Around The Web

Researchers and donors tell the story of how your brain tissue can help with medical research.

Dr Laura Palmer shows us what happens inside a brain bank and and explains why such donations are vital.

Chris Hope and James Annan took £2,000 from two GWPF advisors who were foolish enough to bet against global warming

Climate scientist James Annan and climate economist Chris Hope made a nice sum this year for a bet they made on global warming in 2008. As Hope tells the story:

The record warmth of 2015 just made me £1,334 richer. While the extra cash is a nice bonus, it sadly demonstrates that the atmospheric dice remain loaded towards increasing climate change.

So, how did I turn increasing temperatures into cash? About five years ago I was at a conference in Cambridge where most of the participants were sceptical about the influence of humans on the climate. I took the microphone and asked if any of them would care to make a £1,000 bet with me about whether 2015 would be hotter than 2008. Two brave souls, Ian Plimer and Sir Alan Rudge, agreed.

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Citizen science survey has received only 31 reports of first ripe blackberries around the country so far

Blackberry crumble is not on the menu yet as a cold spring has delayed the ripening of the traditional British fruit, wildlife experts said.

The Woodland Trust has only received 31 reports of ripe blackberries so far to its Nature’s Calendar survey, in which members of the public record the signs of the changing seasons.

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A mobile phone game that has caught the attention of the world also appears to have caused a breakthrough with autism sufferers, as the Victoria Derbyshire programme finds out.

CSG opponents handed legal setback as land and environment court decides plant does not need a separate approval

Opponents of coal seam gas in New South Wales have had a setback, as a court ruled Santos’s CSG wastewater treatment plant near the Pilliga state forest did not need to undergo a full environmental impact statement.

Justice Timothy Moore of the NSW land and environment court ruled the treatment plant was part of its wider coal seam gas exploration, and so did not require its own approval under broader state legislation.

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Lichen is made up of two types of fungus and an algae, that's one more species than previously thought. wikimedia

There is big news in the world of lichens. These slow growing organisms have long been known to be a collaboration between a fungus and a photosynthetic algae or cyanobacteria. A recent publication in Science may have changed all that.

Researchers have discovered another fungus living in the tissues of lichens. Unlike the dominant fungal type, also known as Ascomycetes, the new fungus is a Basidiomycete that exists as single cells, more closely related to yeast. A survey has found these new fungal cells in 52 genera of lichens, raising the prospect of a previously undetected third partner in the ancient symbiosis.

Interestingly, despite many attempts, it has never been possible to synthesise lichen in the laboratory by combining the two known partners, and now we might know why. Lichenologists have always recognised a mycobiont (fungal partner) and a photobiont (the photosynthetic organism that makes food) and now we may have to find a word for the new fungal component.

Toby Spribille of the University of Graz in Austria and his colleagues were trying to understand why two species of lichen that were made up of the same species of mycobiont and photobiont were differently coloured and contained varying levels of a toxin known as vulpinic acid.

Using an approach that examined the messenger RNAs produced by the organism, they tried to find the genes that produced the toxin, but neither the mycobiont or the photobiont had genes that matched the transcript. By broadening their search to include other types of fungi, they found genes belonging to a rare fungus called a Cystobasidiomycete.

Unable to see the cells responsible for this unusual finding, they used fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH) to light up cells containing genes for the algae, the ascomycete and the cystobasidiomycete. By linking different colours to each organism, they produced videos showing the distribution of each cell type. The new fungus existed as single cells inside the cortex, where it may play a structural role as well as providing chemical defence.

It is hard to overstate the importance of this discovery. Spribille was quoted in the New York Times as saying that lichens are as diverse as vertebrates. And yet we did not know until now that the symbiosis that allows lichens to exist has more than two partners.

The authors have described a new order of fungi called the Cyphobasidiales. It is not everyday that scientists are able to add new taxa at such a high level. It is like discovering the Primates. By creating a phylogenomic tree and applying a molecular clock, they found that this group has been around for 200 million years, probably since the beginning of lichens.

The 52 genera that have been examined thus far are widespread (on six continents) but are still a small portion of lichens, so there may be more to discover. Interestingly, the continent that is not included is Australia. Perhaps we do not have enough lichenologists to provide samples to the international community. It is possible that some lichens do not contain this new order of fungi. What is not in doubt is that now scientists will be looking at lichens more closely.

Lichens grow very slowly. Individuals can be hundreds or even thousands of years old. Now it seems that our knowledge of this ancient symbiosis has also grown slowly, as it has taken 150 years to find the third partner.

Given the sophisticated techniques required to untangle this conundrum, I suppose it was not possible to know about the silent partner, the yeast in the mix, until now. But it certainly gives rise to some exciting science.

How some crashes are caused by idiocy, and why it’s the family cycling event which is the most important one.

Ride London, the capital’s weekend of cycle events – now expanded to three days – is in its fourth year. And for another time, I’ve taken part in what is officially called the Ride London Surrey 100, a vast, 100-mile closed-roads sportive, which this year saw up to 27,000 people take part.

As is also traditional for the Bike Blog, below are my instant (I’m writing this in the event press tent, still clad in my clammy bike clothes) thoughts on what is the UK’s biggest cycling extravaganza.

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One of the world's leading air crash investigators tells Australian TV he believes Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was deliberately flown into the sea.

Campaign asks wildlife enthusiasts to visit local woodland to record number of speckled woods and other butterflies

Wildlife lovers are being asked to spend 15 minutes in a wood this week to chart the spread of the speckled wood (Pararge aegeria), Britain’s most successful butterfly.

The speckled wood is one of a handful of species that appear to be benefitting from climate change, recently colonising East Anglia, the Midlands and much of northern England, increasing in abundance by 84% over the past 40 years. The southern population has expanded northwards at an average of four miles a year since the 1970s.

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Telsta chief scientists says all cars on Australian roads will be driverless by 2030, based on rate of development and falling technology costs.

Four men brave fast-flowing, waist-deep water rushing down the main street of Ellicott City to save a woman trapped in her car. Local business owner Sara Arditti posted the footage to Facebook after her husband Dave took part in the daring rescue.

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Burnsall, Yorkshire Dales It takes a ferocious effort to warm the Wharfe, but today the sun rises to the challenge

The mini-heatwave has been trailed in the news for days, and by mid-morning Burnsall has become Burnsall-on-Sea. Leeds and Bradford are a good two-hour drive to any ocean, so on days like this the banks of the river Wharfe oblige that English instinct to drive somewhere and slowly singe in the sun when the weather finally permits.

Burnsall is hotter than Barcelona today. The beautiful village green, playing the role of promenade, is covered in prone bodies marinating in sunscreen, while parked cars lining the banks of the river warm into ovens. Kids play on sandbanks and paddle in the shallows while swallows and swifts inscribe the air above.

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Developers of 10MW community project say they will now apply to build 20MW solar farm, after high levels of interest in the project.

Attacks on subsidised clean energy in a warning to the rest of the country about what could happen if governments invest in renewables

Last week Australia watched as a concerted campaign waged in sections of the media went bust.

For two straight weeks a barrage of articles were published seeking to primarily blame unusually high electricity prices in South Australia on the state’s reliance on wind.

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A reduction in retail margins is more than offset by an increase in wholesale generation margins.

Spot electricity prices were down sharply in the last week. Will renewables be blamed?

Sydney Opera House's new Environmental Sustainability Plan aims to cut total energy use by 20% and boost recycling to 85% by 2023.

New report from Citi suggests that the combination of solar, wind, storage and big data will finally deliver on the promise - made half a century ago by nuclear boosters - of "free energy".

New report reveals that electricity price spikes in South Australia have reduced as renewable energy grows.