Universities hit as Californian energy crisis starts to bite

San Diego

California's energy crisis took its toll on the state's universities last week, as funding for three new research centres came under threat. The universities may get their revenge, however — they have teamed up to sue utility company Enron for alleged breach of contract.

A state committee scrapped $75 million worth of funding two weeks ago for new University of California (UC) research centres devoted to biotechnology, telecommunications and nanotechnology. A separate committee restored the funding last week, but it may be cut again when the budget is finalized in May. Funding for a fourth centre, planned to specialize in information technology, is still suspended.

In a separate development, fears of escalating utility bills have led UC and the California State University to sue electricity company Enron of Houston, Texas. The universities say Enron is seeking to break the contract — an action which would prompt campus electricity bills to skyrocket, at the potential expense of teaching and research.

If the contract is breached, the universities say they would face extra electricity costs of up to $300 million over ten years. Enron denies that it is trying to break the contract and increase university utility bills. A hearing date on the lawsuit has not been scheduled.

Lab 'deceived' scientist into working on warheads

San Diego

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California has been accused of using federal funds designated for the safety and maintenance of the United States' existing nuclear weapons to develop new designs for warheads.

LLNL computer scientist Isaac Trotts resigned from his $85,000-a-year-post last week, saying that LLNL had “deceived” him into working on enhancing nuclear weapons. Trotts, employed on a Stockpile Stewardship, claims he agreed to work at LLNL on the condition that his research didn't contribute to the development of nuclear arms.

An LLNL spokesman said he couldn't discuss Trotts's case specifically because of personnel laws, but added: “Our recruiting is honest — there is no foundation for the statements he made.”

Thousands flock to garden of Eden

London

The Eden Project, a UK park designed to showcase plants from around the world, opened last weekend.

Home sweet biome: the Eden Project will house a vast collection of plants, some endangered. Credit: APEX

The £80 million (US$113 million) project centres on two giant greenhouses, or 'biomes', built in a disused clay pit in Cornwall, southwest England. These are stocked with plants from warm and tropical regions – a 25-metre-high waterfall in the tropical biome helps to maintain humidity. A third, roofless, area features flora from temperate regions. Eden will host doctoral researchers through collaborations with the universities of Reading, Exeter and Plymouth.

Some 7,000 people visited the park on its opening day. Disinfectant pads have been put at the entrances to allay fears of spreading foot-and-mouth disease.

Court use of blood sample 'broke confidentiality'

London

AIDS researchers have expressed concerns about patient privacy, after a supposedly confidential blood sample from a research project was used as evidence in a Scottish criminal trial.

Stephen Kelly of Glasgow was found guilty last month of knowingly infecting his girlfriend with HIV. Now it has emerged that blood samples taken from Kelly during a study of needle-sharing in Scottish jails were used as evidence against him, despite assurances that all samples would be kept confidential.

Andrew Leigh Brown of Edinburgh University, who led the study, has said he will not undertake similar work in Scotland until the situation is clarified. The study was paid for by the government-funded Medical Research Council, which says confidentiality can be waived in exceptional cases.

Coral campaign gets massive funding boost

Washington

The International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN), which campaigns to protect coral reefs, received a $10 million grant from Ted Turner's United Nations Foundation (UNF) last week.

ICRAN — a coalition of academic, private and government organizations — intends to use the money to fund sites for demonstrating coral-reef management in the Caribbean, East Africa, East Asia and the South Pacific. Educational programmes based at these sites will provide information on conservation practices in the hope of reversing the worldwide decline of coral reefs.

The UNF was created in 1997 to distribute the $1 billion pledged by entertainment mogul Turner for United Nations-related projects. This is its largest environmental donation to date.

Miles from metrication, but NASA inches towards it

Washington

NASA is happy to go metric, the US space agency said last week — but not when it is communicating with the public.

NASA's inspector general reviewed its use of units following the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999. The Orbiter had received incorrect instructions because one of the teams involved had been working with non-metric measurements. The US aerospace industry has generally been slow to convert to metric units.

Now the inspector general has advised NASA to increase the use of metric units as far as possible. Although NASA agreed to most of the changes, it said it wouldn't tell its public affairs office to go metric, citing low recognition of metric units among the public.

Transmitter concerns could silence Vatican

Munich

Radio Vatican's radio transmitters may be forced to stop spreading the word by the end of this month.

Cross to bear: campaigners fear that radiation from transmitters can cause leukaemia. Credit: EPA

Italian environmental minister Willer Bordon claimed last week that the electrical field produced by the transmitters breaches new legal limits. The transmitters produce electric fields of 12 volts per metre, higher than the Italian legal limit of 6 volts per metre, although this is much stricter than the limit allowed by the European Union. Three Radio Vatican directors are due to face trial in October accused of causing electromagnetic pollution.

Bordon's announcement follows repeated complaints from people living near radio transmitters. Campaigners blame the transmitters for local cases of leukaemia.