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Dangers of mobiles
Robot conducts first electronic wedding
Prof Yash
Pal
Trends
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Time to call it a day for all the unfounded hang-ups, says Steve Connor BEFORE Prof. Anthony Swerdlow began to explain the results of the understatement. “This is a long-running and complicated issue,” he warned.
Indeed it is, because what in effect scientists are trying to do in studying mobile phones and ill health is to prove a negative. They would like to reassure the public, if they can, that mobile phones pose no health risks, but they also know that it is scientifically impossible to say there are no risks attached to any one aspect of our daily lives. By the time Prof. Swerdlow began his explanation of the findings, a leak of the report had already resulted in newspaper headlines suggesting that half an hour a day on a mobile phone could increase the risk of brain cancer. Professor Swerdlow explained why this was not true and why one statistical aberration within the study—the biggest of its kind—might lead some people to believe there was a risk of getting a brain tumour if you used your mobile phone regularly each day. Over the past decade, there have been a couple of dozen studies looking at the health risk of mobile phones, in particular the risk of brain tumours. The vast majority have failed to establish an increased cancer risk, but one Swedish study did find a statistical association, which fell far short of linking cause and effect. Establishing the risk of something, especially when the risk is very small, can be exceptionally difficult. Brain tumours are very rare and even if mobile phones increased the risk significantly, the total number would increase by only a few cases nationally. Yet, there is no evidence that mobiles do increase the risk, there is no evidence that the total number of brain tumours is increasing, and there is no evidence that an increasing use of mobile phones leads to a raised risk of brain cancer—a “dose response” seen in all other causes of cancer. In short, there is nothing in this study showing that using mobile phones can lead to brain tumours. But, of course, this does not mean that science has answered the question we all want to know the answer to because this absence of evidence cannot yet be taken as evidence of absence. Unfortunately, for us to get the sort of near-definitive answer we require in a risk-averse world, there need to be further studies over longer periods of time, with children as well as adults. However, there must come a time when politicians—not scientists—decide that enough is enough, for the doubts over mobile phones to be put aside, and for public money to be spent on more important matters. — By arrangement with
The Independent |
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Robot conducts first electronic wedding
FLASHING eyes, plastic pigtails and a tinny voice are not necessarily what a bride and groom look for in their wedding master of ceremonies, unless Tomohiro Shibata and Satoko Inoue tied the knot yesterday under the watchful eye of a 1.5m android known as I-Fairy, in what the machine’s manufacturer, Kokoro, said was the first robot-led wedding in the world.
Wires led from the bottom of the robot, bolted to a chair in front of 50 guests at a rooftop restaurant in central Tokyo, to a black curtain a few metres away behind which a man crouched, using a computer to operate the electronic wedding conductor’s movement and utterances. The robot, wearing a wreath of bright flowers and speaking in a tinny voice, waved its arms as it asked the groom to “Please lift the bride’s veil”, before inviting the newly-weds to kiss. The happy couple chose this unique angle to their nuptials because they were keen to showcase an example of the new generation of androids. “This was a lot of fun,” Satoko Inoue, the 36-year-old bride who works at Kokoro, told the Associated Press. “I think that Japanese have a strong sense that robots are our friends. Those in the robot industry mostly understand this, but people mainly want robots near them that serve some purpose.” Her new husband, 42-year-old Tomohiro Shibata, a Professor of Robotics at the Japanese Nara Institute of Science and Technology, was a little more critical of the feminine android. “It would be nice if the robot was a bit more clever, but she is very good at expressing herself,” he said. Japanese manufacturers are increasingly trying to inject robots into everyday life. The University of Tokyo has already developed two baseball-playing robots, Honda has created a child-like android, and a robotic grocery-packer was unveiled in Kyoto last year. Kokoro, the Japanese firm which manufactures the I-Fairy, also produces humanoid robots which can laugh and smile, products which it hopes will “touch the hearts of the people”. The I-Fairy is only one of three in the world and retailing at around 6.3 million yen (£47,000), it may be a while yet before it joins cake and confetti as a regular wedding fixture. — By arrangement with The Independent |
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THIS UNIVERSE
Will human beings ever be successful in tracing the “end of the universe” scientifically?
I think so. As far as relatively close universe, our solar system is concerned, we can say with some certainty that in a few billion years it will be enveloped in an expanded fire ball of the red giant phase of the sun. That would be the end of most of what we recognise as our planet —but not the end of the universe. In fact, I do not know if the universe would ever “end”, in the sense that nothing would be left of it. But do not be disappointed by our inability to give exact predictions. There is time enough. We can chose from several different scenarios. I have read that due to the strong gravitational force of the Jupiter, several heavenly bodies in space, which were to hit the Earth, are attracted towards the Jupiter and hit its surface, thus creating large pits. Is this the possibility that one day the Jupiter will lose
its existence and the Earth would be more vulnerable to such attacks? Your worry is charming. The Jupiter is the grand master of the solar system. The reason it provides protection to inner planets like the Earth is because comets coming from the fringes of the solar system get diverted by its large gravitational field and often attracted to its surface. Yes, Jupiter must have been the target of innumerable comets. They do some surface damage but they also add to the mass of the Jupiter. In a chaotic situation if you are big, you get bigger by absorbing those that happen to pass by. No, the Jupiter is not likely to disappear. Also we should not consider as a perfect shield for planets like the Earth. The Earth and the inner planets have had their share of impacts. This is easily seen from the scars they, including the Moon, have on their surface. |
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Trends
MOSCOW: Six men from Russia, Europe and China are preparing to spend 520 days together in a sealed-off warren to take a simulated trip to Mars to test how long isolation would affect humans. On June 3, three Russians, an Italian-Colombian, a Frenchman and a Chinese man will be locked up in a set of cramped compartments as the record-breaking Mars500 simulated flight to the Red Planet gets underway to last until November 2011. NASA astronauts attach new room to space station
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: NASA astronauts attached a Russian docking and research module onto the International Space Station, bringing the $100 billion complex to near completion. The compartment, known as Rassvet—Russian for "dawn"—was delivered aboard shuttle Atlantis, which is making the third-to-last flight of the shuttle program. House panel probes personal genetic tests
WASHINGTON: A House of Representatives committee is investigating personal genetic testing kits after one company attempted to sell its test through retailers, lawmakers said on Wednesday. The House Energy and Commerce Committee asked 23andMe Inc, Navigenics Inc and Pathway Genomics Corp to provide information including details on the tests' accuracy and how the companies analyse results. — Reuters |
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BEFORE Prof. Anthony Swerdlow began to explain the results of the understatement. “This is a long-running and complicated issue,” he warned.
Indeed it is, because what in effect scientists are trying to do in studying mobile phones and ill health is to prove a negative. They would like to reassure the public, if they can, that mobile phones pose no health risks, but they also know that it is scientifically impossible to say there are no risks attached to any one aspect of our daily lives.
NASA astronauts attach new room to space station
