BBC Energy Science – China’s rapid investment in low carbon technologies has catapulted the nation up the global renewable energy rankings, a report shows. The Climate Group study said China invested $12bn (£6bn) in renewables during 2007, second only to Germany. …

The findings have been published as China faces criticism over its air quality ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games, which begin on 8 August. The report, China’s Clean Revolution, brings together the latest data on the country’s burgeoning renewables sector in one publication. Co-author Changhua Wu, The Climate Group’s China director, said the rapid rise in investment was, in part, the result of the government realising that the western model of industrialisation was unsustainable.

“China has been experiencing similar problems during its industrial revolution that western nations saw during their period of rapid growth - pollution, environmental damage and resource depletion,” she told BBC News. “Domestically, we are being constrained in many ways; we do not have that many natural resources anymore.” …

In order to meet its target of increasing the percentage of energy from low carbon technologies from 8% in 2006 to 15% by 2020, China is expected to invest an average of $33bn annually for the next 12 years. This was going to result in China becoming the leading investor by the end of 2009, Ms Wu forecast.

Figures within the report showed that China was already the leading producer in terms of installed renewable generation capacity. It has the world’s largest hydroelectricity capacity since the controversial Three Gorges project began producing electricity, and the fifth largest fleet of wind turbines on the planet. (08/02/08)
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BBC Medical Science – UK scientists have developed a drug which may halt the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Trials of the drug, known as Rember, in 321 patients showed an 81% difference in rate of mental decline compared with those not taking the treatment.

The Aberdeen University researchers said the drug targeted the build-up of a specific protein in the brain. Alzheimer’s experts were optimistic about the results, but said larger trials were now needed.

Presenting the results at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease, Professor Claude Wischik said the drug may be on the market by 2012.

Patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease were given either 30, 60 or 100mg of the drug or a placebo. The 60mg dose produced the most pronounced effect - over 50 weeks there was a seven-point difference on a scale used to measure severity of dementia. At 19 months there was no significant decline in mental function in patients taking the drug, the researchers said.

Imaging data also suggests the drug may be having its biggest effect in the parts of the brain responsible for memory. The link between clumps or “tangles” of protein inside nerve cells in the brain and Alzheimer’s disease was first made over 100 years ago. Later shown to be made up of a protein called Tau, the tangles build up inside cells involved in memory, destroying them in the process.

Rember, or methylthioninium chloride, is the first treatment specifically designed to target the Tau tangles. … Methylthioninium chloride, commonly known as Methylene Blue is commonly used in the laboratory as a blue dye. Professor Wischik discovered its effect on the Tau protein by accident 20 years ago, when a drop in a test tube led to the disappearance of the protein he had been working on.

“We have demonstrated for the first time that it may be possible to arrest the progression of this disease by targeting the tangles which are highly correlated with the disease,” he said. “We did an analysis of the effect size at 24 weeks and at 50 weeks compared to the average effect size of the current treatments and it was about two and a half times better.” (08/02/08)
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BBC Medical Science — Scientists are moving closer to developing a pill which could deliver some of the benefits of exercise - even for those who do not move a muscle.

The journal Cell reports US researchers now have two possible pills which appear able to build muscle, increase stamina and even burn fat. In tests, mice were able to run 44% further - suggesting humans may be able to do the same without prior training. …

The two drugs, labelled AICAR and GW1516, appear to have an effect on a gene involved in the building and regulation of muscle. This “master gene” - PPAR-delta - has the ability to control the activity of many other genes - so adjusting it could in theory have a widespread effect on the way the body works.

Genetically altering mice to enhance the activity of the gene led to the development of muscle which was much more likely to burn fat than burn sugar. It also made “marathon mice” who were able to run much further on a treadmill.

The next step was to produce similar effects using a drug rather than a genetic alteration. The first version, a pill called GW1516, again produced the “fat burning” effect, but no change on exercise performance until the team started training the mice with long treadmill sessions. At the end of a series of these, the mice given the drug were running 77% longer than those training without its benefits.

The latest drug, AICAR, goes one step further, finding a different way to act on the same muscle cell mechanism. This time the mice did not need to train - after just four weeks on the drug, they ran 44% further on their treadmills without any prior exercise. (08/02/08)
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Christine Jeavans writes: I am giving up plastic for the whole of August. By this I mean not buying or accepting anything which contains plastic or is packaged in plastic. So, no take-away coffees, bottles of water or pre-packed sandwiches.

I’ll be forsaking punnets of strawberries and packs of chicken, supermarket milk and bottled cleaning products, and switching to reusable nappies for my toddler.

No longer will my other half and I be able to slump in front of the telly of an evening with the latest DVD, a takeaway curry and a bottle of wine (the cork could be plastic). I am, if you like, donning a polyester-free hairshirt - with the aim of seeing how possible it is to live without new plastic.

I will, however, be keeping the plastic I already own. But even so, it’s going to be very difficult.

Durable, versatile, lightweight, hygienic, cheap and strong: synthetic plastic is arguably one of the most useful inventions of the last century. It is essential in medical equipment, technology and thousands of devices which have increased our standard of living. But those very same attributes of durability and cheapness make plastic one of the most pervasive forms of waste on the planet.

Evidence of our failure to deal with plastic rubbish is everywhere, from bulging landfill sites and countryside litter in the UK to a toxic plastic “soup” swilling around the middle of the North Pacific, thousands of miles from continental land. (08/02/08)
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