science news Panel Will Review U.N. Climate Work The review aims to help the U.N. climate change panel avoid the kinds of errors that have brought its work into question in recent months, officials said Wednesday.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-11 Disease Cause Is Pinpointed With Genome It now appears possible to sequence a patient’s genome at reasonable cost and with sufficient accuracy to be useful.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-11 Grave-robbing suspects arrested after snatching president's body Officials in Cyprus say DNA tests have confirmed that a body found in a suburban cemetery belongs to the late president Tassos Papadopoulos.   abc.net.au   2010-03-10 US-born Panda 'Tai Shan' emerged from quarantine for the first time in China's Sichuan Province. US-born Panda 'Tai Shan' emerged from quarantine for the first time in China's Sichuan Province.   abc.net.au   2010-03-10 Scientists buck political pressure over climate CSIRO scientists say they are coming under political attack as part of an orchestrated campaign by climate change sceptics.   abc.net.au   2010-03-10 Government accused of sitting on broadband feasibility report The Federal Opposition says the public has the right to see a study that examines the viability of the Government's $43 billion National Broadband Network (NBN).   abc.net.au   2010-03-10 Research considers tsunami risk The Department of Environment and Climate Change says Newcastle felt the effects of a big tsunami 50 years ago, making it important to be prepared for any future events.   abc.net.au   2010-03-10 Ancient river courses found below Simpson Desert Researchers have uncovered the courses of ancient river systems under the Simpson Desert in Central Australia.   abc.net.au   2010-03-10 Birds find new home in Gulf Waterbirds previously only found on Queensland's eastern seaboard are being seen for the first time by Gulf of Carpentaria rangers around Burketown in the state's north-west.   abc.net.au   2010-03-10 Gene protects some Tassie devils from tumour The discovery of a genetically different population of Tasmanian devils has raised hopes for the survival of the iconic Australian mammal threatened by a deadly cancer.   abc.net.au   2010-03-10 Methane seen as growing climate risk WASHINGTON (AP) -- Methane, a potent global warming gas, is bubbling out of the frozen Arctic faster than had been expected....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-10 Energy groups relieved sage grouse won't be listed CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- An Interior Department announcement Friday that it won't list sage grouse as an endangered or threatened species opens the way for continued development of the West's wind energy and oil and gas industries....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-10 Not more quakes, just more people in quake zones First the ground shook in Haiti, then Chile and now Turkey. The earthquakes keep coming hard and fast this year, causing people to wonder if something sinister is happening underfoot....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-10 Disposal of spilled coal ash a long, winding trip CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- More than a year after a Tennessee coal ash spill created one of the worst environmental disasters of its kind in U.S. history, the problem is seeping into several other states....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-10 GE: Limit PCB contamination during Hudson dredging ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- General Electric Co. on Monday proposed halting further dredging of the Hudson River if PCBs churned up by the work spread too much pollution downriver during the second phase of an ongoing cleanup....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-10 As Chile shook, cities rolled to the west a bit WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Earth really did move during the massive Chile quake: Researchers say cities and islands physically shifted west a bit....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-10 Pioneering Mass. robot lost at sea off Chile coast FALMOUTH, Mass. (AP) -- A pioneering deep-sea robot made by Massachusetts researchers has been lost off the coast of Chile....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-10 World's top scientists to review climate panel WASHINGTON (AP) -- The world's biggest scientific guns are being called in to mop up after a trickle of unsettling errors in the authoritative reports written by a global warming panel....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-10 Jon Venables posed 'trivial' risk to public, according to psychiatric study Evaluation of Venables before his release in 2001 concluded the likelihood of the killer re-offending was minorA psychiatric evaluation of Jon Venables carried out before his release from prison concluded that he posed a "trivial" risk to the public and that the likelihood of him re-offending was "so negligible as to not amount to a serious consideration".The document, which was prepared by a leading psychiatrist in 2000 and is excerpted in today's Times, also noted that Venables had made "exceptional psychological progress" and come to terms with his part in the murder of James Bulger in 1993."The Jon Venables of today is a very different person to the Jon Venables aged 10," the report noted. "It has been a very important part of his rehabilitation so far that he has come to terms in a wholly realistic way with the awfulness of his behaviour."It emerged last week that Venables, who was given a new identity and released on licence in 2001, has been recalled to prison following "extremely serious allegations".Media reports over the weekend suggested that Venables, now 27, had been returned to prison in connection with child pornography offences. It has also been suggested in the press that Venables has become mentally fragile, has been known to drink heavily and use drugs, and has revealed his true identity to others.Although the psychiatric report estimated that the chances of Venables being rehabilitated were "exceptionally high", it stressed that his progress depended on him being able to maintain his anonymity and continuing to receive the "appropriate support and guidance".It also recommended that he be released from juvenile custody rather than placed in the prison system, where exposure to drug taking and criminals would prove a "very major setback".The justice secretary, Jack Straw, has refused to bow to pressure to disclose the reasons for Venables's recall to prison, and has been supported by the judge who granted the former prisoner anonymity.Lady Butler-Sloss, the former president of the high court's family division, reiterated "the enormous importance of protecting his anonymity now and if he is released, because those who wanted to kill him in 2001 are likely to be out there now".She said: "This young man may or may not be tried. He may or may not have committed offences. There is, of course, at least the possibility that he has committed no offence."And consequently, he may therefore be allowed again to be out (of jail) on licence."James Bulger's mother, Denise Fergus, has accused the government of treating the issue like a political football and of closing doors in her face.She told ITV's This Morning that the days following the revelation of Venables' recall had been "a massive rollercoaster".Fergus confirmed she found out about Venables's recall when officials visited her home in Kirkby, Merseyside."Any question I have asked them, I have had no answers and it's about time now I got some answers," she said."I am sick of them closing doors in my face. It's about time they started telling me what I think I should know. As James's mother I have a right to know."However, Straw, who is due to meet Fergus later this week, said releasing further information was "not in the interests of justice" as it could threaten the fairness of any future trial.James Bulger murderCrimeCriminal justicePsychologySam Jonesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds   guardian.co.uk   2010-03-10 A Hippocratic oath for scientists I agree with George Monbiot (Comment, 9 March) about the problems of communicating science, but it is a pity he did not mention the large amount of outreach work being done by scientists these days to address the very issues he raises, much of it in collaboration with Café Scientifique, a network of voluntary local initiatives in towns up and down the UK, and, indeed, the world. There is a Hippocratic oath for scientists, although it is not yet compulsory. It is called the Pugwash Pledge, and can be found at (www.spusa.org/pledge)."I promise to work for a better world, where science and technology are used in socially responsible ways. I will not use my education for any purpose intended to harm human beings or the environment. Throughout my career, I will consider the ethical implications of my work before I take action. While the demands placed upon me may be great, I sign this declaration because I recognise that individual responsibility is the first step on the path to peace."He might also be pleased to hear that very few of us wear beards these days.Jim GrozierOrganiser, Brighton Café Scientifique• What Peter Preston (Wanted: an eco prophet, 8 March) appears to omit is the emergence of eco-crankism – the proliferation of eco-friendly initiatives by a new class of do-gooder apparatchiks advising backyard gardeners to grow £1 carrots, use fashion-styled cotton carrier bags, cycle in fume-choked streets and boycott budget airlines. With this obscurantism there is no way the message of a more equitable distribution of the earth's dwindling resources can get through.Julian SiannEdinburgh Climate changeguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds   guardian.co.uk   2010-03-10 An Olympic honour for Alan Turing The 2012 Olympics offer the perfect chance to mark the anniversary of a great mathematician – and marathon runnerLast year I led a campaign to obtain an apology for the mistreatment of the British mathematician Alan Turing. Turing's prosecution for homosexuality led to the death of a true genius at the age of only 41 in 1954. On 10 September last year, Gordon Brown issued an apology that recognised Turing's stature as one of the greatest Britons. But Britain has a final opportunity to unapologetically recognise Alan Turing in two years' time, at the 2012 Olympics.It's now well known that Turing laid down the foundations of computer science in the 1930s, helped shorten the second world war by breaking Nazi codes at Bletchley Park and investigated artificial intelligence. He went on to design early computers during the late 1940s and just before he died he was untangling the process of morphogenesis to understand why and how living beings take the shape they do. Only today are scientists appreciating the work he did in his last years, and every computer user can be thankful for his theoretical Turing machine, which captured the essence of the machines we all use.What is less known is that Turing was also an accomplished physical athlete. He was an excellent marathon runner, with a best time of 2 hours 46 minutes. He ran for a local club in Walton, Surrey while working at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington. He is also said to have run between London and Bletchley Park for meetings during the second world war, and at age 14 he cycled 60 miles from Southampton to school at Sherborne during the general strike of 1926.The last time Britain hosted the Olympics, in 1948, Turing tried out for the British Olympic marathon team. He came fifth in the trials. He ended up attending the games as a spectator taking along two of his young nieces as guests. That year Britain took a silver in the marathon when Thomas Richards ran for 2 hours 35 minutes. Alan Turing was only 11 minutes slower.2012 has great significance: it's the centenary of his birth on 23 June. To celebrate "Alan Turing Year", mathematicians and scientists across Britain and around the world are arranging events throughout the year. Celebrations of Turing's work will be held in Manchester (where he was living and working when he died) and at Bletchley Park. There's even a suggestion that Unesco should designate 2012 the year of computer science.Turing's life also deserves celebration far from the places he's most associated with. As Britons, we live in a world Turing helped create: computers have permeated our lives and his work at Bletchley Park with thousands of others helped bring the war with Nazi Germany to an end. As London shows off what's great about Britain through the Olympic games, let's show off a great Briton of whom we should be proud. What better way to honour Turing than by naming the 2012 marathon the "Turing marathon" and inviting his surviving nieces to witness the event? One of them could even be invited to fire the starting pistol that will set the runners off. Those little girls are elderly now, but their memories of Uncle Alan are bright. Inviting them would be a fitting tribute.Of course, detractors may be concerned about sullying the games by associating an individual with an event. But such concerns didn't stop Greece in 2004 from naming their entire Olympic stadium after Spiridon Louis (who won the marathon event in 1896). Honouring the life of a man would be a welcome antidote to the heavy commercialisation surrounding the games.Others may worry about raking over the embers of the dark days of anti-homosexuality laws. But there's little need to be concerned: celebrating Turing doesn't mean focusing on just that one aspect of his life; it means recognising a mental and physical athlete, a mathematician and marathon runner, and a man to whom we owe so much. It's rare that events coincide to give us one moment in time when a man like Turing can be celebrated in all his complexity. Let's not miss the chance in 2012.• This article was commissioned after the author contacted us via a You Tell Us threadAlan TuringOlympic games 2012LondonAthleticsSecond world warJohn Graham-Cummingguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds   guardian.co.uk   2010-03-10 Men's sexual tastes broaden when they are stressed The usual rules of sexual attraction go out of the window when men are stressed, say psychologistsMen are drawn to a wider range of women when they are feeling stressed out, according to research into the psychology of sexual attraction.People are usually attracted to partners with similar facial features to their own, but after a brief but stressful experience, men's preferences changed to include a wider variety of women, the study found.Relaxed men who took part in the study rated women on average 14% less appealing if they looked very different from themselves compared with women who looked similar. But a group of stressed men found dissimilar women 9% more attractive.Johanna Lass-Hennemann, who led the study at the University of Trier in Germany, said the findings echo research suggesting that animals lose their normal mating preferences when they are under stress."Men have a tendency to approach dissimilar mates and to rate these to be more pleasant when they are acutely stressed," Lass-Hennemann said. "[But] we are not sure how this might reflect in true mating decisions."Scientists suspect the appeal of similar-looking partners may be linked to our tendency to have more trust in a familiar face, a factor that is important for long-term relationships. Under stress, however, the importance of pairing up with someone similar-looking seems to vanish.Lass-Hennemann speculates that stress might increase men's tendency to "outbreed", or reproduce with more genetically dissimilar women, with the potential benefit that any children born from the relationship might be better equipped to cope with a stressful environment."We think that chronically stressful environments should increase outbreeding, because inbreeding may lead to offspring that are not genetically diverse enough to deal with the varying circumstances that a risky and stressful environment imposes on them," she said.In the study, 50 healthy heterosexual male students were divided into two groups. Those in the first group were asked to plunge one arm into a bucket of icy water for three minutes before taking part in the test. Those in the second group were asked to do the same, but with water heated to body temperature.Measurements of the volunteers' heart rates and levels of the stress hormone cortisol indicated that the men in the first group were significantly more stressed before the test began than those in the second.In the test itself, the men were shown a series of images on a computer screen. Some were of household objects, but others were of naked women. Some of the women's faces had been digitally altered to resemble either the person being tested or another man in the group.Throughout the test, the scientists played occasional bursts of noise to startle the men and recorded their reactions. Previous research suggests people startle less when they are looking at something they find attractive. The men were also asked to rate the images by how appealing and arousing they were.While men in the control group performed as expected and were more attracted to women who looked like them, the stressed men consistently rated the unfamiliar women as more appealing. Their startle reactions confirmed their preferences.The research is published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.Lass-Hennemann said it is highly unlikely that the acute stresses of everyday life can switch someone's tastes when it comes to choosing a partner, but long-term stress might shift male preferences towards women who are more dissimilar.ReproductionPsychologyBiologyRelationshipsGeneticsIan Sampleguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds   guardian.co.uk   2010-03-10 Eggshell DNA could help reconstruct lives of extinct birds Ancient DNA has been extracted from the fossilised eggshells of birds for the first time, and will eventually yield clues about their physiology, diet and how they went extinctScientists have collected DNA from the fossilised eggshells of birds that died hundreds and in some cases thousands of years ago.The oldest eggshell to yield DNA came from an Australian emu that died around 19,000 years ago. It is the first time that scientists have succeeded in extracting ancient DNA from the fossilised eggshells of a bird.Genetic material from the Madagascan elephant bird, the heaviest bird that ever lived, was also recovered, along with DNA from Australian owls, New Zealand ducks and flightless moas.Elephant birds were native to Madagascar but had gone extinct by the 17th century. The ostrich-like creatures grew to around 3 metres tall and weighed up to half a tonne. Their eggs were bigger than footballs.Eggshells from two other extinct species, the little bush moa and the heavy footed moa, both from New Zealand's north island, were estimated to be more than 3,000 years old. Attempts to collect DNA from a 50,000-year-old flightless Australian bird from the genus Genyornis failed because the DNA had degraded too much.The ancient DNA has yet to be sequenced, but researchers will soon be looking to draw up genetic profiles of long-lost birds by extracting genetic material from eggshells held in museums and excavated at archaeological and fossil sites. Previously, they had little hope of reading DNA from species that lived in warm climates because the genetic material breaks down so quickly.By sequencing the genomes of ancient birds, scientists hope to build up a better picture of their physiology and how they dispersed and split into different species. It may even be possible to surmise their diets from genes encoding the enzymes for digesting particular types of food.Charlotte Oskam, who led the study at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia, is now analysing a large collection of eggshells from ancient sites in New Zealand and hopes that DNA profiles of the birds will help explain how the arrival of humans brought about the extinction of the giant moa around 500 years ago.The researchers used a technique called confocal microscopy to see exactly where the DNA is located inside the egg shells of two of the extinct birds, the New Zealand giant moa and the Madagascan elephant bird. From this they were able to say that the DNA almost certainly comes from the mother hen rather than the embryo growing inside the egg. When the egg moves away from the ovary, cells from the mother get mixed up in the calcium carbonate shell as it thickens.The research, reported in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, does not mean scientists will soon be able to resurrect long-extinct birds. Although the DNA can be sequenced, scientists would need to know how to repackage it into chromosomes, the giant molecules that carry genes. The same problem makes it unlikely that scientists will bring woolly mammoths back to life, even though their DNA has been sequenced from well-preserved specimens recovered from the Siberian permafrost."As with all ancient DNA, the DNA we isolated from eggshell is very fragmented," said Oskam. It will be possible to sequence extinct genomes from fossil eggshell, he said, "but it is a huge leap to imagine we can clone an extinct species."FossilsGeneticsEvolutionBiochemistry and molecular biologyZoologyNew ZealandMadagascarAustraliaIan Sampleguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds   guardian.co.uk   2010-03-10 Spaceman UK Skynet: Not to be confused with The Terminator   bbc.co.uk   2010-03-10 Harrabin's Notes Environmentalists and the EU lock horns over biofuels   news.bbc.co.uk   2010-03-10 World's largest meat-eating plant prefers to eat... small animal poo The largest meat-eating plant in the world is designed not to eat small animals, but small animal poo, scientists discover.   news.bbc.co.uk   2010-03-10 Science 'is a key election issue' The science spokesmen of the three main political parties cross swords on the issue of UK research funding.   news.bbc.co.uk   2010-03-10

science news Ancient eggshell yields its DNA The eggshells of long-dead and extinct species are a particularly good source to find preserved DNA, researchers say.   news.bbc.co.uk   2010-03-10 Ring may be giant 'impact crater' Deforestation has revealed what could be a giant impact crater in Central Africa, according to Italian scientists.   news.bbc.co.uk   2010-03-10 Flu Shots in Children Can Help Community A study of farming colonies in Canada found that giving flu vaccine to schoolchildren protected the community.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-10 John Thorbjarnarson, 52, a Leading Expert on Crocodiles Mr. Thorbjarnarson was a scientist with wide interests in saving and learning about many species.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-10 China and India to Join Copenhagen Climate Change Accord The countries are the last two major economic powers to agree with the aims of the nonbinding agreement.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-10 First 3-D TV Channels from DirecTV Available in June In June, DirecTV will become the first pay-TV provider to offer 3-D channels compatible with the new 3-D TVs.   feedproxy.google.com   2010-03-09 Man 'groomed 11yo girl on Facebook' A man is to face a Sydney court, accused of using the social networking site Facebook to groom a child for sex.   abc.net.au   2010-03-09 Look mum: no laptop In June last year when then-premier Nathan Rees flipped open the cardboard box and began doling out free laptops to students at Arthur Phillip High School in Parramatta two thoughts ran through my mind.   abc.net.au   2010-03-09 Delta launches biomass fuel trial Ten farms in the Forbes district will take part in a $1 million trial of using plant material or 'biomass' to produce electricity.   abc.net.au   2010-03-09 Chile quake moved city 3 metres west The massive earthquake which struck the west coast of Chile last month moved the entire city of Concepcion more than three metres to the west, scientists say.   abc.net.au   2010-03-09 Company denies chemical causes frog sex change The developer of the herbicide atrazine has dismissed new research which shows it can wreak havoc with the sexual organs of frogs.   abc.net.au   2010-03-09 Most sea lions gone from Ore. coast FLORENCE, Ore. (AP) -- The thousands of California sea lions that showed up this winter off the central Oregon coast seem to have largely moved on....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-09 Researchers reassert that impact killed dinosaurs WASHINGTON (AP) -- An all-star panel of researchers says it was the crash of a giant asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-09 Methane seen as growing climate risk WASHINGTON (AP) -- Methane, a potent global warming gas, is bubbling out of the frozen Arctic faster than had been expected....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-09 Energy groups relieved sage grouse won't be listed CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- An Interior Department announcement Friday that it won't list sage grouse as an endangered or threatened species opens the way for continued development of the West's wind energy and oil and gas industries....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-09 Northwest at risk of megaquake like one in Chile LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Just 50 miles off the Pacific Northwest coast is an earthquake hotspot that threatens to unleash on Seattle, Portland and Vancouver the kind of damage that has shattered Chile....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-09 Not more quakes, just more people in quake zones First the ground shook in Haiti, then Chile and now Turkey. The earthquakes keep coming hard and fast this year, causing people to wonder if something sinister is happening underfoot....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-09 Disposal of spilled coal ash a long, winding trip CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- More than a year after a Tennessee coal ash spill created one of the worst environmental disasters of its kind in U.S. history, the problem is seeping into several other states....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-09 GE: Limit PCB contamination during Hudson dredging ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- General Electric Co. on Monday proposed halting further dredging of the Hudson River if PCBs churned up by the work spread too much pollution downriver during the second phase of an ongoing cleanup....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-09 NASA: Money key to more space shuttle flights CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- NASA's space shuttle manager says it wouldn't be hard to add more shuttle flights. The real question is money....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-09 As Chile shook, cities rolled to the west a bit WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Earth really did move during the massive Chile quake: Researchers say cities and islands physically shifted west a bit....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-09 Ig Nobel tour showcases the bra that doubles as a gas mask 'The idea of a simple and readily available mask came to me after the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine'Last October, at Harvard University, I was awarded the Ig Nobel prize for public health for inventing the Emergency Bra, an item of lingerie that, in case of an emergency, can be quickly transformed into two protective respiratory face masks.Don't get too excited, boys: this can be done without removing any clothes.My Ig Nobel nomination came as a pleasant surprise. And I recognised that this competitive prize for "scientific achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think" is hugely popular and a great opportunity to deliver a message on emergency preparedness to the public.I admit that disaster preparedness is not the most enthralling discussion topic, but it is obvious why my invention is well suited for the Ig Nobel prize. Almost everyone who hears about it first laughs, then appreciates the underlying idea: an effective personal protective device needs to be simple, economical, and readily available.The idea of a simple and readily available mask came to me after the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine. I was a young doctor at the time treating children relocated from the contaminated zone. I knew that the radioactive Iodine-131 aerosol released from the damaged reactor was a major contributor to the internal radiation dose of the affected population. My experiences led me to question why simple protective face masks were not available. As the mother of a one-year-old son, I was convinced women should have readily available means of protecting their children.Because most women wear one all the time – and it can provide two face masks – I considered using a standard bra as the basis for such a personal protective device and designed my first prototype.In 2001 I was shocked to see the photographs of victims of the 9/11 tragedy in New York holding pieces of cloth over their faces while running away from the disaster. Evacuation from similar emergencies would be easier if individuals had readily available face masks to protect their airways and free their hands. It was at that poiunt that I decided to proceed with commercialisation of the Emergency Bra.For a medical scientist with no business experience, this was a challenge. But thanks to media exposure, I have received feedback showing that demand for the Emergency Bra is high. With the support of colleagues, students, family and friends, I re-prioritised my academic life and have started to manufacture the Emergency Bra, which will be available in the very near future at www.ebbra.com. The bra can provide a person with a critical time window to escape from fires, explosions, natural disasters and biological and radiological terrorist attacks (including a "dirty bomb"). As well as protecting against inhalation of harmful airborne particles and freeing victims' hands while they escape, it can decrease the chances of a panic attack in large crowds by providing individuals with a sense of security.For the Ig Nobel award ceremony, I designed a hot pink Emergency Bra that has now been dubbed the Harvard model. I demonstrated it on Nobel laureates Wolfgang Ketterle (Nobel prize for physics, 2001), Orhan Pamuk (literature, 2006) and Paul Krugman (economics, 2008). Although they were not expecting it, they seemed to enjoy the demonstration.During the forthcoming UK Ig Nobel tour this month, I will also demonstrate that the Emergency Bra is not only an effective, economical and readily available personal protective device but that, first and foremost, it is a beautiful piece of lingerie. Its additional function of personal protection does not interfere with its aesthetics or its main purpose.I have no doubt my demonstrations will generate some laughs. However, I also look forward to addressing some serious questions from the British public. I hope audiences at Oxford University, Imperial College and elsewhere will leave thinking about the potential risks they face. I will consider my goals to be accomplished if I make people remember the importance of being prepared for the unexpected.• Dr Elena Bodnar is director of the Trauma Risk Management Research Institute, Chicago • For more information about the Ig Nobel tour, go to improbable.com/ improbable-research-shows/ig-uk-tour Improbable research, page 8ResearchHigher educationEmergency planningScience prizesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds   guardian.co.uk   2010-03-09 Dr Crippen: On the problem with prostate cancer screening At post-mortem, most elderly men have traces of prostate cancer but have died of other causesThere is a much-publicised screening test for early prostate cancer, but GPs hesitate before ordering the test on demand. A slightly raised PSA (a protein that healthy prostates produce in small amounts) may indicate early prostate cancer, but it will not tell you what to do about it. Surgical removal of the prostate has a mortality rate and may cause unpleasant side-effects, like impotence and incontinence. At post-mortem, most elderly men have traces of prostate cancer but have died of other causes. We would have done them no favours, if we had removed their prostates.I saw Ernest, a 67 year old man, three moths ago. His brother, aged 60, had just been found to have inoperable prostate cancer, so Ernest wanted a check. He did not have much in the way of symptoms. His prostate felt soft and benign but his PSA blood test came back slightly raised. A biopsy showed prostate cancer but it was very early and had not spread.There was talk of "watch and wait" but Ernest could not contemplate that. The urologist recommended an open prostatectomy. Ernest consulted Dr Google. He saw another urologist privately who does laparoscopic prostatectomies. This procedure, still in its infancy in the UK, looks promising and the urologists who are doing it are keen to practise. He saw a radiation oncologist privately. She mentioned brachytherapy, a specialised form of internal radiotherapy. The surgeons, who both talked of a "complete" cure, told Ernest that radiotherapy brought an increased risk of rectal cancer, and the possibility of chronic diarrhoea and urinary frequency. The radiotherapist talked of impotence and incontinence as a risk of surgery. The open prostatectomy surgeon talked of "tried and tested" procedures. The laparoscopic surgeon talked of the reduced risks of key-hole surgery.Ernest did not know what to do. You could make good arguments for each treatment that had been offered. Or you can go to Paris where they are playing with lasers. Ernest said, "I've seen lots of specialists; they are all charming but I got the feeling that they are all selling their wares. What would you do, doc?"If I was fit, like Ernest, I would have the open prostatectomy. Laparoscopic prostatectomy is not widely available on the NHS and in any case I am not sure I would want to be the material upon which surgeons learn a new technique. Ask me about it in a year or two.Ernest had the open operation six weeks ago. He is not incontinent. As regards sexual performance, he has not yet tried, but he says there have been "stirrings". He is doing well. His PSA is zero and he feels he is cured. The only thing I am not sure of is whether it would have been better if we had never measured his PSA in the first place.Names and some details have been changed. prostate-cancer.org.uk.DoctorsProstate cancerNHSHealthHealth & wellbeingAgeingguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds   guardian.co.uk   2010-03-09