STOP: This Conference is Closed To Journalists
The well known stem cell researcher Hans Schöller suddenly stopped his lecture at an international conference in Berlin last week, because of journalists who joined the conference.

He was furious because of a recently published report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The article claims that Schöller devalorized results of his colleagues Gerd Hasenfuss and Wolfgang Engel during another conference. After the article a public dispute between researchers and Schöller erupted and led Schöller to the conclusion that the journalist is the one to blame: His report, said Schöller, was incorrect. And therefore Schöller claimed that he would ban journalists from conferences.

It was a hot topic for science journalists and science blogger Marcus Anhäuser whose posts “No muzzle for journalists” and “Should journalists stay outside?” caused lots of discussions.

Two Runners Dead After Storm Overtakes Extreme Zugspitze Race
Ten days ago two people died because of snowfall and storms during a run on Germany’s highest mountain, the Zugspitze. They died of exhaustion and hypothermia. Frank Abel is quite sure the extreme weather was foreseeable and takes another look at the forecasts before the running event started.

“We had predicted temperatures between +28 to +25 degrees Fahrenheit at 1.8 miles altitude; the expected wind speed was 46 to 59 miles per hour, which means wind chill temperatures from -4 to -15 degrees Fahrenheit. …For me it is absolutely incomprehensible how an organiser should allow athletes to run in shorts and tee shirts under these conditions.”

Climate Change Increases Kidney Diseases
The warmer the environment gets the more people suffer from kidney stones—a new worldwide problem. Jürgen Schönstein writes:

“This is probably the most specific scientific forecast concerning climate change I’ve heard so far: Global warming will increase the number of kidney stones in the U.S. within the next four decades by 30 percent.”

Hairy Magnetic Field Lines in Space
Ludmila Carone writes in her blog: This video actually shows the strange behavior of magnetic field lines in space. This is absolutely not unusual for planetary researchers .

Magnetic Movie from Semiconductor on Vimeo.

The description on Vimeo says: “The secret lives of invisible magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic ever-changing geometries. All action takes place around NASA’s Space Sciences Laboratories, UC Berkeley, to recordings of space scientists describing their discoveries. Actual VLF audio recordings control the evolution of the fields as they delve into our inaudible surroundings, revealing recurrent ‘whistlers’ produced by fleeting electrons. Are we observing a series of scientific experiments, the universe in flux, or a documentary of a fictional world?”

That’s all for now. Note that links in this article are to blog posts in German—but their authors are usually happy to respond to comments in English. Danke!

This newsletter is compiled by ScienceBlogs.de managing editor Beatrice Lugger.

The previous videos in the series include interviews with Nobelists Douglas Osheroff, Riccardo Giacconi, Brian Josephson, Johann Deisenhofer, Hartmut Michel, and Peter Grünberg.

The previous videos in the series include interviews with Nobelists Douglas Osheroff, Riccardo Giacconi, Brian Josephson, Johann Deisenhofer, and Hartmut Michel.

Homeopathy and Mystical Methods
Germany now has its first professor for homeopathy at the Berlin Charité, and the savants argue about the consequences of such an enthronement. Christian argues:

“In principle I would hope the new professorship could help to identify ineffective alternative healing methods and, if so, to inform the public about the sense and nonsense of certain methods.”

At the same time, Ulrich Berger describes a miraculous machine that dries damp basements without electricity and energy and criticizes the use of scientific expressions for the marketing of such “machines.”

“Well, there is a small problem with these Tesla or electromagnetic longitudinal or scalar waves…they do not exist.”

Surface Topologies
It is high time to give attention to Thilo Küssner’s dazzling series in Mathlog which charms with mathematical aesthetic models. In Germany 2008, is the year of mathematics.

Illustrated calculation at its best. Enjoy:

Coffeecup and donut shape

Four colors fit for everything

Different earth views

Eulers’ Polyeder

Handicrafts how to build surfaces with flats

Electromagnetism and steady deformation of curves

ScienceBlogs.de Has Its Own Podcast
Thomas Wanhoff has a well known German podcast. Now he also looks at ScienceBlogs.de and provides us with very nice views into our latest news. You can also download them also on iTunes. Science to go.

Funny Particle Zoo
Bad luck: These toys are not safety rated for children under five years of age. Good luck: Adults may play with them.

That’s it for now. Note that links in this article are to blog posts in German—but their authors are usually happy to respond to comments in English. Danke!

This newsletter is compiled by ScienceBlogs.de managing editor Beatrice Lugger.

The previous videos in the series include interviews with Nobelists Douglas Osheroff, Riccardo Giacconi, Brian Josephson, and Johann Deisenhofer.

The previous videos in the series include interviews with Nobelists Douglas Osheroff, Riccardo Giacconi, and Brian Josephson.

The previous videos in the series include interviews with Nobelists Douglas Osheroff, Riccardo Giacconi, and Brian Josephson.

Wrapping Up Lindau
Last Friday the Nobel Laureates Meeting at Lindau finished with a nice trip to the Isle of Mainau and a lovely farewell ceremony. Beatrice shows us many images of that beautiful day. During the trip we became eye-witness to a new kind of speed dating, which we’ll call Nobeldating! These dates lasted during the whole meeting: Different groups of young researchers and somewhere in the center a Nobel laureate. (See the picture of Nobelist Douglas Osheroff, surrounded by young acolytes.)

And our field studies have shown that physicists not only love to do water drop experiments, but also that games such as table soccer or Bollywood singing are very popular. The Lindau Blog is not finished yet; there are some more stories to tell and five more specially produced video interviews will be published soon.

Link: sevenload.com

Nuclear Power—Conversion of the Renunciation?
Germany is currently the only one among the G8 countries with a plan for stopping the use of nuclear power for energy production. But this decision is now again fiercely debated. And a recent small nuclear accident in France—at the Tricastin nuclear power plant, where 30,000 liters of radioactive uran-containing solution leaked out—provides new material for the discussion.

Tobias outlined the climate debate under the headline: ‘Fashionable or Rational?’

“An obvious alternative to conventional coal-fired power plants is nuclear power and I have the impression that this alternative is currently favored by politics. This puts climate activists in a huge dilemma. Indeed, the biggest shouters ‘CO2 is bad’ are also the biggest critics of nuclear power plants.

Christian started again a special search for per-reviewed articles on the topic of anthropogenic climate change. He made a find with a study from the year 2004. Professor Oreskes of the University of California at San Diego has analyzed 923 abstracts of peer-reviewed papers for Science magazine. Christian cited it:

“The question of what to do about climate change is also still open. But there is a scientific consensus on the reality of anthropogenic climate change. Climate scientists have repeatedly tried to make this clear. It is time for the rest of us to listen.”

ScienceBlogs Goes Twitter
“Twitter is fast, Twitter is sexy and Twitter connects people. The micro-blogging service Twitter is the ultimate tool.” So writes Marc, who has started a scienceblogs.de Tweet. Just some days before, Florian started a Twitter account himself and immediately compiled a list of astronomy tweets for us. Searching for ScienceBlogs at Twitter now, you may also find PZ Myers. Hopefully the text message communications will last long and be joined by others.

That’s all for now. Note that links in this article are to blog posts in German—but their authors are usually happy to respond to comments in English. Danke!

This newsletter is compiled by ScienceBlogs.de managing editor Beatrice Lugger.

The previous videos in the series include interviews with Nobelists Douglas Osheroff and Riccardo Giacconi.

The previous video in the series, an interview with Nobelist Douglas Osheroff, can be found here.