I, Science - Issue 7 (Autumn 2007)

Issue 7 • Autumn 2007

I,science The Imperial College science magazine

www.union.ic.ac.uk/media/iscience

g, innovation, art meets science, hybrid embryos, , river reclamation, cloning, stem cells, megaflood 32-01 Cover (M1).indd 3

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I,science Issue 7 • Autumn 2007

From the Editor

Editor-in-chief Edward Wawrzynczak Deputy editor Michelle Picard-Aitken Technical editor Alex Antonov Managing editor Tom Roberts Section Editors News and Events Naomi Antony Liv Hov-Clayton Features Colin Barras James Urquhart Interviews Charlotte Bathe Hannah Duffty Opinions Ceri Perkins Michelle Picard-Aitken Reviews Holly Else Edward Wawrzynczak

W

ELCOME TO a new year of I,science. In these pages, we reflect on science in all its breadth and many guises – technical and cultural, historical and topical, conventional and controversial – through a mix of news, events, reviews, opinions, interviews, and feature articles.

Our aim: to entertain you, to inform you about some of the major issues of the day, and to throw in a dash of Imperial interest for good measure.

This issue starts you off with news items about aphid bombs, megafloods, beer, and fantasy baseball, and reports on meetings about science and the public. In a focus on climate and the environment, we discuss overpopulation, report on the casualties of climate change, look at the melting of glaciers, visit Ice Station Antarctica, see river reclamation in action, and hear how artists are responding to our changing landscapes.

Taking a closer look at the medical sciences, we highlight some key discoveries made

by Imperial scientists, talk with Professor Marc Feldmann about his groundbreaking research on rheumatoid arthritis, show you how easy it is to donate bone marrow stem cells, and look at the ethics and controversies of embryonic stem cell research. And if all that’s not enough for you, we also offer you items on Darwin, the origins of modern astronomy, materials science, nanotechnology, innovation, and Simon Singh.

As editor, seeing a new edition come to life is a bit like watching a baby being born.

The process is full of anticipation, but it gets a bit messy, noisy and painful at times!

My thanks go to all the writers and editors for their support and hard work throughout the period of gestation. On behalf of the whole I,science team, I’d also like to thank all the scientists, organisations and sponsors who generously contributed their time and resources. And to our readers, new and old, we hope that you’ll enjoy this issue of I,science.

Edward Wawrzynczak

Other contributors Kate Ambrose Barbara Axt Nell Barrie Elizabeth Gibney Minna Kane Tim King Eugenia Kypriotis Clare Ryan Ailsa Taylor I,science is produced and published in association with Felix, the student newspaper of Imperial College Felix Newspaper Beit Quad Prince Consort Road London SW7 2BB T: 020 7594 8072 E: felix@imperial.ac.uk Registered newspaper ISSN 1040-0711 Copyright © Felix 2007

I,science is your student science magazine.

We need your comments, suggestions and contributions. If you’d like to write for I,science, please contact us at i.science@imperial.ac.uk.

FRONT COVER ART

Tuning forks by Zoe Laughlin © Zoe Laughlin, 2007

Tuning forks made from 16 different materials – designed especially for the Materials Library at King’s College – are used to demonstrate how materials science can give us insight into the production of sound.

Printed by St Ives Roche Ltd, St Austell, Cornwall PL26 8LX

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Issue 7 • Autumn 2007

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Features

14 | Feeling for the landscape

08 | Darwin’s Mentor

18 | Lessons from the Lab

How Cambridge botanist John Henslow influenced Darwin’s thinking

13 | Snow Patrol High altitude glaciers have held out against global warming – so far

16 | Molecules and Medicine Imperial scientists have made fundamental discoveries of medical importance

21 | This won’t hurt...

Artists talk about how they respond to climate change and the environment We learn how lab science turned into a new treatment for rheumatoid arthritis

22 | Messing about on the river!

We hear about the work of a charity cleaning up the River Thames

Regulars

Why you should think about donating your bone marrow stem cells

04-07 | News and Events

Interviews

24-25 | Opinions

10 | Modern art meets the sound of science

28-31 | Reviews

We talk to materials scientists about an innovative podcast tour of Tate Modern Autumn 2007

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News and events from Imperial and the rest of the world Can we control population; is innovation all it’s cracked up to be; and are hybrid stem cells ethical?

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NEWS & EVENTS OPINIONS INTERVIEWS

REVIEWS FEATURES

News from Imperial…

It’s a hard rain that’s gonna fall IN A SUMMER when the UK experienced widespread devastation from flooding, a study revealed that a megaflood caused Britain and France to separate a few hundred thousand years ago.

The study, led by scientists at Imperial College, used high-resolution sonar waves to reveal a huge valley, tens of kilometres wide and 50 metres deep, carved into the floor of the English Channel. The basin showed deep scour-marks and landforms that were created by torrents of water rushing through the channel.

Before the flood, an enormous lake existed in what is now the southern part of the North Sea, impounded to the north by glaciers and to the south by a ridge across the Dover Straits. Scientists believe the level of the lake rose, causing a breach through the ridge, with a subsequent flood lasting many months. The flood rerouted the major rivers in the area, creating what is now the English Channel.

Dr Sanjeev Gupta, from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial said: “This prehistoric event rewrites the history of how the UK became an island and may explain why early human occupation of Britain came to an abrupt halt for almost 120 thousand years.” LHC

Britain saw extreme flooding in 2007

New drug target in fight against diabetes RESEARCHERS FROM Imperial College London, and INSERM and EMI in France, have announced the discovery of a new molecule – miR124 – that inhibits the production of insulin, the hormone lacking in diabetics. The research, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, may lead to the development of new drugs to deactivate the molecule and so boost insulin production.

DNA is the body’s instruction booklet for making proteins. An intermediate messenger, called RNA, reads the instructions, allowing them to be

‘translated’ into different proteins. Tiny microRNAs, like the newly discovered miR124, can bind to selected messenger RNAs and prevent them from being translated into proteins.

This discovery “may allow us to develop new tools to treat diabetes,” says coauthor Guy Rutter, a Professor of Cell Biology from the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London. “Such findings may be useful in the fight against a disease which affects more than 5% of the population and whose incidence is growing yearly,” he adds. AT

I, Science attends a Simon Singh lecture SCIENCE WRITER Simon Singh was at Imperial College on 18 July to address 15 to 17-year-olds on two of his favourite topics: the Big Bang and cryptography.

In the same lecture theatre where he’d read physics as an undergraduate, Singh kept the students buzzing with new knowledge, puzzles and several entertaining demonstrations.

In one instance, warning the students “not to try this at home”, he electrocuted a gherkin and made it glow yellow. This helped demonstrate how elements – such as the sodium in the brine-soaked gherkin – give off light of a characteristic wavelength.

Singh fielded questions on the place of religion in science, on climate change, and on how mathematicians cracked the code of the German’s infamous Enigma machine during World War II. He also showed how the Enigma machine works by taking one apart in front of the audience.

He left the students with some advice: maths will help them develop different and creative ways of solving puzzles and important problems, so they should “stick to it” for as long as they can.

Singh is the author of bestselling books on physics and maths, such as Big Bang and The Code Book. He is currently working on his latest book, due out next year. The lecture was organised by the Maths Department and the Outreach Office at Imperial.

MPA

Attack of the killer aphids enzyme from the IMPERIAL COLLEGE aphids’ muscles comes researchers have into contact with shown, for the first the glucosinolates, time, how cabbage catalysing a violent aphids use a mustard reaction that releases oil ‘bomb’ to disable the mustard oil. attacking predators.

The study also Sacrificing their found that aphids life for the greater with wings stored good of the colony, less glucosinolate in these aphids release their blood. Dr Glen the chemical bomb, Powell from Imperial’s killing, injuring or Biology division and repelling predators one of the authors of such as ladybirds. the paper explains, When the aphids “they don’t need the feed on cabbages, they mustard oil bomb to consume chemicals The humble aphid fights back defend themselves called glucosinolates, from predators when they can just fly which are stored in the aphids’ blood. away.” MK In the event of a predator attack, an

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I,Science attended the lecture but was unable to get Singh to pose for a photograph!

Singh signs autographs for a young fan (above).

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FEATURES REVIEWS

INTERVIEWS OPINIONS

NEWS & EVENTS

...and beyond Fantasy baseball TWO AMERICAN psychologists have baseballs on their brains.

They hope to gain insight into how people learn by comparing the strategies used by experts and novices when they play fantasy baseball.

Enthusiasts of fantasy baseball spend an average of three hours a week managing their imaginary teams, which are based on real Major League Baseball players.

Because the teams’ success is calculated from the real players’ statistics, this requires gamers to keep up with large amounts of data.

The researchers, from the Fantasy baseball fans juggle enormous amount of data

The mutt’s nuts

Dog-neutering days may be numbered MALE DOGS all over Europe may be able to uncross their legs and look forward to a more dignified future, if a new canine contraceptive implant is given the goahead next month. Suprelorin, developed

by Australian biotechnology company

A friendly pint or ten Peptech, causes a temporary drop in fertility, removing the need for castration.

The implant, which is effective for six months, releases a drug called deslorelin, which acts on the pituitary gland to block testosterone production and, in turn, regulate sperm production.

Inserted under the skin between the dog’s shoulders, it has also proved effective in curbing aggressive or territorial behaviour.

The implants have been in use in Australia since 2004, with no unwanted side-effects reported. After six months, the implant dissolves away, and the dog regains full fertility.

So for owners who may want to breed their dogs in the future, but want to keep Fido in check for the time being, the new implant really does look to be the dog’s bollocks. CP

A spoonful of sugar helps waistline go down SWEETS AND JAM are not found on your average diet program, but a team of scientists from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, have found that getting up to 10% of your daily calorie intake from sugary foods could actually help you shed those extra pounds.

This new study challenges trendy low carbohydrate diet regimes such as Atkins and the Zone diet, by providing evidence that a combination of a low fat/high carbohydrate

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University of WisconsinMadison, are long-time fantasy baseball fans themselves, and have included their own league of experts in the study.

They will compare how they compete and feel about the game with participants from two other leagues: one composed of competitive gamers who know little about baseball, and another composed of former baseball players.

The psychologists say they chose to focus on fantasy baseball because it involves "lots and lots of learning". Whoever said that learning can’t be fun?

MPA

diet and exercise is the most effective way to lose weight.

In a 12 week study of 69 obese women, the group combining the sugar containing diet with physical activity, lost the most weight and showed significantly improved cholesterol levels.

The author of the study, Dr Drummond, points out that “compliance with this palatable low fat diet was excellent”. This success can be partly explained by the pleasant taste of sugar making the diet a sweeter Being slim never tasted so sweet pill to swallow. KA

You’re my best mate, honest!

A FRIENDLY DISPOSITION and male company could both be given a health warning because they cause you to drink more. That’s according to Dutch psychologist Sander Bot, who arrived at these conclusions in his PhD thesis.

Dr Bot studied the drinking habits of young adults aged 18 to 25. He found that male participants who scored highly on the personality dimension of ‘friendliness’ were more sensitive to the influences of others in terms of the amounts they drink. Being surrounded by other males, and having seen their dad drink on several occasions, also caused his subjects to drink more.

So, on the face of it, being unfriendly and keeping exclusively female company should make you drink less.

But if sporting a hostile expression and wielding a WI membership card doesn’t work for you , there’s always the possibility of a sex-change operation to think about. LHC

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NEWS & EVENTS OPINIONS INTERVIEWS

REVIEWS FEATURES

Global science Here at Imperial we are not just good at doing science, we can also talk about it. Charlotte Bathe finds out how.

B

RAZILIAN POPULAR

literature, science and public engagement in China, Tate Modern collaborating with the King’s College Materials Library. Topics as diverse as these were discussed at the ‘Science and the Public Conference 2007’ which gathered together over 60 researchers at Imperial on Saturday 19 May. From anthropology to literary studies, academic research into the interactions between science and the public happens within a wide variety of disciplines.

Normally, researchers from these disparate groups have little opportunity to interact. By forming a community of Science and the Public researchers, the hope is that cross-disciplinary discussions will enrich the subject, yielding more fruitful research in the future.

Emily Dawson, from the University of the West of England, gave an animated talk about the use of drama to facilitate discussion about genetic testing. She explained a research experiment where Bristol students were in the first instance presented with a stressful scenario, in which a family member might go for a genetic test. They then discussed this situation in small groups. The research

showed that students moved from initial black-and-white opinions to a more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of the social implications of genetic testing by the end of the discussion.

Only the second meeting of its kind, with participants from Europe, North America and New Zealand, this year’s Conference was organised by the Science Communication Group at Imperial. PhD student Sarah Davies described the conference as a great success: “it was exciting to see researchers linking up and forming cross-disciplinary collaborations and discussions. We were hoping to showcase interesting new research and to get academics from different disciplines talking to one another, and that’s what seemed to happen!”

If all goes to plan, a book based on papers from this year’s Conference will be published, and a third conference will be held next year in Manchester. ■

Environmental refugees Eugenia Kypriotis attends a Dana Centre event to hear how global warming already means disaster for millions of people.

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UMAN BEINGS have always migrated by choice, but in some cases the move has been a forced one. In the 20th century, around 150200 million people were forced to leave their homes behind. Because of rising sea levels and diminishing fresh water supplies, there may be up to 50 million environmental refugees by the end of the decade. On 12 June, the Dana Centre organised an attention-grabbing event

related to a significant social consequence of global warming: environmental refugees. Speakers were Iftikhar Ayaz of the UN and Honorary Consul for Tuvalu, Rachel Baird from Christian Aid, Don Nelson, researcher at the Tyndall Centre, Dominic Kniveton, Lecturer in Physical Geography at University of Sussex, and Koko Warner of the United Nations University.

In light of this crisis in the making, most of the event’s participants called for immediate action to be taken.

For instance, environmental refugees ought to be officially recognised as such and protected by the international community.

One of the organisations that help such immigrants is Christian Aid. Rachel Baird recounted how they work for people who suffer from the effects of climate change.

Unfortunately, the most severely affected areas are usually in developing countries.

As a result, economic and social issues have to be taken into consideration.

The big question of the night was: How bad does it have to get before people are moved to act? ■

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FEATURES REVIEWS

small talk

INTERVIEWS OPINIONS

NEWS & EVENTS

Edward Wawrzynczak learns about the successes of public engagement with nanotechnology and the challenges for the future.

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ANOTECHNOLOGY  the umbrella term for multiple technologies based on the science of the very small – promises advances in communications, solar energy, bioremediation, and in medicine. Yet, as we have seen with GM foods, people do not accept technological developments uncritically.

The question for society is: How can we ensure that the fruits of nanotechnology will find favour with the public?

In 2004, The Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering report Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies: opportunities and uncertainties called for dialogue between scientists and the public. Dialogue – literally a two-way conversation – differs from conventional information-gathering exercises such as surveys, consultations, or focus groups, in which the public responds to a set agenda.

In modern day ‘public engagement’, the ‘ordinary’ citizen and the ‘expert’ scientist are partners in shaping the discussion. As a result, nanotechnology has become the subject of a unique democratic experiment in so called ‘upstream’ engagement. The notion is that engaging with the public at an early stage in the development of technology can identify key ethical or social issues before attitudes harden and before the course of development is set downstream. The hope is that flagging such issues early will allow adjustments to be made that will help to prevent controversy later.

A meeting held at the Institute of Physics in London on 26 June – ‘All talk? Nanotechnologies and public engagement’ – presented the final report of the Nanotechnology Engagement Group for discussion by expert panels and a knowledgeable audience. The report – Democratic technologies? – summarises the current nanotechnology engagement initiatives in the UK. The clearest outcome of the six projects reviewed was the willingness of members of the public to become involved, to learn and understand unfamiliar science, and

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to reflect on the implications of nanotechnology. This enthusiasm was matched by the generally positive experiences of the scientists who participated. The experiment shows that citizens and scientists can discuss their hopes and concerns face-to-face in a constructive manner. But it also highlights some practical problems.

First, the intensive nature of engagement means that it is likely to remain a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity for most citizens. Engagement does not scale. Second, the public participants in dialogues are drawn from a tiny part of the population. Engagement is not representative. Third, the majority of scientists have little or no incentive to devote their time and energy to dialogue.

Engagement is not part of the scientist’s job spec. And there is a more serious snag.

A key component of public engagement is the notion that science administrators, government policy-makers, and independent regulators should respond to public needs and aspirations by following up the findings of dialogues.

Unfortunately, the signs are that any recommendations are likely to fall into a kind of black hole – an ‘institutional void’ or a ‘policy vacuum’ – because our institutions are ill equipped to implement them in a meaningful way.

Another challenge for institutions is to understand future possibilities.

Engagement has shown that people do not simply worry about the risks of new technology, they also care about social needs, about the

vision of what is to come, and whether that future is acceptable. If public institutions fail to link policy to the needs made clear by democratic processes such as engagement, then the trajectory of any new technology may well prove at odds with the public’s views.

A further concern is that the real world of nanotechnology extends beyond the doors of the academic laboratory. It is private companies, global corporations, and the military that undertake the major investment in nanotechnology.

These institutions have no obligation to communicate about their technologies let alone engage with the public. There is no overriding policy that encapsulates public ethics and values in the creation of consumer goods, armaments, or surveillance equipment.

It is hardly surprising, then, that heated controversies arise when new products hit the marketplace or are forced upon the public by government. It is the products rather than the technologies that are the real stuff of debate. And controversy can be seen to work in favour of society by acting as a way of exposing alternative options that have been closed off by technological choices made earlier.

The point, of course, is that such choices have usually been made without explicit public involvement. Ultimately, public confidence depends on trust in democratic institutions and their decision-making on our behalf. If, in betting on the future, the government fails to understand and respond in an open and transparent manner to the social – as well as the scientific – dimension of nanotechnology, the result could well be public disillusion. The stakes are high for both science and society in the nanotech casino. ■ Democratic technologies? is available online at www.involve.org.uk/negreport.

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NEWS & EVENTS OPINIONS INTERVIEWS

REVIEWS FEATURES

Darwin’s Mentor: The origins of The Origin Although enrolled as a student of theology, the only lectures that Charles Darwin attended at Cambridge University were on plant biology. The lectures were given by the kindly Professor of Botany, John Henslow.

Henslow is well known for arranging Darwin’s voyage on HMS Beagle, but current Cambridge Professor John Parker believes that Henslow also provided Darwin with the intellectual framework for his theory of evolution by natural selection. Charlotte Bathe strolls down memory lane with Professor Parker.

P

ARKER IS Professor of Plant Cytogenetics (the study of plant chromosomes) and Director of Cambridge University’s Botanic Garden, which was established at its present site by Henslow in 1831. Like Henslow, Parker lectures to students on plant biology. When Henslow began his lecture course in 1828 it was extra-curricular. Today, Parker’s lectures are part of the Natural Sciences degree, founded by Henslow and others in 1851. Parker owes his career to

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Henslow’s legacy. But is his theory about Henslow’s influence on Darwin based on anything more than admiration for his predecessor? I went to Cambridge to find out.

I met Professor Parker on a cold, misty morning. While we warmed up with a cup of coffee in the Botanic Garden’s Lodge, we discussed Henslow’s interest in the nature of species. This was a big question in the early nineteenth century. Like most of his contemporaries, Henslow was a creationist: he believed

that species are stable entities. But he was interested in the variation within species.

This can be seen in his large collection of herbarium sheets, which are now owned by the University.

Parker reached into a cardboard box and pulled out aged pieces of paper on which dried plant specimens have been arranged and meticulously labelled in Henslow’s spidery handwriting. Rather than displaying typical specimens of a species, Henslow collected several specimens from different locations and

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NEWS & EVENTS

The evolution of an idea 1825 1829–31

1831 1831–36 1859 1860

Henslow resigns the Chair of Mineralogy to take up the Chair of Botany Darwin attends Henslow’s five-week course of lectures on plant biology three times, paying a guinea (£1.05) for each course Henslow founds the Botanic Garden in Cambridge Darwin’s voyage on HMS Beagle, arranged

by Henslow, during which he visits the Galapagos Islands Darwin publishes On The Origin of Species Henslow chairs a debate between Bishop Wilberforce and Thomas Huxley in which Huxley defends Darwin’s theory of natural selection against the Bishop’s scorn

arranged them on his herbarium sheets to emphasise variations in height, flower colour, leaf shape, and so on.

In 1829, Henslow used his herbarium sheets to publish a Catalogue illustrating his understanding of species. In the same year, Darwin attended Henslow’s lectures and the Catalogue was the set text. Darwin absorbed Henslow’s ideas about the natural world and learnt from him techniques of observation and experiment. He spent so much time with his teacher that he became known ‘as the man who walks with Henslow’.

Parker believes that Henslow founded the Botanic Garden as “a living expression of his ideas”. As we walked in the Garden, peering through the mist at the trees, he showed me how their arrangement illustrates the same themes that characterise Henslow’s herbarium sheets. At one end of the Main Walk is a collection of pine trees.

A relatively unbranched Austrian variety with short needles and a closed crown is planted directly opposite an exuberantly-branching, long-needled and open crowned specimen from Spain.

Parker explained that the juxtaposition of these two trees “draws attention to their distinctiveness; to the fact that they

represent opposite extremes of variation within a single species”.

In another part of the Garden, three beech trees – a standard beech, a weeping form and a fern-leaved specimen – illustrate Henslow’s concept of ‘monstrosity’, meaning discontinuous variation within a species. The Garden also includes infertile hybrids and their parent plants, reflecting Henslow’s interest in the demarcation of species.

Remarkably, Henslow’s view is similar to the modern ‘biological species’ concept: members of a group of organisms that can interbreed to produce fertile offspring.

By the time these trees were planted in the Botanic Garden, Darwin was no longer a student at Cambridge, but Henslow introduced him to the same themes of variation, monstrosity and hybridisation. When Darwin embarked on HMS Beagle, he took with him this ‘Henslovian framework’. In the Galapagos Islands, the faithful student collected and labelled plant specimens for his teacher.

Henslow was interested in the plant life of the Canary Islands; he wanted to know whether island specimens are varieties of mainland species or are peculiar to the islands, in another word, endemic.

Darwin applied this question to the

Galapagos Islands.

But Darwin’s experiences in the Galapagos led him to reconfigure Henslow’s framework. For Henslow, Darwin’s finch specimens, collected from various islands but unfortunately not labelled as meticulously as his plant specimens, were simply varieties of the same species. But Darwin began to wonder whether they might actually be different species, evolved from a single ancestral species. Henslow believed that variety within species is stabilising, whereas Darwin recognised that variety implies mutability and so varieties could be incipient new species.

Parker’s theory is persuasive. If Henslow really did provide Darwin with the ‘mental architecture’ for his theory of evolution by natural selection, then breaking with his teacher’s concept of stable species must have been extremely difficult for Darwin. Some scholars speculate that Darwin’s mystery illness was brought on by worry and we know that he didn’t publish his great book, On the Origin of Species, until over 20 years after his voyage on the Beagle. Parker’s insight adds to our understanding of why Darwin struggled with his own theory of evolution for so long. ■

Left: The Botanic Garden, Cambridge University, as it stands today.

Inset: Professor John Parker and Henslow’s herbarium sheets.

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NEWS & EVENTS OPINIONS INTERVIEWS

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© Materials Library 2007

Modern art meets the sound of science

Materials scientists from King’s College talk about bringing science to Tate Modern – and beyond. Clare Ryan and Michelle Picard-Aitken were drawn into the conversation.

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ATE MODERN: vast space, white walls, red bricks, poured concrete floors, glass, escalators, views across the river, iPods. Wait, what was that last one? iPods?

Hmmm, they’re not really what spring to mind unless you’re talking bored teenagers listening to the Arctic Monkeys whilst staring blankly past a Tracey Emin. But take a closer look and you might be surprised at how many people are plugged in.

Chances are they are listening to What can the matter be?, a podcast tour of Tate Modern devised by a team from the Materials Library of King’s College London: Dr Mark Miodownik and Zoe Laughlin, in their roles as director and curator of the Materials Library, accompanied by design expert Martin Conreen. The result is an ambitious – and successful – attempt to explore the material nature of art from both scientific and sensory perspectives (see review, page 12).

Intrigued, we put down our iPods and tracked down Mark and Zoe. They agreed to share with us some thoughts and impressions on their experience of using their voices and expertise in bringing science to art.

The making of the podcast Mark: First of all, science is creative. The podcast was a performance – but actually a lot of lectures and conference talks are performances. The thing is, for those, you’re allowed to prepare. But Hannah Andrassy, our producer, wouldn’t let us write anything down…

you’re going to be saying about this thing. And Hannah wouldn’t let us drink coffee beforehand because it could make your voice different. Then you finally do it all perfectly, and just at the end, one of the cleaners would open the door and make a sound. And Hannah would say: “That was really good – can you just do it again?”.

Zoe: We got much better, didn’t we?

Mark: Well, we got slightly hysterical… Did you pick up on the fact that I wasn’t allowed to laugh or tell any jokes? It became this whole issue: why is the scientist typecast as serious?

Because I did tell a lot of jokes. They were cut out.

Zoe: They were just bad, Mark!

The team’s breezy camaraderie also comes across on the podcast, as does their shared enthusiasm for materials science.

Whereas Mark has a PhD in turbine jet engine alloys from Oxford, Zoe comes from a fine arts background. When Zoe knocked on his office door in February of 2005 – without an appointment – the two soon recognised they had a common curiosity and a need to push beyond the boundaries of their chosen disciplines. Mark, as head of the Materials Research Group at King’s College, is now supervising Zoe’s PhD project.

Zoe: We’d prepare but then put everything aside and start fresh.

We had to speak to her in the way we’d speak to the listener, as though she doesn’t know anything about it.

Mark: My freak-out was that, since I’m a scientist and recording something that’s going to be on a public website, the science has to be correct. And I’m not an expert in every aspect of materials science – how can you be? So I’m doing my research, and I’m pretty sure I’m right. But then we talk about it, and the words change…

Zoe: And just a turn of phrase can change the meaning.

Mark: It was very intimidating. You’re in the Tate at 8.30 in the morning, the cleaners are moving around you, you’re standing in front of a Picasso and you’re trying to remember what it is

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The road to materials science Zoe: I’d always been very interested in formal rigorous methodologies and the sciences – with the idea of problem solving as a creative endeavour common to both arts and the sciences. When I worked on specific projects, I always felt that the material and the concept of the material were intrinsic to it working or not working. It led me into investigations of my own.

Then I came across Mark!

Mark: At school, this guy had this ruler with the word ‘Shatterproof ’ on it. And one day, we proved that it wasn’t shatterproof. That was really the beginning of my testing of materials, of playing with the material world – and no one stopped me! But doing a materials science degree is quite unusual, that’s true. I didn’t want to do one very narrow subject at university – and one way to avoid that is to do materials science. You get to do physics, chemistry, you get to do maths, a bit of geology. It appealed to me – no culture, though! I was a bit annoyed about that. But now I’m fighting back!

Along with Martin Conreen, and the helpful sponsorship of the EPSRC, Mark and Zoe developed the podcast following the success of live demonstrations with materials they brought into the galleries at Tate Modern. But both the tour and the demonstrations are part of a bigger project centred on the Materials Library.

Aladdin’s cave Mark welcomes us into the bowels of King’s College. Down two flights of stairs, past concrete tunnels and several sets of doors, awaits the Materials Library.

The two rooms resemble a scientist’s cave of wonders. As you enter, a metal shelf displays small cubes and tuning forks made of dozens of different materials. Two ornate lime green fruit bowls sit next to a Geiger counter and jars filled with untold substances – fur, seeds, gravel, ethereal powders, and specks of white foam.

In the next room, neatly kept cabinets, drawers, and boxes promise further discoveries, while a long bench is covered by a veritable hodgepodge of objects. This is where Zoe, curator of the collection, ‘plays’ as she and the team brainstorm ideas for future exhibits and events.

Mark: It’s about awareness. Every city, every shop, every person’s house is a materials library. We’ve explicitly taken the materials out of their natural habitat and put them together, and that’s when you become aware of them.

Zoe: We’re looking at what a materials library can do that’s different from, for example, a reference library. This is much more about discovering something about the science through

the objects we’ve collected. People can look through the drawers and the cabinets, find things they’re interested in, and put them on the bench – it starts a conversation.

Mark: The philosophy is that material libraries become places in which these conversations can happen.

Zoe: Take the turning forks we’ve designed. You know what to do with a tuning fork, so instantly you’re playing, you’re experimenting. Ah, this one sounds different from that one! You probably guess that this one’s copper, this one’s brass. So what’s the difference between copper and brass? The object enables you to come back to the same question in a more engaging way, to access the science.

The library team are thus inspired by the ‘stuff of art’ – anything from wine glasses (which Zoe can shatter with sound), and nylon chain-mail, to Aerogel, which, at 99.8% air, is the lightest solid on earth.

This glass bowl contains uranium oxide. As such, it is radioactive, although only barely above background level.

It also fluoresces under UV light!

Mark found the bowl in an antique shop in Melbourne using a Geiger counter.

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So what’s next for the Materials Library team? They’re keeping the details to themselves, but their long-term goal is to open a British Materials Library, which – unlike their current collection – would be open to the public.

Mark: Right now, we’re working out the best way to do a materials library. Libraries have had thousands of years to evolve into a format we all recognise, and it works really well, but presumably they were a bit odd at first.

Zoe: We come across specific questions, so there is usually a specific purpose we’re collecting for – an exhibition, a project, an event to keep us focused. But equally, a crazy collector would be a fantastic thing to be for two years!

From bringing together the world’s most extraordinary materials to making podcasts about modern art, Mark, Zoe and Martin have already proven that science, art and materials make better friends than enemies. You can be sure of one thing: whatever they come up with next, it’s going to be fun! ■ To download the podcast – it’s free – go to: www.tate.org.uk/ modern/tours/materialslibrary. To find out more about the Materials Library, go to: www.materialslibrary.org.uk.

What can the matter be? – A review

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N WHAT can the matter be?, Dr Mark Miodownik, Zoe Laughlin and Martin Conreen enthusiastically bring materials science to Tate Modern in the form of a podcast tour. Over the course of 16 tracks, they dare to ask – and sometimes answer – questions such as: What does a painting sound like?

Can scientific insight inspire new associations and change the way we perceive art? And did Piero Manzoni really put his shit in a can and call it art?

The result is entertaining, enlightening and skilfully captures the listeners’ interest. And we’re not the only ones who think so; the public has also responded favourably, making it the No. 1 arts podcast in the UK in May, according to iTunes.

Thomas Thwaites, an interaction designer at the Royal College of Art, listened to podcast at Tate Modern.

“I liked the way in which it was quite personal and quite informal,” he commented. “It’s almost like they are standing next to you - you can really imagine them there leading you around the gallery.”

We asked Zoe and Mark what they thought about the success of the Tate Modern podcast, especially since their message is relayed through sound alone – the participants obviously aren’t allowed to touch or to handle the artworks.

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personable maths professor Marcus du Sautoy encourages the listener to crouch down next to four mirrored cubes to see them “shooting off into infinity”. The enthusiasm and the laid back feel of the track effortlessly get you looking at the art with a new perspective.

Says Zoe: “We knew that a mathematician couldn’t fail to have an opinion on the Minimalism room.

With the guests, we wanted to bring other voices in, from other disciplines of science.”

Perhaps the hardest task for the team was finding a balance between talking about materials science and relating it back to the art. For the most part they get this spot on, keeping the tracks short and entertaining.

Less successful in this is ‘Fast Forward’, which is supposedly based around Warhol’s Del Monte box, but is in fact about rapid prototyping technology – it’s described well, but it probably won’t appeal to Warhol lovers.

But the versatility of the podcast format gives you an easy way out: if you’re not enjoying a track, you can easily skip to the next one!

So if you have a spare hour or so, we recommend you whip out your iPod in full view of © Materials Library 2007 Tate Modernistas. Shrug off any disapproving looks – you know it’s not the Arctic Monkeys, it’s the sound of science! ■ under UV light

One of their biggest surprises was the number of the people who enjoyed the tour online. For Zoe, the podcast is also an “intimate experience” whether taken virtually or at Tate Modern – the tracks allow you to become personally engaged with the art.

Indeed, many tracks work well without the object – such as ‘What’s in the Can?’, in which Martin and Mark use a variety of scientific tools to determine if the can of Artist's Shit actually contains faeces. (We’re not saying – you’ll have to listen to the podcast to find out!)

Three of the tracks are narrated by guest scientists, each of whom explain what they liked about particular works of art. In ‘Serial Numbers’, the

Artist’s Shit

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Michel Caplain

Snow Patrol

Mont Blanc to stay white for a while longer, reports Colin Barras.

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“This study means only that these high elevation areas have not been affected by the current climate warming.

It does not mean that these areas will not be affected in the future.”

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O, OF course there is no room for complacency,” says Dr Christian Vincent.

His team of French and Swiss scientists has just completed a survey of glaciers on high Alpine peaks.

And the results are surprising. Glaciers above 4,200 metres are not melting in response to climate change. Not yet, that is.

Vincent’s research team, based at the French Centre National de la Récherche Scientifique (CNRS), examined Alpine maps dating from the beginning of the twentieth century. They focussed on two peaks above 4,200 metres: Mont Blanc and Dôme du Goûter. The maps provide a snapshot of the glaciers on those peaks as they were in 1905, and the team then used state-of-the-art Global Positioning Satellite technology to measure the size of the same glaciers today. The glaciers are as thick now as they were a hundred years ago.

Can topographic maps that pre-date the fall of the major European empires provide data of comparable accuracy to modern satellite technology? “The 1905 map scale is only 1 in 20,000,” admits Vincent. “But the quality is good.

I checked the accuracy on points free from ice.” In fact, those ice-free rocky areas on the map were plotted to within a few metres of their true positions assessed using satellite images – which is testimony to the precision of the early Alpine surveyors.

Victor Saunders, one of Britain’s leading climbers and a regular visitor to the Alps, is not surprised by the results. Mont Blanc and Dôme du Goûter are so high that the surrounding air is below freezing point. No rain falls here, and any snow

that falls can only add to glacial thickness.

“You would expect there to be little change in snow fall, and by implication in glacial thickness, providing the amount of precipitation remains the same,” Saunders says.

Vincent agrees that steady rates of snowfall are the key to stable glacial thickness. “Independent results prove that snow accumulation did not change significantly over the twentieth century,” he says. Those results come from a weather station at Chamonix, near Dôme du Goûter, which has been collecting weather readings for much of the twentieth century. That data shows precipitation rates have varied little over the course of several decades.

But Saunders wonders how significant the study is, at least for the Alps.

“Anecdotally, it is difficult to say if the glaciers are thinning above 4,200 metres, because there is not much in the Alps above that height,” he points out. High as the Alps are, most glaciers are below 4,200 metres and much more susceptible to climate change. Some of those glaciers, such as the Mer de Glace, have thinned by 120 metres or more during the twentieth century. The study may be more usefully applied to higher mountain chains.

Saunders has recently climbed in the Himalayas, where most mountain peaks are above 4,200 metres, and reports “little discernable change” in glacial thickness there.

Saunders is also quick to point out that the high Alpine glaciers are not immune from climate change. “In recent years, the freezing level on several summer days has risen above 4,200 metres,” he says, which leads to melting of even the high glaciers.

Vincent agrees: “This study means only that these high elevation areas have not been affected by the current climate warming. It does not mean that these areas will not be affected in the future.”

Hence Vincent’s warning against complacency. His study may be a rare good news story for environmentalists, but a small rise in temperature could quickly melt optimism. ■

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Feeling for the landscape What does art have to offer science? wonders Ceri Perkins as she talks with artists whose work responds to our changing environment.

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systems that is difficult to come by in the city. Her work consists mainly of large, abstract acrylic and mixed media paintings, which are built up slowly, almost meditatively, in layers.

“My work has historically been concerned with making responses to wild and remote locations, but defies conventional notions of landscape, in that it offers an equivalence for the experience, rather than a depiction of the landscape itself.”

Following a trip Jane Rushton to Greenland in 2000, Jane began to focus her work on acknowledging the fragility of the arctic environment. She started producing art that responded to an engagement with the landscape itself; the rocks, lichens and tundra, as well as the receding ice sheet and ice fjords.

In 2006, she travelled to Arctic Quiet magic Greenland with funding from the Arts Council to research and respond to Working from her studio in Lowgill, a two specific areas which have a special tiny hamlet on the Lancashire-Yorkshire resonance in the current climate debate. border, Jane is afforded the sort of The ice fjord at Ilulissat, the main calving dialogue with the land and weather glacier for the Greenland Ice Sheet, has recently shown increased rates of ice discharge, whilst further inland, at Nuuk, long abandoned 14th century Norse farmsteads provide evidence of an earlier period of climate change.

The Norse population died out at that time after suffering an extended series of bitterly cold winters and poor Jane Rushton sketching the ice fjords ONE ARE the days of polymaths, free to roam and ponder disciplines as diverse as astronomy, theology, fine art, anatomy and mathematics. As a result of the way our education system is structured and segmented, we tend to think of science and art as occupying opposite corners.

The scientist is concerned with the rational delineation of facts; the artist with creative interpretation and expression. While the scientist seeks to remove all trace of human preconception and reaction from his or her experiments, human emotional response is the very essence with which the artist works.

In reality, it is a fallacy to consider the world of science to be independent of emotional influence. We need only look at the ethical debate surrounding genetics to see that. Perhaps, then, art has a role to play in relaying contentious issues to a wider public? After all, art and science are essentially just different practices by which all of us attempt to make sense of the world around us.

Jane Rushton and Jon Ardern are two artists whose current work deals with one such contentious issue: climate change.

By very different practical means, both look to awaken in the viewer of their art a sense of immediacy – to make the problem tangible.

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– Icefjord II summers. That period of climate change is considered by scientists to have been ‘natural’, in contrast to the ‘anthropogenic’ version we are witnessing today.

The paintings Jane has produced in the wake of this trip evoke a sense of infinite space and complexity. The absence of fixed reference points on the canvas allows the viewer to become consumed by the piece, transporting them to distant locales. In giving an impression of what it is to exist within these elusive, shifting places, they prompt the viewer to contemplate the significance of our relationship with the planet.

These paintings are successful at communicating ideas about climate change because they impart a sense of uniqueness and frailty, and the inherent worth of the Arctic landscape. However, Jane maintains that her work is not intended to be didactic.

“While acknowledging the value of art that makes statements, and while, like the majority of thinking people, I have deep concerns about climate change, my practise is driven by art values rather than social or political ones.”

Despite this, there are strong and growing links with science in her work, not only at the level of the subject, but also in relation to process. She is currently developing a collaborative project with Lancaster University’s Dr Chris Halsall,

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which will involve joining him at the Ny Alesund research station on Svalbard, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean which lies midway between Norway and the North Pole.

At the research station, Chris will undertake fieldwork as part of International Polar Year. Jane and Chris intend to explore the similarities and differences between the artistic and scientific processes of data collection, experimentation, and interpretation.

Chris is very positive about the project.

“To examine environmental processes, the scientist will use an array of instruments to test and build a set of hypotheses; the artist on the other hand, can capture the whole experience via their manipulation of creative media.

Exploring common ground is an exciting opportunity.”

House of cards Addressing similar concerns – but from a different physical and intellectual space – is Hackney-based artist Jon Ardern.

A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Jon uses science, technology, economics and language to frame specific questions relating to the future of the planet.

It is tricky to pin down precisely what Jon’s work is. There are elements of performance, a website and physical artefacts, which all go towards making up the ‘Ark-inc.’ Collective. Ark-inc. might be best described as a superfiction; a visual concept or artwork which uses fiction and appropriation to mirror organisations and business structures.

As a ‘representative’ of the Ark-inc.

Collective, Jon gives presentations on

Prepare for the post-apocalyptic era: Ark-inc. radio, books

life in a post-apocalyptic era.

“If these things are going to happen out of our control, we need to start thinking about what constitutes an appropriate response. We need to become comfortable with living without resources, to learn new skills, and get ready to live it whilst we still have the luxury of being able to do it on our own terms.”

The project also includes a number of physical ‘touchpoints’, such as disaster holiday postcards, Ark-inc. books, and an Ark-inc. branded radio which plays a pre-recorded message, transmitted from nearby. The idea is that the artefacts, performance, and website act as entry points into the Ark-inc. world, and work together to become a convincing possibility.

Through his work, Jon hopes to direct people towards asking specific questions of themselves and society.

“The way our economy and infrastructure is arranged is like a house of cards. We’re demanding too much of our own planet, and we need to reconcile that.”

Jon is keen to portray Ark-inc. as an actuality, in order to transport people to another reality. His work is particularly Jon Ardern in a pensive moment... effective when the experience of the viewer is deeply immersive. their philosophies and activities, which “Film might be a more subtle way of are also described on their website. Both posing these questions, but people are so of these interfaces include films depicting practiced at interacting with that kind projections of a desolate future world, of material that it fails to strike a chord. and ‘promotion’ of ‘disaster tourism’ The type of design that I’m undertaking is holidays, which claim to give people the opportunity to experience and prepare for more raw. It isn’t a discrete narrative to be

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consumed; the boundaries are deliberately undefined between the project and reality.”

“People interpret ‘design’ as having real world implications, where often they see ‘art’ as just a creative exploration of ideas. If Ark-inc. comes across as a real world entity, then it exists and it can be experienced. It forces the viewer to interact with it in a genuine way. The idea is to suspend disbelief enough to prompt the viewer to think in different ways and appreciate the magnitude of what almost certainly lies ahead of us.”

“The solutions or adaptations I’m proposing through Ark-inc. aren’t necessarily ones that I would even advocate. But given time, ideas which may seem radical now might no longer seem extreme as our reality changes and our perceptions of it adapt.”

Emoting the future Both Jane’s and Jon’s work serves to illustrate, quite literally, some of the realities and predictions behind the climate change figures with which we are constantly bombarded. The ubiquity of news coverage on this subject means that we have become immune to the shock of the headlines. It may be time to address this issue in a holistic, integrated, and altogether emotional way.

The problem is man-made, and the future of the story is the unknown human cost: famine, flood, disease, and economic instability. These are all things that may be described with graphs and statistics.

But all are set to affect each and every one of us in a much more visceral way. A new generation of artists are seeking to involve us in the debate. Do not under-estimate the value of their contributions. ■ More information available online on www.janerushton.co.uk, www.jonardern. com, and www.ark-info.com.

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Molecules and Medicine Sir William Henry Perkin

Edward Wawrzynczak celebrates the medical achievements of Imperial scientists.

William Perkin was a precocious talent who studied at the Royal College of Chemistry. In 1856, at the age of 18, he discovered the first synthetic purple dye, which proved to have huge commercial value in the colouring of fabrics. Perkin’s success encouraged others to search for dyestuffs and drove the establishment of a new industry based on organic chemistry. By the time Perkin was knighted, fifty years later, some 2,000 artificial colours had been made, and synthetic chemistry was pushing in new directions. Chemical dyes proved valuable in identifying bacterial pathogens and in the development of the first man-made anti-microbial drugs.

The subsequent systematic synthesis of therapeutic drugs led to the growth of the modern pharmaceutical industry.

Alexander Fleming was a prize-winning medical student at St. Mary’s.

In 1906, he joined the Hospital as a bacteriologist and became a specialist in the pathology of sexually transmitted diseases. Fleming was interested in antiseptics and discovered lysozyme, an enzyme that dissolves bacteria, by studying his own nasal mucus. Most famously, in 1928, Fleming observed the antibacterial properties of a fungus that had incidentally contaminated one of his culture plates. Penicillium notatum was the initial source of penicillin, the first antibiotic, which turned into an important lifesaver during World War II and launched a new era in medicine. Sir Alexander shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Florey and Chain, who jointly pioneered the large-scale production of penicillin.

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Sir Alexander Fleming

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Derek Barton studied chemistry at Imperial College and later became the Professor of Organic Chemistry. In a theoretical paper published in 1950, Barton showed that organic molecules, such as steroids, could be assigned a preferred conformation which accounted for their physical and chemical properties. Understanding the relationship between shape and reactivity proved essential to the planning of organic synthesis and the analysis of reaction mechanisms.

Thinking in 3-D has been critical in working out the structure of natural products, in the invention of new drug analogues, and in structure-based drug design. For his work in developing the concept of conformation and its application in chemistry, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1969.

Prof Richard Rodney Porter

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Sir Derek Barton

Rod Porter was appointed the UK’s first professor of immunology at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in 1960. His work helped elucidate the structure of antibodies, the class of protective proteins in blood made by the immune system. It was known that each antibody bound to a unique range of molecules, yet antibodies as a whole were very similar in structure. Porter helped to explain the conundrum by identifying separate binding and non-binding regions of the antibody molecule. For this discovery, Porter received the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Knowledge of antibody structure later proved key to developing monoclonal antibodies as a new generation of biological therapies.

Ravinder Maini is Emeritus Professor of Rheumatology and Marc Feldmann is the Head of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology.

Together they identified an important mechanism in the pathology of rheumatoid arthritis and pioneered a new way to treat the disease.

The Kennedy team discovered that antibodies which neutralised TNF, a key signalling protein of the immune system, blocked the damaging inflammation seen in patients. Anti-TNF monoclonal antibodies are now a routine part of the treatment for patients with rheumatoid arthritis and other immune system disorders.

Feldmann and Maini were jointly awarded the prestigious Albert Lasker Medical Award for Clinical Medical Research in 2003.

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Lessons from the Lab: The AntiTNF Story Edward Wawrzynczak meets Professor Marc Feldmann to hear about his role in a key discovery that changed medicine.

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LAVING AWAY in the

lab late at night, trying to get some tricky procedure to work, you may well wonder if you’ll ever get any data. If you do, then it may still be hard to imagine your results will give a clear answer. Better still, your findings could prove useful. They might even make a big difference to your field.

Well, the good news is that it can happen.

Professor Marc Feldmann, currently the head of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, has been fortunate to see his research change people’s lives for the better. The story of Dr. Feldmann’s achievement – one of commitment, collaboration and commerce – has important lessons for biomedical research.

Studies Marc Feldmann started his career in Melbourne as a medical student. He did not find his first year in the clinic after

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graduating to be stimulating and chose to enter the lab instead. At the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, a powerhouse of immunology research, he succeeded in developing novel cell culture techniques to study the regulation of the immune system.

On coming to the UK as a postdoc, he joined the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Immunology Unit, where he used his expertise to explore the immunology of cancer. In the 1980s, he changed the focus of his research from cancer to autoimmune disease.

Dr.Feldmann explains why.

“In autoimmune disease we know the human body makes immune responses against its own body constituents. And, of course, that’s what one wants to do in

a cancer setting: to induce an immune response. If we understood more about the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, we would know more about how to use the immune system to help treat cancer.”

Feldmann chose rheumatoid arthritis – a classic autoimmune disease – for his study. Rheumatoid arthritis affects about 1% of the population, although women are three times more likely to develop the disease than men.

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“The state of patients with rheumatoid arthritis was pretty miserable.

Wheelchairs were cluttering up the clinics. There was a desparate need for new therapies.”

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Rheumatoid patients tend to be middleaged but the disease can strike at any age – there are more than 10,000 children in the UK with a juvenile form of arthritis.

Sufferers characteristically develop painful swelling of the joints in the hands, wrists, ankles, and feet.

“Since the technology we were using required human tissue, we needed one that was accessible. Joints affected by rheumatoid arthritis fitted the bill, as they lie just under the skin and biopsies are frequently taken..”

Healthy joints move smoothly because the synovial fluid lubricates the cartilage surfaces that slide against one another.

In rheumatoid arthritis, however, cells of the immune system invade the synovial membrane.

The abnormal build-up of white blood cells causes swelling of the joint, and the infiltrating cells release factors that make it look red and feel warm to the touch – the classic symptoms of inflammation.

What is normally a helpful response by the body – to repair tissue damaged by injury or infection – now harms healthy tissue.

As the disease progresses, inflammation destroys the cartilage and eats into the underlying bone. If left untreated, the disease leaves patients permanently deformed and disabled, and likely to die prematurely.

Feldmann switched labs to team up with academic rheumatologist Ravinder Maini at the Kennedy Institute. They set out to understand what was going wrong

in the inflamed joints of rheumatoid patients. Their hope was to find better types of treatment.

“At the time, in the early 1980s, the state of patients with rheumatoid arthritis was pretty miserable. Wheelchairs were cluttering up the clinics. There was a desperate need for new therapies.

Somehow, the clues about what was really

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important in the disease process hadn’t been assembled.”

Findings Feldmann and his co-workers applied novel genetic techniques to uncover the molecular basis of rheumatoid inflammation. Working with fresh cell cultures taken from patients’ joints, they measured the expression levels of a family of proteins called cytokines, which act as molecular messengers, scurrying between immune cells.

The team identified several cytokines likely to be driving the inflammation.

Next, they examined the role of the various cytokines by knocking them out, one at a time, and seeing what effect this had on inflammation. To do this, they turned to another recently developed technology: monoclonal antibodies.

When the body encounters a foreign molecule, the immune system makes antibodies that recognise and bind specifically to that molecule. Man-made monoclonal antibodies are especially useful because they can be produced with high specificity for a chosen target molecule.

Using anti-cytokine monoclonal antibodies, each able to bind and inactivate a specific cytokine, Feldmann and his colleagues found one that was especially important. Knocking out this cytokine, called TNF (tumour necrosis factor), blocked the inflammatory process in the cell cultures.

“That was the first breakthrough, an experiment done by a postdoc in my lab, Fionula Brennan, who is now a successful professor at Imperial. In a way, it was a surprise because we didn’t know at the time that pro-inflammatory cytokines aren’t all equivalent.”

“We now understand that TNF is one of the dominant ‘fire-alarms’ that the body uses for attracting attention – the ‘firefighter’ cells – to the site of the fire.”

The finding, published in The Lancet in 1989, was revolutionary because it implied that TNF acts as a kind of master switch, controlling a cascade of complex inflammatory events. As Feldmann recalls, it took some time before the importance of the paper was recognised.

“It was certainly heretical. A number of reviews that were published in the following year either totally ignored this paper or explained why this couldn’t possibly be right.”

But the Kennedy group went on to show that anti-TNF antibody also blocked inflammation and prevented joint damage in animal models of arthritis. The final proof – the one that really mattered – was to show that anti-TNF antibody would work in patients too.

In the early 1990s, a number of biotechnology companies had begun to produce anti-TNF antibodies as possible anti-inflammatory agents. Armed with the evidence from their laboratory, Feldmann and Maini persuaded a US biotechnology company to allow them

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“Biomedical research has come of age: we have tools for unravelling diseases and we have tools for making new therapeutics.”

to test its monoclonal antibody in rheumatoid patients.

The first clinical trial at the Charing Cross Hospital in 1992 involved a small number of patients for whom conventional drugs did not work.

Remarkably, the patients said that they felt better within hours of receiving the anti-TNF antibody, and their accounts were backed up by clinical measurements.

Further trials throughout the 1990s amply substantiated the findings of the original cell culture experiments, begun more than a decade earlier.

Rewards The unequivocal proof that blocking TNF could block inflammation in autoimmune disease had an important pay-off. There are now three antiTNF antibody products approved for rheumatoid arthritis and well over a million patients have been treated with these novel biological agents. This new class of medicines is also proving widely useful because TNF plays a central role in several other autoimmune diseases.

“The importance of all these discoveries is that it means biomedical research has come of age: we have tools for unravelling disease pathogenesis and we have tools for making new therapeutics.”

“Using these therapeutics effectively is not only giving much better outcomes, quality of life – and even survival – of patients, but also it’s telling us a lot about the disease processes.”

In 2003, Dr. Feldmann was awarded the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical

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Research, a significant recognition of his life’s work. The Lasker awards, often dubbed ‘America’s Nobels’ because many of its winners have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize, celebrate the highest accomplishments in medical science.

“Anti-TNF was the beginning of a major wave, revolution, movement – whatever you want to call it – and I am very pleased to have been able to contribute to a major change in medicine. It’s unusual that one’s research work ends up being as useful for the medical community as that.”

Lessons The TNF story emphasizes how a close interplay between bench science, clinical expertise, and commercial know-how is essential in bringing new medicines to patients. But success like this does not happen overnight. Professor Feldmann has some advice for budding biomedical researchers.

“I think the most important lesson from my experience is that it’s important in your career development to seriously consider what you enjoy doing.”

“Biomedicine has an almost limitless choice of career options so there’s really no justification for an intelligent young person to be working in an area that they have no wish to be in.”

“I’m not encouraging research for everybody but, if you actually think about the development of our planet and our culture, all progress is based on research.”

“So if you have an interest in the future, an interest in changing things, that’s the most fruitful way to go.” ■

Professor Marc Feldmann received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2007 European Inventor of the Year awards. He and Sir Ravinder Maini shared the 2000 Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy and the 2003 Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research.

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This won’t hurt...

Bone marrow donation – once a procedure involving long scary needles and anaesthesia – is now much simpler, as Elizabeth Gibney finds out.

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LTRUISM IS rare in the animal world, but we humans seem to excel at it. Defying Darwin’s laws of survival, some people will even donate cells from deep inside their bones to someone they will never meet, no less.

Thankfully, a new method for harvesting the life-saving cells of the bone marrow has transformed the entire process into a less invasive and less uncomfortable experience – no more than a lingering blood test. Today’s marrow-donating heroes need to be just a little less brave than they used to be.

Bone marrow is the spongy tissue inside the body’s long bones that produces blood cells. People with autoimmune diseases and certain cancers, such as leukaemia, lose the ability to produce the white blood cells that protect the body from disease and infection. The only remedy is to reboot the immune system by transplanting bone marrow cells from a suitable donor.

Precursor ‘stem’ cells taken from within the donor’s bone marrow reproduce within the recipient and form part of their new immune system. At the same time, the cancerous cells that have taken up residence in the patient are killed off.

The Anthony Nolan Trust runs the largest UK donor register and carries out research into making transplants more effective. Dr Paul Travers, deputy director of the Trust’s Research Institute, explains the traditional method of donation: “It involves an operation under general anaesthetic, where a needle is inserted into the long bones. It’s usually inserted through the pelvis and the bone marrow is physically extracted.”

Anything involving ‘needle’ and ‘through the pelvis’ is an image likely to deter potential donors. This method is still used in a minority of cases but it is rapidly being overtaken by a newer, less invasive method.

“You have to mobilise the stem cells,” explains Travers. “Donors get a five-day course of a hormone that releases the stem cells from the bone marrow into the circulation. When there are enough of them, they are collected. It’s simply like giving blood: you get a needle stuck in your arm, blood gets taken out, we remove the white cells, and then put the rest back into you.”

For added convenience, a nurse even comes to the donor’s house to give the injections. The procedure lasts just a few hours: “On the day, I went in about 9 o’clock and I think I was out by 3 or

4 o’clock” says Roz Partlett, a medical student who recently volunteered.

In fact, Partlett found the experience quite relaxing: “It was a nice environment.

I had a friend with me and there was a TV and they bring you tea and coffee and lunch. It was nice not to have to do anything!”

The donor’s bone marrow recovers naturally to replace the harvested stem cells in just 21 days. The minor sideeffects are no worse than having flu, and are outweighed by the huge benefits. “It was quite a nice feeling knowing that you’re possibly saving somebody’s life,” remarks Partlett.

Attracting donors should now be much easier, but a major problem still remains: finding donors whose cells are genetically close enough to the patient’s own cells so that they function without any adverse effects.

“What you are transplanting are the cells of the immune system itself,” explains Travers. “Normally when you do an organ transplant, you are worried about the patient rejecting the organ. But, in this case, it’s the transplanted cells that can sense the difference between the donor and the patient, and, if they do, they start to attack the patient’s cells.”

To minimise this risk, the donor must match the patient in six critical genes which encode the elements of the immune system that mark us as different from one another. The chances of two people having the same six genes are very low, even with siblings, and so the next best option is to look for a suitable donor – one who matches as many of the genes as possible – via a register.

Although the Anthony Nolan Trust register contains hundreds of thousands of potential donors, in any one year, only a few hundred of them match well enough to be asked to donate. The only way to increase the number of life-saving transplants is to increase the pool of donors.

Everything considered, bone marrow donation is just selfless, and it’s now as easy as taking the afternoon off. If you ask me, it sounds like a good opportunity to put your feet up and watch a bit of telly from the hospital bed, safe in the knowledge that you’re helping a fellow human being at the same time. ■ For more information, and to join the Anthony Nolan Trust register, see www. anthonynolan.org.uk.

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Messing about on the r Ceri Perkins gets down and dirty with Thames 21’s M

“Victor! Alright mate.

Dunno, 30? We need wellies, as many litter pickers as you can find, lots and lots of bin bags, and all the wheelbarrows we’ve got. And sling in some smalls in case any kids come down.”

Matthew is a man on a mission, but it’s not what you might at first expect.

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HAMES 21 is a small charity based on the banks of the Thames in the heart of the City. Working with local communities to bring London’s rivers and canals to life, they mobilise over 4,000 volunteers annually to help transform neglected stretches of waterway into safe, clean public spaces.

“Over the years, the role of the organisation has evolved. Originally, it was all about the water quality of the river Thames, with the work later expanding to incorporate canals and tributaries. But over the last 7 or 8 years, our focus has moved more towards social empowerment.”

River Programmes Coordinator Matthew Loveday believes that their approach provides a cheaper, more effective alternative to millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money being spent on government directives and faceless cleanup operations.

“We work on a proactive/reactive basis.

When someone comes to us wanting to improve their local stretch of river, we try to work quickly in order to maintain their enthusiasm, and to show them that they are able to do something for themselves.” In so doing, The charity aims to foster a sense of ownership amongst local communities, changing peoples’ perspectives of the environment in which they live .

The world's oceans are plagued by plastic; over 65% of dead marine birds are found with it in their stomach. Worse still is the plight of sea turtles that starve to

death after swallowing plastic bags which then expand in their stomachs, giving the illusion of fullness. It is easy to forget, in these times of concern over climate change and global terror threats, just how much havoc everyday litter continues to wreak.

The Thames, declared ‘biologically dead’ only 40 years ago, is now teaming with wildlife again. Despite this, people still use it as a dumping ground for unwanted waste, tonnes of which is carried out to sea each year. According to Matthew, the Greenwich bend looks like the scene of an environmental disaster.

“The geography of the river means that the water flows faster round the outside of the bend, and slower at the inside edge.

All the erosion occurs on the outside edge, and all the deposition on the inside edge, across from the National Maritime Museum. The number of plastic bags washed up there means that you can walk for about 300 metres without putting your feet on normal mud at any point.”

Thames 21 runs an annual five-day clean-up event focussing entirely on that one spot. “We’re getting there, but it takes time, and man-power. It’s like modern day archaeology; you’ve got today’s Tescos bags, and under those we find bags with the old design on… and deeper still we find bags from shops that don’t even exist anymore!”

I asked Matthew whether he finds it disheartening to know that, however much rubbish is cleared from the Thames, there will always be more on its way. “I guess it would be frustrating,

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e river!

1’s Matthew Loveday

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if our end goal as an organisation was to completely rid the Thames of litter, but it’s not. We’re looking towards something deeper than just physical improvement. I find some of the attitudes we encounter when we do our corporate work more disheartening.”

Regular corporate events are held in order to subsidise the funding the charity receives from the Environment Agency, the Port of London Authority and local councils. “Some people obviously don’t want to be there though. They’ve been told by their bosses that they’ve got to be there, but they can’t be bothered to muck in and help. It’s such a contrast to some of our regular community helpers who are there, come rain or shine, many of whom don’t even live near a stretch of river themselves. They just love getting stuck in and lending a hand.”

“Corporate Social Responsibility is a real buzz-phrase at the moment and a lot of people are very cynical towards it.

How can giving your staff half a day to help clean up a river possibly undo all the damage your company might have done by trading with unethical partners, for example? But the way I see it, it’s a step in the right direction, especially considering

NEWS & EVENTS

none of this happened ten years ago."

Thames 21 is careful to balance its corporate and community work, as being in a position to run clean-up events for the general public is essentially its raison d’être. After being approached by a member of the public about a specific stretch of water, the charity uses that person as a keystone within their local community. They help to publicise the event locally with leaflets, posters and mentions in the local press. On the day, the charity provides everything needed from wellies and gloves, to handwashing kits and insurance cover. “All the volunteers need to bring is some old clothes and a bit of enthusiasm.”

“The response we usually get is that people really enjoy themselves. The Thames is massive. It’s a defining part of our history, and of what used to be the greatest city on Earth. It’s dictated our trade, and the way that the city is shaped, but people can live here for tens of years and still never really be exposed to it.

Fine, they may cross it every day, but they don’t really get to connect with it; to feel it beneath their feet. One comment we get a lot is how refreshing it is to see all the landmarks; the Savoy, Big Ben, the London Eye, from a different vantage point. People suddenly find themselves able to view their city with fresh eyes.”

And what of the rubbish that’s collected? Unfortunately, degradation due to sunlight means that most of the plastic bags are no longer recyclable. However, all recovered metal is scrapped and the charity works with local artist Kevin Herlihy who, with the help of volunteers, fashions items such as shopping trolleys, hard hats and umbrellas into beautiful, striking sculptures at the water’s edge.

“We find allsorts” Matthew says, showing me the pock-holed bone base of a Victorian hairbrush that he’s currently using as a key-ring, “knuckle dusters, old clay pipes, a coffee machine! The weirdest thing I’ve ever found was a brown envelope stuffed with polaroids of naked men, back and front, from ribs to thigh!”

If you fancy getting involved, it couldn’t be easier. “We’d love for any Imperial students interested in the environmental, community or voluntary sector to get in touch. We’ve got paid positions as volunteer coordinators coming up, or students can just offer to help out at an event. It’s a grand day out, and a novel way to see the city whilst doing your bit for the environment.” ■ For more info see www.thames21.org.uk, or contact: matthew.loveday@thames21. org.uk.

“The number of plastic bags washed up there means that you can walk for about 300 metres without putting your feet on normal mud at any point.”

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Population reduction Nell Barrie proposes a new slogan: Reduce reproduction for a greener future!

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TOP! PUT down that bag of recycling. Forget the energy-saving lightbulbs. There’s a new way to be green. You can save an entire lifetime’s worth of CO2 by spending just 35p - on a condom. According to the Optimum Population Trust (OPT), the best way to save the planet is by having fewer children.

“The most effective personal climate change strategy is limiting the number of children one has,” says the OPT’s report A Population-Based Climate Strategy. “The only way you can have a zero footprint is by having a zero human being,” says the head of the organisation, David Nicholson-Lord. The report explains that each new UK citizen not born means a lifetime CO2 saving of nearly 750 tonnes. That’s a climate impact equivalent to 620 return flights between London and New York.

Now this may sound dangerously radical, but to me it makes perfect sense. Surely this strategy is simply the logical conclusion to the mantra ‘reduce, reuse, and recycle’? Fewer people means less waste and lower carbon emissions all round. But, predictably, some people disagree.

James Heartfield, a writer and head of think-tank Audacity, thinks the notion of reducing population devalues humans.

“Not wishing to be vile about it, but that was the policy that the Nazis argued when they occupied the Soviet Union in 1942,” he says. “More people are marvellous, I mean, six billion? I’d look forward to ten.”

“I think most other species would be better off if humans weren’t around.”

For others, reducing reproduction just doesn’t go far enough.

Les Knight, founder of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT, pronounced ‘vehement’) wants to not just reduce reproduction, but to put a stop to it altogether. “We have many options for helping to make the world a better place,” he says. “No matter what we choose, our efforts will have a better chance of success when there are fewer of us sharing available habitat. Thank you for not breeding.”

Now, aiming for the extinction of humans may be a little extreme, but I think I’d have to agree that most other species would be better off if humans weren’t around. We do so much damage to the environment, and it seems as though nobody wants to mention the elephant in the room – there are just too many of us.

It’s not just a case of looking out for other species either.

Limiting population could help the billions of humans who already exist. “In a world with too many humans, the quality of life is very poor,” says Nicholson-Lord. “Climate change is already killing 150,000 people a year according to the WHO. That’s partly an issue of population, so we’re saying that quality of life is the key issue. Therefore a world with the right number of people will have a higher quality of life, and that’s very pro-people.”

Les Knight also argues that VHEMT is pro-human.

“Humanity’s humanity will make a quantum advancement when we accept that other species have a right to exist regardless of their value to us as resources.”

Ultimately, the decision is yours. You can carry on recycling your cans and bottles, or you could save 750 tonnes of CO2 at a stroke, simply by deciding to have one child fewer. I think that’s a small price to pay for the future of the planet. ■

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So what do all of these

Innovation What’s in a name? Michelle Picard-Aitken dares to ask what innovation really means.

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HE CONTROVERSIAL webzine spiked (in association with pharma giant Pfizer) recently asked a wide selection of scientists and thinkers the following question: What’s the Greatest Innovation?

From calculus to X-rays, over a hundred innovations were proposed (including opinions from six Nobel laureates) leading to the obvious conclusion that there is no single greatest innovation. Rather, all innovative breakthroughs are great and wonderful things, and we should strive to increase their frequency and scope.

But is innovation all it’s cracked up to be? I’m all for encouraging creativity and original ideas but, in my view, our obsession with all things new and improved is causing us to lose sight of the true value of innovation.

Take the ghastly expression ‘new and improved’ for starters.

If something is really new, then how can it have already been improved? Yet we are so used to hearing those two words stuck together, we don’t question the phrase, or reason that it’s become overused – we’ve come to assume that newness equals goodness.

Claims of innovation have become clichéd.

“Innovation should be reserved for those pressing problems for which we don’t have any answers or solutions.”

This was one of the points raised at a panel discussion featuring three of the spiked survey respondents. More specifically, it was suggested that the concept of innovation was being diluted through overuse. To whit, I found recent claims that “pre-moistened wipes on a roll” were “the first major breakthrough in rolled toilet paper since it first appeared in bathrooms in 1890”; that the addition of cocoa extract is “the first major innovation to commercial toothpaste since manufacturers began adding fluoride”; that an umbrella-holder welded to an ordinary coat rack was a “new innovative design”.

Surely these are merely – if questionably – improvements, not innovations?

The problem here may lie with the definition of the term “innovation”. Put aside my silly examples for a moment, and consider instead gunpowder, racial cleansing and disposable

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items have in common? nappies. These are all innovations in the sense that they “translate new ideas into tangible societal impact” and are “the successful exploitation of new ideas” (two of the definitions listed by Wikipedia). Like other major innovations, these three new ideas were brought forward to solve a problem, to drive the economy, and to improve our quality of life – but at what societal, cultural and environmental cost?

And yet, every company prays for its disposable nappy, its iPod, its Viagra (which, incidentally, is Pfizer’s most renowned product). Countless universities, management experts and governments have created innovation centres and institutes and, as I write, are implementing and managing innovation strategies.

They can even measure the diffusion of their innovations!

Innovation has become an industry.

My point is not that innovation is undesirable, nor is it that we shouldn’t encourage or celebrate ideas and products that have made positive changes to the way we live, think and interact. I just don’t think innovation should be the objective in itself.

In other words, we need to be more critical about the value of, and the need for, innovations. Whatever happened to the maxim ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’? We need to expend less effort coming up with new things for the sake of newness (and profit), and instead build on the old ideas that work. Innovation should be reserved for those pressing problems for which we don’t have any answers or solutions. What problems, you may ask? Pick up today’s newspaper, and take your pick.

At the spiked discussion, a panellist from Pfizer expressed frustration, not that we are short on new ideas, but rather that too few of these ideas were being turned into products. My take on the problem is a rather different: the crux of the matter is that too few of our great and wonderful innovations are being turned into solutions. ■

Hybrid embryos Holly Else adds her voice to the debate on the legalisation of part-animal, part-human embryos created for stem cell research.

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CIENCE PUSHES forwards, discovers new truths and breaks boundaries. It usually lives in its own world with little intervention from society. But there is one field which is pushing backwards, not forwards, and breaking even more boundaries. It’s pushing back to the point of conception and the start of life itself. And all of a sudden, lots of people have lots to say about science.

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INTERVIEWS OPINIONS

NEWS & EVENTS

In May, the Department of Health published the draft Human Tissue and Embryos Bill. If passed, it will enable scientists to work on part-animal, part-human embryos for stem cell research. The procedure, which is illegal in many countries, uses the egg from a rabbit or a cow, removes its genetic information, and replaces it with the DNA from an adult human cell.

The consultation process has exposed a minefield of ethical and moral arguments. High on the list of those opposed to the move is concern over ‘dignity’. Critics believe that a scientist messing around with human and animal DNA somehow compromises the dignity of those few precious cells which have the ability to become a life. But what is dignity? Does it not come from who we are and the features we, as humans, have – our intellect or emotions, for example? Dignity is not calibrated by reference to other living creatures. Surely a horse is no less dignified because a mule exists?

I agree that it is not dignified to forcibly end human life.

However, for something to end, it must first have started. At what point does an embryo become a life – at conception, at the first heartbeat, or at birth even? If these embryos are partanimal, part-human can we even label them a ‘life’? The embryos used in stem cell research are extremely immature, under 14days old. Every day, millions of women around the world end human life in exactly these early stages when they take the contraceptive pill. We do not see this as killing, but instead as a medical intervention which improves our lives.

“If scientists took the time to understand, and address, the reasons why society has so much to say about mixing human and animal cells, they might be surprised at how quickly peoples’ opinions can change.”

So how far should this medical intervention go? Think about the life saving heart surgery which inserts pig heart valves into human hearts. A life has been saved, but is it ethically wrong because the patient is now part animal? Technically, anybody who has ever received a blood transfusion is a chimaera, an organism containing two genetically different types of cells in the same body. Our society deems these interventions acceptable, so why should we draw the line at culturing partanimal, part-human cells in test tubes? For people with degenerative neurological conditions, such as motor neuron disease, stem cell research is one of the few routes open to medical science for developing treatments.

We may still be on the fringes of understanding what this kind of research can do for medicine, but the financial implications of stem cell research are phenomenal. It can cost £10m to test just one drug in lengthy pre-clinical trials. By comparison, using part animal, part human embryos, scientists would be able to test 100,000 different drugs at just 2% of the cost. Using the harvested stem cells in research has the potential to give hope to patients and their families, and to save us money. So what is the big problem?

I believe the problem lies in the fact that the scientists involved live in a microscopic world. They spend their days looking down their microscopes, studying the molecular mechanisms of life. For them, the species barrier is lost in all the magnification; life is just a complex series of chemical reactions.

If they were to raise their heads from their eyepieces for just one moment, they might realise that many people don’t see things as they do through their lenses. To them, life is a whole lot more than just an instrument that can be used to cure disease.

The ethical issues surrounding stem cell science may never be resolved, they may simply be conditioned into normality, as often happens with controversial scientific breakthroughs. But if scientists took the time to understand, and address, the reasons why society has so much to say about mixing human and animal cells, they might be surprised at how quickly peoples’ opinions can change. I truly believe that, in the case of stem cell research, a more informed public will be a more supportive public. ■

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Kill or Cure?

Edward Wawrzynczak weighs up the pros and cons of the stem cell debate.

Stem Cell Wars: Inside Stories from the Frontline

by Eve Herold Palgrave Macmillan/  pages / isbn- 

Cell of Cells: The Global Race to Capture and Control the Stem Cell

by Cynthia Fox W W Norton & Co Ltd/  pages / isbn- 

I

F STEM cells are supposed to be the next big thing in medicine, why has research in the field provoked so much debate in recent years?

Improvements in sanitation, vaccination, and medication have all helped us to live longer but we face a mounting legacy of degenerative disease. So scientists are trying to develop stem cell therapies that could replace chronically damaged cells and regenerate healthy tissues and organs. And this is no idle hope since successful stem cell therapy already exists.

For several decades, doctors have treated patients with blood disorders by transplanting human bone marrow cells.

The adult bone marrow contains stem cells that persist in our bodies throughout life and continuously repopulate the blood with oxygen-carrying red cells and white cells, which provide immunity. Scientists are now increasingly characterising the stem cells that make and repair other parts of the body.

The challenge with so-called adult stem cells is that they are tough to identify, isolate, and propagate. Also, adult stem cells naturally give rise to a limited range of cell types. Embryonic stem cells, in contrast, are potentially able to generate any cell type in the adult body. Moreover, we know exactly where to find them. In the US alone, there are about 400,000 unused human embryos created by in vitro fertilization.

The relative merits of the uniquely powerful stem cells found only in embryos, on the one hand, and of the less potent adult stem cells, on the other, have formed part of the scientific debate. But the wider debate is about much more than science.

“Herold believes that what the anti-research activists lack in truthfulness and intellectual rigour they make up for in spit and venom.”

In Stem Cell Wars: Inside Stories from the Frontline, Eve Herold examines the impact of political and religious ideology.

As a front-line witness to tumultuous events in the US, where the Bush administration has strangled government funding of research on embryonic stem cells for most of this decade, she is

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well placed to describe the ongoing battles.

The conservative ‘pro-life’ lobby in the US has tried to equate embryo research with murder, and so to conflate it with the abortion issue, in line with its broader political objectives.

Herold believes that what the anti-research activists lack in truthfulness and intellectual rigour they make up for in spit and venom. And she backs up her case with numerous examples of cant and distortion.

The activists have sought to undermine the arguments in favour of embryonic stem cells by unjustly lauding the unproven results of experimental treatments in which patients were given adult stem cells. And they have tried to blur the important distinction between the intended use of embryonic stem cells to create therapeutic cell lines and the altogether scary idea of using embryos to clone foetuses as a source of spare-part organs.

Although Herold is clearly enthusiastic about the potential of stem cell therapy, she is also realistic in her evaluation of the challenges. Significant technical hurdles remain to be crossed.

We still understand little about how the body repairs itself, what kind of therapeutic cells would be the most effective, and how well they might work in the long term. Of course, we are not going to find any of this out without experimentation.

In Cell of Cells: The Global Race to Capture and Control the Stem Cell, Cynthia Fox adopts a journalistic approach. As the title suggest, she paints a broad picture of the stem cell field and what is at stake, with a purview that extends well beyond the US debate. She racks up the air miles travelling from the midWest to the East Coast, to the Middle and Far East, attending conferences, visiting institutions and talking with scientists.

On her journeys, Fox encounters all manner of different stem cell types. She relates the history of embryonic stem cells. She delves into the role of adult stem cells in bone marrow therapy, organ transplantation, and cardiac repair. And she touches on animal cloning, cosmetic surgery and underground clinics. Fox’s picture of stem cell research emerges as complicated, diverse, vibrant and messy science-in-themaking.

“Fox’s picture of stem cell research emerges as complicated, diverse, vibrant and messy science-in-the-making.”

The stance of the current US administration clearly hinders the ability of scientists to conduct responsible embryonic stem cell research and leaves the door open to private practices that may not conform to similarly high standards. As a pertinent example of the sort of thing that can go wrong, both Herold and Fox discuss the recent Korean stem cell scandal, which involved both fraudulent claims and unethical practices.

While the conduct of today’s stem cell research will perhaps be judged best by future generations, we can already draw some clear lessons. Stem Cell Wars lays out succinctly how minority interest groups can distort research findings and influence scientific funding. Whatever one’s ethical standpoint, it is easy to agree with Herold that that the US has, to date, abdicated its responsibility to take a leading role in the development of stem cell therapy.

But this is not the whole story by any means. Cell of Cells sprawls over the global, complex, and uncertain reality that forms the backdrop to modern-day regenerative medicine.

And one can go along with Fox when she concludes that no matter which group of scientists pulls ahead in the stem cell

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field, another group will be close behind, ready to overtake them. Set within the broad international context, the current stand-off in the US looks even more ludicrous.

There are lessons for science too. Herold points to the inherent differences between scientists, who are sceptical by training and tend to understatement, and the political activists, who are dogmatic by nature and prone to exaggeration.

Yet, as Fox shows, research is not constrained by national boundaries, and scientists neither speak with the same accent, nor with the same intent.

Unlike the focused single-issue activists, scientists do not speak with one voice. And this poses a dilemma for stem cell research.

Although it is essential and desirable that scientists should debate with one another in the open, the scientific community must – at the same time – send a clear, consistent, and realistic message to the public. Both basic research and clinical investigation share the objective of creating a reliable body of scientific understanding supporting safe and effective therapeutic cell treatments. Whether the route is to differentiate embryo-derived cells, or to reprogramme adult stem cells, or to follow some other as yet unimagined strategy, the overall aim is the same.

For so long as the public is unclear, however, why research on many fronts is necessary, how that research will add to our knowledge, and how that knowledge will be turned into new medicines, stem cell research is likely to remain a highly controversial topic. ■

Hello Dolly Tim King grapples with his DNA. The Rough Guide to Genes and Cloning

by Jess Buxton & Jon Turney Rough Guides/  pages / isbn- 

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ENES MATTER. We all live in a genetic jungle.

Within your hundred million million cells, many of the best genes, successfully tried and tested within your ancestors, reproduce themselves and organise your metabolism right now.

You probably know someone with an obvious mutation, and you may be frantically trying (or trying not) to pass your genes to the next generation.

Genes themselves, and their human dimension in particular, are admirably covered in the latest Rough Guide by two experienced science writers who have Imperial links: Dr Jess Buxton, genetics editor of BioNews.org.uk, and Jon Turney, the course leader for the MSc in Creative Non-Fiction Writing.

Don’t be put off by the title this Rough Guide is no textbook.

It has strong artistic and social

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dimensions. There are chapters on ‘Genes and Culture’, and genes ‘In Print and Online’. Written in a relaxed and userfriendly style, the book covers an extraordinary range of topics, largely – apart from brief forays into microbial life, GM crops, and evolution – from the human angle.

After an account of genes, chromosomes, DNA and how they all work, the authors deal with the genetic code, the effects of mutations on health, and medical genetics. Then they discuss genetic techniques and the cloning of DNA and whole organisms, before shifting the emphasis to the future – DNA in personalised medicine, stem cells, ethics, insurance, and criminal investigations.

Whether they are writing about basic genetics, genetic techniques, or the implications of the science for medicine or society, the authors enliven the text with thumbnail sketches of scientists. They relish controversy, discussing in a lengthy and sophisticated manner the ethical and moral implications of new discoveries and commercial opportunities. There are plenty of references to relevant websites, books, and films.

Rough Guides are made to be dipped into. The problem is that it is not always easy to dip into genetics; one cannot understand the complexities of, say, DNA fingerprinting in criminal investigations, without a grasp of the basic concepts. The authors could have made those iconic red boxes, such a valuable feature of the highly successful Rough Guides, more numerous and appropriately titled to make the text more accessible at any point. Nevertheless, there is a useful glossary and a very thorough index.

Genetics is impinging more and more on our everyday lives.

Any responsible citizen needs to know about eugenics and have a point of view about the ethics of human embryo research or gene therapy. The genetics job market is expanding and science is becoming more interdisciplinary.

Whether you are a biologist, an engineer, or a computer scientist, you need to understand this science, its history, uncertainties, implications, and possibilities. The Rough Guide to Genes and Cloning is a lively read and provides an accessible and comprehensive jumping-in, and jumping-off, point. ■

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Brrr...

Holly Else pulls on her woollies and travels to the South (Kensington that is).

Ice Station Antarctica Natural History Museum until  april 

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AVE YOU ever wondered what it would be like to work in Antarctica – counting penguins, diving under the ice, and camping in the snow? Many scientists dream of studying the unique and fragile ecosystem of this far-flung continent. But what is it actually like to live there? What would you eat? Where would you sleep? And, most importantly, is there any beer?

Ice Station Antarctica, an interactive exhibition at the Natural History Museum, answers these questions and takes you on an expedition, from Ice Cadet to Ice Graduate.

The expedition is led by Sanjit, a stern and pushy talking head who pops up on TV screens and posters throughout the exhibition. Sanjit is the Ice Station Commander who sets interactive tasks which test the skills needed to survive Antarctic life. He helps you to dress appropriately, teaches you to drive a skidoo, and shows you how to sift through penguin sick. My entrance ticket is interactive and, by scanning its barcode, I can keep track of my scores and then continue the adventure online, where there is a series of new challenges and the chance to be promoted to an Ice Officer. Exciting!

After an initial briefing from Sanjit, and a friendly reminder that polar bears don’t live in Antarctica, I am put into the freezer with the other Ice Cadets. It’s minus 10˚C inside, chilly, but a warm day by Antarctica’s standards. We spend a minute in the cold to test our ability to deal with the freezing temperatures.

We emerge into the midst of the exhibition, which is divided into giant white inflatable pods lit with blue light.

The pods house the different parts of the exhibition and the interactive games. The space between the pods is littered with safety barriers and wooden crates. Although I can see the look that the curators were hoping to achieve with this, the high ceiling and ornate character of the museum’s interior doesn’t

© Natural History Museum

quite allow them to pull it off. Whilst wandering around, I can’t help thinking it looks half finished.

For me, the most interesting part of the exhibition is a wooden cabin decked out like the inside of a research station. It shows where the scientists sleep and how they entertain themselves – board games, books, DVDs, and fancy dress parties if you were wondering – as well as how they cope with living in such isolated conditions for so long. A TV screen plays some insightful video diaries made by the researchers and support staff as they go about their daily duties at the station.

The Natural History Museum worked in partnership with the British Antarctic Survey to create the exhibition and, not surprisingly, it focuses on the work the Survey does. A little troublingly, the associate sponsor is Voyages of Discovery, a cruise company which takes hordes of tourists to visit Antarctica, yet the exhibition gives little explanation of the impact that tourism has on Antartica’s fragile ecosystem.

If you visit the exhibition hoping to understand some of the cutting edge science the British Antarctic Survey is doing, or to learn about the history of science on the continent, you will be disappointed. The exhibition is aimed at kids, after all. But if you have ever considered a career in Antarctic research, or are interested in what life is like for the people who work in this remote and beautiful place, then this exhibition will Chris Gilbert, British Antarctic Survey be an insightful and fun day out. ■

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FEATURES REVIEWS

INTERVIEWS OPINIONS

NEWS & EVENTS

Always look on the bright side James Urquhart reads about the unusual and dramatic origins of modern astronomy.

The Sun Kings: The Unexpected Tragedy of Richard Carrington and the Tale of How Modern Astronomy Began

by Stuart Clark Princeton University Press/  pages / isbn- 

G

IVEN ITS title, you might think that Stuart Clark’s latest addition to non-fiction tells a dramatic story of tribal rituals and Sun-god offerings. With poor Richard Carrington’s fate consigned to the sacrificial pyre, somehow, modern astronomy emerged from his ashes. As exciting as it all sounds, I am obliged to tell you that the book is not about that at all. However, it does have one thing in common with this ruse, and that is: drama.

The Sun Kings begins with a brief introduction to a solar flare that affected the Earth in 2003 and the lead character that caused it – the Sun. “Like a heart, the Sun pulsates,” writes Clark.

But rather than giving the impression that it is the light of life, allied to the cause of maintaining biological life on Earth, Clark gives us a glimpse of the Sun’s darker side.

The tumultuous, burning gas ball that is the Sun is plagued by massive explosions that we call solar flares and, luckily for Clark’s writing career, the Earth happens to get in the way of them from time to time. So begins this extraordinary account of one such massive cosmic event in 1859, observed and recorded by only one man, Richard Carrington. The ensuing magnetic storm bathed the Earth in a seething cloud of electrified gas and caused two-thirds of the planet to glow with a blood-red aurora.

The historical description of the extent and duration of this unusual aurora is a marvellous example of Clark’s readable writing style.

With a multitude of geographical co-ordinates and timings, it is easy, ironically, to lose your bearings within the text. But, with perseverance, you receive a real sense of what it must have been like for the Victorians to observe this rare phenomenon. It is from this kind of detail that one can grasp the effort Clark must have gone to in researching this story.

But this book is more than an account of solar explosions and magnetic storms. It is about the intrepid 19th century astronomers – the Sun Kings of the title- who were trying to unravel the mysteries of the Sun and its impact on Earth.

These scientists suggested that the Sun could influence the Earth on a massive scale, something that was deemed highly unlikely at the time. By opposing the consensus opinion, they faced ridicule for their ‘preposterous’ theories.

Richard Carrington was one of these mavericks, a well-educated man and an amateur astronomer.

His forebears and contemporaries had only noticed that sunspots wax

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and wane in number, whereas he decided to chart the position and the movement of every single sunspot over an eleven-year cycle.

It was whilst charting one day in 1859 that he found himself in the right place at the right time and saw one of these huge explosions actually taking place. The observation would change his life.

Carrington suffered a professional crisis that would virtually end his career. Then, a personal catastrophe struck which, like a sordid reality TV show (without revealing too much of course), involved him, his wife, and her lover, and ended in a murder, a suicide, and national scandal.

The fluidity of Clark’s writing complements his ability to fill his historical account with energy and life. There is information overload at times, which makes for difficult reading, perhaps an unavoidable result of the subject. However, despite this minor annoyance, Clark’s use of imagery, and the awe he inspires for these remarkable astronomers, more than compensates. There is no book I know of that provides the uninitiated with such a readable account of modern astronomy’s origins.

Sun-gods and sacrifices might sound dramatic, but having read beyond the title, this tale of solar flares and magnetic storms, intertwined with scientific biography and sticky ends, ultimately provides a suitably electrifying read. ■

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NEWS & EVENTS OPINIONS INTERVIEWS

REVIEWS FEATURES

Writing Royalty Did the winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books make Barbara Axt happy?

Stumbling on Happiness

by Daniel Gilbert HarperPerennial/  pages / isbn- 

“M

Y FRIENDS tell me that I have a tendency to point out problems without offering solutions, but they never tell me what I should do about it,” says Daniel Gilbert, psychology professor at Harvard University. Using neuroscience, psychology, and lots of scientific studies, he demonstrates that we are hopelessly incapable of predicting how happy (or unhappy) something will make us feel. We are no good, therefore, at planning our lives to make us happy.

Stumbling on Happiness, the winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books 2007, is an insightful compendium of anecdotes and examples (sometimes a few too many), graphs and tables (not very appealing or useful most of the time), and hundreds of comments in brackets (Daniel Gilbert really loves brackets!). It’s sold as laugh-out-loud funny science, but don’t you believe it. Expect instead an interesting and amusing read, useful for those readers who want to understand themselves better. The book is rich in American humour with lots of references to shops and habits from the US. These don’t affect the flow, although it is sometimes difficult not to lose your concentration and start wondering: How on Earth can Gilbert enjoy Starbucks coffee?

Gastronomic preferences aside, the author clearly defines concepts such as presentism – the tendency our brains have to judge how we’ll feel in a future situation based on the way we feel at the present. That’s why we are able to imagine being covered in purple paint and rolled in almonds (the kind of example you’ll find in the book) but we can’t imagine being

Best of the Rest Edward Wawrzynczak assesses the books that made the Science Book Prize shortlist.

hungry after having dinner or being happy if we’ve just faced a miserable break-up.

In an interview published at the end of the paperback edition, Dr. Gilbert explains that his goal is to open our eyes to some of the tricks our brains play on us whenever we think about the future. Like many first books, this one feels like listening to the author talking about his entire life’s work and involves him rambling through apparently unrelated topics that only end up making sense after several pages.

If, by then, you get the impression that Dr. Gilbert talks too much, you’re probably right. He mentions that, after reading the book, the wife of a colleague said: “This is just like having a conversation with Dan, except that you don’t get to talk back.” To which his colleague responded: “And how is that different from any conversation with Dan?” Working through Gilbert’s non-stop prose, which sounds natural and is easy to follow, we understand how our psychological ‘immune system’ protects us from big deceptions and disappointments but not from annoying little problems. It’s the scientific justification behind the famous advice Machiavelli gave the Italian prince on how to rule his people: “Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offence; benefits ought to be handed out drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more.”

Other counter-intuitive things you’ll learn from this book are that non-refundable purchases, a limited range of options to choose from, and the impossibility of changing your mind after making a decision will make you happier than refundable purchases, endless options, and the chance to chop and change.

When you finish reading the book you may feel that, for all these years, you’ve been looking for happiness in the wrong place, or at least in the wrong way. If so, what should you do about it?

The author provides some solutions that don’t sound very convincing, but from the beginning he has said he just wanted to show us how things – and how we ourselves – work. And this he achieves comprehensively over the length of the book. The way we’re going to deal with our own problems, however, is up to each one of us to figure out. Daniel Gilbert is good at pointing out questions, not answers, remember? ■

Lonesome George: The Life and Loves of the World’s Most Famous Tortoise, by Henry Nicholls (Macmillan) You will find everything you ever wanted to know about the iconic Galapagos tortoise, famous for being the last of his species, in this well-written book illustrated with helpful maps and photographs. The animal’s story, told against the broad perspective of conservation science and politics, comprises an attractive mix of biology, history and reportage. This is a very readable book that should appeal to a wide spectrum of readers.

HOMO BRITANNICUS: The Incredible Story of Human Life in Britain, by Chris Stringer (Allen Lane) This authoritative and lavishly illustrated book tells the story of mankind’s history in the British Isles. If fossils, skulls and flints turn you on, then this is the book for you. There is much as well about climate change and fluctuations in flora and fauna, and the history of archaeological research.

One in Three: A Son’s Journey into the Science and History of Cancer, by Adam Wishart (Profile) One in three of us will develop cancer during our lifetime.

The author takes us on a personal journey when his father is diagnosed with cancer. Along the way, we learn about the history of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and cancer genetics, as well as about novel approaches based on the latest science.

In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind, by Eric Kandel (W.W.Norton) The autobiography of the Nobel prize-winning neurobiologist who uncovered the mechanisms involved memory. Set within the wider context of historical and contemporary research, the science will set a biochemist’s pulse racing. The book gives a valuable insight into the twists and turns of a life in research.

The Rough Guide to Climate Change, by Robert Henson (Rough Guides) If you feel that listening to people talk about climate change is a bit like being in a foreign country, this Rough Guide could be the answer. Pulling together a mass of facts from a broad range of scientific studies relating to climate change, the author sets out the key challenges and the potential solutions to them. ■

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macmillanscience: big ideas, great stories, fine writing Out Now

“A truly thought-provoking and fascinating exploration of areas of science that aren’t fully understood, from dark matter to why so many people are fat.”

Brian Clegg, www.popularscience.co.uk

Hardback £14.99

Forthcoming in November 2007

Hardback £16.99

Hardback £14.99

Different Engines traces the way in which we’ve imagined the future, from how alien life has been imagined throughout the years to how science fiction foretold today’s major issues.

Jeff Gomez, Director of Internet Marketing for a major publishing company, answers the question of how the digital era will revolutionise the book, in dead tree format.

Available from all good bookshops, or direct from www.macmillanscience.com 31 Advert (M1).indd 30

6/9/07 16:31:31

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6/9/07 14:33:50