Aleksey Gurkin

Journalism training in Kyrgyzstan is entirely based on Russian universities’ programmes and is outdated both in content and technically, said Aleksey Gurkin, chair of journalism and mass communications department at the American University in Central Asia (AUCA).

“In most cases the curriculum that is being used here is largely based on the curriculum being used in Russian universities. In the best scenario it will be the Moscow State University, and in the worst one of those peripheral universities in Russia. The problem is that the Russian style of journalism is very specific. And the people who develop curriculums are those who are followers of this specific model of journalism,” said Gurkin.  “A lot of materials and the way of teaching itself are outdated, because substantial resources are required to update the programmes continuously. And in our case we don’t have even our own learning materials”.  

The main problem with using the Russian curriculum and learning materials is that nobody tries to adapt them to local needs and even understand what is really needed. “We basically take Russian programmes and transplant them here, which is not always the best option. The best practices come from other countries and in this case it is Russia; however they need to be adapted to local needs and this is something that is missing. It plays a negative role in terms of how in tune we are with contemporary developments in the media world,” added Gurkin. 

According to Gurkin, Kyrgyz journalism still contains a lot of details borrowed from the Soviet school of journalism because it mostly copies the Russian way of doing journalism. “It is not appropriate at all. We are lagging behind current tendencies of journalism”. 

In AUCA teachers use an interdisciplinary approach; however they have to struggle with the Kyrgyz Ministry of Education which condemns them for not complying with state standards. As AUCA uses an American style of teaching journalism as opposed to state standards based on a Russian one, there is a reason for conflict. 

“We believe we are preparing students who are more adaptable to a modern media environment and a modern journalism profession”, said Gurkin. 

Lack of technical resources is another problem which affects the journalism teaching process. If, for example, students are interested in broadcast journalism they often have no opportunity to practice gained skills using modern video, editing or sound equipment.  “They often end up applying for jobs in the local TV channels and start to use equipment they have just seen for the first time in their lives,” added Gurkin. 

The lack of younger professionals also is a big issue for journalism departments in Kyrgyzstan. In the Kyrgyz National University, most of the teachers used to be journalists in the Soviet Times, more than 20 years ago. It affects enormously the quality of education, according to Gurkin. 

“When something happens in Kyrgyzstan foreign journalists come here and do things themselves rather than working with local journalists or commissioning to them to produce something. That is not because most of them don’t speak English or that some of them cannot produce material up to standard to be published by the foreign media. It is because they simply have no contacts abroad and are very local-oriented,” said Gurkin. 

Aleksey Gurkin also said how prestigious and popular among potential students the journalism profession is. If you are interested please listen to his short interview below. 

Aleksey Gurkin audio

Related posts:

1. Environmental coverage not priority, says leading Kyrgyz journalist
2. Marat Tokoev: “There are hidden efforts not to let the environment appear in the media”
3. Indira Zhakipova on the environment: it is up to journalists to make things happen

By Laura Husband

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.

Related posts:

1. Different Fat Distribution in Men and Women is likely due to very Different Genes
2. Health round up
3. Three-parent IVF may prevent babies from inheriting diseases

By Laura Husband

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.

Related posts:

1. Indira Zhakipova on the environment: it is up to journalists to make things happen
2. Biofuel deal worries environmentalists
3. Frogspawn levels under threat from changing temperatures

Genes linked to high altitude life

Tibetans’ ability to survive at high altitude without getting sick has been linked to genes for the first time in a study published in Science.

Tibetans live in one of the highest regions of the world yet do not experience the symptoms associated with low levels of oxygen found in these high altitudes.

Scientists have found 10 genes that could explain why Tibetans living on Mountaintops don’t get sick

By comparing the genes of 31 Tibetans with a group of 90 Japanese and Chinese lowland people, scientists discovered 10 genes linked to a resistance to altitude sickness. Two of these genes have been linked to haemoglobin, the component in blood, which carries oxygen around the body.

Scientists have long known that Tibetans produce a low number of red blood cells but it is not understood how the body survives on such decreased levels of oxygen. By doing so, doctors predict it will help to understand and treat altitude sickness in mountaineers and other illnesses.

“What’s unique about Tibetans is they don’t develop high red blood cells counts,” said Professor Josef T. Prchal, a senior author on the study. “If we can understand this, we can develop therapies for human disease.”

The study was a joint collaboration between researchers at the University of Utah and Qinghai University Medical School.

Smallpox vaccine helped to curb AIDS?

Ending the worldwide smallpox vaccination may have lead to the explosive spread of HIV, scientists in a new study have suggested.

Smallpox immunisation gradually stopped between 1950s and 1970s, and since then, the rates of HIV have increased around the world.

The researchers from the study analysed white blood cells taken from people recently immunised against smallpox. They found that HIV replicated at lower levels from the vaccinated group compared with those from a control group who had not been immunised against smallpox.

According to the research, the smallpox vaccine cut HIV replication five-fold.

“There have been several proposed explanations for the rapid spread of HIV in Africa, including wars, the reuse of unsterilised needles and the contamination of early batches of polio vaccine. However, all of these have been either disproved or do not sufficiently explain the behaviour of the HIV pandemic,” said Dr Raymond Weinstein the lead researcher of the study, from the George Mason University in Virginia.

Mobile phones – no risk of brain tumours, scientists say

The largest study of mobile phone usage has found no link to suggest it increases the risk of brain tumours although the results are inconclusive, scientists report.

The study, carried out between 2000 and 2004, involved interviewing thousands of people from 13 countries about mobile phone usage and health.

The researchers compared the results from a group of patients suffering from either glioma or meningioma (types of tumour) with a similar number of health adults acting as a control group. No children took part in the study.
“Overall, this research has not shown evidence of an increased risk of developing a giloma or meningioma brain tumour as a result of using a mobile phone,” said Patricia McKinney an epidemiologist at the University of Leeds and one of the leaders of the study.

“The balance of evidence from this study, and in the previously existing scientific literature, does not suggest a causal link between mobile phone use and risk of brain tumours,” said Anthony Swerdlow, an epidemiologist at the Institute of Cancer Research and one of the leaders of the study.

Along with the other authors of the study, he warns that this does not provide assurances that there are no health risks associated with mobile phone usage: “The duration of phone use for which we yet have evidence is currently limited, however, and we have virtually no information for use of mobile phones for longer than 15 years.”

Sleep study – too much or too little

Sleeping fewer than six hours each night leads to a higher chance of dying prematurely, a new study has found. But consistently getting too much sleep may increase the risk of developing fatal illnesses the researchers found after analysing 1.3 million participants over 25 years.

“While short sleep may represent a cause of ill-health, long sleep is believed to represent more an indicator of ill-health,” said Francesco Cappuccio, leader of the Sleep, Health and Society Programme at the University of Warwick.

“Modern society has seen a gradual reduction in the average amount of sleep people take, and this pattern is more common amongst full-time workers, suggesting that it may be due to societal pressures for longer working hours and more shift-work,” added Cappuccio.

The study, a collaboration between the University if Warwick and the Federico II University Medical school in Naples, is published in the Sleep journal.

Related posts:

1. Health round up
2. Pensioners defend their health and welfare state
3. Space Makes Astronauts Sick

By Paul Rodgers

It’s the headline dedicated smokers have been waiting for: their disgusting habit is good for them. At least under certain conditions, though this doesn’t mean you’d be wise to reach for a pack of Players – the benefit is far outweighed by the danger of cancer.

Smokers are less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative disorder of the nervous system that often affects motor skills and speech, according to researchers at the Mayo Clinic and the European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano in Italy. But the link is not a simple one. The researchers hypothesise that a genetic disposition combines with environmental factors to protect smokers from the disease.

At last, some good news about tobacco

Maurizio Facheris, a neurologist at the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Bozen/Bolzano, and his colleagues studied 1228 subjects while working as a research fellow at the Mayo Clinic. “We asked the interviewees to tell us about their relationship with smoking and then compared this data with the presence or absence of variations in the gene CYP2A6, which encodes the enzyme responsible for metabolising nicotine,” said Facheris.

One variant of the gene, when combined with smoking, considerably reduces the risk of Parkinson’s, they found, although it is not clear whether this is due to the presence of the gene variant, or by cotinine, the derivative of nicotine it produces. “If this second hypothesis is confirmed, producing a cotinine-based drug would be a means to reduce exposure to the disease”, said Facheris.

Such a drug could be one of the first to arise from the new field of pharmacogenetics, in which patients will be genetically tested before being given personalised medicines.

Related posts:

1. Lung cancer gene means risk for non-smokers too
2. Research round up
3. Accidental discovery could help eradicate malaria

By Paul Rodgers

Most creatures that use sound do so for communication, to find a mate, warn off rivals or warn of predators. Bats, and a few other creatures, such as cetaceans, use it differently. Their calls are designed to locate obstacles, prey and each other in space. Or so scientists thought.

Bats can, it turns out, distinguish between calls made by members of their own species and others, even those that are closely related and inhabit similar ecological niches, according to research by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology (previously part of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, which was renamed in honour of the quantum physicist after the Second World War).

Horseshoe bats can hear foreign accents.

Bats living in similar environments tend to use similar echolocation calls to orient themselves and search for food. But in a paper in this month’s American Naturalist, Maike Schuchmann and Bjorn Siemers at the institute’s facility in Seewiesen, Austria, were able to prove that echolocation calls carry more information than assumed.

Horseshoe bat species in Bulgaria were used for the behavioural experiments, in which scientists played the calls of three different species through ultrasonic speakers and analysed the animal’s responses. Both the Bulgarian bat species showed signs of being able to distinguish the calls, although the effect was clearer with calls that were in a clearly separate frequency band from their own.

Siemers reasoned that it would be advantageous for bats to get out of the way of competitively superior species in hunting grounds. And if the other species roosted in similar roosting requirements, identifying them could help the bats find new shelters. The institute’s scientists hope to do follow-up experiments to see whether either of these hypotheses explains the new-found ability.

Related posts:

1. Want to discover a new species? Try your local pond
2. Environmental roundup
3. Is the truth out there?

By Grace Howe

Natural historian and filmmaker Keith Scholey is producing three full length wildlife documentaries that will examine the behaviour of cheetahs, tigers, and lions in their natural habitat.

The first film, due for release in America this autumn, is entitled ‘Big Cats’. Five years in the making, it was made primarily using the new Sony F23 camera, which is discreet and advanced enough to cause minimal interference in any animal’s environment. The camera can be left for days in the wild without needing attendance or interruption from human hands.

This technology provided a unique opportunity for capturing animals in a gathered community. The film is an attempt to view these creatures in an entirely new way, by allowing their natural behaviour and interaction with each other to create a storyline and give phrasing and drama to the piece, with little influence or explanatory commentary from the BBC editing team.

Cheetah with impala kill

I spoke to Keith, co-producer of the Blue Planet and Planet Earth series, about the idea behind this new film and how the production has developed since the final rushes were gathered.

“Keith, What inspired you to become a filmmaker instead of sticking to science on paper? You began this journey with a biology degree!”

“In a rather geek-ish way, the subject just obsessed me, I wanted everyone to be interested in what I was interested in, and excited by the same sights. During travelling and in my first jobs in wildlife documentary, I felt enormously privileged to view what I had done and intrigued by the possibilities of sharing it.”

“In this film, you have attempted to capture the essence of how the Masai-Mara lions and cheetahs interact with each other. It is based in Kenya, and offers a view a to how these big cats live and function in their own life journey, and to create a feature film instead of an ‘informative documentary’ Why did you decide to film with this new objective?”

“We wanted to show these beautiful animals in an entirely new way. It is an attempt to explore how they live and communicate. That animals are aware of their life and their own life span is left to the side of most documentary explanation. This film is shot over two generations of each species, so there is the family line to follow.

I wanted to show that cats are aware, as we are, of preference, sadness, meanness, and character. The looks, the mood-changes, the treatment they give each other and the way they strive to survive. After four years of observation we realised that what we were seeing was moving, in a new way, a story of life as well as wild scene. I wanted to communicate that.”

“Films that create an affinity with animals can help to ensure that we prioritise conserving them. Did you have this objective in mind when you made the film?”

“No! We want to take the viewers completely away from themselves. We will not have a voice-over commentary as yet, and we are undecided on where to put necessary explanation, but it is not about human intelligence. What we learnt from it was the clear and gruesome methods of survival. The ruthlessness, determination, affection, love, fear. That is how we found the story line, in the interaction, the strong and weak characters and how they live together.

Particularly fascinating to me was how the female cheetahs are driven to protect their young and fend for themselves in the treacherous environment with the lions. In other parts as with the blue whale young in Blue Planet, we see how and when the mother is driven to desert her young in her own effort to survive – how long it takes them to let the cub go. The film also compares the two challenges of living and breeding within a gang, and living as a solitary parent.”

“The things we expect to divide us from animals, the consciousness that they supposedly don’t have, the decision-making, liking and dislike, love and hatred, exists within any community.”

“All wildlife explanation is best when it increases compassion for animals. In many ways this film can teach human beings, not about their own lives or mind, but how most of what they do and respond to depends on survival and instinct, rather than intelligence. That is what I hope to achieve! We want to show that any animal community contains just as much of the complexities of human nature that we credit as being part of intellect and thought, and the human brain. Our study I believe showed similarities with the human relationships we form and the affiliations we value.”

“Since the earliest natural history documentary films, it has been very influential to include the human touch in some way, with music, commentary, or explanation. Natural scientists such as David Attenborough have set the example of always communicating not just the landscape, the place, the atmosphere, but their own affinity with the animals, which in turn moved people to understand the environment better and to understand animal similarities. Now you are moving away from this as a production team, what will be the biggest hurdle to promoting your film?”

“We specifically aim to reach audiences that would never dream of watching a documentary on television! The time constraints of people’s lives allow for entertainment to be allocated, and it must be a promise to be entertainment, and a break from the routine. We hope that for America in particular they will respond brilliantly to something presented as a full story, with a storyline, and the Disney sponsorship ensures the kind of publicity environmental issues need if we hope to help our wildlife and planet. We had to say yes! I hope it will mean that the next generation get involved in animal conservation as we are.”

‘Big Cats’ will be release across America in September of this year.

By Smitha Peter

Recent studies by Natural England and the European Red List reveal that biodiversity is facing serious threats due to loss of habitat.

According to the first study, 480 of the 492 observed species have gone extinct in the past two centuries. The second one says that almost one-third of butterfly species are in decline. Both reports view industrial agriculture as a major factor, along with hunting, pollution and climate change.

Golden eagle - one of the lost species. Image credit: J. Glover - Atlanta, Georgia

“Mixed farming or rotational farming is the way forward. Diversity is both a measure of increasing production and conservation of nature,” said environmentalist Dr Vandana Shiva in her speech ‘Perils of the industrial agricultural system’ at the Gaia Foundation in London.

She added that small-scale farming is the most sustainable way for agricultural production.
The European Red List report suggests that the shift from traditional farming methods have especially hit insect species like butterflies. “New agricultural techniques provide little or no space for wild plants and flowers to grow. Moreover, it is based on monoculture, where the plant varieties cultivated are often not butterfly friendly,” says Malcolm Bridge from Butterfly Conservation.

Forest cleared for soybean cultivation. Image credit: Marcelo R. Zak

A study by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) on soil organisms also had interesting results. It stated that although the number of soil bugs increased by 47 per cent in the past 10 years, diversity of bugs has decreased by 11 per cent.

However, scientists warn that further research is needed to be sure of the trend, as the effect of land management, pollution and climate change on soil bugs is not clearly known. The study also observed that there is no significant increase in the number of bugs in arable land, probably due to the regular disruption of their habitat. Diversity of organisms helps the soil cope with pollution and changing weather conditions.

Industrial agriculture is designed to obtain maximum output from minimum input by utilising technological advancements. Production of cheap and plentiful food is viewed as its main benefit.

Related posts:

1. Lost butterflies of England
2. Want to discover a new species? Try your local pond
3. Environmental roundup

By Louis Jagger

Over the last few months, an unusual website has attracted thousands of viewers to discover more about one of the world’s most beautiful birds – the barn owl.

The website, Sportsman’s Paradise Online, has set up a live internet feed inside a barn owl nesting box. Viewers have watched the chicks grow from indiscriminately cute bundles of open-mouthed hunger into their current, almost fully-fledged state.

A barn owl

Another section of the website offers information about barn owls and the testimony of those who set up the camera, in San Marcos, California. Given the 59.000 Facebook shares, 4,000+ comments and 1,195 retweets, it’s safe to say that these owls have touched internet viewers in a way that few organised nature documentaries could have done.

And this nest isn’t the only one being transmitted freely across the internet. The Franklin Institute Hawk Nest cam is currently broadcasting on Ustream with a very young brood of red-tailed hawk chicks, a live chatbox full of enthused bird-lovers, and that all-important link containing more information about The Franklin Institute and its nest-observing project.

Quite what it is about birds of prey which so captures the imagination is up for debate, but on cuteness alone these unwitting internet superstars could charm their way into anyone’s precious internet routine. One might argue that this is an invasion of privacy, but as the birds are unaware of the camera, and grow up normally, it ought to be seen as an opportunity for regular people with a passing ornithological interest to inform and educate themselves upon the mysteries of avian youth. The joy of watching a helpless ball of down grow into a powerful, ruthless winged predator, live on your laptop screen, is a unique experience to say in the least.

And if you’re especially interested in this on-demand nature-viewing, the Sportsman’s Paradise Online site has a link to several other live wildlife cameras you can explore…

By Jennifer Green

Scientists working at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California announced last week that an X-ray analysis has revealed a chemical connection between birds and dinosaurs.

Placing a 150 million year old Archaeopteryx specimen labelled ‘Thermopolis’ under a bright X-ray beam, the researchers discovered that the ‘dinobird’s’ chemical remains lay hidden just below the surface of the fossil.

By analysing how hair-thin X-ray beams interacted with the fossil, then comparing it to the composition of the surrounding rock, the scientists found significantly different concentrations of several elements, proving that they belong to the animal itself.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

“People have never used a technique this sensitive on Archaeopteryx before,” said SLAC physicist Uwe Bergmann, who led the study. “Because the beam is so bright, we were able to see the teeniest chemical traces that nobody thought were there.”

From this they mapped the chemical composition of Thermopolis, which was published last week in the Proceedings of National Academy of Science. The results revealed that sections of the feathers are actually real fossilised material rather than mere impressions and contain phosphorous and sulphur – chemicals that are present in modern day birds.

“We talk about the physical link between birds and dinosaurs, and now we have found a chemical link between them,” said University of Manchester geochemist Roy Wogelius, corresponding author on the paper.

“In the fields of paleontology and geology, people have studied bones for decades. But this whole idea of the preservation of trace metals and the chemical remains of soft tissue is quite exciting.”

All ten Archaeopteryx specimens that have been discovered have undergone numerous different visual analyses and scans in the past, none of which revealed the hidden dinobird’s chemical remains.

“You would think after 150 years of study, we’d know everything we need to know about this animal,” said University of Manchester paleontologist Phil Manning. “But guess what – we were wrong.”

The new technique also provides an alternative method of analysing other fossil remains, potentially revealing new information about animals that have been extinct for a very long time.

“We’re able to read so much more into these organisms now using this technology – we’re literally touching ghosts,” said Wogelius. “Chemistry is the real key in the future of paleontology. It’s a paradigm shift.”

But the method does have its limitations. Only remains that have not been removed from their surrounding rock can be analysed this way because it is necessary to establish that elements belong to a specimen and have not been transferred from foreign sources.