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Science Media Centre Update
Issue 140 July 1 - 7
In This Issue
Pineapple Express
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WCSJ 2011
The World Conference of Science Journalists wrapped up this week in Doha, Qatar.
The gathering offered a chance for established Science Media Centres (from Japan, Australia, Canada, the UK, Denmark and NZ) meet and discuss the expanding network. Interest in the SMC model is now emerging in China, Norway, Italy, Germany and Nigeria
The SMCs also presented a panel on their role during the Fukushima nuclear crisis, and debated the value of experts put forward -- did nuclear scientists 'play down' the threat, and did their contributions help or hinder journalists?
Peter Griffin has been present at the proceedings and sent this post on public sector scientists being discouraged or even banned from discussing science-related issues in the media.
Phenazepam halts Pineapple Express
Yesterday the Ministry of Health announced a recall of a popular brand of 'synthetic cannabis' after it was discovered that the smoking mixture contained a prescription sedative.
Testing by Environmental Science and Research (ESR) detected the prescription drug phenazepam, in a sample of Kronic - Pineapple Express.
Phenazepam is a benzodiazpeine, belonging to the same class of anti-anxiety pharmaceuticals as drugs like Valium and Xanax. Originally developed in the USSR, phenazepam is not widely used clinically but has been known to be recreationally abused.
The brand found to contain phenazepam, Kronic, is just one of many varities of herbal smoking blends treated with legal, psychoactive synthetic cannabinoids. These 'legal highs' have been causing public debate over their effects, safety and accessibility.
The revelation that the Pineapple Express variety contained phenazepam has complicated the debate further. Speaking to the Science Media Centre, Dr Keith Bedford, Forensic Manager at ESR, said:
"My suspicion is that phenazepam is contributing to the effects of the product, including reports of adverse effects.
"I think that has clouded the public debate on these synthetic cannabinoids, because in my opinion it is quite probable that at least part of the adverse effects have been due to this adulterated Pineapple Express product, which seems to be one of the more common products in the market."
The Ministry of Health is currently reviewing drug legislation and hope to soon bring in changes requiring manufactures to prove the safety of uncontrolled psychoactive substances before sale.
Expert commentary collected by the Science Media Centre is available here.
On the science
radar
Anti-nuclear jellyfish, singing
genitals, drawing circuits, head butts, dino cancer, and
spiders in space.
Earthquakes, insurance and risk
A Science Media Centre briefing earlier this week explored the ramifications for rebuilding, retrofitting and insuring buildings and structures in earthquake-prone regions following the quakes in Christchurch.
Panelists explained the types of damage that had occurred, the implications of tightening building codes, and considered whether New Zealand will eventually find itself in a similar situation to California, where the majority of property owners do not have earthquake insurance because it is unavailable or prohibitively expensive.
The briefing coincided with the launch of an information paper, jointly produced by several scientific and engineering professional societies including the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ), the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ). It can be accessed here.
Audio from the briefing is on our
website.
Ice, sea and brain conferences next
week
It's a busy week for scientific gatherings
coming up. Monday, the University of Waikato will host the
annual Antarctic Conference, bringing together
researchers in diverse fields who work on the polar
continent, as well as artists and media who have travelled
there.
Stewart Island will be the remote location for
this year's NZ Marine Sciences Society conference
which begins Tuesday. The theme is "Understanding, Managing,
and Conserving our Marine Environment"
'The social
brain' will be the topic of discussion at the INS/ASSBI
Pacific Rim Conference in Auckland from Wednesday.
Keynote speakers will address neuroimaging, memory, language
and normal human psychology as well as brain disorders.
For more details on these and other events, check out listings below and the link to the SMC events calendar.
Upcoming briefing:
Ecosystem services - Can we set a dollar value on natural resources? Launch of the latest paper in the RSNZ Emerging Issues series.
Wed 6 July, 10:30 am -- online
Contact the SMC for more info or to receive a copy under embargo.
Quoted:
Otago Daily Times
"I am exasperated
... shocked that they willy-nilly put in other chemicals to
increase psychotropic effects on the user ... And they have
no idea of the dose."
On phenazepam in
Pineapple Express,
Dr Leo Schep, Toxicologist,
National Poisons Centre
New from the SMC
In the News:
Post-quake building - Following the
release of a new information paper on earthquake
engineering, the media have examined new challenges
in building safe structures.
Quake queries
answered -In another 'Ask the Experts' section in the
Press, geologists from GNS answer earthquake
questions posed by readers of the
newspaper.
The Rain and the plane - The
Dominion Post's Kiran Chug covers new research,
published in the journal Science, linking weather
pattens with airplane activity at major
airports
NZ's diabetes epidemic - New research
has revealed New Zealand has one of the highest rates of
diabetes among developed countries, drawing media
attention to the causes and prevention of the disease.
Experts Respond:
Phenazepam found synthetic cannabis blend
- Experts respond to the revelation that a
popular legal smoking blend, Kronic Pineapple Express
contained the prescription drug, phenazepam.
Reflections on
Science:
Research, not
rhetoric
- Ian William Chubb, the chief scientist of
Australia, shares his thoughts on climate change in
the public arena, evidence-based policy and science's role
in society in a recent blog post for New Scientist.
From the UK SMC:
Expert reaction: common drugs and risk in
elderly - New research into the long-term side effects
of common drugs revealed a raised risk of cognitive
impairment and increased mortality in older people. The UK
SMC has collected expert comment.
Sciblogs
highlights
Some of the highlights from this week's posts include:
Risky business: insuring
against climate change - Bryan Walker looks at the
financial implications of the rising global temperatures.
Hot Topic
Don Brash: climate
clueless™ to the core - Few punches are pulled by
Gareth Renowden as he takes ACT leader Brash to task over
his climate views.
Hot Topic
Child abuse
cases - the role of the expert - In the midst of debate
over the death of the Kahui twins and the Anna Sandiford
hilights some important points about expert witnesses in
court.
Forensic Scientist
Isoscapes - a tool
for forensics - Michael Edmonds shows how isotopes can
be the smoking gun used to trace the origins of organic
matter (including drugs and dead bodies).
Molecular
Matters
Weekend Nanotech - The Inconvenient Ash
- Ash + jet engine = BAD. Elf Eldridge does the maths (and
the science) on why planes can't fly through the volcanic
plume.
Just so Science
Research
highlights
Please note: hyperlinks point, where possible, to the relevant abstract or paper.
Aircraft influence weather: As airplanes fly
through the clouds, they often punch holes through the ones
that contain supercooled water, or water that has remained
in liquid form below its freezing point. Now, researchers
say that this phenomenon can lead to increased snowfall
around the world's airports - including in Antarctica. New
research shows that numerous private and commercial flights
have been drilling holes and canals through clouds all
along, influencing the snow and rainfall below them without
even knowing it. Images available.
Science
Antarctica's last stand: In the
warmest period in Earth's past 55 million years, Antarctica
was ice-free and forested. The continent's vast ice sheet,
began forming about 38 million years ago. Analysis of pollen
and sediment from deep drill core samples has revealed that
the last remnant of Antarctic vegetation existed in a tundra
landscape about 12 million years ago on the continent's
northern peninsula, the last part of the Antarctica to
succumb to the ice.
Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences
Water energy needs
examined: A new study argues that greater focus on the
energy requirements of the water sector will be a crucial
part of the policy response to the huge challenges it faces
in the coming decades. The authors of the study review
energy usage in the water industry and link their findings
to global warming considerations. Transpar¬ency in the
industry's energy use is likely to be important for it to
meet carbon-reduction commitments while responding to other
factors such as stricter quality standards and increasing
demand.
Nature Climate Change
Sugar
battery shows sweet success: A glucose biofuel cell
which offers the best performance yet has been reported in a
new study. The cell, created by wiring glucose oxidase and
laccase enzymes in a carbon nanotube disc, may provide a way
of efficiently producing energy from clean sources. Not only
is the energy source for such cells easily provided, the
energy -producing reactions can occur at near-room
temperature and neutral pH.
Nature
New alloy handles the heat: Researchers
have developed a superelastic alloy that can revert back to
its original shape after being deformed under a wide range
of temperatures. Whereas most superelastic alloys have a
strong temperature dependence to this restorative effect,
this new alloy can recover from deformation at temperatures
anywhere from -196 to 240 degrees Celsius with little
variability over this wide temperature
range.
Science
Wallaby bacteria go
easy on the methane: Despite eating the same sort of
grassy diet that cows do, Australia's grazing marsupials
don't produce nearly as much methane gas. Scientists have
now identified a gut microbe that helps explain this
difference in the Tammar wallaby. By devising a culture that
mimicked the conditions of this wallaby gut, the researchers
eventually grew a bacterium with a genome nearly matching
the dominant organisms originally seen in the foregut. The
researchers propose that the bacteria may hold clues for
efforts to modify fermentation in livestock so as to produce
less methane.
Science
Crows hold a
grudge: Crows don't just remember a transgression,
they'll also tell their friends. Research into crow social
learning has found that not only will crows 'scold' (cry out
at) a person they saw trapping a bird, they will influence
the behaviour of other crows who never wittnessed the
trapping.The researchers, who used a mask when trapping
birds, found that some crows scolded them when wearing the
mask, despite never seeing them trap any birds.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Neural light switch maps mouse behaviour:
Researchers have used a new method called 'optogenetics' to
control reward-related neural activity in mice. By
genetically altering mice to have light-sensitive neurons,
scientists were able to manipulate the activity of specific
areas of the brain using light via fiber-optic cables. This
methodology allowed them to identify a new pathway involved
in reward seeking behavior and shed light on the
neurobiology of
addiction.
Nature
Genes influence
face gazing: New research has found variations in the
cannabinoid receptor (CNR1) gene alter the amount of time
people spend looking at happy faces. Researchers analyzed
the DNA from 28 adult volunteers and tested (using a "gaze
tracker") how long the volunteers looked at faces in video
clips showing different emotions. The team found variations
in CNR1 correlated with a longer gaze at happy faces but not
with faces showing disgust. The findings may provide insight
into emotion processing and conditions such as
autism.
Molecular Autism
X-rays reveal
prehistoric plumage: A new study has used X-ray
synchrotron techniques, which penetrate an object with an
intense X-ray beam to probe its molecular makeup, to map out
the distribution of copper and other metals in a variety of
fossils. The researchers compared tissues from a range of
fossil and modern animals and found that the method could
resolve, to a certain extent, the coloration of fossilized
bird plumage - never seen by human eyes.
Science
Blueprint for ovarian cancer revealed: A
large-scale genomic analysis of the most common form of
ovarian cancer has revealed the number and type of mutations
in cancer cells is surprisingly simple and distinct from
other ovarian cancer subtypes. The landmark study
identifies aberrant genes and networks that have the
potential to be targeted with therapies selected to be
effective against these specific
aberrations.
Nature
Obesity greatest
threat for non-smoker women: While established research
has shown clearly that smoking is linked to premature death
and health inequalities, it is not known which causes of
death are related to the social position of women who have
never smoked. The results of a new study show that women in
lower occupational groups were more likely to die of
diseases of the heart and circulation, but not cancer.
British Medical Journal
Policy
updates
Some of the highlights of this week's policy news:
Appointments made to CRI boards -The Ministry of Science has announced new appointments and reappointments to the boards of Crown research institutes.
'Synthetic Cannabis' brand
recalled - Assoc Health Minister Peter Dunne has
announced that Kronic Pineapple Express
contains the controlled prescription drug phenazepam. An
official recall has been issued.
Canterbury get DHB funding boost - The
Government has pledged a special payment of up to $16
million to Canterbury District Health Board for earthquake
related costs in the 2010/11 financial year.
NZ joins GHG research body... - New Zealand has officially joined Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases, a a partnership for research on the mitigation of agricultural greenhouse gases.
...Also funds research - The New Zealand government has also established a contestable international fund worth NZ$25 million to support research on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from pastoral farming.
Upcoming sci-tech events
Conference of the Australasian Human Development Association - 4 - 6 July, Dunedin.
Value and Relevance of Antarctic Science - Annual Antarctic Conference, 4- 6 July, Hamilton.
Novel approaches to addressing genetic and environmental factors associated with diabetes and obesity - Sandpit workshop (FRENZ) - 5-8 July, Rotarua.
Understanding, managing and conserving our marine environment - NZ Marine Science Conference 2011, 5-8 July, Stewart Island.
International Neuropsychology Conference - Mid-year meeting - 6-9 July, Auckland
For these and more upcoming events, and
more details about them, visit the SMC's Events Calendar.
Science Media Centre NZ
Our aim is to promote accurate, evidence-based reporting on science and technology by helping the media work more closely with the scientific community.
The Science Media Centre is New Zealand's only trusted, independent source of information for the media on all issues related to science. Thousands of news stories providing context from and quoting New Zealand researchers have been published as a direct result of our work.
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