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Antarctic Ocean life gets mapped
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Ebola breakdown
on other faults in the area. The results suggest that the northern part of the Hayward fault, which runs to the east of San Francisco Bay, ended up under greater stress. This doesn’t mean the Hayward fault is now primed, says Ross Stein of the USGS. “We’re saying it gave it a kick. Whether or not that will be large enough to trigger something, we don’t know.” The USGS estimates there is a 1 in 3 chance of a magnitude 6.7 or larger quake on the Hayward fault by 2037. Such an event would be devastating to San Francisco, Berkeley and the 7 million people living in the Bay Area.
60 Seconds
Monrovia, the Liberian capital, was cordoned off. And an Ebola treatment centre there was looted after desperate people from outside the community flocked to it seeking ordinary medical care.
THE knock-on effects of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa are starting to be felt, vindicating warnings from health experts about the impacts of epidemics “An Ebola treatment on modern society. centre was looted after In affected regions of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, ordinary outsiders arrived seeking ordinary medical care” medical care, for childbirth, say, has disappeared as hospitals are overwhelmed with Ebola cases More than 1500 people have or closed as workers flee. People reportedly died of the virus so far. forcibly quarantined in those But this is an underestimate, says areas are suffering from a lack of the World Health Organization, food and water. There were riots which is counting fresh graves last week when a district of to estimate the real toll.
Antarctic Ocean life gets mapped
Orbital anomaly
M. Błazewicz-Paszkowycz, University of Łódz
ROUND and round and wrong WHALE what’s going on here then? Climate change’s dramatic effects on they go. Two European Space the Southern Ocean just got easier Agency navigation satellites to track, thanks to a comprehensive launched into the wrong orbit biodiversity map of the region. last weekend. Some estimates suggest that the The satellites were meant to Southern Ocean is home to half of be the fifth and sixth in Europe’s all the human-linked carbon dioxide Galileo global positioning system, a network of 30 satellites expected that the world’s oceans absorb, and the consequent drop in ocean-water to be up and running by 2020. pH there has already begun to They launched from French dissolve animal shells in the region. Guinea on a Soyuz rocket on The new Biogeographic Atlas of 22 August, but did not make it the Southern Ocean will make it to their projected orbits. The easier to monitor problems like this. orbits were lower than planned, It details everything we know about elliptical instead of round, and the life in that ocean: what is there, set at the wrong angle. Worse, it may not be possible reroute them. where it exists and what it is like. “How do we know if things are “We do not know yet what can changing, and whether they’re be done,” says ESA spokesperson Franco Bonacina. The satellites carry 12 years’ worth of fuel, but it would take most of that to move them to their intended orbits. “We will have to decide whether it is worth it,” Bonacina says. If they cannot be rescued, ESA may use them for technology demonstrations. “As we say in Italian, we don’t want to throw the baby out of the window. We will make good use of them,” Bonacina says. In that case, ESA will have to launch replacement satellites to complete Galileo. The next three Galileo launches –A very cool customer– are planned for December.
changing naturally or not, unless we know what’s there?” says Graham Hosie, a contributor to the project from the Australian Antarctic Division. The atlas draws on hundreds of thousands of records reaching back to the 18th century, and describes more than 9000 species, ranging from microbes to whales, including the shrimp-like Antarctic tanaid, pictured below. The information will inform debates about the creation of marine parks in the Southern Ocean. “This type of bare-bones empirical information is what you need,” says Hosie. “Because there are a lot of assumptions that get made in those debates about what is there or isn’t there.”
Artificial thymus The thymus gland has joined the list of artificially engineered organs. Reprogrammed embryonic cells were mixed with fetal thymus cells and grafted on to the kidneys of adult mice, where they developed into thymus glands. Growing the organ inside an animal rather than a dish meant it had a constant supply of blood and nutrients (Nature Cell Biology, doi.org/vc4).
Triton mapped anew Footage captured by the Voyager 2 spacecraft 25 years ago has helped produce a remastered map of Triton, Neptune’s largest moon. Modern processing techniques have revealed new surface features that may be similar to ones on Pluto, which will be visited by NASA’s New Horizon’s probe next year.
Smog hazard defined China’s smog is notoriously bad, but what is its precise effect on health? Jill Baumgartner of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and colleagues studied 280 women in rural China, where burning wood or coal in stoves produces black carbon, a component of soot. The higher their level of exposure to black carbon, the greater the women’s risk of high blood pressure. This risk tripled when they also lived near a major motorway (PNAS, doi.org/vc6).
No more e-cigs indoors? Vaping with electronic cigarettes should be banned indoors in public spaces and the workplace, a World Health Organization report has recommended. The idea is to protect non-vapers from exposure to nicotine, toxicants and other particles that the devices produce.
Curiosity’s drill wobble Last week, NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity tried to drill into a rock called Bonanza King, its fourth effort to dig into the planet’s surface. But the rock wobbled beneath the drill, so the rover team had to move on.
30 August 2014 | NewScientist | 7
Ebola breakdown
on other faults in the area. The results suggest that the northern part of the Hayward fault, which runs to the east of San Francisco Bay, ended up under greater stress. This doesn’t mean the Hayward fault is now primed, says Ross Stein of the USGS. “We’re saying it gave it a kick. Whether or not that will be large enough to trigger something, we don’t know.” The USGS estimates there is a 1 in 3 chance of a magnitude 6.7 or larger quake on the Hayward fault by 2037. Such an event would be devastating to San Francisco, Berkeley and the 7 million people living in the Bay Area.
60 Seconds
Monrovia, the Liberian capital, was cordoned off. And an Ebola treatment centre there was looted after desperate people from outside the community flocked to it seeking ordinary medical care.
THE knock-on effects of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa are starting to be felt, vindicating warnings from health experts about the impacts of epidemics “An Ebola treatment on modern society. centre was looted after In affected regions of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, ordinary outsiders arrived seeking ordinary medical care” medical care, for childbirth, say, has disappeared as hospitals are overwhelmed with Ebola cases More than 1500 people have or closed as workers flee. People reportedly died of the virus so far. forcibly quarantined in those But this is an underestimate, says areas are suffering from a lack of the World Health Organization, food and water. There were riots which is counting fresh graves last week when a district of to estimate the real toll.
Antarctic Ocean life gets mapped
Orbital anomaly
M. Błazewicz-Paszkowycz, University of Łódz
ROUND and round and wrong WHALE what’s going on here then? Climate change’s dramatic effects on they go. Two European Space the Southern Ocean just got easier Agency navigation satellites to track, thanks to a comprehensive launched into the wrong orbit biodiversity map of the region. last weekend. Some estimates suggest that the The satellites were meant to Southern Ocean is home to half of be the fifth and sixth in Europe’s all the human-linked carbon dioxide Galileo global positioning system, a network of 30 satellites expected that the world’s oceans absorb, and the consequent drop in ocean-water to be up and running by 2020. pH there has already begun to They launched from French dissolve animal shells in the region. Guinea on a Soyuz rocket on The new Biogeographic Atlas of 22 August, but did not make it the Southern Ocean will make it to their projected orbits. The easier to monitor problems like this. orbits were lower than planned, It details everything we know about elliptical instead of round, and the life in that ocean: what is there, set at the wrong angle. Worse, it may not be possible reroute them. where it exists and what it is like. “How do we know if things are “We do not know yet what can changing, and whether they’re be done,” says ESA spokesperson Franco Bonacina. The satellites carry 12 years’ worth of fuel, but it would take most of that to move them to their intended orbits. “We will have to decide whether it is worth it,” Bonacina says. If they cannot be rescued, ESA may use them for technology demonstrations. “As we say in Italian, we don’t want to throw the baby out of the window. We will make good use of them,” Bonacina says. In that case, ESA will have to launch replacement satellites to complete Galileo. The next three Galileo launches –A very cool customer– are planned for December.
changing naturally or not, unless we know what’s there?” says Graham Hosie, a contributor to the project from the Australian Antarctic Division. The atlas draws on hundreds of thousands of records reaching back to the 18th century, and describes more than 9000 species, ranging from microbes to whales, including the shrimp-like Antarctic tanaid, pictured below. The information will inform debates about the creation of marine parks in the Southern Ocean. “This type of bare-bones empirical information is what you need,” says Hosie. “Because there are a lot of assumptions that get made in those debates about what is there or isn’t there.”
Artificial thymus The thymus gland has joined the list of artificially engineered organs. Reprogrammed embryonic cells were mixed with fetal thymus cells and grafted on to the kidneys of adult mice, where they developed into thymus glands. Growing the organ inside an animal rather than a dish meant it had a constant supply of blood and nutrients (Nature Cell Biology, doi.org/vc4).
Triton mapped anew Footage captured by the Voyager 2 spacecraft 25 years ago has helped produce a remastered map of Triton, Neptune’s largest moon. Modern processing techniques have revealed new surface features that may be similar to ones on Pluto, which will be visited by NASA’s New Horizon’s probe next year.
Smog hazard defined China’s smog is notoriously bad, but what is its precise effect on health? Jill Baumgartner of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and colleagues studied 280 women in rural China, where burning wood or coal in stoves produces black carbon, a component of soot. The higher their level of exposure to black carbon, the greater the women’s risk of high blood pressure. This risk tripled when they also lived near a major motorway (PNAS, doi.org/vc6).
No more e-cigs indoors? Vaping with electronic cigarettes should be banned indoors in public spaces and the workplace, a World Health Organization report has recommended. The idea is to protect non-vapers from exposure to nicotine, toxicants and other particles that the devices produce.
Curiosity’s drill wobble Last week, NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity tried to drill into a rock called Bonanza King, its fourth effort to dig into the planet’s surface. But the rock wobbled beneath the drill, so the rover team had to move on.
30 August 2014 | NewScientist | 7