On The Radar

The pick of the science news

Britain’s big butterfly count

In Britain, members of the public are being encouraged to count butterflies this week to glean information about how the insects are faring.

People are asked to spend 15 minutes in their gardens or a park with a chart they can download to help them identify the butterflies they see. Then they log their findings into a website: bigbutterflycount.org.

The initiative is being run by retailer Marks & Spencer and the organisation Butterfly Conservation, whose president Sir David Attenborough said: “Butterflies in profusion tell us that all is well with nature. When they decline its a warning that other wildlife will be soon be heading the same way. So with the big butterfly count well be doing more than just counting butterflies - well be taking the pulse of nature.

Octopus venom could be a cure

Paul the octopus brought acclaim to molluscs recently when he “predicted” the outcomes of World Cup matches. But scientists have been exploring a side of his octopus cousins that’s less about fun and games.

A new study published in Toxiconhas extracted venom from octopus species living in Antarctica. "We have discovered new small proteins in the venom with very intriguing activities – these are potentially useful in drug design, but more will be revealed as the study continues," says University of Melbourne researcher Dr Bryan Fry in a statement. "An understanding of the structure and mode of action of venom found in all octopuses may help design drugs for conditions like pain- management, allergies and cancer."

“We did not plan for this discovery. But when we saw these whopping spectral signatures, we knew immediately that we were looking at one of the most sought-after molecules

Jan Cami from the University of Western Ontario, who led a team that found carbon ‘buckyballs’ in a planetary nebula using NASAs orbiting Spitzer infrared telescope. – Published in Science