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A SENIOR stem cell scientist has died in an apparent suicide. Yoshiki Sasai, who co-authored two controversial stem cell papers, was found dead at his laboratory at the Riken Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan.
reuters/funai
Stem cell death
60 Seconds
Sneaky vibrations Your room is listening. You can tell what someone is saying from vibrations in nearby objects. A team at MIT videoed a pack of potato chips placed near a speaker and tracked minute changes in its position. From this, they worked out the vibration pattern and that the sound causing it was the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb. The work will be presented at SIGGRAPH in Vancouver this week.
“Sasai was renowned for his ability to coax stem cells into becoming other types of cells”
China quake
Haraz N. Ghanbari/AP/Press Association Images
Sasai was renowned for his ability to coax stem cells into becoming other types of cells. This year, however, his career has been under the spotlight. Sasai Endangered people was co-author on two papers that YOU may have heard this story. claimed to produce embryonic Members of an uncontacted stem cells called STAP from adult Amazon people peer across a cells using acid. The papers were river on the border between retracted by the journal Nature Peru and Brazil, then wade across. in July due to multiple errors. Here they tell fellow AshaninkaSasai, 52, was cleared of any speakers that some of their group direct involvement by a Riken investigation, but criticised for his of 50 or so, living in the forest, failure to correctly edit the papers have been killed by white people. Then they vanish. The encounter and for his supervision of lead is captured on video. author Haruko Obokata, who Despite much coverage, little is was found guilty of misconduct. clear about the alleged massacre. In a letter published on 2 July, Sasai spoke of his deep regret that he was not able to identify errors “There is little agreement on how best to protect in the papers before publication. uncontacted people. Philip Campbell, editor-in-chief of Nature, said in a statement that Some say silence is best” Sasai’s death is a true tragedy for “We don’t know for sure when science and an immense loss to the attack happened, or who his fellow researchers. carried it out,” as the group only said that ‘non-Indians’ were responsible, says a spokesperson for Survival International, a UKbased organisation campaigning for tribal peoples’ rights. The much-reported claim that drug traffickers active in the area were the culprits is a local surmise. There is also little agreement on how best to protect uncontacted people. Survival has recently started releasing aerial images of such tribes to “ensure that their lands are protected, where their existence has been denied –No great shake– by governments”.
–Fleetingly in contact–
Others say silence is best. When New Scientist spoke to members of one Latin American indigenous group recently, they said they knew of uncontacted people living in the forest near them. But they would not say publicly who or where for fear of attracting missionaries and TV crews, whom they regard as the biggest threats to indigenous lifestyles.
Spies overspending THE US government is wasting billions of dollars on spy satellites. According to a report released by Congress last week, the US National Reconnaissance Office, which maintains the nation’s eyes in the sky, is buying new satellites at a faster rate than necessary. The NRO says that regular purchases are the only way to maintain the nation’s satellitebuilding expertise. The Congress report questions this assumption, arguing that any saving in efficiency through increased expertise is outstripped by the cost of launching extra satellites. We already know the NRO has excess satellites, thanks to its surprise donation in 2012. The spy agency gave NASA parts for two Hubble-quality telescopes that it had lying around. NASA is still deciding how to use the scopes, but to avoid any suspicion of spying will not point them at Earth.
Chinese troops are looking for survivors after a magnitude-6.1 earthquake struck Yunnan province in south-west China on Sunday. At least 410 people died and more than 2300 were injured. Landslides and heavy rain are hampering rescue efforts in the remote, mountainous region.
Sequence the masses A project hoping to sequence the DNA of 100,000 people, including those with cancer and rare diseases, has begun in centres across England. The 100,000 Genome Project is aiming to screen the genomes of 40,000 patients over four years, along with family members who are healthy, and use the data for targeted therapies.
Io gets feisty It was a spectacular blowout. This time last year, Jupiter’s fiery moon, Io, was rocked by three gigantic volcanic eruptions, producing lava fountains 10,000 times more powerful than the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland (Icarus, in press).
Lost bat of gold A new species of bat is completely golden in colour. Myotis midastactus is thought to be unique to Bolivia, and has short, woolly fur with a distinct gold shade. It had previously been misclassified as another species, Myotis simus (Journal of Mammalogy, DOI: 10.1644/14-MAMM-149).
9 August 2014 | NewScientist | 5
A SENIOR stem cell scientist has died in an apparent suicide. Yoshiki Sasai, who co-authored two controversial stem cell papers, was found dead at his laboratory at the Riken Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan.
reuters/funai
Stem cell death
60 Seconds
Sneaky vibrations Your room is listening. You can tell what someone is saying from vibrations in nearby objects. A team at MIT videoed a pack of potato chips placed near a speaker and tracked minute changes in its position. From this, they worked out the vibration pattern and that the sound causing it was the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb. The work will be presented at SIGGRAPH in Vancouver this week.
“Sasai was renowned for his ability to coax stem cells into becoming other types of cells”
China quake
Haraz N. Ghanbari/AP/Press Association Images
Sasai was renowned for his ability to coax stem cells into becoming other types of cells. This year, however, his career has been under the spotlight. Sasai Endangered people was co-author on two papers that YOU may have heard this story. claimed to produce embryonic Members of an uncontacted stem cells called STAP from adult Amazon people peer across a cells using acid. The papers were river on the border between retracted by the journal Nature Peru and Brazil, then wade across. in July due to multiple errors. Here they tell fellow AshaninkaSasai, 52, was cleared of any speakers that some of their group direct involvement by a Riken investigation, but criticised for his of 50 or so, living in the forest, failure to correctly edit the papers have been killed by white people. Then they vanish. The encounter and for his supervision of lead is captured on video. author Haruko Obokata, who Despite much coverage, little is was found guilty of misconduct. clear about the alleged massacre. In a letter published on 2 July, Sasai spoke of his deep regret that he was not able to identify errors “There is little agreement on how best to protect in the papers before publication. uncontacted people. Philip Campbell, editor-in-chief of Nature, said in a statement that Some say silence is best” Sasai’s death is a true tragedy for “We don’t know for sure when science and an immense loss to the attack happened, or who his fellow researchers. carried it out,” as the group only said that ‘non-Indians’ were responsible, says a spokesperson for Survival International, a UKbased organisation campaigning for tribal peoples’ rights. The much-reported claim that drug traffickers active in the area were the culprits is a local surmise. There is also little agreement on how best to protect uncontacted people. Survival has recently started releasing aerial images of such tribes to “ensure that their lands are protected, where their existence has been denied –No great shake– by governments”.
–Fleetingly in contact–
Others say silence is best. When New Scientist spoke to members of one Latin American indigenous group recently, they said they knew of uncontacted people living in the forest near them. But they would not say publicly who or where for fear of attracting missionaries and TV crews, whom they regard as the biggest threats to indigenous lifestyles.
Spies overspending THE US government is wasting billions of dollars on spy satellites. According to a report released by Congress last week, the US National Reconnaissance Office, which maintains the nation’s eyes in the sky, is buying new satellites at a faster rate than necessary. The NRO says that regular purchases are the only way to maintain the nation’s satellitebuilding expertise. The Congress report questions this assumption, arguing that any saving in efficiency through increased expertise is outstripped by the cost of launching extra satellites. We already know the NRO has excess satellites, thanks to its surprise donation in 2012. The spy agency gave NASA parts for two Hubble-quality telescopes that it had lying around. NASA is still deciding how to use the scopes, but to avoid any suspicion of spying will not point them at Earth.
Chinese troops are looking for survivors after a magnitude-6.1 earthquake struck Yunnan province in south-west China on Sunday. At least 410 people died and more than 2300 were injured. Landslides and heavy rain are hampering rescue efforts in the remote, mountainous region.
Sequence the masses A project hoping to sequence the DNA of 100,000 people, including those with cancer and rare diseases, has begun in centres across England. The 100,000 Genome Project is aiming to screen the genomes of 40,000 patients over four years, along with family members who are healthy, and use the data for targeted therapies.
Io gets feisty It was a spectacular blowout. This time last year, Jupiter’s fiery moon, Io, was rocked by three gigantic volcanic eruptions, producing lava fountains 10,000 times more powerful than the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland (Icarus, in press).
Lost bat of gold A new species of bat is completely golden in colour. Myotis midastactus is thought to be unique to Bolivia, and has short, woolly fur with a distinct gold shade. It had previously been misclassified as another species, Myotis simus (Journal of Mammalogy, DOI: 10.1644/14-MAMM-149).
9 August 2014 | NewScientist | 5