September, 30 2009, 09:42am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Janna Hamilton , janna@oxfam.org.nz; +64 355 7413, or mob +64 21 720546.
Oxfam Responds to Emergency in Samoa
WASHINGTON
Oxfam is expecting to send emergency staff to Apia , Western Samoa , within 24 hours to assess the situation on the ground, and identify the most urgent needs for people displaced following the 8.3 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit Samoa.
"Once the urgent needs are assessed we are expecting to help coordinate the supply of clean water and sanitation for those affected by the disaster," says Oxfam's Executive Director Barry Coates.
"We have emergency supplies on hand for up to 10,000 people once the needs of the affected population are assessed. These include: buckets, tarpaulins, hygiene kits and mosquito nets."
Oxfam is with the Red Cross and UN agencies, and liaising with its Samoan partner organisation, Women in Business Development, in Apia , to prepare for an appropriate and co-ordinated response.
Coates adds: "This disaster is in our neighbourhood. Reports are still filtering in, but it is clear that a number of villages have been devastated. This is a crucial time to support our Samoan family."
Oxfam International is a global movement of people who are fighting inequality to end poverty and injustice. We are working across regions in about 70 countries, with thousands of partners, and allies, supporting communities to build better lives for themselves, grow resilience and protect lives and livelihoods also in times of crisis.
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Dozens of scientists are calling in no uncertain terms for a halt on research to create "mirror life," particularly "mirror bacteria" that could "pose ecological risks" and possibly cause "pervasive lethal infections in a substantial fraction of the plant and animal species, including humans."
The group of 38 scientists, who include Nobel laureates and other experts, addressed research into "mirror life"—mirror-image biological molecules—in a piece of commentary published in the journal Science published Friday, which accompanied a technical report that was released earlier in December.
One of the scientists, synthetic biologist Kate Adamala at the University of Minnesota, was working on creating a mirror cell but "changed track last year" after studying the risks, according to the Guardian.
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The ability to create mirror life is likely over a decade away and would require sizable investment and technical progress, meaning the world has the opportunity to "preempt risks before they are realized," according to the scientists.
When broken down into simple terms, mirror life sounds like something out of science fiction. All the biomolecules that constitute life have a "handedness" to them—"right-handed" nucleotides make up DNA and RNA, and proteins are formed from "left-handed" amino acids.
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