Author Archives: Bora Zivkovic

First Successful Reverse Vasectomy On Endangered Species Performed At The National Zoo:

Veterinarians at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo performed the first successful reverse vasectomy on a Przewalski’s horse (E. ferus przewalskii; E. caballus przewalskii–classification debated), pronounced zshah-VAL-skeez. Przewalksi’s horses are a horse species native to China and Mongolia that was declared extinct in the wild in 1970.

Lizards Pull A Wheelie:

Why bother running on hind legs when the four you’ve been given work perfectly well? This is the question that puzzles Christofer Clemente. For birds and primates, there’s a perfectly good answer: birds have converted their forelimbs into wings, and primates have better things to do with their hands. But why have some lizards gone bipedal? Have they evolved to trot on two feet, or is their upright posture simply a fluke of physics? Curious to find the answer, Clemente and his colleagues Philip Withers, Graham Thompson and David Lloyd decided to test how dragon lizards run on two legs.

Children Learn Smart Behaviors Without Knowing What They Know:

Young children show evidence of smart and flexible behavior early in life – even though they don’t really know what they’re doing, new research suggests.

Being Fat In Today’s World Invites Social Discrimination, Study Suggests:

Obese people feel “a culture of blame” against them, which they say has been made worse by media reports about the health risks of obesity, a new study from Australia found.

From Canada To The Caribbean: Tree Leaves Control Their Own Temperature, Study Reveals:

The temperature inside a healthy, photosynthesizing tree leaf is affected less by outside environmental temperature than originally believed, according to new research from biologists at the University of Pennsylvania.

New Research On Octopuses Sheds Light On Memory:

Research on octopuses has shed new light on how our brains store and recall memory, says Dr. Benny Hochner of the Department of Neurobiology at the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Why octopuses? Octopuses and other related creatures, known as cephalopods, are considered to be the most intelligent invertebrates because they have relatively large brains and they can be trained for various learning and memory tasks, says Dr. Hochner.

Shallow Water Corals Evolved From Deep Sea Ancestors:

New research shows that the second most diverse group of hard corals first evolved in the deep sea, and not in shallow waters. Stylasterids, or lace corals, diversified in deep waters before launching at least three successful invasions of shallow water tropical habitats in the past 40 million years.

Bee Species Outnumber Mammals And Birds Combined:

Scientists have discovered that there are more bee species than previously thought. In the first global accounting of bee species in over a hundred years, John S. Ascher, a research scientist in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, compiled online species pages and distribution maps for more than 19,200 described bee species, showcasing the diversity of these essential pollinators. This new species inventory documents 2,000 more described, valid species than estimated by Charles Michener in the first edition of his definitive The Bees of the World published eight years ago.

Threatened Or Invasive? Species’ Fates Identified:

A new ecological study led by a University of Adelaide researcher should help identify species prone to extinction under environmental change, and species that are likely to become a pest.

There are 61 cool new papers in PLoS ONE this week – take a look at these for starters:
Risk and Ethical Concerns of Hunting Male Elephant: Behavioural and Physiological Assays of the Remaining Elephants:

Hunting of male African elephants may pose ethical and risk concerns, particularly given their status as a charismatic species of high touristic value, yet which are capable of both killing people and damaging infrastructure. We quantified the effect of hunts of male elephants on (1) risk of attack or damage (11 hunts), and (2) behavioural (movement dynamics) and physiological (stress hormone metabolite concentrations) responses (4 hunts) in Pilanesberg National Park. For eleven hunts, there were no subsequent attacks on people or infrastructure, and elephants did not break out of the fenced reserve. For three focal hunts, there was an initial flight response by bulls present at the hunting site, but their movements stabilised the day after the hunt event. Animals not present at the hunt (both bulls and herds) did not show movement responses. Physiologically, hunting elephant bulls increased faecal stress hormone levels (corticosterone metabolites) in both those bulls that were present at the hunts (for up to four days post-hunt) and in the broader bull and breeding herd population (for up to one month post-hunt). As all responses were relatively minor, hunting male elephants is ethically acceptable when considering effects on the remaining elephant population; however bulls should be hunted when alone. Hunting is feasible in relatively small enclosed reserves without major risk of attack, damage, or breakout. Physiological stress assays were more effective than behavioural responses in detecting effects of human intervention. Similar studies should evaluate intervention consequences, inform and improve best practice, and should be widely applied by management agencies.

Female Chimpanzees Use Copulation Calls Flexibly to Prevent Social Competition:

The adaptive function of copulation calls in female primates has been debated for years. One influential idea is that copulation calls are a sexually selected trait, which enables females to advertise their receptive state to males. Male-male competition ensues and females benefit by getting better mating partners and higher quality offspring. We analysed the copulation calling behaviour of wild female chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at Budongo Forest, Uganda, but found no support for the male-male competition hypothesis. Hormone analysis showed that the calling behaviour of copulating females was unrelated to their fertile period and likelihood of conception. Instead, females called significantly more while with high-ranking males, but suppressed their calls if high-ranking females were nearby. Copulation calling may therefore be one potential strategy employed by female chimpanzees to advertise receptivity to high-ranked males, confuse paternity and secure future support from these socially important individuals. Competition between females can be dangerously high in wild chimpanzees, and our results indicate that females use their copulation calls strategically to minimise the risks associated with such competition.

The Price of Play: Self-Organized Infant Mortality Cycles in Chimpanzees:

Chimpanzees have been used extensively as a model system for laboratory research on infectious diseases. Ironically, we know next to nothing about disease dynamics in wild chimpanzee populations. Here, we analyze long-term demographic and behavioral data from two habituated chimpanzee communities in Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire, where previous work has shown respiratory pathogens to be an important source of infant mortality. In this paper we trace the effect of social connectivity on infant mortality dynamics. We focus on social play which, as the primary context of contact between young chimpanzees, may serve as a key venue for pathogen transmission. Infant abundance and mortality rates at Taï cycled regularly and in a way that was not well explained in terms of environmental forcing. Rather, infant mortality cycles appeared to self-organize in response to the ontogeny of social play. Each cycle started when the death of multiple infants in an outbreak synchronized the reproductive cycles of their mothers. A pulse of births predictably arrived about twelve months later, with social connectivity increasing over the following two years as the large birth cohort approached the peak of social play. The high social connectivity at this play peak then appeared to facilitate further outbreaks. Our results provide the first evidence that social play has a strong role in determining chimpanzee disease transmission risk and the first record of chimpanzee disease cycles similar to those seen in human children. They also lend more support to the view that infectious diseases are a major threat to the survival of remaining chimpanzee populations.

Perinatal Androgens and Adult Behavior Vary with Nestling Social System in Siblicidal Boobies:

Exposure to androgens early in development, while activating adaptive aggressive behavior, may also exert long-lasting effects on non-target components of phenotype. Here we compare these organizational effects of perinatal androgens in closely related Nazca (Sula granti) and blue-footed (S. nebouxii) boobies that differ in neonatal social system. The older of two Nazca booby hatchlings unconditionally attacks and ejects the younger from the nest within days of hatching, while blue-footed booby neonates lack lethal aggression. Both Nazca booby chicks facultatively upregulate testosterone (T) during fights, motivating the prediction that baseline androgen levels differ between obligately siblicidal and other species. We show that obligately siblicidal Nazca boobies hatch with higher circulating androgen levels than do facultatively siblicidal blue-footed boobies, providing comparative evidence of the role of androgens in sociality. Although androgens confer a short-term benefit of increased aggression to Nazca booby neonates, exposure to elevated androgen levels during this sensitive period in development can also induce long-term organizational effects on behavior or morphology. Adult Nazca boobies show evidence of organizational effects of early androgen exposure in aberrant adult behavior: they visit unattended non-familial chicks in the colony and direct mixtures of aggression, affiliative, and sexual behavior toward them. In a longitudinal analysis, we found that the most active Non-parental Adult Visitors (NAVs) were those with a history of siblicidal behavior as a neonate, suggesting that the tendency to show social interest in chicks is programmed, in part, by the high perinatal androgens associated with obligate siblicide. Data from closely related blue-footed boobies provide comparative support for this interpretation. Lacking obligate siblicide, they hatch with a corresponding low androgen level, and blue-footed booby adults show a much lower frequency of NAV behavior and a lower probability of behaving aggressively during NAV interactions. This species difference in adult social behavior appears to have roots in both pleiotropic and experiential effects of nestling social system. Our results indicate that Nazca boobies experience life-long consequences of androgenic preparation for an early battle to the death.

Sexually Antagonistic Selection in Human Male Homosexuality:

Several lines of evidence indicate the existence of genetic factors influencing male homosexuality and bisexuality. In spite of its relatively low frequency, the stable permanence in all human populations of this apparently detrimental trait constitutes a puzzling ‘Darwinian paradox’. Furthermore, several studies have pointed out relevant asymmetries in the distribution of both male homosexuality and of female fecundity in the parental lines of homosexual vs. heterosexual males. A number of hypotheses have attempted to give an evolutionary explanation for the long-standing persistence of this trait, and for its asymmetric distribution in family lines; however a satisfactory understanding of the population genetics of male homosexuality is lacking at present. We perform a systematic mathematical analysis of the propagation and equilibrium of the putative genetic factors for male homosexuality in the population, based on the selection equation for one or two diallelic loci and Bayesian statistics for pedigree investigation. We show that only the two-locus genetic model with at least one locus on the X chromosome, and in which gene expression is sexually antagonistic (increasing female fitness but decreasing male fitness), accounts for all known empirical data. Our results help clarify the basic evolutionary dynamics of male homosexuality, establishing this as a clearly ascertained sexually antagonistic human trait.

Coral Pathogens Identified for White Syndrome (WS) Epizootics in the Indo-Pacific:

White Syndrome (WS), a general term for scleractinian coral diseases with acute signs of advancing tissue lesions often resulting in total colony mortality, has been reported from numerous locations throughout the Indo-Pacific, constituting a growing threat to coral reef ecosystems. Bacterial isolates were obtained from corals displaying disease signs at three WS outbreak sites: Nikko Bay in the Republic of Palau, Nelly Bay in the central Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and Majuro Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and used in laboratory-based infection trials to satisfy Henle-Koch’s postulates, Evan’s rules and Hill’s criteria for establishing causality. Infected colonies produced similar signs to those observed in the field following exposure to bacterial concentrations of 1×106 cells ml−1. Phylogenetic 16S rRNA gene analysis demonstrated that all six pathogens identified in this study were members of the γ-Proteobacteria family Vibrionacae, each with greater than 98% sequence identity with the previously characterized coral bleaching pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus. Screening for proteolytic activity of more than 150 coral derived bacterial isolates by a biochemical assay and specific primers for a Vibrio family zinc-metalloprotease demonstrated a significant association between the presence of isolates capable of proteolytic activity and observed disease signs. This is the first study to provide evidence for the involvement of a unique taxonomic group of bacterial pathogens in the aetiology of Indo-Pacific coral diseases affecting multiple coral species at multiple locations. Results from this study strongly suggest the need for further investigation of bacterial proteolytic enzymes as possible virulence factors involved in Vibrio associated acute coral infections.

From Offshore to Onshore: Multiple Origins of Shallow-Water Corals from Deep-Sea Ancestors:

Shallow-water tropical reefs and the deep sea represent the two most diverse marine environments. Understanding the origin and diversification of this biodiversity is a major quest in ecology and evolution. The most prominent and well-supported explanation, articulated since the first explorations of the deep sea, holds that benthic marine fauna originated in shallow, onshore environments, and diversified into deeper waters. In contrast, evidence that groups of marine organisms originated in the deep sea is limited, and the possibility that deep-water taxa have contributed to the formation of shallow-water communities remains untested with phylogenetic methods. Here we show that stylasterid corals (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa: Stylasteridae)–the second most diverse group of hard corals–originated and diversified extensively in the deep sea, and subsequently invaded shallow waters. Our phylogenetic results show that deep-water stylasterid corals have invaded the shallow-water tropics three times, with one additional invasion of the shallow-water temperate zone. Our results also show that anti-predatory innovations arose in the deep sea, but were not involved in the shallow-water invasions. These findings are the first robust evidence that an important group of tropical shallow-water marine animals evolved from deep-water ancestors.

Body Segment Differences in Surface Area, Skin Temperature and 3D Displacement and the Estimation of Heat Balance during Locomotion in Hominins:

The conventional method of estimating heat balance during locomotion in humans and other hominins treats the body as an undifferentiated mass. This is problematic because the segments of the body differ with respect to several variables that can affect thermoregulation. Here, we report a study that investigated the impact on heat balance during locomotion of inter-segment differences in three of these variables: surface area, skin temperature and rate of movement. The approach adopted in the study was to generate heat balance estimates with the conventional method and then compare them with heat balance estimates generated with a method that takes into account inter-segment differences in surface area, skin temperature and rate of movement. We reasoned that, if the hypothesis that inter-segment differences in surface area, skin temperature and rate of movement affect heat balance during locomotion is correct, the estimates yielded by the two methods should be statistically significantly different. Anthropometric data were collected on seven adult male volunteers. The volunteers then walked on a treadmill at 1.2 m/s while 3D motion capture cameras recorded their movements. Next, the conventional and segmented methods were used to estimate the volunteers’ heat balance while walking in four ambient temperatures. Lastly, the estimates produced with the two methods were compared with the paired t-test. The estimates of heat balance during locomotion yielded by the two methods are significantly different. Those yielded by the segmented method are significantly lower than those produced by the conventional method. Accordingly, the study supports the hypothesis that inter-segment differences in surface area, skin temperature and rate of movement impact heat balance during locomotion. This has important implications not only for current understanding of heat balance during locomotion in hominins but also for how future research on this topic should be approached.

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Humor Shown To Be Fundamental To Our Success As A Species:

First universal theory of humour answers how and why we find things funny. Published June 12, The Pattern Recognition Theory of Humour by Alastair Clarke answers the centuries old question of what is humour. Clarke explains how and why we find things funny and identifies the reason humour is common to all human societies, its fundamental role in the evolution of homo sapiens and its continuing importance in the cognitive development of infants.

Male Bird At Smithsonian’s National Zoo Has Special Reason To Celebrate Father’s Day:

How will the only male rhea at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo spend Father’s Day? He will spend it much like he has spent the past eight weeks: as a proud papa nurturing and caring for his four chicks born April 20. This is the first time in some 30 years that rhea chicks have hatched at the Zoo.

Protecting The Wild Cousin Of Llama, The Guanacos, In Chile:

The Wildlife Conservation Society has launched a study in Chile’s Karukinka reserve on Tierra del Fuego to help protect the guanaco — a wild cousin of the llama that once roamed in vast herds from the Andean Plateau to the steppes of Patagonia.

Complete ‘Family Tree’ Of All British Birds Gives Clues About Which Species Might Be Endangered Next:

A new complete evolutionary ‘family tree’ showing how all British bird species are related to each other may provide clues about which ones are at risk of population decline, according to new research published June 11 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

Perfect Vision But Blind To Light:

Mammals have two types of light-sensitive detectors in the retina. Known as rod and cone cells, they are both necessary to picture their environment. However, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have found that eliminating a third sensor — cells expressing a photopigment called melanopsin that measures the intensity of incoming light –makes the circadian clock blind to light, yet leaves normal vision intact.

Decision-Making, Risk-Taking Similar In Bees And Humans:

Most people think before making decisions. As it turns out, so do bees. In the journal Nature, Israeli researchers show that when making decisions, people and bees alike are more likely to gamble on risky courses of action – rather than taking a safer option – when the differences between the various possible outcomes are easily distinguishable. When the outcomes are difficult to discern, however, both groups are far more likely to select the safer option – even if the actual probabilities of success have not changed.

Coffee’s Aroma Kick-starts Genes In The Brain:

Drink coffee to send a wake-up call to the brain? Or just smell its rich, warm aroma? An international group of scientists is reporting some of the first evidence that simply inhaling coffee aroma alters the activity of genes in the brain.

Age At Puberty Linked To Mother’s Prenatal Diet:

A high-fat diet during pregnancy and nursing may lead to the child having an early onset of puberty and subsequent adulthood obesity, according to a new animal study. The results were presented June 16, at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Society’s Attitudes Have Little Impact On Choice Of Sexual Partner:

A unique new study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institute (KI) suggests that the attitude of families and the public have little impact on if adults decide to have sex with persons of the same or the opposite sex. Instead, hereditary factors and the individual’s unique experiences have the strongest influence on our choice of sexual partners.

Teen Drivers Often Ignore Bans On Using Cellphones And Texting:

Teenage drivers’ cellphone use edged higher in North Carolina after the state enacted a cellphone ban for young drivers, a new Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study finds. This is the case even though young drivers and their parents said they strongly support the restrictions. Parents and teens alike believe the ban on hand-held and hands-free phone use isn’t being enforced. Researchers concluded that North Carolina’s law isn’t reducing teen drivers’ cellphone use.

Eastern Independence, Western Conformity?:

While the act of selecting an everyday writing utensil seems to be a simple enough task, scientists have found that it actually could shed light on complex cultural differences.

Scenes Of Nature Trump Technology In Reducing Low-level Stress:

Technology can send a man to the moon, help unlock the secrets of DNA and let people around the world easily communicate through the Internet. But can it substitute for nature?

Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome Linked To Irregular Menstrual Cycles, Premenstrual Symptoms In Women:

Women with delayed sleep phase syndrome are more likely to report irregular menstrual cycles and premenstrual symptoms, according to a research abstract that will be presented on June 10 at SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS).

All kinds of cycles affect each other in some way?
Pigeons Show Superior Self-recognition Abilities To Three Year Old Humans:

Keio University scientists have shown that pigeons are able to discriminate video images of themselves even with a 5-7 second delay, thus having self-cognitive abilities higher than 3-year-old children who have difficulty recognizing their self-image with only a 2 second delay.

Birdz Rulz!
Monumental Debt-for-Nature Swap Provides $20 Million To Protect Biodiversity In Madagascar:

The largest debt-for-nature swap agreement in Madagascar’s history was just signed between the Government of Madagascar and the Government of France, allocating roughly $20 million (13 million Euros) to preserve Madagascar’s rich biodiversity, WWF has announced.

Interesting development – can it be used elsewhere?
How The Brain Separates Audio Signals From Noise:

How are we able to follow a single conversation in the midst of a crowded and noisy room? Little is known about how the human brain accomplishes the seemingly simple task of extracting meaningful signals from noisy acoustic environments.

Virginity Pledges May Help Postpone Intercourse Among Youth:

Making a virginity pledge may help some young people postpone the start of sexual activity, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

RAND Corporation? How many red flags are waving around here right now!?

Mysterious Mountain Dinosaur May Be New Species:

A partial dinosaur skeleton unearthed in 1971 from a remote British Columbia site is the first ever found in Canadian mountains and may represent a new species, according to a recent examination by a University of Alberta researcher.

Memory Loss Linked To Common Sleep Disorder:

For the first time, UCLA researchers have discovered that people with sleep apnea show tissue loss in brain regions that help store memory. Reported in the June 27 edition of the journal Neuroscience Letters, the findings emphasize the importance of early detection of the disorder, which afflicts an estimated 20 million Americans.

Reverse Engineering The Brain To Model Mind-body Interactions:

When you grab a cold beverage out of the cooler this summer, what is really going on between your brain, your eyes and your hands?

Insomnia In Parents Can Result In Sleep Problems, Suicidal Behavior Among Their Offspring:

A history of chronic insomnia in parents is not only associated with elevated risk for insomnia but also with elevated risks for use of hypnotics, psychopathology and suicidal behavior in adolescent offspring, according to a research abstract that will be presented on June 12 at SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS).

Ace Perceptual Skills Of Tennis Pros:

Tennis Grand Slam season is upon us once again with the French Open already over, and Wimbledon hot on its heels later in the month. Past studies have shown that tennis players outperform non-players at anticipating which shots will be played by their opponents and at quickly deciding what to do next under pressure but do Roger Federer and his fellow tennis players also benefit from better-developed visual information processing skills than non-players?

Delaying School Start Time By One Hour Positively Affects Adolescents’ Cognitive Performance:

Delaying an adolescent’s school start time by one hour has a positive effect on his or her cognitive performance, according to a research abstract that will be presented on June 12 at SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS).

Large Areas Of Conservation Land Needed To Save Small Frogs, Turtles And Other Marine Species:

Scientists were surprised with findings of a recent study that reveals many animal species believed to persist in small contained areas actually need broad, landscape level conservation to survive.

Dingo Urine Offers Humane Solution To Kangaroo Cull:

Tasmania’s marsupials have been offered a life-line by researchers at Curtin University of Technology’s Department of Environmental Biology utilising cutting edge science involving fresh dingo urine.

Australian Dinosaur Found To Have South American Heritage:

Australia’s links to South America have just gotten a bit closer, but not due to economic forces, rather fossil forces. University of Queensland palaeontologist Dr Steve Salisbury was part of an international team of palaeontologists from the US, Argentina and Australia that identified a fossil that had previously only been found in South America.

Uncovering The Truth Behind The Largest Marsupial To Walk The Earth:

University of Queensland research is uncovering the truth behind the largest marsupial ever to walk the earth – the 2.5 tonne wombat-like Diprotodon.

Woolly Mammoth Gene Study Changes Extinction Theory:

A large genetic study of the extinct woolly mammoth has revealed that the species was not one large homogenous group, as scientists previously had assumed, and that it did not have much genetic diversity.

Fossils Found In Tibet Revise History Of Elevation, Climate:

About 15,000 feet up on Tibet’s desolate Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau, an international research team led by Florida State University geologist Yang Wang was surprised to find thick layers of ancient lake sediment filled with plant, fish and animal fossils typical of far lower elevations and warmer, wetter climates.

The Symbolic Monkey? Animals Can Comprehend And Use Symbols, Study Of Tufted Capuchins Suggests:

From paintings and photographs to coins and credit cards, we are constantly surrounded by symbolic artefacts. The mental representation of symbols — objects that arbitrarily represent other objects — ultimately affords the development of language, and certainly played a decisive role in the evolution of our hominid ancestors. Can other animal species also comprehend and use symbols? Some evidence suggests that apes, our closest relatives, can indeed use symbols in various contexts. However, little is known about the symbolic competence of phylogenetically more distant species.

Early Humans Experimented To Get Bow And Arrow Just Right, Findings Suggest:

In today’s fast-paced, technologically advanced world, people often take the innovation of new technology for granted without giving much thought to the trial-and-error experimentation that makes technology useful in everyday life. When the “cutting-edge” technology of the bow and arrow was introduced to the world, it changed the way humans hunted and fought. University of Missouri archaeologists have discovered that early man, on the way to perfecting the performance of this new weapon, engaged in experimental research, producing a great variety of projectile points in the quest for the best, most effective system.

Unique Acoustic System Protects Manatees From Injuries And Death:

Researchers at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University have developed and improved upon a unique acoustic system designed to keep manatees from being injured or killed by flood gates and boat locks. Locks are used on sections of a canal or river that may be closed off by gates to control the water level to enable the raising and lowering of boats passing through.

Understanding Delayed Puberty: Scientists Study Migration Of Neurons That Enable Sexual Maturity in Zebrafish:

Scientists are watching a small group of neurons that enable sexual maturity and fertility make a critical journey: from where they form, near the developing nose, to deep inside the brain.

Moderate Exercise Can Improve Sleep Quality Of Insomnia Patients:

An acute session of moderate aerobic exercise, but not heavy aerobic or moderate strength exercises, can reduce the anxiety state and improve the sleep quality of insomnia patients, according to a research abstract that will be presented on June 11 at SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS).

University Experts Dispute Hawk-eye’s Wimbledon Line Call:

Ahead of Wimbledon fortnight (23 June to 6 July), researchers from Cardiff University are advising that sports decision aids such as the Hawk-Eye system should come with a ‘health’ warning attached.