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| SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY |
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Don't put money before
science Prof Yash
Pal This Universe Computer that can read human
faces Trends 10 autism clusters in
California Antarctica's first
plane’s relics Human Genome anthrax drug |
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Don't put money before science Thousands
of scientists and academics, including six Nobel laureates and a former government chief scientist, today condemn plans to change the rules The scholars are concerned that making university research more accountable to the wider economy will stifle the sort of curiosity-driven research that has led to groundbreaking discoveries and Nobel prizes. More than 18,000 academics have signed a petition condemning the proposed changes. They include Nobel prize winners Sir Tim Hunt, Sir John Walker, Sir Harold Kroto and Professor Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, as well as leading scientists such as Professor Richard Dawkins, Professor Steven Rose and Professor Steve Jones. In a separate poll of nearly 600 university professors, two-thirds said that they oppose funding changes that would force 25 per cent of future research to be assessed on economic impacts rather than scientific excellence alone. A third said they would consider moving to another country if the changes came into effect and half said that the proposals would change the way they hired or fired staff in their departments. The changes are being orchestrated by the Higher Education Funding Council for England under a government initiative to make public funding for scientific research more relevant to the wider economy and society. The council says the new “research excellence framework”, which will replace the current research assessment exercise, aims to develop and sustain “a dynamic and internationally competitive research sector that makes a major contribution to economic prosperity, national well-being and the expansion and dissemination of knowledge”. The council said: “Significant additional recognition will be given where researchers build on excellent research to deliver demonstrable benefits to the economy, society, public policy, culture and quality of life.” Scientists believe this additional restriction on what gets funded will suffocate the sort of blue-sky, curiosity-driven research that has produced some of the greatest scientific breakthroughs in the history of British science, from the discovery of the DNA double helix to the invention of the computer protocol behind the world wide web. “Virtually every major scientific discovery ever made would not have survived the current proposals with the emphasis on economic impact,” insisted Professor Donald Braben, the honorary professor of earth sciences at University College London. Lord May of Oxford, a former government chief scientific adviser, said the proposed change to research funding was “profoundly misconceived” because it is primarily for industry and not for government to be thinking of ways of gaining economic benefit from science. Robert Kirby-Harris, chief executive of the Institute of Physics, said that research that was purely curiosity-driven, with no immediate practical or economic benefit in sight, often turned out to be extremely important in the long run to society and the economy. “History shows us that in many cases it is basic research, undertaken purely out of curiosity to understand more about our world, that has delivered revolutionary breakthroughs,” Dr Kirby-Harris said. “X-rays, lasers and semiconductors n technologies widely used in every aspect of our lives n all stem from discoveries made through fundamental research, undertaken without any immediate application in mind.” Sir Tim Hunt, one of six Nobel Prize winners to sign the petition, said: “The impact guidelines will discourage academics from making discoveries and will encourage people to come up with unoriginal research proposals. The whole idea of research is to find out things you didn’t know before. The fruits of basic research are unpredictable and to seek to control them in this way is not in the interests of the country.” The petition was organised by the University and College Union. Sally Hunt, the union’s general secretary, asked: “Where are the next generation of Albert Einsteins going to come from if we seek to control research in this way? It is wrong to try and measure projects purely on their economic potential.”
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This Universe When
we watch the universe from the space, a lot of planets including those known to be orbiting the sun, seem to be hanging about without any pivot or force. Why don't they tend to collide with the sun or run away from the sun? What makes the
planets stick to the same route and maintain the same distance mutually? No object in space is just hanging. We cannot even define a fame with respect to which things are at rest. I have a feeling that when we use the word hanging, we seem to imply that there is an up and a down. There is nothing of that kind. We could consider a frame in which the cosmic microwave radiation is completely isotropic. That is tough to do. There is another thing we have to keep in mind. Even our galaxy is rather empty. Distances between stars are huge. Stars do move with respect to each other but their distances are so large that these movements are not easily detected. They look fixed. Coming back to the impression that stars and planets might hit each other because they seem to move randomly, no motions are utterly random. Many of the motions are in predetermined directions, modulated by the gravitational interactions of material en route. What will be the colour of sky if there is no atmosphere? What we call our sky, with its blue colour, is nothing but the light scattered by air molecules. This implies, therefore, that in the absence of an atmosphere the sky would be dark, except for stars and planets dotting that darkness. That is what space telescopes see - also the astronauts who are not looking earthward. Readers wanting to ask Prof Yash Pal a question can e-mail him at palyash.pal@gmail.com
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Computer that can read human faces Scientists
have programmed computers to read human expressions and to tell whether one is in pain. “Each facial expression is made up of many different components - a twitch of the mouth here, a widening of the eyes there — some lasting only a fraction of a second,” said Simon Lucey of Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). “Our computer program looks at these components, matches them against a list drawn up by expert psychologists and decides what expression just flitted across a face,” said Lucey, a computer scientist. It turns out that most human expressions are the same, regardless of background. And, as anyone who has been naughty knows, it’s also very hard to fake an expression. While a guilty person might fool a human with their look of pure innocence, it is very hard to fool Lucey’s computer. The system uses a technique called machine learning. After being programmed with what to look for and what it means, each observation taken or analysis performed is used to refine the computer’s technique so it gets better at its assigned task over time. Lucey’s system uses a webcam and will work against any background, provided there is enough light. “Our expression work is still mostly from front-on, but we’re teaching the system to do what we do and recognise expressions when only one side of the face is visible.” One of the applications for Lucey’s research is in detecting whether someone who cannot communicate is in pain and how intense that pain is, said a CSIRO release. Another is in making ‘telecollaboration’ between people using video and computers in different locations more natural by recognizing gestures such as someone pointing at an
object. — IANS
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Trends CAIRO: Two 2,500-year-old tombs discovered at a necropolis near Cairo promise to reveal more about ancient Egypt's middle class, Egypt's chief archaeologist said on Tuesday. Dating from the 26th dynasty, which ruled Egypt from about 664 BC to 525 BC, the tombs were found near the entrance to the archaeological site at the Saqqara burial ground, 30 km (20 miles) south of Cairo.
10 autism clusters in California
CHICAGO: U.S. researchers have identified 10 locations in California that have double the rates of autism found in surrounding areas, and these clusters were located in neighborhoods with high concentrations of white, highly educated parents. Researchers at the University of California Davis had hoped to uncover pockets of autism that might reveal clues about triggers in the environment that could explain rising rates of autism, which affects as many as one in 110 U.S. children..
Antarctica's first plane’s relics
CAPE DENISON, Antarctica: An Antarctic expedition has found what it believes to be remains of the first aeroplane brought to the frozen continent, on an icy shore near where it was abandoned almost a century ago. Australia has searched for many years for the old single-propeller Vickers plane at Cape Denison, where the nation's most famous polar explorer, Douglas Mawson, abandoned it after it proved to be a failure during his 1911-14 expedition.
Human Genome anthrax drug
SILVER SPRING, Maryland: Animal data suggests a proposed Human Genome Sciences Inc drug may help people exposed to anthrax but more study is needed to show the treatment adds benefit beyond antibiotics alone, a US advisory panel said. The Food and Drug Administration did not ask the panel for a recommendation on whether it should approve the company's bid for approval for treating anthrax
infection. — Reuters
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