- Email: [email protected]
Cover under fire
CRISTINA QUICLER/AFP/GETTY
UPFRONT
Finding the Achilles’ heart ATHLETES the world over should face tests for hidden heart problems – and potential disqualification if any are detected. That’s the conclusion of a collection of studies into the practicality and effectiveness of such tests, carried out at the behest of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). A number of seemingly healthy athletes have dropped dead from “sudden cardiac death”, including the Spanish footballer Antonio Puerta (pictured) two years ago and British rower Scott Rennie in March this year. Many of the heart problems that trigger such deaths can be detected through physical examination, electrocardiograms and by taking a medical history, as laid out in the “Lausanne recommendations”
created under the auspices of the European Society of Cardiology. The new studies suggest that implementing these recommendations saves lives. In one, researchers applied the protocol to 371 Dutch athletes aged 12 to 35 over two years. Of the 55 who were referred for additional testing, 10 had an underlying cardiovascular problem, and three were restricted from further participation in sport (British Journal of Sports Medicine, DOI: 10.1136/bjsm.2008.056929). Sanjay Sharma, a cardiologist at King’s College Hospital in London who led another of the studies, says: “Everybody who plays sports needs to be aware that there are certain conditions that may be silent, that could result in a fatality.”
–Victim of a hidden condition–
Lunar tunes THE man in the moon is humming a tune, but thankfully the noise won’t prevent sensors on future moon missions from peeking at the lunar interior. A steady barrage of small meteorite impacts should cause the moon to “ring”, but no seismometers sent to the moon to date have been sensitive enough to hear it. So Philippe Lognonné at the Paris Institute of Earth Physics in France and colleagues decided to work out how loud the ring is.
“The moon-hum’s quietness means lunar seismometers should be able to peek deep within the moon” The team estimated the meteorite population in the solar neighbourhood, and calculated the likely seismic signals that would be created by a range of meteorite sizes and velocities as they strike the moon. Their calculations revealed space rocks with masses ranging from a gram to a kilogram do indeed create a hum, but it is subtle. Earth’s 4 | NewScientist | 12 September 2009
hum – created by pounding waves – can be more than 1000 times louder (Journal of Geophysical Research, in press). The moon-hum’s quietness means future lunar seismometers should be able to use seismic imaging to peek deep within the moon without the hum creating problematic background noise. The network of seismometers left by the Apollo missions has been shut down since 1977, so Lognonné hopes more sensitive instruments will be sent to the moon soon. Imaging the interior could help reveal more about the origin of shallow moonquakes – occasionally powerful tremors whose source has yet to be identified. Future seismometers could also reach deeper than the Apollo network to measure the size of the moon’s core. “The area within 500 kilometres of the centre of the moon is completely unknown to seismology,” Lognonné says. The first instrument may be a seismometer proposed for Japan’s Selene-2 moon mission, which aims to send a lander to the surface, perhaps as early as 2015.
Cover under fire ARNIE might want to rethink this one. In a classic case of a perverse incentive, California state law actually facilitates building homes in brushy canyons prone to massive wildfires like that which destroyed dozens of homes near Los Angeles this month. State legislature mandates that every property owner must be able to buy affordable fire insurance, and so an industry syndicate, the California Fair Plan, serves as the insurer of last resort
for property owners deemed too high-risk for conventional fire insurance. Some 17,400 owners of brushland property now obtain insurance through this route. Offering such cover may be a bad idea because coastal brushland, or chaparral, is prone to intense fires. Ecologists say anyone living in chaparral should expect to be burned out eventually. The obvious answer is to avoid building in these riskiest of areas – a solution made harder by the state’s insistence on providing insurance for such properties.
Worse than a stinking hangover ACCORDING to Asian folklore, eating the famously pungent durian – known as the “king of fruits” – along with alcohol can kill you. Now intrepid researchers have confirmed there may be some truth in this supposition. It is the first time combining a fruit with booze has been scientifically linked to an adverse reaction. John Maninang and Hiroshi Gemma from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, wondered if the reported side
effects were due to durian’s high sulphur content impairing alcohol breakdown. In test tubes they found that durian extract inhibited the activity of aldehyde dehydrogenase – an enzyme that clears toxic breakdown products – by up to 70 per cent (Food Chemistry, DOI: 10.1016/ j.foodchem.2009.03.106). Detractors complain about the rotting smell of durian, says Gemma. “Now we know that it may smell of danger too.”
UPFRONT
Finding the Achilles’ heart ATHLETES the world over should face tests for hidden heart problems – and potential disqualification if any are detected. That’s the conclusion of a collection of studies into the practicality and effectiveness of such tests, carried out at the behest of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). A number of seemingly healthy athletes have dropped dead from “sudden cardiac death”, including the Spanish footballer Antonio Puerta (pictured) two years ago and British rower Scott Rennie in March this year. Many of the heart problems that trigger such deaths can be detected through physical examination, electrocardiograms and by taking a medical history, as laid out in the “Lausanne recommendations”
created under the auspices of the European Society of Cardiology. The new studies suggest that implementing these recommendations saves lives. In one, researchers applied the protocol to 371 Dutch athletes aged 12 to 35 over two years. Of the 55 who were referred for additional testing, 10 had an underlying cardiovascular problem, and three were restricted from further participation in sport (British Journal of Sports Medicine, DOI: 10.1136/bjsm.2008.056929). Sanjay Sharma, a cardiologist at King’s College Hospital in London who led another of the studies, says: “Everybody who plays sports needs to be aware that there are certain conditions that may be silent, that could result in a fatality.”
–Victim of a hidden condition–
Lunar tunes THE man in the moon is humming a tune, but thankfully the noise won’t prevent sensors on future moon missions from peeking at the lunar interior. A steady barrage of small meteorite impacts should cause the moon to “ring”, but no seismometers sent to the moon to date have been sensitive enough to hear it. So Philippe Lognonné at the Paris Institute of Earth Physics in France and colleagues decided to work out how loud the ring is.
“The moon-hum’s quietness means lunar seismometers should be able to peek deep within the moon” The team estimated the meteorite population in the solar neighbourhood, and calculated the likely seismic signals that would be created by a range of meteorite sizes and velocities as they strike the moon. Their calculations revealed space rocks with masses ranging from a gram to a kilogram do indeed create a hum, but it is subtle. Earth’s 4 | NewScientist | 12 September 2009
hum – created by pounding waves – can be more than 1000 times louder (Journal of Geophysical Research, in press). The moon-hum’s quietness means future lunar seismometers should be able to use seismic imaging to peek deep within the moon without the hum creating problematic background noise. The network of seismometers left by the Apollo missions has been shut down since 1977, so Lognonné hopes more sensitive instruments will be sent to the moon soon. Imaging the interior could help reveal more about the origin of shallow moonquakes – occasionally powerful tremors whose source has yet to be identified. Future seismometers could also reach deeper than the Apollo network to measure the size of the moon’s core. “The area within 500 kilometres of the centre of the moon is completely unknown to seismology,” Lognonné says. The first instrument may be a seismometer proposed for Japan’s Selene-2 moon mission, which aims to send a lander to the surface, perhaps as early as 2015.
Cover under fire ARNIE might want to rethink this one. In a classic case of a perverse incentive, California state law actually facilitates building homes in brushy canyons prone to massive wildfires like that which destroyed dozens of homes near Los Angeles this month. State legislature mandates that every property owner must be able to buy affordable fire insurance, and so an industry syndicate, the California Fair Plan, serves as the insurer of last resort
for property owners deemed too high-risk for conventional fire insurance. Some 17,400 owners of brushland property now obtain insurance through this route. Offering such cover may be a bad idea because coastal brushland, or chaparral, is prone to intense fires. Ecologists say anyone living in chaparral should expect to be burned out eventually. The obvious answer is to avoid building in these riskiest of areas – a solution made harder by the state’s insistence on providing insurance for such properties.
Worse than a stinking hangover ACCORDING to Asian folklore, eating the famously pungent durian – known as the “king of fruits” – along with alcohol can kill you. Now intrepid researchers have confirmed there may be some truth in this supposition. It is the first time combining a fruit with booze has been scientifically linked to an adverse reaction. John Maninang and Hiroshi Gemma from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, wondered if the reported side
effects were due to durian’s high sulphur content impairing alcohol breakdown. In test tubes they found that durian extract inhibited the activity of aldehyde dehydrogenase – an enzyme that clears toxic breakdown products – by up to 70 per cent (Food Chemistry, DOI: 10.1016/ j.foodchem.2009.03.106). Detractors complain about the rotting smell of durian, says Gemma. “Now we know that it may smell of danger too.”