SMC Heads-Up: Antarctic jeopardy, Nobel prizes and Science Media SAVVY in Auckland
Issue 252
Oct 11 - 17 2013
Antarctic research
in limbo
As the US government
continues its political stalemate over the new budget, a
lack federal funding could see extensive disruption to
American scientists in Antarctica and their Kiwi
collaborators.
The very real threat of an Antarctic shutdown was confirmed by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) in a press release on Wednesday (NZT).
"Without additional funding, NSF has directed its Antarctic support contractor to begin planning and implementing caretaker status for research stations, ships and other assets." the agency said.
"Under caretaker status, the US Antarctic program will be staffed at a minimal level to ensure human safety and preserve government property, including the three primary research stations, ships and associated research facilities. All field and research activities not essential to human safety and preservation of property will be suspended."
Yesterday Minister for Foreign Affairs, Murray McCully -- who had just returned from his first trip to Antarctica -- spoke to the New Zealand Herald, confirming the impacts of the federal shutdown.
"A lot of the really good work we do in collaboration with the US will be paused for some time.' he said.
"We're particularly concerned that programmes that go back some years, where we've been keeping data to compare year-on-year, should be able to be protected.''
"We've made the offer to the US system that whatever we can do to help them, we will do."
Despite recent negotiations, the US government remains in shutdown mode and the NSF has estimated that funding for current Antarctic programs will be "depleted on or about October 14."
Science News has elaborated on the types of research that will be affected by a lack of funding.
New Zealand scientists contacted by the SMC shared Mr McCully's concerns.
Prof Craig Cary, Director of
The International Centre for Terrestrial Antarctic Research
(ICTAR, University of Waikato, commented:
"Our close collaboration
with our US colleagues is critical to a large component of
our program. Any change in their ability to do science on
the ice will directly effect us."
Peter Barrett, Emeritus Professor, Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, said:
"Almost all Antarctic research today is collaborative, so most national programmes will feel some consequences, but especially those with traditional close links with the US, such as our own."
You can read more commentary and a statement from Antarctica New Zealand, on the Science Media Centre website.
The highest honour in science
The forefathers of computational
chemistry, the instigators of 50-year hunt for subatomic
particle and the cartographers of cellular transport have
all been acknowledged in this year's Nobel Prizes.
The Nobel Prizes, awarded annually, recognise advances in the fields of literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, peace, and economics, and are widely regarded as the most prestigious award available in these pursuits.
This week
has seen the four of the six prizes bestowed on the winners
in Oslo, Sweden, with last two due to be announced in the
next few days.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry went
to Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh
Warshel "for the development of multiscale models for
complex chemical systems". Their models formed the basis of
computer modelling of chemical interactions, taking
chemistry out of the lab and into the digital era.
The Physics prize was awarded jointly to Francois Englert and Peter W. Higgs, who both posited the existence of the Higgs Boson some 50 years ago. Last year the the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider officially detected the particle.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was been awarded jointly to James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Südhof for "their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells."
And this morning (NZT) Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Canadian Alice Munro, "master of the contemporary short story".
The Nobel Prize for Peace will be announced at 10pm tonight (NZT) and the Economic Sciences Prize at midnight Monday.
Follow the action, and
read extensive background info on the prize winners and
their life's work at www.nobelprize.org.
What was big in science news this week...
Angry birds in Auckland , Invermay, Hep A in Ashburton, warmer Wellington and Dolphin holidays.
SAVVY returns to
Auckland
Researchers keen to improve
their media skills are invited to apply for the next Science
Media SAVVY workshop.
The two-day SAVVY course
is designed to help researchers at any stage of their career
gain greater confidence and skills to engage with media -
and get their science across effectively.
21-22 November
2013 in Auckland
More than basic media training, this course has been built from the ground up to meet the specific needs of scientists and researchers.
We aim to move scientists out of their comfort zone, giving them new tools to connect with different audiences, all while providing direct feedback and support from fellow researchers.
The course also offers a unique chance to make valuable media contacts and gain first-hand insight into news media practices during an invited journalists' panel and newsroom tour. New skills are put to the test with the opportunity to pitch research stories directly to interested reporters.
For more information, see the SAVVY web page or contact the SMC. If you'd like to help us spread the word, you can download a flyer here.
Applications close Friday 1
November at 6 pm
Policy news and
developments
Mercury Agreement: New Zealand has signed the the Minamata Convention on Mercury, an international agreement to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions of mercury and mercury compounds.
It's official: Land Information Minister Maurice Williamson today announced the recorded English names of the two main islands of New Zealand, the North Island and South Island, will be formalised.
Family health funding: The Government is investing $810,000 to support pregnant women and new mums to understand the importance of good nutrition and physical activity for their babies and for themselves.
Studying further: The latest report on enrolment data from the Ministry of Education shows more New Zealand tertiary students are studying at higher levels.
Farmers on tour: The Ministry
for Primary Industries has announced a new programme for
overseas farmers to spend time in New Zealand on an
agri-tech study tour.
Dealing with scientific
uncertainty
The tenth in a series of
articles from the new edition of the SMC Desk Guide for
Covering Science which is available in full here.
Uncertainty is part of the process:
Science cannot prove a negative - no matter how many
carefully designed experiments they've already run,
scientists will never be able to say, they're "100% certain"
that something is safe. That's because they are always open
to the possibility that new research tomorrow could overturn
current understanding. This flexibility of approach is one
of science's great strengths.
Enough is enough: That said,
when the studies start to stack up, most scientists will
agree that they've done everything in their power to rule
out a given risk or association. Accept a "high confidence"
level as the scientist's most strongly worded statement on
the subject, and don't vilify scientists who won't
categorically rule out a given possibility.
Experts may focus on the gaps in
knowledge: Be aware that scientists may spend less
time talking about what they do know (which they assume
everyone probably knows already), than talking about what
they don't know. This is because the unknown is an area of
intense interest and potential discovery for scientists.
Overall, this can give a skewed view of how important the
gaps in knowledge actually are.
Qualifiers and caveats are
essential: Editors and sub-editors hate them, but
qualifiers indicate the level of scientific uncertainty and
are not the result of weak writing in science-related
stories. If scientists are uncertain about their results,
you need to report that accurately. Leave notes to the
sub-editors when you file your story to try and avoid
qualifiers and caveats being cut and inappropriate headlines
being created for your stories.
Avoid single-source stories:
It can be tempting to spin a yarn from a well-crafted press
release and the one scientist it quotes, but you need to get
views from other scientists, particularly when dealing with
uncertainty in results.
Scientists are often too close to
their work to accurately say how much weight their findings
should be given. Check their claims against the
peer-reviewed literature and their peers.
To be continued next week... or read it all here if you cant wait.
Quoted: Waikato Times
"'When they bite into locusts it's
like potato chips. You can hear it, the crunch, crunch,
crunch."
PhD student Kristie
Cameron, on the possums' favourite snack
New from the SMC
In the
News:
Nobel pursuits:
Read about the winners of this year's Nobel Prizes
in Medicine/Physiology, Physics and Chemistry.
Antarctic shutdown: New Zealand experts comment on the Antarctic research repercussions from the United States federal shutdown.
Vaccince myths: Writing for The Conversation, Racheal Dunlop dispells six classic vaccine myths.
Sciblogs highlights
Some of the highlights from this week's Sciblogs posts:
The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics goes
to... Marcus Wilson blogs about the Nobel Prize
for physics, awarded to Francois Englert and Peter Higgs for
"discovering" the Higgs Boson.
Physics
Stop
Should those with Scientific Backgrounds be
More Assertive? Pseudoscientifc ideas should be
challenged, albeit it carefully, writes Michael
Edmonds.
Molecular Matters
Extinct moa brought to life -
Big birds abound in Quinn Berentson's Moa: the life and
death of New Zealand's legendary bird, reviewed by George
Gibbs.
SciBooks
The addictive choice - Eric
Crampton examines recent research showing addiction and
rationality and not mutually exclusive.
Dismal
Science
Research
highlights
Some of the major research
papers that made headlines this
week...
Please note: hyperlinks
point, where possible, to the relevant abstract or paper.
Ocean acidification: The
impacts of ocean acidification on ecosystems may have been
underestimated according to new University of Otago
research. Most experimental studies of acidification have
simply lowered the pH of sea water in a laboratory setting,
but the new study shows that lowering the pH while
accurately mimicking real world fluctuations of acidity
produces different -- and potentially more concerning --
results.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Weight-loss apps light on
evidence: Smartphone apps designed to help you lose
weight are lacking in evidence-based content, according to a
new US study. Researchers evaluated 30 of the most popular
apps on the market and determined that most of the apps
include few or no scientifically proven behavioural
weight-loss strategies. However the authors noted that
technological advantages such as barcode scanners were
"really interesting".
American Journal of Preventative
Medicine
Hands-free heart
monitor: A simple video camera paired with complex
algorithms appears to provide an accurate means toremotely
monitor heart and respiration rates day or night,
researchers report. The inexpensive method for monitoring
the vital signs without touching a patient could have major
implications for telemedicine, including enabling rapid
detection of a heart attack or stroke occurring at home.
PLOS ONE
Aircraft
noise and the heart: Exposure to high levels of
aircraft noise is associated with an increased risk of
cardiovascular disease, according to new studies. One study
examined hospital admissions in the vicinity of Heathrow
airport in London, while the other analysed data from older
adults living near 89 different airports in the US. Both
studies identified a link between aircraft noise exposure
and cardiovascular problems such as heart disease and
stroke.
BMJ
Watery
asteroid hints at life: Astronomers have found the
shattered remains of an asteroid that contained huge amounts
of water orbiting an exhausted star, or white dwarf. This
suggests that the star GD 61 and its planetary system -
located about 150 light years away and at the end of its
life - had the potential to contain Earth-like exoplanets,
they say.
Science
Upcoming
sci-tech events
For these and more
upcoming events, and more details about them, visit the
SMC's Events Calendar.
• What if...Breast cancer could be caused by a
virus? What if Wednesday lecture with Ann
Richardson - 16 October, Christchurch.
• Low Carb High Fat - Challenging Beliefs
- Seminar from Prof Grant Schofield - 16
October, Auckland.
• Geoenginnering the climate: How will the
public respond? Seminar with Prof Malcolm
Wright, Prof Damon Teagle and Pam Feetham - 17 October,
Wellington and online.
• It is rocket science! Igor Zotikov and his
theory that sub-glacial lakes might exist-
Public talk from science historian George Jones - 17
October, Wellington.
• Leading the way - the changing face of
National Research and Education Networks -
University of Auckland Vice-Chancellor's Lecture with REANZ
CEO Steve Cotter - 17 October, Auckland.
ENDS