There has been a buzz around “convergence” in media for some time, but here’s a new meaning. Participants at the recent World Conference of Science Journalists in Melbourne included the Canadian Broadcasting Corp’s Bob McDonald, of highly regarded Quirks and Quarks. Also there was Robyn Williams, host of the highly regarded “The Science Show” on the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Each program, as it happens, has been on the air for 32 years. Dunno which is the higher regarded one. Each is way up there anyway.

The two hosts joined forces and took each other’s chairs for two weekends running. The results went on both networks. This wasn’t a clever way for each to get a day off — each sat in with his visiting guest host. Williams introduced McDonald to a slew of Australian researchers, which the latter interviewed; in the do-si-do show, McDonald shoved a passel of Canadian-based scientists before Williams’s microphone and leaned back. Something like that. In pics, McDonald on the left.

Take a listen, eh, mate?:

April 21 ABC The Science Show with CBC’s McDonald doing the interviewing (Williams, a Brit, explains that some of the local profs also have non-Aussie accents — a result, he explained, of science being “the most international pursuit outside of sport and espionage”.) McDonald interviews on huge jellyfish, warming oceans, the viral tumor-bedeviled Tasmanian devils, a marsupial lion, the Wollemi pine, and Australian agriculture.

April 28 CBC Quirks and Quarks with ABC’s Williams talking with experts on Albertan dinos, the fix in which polar bears are finding themselves, disappearing Canadian glaciers, Newfie fossils, and a surrogate Mars in the Arctic.

PS: Had The Tracker wits, the int’l conference would have been a good opportunity to link to anybody blogging from the place. Anybody do it, have an archive to which to link now?)

-CP

This site had word not long ago of a study that concludes abstinence-only sex-ed classes don’t make a whit of difference in when or how often teens get closer than they are supposedly supposed to. But advocates of such sex-ed strategies have their own data saying yes it does so work.

In the May 7 issue of Newsweek Sharon Begley takes that study, and a broad class of others, to riff on the difference between studies well-designed to get true results, and those well-designed (consciously or not) to get the results one truly wants.

It’s not all about chastity pledges and such. She explains pretty well why it is that, in her other instance, a plasticizer chemical has toxic effects on animals in many studies but never, so far, in any designed by industry. (One word hint: protocol).

-CP

See Also: Earlier Post Apr 16 Wires, Dailies: Abstinence programs do it: abstain from any impact at all, it seems ;

The Globe‘s Gareth Cook has a nice profile of how scientific surmise turns from maverick notion into, perhaps, rigorous research protocol. For the Monday science section he reviews the logic of a Harvard prof. who thinks one sensible way to look for life on Mars is with PCR — the polymerase chain reaction technique that only works on terrestrial-type DNA.

While it has some detail in here, the story’s main attraction is that it invites anybody, with or without much understanding of cellular biology, to debate the merits of an underlying issue. Which is: the chance that life on Mars may, in fact, very closely resemble it here. Just because it may have an independent origin and hence maybe contain no DNA or DNA so alien it won’t respond to PCR’s reagents doesn’t mean don’t try, the Harvard guy figures. Plus, rocks going back and forth as impact debris could have cross-fertilized the two planets.

And, no The Tracker cannot explain the weird image — maybe that scary movie alien didn’t need Sigourney/Ripley after all? To be clear, it is off the web. It is NOT the illus with Cook’s piece.

Rest of Globe Science Section Here.

-CP

Here’s a tiny story, about a nursery owner in Mesa, AZ, who found the bones of a native camel — now extinct — while planting some citrus trees. (The Tracker, whose family grows lemons, wants to know: what kind of citrus, Mr. reporter?).

The East Valley Tribune‘s Christian Richardson has the tale. It includes an Arizona State University source who IDs the bones. Nice quote from the man planting the tree, too: “I was quite shocked to see a camel down there.,” One wonders whether the shock came upon the discovery, or upon the museum curator’s arrival to label it. And in a nice touch, we learn that the nurseryman’s citrus-storage grounds are destined to be covered in Wal-Mart.

The pic may not be the right species but it is extinct — Camelops hesternus from the La Brea tar pits.

-CP

Observers from the Earthwatch Institute tell the BBC’s Richard Black that grey whales arriving at breeding grounds along Baja California in Mexico are thin. Some look nearly fat-free. One finds no hint whether this is the product of a careful scientific survey, or is impression. The main source, however, is an academic at the University of British Columbia, so could be. The reason is not clear. Weather, as from the El Nino cycle, or longterm climate change are suspects. So is the possibility, it says here, that the whales have reached their peak sustainable population and are eating the seafloor’s cupboard bare. Thus it could be a sort of good news. The beeb ran the terrific photo, from AP.

-CP

Writer Mark Rice-Oxley has in the Christian Science Monitor here a story well-constructed to draw in even readers who don’t spend a lot of time worrying over conservation issues. It concerns a Boston winner of the Japan Prize – worth a lot of money. He’s a British-born, Harvard scientist and former director of Boston’s Arnold Arboretum. His specialty is Asian forests where, he tells Rice-Oxley, if a tract of trees is not specifically protected by law and by force, it is cut down. The lead paragraph is simply about lunch, and what he and his wife might do with the money. There is tension on that point. Then it picks up on the science and protection issues in Asian forestry. Nicely done.

-CP

Rest of Monitor Science Section Here;

Other highlights include Robert C. Cowen on the secrets of concrete; and Ben Arnoldy on gas stations that are fossil-free, Mark Clayton on signs that China may, after all, get on board with a serious effort to curb its greenhouse gas emissions.

This year sees the fourth rendition of reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Media interest is easily far more intense this time around — suggesting an immediacy to its importance that was lacking before. And while the big splash have already occurred with its summary of the science and of the impacts now and upcoming, the news continues.

On Friday the NYTimes‘s Andrew C. Revkin reported on a leaked, draft copy of the next, mitigation chapter. It calls, it says here, for a significant acceleration of ways to curb greenhouse gases. A few million Priuses and the present installation pace of wind turbines and solar panels won’t do the trick, it appears. The formal report is due out on Friday in Bangkok.

Today the AP‘s Michael Casey continues in the same vein, focussing on grumbling from the US and China that the IPCC’s prescription is for medicine too strong too swallow. And on Saturday, the AP‘s Charles J. Hanley  reported on fretting from some quarters that a tough successor won’t be ready on time to take the reins from the Kyoto Protocol. The latter expires in 2012. Its relatively mild requirements will not have been met.

Other IPCC stories:

Reuters David Fogarty; BBC Roger Harrabin; Bloomberg Alex Morales; Observer via Guardian (UK) Amelia Hill, Juliette Jowit, Robin Mckie;

Speaking of mild requirements, several outlets have Al Gore nailing a “fraud” label on the conservative Canandian government’s latest, published plan for reducing its CO2 and other greenhouse gas emanations. The pols in charge here disagree, natch.

Stories:

Globe and Mail Simon Tuck calls the Gore-Ottawa engagement of war of words; AP (no byline); CP via London (Ontario) Free Press Allison Jones reports Gore has the opposition on his side; CP Mike de Souza via National Post on the Tory’s rejection of “knee-jerk” celebrity critics, such as Gore. The environment minister tutted Gore for hypocrisy — having pulled in his own horns in the 90s as the US veep;

Other Climate Change policy news:

AP Matt Crenson, as have others recently, reports on worry that climate change is a threat to national and international security.

-CP

The AP‘s Malcolm Ritter has an engaging and useful summary of the rising exploitation of natural orifices for entry to and surgical extraction of organs. Spinal surgery through the nose, abdominal surgery through the vagina, etc.

Less than two weeks ago the NYTimes ran a somewhat similar piece. This one is a fresh effort, with several different examples, but covers similar ground and serves the same general purpose. It illustrates that many surgeons, as has been so since they were using chipped stones for scalpels, are rather clever.

-CP

See also: Earlier post Apr. 20: NYTimes: The latest in ’scopic surgery – entry through the mouth, rear end, birth canal…. ;

Grist for the Mill: WebSurg announcement of Operation Anubis, in France. A video animation of transvaginal procedure can be seen, for the moment, here.

Honolulu Advetiser – Sean Hao: Genetically modified crops rooted in funding ;

Honolulu Advertiser – Jan TenBruggencate: White-tailed eagle a most unusual visitor to Kaua’i ;

LA Times – Thomas H. Maugh II: Rats’ virus holds clues to Type 1 diabetes ;

NY Times – Don Sherman: On the Road, Hope for a Zero-Pollution Car ;

NY Times – Andrew C. Revkin: Carbon-Neutral Is Hip, but Is It Green? ;

Seattle Times – Robert McClure: Spotted owl plan in jeapardy;

Washington Post – Marc Kauffman: Modern Man, Neanderthals Seen as Kindred Spirits;

Results of massive studies published in Science and Nature Genetics let loose a cascade of new information about the genetic underpinnings of Diabetes Type 2, the so-called adult-onset disease that afflicts more than 200 million people worldwide. Several clusters of new genetic variants have been identified. AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard says the method of the research “promises to usher in a new era of genetics.” In what they call “genome-wide association” studies, researchers tested the DNA of more than 32,000 people in five countries. Reuters‘ Will Dunham quotes a Harvard researcher who describes the findings as “totally surprising.” In Joe Palca’s report for NPR, one researcher said they found an active marker in a stretch of DNA that does not even include a gene.

-JDC

The mother of all global warming catastrophes 55 million years ago was set off by the mother of all volcanic eruptions, a massive fissure that separated Greenland from Europe, forming the North Atlantic. That’s the way a team of U.S. and European scientists is accounting for an episode known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum in this week’s journal Science. Studying material in Greenland and Europe, they have nailed down the timing of the PETM with the volcanoes. Just how these eruptions triggered the blowup of atmospheric greenhouse gases is still unclear, and here accounts get a little fuzzy. The LA Times‘ Alan Zarembo and Reuters’ Julie Steenhuysen say the researchers favor the idea that carbon dioxide was released from the volcanic “cooking” of carbon-rich land sediments. Writing for Discovery News, Larry O’Hanlon quotes a UC Santa Cruz researcher who argues that the ocean warming let loose methane hydrates from the ocean floor that led to runaway warming.

Grist for the mill: Oregon State press release

-JDC

The climate change story continues to spread itself all over the paper. Most newsy, perhaps, are reports out of southern California about an unusually early and virulent outbreak of a coastal algal bloom of toxic domoic acid that is killing large numbers of marine mammals and birds. Amanda Covarrubias in the LA Times and Zeke Barlow in the Ventura County Star describe the concerns of overwhelmed wildlife rescue people from San Diego to San Francisco. Neither mention global warming, although the unusually warm ocean temperatures are an 800-pound gorilla in the room. Last week, state health officials issued their annual mussel quarantine nearly two weeks early because of abnormally high levels of domoic acid detected in shellfish.

Other stories:

Andrew Revkin in the NY Times describes the latest draft report from the IPCC that says efforts to curb greenhouse gases in the next two or three decades will set the climate stage for years to come. Also in the Times, John Broder and Marjorie Connelly give a Washington Bureau treatment to the latest NYTimes/CBS News poll showing rising U.S. public concern over global warming. From Sydney, Reuters’ Michael Perry describes a National Academy of Sciences study about how warming ocean temperatures are causing shallow-water fish to grow faster (and deepwater fish to grow slower). From Beijing, Reuters’ Emma Graham-Harrison gets a pithy description from Britain’s John Ashton of the implications of Australia’s drought on world food prices. From Stanford University, Chris Bowman of the Sacramento Bee describes British Petroleum’s CEO John Browne’s call for an “international climate agency” to curb global warming. NASW president Robert Lee Hotz, formerly of the LA Times, makes a spectacularly interesting debut as science columnist for the Wall Street Journal with a Darwinian story about how urban leafcutter ants are adapting to a warming climate faster than their country cousins. Read it if you can.

Grist for the mill: International Bird Rescue Center press release

-JDC