Spring 2008 SCIENCE IN PARLIAMENT Population Growth & Control Predicting & Mitigating Natural Disasters Solar Power from Deserts David King Farewell at Annual Lunch Atlas Detector for CERN’s Large Hadron Collider Science in Parliament Vol 64 No 3 Summer 2007 The Journal of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee http://www.scienceinparliament.org.uk Plymouth Marine Sciences Partnership Plymouth: the “Marine Science City” is home to one of Europe’s largest clusters of marine sciences, education, engineering and technology expertise. PMSP provides opportunities for governments, agencies and industry through technology transfer, joint ventures, collaborative research, international partnerships and multi-disciplinary conservation efforts. PMSP is committed to the delivery of world class leading edge research and teaching, dedicated to the advancement of knowledge, technology and understanding of the seas. World Class Research | Informing Policy | Innovation and Exploitation Teaching and Advanced Training | Education and Outreach Find out more: Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)1752 633234 Web: www.pmsp.org.uk 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. Why, when CSR07 increased the budget for the Science & Contents Technology Facilities Council Spring 2008 Volume 65 Number 1 by 13.6%, do they find themselves Science Policy 2 with an £80 million Opinion by Lord Taverne shortfall in their budget? Application Science Centres 3 of Full Economic Opinion by Dr Adam Hart-Davis Costs to research A Bridge over Troubled Water 4 grants is being blamed in part, but all the Professor Michael Elves and Mia Nybrant Research Councils are facing that problem. And, why are the Research Councils, who Après le déluge! 5 will now provide 80% of FECs, having to Barbara Young find the full amount when other budgets The Draft Human Tissue and Embryos Bill 6 were finding some of these costs previously? Phil Willis MP The fact is that the future of Daresbury, a The Institute for Animal Health 8 science and innovation campus, is at risk for Professor Martin Shirley the second time. If the science disappears off that site, will companies be attracted to set The Large Hadron Collider 10 up business there? Changes in the STFC Dr Lyndon Evans budget appear to be hitting physics Messages from the Sea 12 departments in universities too. There are a Professor Laurence Mee lot of questions to answer. You can never predict in physics … 14 There have been some excellent debates in Beth Taylor the House of Lords on the Human Fertility and Embryology Bill, with the Bill remaining Meeting the Challenges of Biosimilar Medicines 16 largely intact, even regarding research on Dr Richard Fluck ‘human admixed embryos’ (or cytoplasmic Global Population Growth – is it sustainable? 18 hybrid embryos, as they were previously Addresses to the P&SC by Dr Malcolm Potts, Dr Therese Hesketh and known). But, why has the Human Fertility the Earl of Selborne and Embryology Authority decided to grant two licences for research in this area before How can Science help to prevent Natural Disasters becoming the HoC has even debated the Bill? The HoL Economic and Human Catastrophes? 24 has not got embroiled in the abortion debate. Addresses to the P&SC by Prof RSJ Sparks, Prof Chris Rapley and Prof John Dewey Scientists at the University of Manchester Annual Luncheon of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee 30 have developed a way of altering the Guest of Honour Sir David King structure of calcium-dependent lipopeptide Concentrating Solar Power and the proposed HVDC Supergrid 34 antibiotics that could lead to novel drugs Dr Gerry Wolff and Neil Crumpton that are active against superbugs such as MRSA and C. difficile, and others at the John P&SC Visit to Victoria and Albert Museum 36 Innes Centre have developed a decoy system Global leadership in science and innovation alive and well for the enzymes released by bacteria that in the San Francisco Bay Area 38 destroy antibiotics, so that existing Dr Maike Rentel and Dr Charles Emrich antibiotics can remain effective. House of Commons Select Committee on Innovation, Today, more than 200 biological medicines, Universities and Skills 40 mainly large complex protein molecules, are produced by the biotechnology industry. House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee 42 However, unlike generic copies of Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology 43 conventional drugs, follow-on products in this area of medicine cannot produce House of Commons Library Science and Environment Section 45 products that are identical to the innovator Debates and Selected Parliamentary Questions and Answers 46 drugs. This raises some problems that are Parliamentary and Scientific Committee News 53 discussed in this edition of SiP. 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 1 Spring 2008 1 OPINION Science Policy Dick Taverne enerally the Government’s agricultural biotechnology. After years science policy, and especially of inaction it has only recently Gthe former science minister, permitted the experimental cultivation David Sainsbury, deserve high praise. of one GM crop, a potato resistant to My main concern, however, is with the blight. There could be no greater depth of its commitment to the contrast with China, one of our principle on which all science biggest future competitors, which ultimately depends: the evidence- plans to base its industrial growth based approach. firmly on science and especially on biotechnology. It will soon be Ministers pay lip service to the responsible for over half the world’s principle, but often fail to defend it research into the development of GM when they come under pressure from crops, particularly new varieties of rice emission of greenhouse gases from the special interest groups. There was, for and of other staple crops that will soil and stops soil erosion. Many instance, the decision of the Medicines benefit hundreds of millions of poor people object that GM crops mainly and Healthcare products Regulatory farmers. benefit big business, but new Agency (MHRA) to license claims for technologies often do. That is no more the efficacy of homeopathic products Sir David King, the former chief reason for rejecting the technology solely on the basis of homeopathic scientist, recently came out strongly in than rejecting life-saving drugs provings. While it may seem a minor favour of GM crops. He said they are because they are produced by large issue, for the first time the MHRA safe, essential for feeding the hungry pharmaceutical companies. In fact abandoned its long-standing principle and can help mitigate the effects of over 10 million small-scale farmers in that medical claims must depend on climate change. Where were the developing countries have already scientific evidence. Why? According to declarations of ministers in his increased their income and improved the Government’s explanatory support? Throughout the GM debate, their health by growing GM crops, memorandum, otherwise development with the exception of one speech by mainly cotton. Most of the next of the homeopathic industry would be Tony Blair, ministers remained silent. generation of genetically engineered inhibited! crops will be developed by public Pressure from lobby groups, supported As the President of the Royal Society funds, though chiefly in China. by restaurant and supermarket boasts stated in a House of Lords debate, for that they are “GM free”, has led the So what should the Government do? It homeopathy to work except as a public to believe that GM crops are should fight within the EU to unravel placebo requires the suspension of the laws of science. Nevertheless it is not safe to eat. Yet the experience of the over-regulation that has made it supported by public funds. Whereas hundreds of millions of people who hugely expensive and time-consuming the NHS cannot finance many life- have now been eating food with some to develop new GM crops. This saving but expensive new drugs that GM content for over a decade, has not regulation not only penalises small have been proved to be effective, it produced a single case of harm to companies, but prevents the supports four national homeopathic human health. The findings of every developing world exporting GM crops hospitals. Some 40 per cent of GPs major independent study by to Europe. Next, through DfID, it offer NHS treatment by alternative independent sources, WHO and should follow where the Gates medicine and 16 universities award numerous national academies of Foundation leads and help agriculture science degrees in complementary and science are unanimous: there is no in Africa realise the benefits science alternative medicine (including evidence that GM crops are any less can bring to such staple crops as homeopathy, reflexology, ayurveda, safe to eat than conventional crops. bananas, cassava, rice and sorghum. shiatsu and qigong). It is claimed that GM crops are bad for Above all, it should recognise publicly, Much more important is policy on biodiversity and the environment. In as China and India have, by word and biotechnology. The Government’s fact their cultivation has significantly deed, that biotechnology is a key record on stem-cell research (except reduced the use of herbicides and industry of the future, with a vital role for an early wobble on “chimera” cells) pesticides because they reduce the in feeding three billion extra mouths, is generally good.