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Arctic animal boom
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60 SECONDS
Arctic animal boom
never go to court. If the plaintiffs approve, the city will award payments according to the severity of a person’s condition and their exposure to debris. However, we still don’t know what was behind the adverse health effects, such as lung problems, stomach ailments and possibly cancer. Larger, high pH particles of cement, glass and pulverised debris are the likely cause of respiratory problems, says Paul Lioy at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. But the gases and particles mixed in novel ways, making it hard to pick out “smoking guns”.
3 per cent per year for 30 years. But the trend masks worrying recent declines. Warmer waters in the Bering Strait boosted the Bering Sea pollock between 1970 and 2003 by increasing plankton growth, but numbers have since
CONTRARY to popular belief, Arctic animals have done rather well over recent decades. The first analysis of a 40-year database of Arctic species reveals that populations grew by 16 per cent on average between 1970 and 2004. “Populations of bowhead whales have risen by The Arctic Species Trend Index about 3 per cent per year covers 35 per cent of all Arctic for 30 years” vertebrate species. The analysis, led by Louise McRae at the declined. The dark-bellied brent Zoological Society of London, goose has also declined, after an shows several mammals have initial recovery of numbers. The benefited from hunting bans. team says the recent declines Populations of bowhead whales, could be linked to climate change. for instance, have risen by about
Energy creep
Will the shuttle linger on?
NASA
SURVEYS of hundreds of UK THE demise of NASA’s Constellation moon rockets is bringing faint hopes households reveal that people who have made their houses more of a reprieve for the space shuttle. NASA’s decades-old shuttle fleet energy efficient are more likely to indulge in small excesses – turning has been headed for retirement since 2004, and only four more flights are up the heating, for example, or scheduled. Now the White House’s keeping it on for longer. plan to scrap the Constellation Small excesses add up to large programme – a pair of rockets capable costs. The results of the studies – of taking astronauts back to the seven of them in total – suggest moon – has prompted renewed that such energy creep could efforts to keep the shuttles running wipe out as much as half of the until new vehicles can replace them. anticipated savings from making Two bills have been introduced in homes more energy efficient the US Congress to keep the shuttle (Building Research & Information, flying while NASA works to develop vol 38, issue 1). replacements. The hope is that a “Some householders who modest extension – involving just a install double-glazing, insulation couple of flights a year – could help and energy-efficient boilers end retain jobs and maintain access to the up using fuel at close to the old levels, often because they are more concerned about comfort than saving energy,” says David Lomas of Loughborough University, UK. He was a lead member of the UK-governmentfunded consortium which carried out the surveys. Lomas says the results question whether the government’s target of reducing energy consumption in homes to 20 per cent of 1990 levels by 2050 is achievable. Paul Stern of the US National Research Council agrees but emphasises that efficiency measures do save energy overall. –Heading into the sunset–
International Space Station without relying on foreign launchers. “If the space shuttle programme is terminated, Russia and China will be the only nations in the world with the capability to launch humans into space,” says Texas senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who introduced the first of the two bills this month. “This is unacceptable.” An extension to shuttle flights may struggle to win approval. Safety has been a concern, but a bigger hurdle may be money. The cost of a modest programme could exceed $2 billion per year, according to agency officials. “Where that money comes from is the big question,” shuttle programme manager John Shannon told reporters last week.
Painless painkillers Two genes that allow opium poppies to make morphine and codeine have been identified. Transferred into microbes, they could enable the painkillers to be made in vats, instead of having to be extracted from poppies. This would reduce the land needed to make the drugs – and their cost, say researchers in Nature Chemical Biology (DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.317).
Falcon to fly soon All nine engines of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket were successfully test-fired on 13 March, taking it a step closer to being able to deliver cargo for NASA to the International Space Station. A test launch is scheduled for mid-April.
Improving the IPCC The UN announced last week that the InterAcademy Council – an umbrella organisation for the world’s science academies – will review the methods of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and recommend how the IPCC can improve its methods in future. It will not reassess the conclusions of the IPCC’s 2007 report.
Celebrity genome As an A-list actor, Glenn Close was already part of an elite club. Now she has entered an even more exclusive group by having her whole genome sequenced. Close has a family history of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and is co-founder of a non-profit body that raises awareness about mental illness. She hopes that wholegenome sequencing will help unravel its genetic underpinnings.
Inflated ambition Would you want to be the first to orbit Earth in an inflatable space station? Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas, Nevada, is advertising (bit.ly/ cBY39F) for astronauts to crew its proposed Sundancer space habitat, which will use air pressure alone to keep its shape. The job description includes space walks and spacecraft engineering.
20 March 2010 | NewScientist | 7
60 SECONDS
Arctic animal boom
never go to court. If the plaintiffs approve, the city will award payments according to the severity of a person’s condition and their exposure to debris. However, we still don’t know what was behind the adverse health effects, such as lung problems, stomach ailments and possibly cancer. Larger, high pH particles of cement, glass and pulverised debris are the likely cause of respiratory problems, says Paul Lioy at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. But the gases and particles mixed in novel ways, making it hard to pick out “smoking guns”.
3 per cent per year for 30 years. But the trend masks worrying recent declines. Warmer waters in the Bering Strait boosted the Bering Sea pollock between 1970 and 2003 by increasing plankton growth, but numbers have since
CONTRARY to popular belief, Arctic animals have done rather well over recent decades. The first analysis of a 40-year database of Arctic species reveals that populations grew by 16 per cent on average between 1970 and 2004. “Populations of bowhead whales have risen by The Arctic Species Trend Index about 3 per cent per year covers 35 per cent of all Arctic for 30 years” vertebrate species. The analysis, led by Louise McRae at the declined. The dark-bellied brent Zoological Society of London, goose has also declined, after an shows several mammals have initial recovery of numbers. The benefited from hunting bans. team says the recent declines Populations of bowhead whales, could be linked to climate change. for instance, have risen by about
Energy creep
Will the shuttle linger on?
NASA
SURVEYS of hundreds of UK THE demise of NASA’s Constellation moon rockets is bringing faint hopes households reveal that people who have made their houses more of a reprieve for the space shuttle. NASA’s decades-old shuttle fleet energy efficient are more likely to indulge in small excesses – turning has been headed for retirement since 2004, and only four more flights are up the heating, for example, or scheduled. Now the White House’s keeping it on for longer. plan to scrap the Constellation Small excesses add up to large programme – a pair of rockets capable costs. The results of the studies – of taking astronauts back to the seven of them in total – suggest moon – has prompted renewed that such energy creep could efforts to keep the shuttles running wipe out as much as half of the until new vehicles can replace them. anticipated savings from making Two bills have been introduced in homes more energy efficient the US Congress to keep the shuttle (Building Research & Information, flying while NASA works to develop vol 38, issue 1). replacements. The hope is that a “Some householders who modest extension – involving just a install double-glazing, insulation couple of flights a year – could help and energy-efficient boilers end retain jobs and maintain access to the up using fuel at close to the old levels, often because they are more concerned about comfort than saving energy,” says David Lomas of Loughborough University, UK. He was a lead member of the UK-governmentfunded consortium which carried out the surveys. Lomas says the results question whether the government’s target of reducing energy consumption in homes to 20 per cent of 1990 levels by 2050 is achievable. Paul Stern of the US National Research Council agrees but emphasises that efficiency measures do save energy overall. –Heading into the sunset–
International Space Station without relying on foreign launchers. “If the space shuttle programme is terminated, Russia and China will be the only nations in the world with the capability to launch humans into space,” says Texas senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who introduced the first of the two bills this month. “This is unacceptable.” An extension to shuttle flights may struggle to win approval. Safety has been a concern, but a bigger hurdle may be money. The cost of a modest programme could exceed $2 billion per year, according to agency officials. “Where that money comes from is the big question,” shuttle programme manager John Shannon told reporters last week.
Painless painkillers Two genes that allow opium poppies to make morphine and codeine have been identified. Transferred into microbes, they could enable the painkillers to be made in vats, instead of having to be extracted from poppies. This would reduce the land needed to make the drugs – and their cost, say researchers in Nature Chemical Biology (DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.317).
Falcon to fly soon All nine engines of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket were successfully test-fired on 13 March, taking it a step closer to being able to deliver cargo for NASA to the International Space Station. A test launch is scheduled for mid-April.
Improving the IPCC The UN announced last week that the InterAcademy Council – an umbrella organisation for the world’s science academies – will review the methods of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and recommend how the IPCC can improve its methods in future. It will not reassess the conclusions of the IPCC’s 2007 report.
Celebrity genome As an A-list actor, Glenn Close was already part of an elite club. Now she has entered an even more exclusive group by having her whole genome sequenced. Close has a family history of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and is co-founder of a non-profit body that raises awareness about mental illness. She hopes that wholegenome sequencing will help unravel its genetic underpinnings.
Inflated ambition Would you want to be the first to orbit Earth in an inflatable space station? Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas, Nevada, is advertising (bit.ly/ cBY39F) for astronauts to crew its proposed Sundancer space habitat, which will use air pressure alone to keep its shape. The job description includes space walks and spacecraft engineering.
20 March 2010 | NewScientist | 7