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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

> Airport scanners may violate laws, says British rights commission


The use of full-body scanners at British airports may breach human rights laws, the country’s equality commission said today, potentially undermining the latest weapon against terrorism.

The new technology has been hurriedly introduced at London’s Heathrow airport and Manchester airport in northern England after a botched attempt to bomb a US-bound passenger aircraft from Amsterdam on Christmas Day.

Nigerian suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is alleged to have boarded a US aircraft on Dec 25 with explosives hidden undetected in his underwear.

The full-body scanners, which see through clothes to produce an image of the whole body, might have detected the explosives, experts have said.

Rights campaigners have said they fear an invasion of privacy and disproportionate scrutiny of Muslim travellers.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said the scanners might be breaking discrimination and privacy laws, and it had “serious doubts that the decision to roll this (body scanning) out in all UK airports complies with the law.”

The commission said one of the chief concerns was over how people would be selected for the scans.

In a letter to Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis, the EHRC expressed concern “about the apparent absence of safeguards to ensure the body scanners are operated in a lawful, fair and non-discriminatory manner.”

The Transport Department said it was committed to ensuring that all security measures are used legally, proportionately and in a non-discriminatory way.

It said it was “absolutely clear that those passengers who are randomly selected for screening will not be chosen because of any personal characteristics,” and that it had published an interim code of practice which addressed privacy concerns. — Reuters.
From Malaysian Insider.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

> Y chromosome evolving fast


By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON – Women may think of men as primitive, but new research indicates that the Y chromosome — the thing that makes a man male — is evolving far faster than the rest of the human genetic code.

A new study comparing the Y chromosomes from humans and chimpanzees, our nearest living relatives, show that they are about 30 percent different. That is far greater than the 2 percent difference between the rest of the human genetic code and that of the chimp's, according to a study appearing online Wednesday in the journal Nature.

These changes occurred in the last 6 million years or so, relatively recently when it comes to evolution.

"The Y chromosome appears to be the most rapidly evolving of the human chromosomes," said study co-author Dr. David Page, director of the prestigious Whitehead Institute in Cambridge and a professor of biology at MIT. "It's an almost ongoing churning of gene reconstruction. It's like a house that's constantly being rebuilt."

Before men get too impressed with themselves, lead author Jennifer Hughes offers some words of caution: Just because the Y chromosome, which determines gender, is evolving at a speedy rate it doesn't necessarily mean men themselves are more evolved.

Researchers took the most detailed examination of the Y chromosome, which females do not have, of both humans and chimps and found entire sections dramatically different. There were even entire genes on the human Y chromosome that weren't on the chimp, said Hughes, also of the Whitehead Institute.

The two-year research took twice as long as expected because of the evolutionary changes found, Hughes said.

There is a bit of a proviso to the comparison to other chromosomes. While all human and chimp chromosomes have been mapped, only two chimp chromosomes have been examined in great detail: Y and chromosome 21. Yet, there's still enough known to make the claim that the Y is the speediest evolver, Hughes and Page said.

Until recently the Y chromosome was considered the Rodney Dangerfield of genetics, especially because it had fewer genes than other chromosomes. A few years ago some researchers even suggested that the Y chromosome was shrinking so that in 50,000 years it would just disappear — and so would men.

"The story is not as cut and dried as many would have liked to predict," Hughes said.
"It's kind of fun to say that men are going to die out, but the science is proving — now that we've got data — that that's not true at all."

Page agreed. "The Y chromosome has many more tricks up its sleeve than it was given credit for," he said.

There are a couple of reasons Page and Hughes cite for Y being such an evolutionary powerhouse. One is that it stands alone and isn't part of a pair like 44 other chromosomes. So when there are mutations there's no matching chromosome to recombine and essentially cover up the change, Hughes said. Because women have two X chromosomes, the X chromosome doesn't have this situation.

Another reason has to do with the nature of mating. When female chimps are in heat, they mate frequently and with many partners, so there is an evolutionary pressure on the male to produce the most and best sperm to propagate his genes, Page said.

To test this out, Hughes said she hopes to soon examine the Y chromosomes of a rhesus macaque, which is fairly promiscuous, and the marmoset, which is more monogamous than early humans probably were.

Outside scientists praised the study.

"Wow," said R. Scott Hawley, a genetics researcher at the Stowers Institute in Kansas City. "That result is astounding."

"The Y chromosome clearly has the strength and tenacity to fight back," said Hawley, who wasn't part of the research. "I certainly think the Y chromosome has taken a bad rap for a long time with people doing maps showing areas for channel surfing."


Friday, January 1, 2010

> Happy New Year 2010


HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010 It was a memorable 2009.Wishing 2010 will be fabulous.


New Year gives what one receives
Make not much of what you're missing
Happiness ought not seem daunting
In your heart is all you need
As you are is as you will
Sure of winds that wish you well.