Only swan knows?

In August 2006, Michigan got relived when the avian flu strain found on swans turned out non-harmful to both birds and humans. This time, the whole states may feel more comfortable with the avian flu invasion to the US, based on the recent USGS-supported report results. Story.

A two-year investigation of birds for detecting the avian influenza by USGS , the US Fish and Wildlife Service , and specialists from other federal agencies, US birds came up with “no highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses.”
Nearly 75,000 waterfowls, shorebirds, gulls, and terns, including 1,799 Michigan birds were tested.

Although many scientists have confirmed that the low-pathogenic H5N1 is apparently not dangerous to the birds, another new data suggest that this virus do affect the lives of birds.”

Here is a relevant news release from ScienceDaily. Com. Dutch scientists found that migratory swans carrying a mild form of avian influenza moved slower than healthy individuals to next stopover sites. They say this slow migration pattern would give the birds more opportunity to get in touch with many healthy birds passing by them on migration. In this way, the virus can spread more rapidly than previously thought.

Professionalism in volunteer blogs matters

Two computer scientists have suggested the formalization of citizen journalism for coordinating responses to natural and man-made emergencies. “Volunteer blogs” have already been operated in emergencies including the damage assess of 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina .

On Katrina occurring, Google and a network of volunteer scientists and other civilians mapped the zone using Web tools such as Google Earth and Maps .

Currently, Flu Wiki is well know as a role model of the volunteer blog. Flu Wiki was developed to show ongoing governmental response and surveillance for the international outbreak of avian flu.

A potential challenge of operating volunteer blog is at losing its consistency with the non-obligative nature.

"It’s hard to keep up virtual interest in reporting over the long periods of time required. Volunteers can keep their spirits and energy levels high for a month, but not for three years,” says Jishnu Das, a World Bank official, and a leader of RisePak.

Professionalism matters in supporting central government who should provide balanced allocation of relief in a timely manner. Moreover, when it comes to pandemic disease, keeping constant network depends on the educated citizens in underdeveloped countries.

Nap for health

photo from bugbog.com

Relax and enjoy half-hour nap in the afternoon.
Six years of study by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of Athens Medical School in Greece shows that regular afternoon siesta of 30 minutes or more could lower the risk of heart disease.

Researchers’ hypothesis for this study is that napping may have stress-releasing effect, which has been implicated in heart disease.

In Greece, where the study was conducted, regular afternoon siesta has been known to reduce the rate of coronary heart disease, along with the Mediterranean diet including fruits, vegetables, beans and olive oil.

Refer to the effect of ”power nap” as a way of stress release. Plus, a healthy diet tip from the website of the University of Athens Medical School.

Bird Flu in Britain

(Photo from Nature.com )

Britain came up with the first occurrence of bird flu at a commercial turkey farm in Suffolk. The strain was found out to be the same to that was detected in Hungary in January. The virus transmission route to Britain is still uncertain. For the possible likage between the turkey farm and its Hungary-based food company, the British government vets have confirmed that there have been regular visit of lorries from Hungary.

For the possibility of transmission by birds’feces from careless workers, the farm is still insisting that is barely possible because the farm has sustained “highest biosafety standards.”

Dr. David Nabarro, Senior UN System Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza, announced there would be more outbreaks in upcoming months.

Although some scientists say its threat to humans is quite small , they still consider a possibility that the virus could mutate into a form that easily spreads among humans.

Here is a map showing how bird flu has spread since 2004.

Future of Global Warming up to Science or Politics?

(AP photo by Dan Crosbie/Canadian Ice Service)

World’s scientists released the final details of report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for policy makers. The focus of the report is that there is at least 90% possibility that human-caused emission is the main factor in global warming since 1950.

World Scientists for IPCC reported that the final report emphasizes the hazardous consequences of the twice of the preindustrial concentration of carbon dioxide; Climate would possibly warm between 3.5 and 8 degrees Fahrenheit causing small but significant risk.
The report also predicted that millions more people would suffer from food and water shortage by 2080 in China and Australia, as well as parts of Europe and the United States. But poor countries including Africa or Bangladesh would be most affected countries by warming climate because they were least able to cope with sudden coastal damage and drought caused by climate change.

But the largest non-stop emitter United States has still doubted whether it is mandatory to adopt a policy to reduce the emission. Reflected from this fact, it is unsurprising that Bush Administration was found to pressure government scientists not to be very “honest” about ongoing global warming by omitting such terms as “global warming” or “climate change” in science reporting.
Furthermore, the American Enterprise Institute, known as a “think tank with close ties to the Bush administration,” has been criticized by environmental activists about reportedly offering $10,000 to scientists who challenged the result of IPCC report. story.

Scientific facts surrounding the global warming have been based on the decision by 800 contributing authors whose research was scrutinized by over 2,500 scientific reviewers. But this so called “authoritative” facts still seem to be powerless in front of several political powers.

Ethics and Technology

Last December, The Sunday Times in London reported an American scientist’s research for finding fundamental mechanisms of “homosexual” sheep’s sexual orientation. The research was intended, said Dr. Charles Roselli , to determine the characteristics that make rams not “into” ewes, to further apply this mechanism for enhancing their breeding.

After the news was published, PETA and scientists across the world started criticizing the research, pointing out the likelihood of misuse of this biotechnology by choosing out gay fetus.

Actually, all of these kinds of “God play” research deserve debates and discussion, in a concern that people would use this technology to control gay child’s birth. Abortion of girls in some of Asian countries would be a good example of men’s ignorance of life ethics.

This human-ethics related research has always brought scientific dilemma in deciding the priority between ethics and technology. Compromise would be an ideal solution but, how do we know whether some technology would be against or consistent with ethics? How could we draw the line that optimizes the value of both ethics and technology? What should scientists do ahead of some valuable research as they believe, but having some possibility that may be against common ethics in the future?

Andrew Sullivan, in his column for Time magazine , properly pointed the axis of this debate, saying “Scientific truth, after all, is neither morally good nor bad. It just is.” I agree with his point that science is just factual phenomenon that the value of itself could not be judged by ethics. Rather, typical idea that assumes some "abnormality" in gays, should be judged and changed. This may be the fundamental approach on the debates of biotechnology and ethics.

Sullivan even emphasized the importance of scientific knowledge in that it may bring concern rather than hating by referring that“centuries of brutality, bigotry and murder”were caused by the ignorance of homosexuality.

“Maybe deeper scientific knowledge could even lead us away from moral dangers rather than towards them. A better understanding of foetal development, for example, might prod us to do far more to reduce the number of abortions, because we can see more intimately the humanness of the life at stake. Deeper knowledge of the emotions of animals can persuade us to alleviate cruelty towards them in farming.”

Public Understanding of Science

Scientists’ effort to emphasize public understanding of science should not be “non-responded echo” anymore. As many people have recognized, science has become an important part of public life, making it hard to live without technological tools even for a day. Furthermore, biological issues such as the avian flu crisis or the production of genetically modified foods have yielded social economic concerns including debates on food production and safety. Such a link between science and our lives confirms the idea of learning science as common sense.

However, although science has been increasingly taking part in the public life, the public has shown little interest in learning science. Experts say the lack of interest in science is the result of the belief that science is a “special field” that belongs to scientists, but not the lay public. Additionally, since most scientific technological tools require little knowledge to use it, the public often doesn’t feel a need to understand complex mechanisms of science.

In the meantime, some insist that the enhancement of public understanding of science depends on the scientists’ ability of explaining and teaching it in an understandable manner. However, so-called scientific knowledge is what scientists have earned after spending tens of years researching. So they can hardly interpret complicated phenomena in a simple way.

However, even without the help of scientists, the public by themselves can absolutely earn enough knowledge to understand scientific issues. Newspaper coverage and Internet news web sites have become highly specialized in organizing important information for the public. They also can search more in depth by reading magazines and books.

The New York Times set up a special report section “Times Topic” for noticeable social and scientific issues. Once you enter interested topics in search engine of The front page of the New York Times, you can access to the Times Topic session. What I have recently enjoyed reading is news on Avian Flu . I will update recent news on avian flu soon.

Introduction

The blog title “Science Communication” came from my idea that the popularization of science should turn into the public understanding of science. I would like to share interesting and important scientific news from Nature.COM, Sciencedaily.COM and many other web sites. I would appreciate your active responses. Thank you!