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Glimpsing the Venus transit from Saturn
Bernd Römmelt/Huber/4Corners Images
UPFRONT
Carbon dioxide milestone UP, UP and away. Parts of the planet have seen levels of carbon dioxide rise above 400 parts per million for the first time. Although it’s largely symbolic, the milestone is a stark reminder of humanity’s powerful influence on the atmosphere. “During the month of April, the mean was over 400 ppm for the first time, throughout the Arctic,” says Pieter Tans of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. CO2 levels reach an annual peak around April as the gas is released by respiration, and then fall over the summer as plants suck it up. As a result, the 2012 average will be a little lower, at about 393 ppm. Nevertheless, Tans says global levels will top 400 ppm in a few years.
The Arctic is not the only place seeing record levels. The Japan Meteorological Agency has reported levels above 400 ppm for both March and April at a monitoring station in Ofunato, according to local media. Despite its psychological significance, there’s nothing to suggest 400 ppm is a major threshold in the climate system, according to Tans. In fact, we don’t know what a safe level of CO2 would be.
Parkinson’s vaccine
clumps in cells, alpha-synuclein disrupts normal levels of dopamine by locking it inside cells that produce it. It is also toxic, killing neurons and their connections,” says Mandler Markus, head of preclinical development at the company. Most existing treatments only ease symptoms by boosting dopamine levels. In all, 32 people will receive the vaccine in the first trial on humans. The objective is to ensure the vaccine is safe, but researchers will also monitor for signs of improvement in symptoms.
The campaign group 350.org wants levels reduced to 350 ppm, but Tans says that is arbitrary. The safe level could be 380 ppm, or 320 ppm – we just don’t know. As a result, any growth in CO2 increases the risk of catastrophic climate change. “We’re playing a very dangerous game,” Tans says.
–Greenland peaking–
Obama’s Stuxnet
“If true, it is the first time that the US has been known to have used cyberweapons against another country” Games” – codename for a project designed to undermine Iran’s nuclear ambitions via computer malware. As a result, Sanger alleges, Stuxnet was created 4 | NewScientist | 9 June 2012
LFI/Photoshot
IT’S the worm that goes to the very top. US president Barack Obama personally backed the Stuxnet cyberattack that destroyed hundreds of uranium centrifuges in Iran in 2010. So claims The New York Times writer David Sanger in a book published on 5 June. As news of the latest computer virus, Flame, emerges (see page 24) he claims that Stuxnet was a joint creation of US and Israeli intelligence agencies. In Confront and Conceal: Obama’s secret wars, Sanger claims Obama pledged in 2008 to maintain two of the Bush administration’s security programmes: the drone war in Afghanistan and “Olympic
by engineers at the US National Security Agency in collaboration with Unit 8200, a specialist cyber operation of Israeli military intelligence. Once delivered, it forced fastspinning centrifuges in a plant in Natanz to stop suddenly, smashing them to pieces. It worked until a programming error allowed Stuxnet to copy itself outside the plant, alerting the world, and Iran, to its presence. If true, it is the first time that the US has been known to have used cyberweapons against another country.
TEN people with Parkinson’s disease this week received injections of the first vaccine aimed at combating the condition. Called PD01A, the drug primes the body’s immune system to destroy alpha-synuclein, a protein thought to trigger the disease by accumulating in the brain and disrupting dopamine production. Affiris, the company in Vienna, Austria, that developed the vaccine, says it is the first treatment to target the cause of the disease. “When it forms
Last transit NO ONE who saw this week’s transit of Venus is likely to be alive for the next one: it won’t occur again until 11 December 2117. At least, not from the viewpoint of someone on Earth. Later this year, astronomers hope to observe Venus pass in front of the sun from beyond Earth’s orbit for the first time. On 21 December, Saturn, Venus and the sun will be lined up –Come again in 2117– and the Cassini spacecraft will
For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news
White skies ahead
attempt to catch the event. It will be a much bigger challenge. At Cassini’s distance, the sun looks like a bright speck of light, so the craft will not be able to resolve the silhouette of Venus’s disc. Instead it will detect a very slight dimming – less than 0.01 per cent – of the sun’s light when Venus passes in front of it. The idea is to see if we can infer the composition of Venus’s atmosphere. “This is mostly a test of observing extrasolar planet transits, using a known planet – Venus – for the test case,” says Phillip Nicholson of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
60 Seconds
molecules. This is stronger for short blue wavelengths than for longer red wavelengths. Aerosol particles are larger than molecules in the air, and so scatter more red light, which washes out blue light (Geophysical Review Letters, DOI:
BLUE-sky thinking on climate change could drain the colour from the heavens. One idea for cooling our planet involves injecting aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight. “The particles would affect But Ben Kravitz at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Stanford, the spectrum of the scattered light, making the California, has found that adding skies brighter and whiter” particles of between 0.1 and 0.9 micrometres in diameter 10.1029/2012gl051652). would affect the spectrum of the Kravitz’s results are difficult to scattered light, making the skies argue with, says Craig Bohren at brighter and whiter. Pennsylvania State University in The sky’s blue colour comes University Park. from light scattering by air
Japan to cut emissions cuts
Cancer ascending
Koichi Kamoshida/GEtty
CANCER’S bite could soon be felt TIMING is everything in politics, but evidently nobody told Katsuya more strongly in the developing Okada. Japan’s deputy prime minister world. The increase in affluence among some of the world’s poorer picked an unfortunate time to scale back on planned emissions cuts, given countries will lead to a 75 per cent that carbon dioxide levels over parts surge in the cancers typical of of Japan just hit an all-time high (see western countries. “Carbon dioxide milestone”, top left). The prediction comes from In 2009, then prime minister a new study that links data on Yukio Hatoyama promised that Japan current cancer patterns to would cut emissions by 25 per cent projected changes in lifespan and below 1990 levels by 2020. But on population size in 184 countries. 30 May, Okada told journalists that Globally, cancer cases are likely those plans may have to be scrapped. to increase by three-quarters by The government is now considering 2030, soaring to 22 million new cases per year, from 13 million new setting a new target. The problem is the shutdown of cases recorded in 2008. The biggest change will be in countries rated as Japan’s nuclear reactors. Following the earthquake and tsunami in March poorest or medium on the United 2011, and the ensuing crisis at the Nation’s Human Development Index. These will experience a surge in the three main killer cancers of rich countries: breast, colon and prostate cancer. “It’s the ‘westernisation’ factor,” says Freddie Bray of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, who led the survey team (The Lancet, DOI: 10.1016/s14702045(12)70211-5). Bray says that forewarned of the problems, governments can plan to head them off. “Hopefully, the awareness of cancer is increasing substantially, and this –Land of the rising greenhouse gases– study is part of that,” he says.
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, they have been powered down for safety tests. Japan’s last operational reactor went offline on 5 May, and proposals to restart reactors have triggered public protests. As a result, Japan has had to fall back on fossil fuels. According to the US Energy Information Administration, Japan used 40 per cent more coal, oil and gas in the first four months of 2012 than in the same period in 2011. A rise in the country’s greenhouse gas emissions was inevitable. The environment ministry’s Central Environment Council says that without nuclear power, emissions will only drop by between 2 and 11 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020.
Downsize me New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed banning the sale of soft drinks larger than 16 fluid ounces (0.45 litres). But with grocery stores unaffected by the proposed ban, and restaurant refills still allowed, it is unclear whether the move will constrain bulging waistlines in the Big Apple.
Cancer disrupter Daily low-dose aspirin is known to cut the risk of bowel cancer by more than 60 per cent – now we may know why. Aspirin blocks mTOR, a protein that serves as a nutrient sensor in cancer cells, and blocking it disrupts the cell’s energy production, slowing tumour growth (Gastroenterology, DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2012.02.050).
Wide-eyed lookout NASA has decided what to do with one of two Hubble-quality telescopes donated by the US Department of Defense. Originally designed to spy down on the Earth, it will instead become the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope and look for type-Ia supernovae, which can reveal dark energy’s influence.
Ships threaten reef A new coal mine in Australia, which aims to become one of the country’s biggest, could be bad news for the Great Barrier Reef. The mine, approved by the Queensland state government last week, will increase shipping over the fragile ecosystem. The decision came as UNESCO released a report warning of the risk to the reef posed by extra shipping.
Fall of the giant insects Massive insects ruled the Earth alongside the dinosaurs for millions of years – until birds came along. The fossil record shows that insects shrank soon after birds took to the skies, perhaps because the larger insects were at more risk from agile birds (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/ pnas.1204026109).
9 June 2012 | NewScientist | 5
UPFRONT
Carbon dioxide milestone UP, UP and away. Parts of the planet have seen levels of carbon dioxide rise above 400 parts per million for the first time. Although it’s largely symbolic, the milestone is a stark reminder of humanity’s powerful influence on the atmosphere. “During the month of April, the mean was over 400 ppm for the first time, throughout the Arctic,” says Pieter Tans of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. CO2 levels reach an annual peak around April as the gas is released by respiration, and then fall over the summer as plants suck it up. As a result, the 2012 average will be a little lower, at about 393 ppm. Nevertheless, Tans says global levels will top 400 ppm in a few years.
The Arctic is not the only place seeing record levels. The Japan Meteorological Agency has reported levels above 400 ppm for both March and April at a monitoring station in Ofunato, according to local media. Despite its psychological significance, there’s nothing to suggest 400 ppm is a major threshold in the climate system, according to Tans. In fact, we don’t know what a safe level of CO2 would be.
Parkinson’s vaccine
clumps in cells, alpha-synuclein disrupts normal levels of dopamine by locking it inside cells that produce it. It is also toxic, killing neurons and their connections,” says Mandler Markus, head of preclinical development at the company. Most existing treatments only ease symptoms by boosting dopamine levels. In all, 32 people will receive the vaccine in the first trial on humans. The objective is to ensure the vaccine is safe, but researchers will also monitor for signs of improvement in symptoms.
The campaign group 350.org wants levels reduced to 350 ppm, but Tans says that is arbitrary. The safe level could be 380 ppm, or 320 ppm – we just don’t know. As a result, any growth in CO2 increases the risk of catastrophic climate change. “We’re playing a very dangerous game,” Tans says.
–Greenland peaking–
Obama’s Stuxnet
“If true, it is the first time that the US has been known to have used cyberweapons against another country” Games” – codename for a project designed to undermine Iran’s nuclear ambitions via computer malware. As a result, Sanger alleges, Stuxnet was created 4 | NewScientist | 9 June 2012
LFI/Photoshot
IT’S the worm that goes to the very top. US president Barack Obama personally backed the Stuxnet cyberattack that destroyed hundreds of uranium centrifuges in Iran in 2010. So claims The New York Times writer David Sanger in a book published on 5 June. As news of the latest computer virus, Flame, emerges (see page 24) he claims that Stuxnet was a joint creation of US and Israeli intelligence agencies. In Confront and Conceal: Obama’s secret wars, Sanger claims Obama pledged in 2008 to maintain two of the Bush administration’s security programmes: the drone war in Afghanistan and “Olympic
by engineers at the US National Security Agency in collaboration with Unit 8200, a specialist cyber operation of Israeli military intelligence. Once delivered, it forced fastspinning centrifuges in a plant in Natanz to stop suddenly, smashing them to pieces. It worked until a programming error allowed Stuxnet to copy itself outside the plant, alerting the world, and Iran, to its presence. If true, it is the first time that the US has been known to have used cyberweapons against another country.
TEN people with Parkinson’s disease this week received injections of the first vaccine aimed at combating the condition. Called PD01A, the drug primes the body’s immune system to destroy alpha-synuclein, a protein thought to trigger the disease by accumulating in the brain and disrupting dopamine production. Affiris, the company in Vienna, Austria, that developed the vaccine, says it is the first treatment to target the cause of the disease. “When it forms
Last transit NO ONE who saw this week’s transit of Venus is likely to be alive for the next one: it won’t occur again until 11 December 2117. At least, not from the viewpoint of someone on Earth. Later this year, astronomers hope to observe Venus pass in front of the sun from beyond Earth’s orbit for the first time. On 21 December, Saturn, Venus and the sun will be lined up –Come again in 2117– and the Cassini spacecraft will
For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news
White skies ahead
attempt to catch the event. It will be a much bigger challenge. At Cassini’s distance, the sun looks like a bright speck of light, so the craft will not be able to resolve the silhouette of Venus’s disc. Instead it will detect a very slight dimming – less than 0.01 per cent – of the sun’s light when Venus passes in front of it. The idea is to see if we can infer the composition of Venus’s atmosphere. “This is mostly a test of observing extrasolar planet transits, using a known planet – Venus – for the test case,” says Phillip Nicholson of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
60 Seconds
molecules. This is stronger for short blue wavelengths than for longer red wavelengths. Aerosol particles are larger than molecules in the air, and so scatter more red light, which washes out blue light (Geophysical Review Letters, DOI:
BLUE-sky thinking on climate change could drain the colour from the heavens. One idea for cooling our planet involves injecting aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight. “The particles would affect But Ben Kravitz at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Stanford, the spectrum of the scattered light, making the California, has found that adding skies brighter and whiter” particles of between 0.1 and 0.9 micrometres in diameter 10.1029/2012gl051652). would affect the spectrum of the Kravitz’s results are difficult to scattered light, making the skies argue with, says Craig Bohren at brighter and whiter. Pennsylvania State University in The sky’s blue colour comes University Park. from light scattering by air
Japan to cut emissions cuts
Cancer ascending
Koichi Kamoshida/GEtty
CANCER’S bite could soon be felt TIMING is everything in politics, but evidently nobody told Katsuya more strongly in the developing Okada. Japan’s deputy prime minister world. The increase in affluence among some of the world’s poorer picked an unfortunate time to scale back on planned emissions cuts, given countries will lead to a 75 per cent that carbon dioxide levels over parts surge in the cancers typical of of Japan just hit an all-time high (see western countries. “Carbon dioxide milestone”, top left). The prediction comes from In 2009, then prime minister a new study that links data on Yukio Hatoyama promised that Japan current cancer patterns to would cut emissions by 25 per cent projected changes in lifespan and below 1990 levels by 2020. But on population size in 184 countries. 30 May, Okada told journalists that Globally, cancer cases are likely those plans may have to be scrapped. to increase by three-quarters by The government is now considering 2030, soaring to 22 million new cases per year, from 13 million new setting a new target. The problem is the shutdown of cases recorded in 2008. The biggest change will be in countries rated as Japan’s nuclear reactors. Following the earthquake and tsunami in March poorest or medium on the United 2011, and the ensuing crisis at the Nation’s Human Development Index. These will experience a surge in the three main killer cancers of rich countries: breast, colon and prostate cancer. “It’s the ‘westernisation’ factor,” says Freddie Bray of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, who led the survey team (The Lancet, DOI: 10.1016/s14702045(12)70211-5). Bray says that forewarned of the problems, governments can plan to head them off. “Hopefully, the awareness of cancer is increasing substantially, and this –Land of the rising greenhouse gases– study is part of that,” he says.
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, they have been powered down for safety tests. Japan’s last operational reactor went offline on 5 May, and proposals to restart reactors have triggered public protests. As a result, Japan has had to fall back on fossil fuels. According to the US Energy Information Administration, Japan used 40 per cent more coal, oil and gas in the first four months of 2012 than in the same period in 2011. A rise in the country’s greenhouse gas emissions was inevitable. The environment ministry’s Central Environment Council says that without nuclear power, emissions will only drop by between 2 and 11 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020.
Downsize me New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed banning the sale of soft drinks larger than 16 fluid ounces (0.45 litres). But with grocery stores unaffected by the proposed ban, and restaurant refills still allowed, it is unclear whether the move will constrain bulging waistlines in the Big Apple.
Cancer disrupter Daily low-dose aspirin is known to cut the risk of bowel cancer by more than 60 per cent – now we may know why. Aspirin blocks mTOR, a protein that serves as a nutrient sensor in cancer cells, and blocking it disrupts the cell’s energy production, slowing tumour growth (Gastroenterology, DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2012.02.050).
Wide-eyed lookout NASA has decided what to do with one of two Hubble-quality telescopes donated by the US Department of Defense. Originally designed to spy down on the Earth, it will instead become the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope and look for type-Ia supernovae, which can reveal dark energy’s influence.
Ships threaten reef A new coal mine in Australia, which aims to become one of the country’s biggest, could be bad news for the Great Barrier Reef. The mine, approved by the Queensland state government last week, will increase shipping over the fragile ecosystem. The decision came as UNESCO released a report warning of the risk to the reef posed by extra shipping.
Fall of the giant insects Massive insects ruled the Earth alongside the dinosaurs for millions of years – until birds came along. The fossil record shows that insects shrank soon after birds took to the skies, perhaps because the larger insects were at more risk from agile birds (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/ pnas.1204026109).
9 June 2012 | NewScientist | 5