Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Garda may be issued with new weapons after Dublin killings

HEIGHTENED GARDA PRESENCE IN CITY AS FIRST OF TWO FUNERALS TAKES PLACE ON MONDAY

  

Armed detectives and specialist units including the ERU will form part of the operation to deter any further attacks around the funerals.

Members of the specialist Garda unit leading the response to armed crime gangs are seeking new weapons that would give it some of the capabilities of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) and Regional Support Unit (RSU).

Members of the Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau are concerned they are not properly equipped to deal with the volatile criminals they encounter during searches and other anti-gang operations.

And after two significant factions launched separate gun attacks over the last eight days that left four men wounded, two of them fatally, sources said members of the bureau want “immediate progress” on their demands.

They are requesting taser stun guns and MP7 high velocity personal defence weapons.

IN A STATEMENT ISSUED THROUGH GARDA HEADQUARTERS, THE FORCE SAID ITS FIREARMS CAPABILITY WAS BEING CONSIDERED.

• Irish gangland: How business got personal
• Drugs seized in Kildare and Newbridge searches

“As part of a wider programme An Garda Síochána is currently reviewing its armed capacity and response capability,” the statement said.

Powerful firearms. 

While the MP7s are powerful firearms that can pierce armour. Sources say the stun guns – used to subdue violent criminals – were likely to be used more often. Members of the bureau have already been trained to use tasers but have not been provided with them, unlike the ERU and RSU.

Gardaí are to begin mounting a heightened security operation this evening in a bid to minimise the risk of further gun attacks around the funerals of David Byrne and Eddie Hutch.

Father-of-two David Byrne, who was killed at the Regency Hotel, Drumcondra, eight days ago is to be waked and his parents’ home in Crumlin tomorrow evening ahead of his funeral on Monday.

Garda sources said a security operation would need to be put in place in the south inner city on Monday morning and into the afternoon, when Mr Byrne’s funeral mass takes place at St Nicholas of Myra Church, Francis Street, before burial at Mount Jerome Cemetery, Harold’s Cross.

There was concern in Garda circles last night that social occasions around the funeral may give rise to more violence.

A high-visibility presence of unarmed uniformed gardaí along with armed detectives and specialist units including the ERU will form part of the operation to deter any further attacks. The Public Order Unit, or riot squad, was also expected to be on standby.

The boxing weigh-in?

Mr Byrne (33) was shot dead when a group of armed men, some dressed in Garda special operations-style uniforms and carrying AK 47s, burst into a boxing tournament weigh-in the Regency Hotel last Friday, February 4th.

As two Independent News & Media journalists remained away from their homes under threat from one of the feuding gangs, NewsBrands Ireland, representing 16 national newspaper titles, said it “vigorously condemned” the threats.

It said journalists “perform a hugely important function in helping society to value truth . . . It is vital that all journalists working for a free press are enabled to carry out their duties without fear and intimidation.”

A Cork Bishop urges voters to question candidates on Eight Amendment

SOME USING LIFE LIMITING CONDITIONS TO PUSH FOR ABORTION ON WIDER GROUNDS, a cork CLERIC WARNS

  

The Bishop of Cork and Ross John Buckley.

A Catholic bishop has urged voters to question all general election candidates about their views and voting intentions on repealing the Eighth Amendment to allow for abortion in certain circumstances such as fatal foetal abnormality.

Bishop of Cork and Ross Dr John Buckley said it was sad that a child’s life-limiting condition was being used by some candidates in the forthcoming general election to promote an agenda of those who seek to legalise abortion on much wider grounds.

In the first intervention by a Catholic bishop in the general election campaign, Bishop Buckley said that “candidates in the election should be questioned politely but firmly not just on their future intentions but on their past record.”

Bishop Buckley said there would be frequent references in the debate to “fatal foetal abnormalities” but the word “fatal” was misleading since there was “no medical evidence where a doctor can predict, with certainty, the lifespan of babies before they are born.”

“The term ‘incompatible with life’, which is also used, is a hurtful phrase since it implies that a baby’s life is worthless… parents often say that the time they have with their baby, however short, is very precious,” he said.

Bishop Buckley said the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Act (2013) introduced by the Fine Gael/Labour coalition “directly targeted the life of the unborn child and did so in the full knowledge that abortion is not a treatment for suicidal feelings”.

In the context of abortion, the Catholic Church teaches it is wrong to confuse the necessary medical treatment to save the life of a mother and which does not intend to harm the baby with abortion which deliberately takes the life of a child, he said.

Late last year, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he would convene a constitutional convention to examine repealing the Eighth Amendment, which would give equal right to life to a mother and her unborn child, and would allow a free vote if the convention proposed repeal.

Meanwhile, Labour has included repeal of the Eighth Amendment as part of its election manifesto even though last May it voted against a bill proposed byRuth Coppinger of the Socialist Party calling for the deletion of the Eighth Amendment to allow legislation on abortion.

Last November, Labour Senator Ivana Bacik enunciated Labour’s policy, explaining that the party’s proposals would allow for abortion under four medically certified grounds -risk to life, risk to health, cases of rape and case of fatal foetal abnormality.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin recently said that his party would not be initiating the repeal of the Eighth Amendment.

He said it was a sensitive issue and he would favour the setting up of an all party committee to “tease out the various issues”.

Sinn Féin voted at its Ard Fheis in March 2015 in favour of allowing abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities and voted for the deletion of the Eighth Amendment when proposed by Ruth Coppinger in the Dáil last May.

Renua, whose leader Lucinda Creighton resigned as a Fine Gael minister of state when she opposed the suicide clause in the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill in 2013, has said it is open to a referendum on abortion.

Meanwhile, a number of individual Fine Gael TDs including both the former and current Ministers for Health James Reilly and Leo Varadkar have both indicated that they would favour repeal of the Eighth Amendment .

Fianna Fáil spokesman on health Billy Kelleher said he would be happy if the Eighth Amendment was deleted and replaced with legislation outside of the constitution as long as the new law was strict and allowed abortion in only limited circumstances.

Irish Life’s profits up by 11% last year to €204 million

PENSION AND INVESTMENT FIRM CONTRIBUTED €204M TO ITS CANADIAN PARENT LAST YEAR

   

BILL KYLE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, IRISH LIFE GROUP: “(33%) ONE IN THREE IRISH ADULTS HAS SOME SAVINGS WITH US AND WE MANAGE 15% OF PERSONAL ASSETS IN IRELAND.”

Irish Life contributed €204 million in profit last year to its Canadian parent company, Great-West Lifeco, according to full year results just published. This was an increase of 11% on 2014.

For the three months to the end of December, Irish Life produced a profit of €77 million, a year-on-year increase of 57%.

Commenting on the results, Bill Kyle, Irish Life’s chief executive, said: “Our business continues to grow. Irish Life now has €64 billion of assets under management, more than one million customers and 2,300 employees.

“One in three Irish adults has some savings with us and we manage 15% of personal assets in Ireland.”

Mr Kyle said a highlight of the fourth-quarter performance was the success of Irish Life’s Empower pension programme for corporate businesses. It signed up five new large clients representing more than 7,000 members, €500 million in assets and €50 million in annual premium flow.

On January 27th, ratings agency Fitch upgraded Irish Life’s to ‘AA’ from ‘AA-’. This upgrade reflected Fitch’s view that Irish Life has become “core” to its Canadian parent.

“We are particularly pleased that Fitch noted that Great-West Lifeco’s acquisition of Irish Life has been well managed and has provided the company with critical scale in the Irish market as well as operational synergies and expense savings,” Mr Kyle said.

Looking for a healthy way to lose some weight? Then eat some breakfast

 V  V 

EATING BREAKFAST MAY NOT ONLY MAKE PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY OBESE, LOSE WEIGHT BUT CAN ALSO MAKE THEM MORE PHYSICALLY ACTIVE AND REDUCE FOOD INTAKE LATER IN THE DAY, REVEALS A STUDY.
ACCORDING TO THE TEAM, INCREASING ACTIVITY CAN IMPROVE HEALTH IN SEDENTARY PEOPLE MAKING THEM MORE ACTIVE BY CONTROLLING THEIR BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS.

“Despite many people offering opinions about whether or not you should eat breakfast, to date, there has been a lack of rigorous scientific evidence showing  ..
or whether, breakfast might cause changes in our health,” said lead researcher James Betts from the University of Bath in Britain.

The results highlight some of these impacts, but “how important” breakfast is still really depends on the individual and their own personal goals, Betts added.

The team wanted to study the possible links between breakfast, body weight and health.

In the study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers split obese  ..
The “breakfasting” group was asked to eat at least 700 calories by 11 a.m., which the first half of the group consumed within at least two hours of waking up. The fasting group was allowed only water until noon.

“For example, if weight loss is the key, there is little to suggest that just having breakfast or skipping it will matter. However, based on other markers of a healthy lifestyle like being more active or controlling blood sugar levels, then there is evidence that breakfast may help,” Betts noted.
It is important to bear in mind that not everybody responds in the same way to breakfast and that not all breakfasts are equal.

“The effects of a sugary cereal compared to a high-protein breakfast are likely to be quite different,” said Enhad Chowdhury, another researcher.

Some 150,000 penguins perish after a giant iceberg traps "An Antarctica colony"

    

• 150,000 PENGUINS HAVE DIED AFTER AN ICEBERG RAN AGROUND IN ANTARCTICA

• THE MASSIVE ICEBERG COLLIDED INTO THE BAY IN 2010

About 150,000 penguins have died since being stranded by a vast iceberg that became lodged off the coast of Antarctica six years ago, according to the journal Antarctic Science.

Combined with expanding ice, the B09B iceberg, which at 1,120 square miles is almost the size of Rhode Island, has cut off the Adelie penguins’ food supply and changed the landscape of their home, according to a February report in the peer-reviewed journal published by Cambridge University Press.

The towering mass of water ice first ran aground into the penguins’ habitat of Cape Denison in Commonwealth Bay in 2010. Before that it was floating along the coast for nearly 20 years before colliding into the bay. The iceberg essentially has landlocked the penguins, forcing the animals to trek across a desolate stretch of nearly 40 miles to find food.

Strength in numbers – Adelies are one of the most abundant of the penguin species. They can be found in large colonies and on icebergs and coastal areas in Antarctica waters.

Reduced habitat – Adelie penguins face the same climate change dangers as emperors, such as reduced habitat and a diminishing food supply. However, due to their larger population, they’re currently less at risk.

South polar skua – The south polar skua is the Adelie’s only land predator. It will attempt to steal penguin eggs and attack young chicks. Penguins work together to fight off the vicious skuas.

African penguin – The warmer climes of coastal South Africa and Namibia are home to the African or jackass penguin. Boulders Beach near Cape Town, South Africa, is a popular destination for penguin spotting.

Homebodies – Unlike the highly mobile penguins in Antarctica, African penguins breed, nest and feed in the same area instead of traveling hundreds of miles between sites. They build nests under boulders or bushes or burrows dug from their own guano.

Endangered species – African penguins are listed as an endangered species. Their decreasing population is spurred by loss of nesting grounds due to guano removal by humans, as well as a decreasing food supply as a result of overfishing.

Little penguins – The little penguin, also known as the fairy or blue penguin, can be found on the coasts of New Zealand and southern Australia. They’re the smallest of all penguins, weighing just a kilo or two and topping out at just over 30 centimeters tall.

Penguin Awareness – Around the globe, penguins are at risk of extinction due to overfishing and man-made changes to their breeding grounds.

Emperor penguins – There are 17 species of penguin, with emperor penguins being the largest. They weigh up to 45 kilos (100 pounds) and grow to 120 centimeters (48 inches) tall. These three are pictured on sea ice at McMurdo Sound in Antarctica.

Where to spot them – Emperors can be seen along the coast of Antarctica. Breeding colonies are often the destination for cruises and scenic flights. Penguin species can also be spotted in South Africa, Chile, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.

Climate change – As with most polar species, penguins are feeling the effects of climate change. Ice melt is changing their breeding grounds and overfishing and ocean acidification is affecting their food sources of fish, squid and krill.

That waddle – Emperors have an awkward, waddling gait on land, but are graceful in the water. These birds can dive more than 550 meters (1,800 feet) and stay under for up to 20 minutes.

Adelie penguins – Less than half the size of an emperor penguin, Adelie penguins are one of the smallest of the Antarctic penguin species. Each October, they build nests of rocks on land near open water.

Strength in numbers – Adelies are one of the most abundant of the penguin species. They can be found in large colonies and on icebergs and coastal areas in Antarctica waters.

Reduced habitat – Adelie penguins face the same climate change dangers as emperors, such as reduced habitat and a diminishing food supply. However, due to their larger population, they’re currently less at risk.

South polar skua – The south polar skua is the Adelie’s only land predator. It will attempt to steal penguin eggs and attack young chicks. Penguins work together to fight off the vicious skuas.

African penguin – The warmer climes of coastal South Africa and Namibia are home to the African or jackass penguin. Boulders Beach near Cape Town, South Africa, is a popular destination for penguin spotting.

Homebodies – Unlike the highly mobile penguins in Antarctica, African penguins breed, nest and feed in the same area instead of traveling hundreds of miles between sites. They build nests under boulders or bushes or burrows dug from their own guano.

Endangered species – African penguins are listed as an endangered species. Their decreasing population is spurred by loss of nesting grounds due to guano removal by humans, as well as a decreasing food supply as a result of overfishing.

Little penguins – The little penguin, also known as the fairy or blue penguin, can be found on the coasts of New Zealand and southern Australia. They’re the smallest of all penguins, weighing just a kilo or two and topping out at just over 30 centimeters tall.

Penguin Awareness – Around the globe, penguins are at risk of extinction due to overfishing and man-made changes to their breeding grounds.

Emperor penguins – There are 17 species of penguin, with emperor penguins being the largest. They weigh up to 45 kilos (100 pounds) and grow to 120 centimeters (48 inches) tall. These three are pictured on sea ice at McMurdo Sound in Antarctica.

Where to spot them – Emperors can be seen along the coast of Antarctica. Breeding colonies are often the destination for cruises and scenic flights. Penguin species can also be spotted in South Africa, Chile, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.

Climate change – As with most polar species, penguins are feeling the effects of climate change. Ice melt is changing their breeding grounds and overfishing and ocean acidification is affecting their food sources of fish, squid and krill.

That waddle – Emperors have an awkward, waddling gait on land, but are graceful in the water. These birds can dive more than 550 meters (1,800 feet) and stay under for up to 20 minutes.

Adelie penguins – Less than half the size of an emperor penguin, Adelie penguins are one of the smallest of the Antarctic penguin species. Each October, they build nests of rocks on land near open water.

Strength in numbers – Adelies are one of the most abundant of the penguin species. They can be found in large colonies and on icebergs and coastal areas in Antarctica waters.

The once 160,000-strong colony has now dwindled to 10,000 penguins.

“The arrival of iceberg B09B in Commonwealth Bay, East Antarctica… has dramatically increased the distance Adélie penguins breeding at Cape Denison must travel in search of food,” said researchers in the report.

Since 2011, the colony’s population has fallen dramatically, according to the Climate Change Research Center at Australia’s University of New South Wales.

The outlook for the Cape Denison Adelie penguins remains dire. Unless the colossal iceberg is broken up by sea ice, scientists predict the colony will disappear in 20 years.

About 5,500 pairs are still breeding in the area, but there has been a significant decline in their population compared with a century ago, according to estimates based on satellite images and a census in 1997.

However, it isn’t the end for all Adelie penguins. About five miles from the Commonwealth Bay, another colony is thriving, which leaves scientists to conclude that the iceberg has had a direct impact of the species that is now landlocked. About 30% of the Adelie penguin population lives in East Antarctica.

Research on the iceberg’s impact on the Adelie penguins can give scientists insight into the wider implications on the effects of increasing sea ice in the area.

Long-term environmental changes are projected for the Southern Ocean, which will likely affect marine predators, according to a 2015 report published the peer-reviewed journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. Environmental shifts because of climate change could also affect the breeding habitats of land creatures, finding food in a marine environment and the availability of prey for larger predators

Deglaciation, the gradual melting of glaciers, is a key driver in the Adelie penguins’ population over a millennium, according to scientists. But while changes in sea ice can directly affect the species, scientists say it’s important to keep perspective on the penguins’ population over a larger time frame.    

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Irish Life made a big profit of €184 million under its new owners

 

At least €4 million in extra cost savings from merger with Canada Life now expected

Irish Life generated an after-tax profit of €184 million in 2014 in its first full year under the ownership of Canadian group Great-West Lifeco.

Irish Life generated an after-tax profit of €184 million in 2014 in its first full year under the ownership of Canadian group Great-West Lifeco.

Results published today show that Irish Life’s profit for the three months ended December 31st rose by 94 per cent year on year to €49 million.

This represented Irish Life’s second strongest quarter since it was acquired from the State by Great-West Lifeco in July 2013 for €1.3 billion.

At group level, Great-West Lifeco reported net profit of $2.5 billion Canadian dollars (€1.76 billion) for 2014 and $657 million for the fourth quarter of the year.

The Irish Life integration programme continued last year, with annualised savings of €40.8 million achieved, according to Great-West Lifeco.

The Canadian company now expects to exceed the original €40 million synergy target by at least 10 per cent.

Commenting on the results, Bill Kyle, chief executive of Irish Life, said: “While focused on integration, our business continues to grow. Overall we now have more than one million customers, €56 billion of assets under management and 2,200 employees.”

During the year 2014 Irish Life generated €397 million of Great-West Lifeco’s fee income.

The company said a highlight of the fourth quarter was the success of its Multi-asset Portfolios (MAPs) funds, with more than €3 billion now invested.

Following the acquisition of Irish Life, Great-West Lifeco has merged the business with its existing Canada Life subsidiary here. They will operate under the Irish Life brand.

Mr Kyle said the merger of the businesses is ahead of target. “Our €60 million integration programme is nearing completion, with 69 per cent of the investment incurred as of December 31st. We expect the Canada Life business to be fully integrated with Irish Life, ahead of target, in April 2015.”

Established in 1939, Irish Life is Ireland’s leading life, investment and pension company.

Industry-led alcohol awareness campaign criticised

 

Senator says most people will think ‘Stop out of Control Drinking’ doesn’t apply to them

Fergus Finlay (far left), chairman of the board for the new campaign to stop out of control drinking, with clinical psychotherapist Joanna Fortune, Labour Relations Commission chief executive Kieran Mulvey, and Áine Lynch from the National Parents Council, at the campaign’s launch.

Allowing a drinks company to fund a public health campaign on alcohol and to “frame the debate” is wrong, a children’s rights campaigner has said.

Independent Senator Jillian van Turnhout said the Diageo-funded campaign “Stop Out of Control Drinking” had many good people associated with it.

But she added that she had carried out two reports for the European Economic and Social Committee on alcohol-related harm and “I saw at first-hand how the industry will try to influence, orchestrate and campaign to ensure that any effective reports one is trying to do are diluted”.

Drinks conglomerate Diageo launched the campaign, which is chaired by Barnardo’s chief executive Fergus Finlay.

Members of the campaign board include Labour Relations Commission chief executive Kieran Mulvey, St Patrick’s Hospital chief executive Paul Gilligan, GP and health commentator Dr Ciara Kelly, National Parents Council chief Áine Lynch and Simon Keogh of the Irish Rugby Union Players’ Association.

Ms van Turnout said most people in Ireland would think the Stop Out of Control drinking was not directed at them and instead “we should be talking about alcohol-related harm”.

She told the Upper House: “Allowing a drinks company to frame a debate and put major money behind a public health campaign is wrong.”

The Independent Senator pointed to the World Health Organisation, which had indicated that “it would be inappropriate for the industry to have a role in the formulation of alcohol policies either nationally or locally”.

She said the alcohol industry’s involvement in the campaign was wrong. “Those involved with the campaign would say it is independent but let us remember that Diageo, the drinks company involved with this, exists to sell alcohol and to make profits for its shareholders.”

That is the reason for the business and she did not argue with that, “but it is not a public health company”.

She warned Senators that it was “unacceptable that any of us would support a campaign that is so clearly the narrative of the drinks company.

“That is what it wants us to talk about, the out of control drinking, not the effect drink has on family households”

She reminded the House: “We cannot have an ambivalent response to alcohol, we need to look at it seriously. It is having a destructive effect in many households.”

Calling for a Seanad debate on alcohol-related harm, she said “let us take the lead on the issue and not put it in the hands of any drinks company”.

Independent Senator Paul Bradford supported her comments and said the drinks industry “has sensed a certain degree of weakness on the Government’s part following the decision not to pursue a ban on advertising by drinks companies in the context of sports events”.

He believed it was a “fundamental error” not to ban alcohol-related sponsorship of sport.

“There is now a view in certain sectors of the drinks industry that they will be able to browbeat the Government further”.

Mr Bradford said the excessive consumption of alcohol was Ireland’s “greatest social problem” and it stretched into criminal behaviour, societal and family breakdown.

A national debate was necessary but should not be led by the drinks industry but “by the Department (of Health), the Government, politicians and community leaders”.

Major increase in Fair Deal waiting lists forecast

 

Nursing home scheme is ‘Achilles heel’ of health service, says HSE chief

Minister of State for Primary Care Kathleen Lynch has said the Fair Deal scheme would need additional funding to reduce waiting lists and invest in community supports, and ensure patients did not have to go into care.

The HSE chief has issued a stark warning about growing waiting lists and waiting times for the Fair Deal nursing home scheme.

The scheme, which funds nursing home care for 20,000 older people, is the “Achilles heel” of the health services and is putting patients’ health at risk, HSE director general Tony O’Brien said.

Unless extra funding is found, the waiting list for the scheme will grow to 2,200 people by the end of the year while waiting times will swell to 18-20 weeks, he told the Oireachtas health committee.

The additional €25 million funding boost for the scheme provided in the budget will suffice to keep waiting times down at the current level of 11 weeks only until the end of this month, he warned.

Despite this extra funding, the number on the waiting list has started to increase again.

In October there were 1,937 people on the waiting list and the waiting time was 15 weeks. By early January this number had fallen to 1,188, and the waiting time to 11 weeks.

Now, however, the number waiting has increased again to 1,234.

Demographic pressures

Mr O’Brien said due to demographic pressures more people were coming onto the waiting list, even though more people were being taken off it than ever before.

The delays in the scheme represented a clinical risk to patients as there was a direct correlation between Fair Deal waiting time and the number of people on trolleys in hospital emergency departments.

Unless the problems with Fair Deal were solved, the health service was in for a difficult 2015, he warned. The financial allocation of the HSE needed to reflect demographic pressures as quickly as possible.

Patients were also at clinical risk as a result of the enforced cancellation of inpatient procedures, as in some cases their condition might deteriorate in the absence of medical attention.

Minister of State for Primary Care Kathleen Lynch said Fair Deal would need additional funding to reduce waiting lists and invest in community supports, and ensure patients did not have to go into care.

POWER NAP THE BEST “WAY for your GOOD HEALTH”

  

Many people turn to a power nap before a night out, a big meeting or an important event. And now the benefits have been scientifically backed up, as new research has found just 30 minutes of shuteye can repair damage triggered by lack of sleep by relieving stress and boosting your immune system.

The relationship between sleep and hormones in 11 healthy men aged between 25 and 32 was examined, with participants limited to two hours’ sleep for one night during one session. In the other session, the men slept the same amount of time but were also allowed two 30-minute naps the day after their restless night.

These would take place over three days, beginning with a full eight hours sleep and ending with the males given a night of unlimited snoozing as recovery.

Results discovered that limited sleep produced more norepinephrine, a hormone which increases blood sugar, blood pressure and heart rate, thus resulting in more energy. However there was a lack of interleukin-6, a protein with antiviral properties found in saliva. When the men napped, they still remained alert thanks to the norepinephrine, and their interleukin-6 was boosted.

This concludes that naps can be beneficial for the body as a whole, especially when fending off bacteria.

“Our data suggests a 30-minute nap can reverse the hormonal impact of a night of poor sleep.

“This is the first study that found napping could restore biomarkers of neuroendocrine and immune health to normal levels,” Dr Brice Faraut, of the Université Paris Descartes-Sorbonne Paris Cité, explained.

“Napping may offer a way to counter the damaging effects of sleep restriction by helping the immune and neuroendocrine systems to recover.

“The findings support the development of practical strategies for addressing chronically sleep-deprived populations, such as night and shift workers.”

The study, published in Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, is also hoped to help those who do shift work and suffer from insomnia

Scientist’s ‘Try to contact the aliens’ ET & all

   

Seti listens out for signals using its own radio telescope array at Hat Creek in California. 

Scientists at a US science conference have said it is now time to actively try to contact intelligent life on other worlds.

Researchers involved in the search for extra-terrestrial life are considering what the message from Earth should be.

The call has been made by at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in San Jose.

But others argued that making our presence known might be dangerous.

Researchers at Seti have been listening for signals from outer space for more than 30 years using radio telescope facilities in the US. So far there has been no sign of ET.

The organisation’s director, Dr Seth Shostak told scientists at the AAAS meeting that it is now time to step up the search.

“Some of us at the institute are interested in ‘active Seti’, not just listening but broadcast something maybe to some nearby stars because maybe there is some chance that if you wake somebody up you’ll get a response,” he told BBC News.

The concerns are obvious, but sitting in his office at the institute in Mountain View, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley he expresses them with characteristic, impish glee.

Game over?

Any society that could come here and ruin our whole day by incinerating the planet already knows we are here”

“A lot of people are against active Seti because it is dangerous. It is like shouting in the jungle. You don’t know what is out there, you better not do it. If you incite the aliens to obliterate the planet, you wouldn’t want that on your tombstone, right?”

I couldn’t argue with that. But initially, I could scarcely believe I was having this conversation at a serious research institute rather than a science fiction convention. The sci-fi feel of our talk was underlined by the toy figures of bug-eyed aliens that cheerfully decorate the office.

But Dr Shostak is a credible and popular figure and has been invited to present his arguments at America’s largest gathering of scientists at the AAAS meeting.

Leading astronomers, anthropologists and social scientists are gathering at his institute after the AAAS meeting for a symposium to flesh out plans for a proposal for active Seti to put to the public and politicians.

Seth Shostak on search for extra-terrestrial life: “Just send it all, because if you send a lot of information there’s some chance they’ll figure it out”

High on the agenda is whether such a move would, as he put it so starkly, lead to the “obliteration” of the planet.

“I don’t see why the aliens would have any incentive to do that,” Dr Shostak tells me.

“Beyond that, we have been telling them willy-nilly that we are here for 70 years now. They are not very interesting messages but the early TV broadcasts, the early radio, the radar from the Second World War – all that has leaked off the Earth.

“Any society that could come here and ruin our whole day by incinerating the planet already knows we are here.”

A clash of cultures

His argument isn’t entirely reassuring. But neither is the one made by David Brin, a science fiction writer invited to speak at the AAAS meeting, who opposes the plan.

“Historians will tell you that first contact between industrial civilisations and indigenous people does not go well,” he told me.

Mr Brin believes that those in favour of active Seti have been “railroading” the public into sending a message without a wide and detailed discussion of what the cultural impact might be”

He does not fear a Hollywood-style alien invasion and thinks the likelihood of making contact is extremely low. But the risks, he argues are extremely high and so merit careful consideration before anyone sends out a signal to potentially habitable worlds.

David Brin is arguing for a wide and detailed consideration of active Seti involving the public and government’s across the world because it is a decision that he believes affects the entire planet.

“The arrogance of shouting into the cosmos without any proper risk assessment defies belief. It is a course that would put our grandchildren at risk,” he said.

Also on the agenda at the active Seti symposium is that if we are to send a message to ET – what should it be?

Some involved in the discussions believe we should send a sanitised account of ourselves, leaving out parts of our history we aren’t proud of and putting a positive spin on our achievements – as if our species were attending a job interview or first date. Dr Shostak disagrees. He thinks the only way to win over the aliens is to be ourselves.

“My personal preference is to send the internet – send it all because if you send a lot of information then there’s some chance that they’ll work it out”.

What if the universe had no “Big Bang” beginning?

  

Reports of the death of the Big Bang have been greatly exaggerated. Big Bang theory is alive and well. At the same time, our universe may not have a beginning or end.

Most of us understand the Big Bang as the idea that our entire universe came from a single point, what astrophysicists call a “singularity.” But we might not need a singularity to have a Big Bang, according to a new study.

Are you seeing the stories this week suggesting that the Big Bang didn’t happen? According to astrophysicist Brian Koberlein – a great science communicator at Rochester Institute of Technology with a popular page on G+ – that’s not quite what the new research (published in early February 2015 Physics Letters B, has suggested. The new study isn’t suggesting there was no Big Bang, Koberlein says. It’s suggesting that the Big Bang did not start with asingularity – a point in space-time when matter is infinitely dense, as at the center of a black hole. How can this be? Koberlein explains on his website:

The catch is that by eliminating the singularity, the model predicts that the universe had no beginning. It existed forever as a kind of quantum potential before ‘collapsing’ into the hot dense state we call the Big Bang. Unfortunately many articles confuse ‘no singularity’ with ‘no big bang.’

The new model – in which our universe has no beginning and no end – comes from Ahmed Farag Ali at Benha University in Egypt and coauthor Saurya Das at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. Their paper looks at a result derived from Einstein’s theory of general relativity known as the Raychaudhuri equation. Koberlein says:

Basically his equation describes how a volume of matter changes over time, so its a great way of finding where physical singularities exist in your model. But rather than using the classical Raychaudhuri equation, the authors use a variation with a few quantum tweaks. This approach is often called semi-classical …

The upshot is that this work eliminates the need for an initial singularity of the Big Bang. That is, it eliminates the need for a single infinitely dense point from which our universe sprang some 13.8 billion years ago. The Big Bang itself, however, can still have happened, according to this model. Koberlein says:

The Big Bang is often presented as some kind of explosion from an initial point, but actually the Big Bang model simply posits that the universe was extremely hot and dense when the universe was young. The model makes certain predictions, such as the existence of a thermal cosmic background, that the universe is expanding, the abundance of elements, etc. All of these have matched observation with great precision. The Big Bang is a robust scientific theory that isn’t going away, and this new paper does nothing to question its legitimacy.

Enjoying EarthSky so far? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today!

One appealing feature of the new paper is that it also predicts a cosmological constant, a concept originally introduced by Albert Einstein in 1917. Einstein added a cosmological constant to his theory of general relativity keep the universe static, rather than expanding, but he later abandoned the concept as his “greatest blunder” after Edwin Hubble’s 1929 discovery that all galaxies outside our Local Group are moving away from each other.

The idea of a cosmological constant was discarded for some decades, but, since the 1990s, developments in cosmology have revived the idea that we need one to explain the universe as we observe it. In Ali and Das’ new model, a cosmological constant provides a proposed mechanism for the mysterious dark energy known to pervade space and cause an observed acceleration in the expansion of the universe.

So Big Bang theory is alive and well. And, Koberlein says:

While this is an interesting model, it should be noted that it’s very basic. More of a proof of concept than anything else. It should also be noted that replacing the Big Bang singularity with an eternal history isn’t a new idea. Many inflation models, for example, make similar predictions.

Still, it’ll be interesting to see if this model ignites interest among cosmologists and ultimately contributes to altering our thinking about a Big Bang singularity, which has been a fact of most of our lives since we were born. Big ideas like this do change, and it’ll be fun to see if this one does!

Bottom line: Most of us understand the Big Bang as the idea that our entire universe came from a single point, what astrophysicists call a “singularity.” But we might not need a singularity to have a Big Bang, according to a new study by Ahmed Farag Ali in Egypt and coauthor Saurya Das in Canada. The catch – according to astrophysicist Brian Koberlein – is that, without the singularity, this model predicts that the universe had no beginning. It existed forever as a kind of quantum potential before collapsing into the hot dense state we call the Big Bang.