Sceptici în România

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Skeptical Reporter for December 14^th, 2012

Announcement:  The skeptical reporter will take a break, but will be back on the 25^th of January next year. So don’t forget to tune in for your weekly dose of science and skepticism news.

And now for some skeptical news

The Psychic Friends Network is hard at work finding new ways to make people pay up for what they offer. The representatives of the company offering psychic services of all sorts just announced in a press release that they are developing a mobile app, being the first in the business to do so. This is what the press release had to say: “Psychic Friends Network, the company that single-handedly created the psychic entertainment market in the 1990s and generated over $1 billion in revenue, is developing a mobile smartphone/tablet application (mobile app), a first for the psychic service industry. "This is a major breakthrough not just for the Psychic Friends Network, but for the entire psychic service industry," said Marc Lasky, CEO of Psychic Friends Network”. Their app will be “freemium”, meaning it will be free to download but users will be charged for content used.

In Australia, a controversial anti-vaccination lobby group has been slapped with an order to change its misleading name or be shut down. The NSW Office of Fair Trading handed a letter of action the Australian Vaccination Network president Meryl Dorey, labeling the network's name as misleading and a detriment to the community. NSW Fair Trading Minister Anthony Roberts explained that the information the Network provided was a public safety issue of "life and death". "This is not a victimless issue, it's about the ability to stop pain and suffering," he said. Minister Roberts likened the AVN's message to sanctioning speeding: "People do not have the freedom of choice when it comes to endangering others ... it's the equivalent of saying a bloke can speed down the road and endanger others". Minister Roberts has warned other states if the AVN tries to register elsewhere.

From India to Las Vegas, superstitious lovebirds and numbers geeks are reveling in a once-in-a-lifetime event: the date 12/12/12. Sure, it might be just another set of numbers for some. But unlike the past 11 years, this will be the last such triple date for almost a century, until January 1, 2101. Those tying the knot at the Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel have 40 different 12/12/12 wedding packages to choose from. Six of those options include an Elvis impersonator From midnight to midnight, more than 100 couples will walk or ride down the aisle at Viva Las Vegas. That's more than 10 times the number of couples who get hitched there on a typical Wednesday in December.

One of the world's top advertising awards went this year to a campaign in which a radio station broadcast ultrasound along with its programmes to repel mosquitoes. But does it work? Definitely not, say scientists. It was a beautifully simple idea. No more need for smelly lotions, chemical gases, smoke or rolled-up newspapers, listeners to Brazilian station Band FM were told - all you need to do to beat mosquitoes is to stick close to the radio. The station broadcast a high-frequency tone under its music in April this year. Inaudible to most adults, the tone was supposed to repel mosquitoes, allowing listeners to relax in the open air without fear of getting bitten. There's just one problem. Scientists say it's nonsense. Bart Knols, an entomologist who chairs the advisory board of the Dutch Malaria Foundation and edits the website Malaria World, claims that there is "no scientific evidence whatsoever" that ultrasound repels mosquitoes. A 2010 review article examined 10 field studies, in which ultrasonic repellent devices had been put to the test, and concluded that they "have no effect on preventing mosquito bites" and "should not be recommended or used".

And now let’s look at some news in science

University of Colorado Boulder Assistant Professor Nikolaus Correll and his computer science research team have developed a basic robotic building block, which he hopes to reproduce in large quantities to develop increasingly complex systems. Recently the team created a swarm of 20 robots, each the size of a Ping Pong ball, which they call "droplets." When the droplets swarm together, Correll said, they form a "liquid that thinks." To accelerate the pace of innovation, he has created a lab where students can explore and develop new applications of robotics with basic, inexpensive tools. Similar to the fictional "nanomorphs" depicted in the "Terminator" films, large swarms of intelligent robotic devices could be used for a range of tasks. Swarms of robots could be unleashed to contain an oil spill or to self-assemble into a piece of hardware after being launched separately into space, Correll said. He plans to use the droplets to demonstrate self-assembly and swarm-intelligent behaviors such as pattern recognition, sensor-based motion and adaptive shape change. These behaviors could then be transferred to large swarms for water- or air-based tasks. Correll hopes to create a design methodology for aggregating the droplets into more complex behaviors such as assembling parts of a large space telescope or an aircraft.

Scientists with NASA's Cassini mission have spotted what appears to be a miniature, extraterrestrial likeness of Earth's Nile River: a river valley on Saturn's moon Titan that stretches more than 400 kilometers from its "headwaters" to a large sea. It is the first time images have revealed a river system this vast and in such high resolution anywhere other than Earth. Scientists deduce that the river, which is in Titan's north polar region, is filled with liquid hydrocarbons because it appears dark along its entire length in the high-resolution radar image, indicating a smooth surface. "Though there are some short, local meanders, the relative straightness of the river valley suggests it follows the trace of at least one fault, similar to other large rivers running into the southern margin of this same Titan sea," said Jani Radebaugh, a Cassini radar team associate at Brigham Young University, Utah. Titan is the only other world we know of that has stable liquid on its surface. While Earth's hydrologic cycle relies on water, Titan's equivalent cycle involves hydrocarbons such as ethane and methane. In Titan's equatorial regions, images from Cassini's visible-light cameras in late 2010 revealed regions that darkened due to recent rainfall.

Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have uncovered a previously unseen population of seven primitive galaxies that formed more than 13 billion years ago, when the universe was less than 3 percent of its present age. The deepest images to date from Hubble yield the first statistically robust sample of galaxies that tells how abundant they were close to the era when galaxies first formed. The results show a smooth decline in the number of galaxies with increasing look-back time to about 450 million years after the big bang. The observations support the idea that galaxies assembled continuously over time and also may have provided enough radiation to reheat, or reionize, the universe a few hundred million years after the big bang. These pioneering observations blaze a trail for future exploration of this epoch by NASA's next-generation spacecraft, the James Webb Space Telescope. Looking deeper into the universe also means peering farther back in time. The universe is now 13.7 billion years old. The newly discovered galaxies are seen as they looked 350 million to 600 million years after the big bang. Their light is just arriving at Earth now.

Having HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence, but it's still a lifelong illness that requires an expensive daily cocktail of drugs. And it means tolerating those drugs' side effects and running the risk of resistance. Researchers at The Rockefeller University may have found something better: they've shown that a therapeutic approach harnessing proteins from the human immune system can suppress the virus in mice. This kind of treatment doesn't need daily application and could one day be used in humans to treat the disease. Florian Klein and colleagues in Michel Nussenzweig's Laboratory of Molecular Immunology found that a combination of five different antibodies, proteins the immune system uses to fight infection, effectively suppressed HIV-1 replication. They kept the virus at bay for a 60 day period after termination of therapy thanks to their longer half-life, while current antiretroviral drugs require daily intake. These especially potent antibodies were only recently discovered, some of them by several of Klein's colleagues. Called broadly-neutralizing antibodies, they were identified and cloned from HIV-infected patients whose immune systems showed an unusually high ability to neutralize HIV.

And in local news from Romania we learn that

Romanian students won six silver medals in the International Junior Science Olympiad that was held in Tehran this year. All the members of the Romanian team managed to come back home with a distinction and they did better than last year’s group that participated in the academic event. Diana-Andreea Catană, Ruxandra Tesloianu, Dan Mircea Mirea, Adrian Mihai Radu, Tiberiu Alexandru Pană and Andrei Iliescu are the students who won this year. The Olympiad is an event where students must pass challenges both theoretical and practical in three subjects: chemistry, biology and physics.

Links:

• http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/psychic-friends-network-pfni-readies-freemium-mobile-apps-in-bid-to-re-dominate-the-nearly-25b-psychic-entertainment-market-183148821.html
• http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health-fitness/minister-orders-anti-vaccination-group-to-change-its-name/story-fneuz9ev-1226537155195
• http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/11/living/12-12-12/index.html
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20669080
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121214143027.htm
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121212164028.htm
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121212141807.htm
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121210220916.htm
• http://www.realitatea.net/sase-medalii-de-argint-la-olimpiada-internationala-de-stiinte-pentru-juniori_1071720.html

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:32 — 8.6MB)

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Skeptical Reporter for December 7^th, 2012

Announcement: The Chinese language version of Skeptoid has been launched. The producers hope that this move will help promote the appreciation of science and scientific skepticism to the world’s largest market. Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena is an award-winning weekly science podcast. According to their website, Skeptoid has been fighting the good fight against the overwhelming majority of noise in the media, since 2006, supporting useless alternative medicine systems, psychics preying upon the vulnerable, the erosion of science education in the classroom, xenophobia of advanced energy and food production methods, and generally anything that distracts attention and public funding from scientific advancement.

And now for some skeptical news

The winner of the Australian Skeptics' Bent Spoon Award, that is given every year to the most deserving promoters of pseudoscience, has been announced. This year, the standout winner of the Australian Skeptics' Bent Spoon Award for ''the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudoscientific piffle'' went to Fran Sheffield from Homeopathy Plus. The New South Wales-based organization, which promotes natural remedies for a variety of ailments, was gonged for claims made for homeopathy and whooping cough treatment and vaccine. Last week, the Australian Academy of Science released a booklet aimed at dispelling the myths about the dangers of vaccination and at reversing the falling trend of childhood vaccinations in Australia. About one in 12 Australian babies is not fully immunized. Awarded at a dinner in Melbourne, the Bent Spoon Award came with a trophy made from a spoon that had been ''psychically bent'' and mounted on a plinth of wood ''from Noah's Ark''.  Also honored at the dinner, which caps the group's national convention, was the lobby group Friends of Science in Medicine, which won the 2012 Skeptic of the Year Award. The group was recognized for challenging those Australian universities running courses in areas the Australian Skeptics consider ''unproven and over-hyped'' medical treatments. This includes areas such as chiropractic, naturopathy, acupuncture and reflexology.

TED is a very popular web site that features premier speakers to talk about their “ideas worth spreading” and also a well known event designed to open minds and help with information sharing. Even though TED events themselves feature quality speeches, the affiliated TEDx events don’t always meet the standards. The organizers of TED have been forced to write a letter to those in charge of affiliated events explaining what “good science” is, after several promoters of dubious topics have managed to take the stage in Spain and other countries. This is what the letter had to say: “It is your job, before any speaker is booked, to check them out, and to reject bad science, pseudoscience and health hoaxes. Vetting your speakers is hard work, and can lead to uncomfortable moments. But as TEDx organizers, your audience’s trust is your top priority, over and above any other personal or business relationship that may have brought this speaker to your attention. It is not your audience’s job to figure out if a speaker is offering legitimate science or not. It is your job. The consequence of bad science and health hoaxes are not trivial”. You can read the entire letter, that includes sections on what are the marks of good and bad science and what should raise some red flags, by clicking the first link below this episode.

The day after a federal judge cast doubt on a new state law banning sexual-orientation therapy for minors, a second judge issued a ruling upholding it. According to Lynda Gledhill, a spokeswoman for the California attorney general, the ban on sexual-orientation therapy will take effect January 1st as scheduled for everyone except two therapists and an aspiring therapist who sued to keep the ban from taking effect. In the ruling, in a case brought by opponents asserting that the law violates free-speech, religious and parental rights, U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller said the Legislature and governor had enough grounds to enact such a law, given that multiple mental health groups, including the American Psychological Association, have discredited the therapy. State Senator Ted Lieu, author of the law, said he expects the first case to be decided in favor of it. "On behalf of the untold number of children who can expect to be spared the psychological abuse imposed by reparative therapy, I’m thrilled that today’s ruling by Judge Mueller will continue to protect our children from serious harm”, Lieu said in a statement.

The American Veterinary Medical Association has a resolution discouraging homeopathy for animals on its agenda for the January 5^th regular winter session of the House of Delegates. The Connecticut Veterinary Medical Association submitted a resolution for HOD consideration that would discourage the use of homeopathy as ineffective. The resolution is as follows: Homeopathy Has Been Identified as an Ineffective Practice and Its Use Is Discouraged. The American Veterinary Medical Association affirms that safety and efficacy of veterinary therapies should be determined by scientific investigation. When sound and widely accepted scientific evidence demonstrates a given practice as ineffective or that it poses risks greater than its possible benefits, such ineffective or unsafe philosophies and therapies should be discarded.

The annual cost to industry of illegal copies of branded products is estimated at a staggering 650 billion U.S. dollars worldwide, and German machine tool manufacturers are becoming an increasingly popular target for pirating operations, but they are finding new ways of fighting back. Around one third of all companies have seen their business eroded by cheap imitations of their products, especially manufacturers of textile machines, compressors and plastics processing equipment. "Most companies have absolutely no idea just how easily their products can be copied," says Bartol Filipovic, head of the Product Protection department at the Fraunhofer Research Institution AISEC in Garching. The AISEC advises companies on how best to protect their products and IT services from unlawful attacks on their proprietary rights. One option is to install cryptographic devices that encrypt the data stored within the machine. These devices generate the corresponding decryption key based on the duration of electrical signals on the microchip. The signals emitted by other chips, even those from the same production batch, will be of a slightly different duration, rendering the key unusable. Companies that have implemented AISEC recommendations enjoy at least five to ten years relief from attacks by product counterfeiters. This time lead is crucial for companies to protect their expensive investments.

Drones could soon be helping protect rhinos, tigers and elephants in Africa and Asia, thanks to cash from Google. Controlled via a tablet computer, the small autonomous aircraft will photograph poachers and track animals via smart radio tags. The World Wildlife Fund used the 5 million dollars grant received from Google to fund software that could map where poachers strike. And it was developing a mobile DNA sampling kit to match body parts with animals. The WWF said poaching and trafficking of body parts was having a devastating effect on the wild populations of some species, setting back decades long conservation efforts. The past 12 months have seen a significant rise in attacks on some animals, such as rhinos. In five years the number of rhinos killed in South Africa has risen from 13 to 588, according to statistics from Traffic, which monitors the trade in endangered animal parts. Google gave the WWF the cash as part of its Global Impact Award programme. The first round of these awards handed out 23 million dollars to seven separate organizations.

Scientists say they have pinpointed genetic changes that allow some Ethiopians to live and work more than a mile and a half above sea level without getting altitude sickness. The specific genes differ from those reported previously for high-altitude Tibetans, even though both groups cope with low-oxygen in similar physiological ways, the researchers report. If confirmed, the results may help scientists understand why some people are more vulnerable to low blood oxygen levels caused by factors other than altitude -- such as asthma, sleep apnea, heart problems or anemia -- and point to new ways to treat them, the researchers say. Research over the last four decades has revealed that people born and raised in mountainous regions cope with altitude in different ways. Native highlanders in Tibet and some in Ethiopia, for example, are able to maintain relatively low blood hemoglobin concentrations at high altitude compared to their counterparts in the Andes, a trait that makes them less susceptible to chronic mountain sickness.

A baby star's mass has been measured for the first time. The star, called L1527 IRS, is only one-fifth the mass of the sun, and is expected to keep growing as the swirling disk of matter surrounding it falls into its surface. Astronomers estimated the star formed around the same time that Neanderthals evolved on Earth: just 300,000 years ago. In fact, if L1527 had grown in mass just a bit more quickly in its earlier years, it could be as young as 150,000 years old. Either way, the star is among the youngest discovered in the universe, said lead researcher John Tobin. "There's five times more material surrounding it that could be incorporated in [the star]," said Tobin, a Hubble fellow at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Virginia. "There is still a lot of room to grow, so to say." L1527 lies in the constellation Taurus, about 450 light-years from Earth. Its close distance makes it easier to resolve fine features in the disk. "There is a rotationally supported disk around this protostar," said Tobin, adding it's a "key element" in building planets. But it's far too early in L1527's evolution to talk about protoplanets, he added. In the scale of stellar evolution, the star is at Stage 0. By comparison, Earth's sun is a middle-aged matron, at 4.6 billion years of age.

And in local news from Romania we learn that

A Romanian thinks he can predict the correct date for the Apocalypse and it’s not this year. According to calculations by the Romanian, Gheorghe Gherasim, a former accountant, the Apocalypse will occur 100 years from now, on the 21^st of December 2112. Based on numerology and a “revelation” regarding the apocalypse, the man is convinced that he has the correct answer to the date when the annihilation of the planet will occur.

The TED letter on good and bad science.

Links:

• http://skeptoid.com/
• http://www.theage.com.au/national/skeptics-confer-spoon-accolade-20121202-2ap2r.html
• http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2012/12/conversion-therapy-rulings.html
• https://www.avma.org/News/JAVMANews/Pages/121215c.aspx
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121207090441.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20625578
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121207094606.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
• http://www.space.com/18774-baby-protostar-growing.html
• http://www.realitatea.net/un-roman-prezice-adevarata-data-a-apocalipsei_1068603.html

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:10 — 9.0MB)

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Skeptical Reporter for November 30^th, 2012

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban believes that one of the NBA's marketing deals is "a scam". He said that he banned the Power Balance product from the team's locker room. Cuban made his opinion clear in a video he posted on YouTube last week in which he criticized Power Balance bracelets before throwing the display case that was in the Mavericks' locker room in the garbage.The rubber bracelets have a distinctive hologram that is "based on Eastern philosophies of health and wellness", according to the company's website. Power Balance bracelets featuring NBA team logos in the hologram are available for $32.99 on the league's official website. However, Cuban said that he will not allow the product in the Mavericks' locker room. In November 2011, Power Balance LLC reportedly agreed to a $57 million settlement to a class action false-advertising lawsuit by some customers who alleged that the company intentionally exaggerated its products' ability to improve balance, flexibility and strength. Cuban hastily dismissed a similar product when watches with holograms were pitched on "Shark Tank", the ABC entrepreneurial reality show on which he stars. "No, I'm allergic to scams", Cuban said on the episode of "Shark Tank" that aired in February. "Seriously, this is not new. It's been disproven. What you saw is the placebo effect. There's athletes that wear it. It's a joke. It's a scam. It's not real".

MMR vaccine coverage has reached its highest level in 14 years in young children in the United Kingdom, says the Health and Social Care Information Centre. 91% of children under the age of two received the first dose of the jab between 2011 and 2012, a rise of 2.1% on the previous year. But this is still short of the 95% that experts believe is required to stop the spread of measles. Measles outbreaks were seen in Sussex and Merseyside earlier this year. Tim Straughan, chief executive from HSCIC, said: "Today's report marks a significant point in the continued rise of MMR coverage since it hit a low in 2003-04 - as for the first time in 14 years, nine out of 10 children in England have had the MMR vaccine before they turn two". This is the first time coverage in England has passed 90% since 1997-98, when immunisation fell due to the controversial claims against the vaccine that were completely without foundation. The first dose of the MMR vaccine should ideally be given to children between 12 to 13 months of age. They are given the second dose before they start school, usually between three and five years of age, although it can be given three months after the firsteasles can cause serious illness and can, in some cases, be fatal. Complications can include meningitis and encephalitis - inflammation of the lining of the brain. Rarer disorders of the eye, heart and nervous system can also develop.

For the people in a tiny Serbian village there is nothing sexy or romantic about a vampire. In fact, they are terrified that one of the most feared vampires of the area has been roused back to life. Rather than 'Twilight's' Edward, the people of Zorazje fear that Sava Savanovic is lurking in their forested mountains of western Serbia. They believe that he is on the move because the home he occupied for so long, a former water mill, recently collapsed. Savanovic is believed to be looking for a new home. "People are very worried. Everybody knows the legend of this vampire and the thought that he is now homeless and looking for somewhere else and possibly other victims is terrifying people," said Miodrag Vujetic, local municipal assembly member. He added that villagers "are all taking precautions by having holy crosses and icons placed above the entrance to the house, rubbing our hands with garlic, and having a hawthorn stake or thorn. I understand that people who live elsewhere in Serbia are laughing at our fears, but here most people have no doubt that vampires exist".

The British government is taking the groundbreaking step of officially warning cancer patients and their families against substandard clinics – often abroad – that offer unproven treatments, following a Guardian investigation. The move follows coverage of the plight of children with neuroblastoma, a rare cancer diagnosed in babies that has a very poor survival rate. Distressed families, who are desperate to do anything they can to help their child survive, have been travelling as far as Mexico and China for treatments that clinics claim on websites can cure their children or relieve pain. The Guardian featured the case of seven-year-old Olivia Downie from Fraserburgh, who travelled with her family to a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico, for "sono-photodynamic therapy". But the treatment did nothing to help and Olivia died a few days after returning to Scotland. The warning on NHS Choices points out that photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a genuine, licensed and useful treatment for some cancers but it "should not be confused with the unproven, unlicensed versions of PDT sold by some private clinics in the UK and overseas". "If you or your child are seriously ill with cancer, it is understandable to feel desperate and want to try every available treatment that might help," says NHS Choices., "however, if you opt for NGPDT or SDT rather than going with NHS advice or treatment, you could be putting your life at risk. Your condition may deteriorate further and you may experience unknown adverse effects from the therapy".

And now let's look at some news in science

Fifty-nine years after James Watson and Francis Crick deduced the double-helix structure of DNA, a scientist has captured the first direct photograph of the twisted ladder that props up life. Enzo Di Fabrizio, a physics professor at the Magna Graecia University in Catanzaro, Italy, snapped the picture using an electron microscope. Previously, scientists had only seen DNA's structure indirectly. The double-corkscrew form was first discovered using a technique called X-ray crystallography, in which a material's shape is reconstructed based on how X-rays bounce after they collide with it. But Di Fabrizio and his colleagues developed a plan to bring DNA out of hiding. They built a nanoscopic landscape of extremely water-repellant silicon pillars. When they added a solution that contained strands of DNA into this scene, the water quickly evaporated and left behind cords of bare DNA that they could see.

Botswana will ban commercial hunting from January 2014 over growing concerns about the sharp decline in wildlife species, officials have announced. "The shooting of wild game for sport and trophies is no longer compatible with our commitment to preserve local fauna", the environment ministry said. As much as a third of the global elephant population lives in Botswana. Recent estimates place the number at about 130,000. The ban, set to come into place on the 1st of January, could turn out to be controversial as it may pose a threat to local communities, in particular bushmen, for whom hunting is a means to survive. Furthermore, selling hunting licences to wealthy Westerners is an extremely lucrative business. Hunting concessions currently exist in the northern Okavango Delta and the parks of the Kalahari region, famous for its upmarket safari lodges. According to the environment ministry's official statement, the government will continue to issue special game licences "for traditional hunting by some local communities within designated wildlife management areas". Designated hunting zones will be turned into "photographic areas".

More than 20 polar research teams have combined forces to produce estimates of the state of the ice in Greenland and Antarctica in a paper in Science. Until now different measurement means have produced a wide range of estimates with large uncertainties. But sea-level rise is now among the most pressing questions of our time. The new estimate shows that polar melting contributed about one-fifth of the overall global sea level rise since 1992; other factors include warming that causes the seawater to expand. Supported by US and European space agencies Nasa and Esa, the research brought together data from satellites measuring the surface altitude, the flow of the glaciers and the gravitational effect of the ice mass to produce the first joint assessment of how the ice sheets are changing. The results show that the largest ice sheet - that of East Antarctica - has gained mass over the study period of 1992-2011 as increased snowfall added to its volume. However, Greenland, West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula were all found to be losing mass - and on a scale that more than compensates for East Antarctica's gain. The study's headline conclusion is that the polar ice sheets have overall contributed 11.1mm to sea level rise but with a "give or take" uncertainty of 3.8mm - meaning the contribution could be as little as 7.3mm or as much as 14.9mm.

The galaxy NGC 1277, just a quarter the size of our own Milky Way, hosts a black hole 4,000 times larger than the one at the Milky Way's centre. A report in Nature shows it has a mass some 17 billion times that of our Sun. The surprise finding is hard to reconcile with existing models of black hole growth, which hold that they evolve in tandem with host galaxies. Getting to grips with just how large black holes are is a tricky business - after all, since they swallow light in their vicinities, they cannot be seen. Instead, astronomers measure the black holes' "sphere of influence" - the gravitational effects they have on surrounding gas and stars. On a hunt for the Universe's largest black holes, astronomers using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope in the US state of Texas undertook a survey that brought in a haul of nearly 900 host galaxies. The researchers were surprised to find that some of the largest black holes were to be found in small galaxies. NGC 1277 in particular was quite strange. "This galaxy seems to be very old. So somehow this black hole grew very quickly a long time ago, but since then that galaxy has been sitting there not forming any new stars or anything else. We're trying to figure out how this happens, and we don't have an answer for that yet", one of the researchers has explained.

And in local news from Romania we learn that

Four asteroids, on the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, that had been discovered by Romanian professional and amateur astronomers have been named after four other Romanians that are passionate about astronomy. Arpadpal, Alexescu, Anestin and Boico are the first asterois discovered by Romanians and that have officially received Romanian names. The large chunks of rock were discovered by the "European Near Earth Asteroid Research" (EURONEAR) team , a project initiated by Ovidiu Vaduvescu and Mirel Bîrlan. EURONEAR studies asteroids that have an orbit close to that of the Earth and has so far discovered over 1.500 asteroids. Asteroid Arpadpal received the name of one of the most famous romanian astronomers, prof. dr. Arpad Pal. Asteroid Alexescu was named after prolific sky-watcher Matei Alexescu, member of the British Astronomical Association and the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers in the US. Asteroid Anestin was named after Victor Anestin one of the very first Romanian science journalists to promote astronmy. Asteroid Boico received the name of amateur astronomer and engineer Vladimir Boico, who was president of the Bucharest Astroclub between 1991 and 1998.

Links:

• http://espn.go.com/dallas/nba/story/_/id/8677068/mark-cuban-dallas-mavericks-blasts-nba-scam-bracelet-deal
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20510525
• http://abcnews.go.com/International/vampire-threat-terrorizes-serbian-village/story?id=17831327#.ULy6o4NtgZ4
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/nov/30/cancer-patients-clinics-unproven-treatment?CMP=twt_gu
• http://www.livescience.com/25163-dna-directly-photographed-for-first-time.html
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20544251
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20543483
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20528137
• http://www.realitatea.net/descoperirea-spectaculoasa-facuta-de-patru-astronomi-romani-recunoscuta-oficial_1063268.html

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:01 — 7.4MB)

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Skeptical Reporter for November 23^rd, 2012

In San Francisco, the District Attorney has announced suspects in a bizarre ghost scam have been charged. The scam has targeted people in the Asian community and authorities were quick to launch an awareness campaign that ultimately led to the fraudsters being caught. Two women were arrested and now face jail time for grand theft, extortion, attempted extortion and attempted grand theft. The M.O. was the same as the last Chinese ghost scam from earlier this summer in the United States, where the suspects duped dozens of elderly Asian women to hand over their cash and valuables. In total, the suspects made off with more than $1 million, according to police. In September, three more women were arrested on suspicion of stealing victim's money after telling them there were evil spirits attached to them. One victim alone lost $35,000. Since then, the cops and the DA have been hosting community meetings to educate residents about this crafty scam. But on the 10th of November, the scammers struck again, targeting elderly Chinese women at the Alemany Farmer's Market.  The first victim was approached by three of the defendants who told her that she was plagued by "evil spirits" and that a family member was in danger, so she had to get her money and valuables and bring them over for a blessing. Frightened by the thought of evil spirits, the victim headed home to get her valuables. But on her way she recalled having just heard a warning on the news about this kind of scam. So instead of going home, the victim went to Ingleside Police Station and reported the scam. The cops responded to the market, where the victim identified the suspects.

France dashed the hopes of those who had planned to take refuge in one of the few places on Earth some believe will be spared when the world ends on December 21st. Local officials banned access to the Pic de Bugarach, a mountain in the southwest where rumour has it the hilltop will open on the last day and aliens will emerge with spaceships to save nearby humans. Eric Freysselinard, the state's top representative in the area, said he was blocking access to the mountain for public safety reasons to avoid a rush of New Age fanatics, sightseers and media crews. Believers say the world will end on December 21, 2012, the end date of the ancient Mayan calendar, and they see Bugarach as one of a few sacred mountains sheltered from the cataclysm. Freysselinard said the 100 police and firefighters he plans to deploy will also control approaches to the tiny village of the same name at the foot of the mountain, and if too many people turn up, they will block access there too.

An Indian publisher is drawing criticism for a school textbook that says meat eaters cheat,  lie and commit sex crimes. "New Healthway," a health and hygiene textbook published by S Chand for 11- and 12-year-olds, includes a chapter titled "Do We Need Flesh Food?". The book says "some of the characteristics" of non-vegetarians are that "they easily cheat, tell lies, forget promises, they are dishonest and tell bad words, steal, fight and turn to violence and commit sex crimes." Janaki Rajan of the Faculty of Education at Jamia Millia University in Delhi said the claims in the textbook are "poisonous for children". "The government has the power to take action, but they are washing their hands of it," she said. The publisher declined to comment.

On an episode of the syndicated TV show “The Doctors,” scientologist Kelly Preston promoted Kirstie Alley’s Organic Liaison diet program and also the producer of supplements for the diet. Unfortunately, the part that was not revealed in the program is that the “expert” at Alternative Laboratories that she talked to is a pharmacists whose license got suspended in 2004. Ryan Margot, who was presented as “doctor Ryan” pleaded guilty to 39 counts of obtaining drugs like Hydrocodone through fraud and got ten years in a Florida State Prison, suspended sentence, and 60 months of drug probation. For the last two years, Margot has worked for Alternative Labs, identified in Preston’s piece as the place Kirstie Alley uses to prepare foods and diet supplements. He gave Preston a short lecture on the value of “organic foods” and was identified as an expert on the subject. “The Doctors” apparently just took the taped segment from Preston without questioning it.

And now let's look at some news in science

Dwarf planet Makemake is about two thirds of the size of Pluto, and travels around the Sun in a distant path that lies beyond that of Pluto but closer to the Sun than Eris, the most massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System. Previous observations of chilly Makemake have shown it to be similar to its fellow dwarf planets, leading some astronomers to expect its atmosphere, if present, to be similar to that of Pluto. However, a new study now shows that, like Eris, Makemake is not surrounded by a significant atmosphere. The team, led by Jose Luis Ortiz from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia in Spain, combined multiple observations using three telescopes to look at Makemake as it passed in front of a distant star. Makemake's lack of moons and its great distance from us make it difficult to study, and what little we do know about the body is only approximate. The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake -- determining its size more accurately, putting constraints on a possible atmosphere and estimating the dwarf planet's density for the first time. Makemake was initially known as 2005 FY9. It was discovered a few days after Easter in March 2005, earning it the informal nickname of Easterbunny. In July 2008 it was given its current official name. Makemake is the creator of humanity and god of fertility in the myths of the native people of Easter Island.

In a breakthrough for nanotechnology and multiple sclerosis, a biodegradable nanoparticle turns out to be the perfect vehicle to deliver an antigen that tricks the immune system into stopping its attack on myelin. This has led to stopping a model of relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis from advancing in mice. The new nanotechnology also can be applied to a variety of immune-mediated diseases including Type 1 diabetes, food allergies and airway allergies such as asthma. In MS, the immune system attacks the myelin membrane that insulates nerve cells in the brain, spinal cord and optic nerve. When the insulation is destroyed, electrical signals can't be effectively conducted, resulting in symptoms that range from mild limb numbness to paralysis or blindness. About 80 percent of MS patients are diagnosed with the relapsing remitting form of the disease. The new technology does not suppress the entire immune system as do current therapies for MS, which make patients more susceptible to everyday infections and higher rates of cancer. Rather it leads to the immune system resetting to normal.

Contrary to popular belief, there is no connection between lunar phases and the incidence of psychological problems. This is the conclusion reached by a team of researchers directed by Professor Geneviève Belleville of Université Laval's School of Psychology after having examined the relationship between the moon's phases and the number of patients who show up at hospital emergency rooms experiencing psychological problems. To determine whether the widespread belief linking the moon to mental health problems was true, researchers evaluated patients who visited emergency rooms at Montreal's Sacré-Coeur Hospital and Hôtel-Dieu de Lévis between March 2005 and April 2008. They focused specifically on individuals that complained of chest pains for which no medical cause could be determined. Psychological evaluations revealed that a sizable number of these patients suffered from panic attacks, anxiety and mood disorders, or suicidal thoughts. Using lunar calendars, the researchers determined the moon phase in which each of these visits occurred. The results of their analysis revealed no link between the incidence of psychological problems and the four lunar phases.

A research team at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center say they have turned adult epithelial cells into a new stem-like cell that has attributes which may help regenerative medicine become truly possible. The scientists report that these new stem-like cells do not express the same genes as embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells. That explains why they don't produce tumors when they grow in the laboratory, as the other stem cells do, and why they are stable, producing the kind of cells researchers want them to. "These seem to be exactly the kind of cells that we need to make regenerative medicine a reality," says the study's senior investigator, Richard Shlegel, chairman of the department of pathology at Georgetown Lombardi.

And in local news from Romania we learn that

Google will organize an event dedicated to 24 European students who have shown great potential in science and engineering at the third edition of the European Google Trailblazer Awards. The event will take place in Zurich on the 29th and 30th of November and six winners are Romanian. Google partnered up with the InfoEducation camp from Romania in the past three years and offered 220 students the opportunity to learn more about computers. In the three years 18 young Romanians have received the Trailblazer title and many of them have continued their scientific studies.

Links:

• http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2012/11/ah_chung_liu_ying_liu_tam.php
• http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hDTJ48QJMndxuxZVc_fPL506srvA?docId=CNG.2cf3bc7be53e2f556cc0a63105c9224a.461
• http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2012/11/16/Textbook-Meat-eaters-commit-sex-crimes/UPI-88661353095373/?spt=mps&or=4#axzz2DErgH55H
• http://www.showbiz411.com/2012/11/21/kelly-preston-uses-convicted-pharmacist-with-suspended-license-as-expert-on-tv-show-the-doctors
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121121145516.htm
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121118141516.htm
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121119114255.htm
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121119151314.htm
• http://www.realitatea.net/google-premiaza-elevii-romani-cu-potential-deosebit-in-domeniul-stiintific-si-inginerie_1058255.html

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Skeptical Reporter for November 16^th, 2012

A Chinese senior health official has called on the European Union to impose fewer restrictions on imports of traditional Chinese medicine. Wang Guoqiang, vice-minister of Health, said that the EU should consider the character of Chinese culture and of TCM when making regulations on TCM imports. “Unlike Western medicines, which attach great importance to laboratory results, TCM practitioners can determine symptoms of illness by checking the pulse”, he explained. An EU directive, issued in March 2004 and implemented in May 2011, mandates that herbal medicines be barred from the EU market unless they are licensed by an EU member state. To gain authorization in the EU, herbal medicine makers must pay large sums for registration and collect documentation proving the product has a 30-year history of safe use, including 15 years in the EU.

In Ireland, a claim from TV3 that pregnancy is not “strictly considered to be a health issue” has been dismissed by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland as it upheld four complaints against the controversial Psychic Readings Live programme which the station broadcasts. While TV3 did admit that “the provision of psychic services is not an exact science” it robustly defended the programme in the face of a growing number of complaints which accused it of exploiting vulnerable people for commercial gain. Under the BAI’s code of conduct it is forbidden for psychic services to discuss health matters or to predict the future as a matter of fact. Another complaint centred on a presenter who told a woman she would be married in Asia in three years but before that she could expect her flat to burn down. She was told not to worry because her house insurance would cover it. The complaint said the presenter “cast fear into the caller’s heart” and that the broadcast “amounts to mental and financial exploitation of the vulnerable”. In response TV3 insisted the programme met all regulatory requirements and that it was clearly “identified as an entertainment service at all times”. The station also pointed out that the psychic had “clearly stated that the prediction (…) was being made in his opinion”. However the Compliance Committee upheld the complaint and concluded that “the broadcast as a whole conveyed the message that the service was more than an entertainment service.”

The most well-known brand that produces homeopathic pills, Boiron Laboratories, has released a study on the use of homeopathic treatment of migraine in children. According to the conclusions of the study, the homeopathic pills produced a significant decrease in the frequency, severity, and duration of migraine attacks and, consequently, reduced absenteeism from school. The study has immediately come under fire for being flawed, with Dr. Edzard Ernst, former Professor of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter, writing: “To put the result of the Boiron-researchers into the right context, we should perhaps remember that even the most outspoken promoters of homeopathy on the planet concluded from an evaluation of the evidence that homeopathy is ineffective as a treatment of migraine. Therefore it seems surprising to publish the opposite result on the basis of such flimsy evidence made to look impressive by its multi-national nature.  (…) Debunking flawed homeopathy studies is not what I aim for or spend my time on. Yet this study, I thought, does deserve a brief comment. Why? Because it has exemplary flaws, because it reflects on homeopathy as a  whole as well as on the journal it was published in (the top publication in this field), because it is Boiron-authored, because it produced an obviously misleading result, because it could lead many migraine-sufferers up the garden path (…).

A self-styled 'guru' has been sentenced to eight years in prison for cheating three generations of an aristocratic French family out of their fortune by making them believe they were under threat from a secret masonic plot. Thierry Tilly convinced 11 members of the De Vedrines family to barricade themselves into their turreted manor house, Château Martel near Monflanquin, a medieval village in south-west France. In what the court described as a "Machiavellian plot", he tricked them into handing over up to €4.5 million, and eventually made the family flee to Oxford, persuading them he was a former secret services agent and there was a plot against their lives. The family members, aged 16 to 89, described being in his sway for around nine years until 2009. Tilly, 48, who met the family when he worked as an administrator at a school run by one of the De Vedrines sisters, was convicted of psychological abuse and deprivation of civil rights.

The Kansas State Board of Education heard a report that as many as one in five elementary teachers in Kansas and surrounding states are reporting science grades on student report cards, despite the fact that they don't spend any time teaching the subject or testing pupils' knowledge in it. George Griffith, superintendent of the Trego school district in western Kansas and a member of a Kansas committee helping craft new national science standards, said he conducted a survey of more than 900 elementary teachers in Kansas, Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma and Nebraska. Griffith said teachers responding to the survey said they reported grades in science because there was a spot on the grade card for it. But the teachers felt so pressured to increase performance in the high-stakes reading and math tests that they have cut back or eliminated class time for science. Griffith said he has presented his findings to national organizations of science teachers, and he said few people are surprised to learn what he found.

And  now let's look at some news in science

Vision researchers at Barrow Neurological Institute have made a groundbreaking discovery into the optimization of light sources to human vision. By tuning lighting devices to work more efficiently with the human brain, the researchers believe billions of dollars in energy costs could be saved. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The paper is believed to be the first attempt to tune light-emitting devices to the optimal temporal dynamics of the human visual system. The discovery concerns the way humans perceive temporal modulations of light. For example, most light-emitting devices, such as light bulbs, video monitors and televisions, flicker. "We found a temporal sweet spot in visual perception that can be exploited to obtain significant savings by redesigning light emitting devices to flicker with optimal dynamics to activate visual system neurons in the human brain," says Dr. Macknik, author on the study. The researchers estimate that if every light-emitting device in the U.S. -- from light bulbs to cell phones -- operated at optimal efficiency for the human visual system, it could result in billions of dollars of savings in electricity and power.

Researchers and patients look forward to the day when stem cells might be used to replace dying brain cells in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. Scientists are currently able to make neurons and other brain cells from stem cells, but getting these neurons to properly function when transplanted to the host has proven to be more difficult. Now, researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have found a way to stimulate stem cell-derived neurons to direct cognitive function after transplantation to an existing neural network. "We showed for the first time that embryonic stem cells that we've programmed to become neurons can integrate into existing brain circuits and fire patterns of electrical activity that are critical for consciousness and neural network activity", said Stuart Lipton, senior author of the study. The transplanted human neurons not only conducted electrical impulses, they also roused neighboring neuronal networks into firing, at roughly the same rate they would in a normal, functioning brain.

By combining the power of NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes and one of nature's own natural "zoom lenses" in space, astronomers have set a new record for finding the most distant galaxy seen in the universe. The farthest galaxy appears as a diminutive blob that is only a tiny fraction of the size of our Milky Way galaxy. But it offers a peek back into a time when the universe was 3 percent of its present age of 13.7 billion years. The newly discovered galaxy was observed 420 million years after the Big Bang. Its light has traveled 13.3 billion years to reach Earth. This find is the latest discovery from a program that uses natural zoom lenses to reveal distant galaxies in the early universe. The Cluster Lensing And Supernova Survey with Hubble (CLASH), is using massive galaxy clusters as cosmic telescopes to magnify distant galaxies behind them. This effect is called gravitational lensing.

Cambridge scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, near Geneva, have spotted one of the rarest particle decays ever seen in nature. The result is very damaging to new theories like the extremely popular Supersymmetry. Supersymmetry is called in to fill some of the gaps of the Standard Model in physics. Since it predicts new phenomena, the theory of Supersymmetry can be thoroughly tested at the LHC. A very good place to search is through the decay of a Bs particle (composed of a beauty quark and a strange anti-quark) into two muons (very heavy electrons). It is expected to be a very rare event but can be greatly enhanced be the presence of new physics. This decay has been observed for the first time by a team at the LHC beauty (LHCb) experiment. The observation is bang on the Standard Model prediction, but comes as very bad news for supporters of Supersymmetry. Indeed, new physics failed to show up where it had the best opportunity. "If new physics exists, then it is hiding very well behind the Standard Model" commented Cambridge physicist Dr Marc-Olivier Bettler, a member of the analysis team.

And now, in local news from Romania, we learn that

The country is facing a health crisis with a lot of cases of HIV infection. Health officials have expressed their concern at the large number of young people who are infected because they use combinations of herbs that can be purchased legally to get high. The Romanian authorities have repeatedly tried to warn the population on the risks of using such herbs as drugs, but many take the risk since they cannot be arrested for buying the products. Many have resorted to injecting the herbal mixtures therefore increasing the number of HIV infections.  The president for the National Union of Organizations for Persons Affected by HIV/AIDS, has declared that in the first six months of this year 31% of those diagnosed had been infected because they used injectable drugs. He added that the trend in the past two years has been for this number to increase.

Links:

• http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/europe/2012-11/12/content_15915653.htm
• http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/1109/breaking48.html
• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/11/boiron-produces-flawed-study-on-homeopathy-treatment-for-migraine-in-children/
• http://edzardernst.com/2012/11/boirons-new-study-of-homeopathy/
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/13/guru-jailed-swindling-french-aristocrats
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/24/france-court-guru-thierry-tilly
• http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2012/nov/13/report-science-instruction-disappearing-elementary/
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121115152659.htm
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121115152657.htm
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121115141456.htm
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121113095018.htm

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:01 — 7.4MB)

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Skeptical Reporter for November 9^th, 2012

Interactions between prescription drugs and herbal or dietary supplements can cause complications including heart problems, chest and abdominal pain and headache, according to a review of existing evidence. Remedies and supplements including ingredients like St John's wort, magnesium, calcium, iron and ginkgo caused the greatest issues, researchers reported in the International Journal of Clinical Practice. Experts from the China Medical School in Taiwan studied data from 54 review articles and 31 independent studies involving 213 herbal and dietary supplements and 509 prescribed drugs. A total of 882 linked effects were observed, with warfarin, insulin and aspirin digoxin among the drugs which were most affected. In almost half of all cases, the drug interactions happened when ingredients in the supplements altered the way in which the prescribed drugs were absorbed and spread around the body, metabolized, and later removed from the system.

The largest, randomized, double-blind trial to date has confirmed what smaller studies have suggested and what many physicians have long believed: a daily multivitamin does not reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases.  If fact, they might be detrimental to preventing such health problems. "Individuals who believe they are deriving benefits from supplements may be less likely to engage in other preventive health behaviors, and chronic use of daily supplements poses a financial burden, with annual vitamin-supplement sales in the billions of US dollars," Dr Howard Sesso and colleagues write. The investigators acknowledge that multivitamin supplementation may play a role in populations with nutritional deficiencies, and their study results do not extend to such groups. In an accompanying editorial, Dr Eva Lonn notes that over one-third of the US population takes some kind of daily multivitamin, swelling sales of dietary supplements to almost $24 billion in 2008.

The U.S. FDA has sent a letter to the Burzynski Research Institute demanding that they stop promoting their products, antineoplastons, which they claim can treat brain tumors, as being safe and effective. In the document, FDA officials explained that they have reviewed a number of materials promoting the use of the Burzynski products and have found them to be in violation of the law. This is what the officials explain in the letter: “The totality of these claims suggest that Antineoplastons, investigational new drugs, are safe and/or effective for the treatment of the various types of brain tumors indicated above, when they have not been approved for these uses. Since Antineoplastons are investigational new drugs, the products’ indication(s), warnings, precautions, adverse reactions, and dosage and administration have not been established and are unknown at this time”.

The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, created quite an uproar in 2007 when it opened with exhibits showing early humans co-existing with dinosaurs. Five years later, the public fascination with that baseless take on paleoanthropology seems to be fading. This week, the museum explained that the number of visitors for the year dropped by 10% and it's the museum’s fourth straight year of declining attendance and its lowest annual attendance yet. The $27 million museum drew 404,000 visitors in its first year. To ensure its financial health, the Creation Museum raised admission prices on the 1st of July, to $29.95 for adults, up from $24.95.

And now let’s look at some news in science.

The British psychiatrist Simon Wessely and the Chinese science writer Shi-min Fang are the two inaugural winners of the John Maddox Prize. The prize rewards individuals who have promoted sound science and evidence on a matter of public interest, with an emphasis on those who have faced difficulty or opposition in doing so. Sponsored by Nature and the Kohn Foundation, and stimulated and organized by the UK-based charity Sense About Science, the prize commemorates a former Editor of Nature, John Maddox. John was distinguished for his championing of robust science. In this inaugural year, the judges were able to make two awards, each of 2.000 pounds. Shi-min Fang is controversial for his campaign against academic fraud.[1] Founder of New Threads, a publication and website that targets the overseas Chinese audience, he even challenged official support of traditional Chinese medicine. In the summer of 2010, thugs hired by a urologist attacked Fang with a hammer and, according to Fang, tried to kill him. Simon Wessely is a psychiatrist at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, who has specialized in two areas above all — the mental health of military personnel and veterans, and chronic fatigue syndrome. He carried out a massive and ambitious study to test the link between common viral infections and later fatigue, and found that there is no simple causal association. All along the way Wessely has had to suffer continued abuse and obstruction from a powerful minority of people who, under the guise of self-help organizations, have sought to promote an extreme and narrow version of the disorder. Hostile letters, e-mails and even death threats have been directed at Professor Wessely over two decades.

A new super-Earth planet that may have an Earth-like climate and be just right to support life has been discovered around a nearby star by an international team of astronomers, led by Mikko Tuomi, of the University of Hertfordshire, and Guillem Anglada-Escude, from University of Goettingen. The new super-Earth planet exists in the habitable zone of a nearby star and is part of a six-planet system. The system was previously thought to contain three planets in orbits too close to the star to support liquid water. By avoiding fake signals caused by stellar activity, the researchers have identified three new super-Earth planet candidates also in orbit. But they were most excited by the planet with the outermost orbit from the star. With a mass at least seven times that of the Earth, it orbits around the host star at about the same distance that Earth orbits the Sun. Also, the planet is likely to be rotating on its own axis as it orbits around the star creating a daytime and night-time effect on the planet which would be better at creating an Earth-like environment.

The simple act of turning a page has begun to look outdated with tablets replacing books and manuals for many working professionals. But an augmented reality display similar to Google Glasses frees up wearers' hands by allowing them to turn virtual pages using their eyes alone. Such a display comes in the form of futuristic glasses that allow wearers to see virtual maps, drawings or other images — up to 1 meter in size — projected in front of their eyes. A chip smaller than half the size of a postage stamp can detect the wearer's eye movements so that they just need to glance at an arrow key to turn a page in a virtual instruction manual or book. "The data glasses allow us to see the real world in the normal way, while at the same time registering our eye movements with the camera," said Rigo Herold, project manager at the Fraunhofer Center for Organics, Materials and Electronic Devices Dresden in Germany. Such eye movement control frees up the hands of the glasses wearers entirely so that they can focus on their real-world work .

A team of researchers from the Netherlands and Italy has succeeded in making sharp pictures of objects hidden behind an opaque screen. Materials such as skin, paper and ground glass appear opaque because they scatter light. In such materials light does not move in a straight line, but travels along an unpredictable and erratic path. To date it has not been possible to resolve an image from light that has been completely scattered. A team from the MESA+ Institute for nanotechnology at the University of Twente in the Netherlands has now succeeded in doing just this. The researchers were not able to form an image of the object directly, but the information needed to create that image still existed, just in a scrambled form. The two young scientists who are the first authors of this paper had the brilliant idea to find out whether that scrambled information is sufficient to reconstruct the image -- and they found a way to do so. They succeeded in making an image of a hidden fluorescent object just 50 micrometers across -- the size of a typical cell.

And, now, in local news from Romania, we learn that

Plagiarism scandals are still plaguing the country, this time involving the minister of Education, Ecaterina Andronescu. Nature magazine has published an article that criticizes the supervision process in Romanian research. The article reveals that minister Andronescu has backed a financing request for half a million euros for research based on plagiarism. Ecaterina Andronescu is also accused of having delayed investigation in a number of cases involving plagiarism, including that of prime minister Victor Ponta.  Education minister Andronescu declared that the scandal is just misinformation.

Links:

• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9636982/Herbal-remedies-linked-to-drug-side-effects.html
• http://www.theheart.org/article/1469495.do
• http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-26546-creation_museum_atte.html
• http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/EnforcementActivitiesbyFDA/WarningLettersandNoticeofViolationLetterstoPharmaceuticalCompanies/UCM326631.pdf
• http://www.nature.com/news/john-maddox-prize-1.11750
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121108073927.htm
• http://www.livescience.com/24588-eyes-augmented-reality-glasses.html
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121107132742.htm
• http://www.realitatea.net/scandal-de-plagiat-cu-andronescu-revista-nature-sustine-ca-ministrul-a-girat-un-proiect-plagiat_1048933.html

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:20 — 7.5MB)

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Skeptical Reporter for October 26^th, 2012

Sadly, the skeptics community has lost two great personalities this week. Leon Jaroff, a science writer and editor who persuaded Time Inc. to start Discover magazine in 1980, became its top editor and for many years wrote the popular Skeptical Eye column challenging pseudosciences, died Saturday at his home in East Hampton, New York. He was 85. Mr. Jaroff was managing editor of Discover, a monthly, for four years, overseeing cover articles on the search for life in space, the evolution of sex and the secrets of the brain, among other topics. Also, the Center for Inquiry marks with great sadness the passing of Paul Kurtz, founder and longtime chair of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Center for Inquiry, who died at the age of 86. A philosopher, activist, and author, Kurtz was for a half-century among the most significant and impactful figures in the humanist and skeptic movements.

For many women, premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, is a familiar preamble to their monthly cycle. But a new review of the data suggests that mood changes aren’t as closely tied to menses as many have assumed. A team led by Dr. Sarah Romans of the University of Otago in New Zealand reviewed 47 studies that followed women’s moods across the menstrual cycle. Only 15% of the studies found that women tended to have “classic” PMS: moods that worsened as the menstrual period approached and lifted when menstruation occurred. An additional 38% found PMS that lasted into menstruation or another cycle phase. However, a further 38% of the studies found no association between mood and any particular phase of the cycle. And 9% found that the worst moods actually occurred outside of the premenstrual phase. That means that little more than half of the studies (53%) found any link between menstruation and bad mood, and 85% didn’t find classic PMS. “The major finding of this review was that clear evidence for a specific premenstrual-phase-related mood occurring in the general population is lacking”, the authors concluded.

Why some people respond to treatments that have no active ingredients in them may be down to their genes, a study in the journal PLoS ONE suggests. The so-called "placebo effect" was examined in 104 patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in the US. Those with a particular version of the COMT gene saw an improvement in their health after placebo acupuncture. The scientists warn that while they hope their findings will be seen in other conditions, more work is needed. Edzard Ernst, a professor of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter, said: "This is a fascinating but very preliminary result. It could solve the age-old question of why some individuals respond to placebo, while others do not. And if so, it could impact importantly on clinical practice. But we should be cautious - the study was small, we need independent replications, and we need to know whether the phenomenon applies just to IBS or to all diseases." The placebo effect is when a patient experiences an improvement in their condition while undergoing an inert treatment such as taking a sugar pill or, in this case, placebo acupuncture, where the patient believes they are receiving acupuncture but a sham device prevents the needles going into their body.

Eating a raw food diet is a recipe for disaster if you're trying to boost your species' brainpower. That's because humans would have to spend more than 9 hours a day eating to get enough energy from unprocessed raw food alone to support our large brains, according to a new study that calculates the energetic costs of growing a bigger brain or body in primates. But our ancestors managed to get enough energy to grow brains that have three times as many neurons as those in apes such as gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans. How did they do it? They got cooking, according to a study published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "If you eat only raw food, there are not enough hours in the day to get enough calories to build such a large brain. We can afford more neurons, thanks to cooking " says Suzana Herculano-Houzel, a neuroscientist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil who is co-author of the report.

Google Maps has officially stepped into what may be its most difficult challenge yet — mapping the alleys, ledges and trails of the world unreachable by Street View’s cars, tricycles and snowmobiles. The effort formally began on foot Monday as Google took three of its Trekker backpacks down into the Grand Canyon for the new gadgetry’s maiden voyage. “When we were designing Trekker, we really knew we wanted to take it to these rugged, remote locations. We worked really hard to make sure it was waterproof and could handle heat and cold and all kinds of abuse on the trail”, said Ryan Falor, a product manager on Google’s Street View special collections team. The Trekker — which looks like a Ghostbuster’s Proton Pack with an oversized soccer ball mounted on top and a USB-connected Android smartphone and was first shown off at a Google Maps event back in June. At that point, the device was still a prototype and a bit lighter than it is now. But after about a year and a half of prototypes and improvements, the Trekker is finally polished enough to collect 360-degree imagery for use in Google Maps Street View.

The Biggest Loser might be a TV ratings winner, but its extreme depiction of exercise is more likely to turn people off than get them off the couch, according to new research from the University of Alberta. Researchers in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation found that watching a short video clip of the Biggest Loser fueled negative attitudes toward exercise, raising further questions about how physical activity is shown in the popular media. "The depictions of exercise on shows like The Biggest Loser are really negative," said lead author Tanya Berry, Canada Research Chair in Physical Activity Promotion. "People are screaming and crying and throwing up, and if you're not a regular exerciser you might think this is what exercise is -- that it's this horrible experience where you have to push yourself to the extremes and the limits, which is completely wrong."  Berry said the results debunk the belief held by some researchers and many in the popular media that shows like The Biggest Loser can be motivational and get people off the couch. In fact, the negative portrayals of exercise are counterproductive to public health campaigns.

Researchers in the US have been shocked to discover a beluga whale whose vocalizations were remarkably close to human speech. While dolphins have been taught to mimic the pattern and durations of sounds in human speech, no animal has spontaneously tried such mimicry. But researchers heard a nine-year-old whale named NOC make sounds octaves below normal, in clipped bursts. The whales are known as "canaries of the sea" for their high-pitched chirps, but while a number of anecdotal reports have described whales making human-like speech, none had ever been recorded. Once they identified NOC as the culprit, they caught it on tape. They found that vocal bursts averaged about three per second, with pauses reminiscent of human speech. Analysis of the recordings showed that the frequencies within them were spread out into "harmonics" in a way very unlike whales' normal vocalizations and more like those of humans. They also found that the mimicry was no easy task for NOC. "Our observations suggest that the whale had to modify its vocal mechanics in order to make the speech-like sounds," said Sam Ridgway, president of the National Marine Mammal Foundation and lead author on the paper. "The sounds we heard were clearly an example of vocal learning by the white whale."

A small British company has developed a way to create petrol from air and water, technology it hopes may one day contribute to large-scale production of green fuels. Engineers at Air Fuel Synthesis in northern England, say they have produced 5 litres of synthetic petrol over a period of three months. The technique involves extracting carbon dioxide from air and hydrogen from water, and combining them in a reactor with a catalyst to make methanol. The methanol is then converted into petrol. By using renewable energy to power the process, it is possible to create carbon-neutral fuel that can be used in an identical way to standard petrol, scientists behind the technology say. "It's actually cleaner because it's synthetic. You just make what you need to make in terms of the contents of it, so it doesn't contain what might be seen as pollutants, like sulfur", Peter Harrison, chief executive officer of AFS, said in an interview. The work is part of a two-year project that has so far cost around 1 million pounds. AFS plans to build a commercial plant in the next two years that will produce around 1,200 liters a day of specialist fuels for the motorsports.

And now, in local news from Romania, we learn that

Romanians’ smoking habits will be analyzed in a five year study by the Davidson College, in the United States , and the University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Targu Mures, Romania. The research will be coordinated by professor Kristie Folley and professor Balacz Peter, from the University Semmelweis in Budapest, who is in charge of a similar project in Hungary. The project aims to study smoking in teen and children groups, in pregnant women and people with cardiovascular diseases. Also it will try to answer questions about the high rate of failure in quitting smoking. Romania has a high rate of both active and passive smokers and a lot of those trying to quit aren’t able to do so.

Links:

• http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/22/business/media/leon-jaroff-editor-at-time-and-discover-magazines-dies-at-85.html?_r=0
• http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cfi_mourns_the_death_of_paul_kurtz_its_founder/
• http://centerforinquiry.net/paul_kurtz_obituary
• http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/22/pms-is-a-myth-new-study/
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20042128
• http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/10/raw-food-not-enough-to-feed-big-.html
• http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/10/google-trekker-backpack-maps-the-grand-canyon/
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121025122429.htm
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20026938
• http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/19/uk-science-petrol-idUSLNE89I02920121019
• http://www.realitatea.net/fenomenul-fumatului-in-romania-a-alertat-lumea-stiintifica_1037889.html