rsity ridge Unive The Camb zine from science maga
Write for
Easter 2010 Issue 18
18 > -692 ISSN 1748
0
University
0 8 69200 9 77174
Cambridge
ci.co.uk www.blues
azine science mag
Email complete articles or ideas to submissions@bluesci.co.uk
FOCUS lasers 50 years of to munications From com clean energy thquakes hy Effect . Ear photograp s . Placebo me . Chrono Biomarker -Willi Syndro ess . Prader Consciousn
See your article in print... ersity bridge Univ The Cam magazine from science as 2010 Issue 19
Michaelm
o.uk
sci.c www.blue
ine nce magaz
Camb
00 48 6920 9 7717 00 48 6920 9 7717
0 1748-692 ISSN 0 1748-692 19 > 19 >
y scie
iversit ridge Un
ISSN
Ready to Go Paperless?
Book Reviews The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion
Wing Ying Chow investigates the advantages of electronic lab notebooks
are science and religion necessarily in conflict? Was the development of intelligent life on our is a Cambridge is the first chemistry department in the planet an evolutionary inevitability? Will it be possible to maintain religious faith as astronomers phrase often used to describe the progression of UK to adopt an ELN system, which is currently in and physicists discover more and more details about the early universe and how it formed? These science, with each generation of researchers building the pilot phase. are the sorts of questions addressed in The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion. It isn’t on the results of their predecessors. Successful The ELN has three key features: a central a light read by any stretch of the imagination, but for those interested in some of the deepest experiments find their way into published papers, database, templates, and digital searching. A questions, it is compelling. centralised database that is professionally maintained Fourteen separate contributions, each from a different author, cover a diverse range of issues. The but what about the dead ends, the unsuccessful attempts? Often these are not published and become and regularly backed up means that data is much first five chapters chart the historical interactions between science and religion, and are refreshingly and sculptures his tomb; researchers oftenfocus on contemporary less likely to be lost. The ELN offers templates lost in laboratory notebooks. In the digital age, this objective in their analysis, if at times ainlittle dry. The central fivehave chapters queried whether hemuch mightmore haveopinionated. been intersex. may change as the recording of research moves from that carry out routine calculations automatically. issues related to the two subjects, and are The final chapters explore Genetic testing byinthe team chapters. determined that These templates speed up the planning process and paper to computer. some of the philosophical aspects raised theCairo preceding There is a lot of emphasis on was biologically male,this having of sex whilst this is an unfortunate encourage the recording of experimental details in A lab notebook is the place to sketch out ideas Darwinian evolutionhe throughout and at times startsan to XY feel set repetitive; chromosomes. The researchers theto reflect on the arguments. a format that other researchers can understand. As and record experimental procedures, results and consequence of having numerous authors, it does givetherefore the readerascribe a chance CUP, 2010, £50.00 depictions of to King Tut more to thetoartistic a digital system, the ELN can be searched using I would thoroughlyfeminine recommend this book anyone who wants fully examine the questions that conclusions. It is a valuable record of a particular style of Be theaware, time rather than actual appearance.popular science book. tm text or even chemical structures: very handy when scientific investigation for both the researcher who science raises about religion. however, thishis isn’t an easy-reading, Using genetic testing and other biomedical writing a paper or thesis. Many types of files, from carried out the work and colleagues who may want techniques to answer some of the questions annotated images and spectra to journal papers in to revisit and build upon it. surrounding the life and death of King Tut is PDF format, can be dropped into the ELN and Yet not all researchers keep equally good lab Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery not only a huge technical achievement, it also searched in the same way. notebooks, and repetition of work due to badly a change tradition. The main challenge with the ELN is getting blood and guts isrepresents a fascinating accountinofarchaeological pioneering surgery and the people behind it. kept records is not uncommon. James Collip, Archaeologists now in forming academics to switch from their current method of Hollingham illustrates the successes and and scientists failures ofare surgery vivid detail using examples from the biochemist who first purified insulin, lost teams to solve problems together. This practice hasgladiators, high-speed recording experiments. The pilot scheme was targeted ancient history through to modern times. Surgeons patching up Roman track of the variables during the initial successful become common here infacial Cambridge according at first-year PhD students and post-docs so that century, astonishing reconstructions of to the present day: all are used purification. It took another twoMaggie months for Jack digs into the techniques of new archaeology, how they are evolving and how thisamputations may in the 17th Spence, archaeologist occurred. at the University. they could establish a paperless routine right from to describe momentsKate where surgicalanbreakthroughs The development of anaesthesia him to re-discover a working method. Such cases help us1920s. to answerthequestions “who King A number of labs are now dedicated to applying start of theirlike projects. Ninekilled months into Tut?” the pilot and the control of infections were two particularly important discoveries. Hollingham examines are not restricted to biochemistry in the scientific methods to archaeology. For example, scheme, there are 45 users, with 6 being particularly the changing perceptions of surgery within society by looking at the use of brain surgery to Bioinformaticians, whose research is born of the a geoarchaeology labsocial that value specialises active. Most users indicate that they still keep some of “cure” mental healthCambridge problems inruns 1960s America, and the of reconstructive surgery, digital age, also sometimes find it “easier to run in micromorphology. This technique is used to is undergoing dramatic changes in that decorate his tomb portray him with elongated their lab records on paper. particularly to wounded soldiers. an experiment again instead of trying to find archaeology the theacomposition of materials such well as the medical journals such as JAMA gain its research In methodology. Historically, it has been features, characteristic of Marfan’s. Canes that wereAlthough the bookdetermine contrast to academia, ELN systems accompanies television series, it stands alone and givespublished those less in familiar data”. They rarely use paper, but they must still floorinto of an ancient or theReaders surfacewith of anmore ancient more attention an individualistic and humanities-based discipline, found in his tomb, intended to help him walk inwith themedicine an insight are becoming the standard in industry. surgery androom its origins. knowledge of the subject and ‘impact’ than articles published keep track of their investigations. cooking In an isotope lab, the bones The of ancient innot archaeological methods are being increasingly afterlife, also support this theory. However, no firm GlaxoSmithKline, a major pharmaceutical company, may find it a little slow, but thevessel. personal stories are worth reading. author does succumb to journals. This means that more and An electronic lab notebook (ELN) may helpbut to scientific people are examined determine their dietinstead, and he credits moreeach archaeologists used. Projects are becoming collaborative, and 3000 conclusions could be drawn without BBC Books, 2008, more £18.99rigorous has rolled out an ELN system to over the temptation of filling the book with gorytotales of mad scientists; surgeon, are being pushed to use the latest address some of the shortcomings of the traditional origin. Palaeobotany another of theatre cutting-edge biomedical experimentation. now resemble the multi-author articles employees. They switched from paper to electronic even those who may land seem of misguided, with playing aispart in theexample operating of today. aj techniques. paper one. The Department of Chemistry in publications a technique now commonly used, in which samples Although the application of scientific methods common lab in more traditional scientific subjects. notebooks in only nine months, andOne most of The Cairo research team undertook this challenge of ancient plants are analysed in an attempt to to archaeology has become common in other by analysing the DNA from the bone tissue of eleven example istheir a study in the February 2010 userspublished prefer it over paper notebooks. reconstruct the environments of ancient peoples. countries, it has thus far been limited in Egypt royal mummies of the New Kingdom, including The Price of Altruism edition of the Journal of the American Medical Unlike in industry, ELNs will not be mandatory Even with the integration of scientific methods, due to post-colonial politics. Since the 1970s, the King Tut. They tested Tut for Marfan’s syndrome and Association (JAMA), in which a team of researchers for academic scientists in the short term, yet the the core of archaeology remains “Thereby a motley Egyptian government has banned the removal of discovered that he did not have Marfan’s, but did suffer based in Cairo sheduse light on some ofnotebooks the mysteries eventual of electronic in universities opening with a colourful description of George Price’sunchanged. funeral, attended collection will Harman always beproceeds a place to fortake individual work antiquities surrounding King Tutankhamun. authors’ from avascular bone necrosis, a disease characterised is “inevitable” accordingThe to Dr Tim Dickens, who of beggars and scientists, the reader on aand whirlwind tourany through the life from the country. This policy was people thinkingPrice through instated in order to curb the extensive exporting extensive isuse of biomedical techniques highlights a breakdown of bone tissue that results from a of this eccentric thinker. responsible for the computing systems that by drive Ultimately, soughtquestions to answersynthetically,” the ultimate conundrum: if survival Spence; “Good always of objects from the changes place thethe field. prolonged lack of blood circulation. This would of the fittest is all thatsays thetaking current ELNinin Department of Chemistry. matters, “how couldarchaeologists behaviour thathave lowered fitness be selected?...Why do Egypt into Western museums and worked with of the evidence is available.” collections. King ‘Tut’ a pharaoh of theofNew Kingdom, “Anwas increasing amount funding is for large,explain the canes in Tut’s tomb, but it is unlikely that vampire bats share blood? Why do all sentry gazelles jumpthat up and down when a lionprivate is spotted, putting Previously, archaeologists based These techniques areand simply providing archaeologists UK would an era of multidisciplinary relative peace and projects, prosperityand within Egypt to search this disease resulted in his death. By analysing the themselves precariously the ability between the herd the hungry hunter?” and “What doin allthe of these have tobring samples from the excavation with more evidence to fittest consider. However, thenicest?” site to machinery located at their home institution that lastedand from thedata mid-16th to 11thparticularly century BC.important.” other mummies, the researchers were able to identify share is becoming do with morality in humans? Survival of the or survival of the addition of scientific doessome present some they stilland do from excavation sites in other Previous researchers had used a limited amount the parents of King Tut, discovering in the process The author seamlessly Moreover, as a digitised database, the notebooks intertwines the lifemethods of Price with of the great minds (as of the 19th to archaeological culture. Spence countries). But due to Egypt’s antiquities policy, of evidence hypothesise KingtoTut that they were also siblings. This inbreeding may have cantoeventually be that released thedied general public, 20th centuries, from challenges Charles Darwin to William Hamilton. Despitenotes frequent references to notable thatcomplex it is easier to fund archaeological that scientific of a genetic disease such as have Marfan’s syndrome, contributed to Tut’s early demise by predisposing him who as taxpayers a right to access the work biological problems and mathematical concepts suchprojects as game-theory, theany book reads research performed at new excavations advantage of scientific Also, be conducted within Egypt. This makes which weakens the funded. connective tissue in the body. to genetic defects that affected his health. that they effortlessly, making a take scientific background whollymethods. unnecessary. In articles fact, as Harmanmust transports the applying new techniques to the field of Egyptology Papyri from the era of the New Kingdom also reader from the Siberian steppes to the slums of London, from the Russian Revolution A radiological scan of his foot showed that he to Nazi The suffered Bodley Head, a very slow process, since most of archaeology’s suggest that Tut may have from2010, malaria. Germany and from scientific laboratories to humid jungles, this brilliantly researched had a malformed arch, suggesting disease of this book offers Wing Ying Chow is a PhDa student in the Department Chemistry.of King Tut latest scientific tools are developed and located in Four of the mummies analysed£34.95 by the Cairo team, type. Furthermore, theofdepictions more thrills than many novels. dv universities outside of Egypt. including Tut, tested positive for AMA1, a protein The introduction of scientific techniques found on the malarial parasite. AMA1 is responsible Opening up the Michaelmas 2010 2010 and Book avenues Reviews 31 has opened up new of investigation to for the binding of the parasite toMichaelmas human cells, innermost shrine of archaeologists. By using some of the most advanced its presence in the body is a sure sign of infection. King Tut’s tomb biomedical technology available, Egyptian researchers Many of the initial media reports describing the were able to properly address some of the centuriesstudy misquoted it and claimed that the team found old questions surrounding King Tut and his family. definitive proof that Tut died of malaria. However, In doing so, they highlighted the innovations although this is another possible explanation for his and disciplinary changes that are transforming death, the presence of AMA1 does not necessarily archaeology and helping to solve some of the ancient mean that Tut died of malaria; he could have world’s greatest mysteries. been infected with the parasite without actually succumbing to it. Another mystery addressed by the study is the Maggie Jack is an MPhil student in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science feminised appearance of King Tut in the murals
standing on the shoulders of giants
Analysis of a soil sample reveals human remains such as bone, wood ash and charcoal
DR CHARLY FRENCH
The Transformation of Archaeology
Feature articles for BlueSci magazine can be on any scientific topic. They should be 1200 words and written for a wide audience.
gs, S FOCUerapy - The beginnin
The problem of legibility is illustrated by this excerpt from Charles
30 Technology
MUSEUM OF CAIRO
Darwin’s Gene Th and triumphs notebook ity t . Scurvy challenges dern Ar nces . Biodivers un . Mo rie Tutankham t of Body Expe h . Ou dis ven Henry Ca
NEW YORK TIMES
Us
10 The Transformation of Archaeology
Michaelmas 2010
Michaelmas 2010
Deadline for next issue is 29th October 2010
The Transformation of Archaeology 11
...or online We need writers of feature articles and regulars for our new, improved website. Submissions can be of any length, and submitted at any time. For more information, visit
www.bluesci.co.uk
Saving
Specie
s
Imoge n conser Ogilvie give s her pe ve spec ies at rspect all ive on conser vation amount of and s of
asks w time a mas both hu hether man-c and resource s extinctio n even it is wo aused curren s trying t. C an t pa rth tr yi agree th ce and scale d otherwise, to minimise onservationi ng to are the at sts spen set toda Why sh biodiversit d enor y apar by no means number of y t. Mos mous ould w sp should t writin unique to th ecies lost. e be bo co th A huge Extinct ns er g on th is perio ions, numbe to conserve erved. But e conser d su in bj time, bu is this r of va bi really ect assumes t the linator tion are clear species are odiversity? the case ev s. in . Fo ? And eryone to shown Studies on co r example, dispensable at wha to th 35 per ff t cost? to natu e importanc ee – one of cent of us, and for thes th e ra gl case fo l forest for su of both a dive e most valuab obal food pr e, the bene fits r cons od ccessfu le expo rse rang erving self-in rts of de uction depe of e of targeted l pollinatio tereste nds on velopi n and bee species d areas an ng poland pr crop yi The pl groups will d spec oximity countries – ha eld ensure an cient ve of the its surv ies. But sure . Therefore, Cyren t ‘silphion’ th ly iv ean ec ere is an plantation was an al and if a spec becam onom indi e extin y. It w extremely there is no ne ies is econ ct; in omicall sputable import as so im ed to w this ca y va an portan or se, selft that t herbal cont ry about co luable, intere it appe ns ra st alon ared on ceptive an er vation. H e coul dm ist co d not protec ins of the tim edicine with or y suggests ot t even a the m e. Despite th critical role herwise. ost im is, in portan silphion m the anysterio t of sp usly ecies. Whole
w
Contact editor@bluesci.co.uk to get involved with editing, graphics or production