IN NEWS THIS WEEK:
HIMALAYAN FORESTS QUIETLY VANISHINGThe bio-diversity rich forests in the Indian Himalaya region are disappearing so fast that by 2100, researchers predict the area will have lost almost half its forests. The team from India say large-scale conservation efforts are urgently needed to avoid the disappearance of native animals and plants from the region including tigers, black bears and leopards. However, to make matters more confusing, official statistics from the Indian government imply that forest cover will rise rather than fall, which could have severe repercussions. Pages 20-21
WAKING UP TO CHRONIC FATIGUEIt affects around one in every 1000 people in the UK, and yet chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is still under-funded and misunderstood. But a meeting of CFS experts last week could change all that. A team in London looked at the gene expression of 47,000 genes in people with CFS and in a group of people without the disease. They found about 100 genes which were expressed differently between the CFS patients and the controls. And most of these abnormally expressed genes were involved in the immune system. The team's work could herald a treatment based on immune system therapy, and a diagnostic test. Pages 10-11
HOW OUR BODY'S DEFENCES AID COMPUTERSScientists are using the body's immune system as a model to design a similar system for protecting computer networks against viruses and hackers. The software, designed by computer scientists in the UK, mimics dendritic cells which pick up distress signals in the body when cells die. The team's alternative model scours the computer network for danger signals such as error messages and if these signals increase, an alarm is sounded. Page 32
BABY TRUMAN SHOWNo, it's not the latest reality TV series, but a project designed to capture a stream of experiences, on an unprecedented scale, from a newborn baby right up to his third birthday. Researchers from the MIT media lab in the US have installed a network of microphones and cameras to record a baby for 14 hours a day, 365 days a year, in an attempt to unravel how the environment affects how a child learns to talk. And the team leader has so much faith in the project, he volunteered his own family. Page 17
WELCOME TO SUN CITY, PERUA spooky coincidence? The capital of the sun-worshipping Inca civilization was Cuzco, in modern-day Peru. Five hundred years later, a team of New Zealand-based researchers armed with the latest satellite data has established that the spot on Earth blistered by the highest UV levels is"¦ you've guessed it, Cuzco. Page 6
PIGEON-BRAINED BIRDS THINK IN LOGARITHMSIt may have you totally confused, but when it comes to logarithms, the pigeon is no bird-brain. Experiments by a researcher in Canada show that the way pigeons tap levers conforms to a logarithmic model. These means they might perceive both time and number on a logarithmic scale. Page 23
FEATURES:
REDESIGNING LIFESynthetic biologists, or bio-hackers, get their kicks from taking microbes apart and putting them together in novel ways. Genes and proteins are plugged together as the components or biobricks, while a bacterial cell is regarded as the "chassis" , and used as a circuit board. It may not pervade our lives as much as personal computing, but synthetic biology's first world-changing application may not be far off. Bill Gates is pouring millions into synthetic biology on a quest to defeat malaria. Pages 43-47
JUST A GAME?With around 30 million people around the world playing virtual games every week, it's no surprise that crime is now beginning to spill over from the virtual world into the real world. There is no real law enforcement inside these games, which have led players to set up their own alternatives. For example, you can ask the virtual Mafia to "sort out" any problems with your virtual enemies. But games companies are starting to accept that some policing of the games is necessary and have started testing punishment such as virtual jail, banishment, and even crucifixion to those who break the rules. Pages 38-42
THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING IGUANAResearchers have evidence to show that the Galapagos marine iguana changes its size from one year to the next " the first vertebrate found to demonstrate this. The iguanas seem to shrink with the weather, losing bone mass when food is scarce and regrowing when food becomes plentiful again. Their work could help researchers at NASA and those studying osteoporosis. Pages 48-49
HEAD 'EM OFF AT THE PASTAccording to a physicist at the University of Hawaii, the door to time travel could be anywhere and everywhere in our universe. He says there are possible short cuts through high-dimensional space, which could make time travel possible. And unlike other contenders for time machines, including wormhole tunnels and black holes, his theory can be tested here on Earth. Pages 34-37
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