Astronauts may have problems with immune deficiencies while in space, a new study has found.

The study carried out at the University of Arizona in the US with mice found that weightlessness during spaceflight caused changes to genes that controlled an immune and stress response.

“Our results hint at the possibility that an astronaut’s immune system might be compromised in space,” said immunobiologist and lead researcher Ty Lesback.

Weightlessness during spaceflight causes a change to the immune system that can make astronauts ill. Image credit: NASA

The thymus gland, which plays a key part in the immune system, was compared in four mice who spent 13 days in a space shuttle with four mice who remained on the ground.

All four mice that spent time in space were found to have changes in the same 12 genes within the thymus tissue.

“The altered genes we observed were found to primarily affect signaling molecules that play roles in programmed cell death and regulate how the body responds to stress,” explained Lesback.

Programmed cell death has an important function. But cell death needs to be tightly regulated in the immune system for the process to run smoothly.

“Potentially you could get more cell death aboard a spacecraft because many of the gene changes resulted in down-regulated changes that are needed to maintain the balance,” said Lesback.

The activity levels of thousands of genes in thymus tissue from the space-flown mice and the control group had to be compared and analysed.

Four of the 10 worst countries for environmental impact are from the American continent, a new study has found.

The study, carried out at the University of Adelaide, in Australia awarded Brazil and the US first and second place for being the least environmentally friendly.

Ecology expert Corey Bradshaw from Adelaide’s Environment Institute gave countries environmental rankings based on how much they had damaged the environment.

Fisheries were one of seven factors measured that made Brazil the least environmentally friendly country.

The countries were rated using seven factors: Natural forest loss, habitat conversion, fisheries, fertiliser use, water pollution, carbon emissions from land use and threat to species.

These indicators were chosen because there is a lot of evidence to support that they affect ecosystems and quality of life, explained Bradshaw.

From the American continent, Brazil, the US, Mexico and Peru were all listed in the 10 worst countries category along with China, Indonesia, Japan, India, Russia and Australia.

The total wealth of each country was found to be the most important driver of environmental impact.

The top 10 for being most environmentally friendly were, surprisingly, some of the least wealthy countries, mainly from the Caribbean and Africa: Antigua and Barbuda, St Lucia, Grenada, Djibouti, Barbados, Swaziland, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Gambia, St Kitts and Nevis and Tonga.

“There is a theory that as wealth increases, nations have more access to clean technology and become more environmentally aware so that the environmental impact starts to decline. This theory was not supported by our study,” explained Bradshaw.

Soldiers in action are 22 per cent more likely to be alcoholics than those not deployed but have low levels of post-traumatic stress disorder, a new study has found.

The study, carried out at King’s College London, examined the mental health effects of serving in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2003 and 2009.

Authors of the study, military expert Dr Nicola Fear and Professor of psychiatry Simon Wessely found 22 per cent of those who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan had misused alcohol.

Soldiers in action turn to the bottle.

“The Army itself encourages drinking because it numbs feelings while on the frontline,” explained Imogen Sturgeon-Clegg, a war veteran psychologist at psychological charity ‘Combat Stress’.

Deployed soldiers also developed social problems related to drinking too much including violence and relationship breakdown.

“A lot of people have problems with anger because in the army there are only two acceptable emotions: Anger and humour. Soldiers do not get a chance to talk through their experiences. They realise they’re suffering but can’t articulate it,” Sturgeon-Clegg said.

A low prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder was found among the deployed soldiers in the study. Between 2003 and 2009 it stayed at 3 to 4 per cent.
The authors found this surprising as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan lasted longer than expected.

But Sturgeon-Clegg argues, “Post-traumatic stress disorder has a delayed onset in war veterans and it takes an average of 14 years for them to ask Combat Stress for help. This is usually after they have had problems adjusting to civilian life.”

Lake Tanganyika in East Africa is at its hottest for 1,500 years and is likely to affect the fish supply of those living in the four countries that surround it, a new study has found.

The study carried out by a team of geologists from Brown University, US took samples from the lake bed to measure its temperature.

Geologists drilled into Lake Tanganyika to measure the surface temperature over 1,500 years

The temperature increased rapidly in the 20th Century and today the surface temperature is a record 26 degrees Celsius. The warming has already affected the ecosystem and the number of fish.

“Our data shows a consistent relationship between the lake surface temperature and productivity including the number of fish,” said geologist and lead author of the study Jessica Tierney.

As the lake’s surface temperature continues to rise, fish productivity is expected to decline and this will affect the fishing industry in the region, explained Tierney.

Lake Tanganyika is one of the richest freshwater ecosystems in the world. The lake divides into levels naturally: the top 100 metres have most of the animal species while the water closest to the lake bed has less oxygen but more nutrients. The ecosystem relies on the two types of water mixing together.

Tierney found that as the lake warms the two levels cannot mix together. This means fish will struggle to get nutrients from the waterbed.

People throughout South-Central Africa depend on Lake Tanganyika’s fish, said geology professor Andrew Cohen.

The climate change models, if accurate, show the warming in the region will only get worse, explained geology professor James Russell.

Women run in marathons to feel good about themselves, while men want to achieve personal goals, a study by sports psychology researcher Elizabeth Loughren has found.

The study, carried out at Temple University in Philadelphia in the US asked more than 900 first-time runners to fill out a questionnaire about their reasons for taking part in the race and whether they would do another one.

Men run to compete while women run to feel good. Photo credit: KJohansson

Most of the first-time runners, regardless of gender, wanted to achieve personal goals, including finishing the run within a certain time, self-esteem, self-pride and improved health.

Men were more likely than women to take part in a marathon to compete and see how well they could do. Women’s reasoning was linked to coping mechanisms and having a sense of wellbeing. For example, some female runners said they wanted to improve their mood, feel at peace with the world and give some meaning to their lives.

Intention to run another marathon was also compared by gender. 70 per cent of women said they intended to run a second time, whilst 79 per cent of men said they would take part in a marathon again. The main reason for wanting to take part again was to beat their first finishing time. More than 85 per cent of men who said they would run again for this reason.

“Each individual is unique and may have multiple reasons for running a marathon,” explained Loughren. She suggests further research should be carried out to explore gender differences for running marathons further.

Tourist ships provide “a potential monitoring network for climate change,” said climate change and penguin conservation expert, Dr Tom Hart at a talk held by the Zoological Society in London last week.

Dr Hart, leading speaker at the ‘Polar Conservation and Climate Change’ lecture had just come back from a cruise in the name of science that cost £8,000.

Traditional expeditions need camping equipment and private shipping time, which can cost between £80,000 and £250,000.

Climate change: Cruise ships are the solution not the problem said Dr Tom Hart at a public lecture last week. Photo credit: Sam Pullara

“We should think of cruise ships and tourism as less of the problem and more of the solution,” said Dr Hart. Cruise ships cover more of the Antarctic than scientific bases so we might as well make that data useful, he explained.

But cheap and comfortable living quarters for researchers are not the only benefit of Antarctic tourism.

A breakthrough in technology means tourists can conduct the research by taking holiday pictures of penguin colonies in known areas.

A scanning system designed by Microsoft and University of Oxford can use the photographs to count how many chicks and adults there are in one area hundreds of times every season, not just once from a single expedition.

If we can get an idea of changes to penguin breeding habits and movements we can see how climate change is affecting them and start to make predictive analysis explained Dr Hart.

“There’s a lot we don’t know but a flexible approach. Something that is fast at reacting to climate change may be the answer,” said Dr Hart.

Mass psychology may be the missing piece of the jigsaw for climate scientists and politicians who want us to take action to avoid global catastrophe, says Dr Robbie Sutton, senior lecturer at the University of Kent.

A poll of 1,500 people published in The Times newspaper showed that over half of those questioned were not convinced climate change was a problem, and thought it was natural rather than a man-made phenomenon.

“This is quite shocking,” said Dr Sutton. “We live in a society with a wacky postmodern view of science.”

Green Party Leader and Member of European Parliament Caroline Lucas said: “People are understandably confused about the science. All they see are politicians coming at them with green taxes, without being able to see clearly the benefits of a cleaner, healthier and greener society.”

We do not need to be constantly reminded of impending doom or bribed with savings on our electricity bills, “we just need politicians to make it as easy as possible for people to live greener lives,” Ms Lucas explained.

A psychology experiment published last year showed that individuals often do not understand their own particular attitudes and behaviours related to climate change.

The study focused on hotel bathroom signs that commonly read, “Please reuse your towels to help us save the environment.”

The signs were only found to be effective if they were phrased in a certain way. When the signs read “seventy five per cent of hotel guests in this room recycled their towels,” the majority of guests would choose to follow suit. But fewer guests were inclined to reuse their towels if the sign simply mentioned saving the environment. Lead researcher Noah Goldstein, said: “There was no logical reason for this,” as the hotel guests knew nothing more about the 75 per cent of people who had recycled, other than the fact they had shared the same room.

“If people think others are carrying out a behaviour, they are more likely to do it too. It’s mindless conformity,” said Dr Sutton.

A conservation psychologist from the University of Arkansas, Jessica Nolan, found a similar tendency to conform in people who participated in her own experiment. She asked participants what would make them want to conserve energy. Most said they would do it to benefit society, with a minority saying they would conserve because their neighbours were doing it.

But when she tested these views the contrary was seen to be true. People who received fliers in their letterboxes saying, “Conserve energy, your neighbours are doing it,” conserved more energy than those who received fliers telling them to save energy to benefit society.

Nolan concludes, “Although people may not believe the behaviour of others should motivate them to conserve energy, their behaviour was powerfully influenced by it nonetheless.”

So how can we change people’s attitudes and behaviours to make them want to save the environment?

“With huge social problems, people often think their own little changes don’t make a difference,” but there is “zero cost to making psychological changes” for both individuals and politicians, said Dr Sutton.

The media have tried to change people’s attitudes and behaviours towards helping the environment, but this fight may have been in vain according to psychological researchers at the University of Victoria in Canada. “Media representations about climate change do not help resolve judgements of uncertainty,” researchers Leila Scannell and Frederick Grouzet said in a recent paper. Journalists try to remain “non-partisan and objective”, but in doing so give “credibility to sceptics by making them appear equal to pro-climate change scientists.”

Attitudes can be changed by the media explains David Uzzell, professor of environmental psychology at the University of Surrey, but should concentrate on making arguments that are “meaningful to people’s everyday lives. Otherwise you’ll get a distancing effect, where individuals will detach themselves from climate change because it appears to be happening a long way away.”