(Image: John Sabraw/www.johnsabraw.com)

NOT everything to do with pollution is ugly. This abstract art was created using paints made from the metallic run-off collected from polluted rivers in Ohio. The artwork is a collaboration between environmental engineer and artist , both of Ohio University in Athens.

When water from abandoned coal mines flows into local rivers, it can pollute them with iron, as well as making the water acidic. Once exposed to air at the surface, the iron oxidises to form a disgusting yet colourful orange sludge that kills off much aquatic life.

Riefler saw something beautiful in the muck. “I was coming back from rivers with stained socks,” says Riefler. “Most pigments are iron-based anyway, and we thought that we could use this water to create paints.”

Collecting underground water before it hits the air allows Riefler to control the rate of oxidation, generating different colours of iron sludge. When dried, these can be ground down and made into oil paints. “Iron is remarkably flexible,” he says. “You can create a range of different colours: yellows, oranges, reds and blacks.”

Sabraw has been incorporating the paints into his artwork and advising Riefler on what makes a good pigment. “My job is to be the sensitive one,” he says. “I play with the pigments and their mixing into paints, and discuss their viability with Guy.”

Despite their murky past, the pigments are safe to use and produce. Riefler hopes to be able to sell some of the paints commercially and then use the money generated to help restore the very rivers the pigments are derived from.

“There aren’t enough resources to clean up the rivers right now,” Riefler says. “We could produce a tonne of pigment per day. If we can generate a strong pigment the paint companies like, we can fund our mission to restore the rivers.”

This article appeared in print under the headline “Painting with pollutants”

(Image: University of Colorado Boulder)

Is this a peek at the future of energy? This artist’s impression shows a giant solar water-splitting array announced last week by a team from the University of Colorado Boulder.

The engineers’ plan uses a huge array of mirrors to focus the sun’s power like a giant magnifying glass and use it to split water into oxygen and hydrogen.

Sunlight would be focused at a point atop a central tower that could be hundreds of metres tall, generating temperatures up to 1350 °C. That would heat a reactor containing metal oxides, causing them to release oxygen atoms and leaving them hungry to replace that lost oxygen. Steam – also generated by the sun’s heat – would then be pumped through the reactor. Oxygen from the water molecules bonds with the metal oxides, leaving behind precious hydrogen gas.

Some other water-splitting methods require alternating temperatures, making them less efficient. “One of the big innovations in our system is that there is no swing in the temperature,” says , one of the project’s leaders. “The whole process is driven by turning a steam valve either on or off.”

It could be a while yet, though, before the technology and others like it get off the ground.

“Are we going to see much within the next five years? No,” says of Imperial College London, an expert in sustainable energy systems. “Is [a hydrogen-fuelled economy] a viable proposition? Absolutely. There are already a lot of nice ways to make hydrogen: what we need now is a way to integrate the system into our current electrical grid.”

One example of such efforts to make the grid more flexible are community grids.

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(Image: Coral Reef Photos/Catlin Seaview Survey)

Coral reefs teem with a diverse array of life and colour, but in many places around the world, their future is uncertain. The Caribbean, where this vibrant moray eel was shot by an advance party for the mappers, is having a particularly bad time of it.

Over the past 50 years, 80 per cent of the coral reef cover there has been lost to a perfect storm of pollution, overfishing, rising temperatures and ocean acidification. Researchers worry that others could soon be in a similar state.

More detailed, comparable information on how reefs are faring around the world is vital if we are going to be able to protect them.

One group attempting to do this is the Catlin Seaview Survey. They have already photographed the length of the Great Barrier Reef, and yesterday they announced they are now expanding their efforts into the Caribbean and Bermuda. The pictures and footage they take will be made publicly available and will provide a baseline snapshot that researchers can refer to when looking at how corals have responded to future climate change.

The survey relies on several specialised panoramic cameras, capable of taking multiple pictures at a time every three seconds. The cameras are attached to a motorised scooter steered by a diver, which drives the camera forward.

The camera set-up is 16 times faster than other similar technologies at cataloguing data, says project director . “We’re hoping that it will allow us to map all the world’s main coral reefs over a three year period.”

Globally, it is estimated that coral reefs help support half a billion people through tourist revenue as well as protecting the shoreline from erosion and storm surges.

This week two severely paralysed men, Paul Lamb and another known only as Martin, received the verdicts in their right-to-die challenges at the UK’s Court of Appeal. The family of the late Tony Nicholson were also in court, appealing the 2012 decision that he did not have the right to ask a doctor to end his life. żìĂš¶ÌÊÓÆ” examines the issue of euthanasia and some of its ethics in more detail.

First of all, how are euthanasia and assisted suicide defined?

Euthanasia means “good death” in Greek. It can be subdivided into several categories.

Active euthanasia occurs when someone ends another person’s life to relieve their suffering, for example, by injecting them with lethal drugs. Passive euthanasia is when something keeping a person alive is withdrawn or withheld, such as food and water or turning off a life-support machine. If the person concerned is able to give their consent, this is known as voluntary euthanasia.

In non-voluntary euthanasia, a person is unable to give consent, perhaps because they are too young or in a minimally conscious state. Involuntary euthanasia occurs when someone able to give consent is killed against their will, but this is almost always classified as murder. The legal and moral issues surrounding these two forms are usually more clear-cut than for voluntary euthanasia.

Complicating matters further is assisted suicide. This is when a person carries out their own suicide, helped by someone else. An example of this would be handing a person lethal sedatives that they then take.

What is currently allowed under UK law?

Passive euthanasia is legal, active euthanasia is not. “It’s legal to withdraw food and water from someone and let them starve or dehydrate, but illegal to actually administer anything that actively kills them,” says Richy Thompson of the British Humanist Association. Assisting a suicide is also illegal.

How does this affect Paul Lamb?

Lamb, who was paralysed in car crash in 1990, could refuse food and water and his subsequent death would leave his family in the clear. This was what Nicholson did in 2012 after he lost a High Court case to allow doctors to end his life. But such a drawn-out death is obviously unattractive.

Lamb wanted the court to rule that any medical professional who helped him end his life would not be charged with murder. Yesterday the Court of Appeal rejected this challenge, saying that Parliament, not High Court judges, should decide whether or not to change the law on euthanasia. Lamb now has the right to appeal.

What does Martin want?

Like Nicholson, Martin suffers from locked-in syndrome, which means his mind functions but his body is completely immobile. Martin sought to clarify whether a healthcare professional would be prosecuted if they took him abroad to end his life. His family have said they don’t want any involvement.

Currently the laws for healthcare professionals travelling to countries where assisted suicide is legal are ambiguous, and yesterday the High Court agreed that they needed clarification.

Martin’s case is similar to that of Debbie Purdy, who has multiple sclerosis and whose 2009 case forced a clarification of the laws for family members who took their relatives abroad to end their lives via assisted suicide. To date, no one who has taken a relative to die abroad has been prosecuted.

What is the law in other countries?

Active voluntary euthanasia is legal under strict guidelines in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, but only for residents of those countries. Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland and in the US states of Oregon, Washington and Vermont.

Why can’t Martin go to Dignitas, the Swiss group that helps people carry out assisted suicide?

Martin is still able to swallow so in theory he could visit , as he would be able to take the last step that leads to his death. This means the act is classed as assisted suicide rather than active euthanasia, which not legal in Switzerland. A paralysed person who couldn’t swallow could not be treated at Dignitas. But existing UK laws mean any healthcare professional who accompanies Martin to Switzerland could potentially be prosecuted.

What is next for Lamb?

Lamb has already been granted the right of appeal in the UK Supreme Court. He has a further option, too, should he be unsuccessful. “It is possible for him to go to the European Court of Human Rights to fight his case,” says Jonathan Robinson of Bindmans LLP, the law firm assisting him. What might happen if that tactic also fails is uncertain.

What are the arguments for and against euthanasia and assisted suicide?

Organisations such as the argue that a person’s life is theirs to do with as they wish, and that those such as Paul Lamb who are incapable of taking their own lives still deserve a dignified death.

“Patients should be able to choose from a variety of solutions to end their suffering,” says Silvan Luley of Dignitas. “Most importantly, patients should be able to discuss all options with their physicians, and physicians should be trained to explain all options in a balanced manner.”

Opponents of a change in the law, such as the group , argue that legalising active euthanasia makes vulnerable groups even more vulnerable, and that safeguards are liable to slip.

“The current law exists to protect the vulnerable and those without a voice,” says Andrew Fergusson of Care Not Killing. “[This includes] disabled people, terminally ill people and elderly people: [those who] might otherwise feel pressured into ending their lives.”

(Image: Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

Pristine white beaches turned black this week when crude oil spewed out from an offshore pipeline near the Thai island of Ko Samet.

The pipeline, owned by Thai oil and gas company PTT Global Chemical, spilled an estimated 50,000 litres of crude oil. This is modest – the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico spilled millions of litres of oil per day – but there are fears that unfavourable ocean currents and weather conditions could allow some of the oil to reach the Thai mainland.

“What’s interesting about this oil spill is the disproportionate effects it’s having,” says Paul Johnston of in Exeter, UK, which provides scientific advice to the environmental campaign group Greenpeace. “It’s a relatively small volume of oil compared to tanker disasters, but it’s having huge impacts on tourism and the marine industry.”

Tourists are deserting the island even though not all its beaches are affected. “Oil slicks are not nice to be around,” says Johnston. “Not only are they ugly, but they also smell pungent.”

Fishing in the vicinity will suffer, too: shellfish and other aquatic life will take up water-soluble toxins from the oil, rendering them toxic.

(Image: BHF/Dr Jana Koth)

The future of regenerative medicine is bright: in this case, literally. This image of a stained zebrafish heart glowing with multiple colours is one of the winners of the British Heart Foundation’s annual heart and blood vessel photography competition.

The green staining of the two-day-old heart highlights the cardiomyocytes, the cells of the heart muscle itself. The red and blue-stained areas represent the contractile apparatus, the muscles that keep the heart beating strong.

Zebrafish are useful experimental animals: their genome has been fully sequenced, their bodies are transparent, and their developing embryos are fairly robust. Even more impressively, their hearts have the ability to regenerate after damage. Zebrafish can lose up to 20 per cent of their heart muscle without long-term consequences, as they can repair the damage completely within eight weeks.

Adult mammals lack this superpower. Although some newborn mammals can regenerate damaged heart tissue, this ability vanishes as they mature. During a heart attack, heart muscle cells are deprived of oxygen and they die, leaving scar tissue. “Understanding how zebrafish regenerate [their heart] may one day help victims of heart attacks recover,” says Jana Koth of the , who took the photograph.

More images and videos that were selected from British Heart Foundation-sponsored research for the prize can be seen on .

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Who discovered the DNA double helix? The obvious answer is Nobel prizewinners Watson and Crick. The fellow scientists who aided them have all too frequently been forgotten – but not by Google, which today boasts a home-page doodle marking what would have been the 93rd birthday of British biophysicist and crystallographer Rosalind Franklin.

The Google doodle includes Franklin’s face in the second ‘O’ and the DNA double helix in the ‘L’. The ‘E’ is a depiction of Photo 51 – the X-ray diffraction image that was instrumental in allowing Watson and Crick to crack DNA’s structure.

Franklin died aged 37 from ovarian cancer, four years before Watson, Crick and fellow researcher Maurice Wilkins won the . Her death made her ineligible to share the prize.

Unfortunately for Franklin, her role in the groundbreaking discovery in 1953 was mostly overlooked. that “the data which really helped us to obtain the structure was mainly obtained by Rosalind Franklin”.

At least the Google doodle is one small way of ensuring Rosalind Franklin can now get the recognition she deserves.

Island of green (Image: Timothy Allen)

YOU can grow food in the unlikeliest of places, it seems. Here in Djenné, Mali, a green-fingered local takes some time to look after his garden.

Photographer took the picture while in Mali to photograph the annual restoration of the Great Mosque of DjennĂ©. “By chance I stumbled across the scene during an evening stroll,” he says. “The garden stood out from the very yellowy mudbrick colour of DjennĂ©.”

During the dry season the Bani river, seen in the background, shrinks back and exposes the mass of litter and debris thrown away by Djenné’s 33,000 inhabitants. While the town’s population normally uses mud from the river banks as a building material, this farmer took advantage of the damp riverbed and nearby water supply to grow some crops. “The area he was working in would be underwater during the rainy season,” says Allen.

Many farmers have been displaced by conflict in the north of Mali and the United Nations has emphasised that they must be helped to return to their lands – though this farmer’s story is unknown. Allen suggests he could be growing herbs or cassava for himself and his family.

The image won Allen a runner-up prize in the competition. A selection of the photos is now on display at the Royal Geographical Society in London.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Island of green”