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Moon is coldest known place in the solar system
THE BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN/ZUMA PRESS
UPFRONT
Drink saves sore heads AS IF hospital emergency rooms aren’t already full of people who’ve had too much to drink. Crazy as it sounds, alcohol may one day be given to people with brain injuries to help them recover. The idea has arisen from a study of 38,000 people with head injuries, which found that those with alcohol in their blood were more likely to survive. For every 100 people who died when stone-cold sober, only 88 died with ethanol – the kind of alcohol in drinks – in their veins (Archives of Surgery, vol 144, p 865). “The finding raises the possibility that administering ethanol to patients with brain injuries may improve outcome,” conclude the investigators. Lead researcher Ali Salim of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los
Angeles said he hoped a trial could be mounted, but not until the protective mechanism is understood. One possibility is that alcohol cuts the amount of adrenalin reaching the brain, which reduces inflammation. Animal experiments suggest that relatively low doses of alcohol protect the brain from injury, but high doses increase the risk of death. And Salim stresses that booze is to blame for half of all injury cases. “Alcohol is and will always continue to be bad, since it contributes to over 40 per cent of traffic-related fatalities,” he says. The study also found that drinkers suffered more complications and more severe injuries than nondrinkers, even though the overall survival rate was higher.
–What’ll you have?–
Facebook medics HAVING trouble remembering your medical history? Try Facebook. Some 13 per cent of American medical schools have reported that their students have leaked confidential information about patients via blogs or social networking websites. The students didn’t name names, but did provide enough personal information, such as the medical condition involved and hospital, for patients or their families to recognise who is being described. The information was provided by medical school administrators as part of a survey into students’ behaviour online (Journal of the American Medical Association, vol 302, p 1309).
“The training doctors get on confidentiality needs to address the risks posed by social networking” That’s a potential violation of patient confidentiality laws, says Katherine Chretien, a clinicianeducator at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington DC, 6 | NewScientist | 26 September 2009
who led the survey. She suspects the training on confidentiality given to doctors needs to be updated to address the privacy risks presented by social networking and blogs. Her team also documented unsavoury – but not necessarily illegal – web posts at 60 per cent of the 78 medical schools that participated, such as posting photos containing drug and alcohol use or using profanity or risqué language. While not illegal, this kind of behaviour is particularly problematic for doctors, as it can damage patients’ trust and respect, Chretien says. Preventing such behaviour may present medical schools with a bigger challenge than online privacy violations precisely because it is generally not against the law, says Lindsay Thompson, a paediatrician at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville . Thomson, who was not involved in the study, is drafting policies on student social networking and blogging. “One’s professional reputation is what I’m most concerned about,” she says.
SMS on the wild side THE Bronx river is not a New York hood where you’d expect to find a celebrity. But José is no ordinary media animal. He’s a beaver – the first to live in the Big Apple for 200 years – and now you can text him to find out how he’s doing. The engineers and designers of the Environmental Health Clinic at New York University have deployed buoys in the Bronx and East rivers that show the public what the city’s submerged wildlife is up to. The buoys are equipped
with sonar that detects moving animals, and sensors that provide information on water quality, such as the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water. Distinct sonar signatures reflected from different fish and mammals allow species to be identified and the information texted to anyone with a US phone (text “EastRiver” or “BronxRiver” to 41411). New Scientist texted José and he told us: “Just swung by the art centre. Water feels good. The dissolved oxygen must be pretty high today.”
Coldest spot in the solar system POOR Pluto. First it gets kicked out of the planet club, now it has lost its spot as the coldest known place in the solar system. Dark craters on our own moon have snatched that title – which is good news for the prospects of finding water ice. Instruments on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) measured the emitted and reflected radiation given off by the lunar surface to gauge temperatures within craters at the lunar south pole.
Shadows cast by crater margins keep some regions in permanent darkness. The measurements revealed they stay at a chilly -240 °C, just 33 °C above absolute zero. Pluto was measured at -230 °C in 2006. The cold temperature bodes well for the prospect of finding water ice in the moon’s shadowy pockets. Previous calculations had shown that water and volatile gases would dissipate into space at temperatures above about -220 °C.
UPFRONT
Drink saves sore heads AS IF hospital emergency rooms aren’t already full of people who’ve had too much to drink. Crazy as it sounds, alcohol may one day be given to people with brain injuries to help them recover. The idea has arisen from a study of 38,000 people with head injuries, which found that those with alcohol in their blood were more likely to survive. For every 100 people who died when stone-cold sober, only 88 died with ethanol – the kind of alcohol in drinks – in their veins (Archives of Surgery, vol 144, p 865). “The finding raises the possibility that administering ethanol to patients with brain injuries may improve outcome,” conclude the investigators. Lead researcher Ali Salim of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los
Angeles said he hoped a trial could be mounted, but not until the protective mechanism is understood. One possibility is that alcohol cuts the amount of adrenalin reaching the brain, which reduces inflammation. Animal experiments suggest that relatively low doses of alcohol protect the brain from injury, but high doses increase the risk of death. And Salim stresses that booze is to blame for half of all injury cases. “Alcohol is and will always continue to be bad, since it contributes to over 40 per cent of traffic-related fatalities,” he says. The study also found that drinkers suffered more complications and more severe injuries than nondrinkers, even though the overall survival rate was higher.
–What’ll you have?–
Facebook medics HAVING trouble remembering your medical history? Try Facebook. Some 13 per cent of American medical schools have reported that their students have leaked confidential information about patients via blogs or social networking websites. The students didn’t name names, but did provide enough personal information, such as the medical condition involved and hospital, for patients or their families to recognise who is being described. The information was provided by medical school administrators as part of a survey into students’ behaviour online (Journal of the American Medical Association, vol 302, p 1309).
“The training doctors get on confidentiality needs to address the risks posed by social networking” That’s a potential violation of patient confidentiality laws, says Katherine Chretien, a clinicianeducator at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington DC, 6 | NewScientist | 26 September 2009
who led the survey. She suspects the training on confidentiality given to doctors needs to be updated to address the privacy risks presented by social networking and blogs. Her team also documented unsavoury – but not necessarily illegal – web posts at 60 per cent of the 78 medical schools that participated, such as posting photos containing drug and alcohol use or using profanity or risqué language. While not illegal, this kind of behaviour is particularly problematic for doctors, as it can damage patients’ trust and respect, Chretien says. Preventing such behaviour may present medical schools with a bigger challenge than online privacy violations precisely because it is generally not against the law, says Lindsay Thompson, a paediatrician at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville . Thomson, who was not involved in the study, is drafting policies on student social networking and blogging. “One’s professional reputation is what I’m most concerned about,” she says.
SMS on the wild side THE Bronx river is not a New York hood where you’d expect to find a celebrity. But José is no ordinary media animal. He’s a beaver – the first to live in the Big Apple for 200 years – and now you can text him to find out how he’s doing. The engineers and designers of the Environmental Health Clinic at New York University have deployed buoys in the Bronx and East rivers that show the public what the city’s submerged wildlife is up to. The buoys are equipped
with sonar that detects moving animals, and sensors that provide information on water quality, such as the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water. Distinct sonar signatures reflected from different fish and mammals allow species to be identified and the information texted to anyone with a US phone (text “EastRiver” or “BronxRiver” to 41411). New Scientist texted José and he told us: “Just swung by the art centre. Water feels good. The dissolved oxygen must be pretty high today.”
Coldest spot in the solar system POOR Pluto. First it gets kicked out of the planet club, now it has lost its spot as the coldest known place in the solar system. Dark craters on our own moon have snatched that title – which is good news for the prospects of finding water ice. Instruments on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) measured the emitted and reflected radiation given off by the lunar surface to gauge temperatures within craters at the lunar south pole.
Shadows cast by crater margins keep some regions in permanent darkness. The measurements revealed they stay at a chilly -240 °C, just 33 °C above absolute zero. Pluto was measured at -230 °C in 2006. The cold temperature bodes well for the prospect of finding water ice in the moon’s shadowy pockets. Previous calculations had shown that water and volatile gases would dissipate into space at temperatures above about -220 °C.