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NEWS ... GLOBAL NEWS ... THE RHYTHM OF THE SUN PLANT GENES SWITCHED ON $30 BILLION SPENT ON Q cientists from the Ulysses mission have BY SOUND WAVES DRUG ADS IN USA Scents from the Ulysses mission have BY SOUND WAVES DRUG ADS IN USA proven that sounds generated deep Mie’ Jeong of the National Institute rug ads are increasingly taking up a inside the Sun cause the Earth to shake and of Agricultural Biotechnology in bigger portion of drug companies’ vibrate in sympathy. They have found that Suwon, South Korea, and colleagues claim advertising budgets, according to a study Earth's magnetic field, atmosphere and to have identified two genes in rice that published in the New England Journal of terrestrial systems all take part in this respond to sound waves. They also say that Medicine. The researchers compared US cosmic sing-along. the promoter of one of the sound-sensitive drug companies' 1996 and 2005 spending David Thomson and Louis Lanzerotti, genes could be attached to other genes to _ for direct-to-consumer drug ads shown on team members of the HISCALE experiment make them respond to sound, too. TV and websites, played on radio stations on board Ulysses, together with colleagues The findings follow a host of similar, but and placed in magazines and newspapers. Frank Vernon, Marc Lessard and Lindsay unsubstantiated, claims that plants respond The study shows that in 2005, drug Smith, present evidence that proves that the to sound. If the researchers are correct, they companies spent 330 per cent more on Earth moves to the rhythm of the Sun. _ say their discovery could enable farmers to direct-to-consumer drug ads than in 1996. They show that distinct, isolated tones, switch specific crop genes on and off, such Even so, they still spend more promoting predicted to be generated by pressure and as ones for flowering, by blasting sound drugs directly to health care professionals, gravity waves in the Sun, are present ina __ into the fields. That might be cheaper and according to the study. Overall, drug wide variety of terrestrial systems. more environmentally friendly than companies spent US$29.9 billion in 2005 Using highly sophisticated statistical proposed techniques such as activating to promote their drug products, compared techniques, Thomson and colleagues have genes with chemicals. to $11.4 billion in 1996. discovered these same distinct tones The researchers discovered the sound- "Although during that time spending on emitted by the Sun in seismic data here on responsive genes by exposing rice plants to direct-to-consumer advertising increased Earth. They have also found that Earth's noise while monitoring levels of gene by 330%, it made up only 14% of total magnetic field and atmosphere, and even activity. They only found differences, promotional expenditures in 2005," writes voltages induced on ocean cables, are all however, when they played the plants Dr Julie Donohue, from the University of participating in this cosmic sing-song. sounds at specific frequencies. Pittsburgh, and her team. Although these tones are all around us, it The genes rbcS and ALD became more (Source: New England Journal of Medicine, would not be possible for us to hear them, active at 125 and 250 hertz and less active vol. 357, pp. 673-681, 16 August 2007; via even if we listened very closely. Their at 50 hertz. As both genes are known to WebMD Medical News, 23 August 2007) pitch is too low for the human ear, typically respond to light, the researchers repeated 100—5,000 microhertz (one microhertz _ the tests in the dark and found that the two VAST ANCIENT SETTLEMENT corresponds to one vibration every 278 _ genes still responded to sound. UNEARTHED IN CAMBODIA hours). This is more than 12 octaves below "These results suggest that sound could I is the sort of archaeological bonanza the lowest note audible to humans. For be an alternative to light as a gene that comes along once in a lifetime. A comparison, the note to which orchestras regulator," the researchers report in the new map, based on aerial photographs and tune their instruments (A above middle C journal Molecular Breeding (DOI: radar data of some 3,000 square kilometres on a piano) corresponds to 440 hertz. 10.1007/s11032-007-9122-x). around the Angkor Wat temple complex in (Source: European Space Agency, 17 August (Source: New Scientist, 30 August 2007, Cambodia, has revealed 168 newly 2007, http://tinyurl.com/2cyu8y) hittp://www.newscientist.com) identified temple sites, 94 of which have ad in tha fiald Dando naw haan more VAST ANCIENT SETTLEMENT UNEARTHED IN CAMBODIA I is the sort of archaeological bonanza that comes along once in a lifetime. A new map, based on aerial photographs and radar data of some 3,000 square kilometres around the Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia, has revealed 168 newly identified temple sites, 94 of which have now been confirmed in the field. Ponds, roads and canals also show up in unprecedented detail. Damian Evans of the Greater Angkor Project at the University of Sydney, Australia, and colleagues in Australia, Cambodia and France, mapped the entire catchment area of the Angkor region's rivers. They found that about two-thirds of this now densely vegetated region was once occupied, making it by far the biggest pre-industrial settlement ever documented. Angkor's main period of occupation was from the ninth to the 16th century, when the settlement collapsed and the jungle took over. The main theory for the collapse is the failure of an extensive water management system. Environmental damage caused by the system may have made it unsustainable, leading to food shortages. The map includes detail of 8 = NEXUS Somerville www.nexusmagazine.com OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2007