Space weather science rues cuts

The field of science dedicated to understanding "space weather" - which can pose hazards to satellites and aircraft - may be wiped out in the UK.

That is the verdict of experts responding to UK physics and astronomy cuts made as administrators seek to plug an £80m hole in their finances.

The UK is recognised as a world leader in solar-terrestrial physics (STP).
The science is crucial for protecting our communications networks against powerful outbursts from the Sun.

The organisation MIST (Magnetosphere, Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial) which represents the STP community in the UK, has issued a damning statement in which it says the cuts will prove catastrophic to this area of research.

Andrew Kavanagh, a space scientist at Lancaster University and member of the MIST council, said the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), which looks after UK astronomy, was "essentially scrapping an entire field of research in the UK".

Flares and coronal mass ejections - large clouds of ionised gas thrown off the Sun - along with their associated shock waves are among the solar phenomena which exert an important influence on the space environment.

They compress the Earth's protective magnetic "bubble" and trigger geomagnetic storms. The energetic particles from these solar outbursts can damage the electronics on satellites and cause communications black-outs in the polar regions.

Space weather also has implications for planes crossing the Arctic on trans-polar flights. The Earth's magnetic field funnels energetic particles into the polar regions, exposing passengers and air crews to higher radiation levels there.

Tracking the Sun's changing activity is vital for managing radiation doses and for protecting aircraft electronics. It is also of economic importance, since it costs airlines to deviate from flight paths.

Spending crisis

The STFC has removed ground-based solar-terrestrial facilities from its future programmes.

The research council argues that it will continue to fund solar-terrestrial physics satellites through its subscriptions to the European Space Agency (Esa). But researchers point out that they require observations from both ground-based and space-based instruments to get the full picture.

Sources said they were not aware of any firm plans for forthcoming missions which fell into this category. An existing constellation of Esa satellites designed to study space weather, called Cluster, has been in space for eight years and its future funding is uncertain.

The STFC's delivery plan implies cuts to the funding of STP facilities and research at the universities of Lancaster, Leicester, Southampton, Aberystwyth, at University College London and at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot. The UK remains committed by an international agreement to the Eiscat project which operates radar facilities in Norway. But a senior scientist within MIST said he was doubtful whether this would last.

The problems at STFC have emerged out of the government's latest spending round which has left the council short of £80m in the three-year budget plan to 2011. Scientists say the problem has been compounded by the council's decision to claw back a further £40m for unspecified developments.

To manage its way out of this crisis, the research council has announced its intention to close certain programmes and cut research grants. Science societies and union officials have warned the damage to UK physics and astronomy will be incalculable and will lead to hundreds of job losses.

'World-class research'

Stan Cowley, professor of solar planetary physics at the University of Leicester, commented: "This decision appears perverse in view of the existing and future potential [of this] high-impact world class research."

Solar-terrestrial physics is also vital for understanding climate change on Earth, particularly in placing firm limits on the effect of solar variations compared to the contribution made by greenhouse gases produced by human activities. Space weather also affects many other aspects of modern life, from oil drilling operations to power grids.

In a statement, the STFC said: "In taking the decision to withdraw from the current suite of ground-based solar-terrestial physics [STP] facilties as stated in the STFC Delivery Plan it should be recognised that the 'ground-based' part of the STP programme has been gradually reducing over recent years following a peer review process started in 2005.

"Under the current budgetary constraints and the need to reprioritise its programme, the decision was taken to complete this process. Our continued involvement in the international Eiscat facility will be considered in this light.

"Nevertheless, proposals for future facilities and projects, both ground and spaced-based, will still be considered under normal peer review processes."

Transparency question

Prominent researchers from the STP community question why, when the government has invested considerable amounts of money into research and innovation, an applications-based science such as solar-terrestrial physics has been one of the first to be cut.

In its statement, MIST also expressed concern over what it described as "a lack of transparency in recent decision-making" within STFC.

STP researchers have attacked the lack of availability of records for minuted meetings concerning the decisions leading up to the funding cuts. With many projects competing for financial support, scientists point out that the process must be seen to be open and fair.
In evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on Innovation, Universities and Skills, Professor Keith Mason, chief executive of the STFC, defended his organisation's record on consultation.

He added: "The period of time we are talking about is essentially a period where all the research councils are making bids to DIUS [Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills] for funding and one of the reasons for so-called secrecy - or at least keeping this under wraps - is that it was a negotiating situation."

The STFC was formed as a new research council on 1 April 2007 through a merger of the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (CCLRC) and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PParc).

Hawaii hosts Bush climate talks

Climate experts from 16 of the world's largest economies are in Hawaii for the second in the series of President Bush's Major Economies Meetings.
They will be looking to forge common ground between "old" emitters like the US and Europe and the "new" polluters, such as China and India.
The meeting aims to feed ideas into the UN climate negotiations process.
The EU had threatened to boycott the talks unless the US offered specific proposals rather than general talks.
Since then, the US has passed its Energy Bill that mandates big increases in efficiency from cars and from some appliances.
But the US is still resisting a global agreement on specific emissions reductions from all developed nations.
EU delegates at the meeting in Honolulu do not anticipate any major moves by the Bush administration on climate change.
Some believe he is primarily trying to neutralise climate as an issue in the forthcoming US elections.
However, they are relieved that the US does appear actively engaged in climate talks at last.
A White House spokesman used a briefing to say that the US supported global moves to slow, stop and eventually reverse emissions.
But the official added that the burden must be shared between all the major polluters, including China and India. These nations are suspicious that the US is trying to shift blame on to them.

Clean technology

The first climate meeting that brought together the world's biggest polluters was held in Washington in September 2007.

It ended with Mr Bush's critics arguing that he professed world leadership on climate change while offering no new substantive policy and implicitly rejecting binding emissions controls.
In Honolulu, the UK Government is expected to welcome a decision by President Bush to channel $700m (£350m) a year into helping poor countries access clean energy technology.
Mr Bush made the offer in his State of the Union address on Monday. Although he didn't reveal the amount of funding in his speech, the State Department did it in a related announcement.
A British government spokesman said: "This announcement is welcome. It is a sign that the USA is taking climate change increasingly seriously - though we would have been happier if the figure was far higher."
The sum is much lower than the cash on offer to developing nations from the EU and Japan.
At the Davos World Economic Forum, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announced annual funding of $2bn (£1bn) to support developing countries' efforts to combat global warming.
The UK, with a much smaller economy, is offering $500m (£250m) a year in aid for clean technology, adaptation and combating deforestation.
Other EU nations have their own climate aid programmes, while the EU bloc also jointly contributes billions via the EU Emissions Trading Scheme to clean technology.

UK astronomers lose prime access to northern sky

UK astronomers have lost their front-row view of the northern sky. Following UK funding cuts to the Gemini Observatory, the observatory's board has refused to allow the country to use the 8-metre Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, US – the only telescope of its calibre in the northern hemisphere that the UK had direct access to.

In December 2007, the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Research Council (STFC) announced a plan to withdraw from the international partnership that funds the Gemini Observatory, which owns both the Gemini North telescope and its twin, the Gemini South telescope in Chile. It had been paying 24% of Gemini's budget.

But astronomers protested, and the STFC requested that UK astronomers be able to retain access to just the Gemini North telescope (the country can still observe the southern sky through its role in the European Southern Observatory).

Gemini's governing board, comprised of representatives from the US, Canada, Chile, Australia, Brazil and Argentina, has rejected the idea of a UK stake in just one of the observatory's telescopes, however. It is cutting off access to UK astronomers as of 1 February.

'No choice'
"The remaining members of the Gemini Partnership, [are] firmly committed to the underlying philosophy of the Gemini Agreement of one Observatory, two telescopes to advance the frontiers of astrophysics," the board says in a statement. "The remaining Parties consider that the UK has wholly withdrawn from the Gemini Partnership."

The UK STFC says its cuts to Gemini funding were necessary to free up money for projects it considers to be higher priorities given an £80 million shortfall in its budget to 2011. "While we sincerely regret the need to withdraw from Gemini, the current circumstances leave us no choice," reads a statement on its website. The money saved will go towards other projects, such as the planned Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), the statement says.

But UK Royal Astronomical Society treasurer Paul Murdin of the University of Cambridge, UK, says the pullout is "a disaster", leaving UK astronomers without access to any large telescope in the northern hemisphere.

Kindness of others
In future, UK astronomers will only be able to access Gemini North if they are carrying out joint observations as part of an international team with members from the US or other Gemini partner countries, he says.

"There's no obligation on the part of astronomers in other countries to accept British astronomers into a collaboration," Murdin told New Scientist. "It puts us at a negotiating disadvantage."

The withdrawal is also bad news for Gemini, Murdin says. He thinks the reduction in funding will likely lead to cutting back on upgrades to the observatory's instruments. He hopes the STFC can be persuaded to reverse its cuts and that discussions with the Gemini partnership can be revived.

Work It Out: More Activity = Slower Aging

Warning, couch potatoes: resting on your laurels may be hazardous to your health, not to mention make you old before your time.

"A sedentary lifestyle increases the propensity to aging-related disease and premature death," researchers at King's College London report today in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

"Inactivity may diminish life expectancy not only by predisposing to aging-related diseases but also because it may influence the aging process itself."

Researcher Lynn Cherkas and colleagues reached their conclusions by examining the genetic material extracted from blood samples of some 2,400 twins. They specifically studied the length of telomeres (repeated DNA sequences) on the ends of chromosomes in leukocytes (white blood cells); the protective caps are believed to be markers of biological aging, because they shrink over time.

Their findings: the telomeres of subjects who exercised the most (an average of 199 minutes weekly) were longer than those of volunteers who worked out the least (a mere 16 minutes or less a week). The discrepancy was enough, researchers wrote, to suggest that the exercise mavens were on average as much as a decade biologically younger than the slackers.

"Such a relationship between leukocyte telomere length and physical activity level remained significant after adjustment for body mass index, smoking, socioeconomic status and physical activity at work," the authors report. "The mean difference in leukocyte telomere length between the most active and least active subjects was 200 nucleotides (chemical structural units of DNA and RNA), which means that the most active subjects had telomeres the same length as sedentary individuals up to 10 years younger, on average."

The scientists speculate that stress, inflammation and oxidative stress (cell damage caused by oxygen exposure) may be responsible for shortened telomeres in physically inactive people. Exercise is among the factors found to help alleviate stress. Previous research has linked regular workouts to lower rates of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, obesity and osteoporosis.

The researchers note that their findings support U.S. guidelines calling for individuals to exercise moderately for 30 minutes at least five days a week. "Our results. . . show that adults who partake in regular physical activity are biologically younger than sedentary individuals," they say. "This conclusion provides a powerful message that could be used by clinicians to promote the potential anti-aging effect of regular exercise."

Asteroid to make close approach

An asteroid some 250m (600ft) across is about to sweep past the Earth.

There is no chance of it hitting the planet, but astronomers will train telescopes and radar on the object to learn as much about it as they can.

The asteroid - which carries the rather dull designation 2007 TU24 - will pass by at a distance of 538,000km (334,000 miles), just outside Moon's orbit.

Scientists who study so called near-Earth objects say similar-sized rocks come by every few years.

The moment of closest approach for 2007 TU24 is 0833 GMT. The asteroid is only expected to be visible through amateur telescopes that are three inches (7.6cm) or larger.

Detailed observations of 2007 TU24 could reveal whether the asteroid is a solid object or simply a loose pile of space rubble.

Knowledge of how asteroids are put together will be key to working out how we might defend ourselves against future, more threatening rocks.

An explosive attack - so popular with Hollywood scriptwriters - may not be the most effective approach. Many scientists believe that giving a hostile object a gentle nudge over a long period of time may in fact be our best strategy.

Given the estimated number of near-Earth asteroids of this size (about 7,000 discovered and undiscovered objects, says the US pace agency), an object similar to 2007 TU24 would be expected to pass this close to Earth, on average, about every five years or so.

The average interval between actual Earth impacts for an object of this size would be about 37,000 years, Nasa adds.

A little over a year-and-a-half ago, a 600m-wide (2,000ft) asteroid known as 2004 XP14 flew past the Earth at just about the Earth-Moon distance.

The asteroids' names include the year in which they were first identified.

Cells' internal clocks revealed

A person's preference for being a "lark" or a "night-owl" is largely determined by genes, a study suggests.

Scientists have found that each cell of the body has an internal "clock", which can be affected by various genes.

Research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that skin cells can be used to measure the speed of a person's body clock.

The work could lead to better diagnosis of sleep disorders and conditions such as Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Master clock :

It has long been known that the body has a biological clock that regulates sleeping, digestion and brain performance to fit in with the different demands of day and night-time living.

The brain has overall control of this time-keeping mechanism, but individual cells appear to have their own "clocks", which can be affected by a series of clock genes.

A German-Swiss team led by Dr Steven Brown of the University of Zurich took skin biopsies from 28 volunteers and grew their cells up in the lab.

They measured how fast the "clocks" in the skin cells "ticked", then compared these results with questionnaires showing whether each subject was an early type ("lark") or a late type ("owl").

They found that the "clocks" in the skin cells matched up with behaviour in most of the subjects.
Some of the remaining volunteers appeared to be suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder (Sad), a type of winter depression.

Sleep disorders :

The work could be used as a basis for the diagnosis of certain sleep disorders, said Dr Simon Archer, Senior Lecturer in Molecular Neuroscience at the Surrey Sleep Research Centre at the University of Surrey, Guildford.

He said previous research at the University of Surrey had shown that genetic differences in clock genes could explain why some people are night lovers and others are early risers.

His group has identified a mutation in a gene known as Period3 that makes someone more likely to be a morning person.

The mutation makes them more prone to tiredness during the day, so they prefer to go to bed early.

Traditional studies of such genes have been carried out in controlled conditions in specialised sleep labs, and these are time-consuming and costly to perform.

"What Steve Brown has developed is a much more economic way of making some of those clock period measurements without having to keep people in a lab for three days," Dr Archer explained.

"He basically takes a sample of their skin cells, keeps them alive in culture and measures the period of the oscillating clock genes."

Molecular clues :

The central circadian clock resides in the hypothalamus in the brain, he added.

It keeps in touch with the outside world by means of light signals from the eyes, and then synchronises numerous other peripheral clocks in tissues around the body such as the heart, liver and gut.

"The reason why the Brown experiment works is because it now appears that virtually all cells in the body have their own ticking circadian clock, including skin cells," said Dr Archer.

"So, the skin cell assay is just a way of easily getting a handle on someone's body clock. But in more molecular detail than just knowing if they are a lark or an owl, which can be determined quite easily."