Latest Research News

Scientists critical of Bush on climate change
British scientists today condemned the Bush Administration for apparently attempting to undermine efforts to tackle climate change by challenging scientific evidence of the impact of global warming ahead of the G8 summit. Leaked documents last week showed that the White House had attempted to delete suggestions that global warming had been triggered by greenhouse gas emissions contained in submissions to be discussed at next month's conference in Gleneagles. References to the threat climate change poses to human health and ecosystems and evidence linking global warming to human activity were also deleted from the communiqué drafts.
The Guardian

Scotland's universities 'must learn to exploit research'
The principal of one of Scotland's most prestigious universities has called on the country's higher education sector to become more "entrepreneurial" to raise extra money and to compete with institutions south of the border. The vice-chancellor of St Andrews University, Dr Brian Lang, said that the introduction of top-up tuition fees in England will leave English universities with "substantially more funding" than those in Scotland. He said Scottish universities would have to become better at exploiting their research work to generate cash.
The Scotsman

Research shows how sex is in the mind for women
Scientists have identified why physical touch is so important to men during sex and why women must be at ease with their partner to make them to reach orgasm. Dutch researchers found more activity in the areas of the brain linked to the importance of physical stimuli during sexual stimulation in men than in women. Scans showed that parts of the brain linked to alertness, fear and emotional control were far less active in women during orgasm than in men. This was not the case when women faked orgasms.
The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Times, The Scotsman

Japan to double annual cull of minke whales
Japan and its pro-whaling allies narrowly lost a vote that conservationists feared would end a two-decade ban on whale hunting. But Tokyo said it would increase the number of whales it kills for scientific study before. The decision, an extension of the scientific research whaling Japan began in 1987 - which critics say is little more than commercial whaling in disguise as the meat is then sold - was expected.
The Independent

Further steps towards artificial eggs and sperm
Human embryonic stem cells have been coaxed in the lab to develop into the early forms of cells that eventually become eggs or sperm, UK researchers have revealed. Work by several groups has shown that a tiny proportion of human embryonic stem cells spontaneously develop into primordial germ cells when allowed to differentiate in vitro. In this latest study, Behrouz Aflatoonian and colleagues at the University of Sheffield, produced primordial germ cells, some of which began to express the proteins characteristic of sperm cells, while others resembled eggs.
New Scientist, The Independent, The Guardian, The Times

Hairy legs to help hard of hearing
A team of Dutch scientists has recreated one of nature's most sensitive sound detectors - the tiny hairs found on the bodies of crickets, which allow them to hear almost noiseless predators and to make an escape. Though the cricket's hairy appendages look nothing like human ears, they could eventually lead to a new generation of cochlear implants for people with severe hearing problems. This is the hope of the physicists at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, who published their research this week in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering .
The Guardian

Feeling SAD? Well, it could be one of your body clocks
Humans and other mammals have two internal body clocks - one to wake them up and another to get them ready for sleep, according to the latest research. Scientists at Aberdeen and Nottingham universities found two distinct areas in the brain that deal with time recognition, one connected with the morning and one with the evening. They believe the interaction between the two clocks helps the body to prepare in advance as the seasons change, according to research in the journal Current Biology .
The Scotsman