IN JULY I spent three-and-a-half days sitting as rector alongside the vice-chancellor and pro-vice-chancellors at the University of Edinburgh鈥檚 graduation ceremony. From my vantage position on the dais, I was amazed at how many graduands wore spectacles. Having read the news item 鈥淏lame lifestyle for myopia, not genes鈥� (快猫短视频, 10 July, p 12), I felt compelled to see what the Department of Health鈥檚 view on the matter was.
Rosie Winterton, the health minister responsible for optical services, said that although there was concern about increased levels of short-sightedness in young people, until now no studies had specifically linked myopia to close work such as watching television or using computers. Because the findings of the study referred to in the article have not yet been published, the Department of Health cannot accept them. However, Winterton said children should be encouraged to sit a reasonable distance from a television or computer. If they are unable to see it clearly without sitting close, they should be given a sight test to see if they need glasses. The National Health Service gives children free sight tests and vouchers toward the cost of any glasses they may need.
A public health consultation is now under way and will lead to a white paper in the autumn. However, the government wants to tackle childhood obesity by persuading youngsters to do more physical activity, and this should also cut the time they spend in sedentary activities such as watching television or using computers, said the minister.
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I hope the white paper will lead to positive action such as a draft bill at the ready for any incoming government next year. New administrations tend to seize on such non-controversial legislation before making good their more contentious campaign promises.
PHYSICISTS meeting at a conference in Beijing in China in August announced plans for the next generation of particle accelerator to probe deep into the composition of matter (快猫短视频, 28 August, p 4). But where is the so-called International Linear Collider (ILC), to be sited? Not, it seems, in Europe.
Lord Sainsbury, the science and technology minister, tells me an international forum of funding agencies is meeting under the chairmanship of Ian Halliday, chief executive of the UK鈥檚 Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, to agree plans for the ILC. The forum has so far addressed issues of timescale and choice of technology, and a scheme based on a German design has been selected and agreed by all parties present. Attention will now focus on building up a global design capability, and the issues of funding and location.
Given that the Large Hadron Collider is currently being built in CERN, on the Swiss-French border near Geneva, the general view is that Europe should not host the proposed linear collider, and Sainsbury says it is more likely the ILC will be sited in the US or Japan.
