Issue 212 21 December - 10 January
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The big science
stories of 2012
2012 was mercifully free
of major disaster-related science stories for New Zealand
with the exception of this month's fatal "microbust" in West
Auckland.
But plenty of science-related stories captured headlines and kept the SMC busy. Check out our archive of rapid round-ups to see some of the commentary we gathered from scientists on fracking, freshwater quality, infectious diseases, Tongariro eruption, Ross Sea protection, alcohol and tobacco policy, the Kiwifruit blight and many more issues.
Here's our picks for the top science stories of the year - picked from a top 10 list put together by our colleagues at the AusSMC in Adelaide.
1. Physicists found signs of the Higgs boson - CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) announced in July that the long-sought-after Higgs boson is real following a series of experiments conducted in the Large Hadron Collider. The Higgs boson, first postulated by Peter Higgs in the 1960s and often referred to as the 'God particle', explains why mass exists, and is the final particle required to confirm the Standard Model of physics.
2. Curiosity landed on the red planet - NASA's $US2.5bn rover Curiosity landed on Mars in August. After a 36-week voyage, the rover has started studying potentially habitable Martian environments.
3. Our genome was unravelled - Far from being junk, the vast majority of our DNA acts in at least one biochemical event in at least one cell type, according to the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Project. Analysing the entire genome to map regions of function and modification has expanded our understanding of how our blueprint is modified, and has identified new leads for understanding the genetic basis of many common diseases. ENCODE was published in over thirty research papers in four journals, including Nature.
4. First embryonic stem cell study in humans was completed - In the first report of embryonic stem cells being used in humans for any purpose, US researchers reported that transplants for eye disease (macular degeneration) in two patients appeared safe and gave them some improvement in vision after four months. This was published in the The Lancet.
5. Rare transit of Venus returned - In June, the planet Venus passed in front of the Sun for only the eighth time since the invention of telescope, and onlookers in cloud-shrouded New Zealand were lucky enough to catch a glimpse.
Interestingly, in the top Google
searches for NZ in 2012, the Transit of Venus came third
after Kim Dotcom and Tongariro in the news event category,
and ahead of the Marmite crisis and the new Give Way rule.
Save the date:
On the science radar...
Champagne cork warning, Christmas tree ecosystems, bonobo handymen, Antarctic alien invaders and the punchline to human hand
evolution.
Science Media SAVVY -
Auckland
The SMC will be holding another
two-day Science Media Savvy training programme in Auckland
in March 2013, following on from the very successful workshop in
Christchurch earlier this year.
Apocalypse...later?
New
Zealand academics are not expecting the world to end today,
citing the poor track record of doomsday predictions thus
far, but they note that human belief systems don't always
follow rational lines of thinking.
The date December 21st, 2012 (today), is at
the centre of a number of vague
theories which predict an impending apocalypse
and have attracted growing media attention.
Actual believers in the 2012 predictions are very thin on the ground, but this hasn't stopped the media from covering the issue extensively.
In response to growing interest, the US space agency NASA has provided a number of resources offering more information about the 2012 phenomenon and debunking many of the assertions made by doomsday theorists.
Earlier this week, the Science Media Centre in New Zealand has contacted experts seeking insights into the basis of such theories and why they persist in the face of contrary evidence.
Dr Matthew Dentith, Faculty Member, Department of Philosophy, University of Auckland, said:
"All doomsday theories thus far have relied upon controversial interpretations of their supporting evidence. For example, the Mayan Long Count Calendar does not predict a catastrophe on the 21st of December but, rather, the end of a cycle. To infer that the end of a cycle entails an apocalypse is like claiming the world is going to end because the year is coming to a close.
"Even if the evidence wasn't controversial, the actual argument doesn't strongly suggest, let alone entail, that we should believe there is going to be a worldwide calamity this Friday. Given the poor track record of doomsday predictions in general and the various other rival, non-doomsday hypotheses, the 21st of December, 2012, is likely to be as interesting as the 21st of December, 2011 or, indeed, any random day of the year.
Prof Marc Wilson, Victoria University Wellington, noted that even the outright absence of cataclysmic event may not lead to some people admitting they were wrong:
"What will happen when people awaiting doomsday inevitably wake up on the 22nd and everything's still there?
"This is a fundamentally uncomfortable position to be in because we all have a drive to believe that we're rational and sensible rather than gullible and credulous! The phenomenon is technically called cognitive dissonance.
"Well, people will deal with this through rationalisation. Some will rationalise it by claiming they didn't believe it in the first place (sour grapes type behaviour) and they will really convince themselves that this was the case. Some will rationalise it by revisiting the evidence and finding the flaw that leads to them to what the REAL date will be (and it starts over again)."
You can read extensive
further commentary from both these researchers on the Science Media Centre website.
Seasons greetings from the SMC
team!
It has been a busy year for the
Science Media Centre and we've enjoyed working with old
friends in science and the media and welcoming newcomers to
the fold. Thanks for your support in what has been another
big news year.
SMC Christmas/New Year hours:
Dec 21st - closed from
2pm
Jan 9th - SMC
re-opens
We'll be on hand to help with queries throughout the holiday period should breaking news require scientific input. Contact SMC manager Peter Griffin - (021 859 365 peter@sciencemediacentre.co.nz) should you require assistance over the holiday break.
Merry Xmas and a safe and happy New Year!
Quoted: The Press
"If
people actually believed in the end times - and economists
have done work on this - then people would have pulled all
the money out of their banks, they would have stopped saving
and wouldn't be investing."
- Dr Eric Crampton, University of Canterbury
New from the
SMC
Skeptical: In the New Zealand Herald, Sarah Daniell poses 12 questions to Vicki Hyde, spokeswoman for the NZ Skeptics Society, just ahead of this week's supposed End of the World.
Apocalyptic: Experts explore why some
people believe in doomsday predictions like the Mayan 2012
theory. Evan approaching NZ: Mental health :
In the news:
Einstein Medal: A New Zealand
scientist has been awarded a prestigious medal in
recognition of his furthering the work of Albert
Einstein.
Is Modern Medicine Killing You?: the titular question posed by a recent NZ TV series, got a full check-up on Radio New Zealand's Mediawatch this weekend.
Sciblogs highlights
Some of the highlights from this week's posts:
Return of Forensic Scientist!
Anna Sandiford is back with a rundown of the
most intersting and downright odd forensic science
presentations she has given over the year.
Forensic
Scientist
Pluralism and health - You can
put the gross smoking picture on the box, but can you stop
an individual from covering it up? wonders Eric
Crampton.
The Dismal Science
What causes didymo blooms in NZ rivers?
Freshwater ecologist Cathy Kilroy tackles the
slippery issue of the invasive 'rock snot' in New Zealand
streams.
Waiology
Research
highlights
Please note: hyperlinks point, where possible, to the relevant abstract or paper.
Overindulging could knock hours off your
life: Taking it easy on the food and drink this
festive season can have a positive effect on you life
expectancy - but how can we quantify it? A UK statistician
has devised a system of breaking down life expectancy into
'microlives '(loosely equivalent to one millionth of life
after age 35). He calculates that, averaged over a lifetime
habit, a microlife can be "lost" from smoking two
cigarettes, being 5 kg overweight, having a second or third
alcoholic drink of the day, or eating a
burger.
BMJ
TV
Dinners: Celebrity chefs might be out to tantalise
your tastebuds but they certainly don't have your waistline
in mind, according to a new study. Researchers compared the
nutritional content of television chefs' recipes with that
of supermarket ready to eat meals and found the chefs'
dishes contained significantly more energy, protein, fat,
and saturated fat than their humble supermarket
counterparts.
BMJ
Possum
vaccine: Possums are a major contributor to the
spread of TB in livestock. The latest results from an
ongoing New Zealand research programme show that oral
vaccine confers TB protection in wild possums for up to 28
months. The authors state that the "longevity of protection
demonstrated here shows that an operable wildlife vaccine
against TB is feasible," and say that the next step is field
trials at a population level.
Vaccine
Making a
meal of mealworms: Food enthusiasts interested in
sustainable farm practices may soon have a new meat
alternative: insects. Beetle larvae (called mealworms) farms
produce more edible protein, require less land and generate
fewer greenhouse gas emissions than traditional farms for
chicken, pork, beef or milk.
PLOS ONE
Policy updates
Some of the policy highlights from this week:
Food safety: New Zealand this week signed an agreement with the US recognising each other's food safety systems as providing a comparable degree of food safety assurance.
Mental health: The Ministry of Health has this week signalled the launch of 'Rising to the Challenge', a new national five-year plan for mental health and addiction setting priorities for action until 2017.
Upcoming sci-tech events
• Making Science Work - Public
lecture by Sir Paul Nurse - University of Auckland 17, Jan
Wellington, 18 Jan, Auckland
For these and more
upcoming events, and more details about them, visit the
SMC's Events Calendar.
ENDS