6446 scientific&parliamentary summer 08 8/7/08 09:43 Page 2 Summer 2008 SCIENCE IN PARLIAMENT The charity enterprise in research Engineering Skills Hands-on Science Chemicals in Food, Water and Consumer Products Biosimilar Medicines The Journal of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee http://www.scienceinparliament.org.uk 6446 scientific&parliamentary summer 08 8/7/08 09:43 Page 3 SCIENCE IN Science in Parliament has two main objectives: a) to inform the scientific and industrial communities PARLIAMENT of activities within Parliament of a scientific nature The Journal of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. and of the progress of relevant legislation; The Committee is an Associate Parliamentary Group b) to keep Members of Parliament abreast of members of both Houses of Parliament and British members of the European Parliament, representatives of scientific affairs. of scientific and technical institutions, industrial organisations and universities. Dr John Snow died on 16 June 1858, and I had the pleasure to visit the John Snow public Contents house in Soho on the Summer 2008 Volume 65 Number 3 morning of 16 June, when the Royal Science in the NHS 1 Society of Chemistry Ann Keen MP invited a ‘flurry’ of Snows to attend the Science in Universities 2 unveiling of a ‘blue Diana Warwick plaque’ by the Rt Hon Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for Engineering Skills: Investing in Tomorrow 3 Health, to commemorate his work. For those Dr David Brown who are unfamiliar with Snow’s work Dr Science and Society: Realising the Vision 4 Stanwell-Smith reminds us of its importance in Ian Pearson MP this edition of SiP. The John Snow Society believes that his work is of equal importance Science in Parliament 5 to that of engineer Joseph Bazalgette, who was Opinion by Lord Jenkin of Roding instructed by Parliament in 1858 to stop raw Time is running out for jaw, jaw 6 sewage flowing into the River Thames, which Opinion by Colin Challen MP created the ‘Great Stink’ of that year. The smell of the river was so bad that Parliament The Charity Enterprise in Research 7 considered moving to Hampton Court Palace. Simon Denegri and Sara Ellis, Association of Medical Research Charities Worryingly, our pharmaceuticals industry has National Physical Laboratory – the UK’s National Measurement Institute 10 lost more than 8,000 jobs in the last three Professor John Pethica years, according to recent figures released by the ABPI. “The pharmaceutical industry has The Search for Life on Mars 12 lost confidence in the country as a place to do 20 Years of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology 14 business”, a new survey by the ABPI and CBI of 100 UK-based pharmaceutical companies The Severn Estuary: a Barrage or a Bore 16 has revealed. 35 companies are expecting to Engineering Challenges towards Personalised Medicine 18 reduce their level of R&D investment over the next 12 months, currently worth £4 billion, Dr John Snow: an unsung hero of water and sanitation 19 the level of manufacturing is forecast to drop Hands-on Science in Schools 20 in 42 of the companies, and 46 of them are Addresses to the P&SC by Prof Tina Overton, Dr Karen Bultitude expected to reduce the number of clinical and Dr Hugh Cartwright trials. Our Government should be concerned by these trends. Chemicals in Food, Water and Consumer Products 26 Addresses to the P&SC by Prof David Coggon, Dr Kerr Wilson and Gwynne Lyons Recent experience with the Energy Bill and the DIUS Select Committee, which has just Safety Issues related to the Introduction of Biosimilar Medicines into UK published Renewable electricity-generating Healthcare 32 technologies, has convinced me that the Addresses to the P&SC by Dr Antonio Pagliuca and Michael Summers biggest barrier to renewable energy is access to the transmission grid. Unless owners of the Beating Stress, Anxiety and Depression 35 grid can sort out these access problems shortly, Book Review by Lord Walton of Detchant there will be fresh calls for its nationalisation. Three years in Delhi 36 The P&SC has opened a discussion forum on House of Commons Select Committee on Innovation, its website, www.scienceinparliament.org.uk, Universities, Science and Skills 37 and we invite members to give their views on current controversies. For example, it has been House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee 39 proposed (not by Government) that teaching Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology 40 in FE and HE be administered by a single funding council. Would this lead to a single House of Commons Library Science and Environment Section 42 salary scale for academic staff and grants for all Debates and Selected Parliamentary Questions and Answers 42 students, whether in FE or HE? What changes would it bring to our universities? What do Parliamentary and Scientific Committee News 52 you think? Euro-News 54 Dr Brian Iddon MP Chairman, Editorial Board Science Directory 55 Science in Parliament Science Diary 64 ISSN 0263-6271 Science in Parliament Vol 65 No 3 Summer 2008 6446 scientific&parliamentary summer 08 8/7/08 10:31 Page 4 Science in the NHS Ann Keen MP Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health his year we celebrate the 60th whole new field, functional imaging, anniversary of the National uses gamma and Postiron emission THealth Service. In marking this tomography (PET) cameras to track momentous milestone, it is crucial that injected radioisotopes. Functional MRI we acknowledge the important role scans show soft tissues in high science has played in driving forward definition along with brain physiology. crucial innovation and improvements, This ability to reveal the brain at work leading to better patient care for many has sparked an unprecedented era of and saving millions of lives. discovery in neuroscience. The last sixty years have seen As science in the wider world astonishing advances in diagnosis, advanced, so did science in the NHS. treatment and care within the NHS. Watson & Crick’s 1953 paper on DNA IVF, MRI and PET scans are just some marked the beginning of an explosion of the advances powering innovation, of genetic knowledge and soon the providing evidence for change and NHS began employing geneticists to respiratory function to be assessed ensuring that laboratory research is interpret the new knowledge about both awake and asleep. When this quickly translated into better and genes for patient benefit. As assisted became possible, new diseases were more effective care for patients. reproductive technologies like in-vitro revealed such as sleep apnoea which fertilisation (IVF) were developed, was virtually unknown in 1948. In 1948, just a few hundred healthcare another new profession emerged – scientists were employed within the clinical embryologists – dedicated to Diagnosis is today moving out of the service. They were found behind the ensuring that the highest quality laboratory and into the GP’s surgery scenes, typically in pathology standards are translated into the best and patient’s home. ‘Labs on a chip’, laboratories. Today, there are over chances of pregnancy for infertile developed and refined by scientists 50,000 healthcare scientists working couples. within the NHS, measure multiple for the NHS and its related bodies substances simultaneously from a such as the Health Protection Agency. Clinical engineering in the NHS single drop of blood. They make up the single largest meanwhile has quietly revolutionised science workforce in Britain (and the rehabilitation, beginning with the The NHS, with its unique structure, third largest in Europe). The size of design, manufacture and maintenance has always been at the forefront of this workforce – which is a surprise to of improved artificial limbs, health innovation. Over the past many – reflects the critical cross wheelchairs and other mobility aids. decade, the Government has more cutting importance of scientific Developments in technology, including than doubled science spending, a large services in patient care, with eight out composite materials, electronics and proportion of which has driven of ten clinical decisions now computing have improved prosthetics research with application in public depending on diagnostic information. which can now be controlled by health and healthcare. Investment in They have been important innovators stimulation from the central nervous healthcare research through the in health and have played a key role in system. Such systems are able to Medical Research Council and the ensuring that the many scientific activate nerves affected by paralysis. National Institute for Health Research advances of the last sixty years have (NIHR) has already made a difference been translated into opportunities for Measuring how effectively body for patients. When the NHS began, better care for patients. As a former systems are working is another key blindness was inevitable for those with nurse of more than 25 years’ area. In 1948, patients had their inherited eye disease. One of the new experience in the NHS, I have breathing assessed by blowing into NIHR funded specialist biomedical witnessed many of these advances. laboratory based water spirometers, a research centres is a collaboration far cry from the hand-held devices between Moorfield’s Eye Hospital and For example, NHS medical physicists used in GP practices today with University College London. Gene pioneered and developed many of the embedded micro chips which can therapy developed at the centre has dazzling new imaging technologies transmit data to offsite locations for already improved the sight of some which have revolutionised the reporting and interpreting, for young people with rare blinding diagnosis and management of disease. monitoring changes in a patient’s conditions; further work with stem X rays have become safer for both condition and for quality assurance cell therapy and new medicines which patients and medical staff, with clearer purposes, important in national and prevent scarring in the eye show images produced using a lower global clinical trials.