SMC Heads-Up to March 18: Sunscreen, Denialism and Sleep

Friday, 11 March 2011, 5:48 pm
Press Release: Science Media Centre

Issue 124 - March 11 - 17

Skin cancer - not all about early exposure
As the heat of summer dissipates, a conference looking at melanoma, a disease that kills hundreds of Kiwis every year has examined the issues remaining in reducing harm from exposure to the sun.

The conference featured Sydney University's Professor Bruce Armstrong, a skin cancer specialist who said that melanoma rates had dropped among the young in Australia and that the results were likely to be similar in New Zealand.

But, he said, rates had risen among older people and particularly among males, as sun exposure later in life took its toll.

Elsewhere at the conference, the subject of sunbeds was under discussion with experts arguing that voluntary standards in the sunbed industry are inadequate.

Reported NZ Doctor: "There is a 75 per cent increased risk of melanoma, if exposed to a sunbed before the age of 35 and the younger the age, the higher the risk, Tauranga Hospital dermatologist Ben Tallon told the 180 plus delegates."

Otago University epidemiologist Brian Cox discussed research that suggests that sunscreen use actually increases the risk of developing melanoma in some people.

PODCAST: Doubt, denial and rejection
The Science Communicator's Association has posted more podcasts from the recent SCANZ 11 conference in Auckland including an interesting panel discussion looking at how we can make headway discussing science when science itself is under fire.

The discussion features seasoned science communicators who have been involved in communicating around contentious issues such as genetic modification, vaccination and climate change.

David Wansborough, Manager of the National Immunisation Programme at the Ministry of Health, makes key points about risk communication and trust in authoritative sources.

He highlights the importance of language, particularly where there is the potential for confusion between everyday meanings of words and their specific, technical interpretations.

Discussing adverse reactions, including febrile convulsions, following flu vaccination in several children in Western Australia, he says of the health officials involved:

"Their first reaction was to say 'It's an expected response" and my question was, "Did the parents expect it?'

"A key part of risk communication is that there's a difference in expectation between what the doctors and scientists are expecting and what the parents are expecting."

"It was so easy to assume that it couldn't possibly be the vaccine. Sometimes the worst case scenario does happen.You need to be prepared for the worst case."

Listen back to the full discussion here (scroll down the page to Panel discussion: 'Doubt, denial and rejection')

The science of sleep explained - new blog
We are very pleased to welcome to the Sciblogs network Karyn O'Keeffe, Research Fellow at the Sleep/Wake Research Centre at Massey University.

Karyn has been lead and co-investigator on projects investigating sleep disorders and their treatment provision, including insomnia, narcolepsy and OSA, as well as fatigue-related risk in nurses, sleep at moderate altitude and sleep inertia. She was responsible for developing and am currently primary lecturer for New Zealand's first and only dedicated undergraduate paper in sleep and circadian science.

You'll find Karyn's work along with 30-odd scientists and science writers on Sciblogs. Her first post - looks at how caffeine affects your sleep:

"The half-life of a single dose of caffeine is 3-7 hours. The more caffeine we put in our system, the longer it takes us to get rid of it. Caffeine predominantly breaks down to paraxanthine, which is has similar biological properties to caffeine and also acts to reduce clearance of caffeine."

Read in full here.

On the science radar

Polar ice melt accelerating, alien life found in dodgy journal, last flight for Discovery, singing mice, synchrotron back on track, stone tool use shaped our hands, Ötzi's new face
Quoted: The Press

"It is now clear we are not as green as the food giants we rely on for the best returns believe we should be. But despite the complaints of Federated Farmers, we soon will be.A traceablility system is on the way and our watered-down ETS will soon include agriculture. ..."

Jon Morgan
The Press

New from the SMC

Cancer risk test for smokers could be offered at pharmacies - A researcher calls for government to make a lung cancer genetic screening test more widely available.

Viable urethras grown from injured boys' own tissue - A study in the Lancet highlights a major advance in tissue engineering. Expert comments from UK SMC.

In the news:

NZ Herald: Collapse of stairwells concerns professor - the failure of high-rise stairwells during the Christchurch earthquake is concerning a structural engineering expert who believes they should be the subject of a high-level inquiry.

NZ Herald: How to mend a shattered city from the ground up - Feature writers Geoff Cumming and Chris Barton look at the challenges that lay ahead in rebuilding Christchurch, interviewing scientists and engineers tasked with ascertaining what happened to Christchurch's buildings.

AusSMC:
Online Briefing: Are they being heard? The role of the Chief Scientist - The sudden departure of the Chief Scientist, Penny Sackett -- who was asked to brief the PM on only one occasion in her two-and-a-half year tenure -- has left many wondering about this advisory role in Australian politics. Are we making the best use of our senior science advisors?

Sciblogs highlights

Caffeine affects your sleep. No ifs, no buts - Karyn O'Keefe (Sleep on it)

Talking Christchurch heritage - Brigid Gallagher - (Digging the Dirt)

Checking your internet sources - Michael Edmonds (molecular matters)

On an island, coping with sea level rise - Bryan Walker (Hot Topic)

Printing a human kidney - Grant Jacobs (Code for Life)

John Key should plat the one card he has up his sleeve ..... Minister of Innovation and Science - Peter Kerr (sticK)

Research highlights

Please note: hyperlinks point, where possible, to the relevant abstract or paper.

Low take-up of nutrient budgeting in New Zealand dairy farming - Nutrient budgeting has been introduced in New Zealand as a voluntary initiative to lessen the impacts of dairying on the environment by carefully managing the nutrient inputs and outputs of a farm. But how much effort are farmers putting in to the nutrient budgeting? The paper, in the New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research, features qualitative interviews with farmers and suggests that involvement with nutrient budgeting is currently low.

Mum's diet affects child's diabetes risk into old age - Poor diet during pregnancy can affect the long-term health of children, and new research finds an epigenetic clue as to why. The study, in PNAS, found an increase in the risk of type 2 diabetes in the offspring of rats that were malnourished during pregnancy. This was due to an increased vulnerability to age-related defects in the expression of a key gene that affects insulin production.

Top medical studies may hide funding conflicts - Funding information and conflict of interest disclosures are not making it into the most influential type of medical studies, a review in the journal JAMA finds. Meta-analyses combine results from many randomised controlled trials, and are given the most weight among evidence for practice guidelines. But they are not required to report funding information from the research they analyse, an oversight that could be biasing these important decisions, the authors warn.

Oil palm plantations bad for biodiversity - Scientists examining the widespread conversion of Southeast Asian peatland to oil palm plantations for biofuel production say the change of land use will reduce carbon sequestration and exacerbate species loss in remaining forest areas. Using satellite imagery of Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, and Sumatra to determine the extent of peatland conversation to oil palm, the scientists, who publish their results in PNAS this week, found that by 2010, 2.3 million hectares of peat swamp in the area surveyed had been cleared for oil palm plantation by 2010. If oil palms were to be planted in the cleared areas, species loss could increase by 12 per cent, whereas reforestation in those areas would enhance biodiversity by up to 20 per cent.

Sleep-deprivation increases risky behaviour - Research in the Journal of Neuroscience shows the brain overlooks bad outcomes and overreacts to rewards when sleep-deprived. This can lead to increasingly risky decision-making. The authors assessed financial choices in particular, and emphasised that late-night gamblers are at high risk of impaired judgement.

Pre-empting the next pandemic - Infectious disease experts argue that vaccination against H2N2 influenza, the strain that killed more than 1 million people from 1957-68, should begin now -- before it begins to appear again in humans. In a comment piece in Nature, they warn that previous pandemic flu viruses can easily jump back from animals once human immunity wanes, and tests show H2N2 antibodies are largely absent from those under age 50.

Web crawling the brain - Researchers have created a three-dimensional nanoscale model of a neural circuit using electron microscopy. As a result, the researchers can crawl these vast neural networks much as Google crawls Web links. The connectivity of single cells in the mouse visual system and how this connectivity relates to the functions of the individual cells is described in two papers published this week in Nature. The methodology and findings could be crucial in future studies of the functional relationship of neural circuits.

Women dread the Blackberry - at home - Communication technologies that help people stay connected to the workplace are often seen as solutions to balancing work and family life. However, a new study in the March issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior suggests there may be a "dark side" to the use of these technologies for workers' health -- and these effects seem to seem to be more pronounced for women, largely because of their more pronounced feelings of guilt associated with spending family time on work-related matters.

Upcoming sci-tech events

Science in the Park - 12 Mar, Rotorua - 'Science in the Park' is a free public event that provides everyone with the opportunity to learn more about modern science and find out how Scion's 300 scientists spend their day.

International Brain Awareness Week - 14-20 March, globally - Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is a global campaign to increase public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research. For NZ-based events, see here.

Being Human: The science of memory, personality and consciousness - 16 Mar, Auckland Museum "Do Westies have different brains from the rest of us?"

Forum: Māori designed, developed and delivered initiatives to reduce Māori offending and re-offending - 16 Mar, Wellington.

Otago Health Lecture Series - 16 March, Christchurch - Following a common thread - DNA and what we can learn from it

For these and more upcoming events, and more details about them, visit the SMC's Events Calendar.

ENDS

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