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Issue 292                                                                                                  15-21 August 2014
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In This Issue
NZ Science Week
Science Radar
Naked Science
Hand sanitisers
Quoted
Ebola screening
Policy news
Friday video
New from the SMC
Sciblogs highlights
Sci-tech events

Quick Links

Calendar

 

Media Registration  



 
Gearing up for World Science Week NZ

The Scientists are coming! As many as 2,000 experts in all sorts of fields will begin arriving in Auckland from next weekend as they gather for a collection of high-level science conferences.

 

Many of the events fall under the banner of World Science Week New Zealand, with public lectures planned throughout the week. 

Elsewhere, scientists will gather to discuss everything from the latest Antarctic research findings, to science policy advice to governments. 

 

The International Council for Science will cap things off with its general assembly bringing together representatives from the world's scientific bodies.

 

The events represent valuable opportunities for journalists to meet and interview senior scientists from around the world. Contact the SMC to get a full schedule of events and a list of media contacts for arranging interviews in the run-up to and during World Science Week New Zealand.

The SMCs from New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Japan and Canada will hold their own summit during the week, which will provide an invaluable opportunity to plan for collaboration across the network - and to hear from representatives of prospective SMCs that are looking to get off the ground. 

 

We are also involved in a number of science communication events during the week including...

 

Negotiating science communication minefields

Curtis Brainard

The founders of the Science Media Centres in the UK, Australia and New Zealand - Fiona Fox OBE, Dr Susannah Eliott and Peter Griffin, will recount working on some of the most controversial science-related stories of the last decade in an event hosted by the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand. Register here.

 

Workshop on science blogging

Scientific American blogs editor Curtis Brainard will host a workshop on science blogging, identifying what works in a science blog and the opportunities for New Zealand bloggers to get international exposure. He will be joined by Sciblogs editor Peter Griffin and science blogger Dr Souxsie Wiles.

 

The workshop is free and aimed at scientists who are interested in getting into blogging or taking their writing to the next level. Workshop limited to 30 participants - apply here.

 

Media 101 for Antarctic researchers

Emerging scientists from around the world will take part in a workshop hosted by the SMC's Peter Griffin and Dacia Herbulock and offering advice on working with the media to communicate their science.

On the science radar this week...

Ticking clocks boost baby-making urges, real-life 'tractor beam' invented, dolphins get ahead of themselves, bizarre butterfly-head dinos unearthed, and its a wrap for Egyptian history - or is it?
Naked Scientists feature NZ research

Around a dozen scientists from Auckland and Wellington had their science stripped down to the bare essentials when they took part in the Naked Scientists live shows last week.

 

Virologist and science broadcaster Dr Chris Smith anchored the shows along with Radio New Zealand's This Way Up host Simon Morton as part of a collaboration supported by AUT University, the Royal Society of New Zealand and the Science Media Centre.

 

Chris and Simon kept a diverse group of scientists on their toes as they drilled down into the research projects, many of which came to life in a series of demonstrations in front of the live audiences. Radio New Zealand broadcast the Auckland show live last Saturday as well as streaming a video feed of the event. Audio from both shows will now be broadcast on the BBC and Australia's ABC.

 

The live show attracted a sold-out audience of around 400 people at Wellington's Paramount Theatre, illustrating the public appetite for science-related events in the capital. The various parties involved are now looking at a repeat performance of the Naked Scientists Live next year, with Dr Smith hugely impressed with the reception and the breadth and quality of science underway in New Zealand.

Dr Chris Smith (left) and Simon Morton at Naked Scientists Live

Mastering the podcast

 

The Cambridge-based founder of the weekly Naked Scientists podcast, which has been downloaded around 40 million times since 2001, also hosted science podcasting workshops in conjunction with the SMC, which saw 50 scientists and science communicators in Auckland and Wellington learn the ins and outs of what makes for a successful science podcast.

 

Participants learned how to come up with a format and style for a podcast, the technology involved and the crucial art of marketing, as well as receiving free copies of Podcasting Made Easy by Auckland podcasting consultant Steve Hart.

Sanitised hands don't stop sick days

 

Compared to good hand washing practice, using hand sanitisers does not reduce school sick leave in children, suggests New Zealand-led research published in PLOS Medicine this week. 

 

The study, led by Associate Professor Patricia Priest and colleagues from the University of Otago, involved almost 2,500 pupils at 68 primary schools in Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill.

 

As part of the study, the scientists split the schools into two experimental groups, and gave all the pupils in both groups a 30-minute lesson on hand-washing. The first group of schools then carried on as normal, while the second group had hand sanitisers installed in classrooms and the pupils were told to use them after coughing or sneezing and before they left the classroom for break or lunch.


After two terms, the researchers found that the schools with hand sanitisers did not have fewer absences due to a specific illness (respiratory or gastrointestinal). Additionally, the presence or absence of sanitisers did not affect the length of illness and length of absence from school, or the number of episodes in which at least one other family member became ill. 

 

"The provision of hand sanitisers in addition to usual hand hygiene in primary schools in New Zealand did not prevent disease of severity sufficient to cause school absence," the authors noted in the research paper. This suggests that using hand sanitisers is not as critical to preventing illness as previously thought.

 

However, they also point out that the results may have been skewed by the fact that the study was carried out during the 2009 flu pandemic, a time at which public health messages about general hygiene may have promoted more heavily than usual.

 

The study has been covered widely in global media. Read selected coverage on the SMC website.

Quoted:  Radio New Zealand

 

''It's not the politicians that are the problem, it's the bloody bureaucrats... [they] can find a dozen reasons for not doing anything, but none for actually doing the things that could save lives.''

Former medical director of the Cancer Society, Dr Peter Dady, discussing bowel cancer screening and trans-Tasman differences in cancer rates
Ebola screening at NZ airports 

Despite this week's announcement that airports will be screening travellers for symptoms of ebola virus disease (EVD), experts are not concerned that the disease could reach New Zealand.

 

As the outbreak of the disease continues to grow in West Africa, efforts to ensure the virus doesn't spread internationally have been stepped up.

 

This week the Ministry of Health website noted that the risk of infected individuals reaching New Zealand was low but stated:

 

"... travellers arriving in New Zealand who in the last three weeks have visited West African countries affected by the Ebola viral disease outbreak will be screened for symptoms of the disease and where necessary receive a health assessment."

 

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the latest estimates of the death toll for the current outbreak sit at 1069.

 

Experts contacted by the SMC for comment on the development agreed the risk was minor:

 

Dr David Hayman, Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Public Health, Massey University, said:

 

"The risk to New Zealanders is likely to be extremely low. The virus currently requires close contact for transmission, which is why healthcare workers in West Africa have unfortunately been affected. If cases began to occur in countries with closer ties to W. Africa and New Zealand, such as in Britain, there may be greater risk to New Zealand. However, in nations with well-developed healthcare infrastructure it should be possible to contain the virus."

 

Prof John Crump, McKinlay Professor of Global Health, University of Otago, commented:

"Today 500 people will die of typhoid fever and 3,000 from malaria worldwide and many more will be sickened. It is important that we keep ebola virus disease in perspective with other global infectious diseases problems."

 

You can read further expert commentary on the Science Media Centre website

 

Unproven drugs deemed ethical

 

This week the WHO also examined the possibility of using unregistered treatments on patients suffering from EVD, concluding that, under the circumstances, such actions may be ethical.

 

There is currently no established vaccine or drug treatment for EVD, however antibody based treatment Zmapp, which is produced using genetically modified tobacco plants, has shown some potential in animal trials.

 

On Wednesday (NZT) an ethical panel convened by the WHO reached a consensus that is ethical to offer unproven interventions such as ZMapp -- with as yet unknown human efficacy and adverse effects -- as a potential treatment or prevention. The panel also noted that there is a 'moral obligation' to collect and share all data generated.

 

A full public report from the WHO ethical panel will be released this weekend.

Policy news and developments

 

Cleaning up contamination - The Government is injecting almost $5million into a new initiative that identifies and ranks priority sites for clean-up, as part of its contaminated sites remediation programme.

Government expands national parks - The Mount Aspiring, Paparoa and Westland Tai Poutini National Parks have been expanded by 1250 hectares to aid wildlife conservation and improve the area's natural beauty and tourism.

New growth grants to boost R&D in NZ - Research and Development (R&D) Growth Grants, expected to be worth more than $41m over three years, have been approved for 23 high-tech companies.

The Friday video...

 Tiny 'collective thinking' robots swarm together
New From the SMC

 

Ebola screening: New Zealand experts provide comment on  airport screening for ebola virus disease announced this week.


In the news:

Hand sanitiser: New Zealand research questioning the efficacy of hand sanitiser in schools has garnered global media attention.

  

Shark tracking: Just in time for 'Shark Week', DoC and NIWA report on research tracking the private lives of sharks.

 
 
Sciblogs highlights

 

Some of the highlights from this week's Sciblogs posts:

Can we sleep more efficiently? - Karyn O'Keeffe asks whether napping can help us get more bang for our bucks.
Sleep on it

Wake up and smell the coffee (before it's too late) - Gareth Renowden looks at how coffee could become extinct if we don't act to conserve it in the wild.
Hot Topic

AI, robotics, and the future of jobs - How much will robotics affect our working lives and the job market, asks Robert Hickson.
Ariadne

Breakfast TV touting pseudoscientific adrenal fatigue - Michael Edmonds isn't convinced by the idea that poorly working adrenal glands cause chronic tiredness.
Molecular Matters

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Research highlights 
Some of the research papers making headlines this week.

Little Blues synchronize feeding: New Zealand's Little Blue penguin, or Kororā, prefer feeding in groups, according to new research. The researchers tracked them to their remote feeding grounds and saw that most penguins foraged for food together, sometimes even synchronising their dives, which suggests the penguins work together in 'rounding up' fish for easier catching.
PLOS ONE
 
'Backpacker' genome best for extreme survival: The Antarctic midge has been found to have the smallest insect genome ever, which scientists suggest is because of the harsh environment it has adapted to live in. While it still has the same number of working genes, it doesn't have the extra genetic material other insects carry. The scientists aren't sure exactly how losing the 'excess baggage' helps the midge but they say it could be related to how some diseases are linked to having extra DNA, so having a 'bare bones' genome may be beneficial.
Nature Communications

How ebola beats the immune system: As the West African ebola outbreak continues to grow, scientists have published new research explaining how the deadly virus disarms the immune system. According the study, a protein released by the virus called VP24 blocks immune triggering signals from activating cells to launch an antiviral counter-assult. The authors say their findings have important implications for the development of new antiviral drugs for the disease.
Cell Host & Microbe

Feeling dead tired? It might just kill you: Seniors are more likely to commit suicide if they don't get enough sleep, according to new research. The study is the first of its kind to look at this relationship independently of depression and found that getting consistently poor sleep when aged 65+ can increase the risk of suicide even 10 years later.
JAMA Psychiatry
Upcoming sci-tech events  
For these and other upcoming events, and more details about them, visit the SMC's Events Calendar
  • World Science Week New Zealand - 25 August to 3 September. Details here.