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Europe bans GM-contaminated rice from China
60 SECONDS
IT HAS been a bad week for NASA. A government watchdog has criticised the space agency’s bosses over their handling of a controversial air safety survey. In 2001, NASA commissioned an $11 million survey of 30,000 pilots to discover how often problems such as near misses and technical failures occur. Earlier this year, the agency reluctantly released the raw data, which it had refused to analyse, arguing that it would be futile because the survey group’s methods were flawed. But any flaws are down to NASA, according to the Office of the Inspector General, which
Against the grain
BOTOX GOES DEEPER
BEWARE Chinese rice. That’s the message following the discovery Beauty’s only skin deep, but the effects of rice consignments containing of Botox might not be. Matteo Caleo of an experimental genetically Italy’s Institute of Neuroscience in Pisa modified strain called Bt63. From has found that botulinum toxin – which 15 April, all rice imported from is used as a cosmetic anti-wrinkle China into the European Union treatment – can travel down nerve must be certified as free of Bt63. fibres and into the brain within days. European food importers While the effects of this are unknown, and regulatory authorities have it raises fresh questions about the safety been told to test Chinese rice of the drug, which had been assumed imports at random to check that to remain at the site of injection. documentation is not fraudulent. Botox disrupts nerve signalling by Products already on sale in targeting a protein called SNAP-25 that Europe which contain Chinese helps carry neurotransmitters. To test rice will also be spot-checked whether it could affect nerve signalling for contamination. elsewhere in the body, Caleo’s team But does the rice really pose injected rats with botulinum at various a hazard? Bt63 is a bacterial points in the face and brain and tracked protein made by GM rice to kill its spread by looking for fragments of insect pests. The UK-based Friends SNAP-25 destroyed by the drug. of the Earth lobby group cites studies in the US and Cuba which suggest that GM rice strains containing similar proteins caused allergy-like responses in farm workers. The UK’s Food Standards Agency says that the rice has been officially declared “unsafe” as no one anywhere has certified it safe to eat. “Our primary concern is that it is unauthorised, and so it shouldn’t be in the food chain,” said a spokeswoman for the FSA. “There’s only limited data available, so our default assumption is that it’s unsafe.” –What price smooth skin?– www.newscientist.com
blamed project managers for their lack of oversight and for underestimating the effort needed to design the survey properly. NASA has until 30 April to respond to the report, which concludes that the agency should
Sharp intake of breath A popular allergy and asthma drug is under investigation after reports linking it to mood changes and suicidal behaviour. The US Food and Drug Administration said there was no need to stop taking Singulair, but it has asked physicians to monitor users while it carries out its investigation, which is likely to take around nine months.
“The agency underestimated the effort needed to design the air safety survey properly”
Water waste of time
analyse the data after all. Also this week, two of NASA’s senior scientists resigned from their posts: science administrator Alan Stern and chief scientist John Mather. Budget contraints may be responsible.
Drinking lots of water does you no extra good unless you’re an athlete or live in a hot climate. Nor does extra water curb appetite, prevent headaches, improve skin tone or benefit organs by flushing the kidneys, according to a review in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (DOI: 10.1681/ASN.2008030274).
Cheese freeze
The toxin spread from the site of injection after just three days. Rats that received a botulinum jab into one of their hippocampi showed evidence of broken SNAP-25 in their opposite hippocampus, and rats injected in their whisker muscles had signs of botulinum activity in their brainstems. “We suspect that this spread is a common occurrence after toxin delivery,” says Caleo (The Journal of Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1523/ JNEUROSCI.0375-08.2008). The US Food and Drug Administration is reviewing the safety of Botox due to fears that it can occasionally cause breathing difficulties and death. But Caleo says his finding is not necessarily bad news. “One might imagine that some of these distant effects are even beneficial for the patients,” he says.
Buffalo mozzarella contaminated with cancer-causing dioxin has prompted China to ban imports of the cheese, made from buffalo milk. Italian authorities sealed off 83 diary farms on 25 March after finding elevated dioxin levels, reportedly caused by pollution from illegal burning of hazardous waste by local Mafiosi.
The smoking elephant gun
FSTOP/PLAIN PICTURE
Woe is NASA
haven’t been willing to take action,” Hansen says. A similar request to the UK government has so far fallen on deaf ears Australia is among the world’s top emitters of CO2 per capita and a major coal exporter. But change is in the air. This week, the Canberra-based Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies will start to inject 100,000 tonnes of CO2 into a well on the coast of South Australia in what promises to be one of the world’s largest carbon burial experiments. Also the first of three carbon capture test plants retrofitted to coal-fired power stations will switch on in Victoria in the next few months.
Woolly mammoths were probably killed off by higher temperatures rather than hunted to extinction by humans, says a team led by David Nogués-Bravo at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, Spain. The group modelled how temperature variations would have affected mammoth populations. “There is little direct evidence of humans hunting woolly mammoths,” says Nogués-Bravos.
Dust to moon dust Eternal lunar repose can soon be yours. A company called Celestis is offering to send people’s ashes to the moon. At a cost of around $10,000 per gram, your remains would be transported by one of two firms competing to be the first private company to land on the lunar surface.
5 April 2008 | NewScientist | 7
IT HAS been a bad week for NASA. A government watchdog has criticised the space agency’s bosses over their handling of a controversial air safety survey. In 2001, NASA commissioned an $11 million survey of 30,000 pilots to discover how often problems such as near misses and technical failures occur. Earlier this year, the agency reluctantly released the raw data, which it had refused to analyse, arguing that it would be futile because the survey group’s methods were flawed. But any flaws are down to NASA, according to the Office of the Inspector General, which
Against the grain
BOTOX GOES DEEPER
BEWARE Chinese rice. That’s the message following the discovery Beauty’s only skin deep, but the effects of rice consignments containing of Botox might not be. Matteo Caleo of an experimental genetically Italy’s Institute of Neuroscience in Pisa modified strain called Bt63. From has found that botulinum toxin – which 15 April, all rice imported from is used as a cosmetic anti-wrinkle China into the European Union treatment – can travel down nerve must be certified as free of Bt63. fibres and into the brain within days. European food importers While the effects of this are unknown, and regulatory authorities have it raises fresh questions about the safety been told to test Chinese rice of the drug, which had been assumed imports at random to check that to remain at the site of injection. documentation is not fraudulent. Botox disrupts nerve signalling by Products already on sale in targeting a protein called SNAP-25 that Europe which contain Chinese helps carry neurotransmitters. To test rice will also be spot-checked whether it could affect nerve signalling for contamination. elsewhere in the body, Caleo’s team But does the rice really pose injected rats with botulinum at various a hazard? Bt63 is a bacterial points in the face and brain and tracked protein made by GM rice to kill its spread by looking for fragments of insect pests. The UK-based Friends SNAP-25 destroyed by the drug. of the Earth lobby group cites studies in the US and Cuba which suggest that GM rice strains containing similar proteins caused allergy-like responses in farm workers. The UK’s Food Standards Agency says that the rice has been officially declared “unsafe” as no one anywhere has certified it safe to eat. “Our primary concern is that it is unauthorised, and so it shouldn’t be in the food chain,” said a spokeswoman for the FSA. “There’s only limited data available, so our default assumption is that it’s unsafe.” –What price smooth skin?– www.newscientist.com
blamed project managers for their lack of oversight and for underestimating the effort needed to design the survey properly. NASA has until 30 April to respond to the report, which concludes that the agency should
Sharp intake of breath A popular allergy and asthma drug is under investigation after reports linking it to mood changes and suicidal behaviour. The US Food and Drug Administration said there was no need to stop taking Singulair, but it has asked physicians to monitor users while it carries out its investigation, which is likely to take around nine months.
“The agency underestimated the effort needed to design the air safety survey properly”
Water waste of time
analyse the data after all. Also this week, two of NASA’s senior scientists resigned from their posts: science administrator Alan Stern and chief scientist John Mather. Budget contraints may be responsible.
Drinking lots of water does you no extra good unless you’re an athlete or live in a hot climate. Nor does extra water curb appetite, prevent headaches, improve skin tone or benefit organs by flushing the kidneys, according to a review in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (DOI: 10.1681/ASN.2008030274).
Cheese freeze
The toxin spread from the site of injection after just three days. Rats that received a botulinum jab into one of their hippocampi showed evidence of broken SNAP-25 in their opposite hippocampus, and rats injected in their whisker muscles had signs of botulinum activity in their brainstems. “We suspect that this spread is a common occurrence after toxin delivery,” says Caleo (The Journal of Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1523/ JNEUROSCI.0375-08.2008). The US Food and Drug Administration is reviewing the safety of Botox due to fears that it can occasionally cause breathing difficulties and death. But Caleo says his finding is not necessarily bad news. “One might imagine that some of these distant effects are even beneficial for the patients,” he says.
Buffalo mozzarella contaminated with cancer-causing dioxin has prompted China to ban imports of the cheese, made from buffalo milk. Italian authorities sealed off 83 diary farms on 25 March after finding elevated dioxin levels, reportedly caused by pollution from illegal burning of hazardous waste by local Mafiosi.
The smoking elephant gun
FSTOP/PLAIN PICTURE
Woe is NASA
haven’t been willing to take action,” Hansen says. A similar request to the UK government has so far fallen on deaf ears Australia is among the world’s top emitters of CO2 per capita and a major coal exporter. But change is in the air. This week, the Canberra-based Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies will start to inject 100,000 tonnes of CO2 into a well on the coast of South Australia in what promises to be one of the world’s largest carbon burial experiments. Also the first of three carbon capture test plants retrofitted to coal-fired power stations will switch on in Victoria in the next few months.
Woolly mammoths were probably killed off by higher temperatures rather than hunted to extinction by humans, says a team led by David Nogués-Bravo at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, Spain. The group modelled how temperature variations would have affected mammoth populations. “There is little direct evidence of humans hunting woolly mammoths,” says Nogués-Bravos.
Dust to moon dust Eternal lunar repose can soon be yours. A company called Celestis is offering to send people’s ashes to the moon. At a cost of around $10,000 per gram, your remains would be transported by one of two firms competing to be the first private company to land on the lunar surface.
5 April 2008 | NewScientist | 7