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Chemical weapons inspectors ready to enter Syria
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CALL them the chemistry set. An international team of chemists and epidemiologists is poised to fly to Syria at the request of the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, in the
Tony Marshall/EMPICS Sport/PA
Inspectors ready
Botox wrinkles
“Rebels allege that the Syrian military used chemical-weapon attacks near Homs and Damascus” first investigation of an alleged use of chemical weapons since the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) came into force in 1997. A two-year-long civil war has led to 70,000 deaths and created 1.4 million refugees, but much foreign concern has centred on Assad’s stockpiles of chemical weapons, which could wreak havoc in terrorists’ hands. Assad claims that rebels killed 25 people using chemical weapons near Aleppo in March. Although Syria has not signed the CWC, Assad asked UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon to investigate. Rebels allege that the Syrian military used chemical weapons near Homs and Damascus. French and British authorities have reportedly given Ban analyses of soil samples smuggled out of Syria that support this claim. Ban says all claims should be investigated – which may be why, despite his invitation, Assad has so far denied UN inspectors entry to Syria.
60 Seconds
“Quote to go in here over four lines range left like this Quote to go in her like this xxxxx”
“Dermal fillers have no more controls than a bottle of floor cleaner,” says a UK Department of Health review of cosmetic treatments. The authors recommend qualifications for those who perform non-surgical procedures such as botox injections. Dermal fillers should be prescriptiononly, and doctors should be aware if their patient is undergoing surgery.
Space batteries
–Riding high?–
Horses on steroids ATHLETES are not the only ones to get in trouble for doping. Eleven of the 45 race horses from Godolphin, one of the world’s best-known stables, have tested positive for prohibited anabolic steroids following an inspection on 9 April. All 11 horses at the UK stables have been banned, including Certify (pictured above), an unbeaten filly now withdrawn from a major race, the 1000 Guineas, held at
“Certify, an unbeaten filly, has now been withdrawn from the 1000 Guineas race at Newmarket”
NASA/Bill Ingalls
Newmarket, UK, in May. The trainer involved, Mahmood Al Zarooni, has admitted injecting the steroids, ethylestrenol and stanozolol. But on the Godolphin website he claimed to have mistakenly believed the drugs could be administered during training. The British Horseracing Authority says that the steroids are banned in racing and training. The scandal is by no means the first to rock the horse-racing world. Last November, there were allegations that stables injected horses with the blood-boosting hormone erythropoietin. This week, senior regulators in the –Antares on the up– global racing industry discussed
the growing threat to the sport at a major conference in Lexington, Kentucky. The event was held by the Association of Racing Commissioners International, the body that sets global rules and standards for dope testing. According to an industry source, labs currently test for all anabolic steroids and up to 3000 other substances.
Russian space zoo Mice, geckos and fish are just a few of the critternauts in a space zoo sent into orbit last week. The Russian space agency’s Bion-M1 spacecraft is designed to study the biological effects of space travel and potential harm to astronauts from microgravity and radiation. Animals have flown in space before, but this mission will be an extreme test. They will orbit Earth for a month at a height of 575 kilometres, roughly 200 kilometres higher than the International Space Station, exposing them to more radiation for an extended period. The aim is to help boost crew health and performance on future missions, says Richard Boyle, a NASA scientist in charge of US experiments on Bion-M1. Bion-M1 is to return to Earth on 18 May, but the homecoming will be short-lived. The animals will be euthanised for further study.
NASA is to install lithium-ion batteries on the International Space Station. The batteries are similar to those used on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner aircraft, all 50 of which are currently out of service following two battery fires. But NASA insists they are safe and says they will be installed outside the crew modules.
Hunting fatigue There’s no place to hide for the elusive agent causing chronic fatigue syndrome. The world’s largest effort to unmask the cause of the disease was launched this week in the UK. The CFS/ME Research Collaborative will follow several lines of enquiry, including individual differences in cell metabolism.
European influx Europe was shaped by a massive wave of migration around 6000 years ago, in which the first Stone Age farmers were replaced by new groups from the Iberian peninsula. Genetic analysis of ancient skeletons shows little trace of the first farmers in modern populations, pointing to an influx of interlopers (Nature Communications, doi.org/mbk).
Emissions seesaw The UK’s carbon footprint has grown 10 per cent in the last two decades, despite the country’s greenhouse gas emissions falling by 20 per cent, according to the government’s Committee on Climate Change. That’s because the UK imports so many consumer products, the manufacture of which produces emissions.
27 April 2013 | NewScientist | 7
CALL them the chemistry set. An international team of chemists and epidemiologists is poised to fly to Syria at the request of the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, in the
Tony Marshall/EMPICS Sport/PA
Inspectors ready
Botox wrinkles
“Rebels allege that the Syrian military used chemical-weapon attacks near Homs and Damascus” first investigation of an alleged use of chemical weapons since the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) came into force in 1997. A two-year-long civil war has led to 70,000 deaths and created 1.4 million refugees, but much foreign concern has centred on Assad’s stockpiles of chemical weapons, which could wreak havoc in terrorists’ hands. Assad claims that rebels killed 25 people using chemical weapons near Aleppo in March. Although Syria has not signed the CWC, Assad asked UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon to investigate. Rebels allege that the Syrian military used chemical weapons near Homs and Damascus. French and British authorities have reportedly given Ban analyses of soil samples smuggled out of Syria that support this claim. Ban says all claims should be investigated – which may be why, despite his invitation, Assad has so far denied UN inspectors entry to Syria.
60 Seconds
“Quote to go in here over four lines range left like this Quote to go in her like this xxxxx”
“Dermal fillers have no more controls than a bottle of floor cleaner,” says a UK Department of Health review of cosmetic treatments. The authors recommend qualifications for those who perform non-surgical procedures such as botox injections. Dermal fillers should be prescriptiononly, and doctors should be aware if their patient is undergoing surgery.
Space batteries
–Riding high?–
Horses on steroids ATHLETES are not the only ones to get in trouble for doping. Eleven of the 45 race horses from Godolphin, one of the world’s best-known stables, have tested positive for prohibited anabolic steroids following an inspection on 9 April. All 11 horses at the UK stables have been banned, including Certify (pictured above), an unbeaten filly now withdrawn from a major race, the 1000 Guineas, held at
“Certify, an unbeaten filly, has now been withdrawn from the 1000 Guineas race at Newmarket”
NASA/Bill Ingalls
Newmarket, UK, in May. The trainer involved, Mahmood Al Zarooni, has admitted injecting the steroids, ethylestrenol and stanozolol. But on the Godolphin website he claimed to have mistakenly believed the drugs could be administered during training. The British Horseracing Authority says that the steroids are banned in racing and training. The scandal is by no means the first to rock the horse-racing world. Last November, there were allegations that stables injected horses with the blood-boosting hormone erythropoietin. This week, senior regulators in the –Antares on the up– global racing industry discussed
the growing threat to the sport at a major conference in Lexington, Kentucky. The event was held by the Association of Racing Commissioners International, the body that sets global rules and standards for dope testing. According to an industry source, labs currently test for all anabolic steroids and up to 3000 other substances.
Russian space zoo Mice, geckos and fish are just a few of the critternauts in a space zoo sent into orbit last week. The Russian space agency’s Bion-M1 spacecraft is designed to study the biological effects of space travel and potential harm to astronauts from microgravity and radiation. Animals have flown in space before, but this mission will be an extreme test. They will orbit Earth for a month at a height of 575 kilometres, roughly 200 kilometres higher than the International Space Station, exposing them to more radiation for an extended period. The aim is to help boost crew health and performance on future missions, says Richard Boyle, a NASA scientist in charge of US experiments on Bion-M1. Bion-M1 is to return to Earth on 18 May, but the homecoming will be short-lived. The animals will be euthanised for further study.
NASA is to install lithium-ion batteries on the International Space Station. The batteries are similar to those used on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner aircraft, all 50 of which are currently out of service following two battery fires. But NASA insists they are safe and says they will be installed outside the crew modules.
Hunting fatigue There’s no place to hide for the elusive agent causing chronic fatigue syndrome. The world’s largest effort to unmask the cause of the disease was launched this week in the UK. The CFS/ME Research Collaborative will follow several lines of enquiry, including individual differences in cell metabolism.
European influx Europe was shaped by a massive wave of migration around 6000 years ago, in which the first Stone Age farmers were replaced by new groups from the Iberian peninsula. Genetic analysis of ancient skeletons shows little trace of the first farmers in modern populations, pointing to an influx of interlopers (Nature Communications, doi.org/mbk).
Emissions seesaw The UK’s carbon footprint has grown 10 per cent in the last two decades, despite the country’s greenhouse gas emissions falling by 20 per cent, according to the government’s Committee on Climate Change. That’s because the UK imports so many consumer products, the manufacture of which produces emissions.
27 April 2013 | NewScientist | 7