Static in Cellphone Study
The final results of a major international study of the potential link between cellphone use and cancer were published last week. The finding: Using a cellphone seems to protect against two types of brain tumors.
Even the researchers didn’t quite believe it.
The apparent shield of cellphone radiation, most likely fictitious, illustrates how hard it is to analyze, let alone quantify, the potential for a small elevated risk in a rare disease from a widespread, mundane activity.
“They found that ever having used a cellphone appeared to be protective [against] brain cancer,” says David O. Carpenter, director of the University at Albany’s Institute for Health and the Environment, in Albany, N.Y. “And that just simply makes no sense.”
The study was funded in part by the Mobile Manufacturers’ Forum and GSM Association, two wireless industry groups. The researchers had protections in place they say guarded their independence. Most criticisms of the study haven’t focused on the funding.
The researchers conducting the study, which was called Interphone, were flummoxed at nearly every turn. They tried to find a control group that matched participants who had suffered a brain tumor, but potential subjects were reluctant to participate, for various reasons. Then there were subtle behavioral differences between individuals with and without brain tumors. Internal squabbling over how to interpret the results delayed publication for so long that usage patterns of study participants didn’t match those of mobile users today.
The Interphone researchers acknowledged in their resulting paper, published online last week by the International Journal of Epidemiology, that something had probably gone wrong with the controls.
The study tracked cellphone use across 13 countries. It looked at a group of adults 30 to 59 years old who had been diagnosed with glioma or meningioma, types of brain tumors that can be either benign or malignant, between 2000 and 2004. They were compared with control subjects, people selected to match the individuals with tumors in terms of age, gender and place of residence.
Then both groups were interviewed extensively about their cellphone use. If the two groups matched in other ways, and the group with brain tumors used cellphones more frequently, that would suggest that cellphone use might have caused the tumors.
But they didn’t really match. For one thing, just 53% of people selected to participate as controls agreed, and a survey of those who declined showed that they were less likely to use cellphones than those who participated. That may have artificially raised cellphone use in the tumor-free control group and made mobile phones seem less dangerous than they are.
The result is a strange set of numbers. Many levels of cellphone use appeared to reduce the chance of developing a tumor. Only the people who talked on cellphones the most had a significantly greater chance of developing glioma—40% greater—than those who didn’t use cellphones.
Yet, as some of the study’s authors themselves pointed out, if those who never used cellphones—who were more prevalent among those with tumors—were excluded, and the lightest users were contrasted with the more avid ones, then the bizarre protective effect of cellphone use mostly disappeared, and the risk among the heaviest users was 82% greater.
Even in this analysis, the risk doesn’t steadily increase with use, which is what epidemiologists typically look for—a discernible dose-response relationship. “It’s certainly less compelling than if you saw some kind of graded response,” says David A. Savitz, director of the Disease Prevention and Public Health Institute at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
Disputes about how to interpret these numbers held up publication of the research, says Christopher Wild, director of the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, in Lyon, which coordinated the study. The study was published more than six years after its conclusion, by which time cellphone use had both surged and changed.
“Interphone made more effort than most other studies to identify and quantify its own flaws,” says co-author Martine Vrijheid, a researcher at the agency. “It has thereby also attracted more attention to these flaws.”
A U.K. study under way will take a different approach, tracking cellphone users over time to see if heavy use is tied to a greater incidence of cancer. But the study will still need to enlist hundreds of thousands of volunteers to yield useful results, and it could take decades to spot any divergence in cancer rates.
Epidemiologists say such research may be difficult and expensive but is important.
“Even if you think it’s very, very unlikely that it’s a problem,” Dr. Savitz says, “it’s always worth some effort to make sure you haven’t done something really terrible” as a society by enabling widespread cellphone use. Such open questions, and the difficulty of solving them, he says, “keep epidemiologists in business for a long time.” By Carl Bialik, Wall Street Journal
Indonesia Aims To Tap Volcano Power
Kamojang: Indonesia has launched an ambitious plan to tap the vast power of its volcanoes and become a world leader in geothermal energy, while trimming greenhouse gas emissions.
The sprawling archipelago of 17,000 islands stretching from the Indian to the Pacific Oceans contains hundreds of volcanoes, estimated to hold around 40 percent of the world’s geothermal energy potential.
But so far only a tiny fraction of that potential has been unlocked, so the government is seeking help from private investors, the World Bank and partners like Japan and the United States to exploit the power hidden deep underground.
“The government’s aim to add 4,000 megawatts of geothermal capacity from the existing 1,189 megawatts by 2014 is truly challenging,” Indonesian Geothermal Association chief Surya Darma said.
One of the biggest obstacles is the cost. Indonesia currently relies on dirty coal-fired power plants using locally produced coal. A geothermal plant costs about twice as much, and can take many more years in research and development to get online.
But once established, geothermal plants like the one built in Kamojang, Java, in 1982 can convert the endless free supplies of volcanic heat into electricity with much lower overheads — and less pollution — than coal.
This is the pay-off the government is hoping to sell at the fourth World Geothermal Congress opening Sunday on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. The six-day event will attract some 2,000 people from more than 80 countries.
“An investment of 12 billion dollars is needed to add 4,000 MW capacity,” energy analyst Herman Darnel Ibrahim said, putting into context the recent announcement of 400 million dollars in financing from lenders including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
“Field exploration can take from three to five years, suitability studies for funding takes a year, while building the plant itself takes three years,” he added.
If there is any country in the world where geothermal makes sense it is Indonesia. Yet despite its natural advantages, it lags behind the United States and the Philippines in geothermal energy production.
Southeast Asia’s largest economy and the world’s third biggest greenhouse gas emitter exploits only seven geothermal fields out of more than 250 it could be developing.
The case for geothermal has become stronger with the rapid growth of Indonesia’s economy and the corresponding strain on its creaking power infrastructure.
The archipelago of 234 million people is one of the fastest growing economies in the Group of 20 but currently only 65 percent of Indonesians have access to electricity.
The goal is to reach 90 percent of the population by the end of the decade, through a two-stage plan to “fast-track” the provision of an extra 10,000 MW by 2012, mostly through coal, and another 10,000 MW from clean sources like volcanoes by 2014.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s pledge to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent against 2005 levels by 2020 has also spurred the push to geothermal.
Many of the best geothermal sources lie in protected forests, so the government aims to allow the drilling of wells inside conservation areas while insisting that the power plants themselves be outside.
Geothermal fans welcomed the recent completion of negotiations between a consortium of US, Japanese and Indonesian companies and the state electricity company, Perusahaan Listrik Negara, over a 340 MW project on Sumatra island.
The Sarulla project will be Indonesia’s second biggest geothermal plant, after the Wayang Windu facility in West Java.
“The Sarulla project is a perfect example of how Indonesia can realise its clean energy and energy security goals by partnering with international firms,” US Ambassador Cameron Hume wrote in a local newspaper.
Several firms such as Tata and Chevron have submitted bids to build another geothermal plant in North Sumatra, with potential for 200 MW.
Bureau Report
Kamojang: Indonesia has launched an ambitious plan to tap the vast power of its volcanoes and become a world leader in geothermal energy, while trimming greenhouse gas emissions.
The sprawling archipelago of 17,000 islands stretching from the Indian to the Pacific Oceans contains hundreds of volcanoes, estimated to hold around 40 percent of the world’s geothermal energy potential.
But so far only a tiny fraction of that potential has been unlocked, so the government is seeking help from private investors, the World Bank and partners like Japan and the United States to exploit the power hidden deep underground.
“The government’s aim to add 4,000 megawatts of geothermal capacity from the existing 1,189 megawatts by 2014 is truly challenging,” Indonesian Geothermal Association chief Surya Darma said.
One of the biggest obstacles is the cost. Indonesia currently relies on dirty coal-fired power plants using locally produced coal. A geothermal plant costs about twice as much, and can take many more years in research and development to get online.
But once established, geothermal plants like the one built in Kamojang, Java, in 1982 can convert the endless free supplies of volcanic heat into electricity with much lower overheads — and less pollution — than coal.
This is the pay-off the government is hoping to sell at the fourth World Geothermal Congress opening Sunday on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. The six-day event will attract some 2,000 people from more than 80 countries.
“An investment of 12 billion dollars is needed to add 4,000 MW capacity,” energy analyst Herman Darnel Ibrahim said, putting into context the recent announcement of 400 million dollars in financing from lenders including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
“Field exploration can take from three to five years, suitability studies for funding takes a year, while building the plant itself takes three years,” he added.
If there is any country in the world where geothermal makes sense it is Indonesia. Yet despite its natural advantages, it lags behind the United States and the Philippines in geothermal energy production.
Southeast Asia’s largest economy and the world’s third biggest greenhouse gas emitter exploits only seven geothermal fields out of more than 250 it could be developing.
The case for geothermal has become stronger with the rapid growth of Indonesia’s economy and the corresponding strain on its creaking power infrastructure.
The archipelago of 234 million people is one of the fastest growing economies in the Group of 20 but currently only 65 percent of Indonesians have access to electricity.
The goal is to reach 90 percent of the population by the end of the decade, through a two-stage plan to “fast-track” the provision of an extra 10,000 MW by 2012, mostly through coal, and another 10,000 MW from clean sources like volcanoes by 2014.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s pledge to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent against 2005 levels by 2020 has also spurred the push to geothermal.
Many of the best geothermal sources lie in protected forests, so the government aims to allow the drilling of wells inside conservation areas while insisting that the power plants themselves be outside.
Geothermal fans welcomed the recent completion of negotiations between a consortium of US, Japanese and Indonesian companies and the state electricity company, Perusahaan Listrik Negara, over a 340 MW project on Sumatra island.
The Sarulla project will be Indonesia’s second biggest geothermal plant, after the Wayang Windu facility in West Java.
“The Sarulla project is a perfect example of how Indonesia can realise its clean energy and energy security goals by partnering with international firms,” US Ambassador Cameron Hume wrote in a local newspaper.
Several firms such as Tata and Chevron have submitted bids to build another geothermal plant in North Sumatra, with potential for 200 MW. Zeenews
Microsoft Begins Internet Explorer Update
Microsoft revealed plans for the next version of its Internet Explorer browser last week, but it’s way too early to put a reminder to upgrade on your calendar.
The future Internet Explorer 9, announced at a conference for developers in Las Vegas, will bring advances in performance and compatibility with Web standards, in particular those allowing sites to provide audio and video without requiring users to install a separate plug-in such as Adobe’s Flash.
IE 9 will also take advantage of Windows graphics technologies to improve its display of pictures and text, at the apparent price of Windows XP support.
Test drive
In a technically oriented blog post, IE product manager Dean Hachamovitch offers more detail about Microsoft’s goals for IE 9. Adventurous users can also try out a “test drive” version of the browser — but this release is so limited that it doesn’t even count as pre-alpha. Microsoft’s frequently-asked-questions file doesn’t say when a beta version of IE 9 will ship, much less a finished product.
That poses a problem for the company, because the current Internet Explorer 8 just isn’t doing the job. It trails competitors in its features, simplicity, reliability and speed. I cringe every time I launch IE 8, because I know I’m going to be waiting that much longer for it to start responding to my input than Mozilla Firefox would.
As a result, IE has been steadily losing market share to the likes of Firefox and, to a less extent, Google’s Chrome, Apple’s Safari and Opera’s self-titled browser.
At the same conference, Microsoft also revealed more details about the rewritten mobile software, Windows Phone 7 Series, that it announced last month. And would-be Win Phone 7 users may not be happy about these revelations
The software, due on smartphones soon, will not let you cut, copy and paste text, Engadget’s Chris Ziegler posted. PC magazine’s Sascha Segan, meanwhile, reported that Win Phone 7 won’t support multiple third-party programmes at once, augmenting a phone’s storage with a removable memory card, or installing new applications from anywhere but Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace.
In other words, Win Phone 7 looks set to match the feature set of the 2008-era iPhone. Which may be an issue in 2010, now that the iPhone offers an excellent, touch-driven implementation of copy and paste and Android devices also support multitasking, memory cards and running applications from unofficial channels — and both Apple’s smartphone and Google’s software will likely see further improvements before Win Phone 7 ships. By Rob Pegoraro, The Washington Post
Researchers Convert Solar Energy To Sugars
Engineers from the University of Cincinnati devise a foam that captures energy and removes excess carbon dioxide from the air — thanks to semi-tropical frogs.
For decades, farmers have been trying to find ways to get more energy out of the sun.
In natural photosynthesis, plants take in solar energy and carbon dioxide and then convert it to oxygen and sugars. The oxygen is released to the air and the sugars are dispersed throughout the plant — like that sweet corn we look for in the summer. Unfortunately, the allocation of light energy into products we use is not as efficient as we would like. Now engineering researchers at the University of Cincinnati are doing something about that.
The researchers are finding ways to take energy from the sun and carbon from the air to create new forms of biofuels, thanks to a semi-tropical frog species. Their results have just been published online in “Artificial Photosynthesis in Ranaspumin-2 Based Foam” (March 5, 2010) in the journal “Nano Letters.” (It will be a cover story for the print edition in the fall.)
Research Assistant Professor David Wendell, student Jacob Todd and College of Engineering and Applied Science Dean Carlo Montemagno co-authored the paper, based on research in Montemagno’s lab in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Their work focused on making a new artificial photosynthetic material which uses plant, bacterial, frog and fungal enzymes, trapped within a foam housing, to produce sugars from sunlight and carbon dioxide.
Foam was chosen because it can effectively concentrate the reactants but allow very good light and air penetration. The design was based on the foam nests of a semi-tropical frog called the Tungara frog, which creates very long-lived foams for its developing tadpoles.
“The advantage for our system compared to plants and algae is that all of the captured solar energy is converted to sugars, whereas these organisms must divert a great deal of energy to other functions to maintain life and reproduce,” says Wendell. “Our foam also uses no soil, so food production would not be interrupted, and it can be used in highly enriched carbon dioxide environments, like the exhaust from coal-burning power plants, unlike many natural photosynthetic systems.”
He adds, “In natural plant systems, too much carbon dioxide shuts down photosynthesis, but ours does not have this limitation due to the bacterial-based photo-capture strategy.”
There are many benefits to being able to create a plant-like foam.
“You can convert the sugars into many different things, including ethanol and other biofuels,” Wendell explains. “And it removes carbon dioxide from the air, but maintains current arable land for food production.”
“This new technology establishes an economical way of harnessing the physiology of living systems by creating a new generation of functional materials that intrinsically incorporates life processes into its structure,” says Dean Montemagno. “Specifically in this work it presents a new pathway of harvesting solar energy to produce either oil or food with efficiencies that exceed other biosolar production methodologies. More broadly it establishes a mechanism for incorporating the functionality found in living systems into systems that we engineer and build.”
The next step for the team will be to try to make the technology feasible for large-scale applications like carbon capture at coal-burning power plants.
“This involves developing a strategy to extract both the lipid shell of the algae (used for biodiesel) and the cytoplasmic contents (the guts), and reusing these proteins in the foam,” says Wendell. “We are also looking into other short carbon molecules we can make by altering the enzyme cocktail in the foam.”
Montemagno adds, “It is a significant step in delivering the promise of nanotechnology.” By: Wendy Beckman, redOrbit
Gene Splice Helps Fight Crop Disease, Say Researchers
Biologists on Sunday said they had found a potential super weapon in a long-running arms race with bacteria that threaten essential crops.
Tested in a lab, their technique entails inserting a gene kit into a plant so that its immune system recognizes and fights germ invaders, they reported in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
Bacteria cause huge losses to crops each year. Farmers usually tackle the foe by dousing their fields with chemicals, but these are expensive and can damage soil biodiversity.
Another way is to shore up the plant’s defences by a gene introduced through cross-breeding with a hardier strain.
Yet this technique is rarely able to give a plant resistance against a wide range of germs — and in any case a bacterium may swiftly evolve to sneak around the new defence.
Phytobiologists led by Cyril Zipfel at the Sainsbury Laboratory at Norwich, eastern England, took a novel tack.
They delved into plants’ innate defence system, hunting for watchdog genes able to spot a pattern of telltale proteins exuded by a microbial invader.
Like bones and skin in humans, these proteins are essential for the bacteria’s core functions and so are less likely to mutate, for to do so could harm the pathogen’s survival.
The watchdog genes govern so-called pattern recognition receptors, or PRRs.
PRRs were first discovered 15 years ago, although only a few have been discovered to date, and much is unclear.
It was known that a PRR can spot essential proteins from quite a wide a range of bacteria. But it was uncertain whether the defence is unique to a given family of plants or can be transferred to another.
Exploring this avenue, Zipfel’s team took a PRR that was specific to the Brassica family — the plant group that includes mustard, Brussels sprouts and cabbage — and slotted it into two plants from the Solanaceae family, which includes tomatoes, potatoes, aubergines (US: eggplants), tobacco and other valuable crops.
By having the PRR added to their arsenal, the Solanaceae plants showed “drastically enhanced” resistance to many different bacteria, including Ralstonia solanacearum, a major cause of crop wilt.
“The strength of this resistance is because it has come from a different plant family, which the pathogen has not had any chance to adapt to,” Zipfel said in a press release.
“Through genetic modification, we can now transfer this resistance across plant species boundaries in a way traditional breeding cannot.”
The work is proof of principle and there is a long way to go before the technique may enter the public domain.
Zipfel said that in the “constant evolutionary arms race” between plant and pathogen, the possibility that a germ could mutate and thus bypass the new weapon will be smaller, although it cannot be discounted.
Genetically-modified crops are widely grown and consumed in North America and other parts of the world but are strongly resisted in Europe, where a powerful green lobby says it is too soon to know whether the technology is safe for the environment and health.
The head of the Sainsbury Laboratory, Sophien Kamoun, said the research was exciting, given the challenge to boost food production to feed the world’s growing millions while meet demands for biofuels and the impact from climate change.
“Cyril’s work indicates that transfer of genes that contribute to this basic innate immunity from one plant to another can enhance pathogen resistance,” said Kamoun.
“The implications for engineering crop plants with enhanced resistance to infectious diseases are very promising.” Breitbart