iblog

Rushda: At approximately 1am this morning, an earthquake shook many homes all across the country. The earthquake, which measured 5.3 on the Richter scale, is the most intense one experienced in 25 years, with much damage being caused to buildings as well as injuries caused to residents. The British Geological Survey have said that the earthquake’s epicentre was near Market Rasen in Lincolnshire.

The tremors, which were felt in many places such as Newcastle, Yorkshire, Wales, and London had widespread effects. In many streets residents came out in their dressing gowns to find out what had happened. The emergency services were alerted at many homes which suffered great damage from the tremor. Not only that, but there were some injuries as well. For example, 19 year old student David Bates was pinned under masonry in his attic bedroom in Barnsley Road, Wombwell, South Yorks, and suffered a broken pelvis as a result and had to be taken to hospital. His father said:

“There was a rumble and then we heard a bang and my son screaming ‘Dad’.”

Other residents from the country also had stories to tell about the shaking. For example, Bev Finnegan from Market Rasen, where the tremors were greatest, said:

“I was terrified to be honest. The noise was really, really terrifying… it was so deep and rumbling. It felt like the roof was going to fall in. There were people coming out in their dressing gowns wondering what it was. It was quite an experience.”

Thankfully there were no emergency calls from Lincolnshire about injuries. A Lincolnshire Police spokesperson has said:

“There is slight structural damage, cracks and a couple of chimneys damaged. There’s nothing serious at present. Mostly people were distressed by it so there were a large quantity of calls coming in.”

Since this was the biggest earthquake for so long, many have been naturally worried that it will happen again, perhaps even worse than this time. But the British Geological Survey has said that earthquakes such as these are very rare so there is no need to fear. As Dr Brian Baptie, of the BGS, said:

“An earthquake of this size, of magnitude five or thereabouts, will occur roughly every 10 to 20 years in the UK. So we can get these kind of moderate to significant earthquakes of this size but they’re relatively rare.”

Myself, I felt a mild tremor all the way down in Cambridge - thankfully, I didn’t feel much of the terror as it was so mild but I was certainly confused. I’m so glad the mystery was resolved!

Rushda: A new study has found that despite there being many benefits of low-energy lightbulbs in helping the environment, they can in fact be harmful to those with skin conditions by causing painful rashes to develop or worsen. Thousands of people are at risk if they have photosensitive skin problems.

Fluorescent bulbs, which use about a quarter of the energy of conventional bulbs, have long been marketed by the light industry as one of the major things we should all be switching to in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Furthermore, they are part of the government aim which is to stop the sale of ordinary bulbs by 2011 in order to meet its environment aims. This is all particularly worrying as there are more and more low-energy bulbs coming into use in the home and also in public places.

Many experts including British Association of Dermatologists has asked that the switch shouldn’t be made too hastily and people with such skin conditions must be able to continue to use ordinary bulbs and insist that their workplaces use them under the Disability Discrimination Act. After all, the problem is a serious one and it is estimated that 100,000 people in the UK with the condition will be affected in some way. However, representatives from the lighting industry say that there should be no need to carry on using conventional bulbs as they will now develop alternatives to fluorescent bulbs.

Dr Colin Holden, President of the British Association of Dermatologists, said:

“It is important that patients with photosensitive skin eruptions are allowed to use lights that don’t exacerbate their condition. It is essential that such patients are able to protect themselves from specific wavelengths of light emitted by fluorescent bulbs, especially as they are often trapped indoors because they can’t venture out in natural sunlight.”

For those who have long insisted that low energy bulbs are the ultimate way forward, this new piece of news puts them in a problematic position, especially considering that only recently it was announced that low-energy bulbs are bad in other ways, including causing migraines. It seems that as a nation we have become obsessed with saving the environment - at the expense of possible harm to ourselves.

Kayleigh: Drivers have been warned that the freezing temperatures and snow could severely affect Britain’s roads today.

Most of Northern England and Scotland woke up to a blanket of snow this morning, and the weather is expected to continue for the rest of the day.

The Highways Agency have urged drivers to check road conditions before they set out and avoid unnecessary journeys. Motorists have also been advised to wear warm clothing and to carry an emergency pack in their car containing items such as boots and a spade.

Temperatures today are between 0 and 3 Celsius, however the wind will make it seem even colder.

Snowfall is expected to be up to two inches (5cm) deep in parts of England and Wales. Scotland is expected to be the worst hit however, with predictions of up to six inches 20cm (15cm) by tonight.

Helen Chivers, from the Met Office said: “There will be frost and ice all over the country, and we are likely to see some flurries of snow.

“We could finally have a white winter almost anywhere in the country because the temperatures will be low enough, but the east of England and the Midlands are the best bets for a dusting of one to two centimetres. On the Chilterns and in some parts of Scotland, we could see up to five centimetres settling.”

Gritters and snowploughs already began clearing most of the UK’s roads lastnight. Network Rail also said it had staff ready to clear the tracks to reduce disruption to Britain’s rail tracks.

Another Highway Agency spokesman stressed how important it was for drivers to be extra careful in these bad weather conditions. They said: “It can take ten times longer to stop when it is icy, so allow more room to slow down and stop.

“Avoid losing control of your vehicle because of wheel spin, by using the highest gear possible. Avoid sudden braking, acceleration and sharp turns.”

The cold weather is not expected to last, with forecasters predicting temperatures of up to 8 Celsius tommorrow, and double figures by the weekend. However, the freezing temperatures are expected to return next week. Weather-Action said: “The winds from Siberia will return, making it one of the coldest winters for two decades.”

Virgil: You’ve taken your dog for a walk on Poll Na Crann beach - known locally as Stinky Bay - and the worst you expect to find is the smell of fermenting seaweed. However it was a lot more fishy when such a dog-walker stumbled upon a huge unidentifiable metal container measuring 27 metres high. The tank, which is so large it can be seen as you pass in a car, was washed up on the west coast of Benbecula, in the Western Isles.

The huge object has been described as looking like a “silo”. It has no marks apart from two numbers, which experts are trying to use to identify the tank’s origin. It is thought that the object fell from a ship, and is probably a bulk storage tank containing liquids. However, despite this sordid diagnosis the incongruent object has been a source of intrigue among the local population. Alasdair MacEachen, assistant director of environmental services at Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, commented that:

“It’s certainly generated a fair bit of interest with people walking on the beach or just travelling along the road, because you can actually see it from the main road along the west side of Benbecula. It’s a big object so you can’t miss it, and it’s not often you see something like that on the beach.”

The authorities are considering anchoring the object down - not to make it a permanent tourist attraction, but rather to avoid any tragedies. As it was so precariously brought to shore, it is likely to continue roll over as the tides wash by, and an object of that size could be fatal to anyone caught in the way of its movement. Furthermore, they want to avoid the silo from rolling back out to sea, where it could become a hazard to any closeby ships. MacEachen continues:

“Although it looks as if it’s empty and it’s been ruptured, my advice would be not to go too close to it. It’s a fairly light construction so you don’t want it rolling on top of someone, and with that sort of thing you can never tell. My advice would be to just observe it from a distance.”

One can only wonder how such a huge object managed to disappear from a ship without being noticed, and how it managed to get washed all the way back up to shore?

Jeanne: Cape Town is currently embarking on a new initiative to go green. With the help of 2 of South Africa’s largest energy companies, the city has installed 4 solar-powered traffic lights at different points throughout the town and suburbs. It is hoped that this project will encourage the implementation of other green initiatives across the country. South Africa, like other developing nations, has often overlooked environmental issues in favour of economic advancements.

The traffic lights utilise a 3.6 square metre solar panel. It is hoped that these panels, which have been specifically designed to capture as much of the sun’s rays as possible, will also be cost-effective. The traffic lights have also been fitted with specialised LEDs designed to use considerably less power than conventional traffic lights. However, the South African authorities are leaving little to chance. Evaluations of the cost-effectiveness of the project are to be carried out after 3 months. Furthermore, in order to discourage vandalism, designers have installed the device atop 16-metre-high poles. Batteries are encased in concrete boxes to prevent them from being stolen and used for other purposes.

Cape Town’s director of transport and roads explained the rationale behind the aforementioned plan in a recent interview with news agencies:

“The city is very much environmentally conscious. We are hoping to get uninterrupted power supply for traffic lights in Cape Town so when there are power outages like we have had over the past 2 years, we will not have traffic jams. Power interruptions mean traffic officers have to be sent to the affected junctions, and given the limited resources it is near impossible to get to all the junctions around the city. So far it seems like it is working reasonably well… but we have not had any power outages recently, so we will have to cut the power at some stage to look at the implications.”

Rushda: It’s official: organic food really is better than non-organic food. A new study funded by the European Union has found startling differences between the nutritional content of the two types. The study which cost £12m and lasted four years is the biggest ever study into organic foods and it has found that not only is organic food “more nutritious” than ordinary produce but eating it may actually lengthen people’s lives. It is hoped that these results will finally settle the long debate over whether organic food really is what government calls “a lifestyle choice” or actually something scientifically shown to be better for you.

The research found that organic fruits and vegetables contain as much as 40% more antioxidants than ordinary food. Antioxidants have long been known to protect against killer diseases such as cancer and heart disease. Not only that but they also have higher levels of important minerals such as iron and zinc. In fact, head researcher on the project Professor Carlo Leifert said that the difference was so great that eating organic would even compensate for not eating the five recommended portions of fruits and vegetables a day. He says:

“If you have just 20% more antioxidants and you can’t get your kids to do five a day, then you might just be okay with four a day.”

Furthermore, the study has also found that even in milk, the antioxidants from organic herds were up to 90% higher than milk from ordinary herds.

These results show that the government was most likely wrong when it claimed that there was no significant effect of having organic foods. Now the Food Standards Agency has confirmed that it is reviewing the above evidence before considering changing its official advice to consumers.

Rushda: Over the last 4 days, wildfires have destroyed many parts of California with a staggering 500,000 people being evacuated from their homes in what is now officially a state of emergency. Though so far the fires have claimed few lives, they have been devastating - 1,500 homes have been destroyed and damage is estimated to be £1bn.

As you can see from this video, firefighters are desperately trying to calm the monster but the scale of the disaster is so great that there has been little progress, especially as the strong winds have been sweeping the fires along all the way from Santa Barbara to Mexico. Indeed 400,000 acres have been scorched - “an area bigger than New York City.”

Thankfully the winds are now slowing down so the fires will be more easy to control in the next few days. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California, has praised the efforts of the hundreds of firefighters who are trying to control the fires. Similarly, President Bush has made a speech in which he announced the signing of the disaster declaration for 7 California counties, which will mean government funds will be available to help residents to recover after the fires have died down. He says:

“I will continue to make sure that our efforts are coordinated, and that we are responsive to the needs of people… we offer our prayers and hopes that all will turn out fine in the end.”

Let us hope that Californian residents will be able to get their life back together soon after such an unanticipated catastrophe.

Rushda: A pair of Britain’s leading environmental scientists have proposed a way of solving the climate change problem using special technology under the sea. The idea is to increase the amount of CO2 the sea absorbs by installing special tubes underwater.

Chris Rapley, head of London’s Science Museum, and Gaia theorist Professor James Lovelock believe that cutting carbon emissions is becoming a lost cause and the most useful thing the government can do to sort out the problem is invest in “huge flotillas of vertical pipes in the tropical seas.” Currently being investigated in the US, the installations would mean that less CO2 ends up in the atmosphere as more would be taken up by the sea. As Lovelock explains:

“We are taking the very strong line that we are not going to save the planet by the regular approaches like the Kyoto Protocol or renewable energy. What we have to do is to look at it in a systems sense, or a Gaian sense, and see if it’s curable by direct action.”

Though the technology is quite complicated, the basic science of it is that the huge floating pipes which start at the surface of the ocean and go down will swell and bob up and down, causing cold water to come up onto the ocean’s surface. A valve would block the reverse occurring so that the surface gradually becomes colder. Apparently, cold water contains more life as it can absorb more carbon, and this will help in the battle against climate change.

The two scientists are not the first to come up with the plan. Indeed, Atmocean, a company in the US, has already started trials of the same technology. Although the research is in its early stages, the firm has high hopes. As Phil Kithil from Atmocean says:

“There is much yet to be learned. We need not only to move towards the final design and size (of the pipes), but also to characterise the ecological effects. The problem we would be most concerned about would be acidification. We’re bringing up higher levels of CO2 along with the nutrients, so it all has to be analysed as to the net carbon balance and the net carbon flux.”

There are other pressing concerns as well, for example, the pipes could cause problems for marine life such as whales and dolphins. However, it is certainly an interesting and promising concept that may end up being many many times more productive than reducing carbon output.

Rushda: The River Cam in Cambridge is well known, especially amongst the students, for punting and lazing on the banks, and indeed many of us cross it every day without a second thought. However, recent studies have found that the river contains certain viruses which may actually help combat serious infectious diseases such as MRSA.

A whole bunch of special viruses have been found in the river lately which have been said to be able to treat stomach infections in mice. This is great news as eventually they could be used as antibiotics in medicine for human use. The viruses, known as bacteriophages, were isolated from the water and tested by scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. The results show that a bacteriophage attaches itself to a bacterial cell and effectively explodes it, but leaves healthy cells intact. The effect is particularly striking when different types of bacteriophages are combined.

As Dr Pickard from the research team explains, the river Cam is particular suited to finding these viruses because of the ideal water environment. He believes that scientists can eventually isolate the viruses for human use and they be very helpful in fighting antibiotic-resistant diseases such as MRSA. He says:

“Conventional antibiotic treatment has led to MRSA and other superbug infections becoming not only more prevalent but also more infectious and dangerous. Bacteriophage therapy offers an alternative that needs to be taken more seriously in Western Europe.”

As a Cambridge student who’s always seen the river Cam as nothing but dirty, the news that it holds special disease-fighting secrets comes as a huge and welcoming surprise.

Rushda: Extreme sports enthusiasts and laymen alike will marvel at a new dangerous sport - Ice surfing - which is becoming more and more popular as global warming continues to melt glaciers. This activity consists of waiting till a huge piece of glacier breaks off and hits the water hundreds of feet down below. This sends up a huge wave of icy water, and it is at this point that you can get an exhilaratingly long period of time riding the ice-cold water which, it must be added, is filled with hundreds of small pieces of sharp ice.

It is undeniable that the pictures look really funky, but I can’t understand how besides it looking quite fashionable, ice surfing can be a very pleasant experience at all. Kealii Mamala who usually surfs in the exotic waves of Hawaii has recently broken a record for spending a whole minute surfing on a glacial tsunami in Alaska. He describes his experience:

“It wasn’t very big but it got the hairs on the back of my neck tingling. I felt myself at the barrel’s edge. It was a rush but it was a good feeling, all natural and super-powerful.”

Mamala and his fellow surfer Garrett McNamara had to wait for a month before their chosen glacier caved in and they could perform their surf. They towed towards the glacier on surfboards using jet skis and like Kealli, McNamara is thrilled with the experience. He says:

“It’s the heaviest thing I have ever done in my life. It’s like the Empire State Building about to come down on top of you.”

Well, congratulations to them for achieving something so new and different - though I’d rather them than me!