11/13 Fri News Monitoring

環境・エネルギー：７件（うち、１件はDOE/USDAによるバイオ燃料開発プロジェクトの採択）
ライフサイエンス：５件
ナノテク：１件
科学技術政策：３件

Environment & Energy

Pollution's Toll on the Brain (Sci Am, Nov. 09)
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=pollutions-toll-on-the-brain
It is common knowledge that substances exhaled by autos and coal plants are harmful to our respiratory system. What may be surprising is the degree to which they may harm the brain—in some instances, as much as exposure to lead. A recent string of studies from all over the world suggests that common air pollutants such as black carbon, particulate matter and ozone can negatively affect vocabulary, reaction times and even overall intelligence.

Temperature Records: More Highs than Lows (Washington Post, Nov 12th)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/12/AR2009111208751.html
According to a new study, between Jan. 1, 2000 and Sept. 30, this year the continental United States set 291,237 record highs and 142,420 record lows at various locations. In other words, record high temperatures are occurring more than twice as often as record lows according to this research by scientists at NCAR, the Weather Channel, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Results are being published in Geophysical Research Letters.

Record Highs Far Outpace Record Lows (NSF, Nov. 12th) [this is the same news as reported above in the Washington Post]
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=115905&org=NSF&from=news
Spurred by a warming climate, daily record high temperatures occurred twice as often as record lows over the last decade across the continental United States, new research shows. The ratio of record highs to lows is likely to increase dramatically in coming decades if emissions of greenhouse gases continue to climb.

Physicists Firm on Climat Change (Nature blog, Nov. 12th)
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/policy/
The American Physical Society (APS) has overwhelmingly rejected a petition by a group of physicists asking the organization to reverse its position on climate change. The petition, which was signed by 160 physicists, essentially said that there has been a lot of natural variation in climate change over the past centuries, and that natural variation can explain the recent rise in global temperatures. The statement also pointed out what it calls the "beneficial effects of increased levels of carbon dioxide for both plants and animals." ... More interesting, John Mashey, a computer scientist and APS member, has done a thorough analysis of who signed the petition. He found that signers tend to be predominately older and big contributors to the Republican and Libertarian parties. More interestingly the supporters seem to be centered around the Northeast, particularly Princeton University's department...

DOE and USDA Select Projects for more than $24 million in Biomass R&D Grants (DOE news site, Nov. 12th)
http://www.energy.gov/news2009/8283.htm
The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy today announced projects selected for more than $24 million in grants to research and develop technologies to produce biofuels, bioenergy and high-value biobased products. Of the $24.4 million announced today, DOE plans to invest up to $4.9 million with USDA contributing up to $19.5 million. Projects selected must contribute a minimum of 20 percent of matching funds for R&D projects and 50 percent of matching funds for demonstration projects. Funding is provided through USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and DOE’s Biomass Program. Selected projects are aimed at increasing the availability of alternative fuels and biobased products that are produced from a diverse group of renewable sources of biomass.

What's Ahead, Week of Nov. 16 (U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources homepage, Nov. 13th)
http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=69b84995-e485-4592-a4b3-03269e517428&Month=11&Year=2009
On Tuesday, Nov. 17, the full committee will explore the international aspects of global climate change. Witnesses include...

Gloomy Energy Reports Set Stage for Climate Talks (NY Times, Nov. 11) [this is an international report by IEA, not a U.S. report]
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/business/energy-environment/11oil.html?ref=scienceAs the world heads for tough negotiations over a global climate deal next month, the International Energy Association reported on Tuesday that current energy policies were not sustainable, and that a vast transformation of energy use was required to fend off the worst consequences of global warming. The warning was contained in the annual World Energy Outlook, a 698-page publication that focuses this year on policies needed to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide. “Continuing on today’s energy path, without any change in government policy, would mean rapidly increasing dependence on fossil fuels, with alarming consequences for climate change and energy security,” the agency said.


Health & Life Sciences

Global Impact of America's Health Care Reform (Harvard Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs, Nov. 7th)
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/19686/global_impact_of_americas_healthcare_debate.html?breadcrumb=%2Findex
President Barack Obama's proposals for reforming the financing of American health care are meeting strong opposition from fiscally conservative Democrats as well as from Republicans, owing to their potential impact on future fiscal deficits. Because those deficits are the primary cause of America's current-account deficit - and thus of global imbalances - the health-care debate's outcome will affect governments and investors around the world.

Google, Yahoo call for Expanded Online Drug Ads (USA Today, Nov. 12th)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2009-11-12-google-yahoo-drug-ads_N.htm
Google, Yahoo and other Web companies joined the pharmaceutical industry Thursday in urging U.S. government regulators to make it easier to sell drugs in online advertisements. The companies have complained that the FDA guidelines for traditional media — which require detailed lists of risks and side effects — have left them hamstrung on the Web. Drug makers spent more than $4.3 billion on patient-targeted advertisements last year, though online marketing represented about 3% of that amount. Industry says that its limited online marketing presence represents a lost opportunity for search engines, given strong demand for online medical information. The FDA has agreed to consider developing specific rules for online ads.

FDA Says It May Ban Alcoholic Drinks with Caffeine (NY Times, Nov. 13th)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/14/health/policy/14fda.html?ref=science
Top federal food regulators threatened today to ban caffeinated alcoholic drinks unless their makers quickly proved that the beverages were safe. The drinks, which combine malt liquor or other spirits with caffeine and fruit juices at alcohol concentrations up to about 10 percent, have become increasingly popular among college students. In a news conference, Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, the FDA's principal deputy commissioner, said consumption was associated with increased risk of serious injury, drunken driving, sexual assault and other dangerous behavior. The F.D.A.’s action was prompted by a letter from 19 state attorneys general, who wrote to the agency expressing concern about the products’ safety.

New CDC Estimates say Swine Flu Worse than Thought in U.S. (Science INsider, Nov. 12)
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/11/new-estimates-s.html
Revised estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that the novel H1N1 virus has spread much further in the country and taken a far greater toll than earlier analyses suggested. According to new CDC estimates, about 22 million Americans have been infected with the virus, 98,000 have been hospitalized, and 3900 have died. Those data account for cases since the pandemic surfaced in April and run through 17 October. Until now, CDC has been reporting only H1N1 cases and deaths confirmed by lab tests. Anne Schuchat, head of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, explained that the new estimates come from improved methodology that does not strictly rely on laboratory-confirmed cases. “For influenza, it’s virtually impossible to find every single case with a lab test."

Drug companies Flagged for Biased Reporting (Science Insider, Nov. 12th)
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/11/drug-companies.html
The drug companies Pfizer and Parke-Davis (now a subsidiary of Pfizer) shaded clinical trial results in at least 12 studies in order to make the drug gabapentin appear more effective for off-label use, says a report in The New England Journal of Medicine. Drug companies are hardly alone in rigging their research results in this way. A report earlier this week in the Annals of Family Medicine found similar chicanery with many clinical trials: In 110 studies in top medical journals, primary outcomes had changed 30% of the time, secondary outcomes 70% of the time.

Nanotechnology

Nano-browsing on the iPhone (Nature blog, Nov. 13th)
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2009/11/nanobrowsing_on_the_iphone_1.html
An on-line inventory of products that use nanotechnology has now been translated to the iPhone.The really cool part – if you come across something that isn’t in the inventory that you think should be, you can simply take a photo and email it to us directly from the app,” explains Andrew Maynard, who works at the Project for Emerging Nanotechnologies


S&T Policy

Hearing summary- The Future of Ocean Governance, Building our National Ocean Policy (U.S. Senate Committee on commerce, Science, and Transportation website, Nov 4th)
http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=69b84995-e485-4592-a4b3-03269e517428&Month=11&Year=2009

Science News Roundup, Nov. 13th (Scienc Insider, Nov. 13th)
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/11/roundup-1113-ex.html
-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton provides new confirmation that the climate change summit in Copenhagen next month will not produce anything close to an emissions reduction treaty.
-The Food and Drug Administration has sent a letter to manufacturers of alcohol-laced energy drinks asking them to prove that the combination of caffeine and alcohol is safe. [see article in health section below]

Science News Roundup, Nov. 12th (Science Insider, Nov. 12th)
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/11/roundup-1112-th.html
With both houses of Congress getting ready to take up legislation to overhaul the Toxic Substances Control Act, a new poll out today reveals that most Republicans and Independents, as well as Democrats, say that existing chemical control laws in the United States aren't strong enough. Richard Denison of the Environmental Defense Fund offers his thoughts here.