Science & Technology News

The Tibetan plateau, whose glaciers supply water to hundreds of millions of people in Asia, were warmer over the past 50 years than at any stage in the past two millennia, a Chinese newspaper said, citing an academic report. Temperatures and humidity are likely to continue to rise throughout this century, causing glaciers to retreat and desertification to spread, according to the report published by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research. “Over the past 50 years, the rate of temperature rise has been double the average global level,” it said, according to the report on the website of Science and Technology Daily, a state-run newspaper. Glacier retreat could disrupt water supply to several of Asia’s main rivers that originate from the plateau, including China’s Yellow and Yangtze, India’s Brahmaputra, and the Mekong and Salween in Southeast Asia.

By Gustavo Bonato SANTOS Brazil (Reuters) – Brazilian presidential candidate Eduardo Campos was killed in a plane crash on Wednesday, throwing the October election and local financial markets into disarray. A private jet carrying Campos and his entourage crashed in a residential area in bad weather as it prepared to land in the coastal city of Santos. Campos, 49, was running on a business-friendly platform and was in third place in polls with the support of about 10 percent of voters. While he was not expected to win the Oct. 5 vote, he was widely seen as one of Brazil’s brightest young political stars and his death instantly changes the dynamics of the race.

By Christina Farr SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Intel Corp plans to use wearable gadgets such as smart watches to monitor patients with Parkinson’s disease and collect data that can be shared with researchers. On Wednesday, the chip maker said it is teaming up with the Michael J. Fox Foundation, established by the actor and Parkinson’s sufferer in 2000, to conduct a multi-phase research study of the neurodegenerative brain disease. An estimated five million people globally have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, the second-most-common neurudegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s. The initial goal is to determine the feasibility of using wearable devices to monitor patients remotely and store that data in an open system that can be accessed by scientists. Participants will be monitored via an array of wearable devices.

By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) – As U.S. lawmakers investigate the anthrax and bird flu breaches at a federal laboratory, they have begun to question whether outside oversight of research using dangerous microbes is as independent as federal agencies claim. They are scrutinizing the actions of the nation’s leading biomedical research institute, the National Institutes of Health, which in 2004 established a panel of independent advisors to make recommendations about research on pathogens that could be used as biological weapons. Some private sector biosafety experts say NIH has marginalized the board to prevent it from interfering in research that NIH funds. In the last two years, members of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) found their responsibilities reduced and their meetings canceled, and nearly a dozen were abruptly dismissed, according to seven current and former board members and a Reuters review of agency documents. A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), NIH’s parent agency, said the changes reflected the agency’s assessment of what it needed from the board and dismissed the suggestion that NIH had marginalized the advisers.

By Michael Martina BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s state television is airing a serial on late leader Deng Xiaoping, a rare portrayal of a top politician that state media have trumpeted as a sign the Communist Party is easing its grip on officials’ sensitive legacies. The 48-part drama series chronicles a period between 1976 and 1984, when Deng began pushing China toward market reforms that ignited its transition into the world’s second largest economy. “In recent years, China’s restricted areas of speech have obviously decreased. …

By Michael Hann LONDON (Reuters) – English soccer has always been renowned for its pace, power and tough-tackling but new research appears to quantify the idea that current Premier League teams are playing a different game now than as recently as six years ago. A study conducted by the University of Sunderland and Chris Barnes, the Head of Sports Science at West Bromwich Albion, analysed the physical and technical performance levels of more than 1,000 Premier League players over 23,000 “match observations”. Titled, “The Evolution of Physical and Technical Performance Parameters in the English Premier League,” the study showed that players in the 2012/13 season produced 40 percent more passes with a greater success rate than in 2006/07. “We can clearly see the evolution within the game between 2006/07 and 2012/13,” Paul Bradley from the University of Sunderland said.

By Sharon Begley and Toni Clarke NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – All three U.S. facilities established to quickly make vaccines and therapeutics in the event of a major public health threat say they are standing by to support any U.S. government effort to scale up a treatment for Ebola. The facilities, called Centers for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (ADM), were set up by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in partnership with private industry, to respond to pandemics or chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear threats. …

Stuart Broad had to retire hurt after he was hit by a Varun Aaron bouncer Stuart Broad’s nasty injury, which led to him retiring hurt on Day …

LONDON (Reuters) – By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent West Africa’s Ebola epidemic is an “extraordinary event” and now constitutes an international health risk, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday. The Geneva-based U.N. health agency said the possible consequences of a further international spread of the outbreak, which has killed almost 1,000 people in four West African countries, were “particularly serious” in view of the virulence of the virus. …