world, includingan extraordinary image of a motor pro-tein walking along a track. The authordescribes how soft, random and sticky thesurroundings are, with some interestingexamples, such as how the viscosity of airlimits the smallest flying creature to atenth of a millimetre.
The book also describes the journeyfrom the first ever photograph to theprinting of silicon chips, and to the pos-sible future of molecular electronics andcell signalling. There is a great photo-graph of the world’s smallest silicon gui-tar, at 12 microns, with fully playablestrings that generate radio waves.
Fabrication, from control of individualatoms to self-assembly and protein fold-ing, is discussed before moving on to the
construction of nanomotors. The authorhimself runs a group in Sheffield research-ing a pH sensitive gel, which swells andcontracts to the rhythm of an oscillatingpH reaction, for use as a possible motor.
The writing is clear, anecdotal and high-ly readable in a manner reminiscent ofRichard Feynman. Although aimed at ageneral audience, the concepts describedare best visualised with some scientificbackground, and there are severalmoments when the text cries out for adiagram.The book’s central message is thatnanotechnology relies more on biologythan conventional engineering. It dwellsbriefly on the potential dangers of thisresearch, but explains how unlikely nan-otechnology is to surpass evolution.
Joe Piper is a PhD student in the Department of Chemistry
Soft Machines:Nanotechnology and Life By Richard A. L. Jones (Oxford University Press, 2004,£16.99).Reviewed by JJooee PPiippeerr
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MSc in Science Communication MSc in Science Media Production
These courses are designed to help science andengineering graduates develop the necessary skillsand knowledge to switch to media careers.
The Science Communication Course is a generalpreparation while the Science Media Productionprogramme is designed for those who specifically wantto go into televsion or radio. Both courses are availablefull-time over 12 months, and Science Communicationcan be undertaken part-time over 24 months.
For more information contact Paul Wynn Abbott,Science Communication Group Administrator, Room,313C, Mech. Eng. Building, Imperial College, London,SW7 2AZ. Tel: 020 7594 8753 Fax: 020 7594 8763, email: [email protected] web: www.imperial.ac.uk/sciencecommunication
Closing Date: 25 February 2005
Valuing diversity and committed to equality of opportunity
Dear Dr Hypothesis,Over Christmas I decided to avoid myannoying family, and spent the wholetwo weeks watching films in my room.Several of these films contained scenesof beheading. The time it took thebeheaded person to die seemed to varyconsiderably, depending on the ego ofthe actor involved. Could you please tellme how long it actually takes a humanto die, following decapitation?
Headless Henry
DR HYPOTHESIS SAYS:It’s not really known exactly how long it takesbrain activity to cease following beheading,because – to my knowledge – no scientifical-ly controlled experiments have been carriedout.Anecdotal evidence from executions dur-ing the French Revolution suggests that ahead could respond up to thirty seconds afterbeing removed from the body. However, this isnothing compared to cockroaches: they areknown to survive for up to a week afterbeheading, ultimately dying from dehydrationas they obviously have no way of drinking!
http://huah.net/scixf/xbetts.html
Dr
Hyp
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28 Lent 2005
Dr HypothesisDr Hypothesis needsyour problems!If you have any worries (purely of ascientific nature, obviously) that youwould like Dr Hypothesis to answer,then please email him at [email protected] will award the author of the mostintriguing question a £10 bookvoucher. Unfortunately, DrHypothesis cannot promise to pub-lish an answer to every question, buthe will do his very best to see that themost fascinating are discussed in thenext edition of BlueSci.
Think you know betterthan Dr Hypothesis?He challenges you to solve this problem:
Can men park cars better than women, and if so, why?
Please e-mail him with answers, thebest of which will be printed in thenext edition.
Dear Dr Hypothesis,I have recently been suffering frominsomnia brought on, I believe, by thestress of an impending court case – butthat’s by the by. As I spend the sleeplessnights looking up at the stars (or, morefrequently, the clouds), I have often pon-dered what life would be like withoutnights and how much more I could getdone – if I wasn’t so tired all the time!Could you tell me why the Earth spins inthe first place?
Sleepless Simon
DR HYPOTHESIS SAYS:There are several theories as to why the Earthspins, but it is hard to prove these ideas becauseof the difficulty of testing them with experi-ments. My personal favourite is that it is a con-sequence of the way the Earth was formed. Ithas been proposed that the solar system arosefrom a cloud of gas and dust collapsing in onitself but, as it collapsed, it began to swirl ineddies similar to those sometimes observedwhen water goes down a drain.As one of theseswirls gathered matter to itself and formed theEarth, it continued to spin and has continuedto this day, as there are no forces in space to stopit. The speed at which the Earth spins at theequator has been calculated to be about 1,000thousand miles per hour.
www.madsci.org
Dear Dr Hypothesis,I live directly under the flight path ofStansted airport and have recentlybecome concerned about the possibili-ty of my house being hit by a plane asthis would cause me considerable dis-tress.What is the scientific basis for theability of a plane to fly, and are thereany situations under which this couldfail?
Flight Path Fiona
DR HYPOTHESIS SAYS:Fiona, Fiona, there’s no need to worry! Thereis a long-established answer as to why aircraftfly, which is based on the structure of thewing. Air particles moving over the uppersurface of a wing or airfoil travel faster thanthose under it, and it was then discovered byDaniel Bernoulli in the 18th century thatthis meant there would be an area of lowerpressure above the wing.Therefore, there is anet force under the wing to push it upwards.This difference in velocity is generatedeither by the shape of the wing or by theangle to its movement.While I cannot guar-antee that a plane won’t fall on your house, Ifeel reasonably certain that it would not bedue to a failure of the laws of physics.
www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/wrong1.html
Dear Dr Hypothesis,My name is Duncan and I’m an alco-holic. There, I’ve said it. Phew!However, a friend of mine recently toldme that red wine could actually begood for you and so, if I were to give updrinking, I could continue drinkingonly red wine.Why is red wine good forhealth, and why is it better than whitewine?
Drunken Duncan
DR HYPOTHESIS SAYS:Recent work has shown that wine contains anumber of different antioxidative com-pounds that can help to slow damagingoxidative processes in cells. These com-pounds are naturally found in grape skin,seeds and stems.There is a higher concentra-tion of antioxidants in red wine because thewine is incubated with the skins for longerduring the manufacturing stages. However, itis important to remember that these benefitsonly occur if wine is consumed at a moder-ate level, as higher consumption will increasethe damage to the liver and brain, outweigh-ing any potential positive effects. If youbelieve that you already have a problem,Duncan, it would probably be safer for youto stop consuming alcohol altogether and toseek some professional help.
www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispotri-bune/news/special_packages/home-
front/7781178.htmwww.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk
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