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Gun law stalemate
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CHINA is launching a rival to the International Space Station (ISS) – and it wants to share its new toy. The China Manned Space Agency and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)
SCOTT OLSON/GETTY
Timeshare in space
60 SECONDS
Worst bleaching ever The bleaching of coral taking place across the world is officially the most widespread in history. According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, warm ocean temperatures mean the bleaching event is likely to last for a third year, and could soon hit reefs in Hawaii and the Florida Keys again.
“This is an exciting opportunity to build the space capacity of developing countries”
Up and down again
ESA/ROSETTA/NAVCAM
have announced a partnership that will let UN member states conduct experiments on and even send astronauts to the Chinese space station, due to start operating in the 2020s. Gun law stalemate The UN and China say they THE impasse over gun control in are keen to get more nations the US holds steady in the wake involved in space activities. of the mass shooting at the Pulse “This is an exciting opportunity to further build the space capacity gay club in Orlando on 12 June. On Monday, the US Senate failed to of developing countries and pass four amendments proposed increase understanding of the after the tragedy. benefits space can bring to The Democrat amendment humankind,” said UNOOSA could have stopped people on director Simonetta Di Pippo. terrorist databases from buying China is excluded from the ISS firearms; Republicans proposed because of a US government ban that firearm purchases by those on its participation. It’s not clear linked to terrorism be subject to if the other ISS partners – Russia, Japan, Canada and the member countries of the European Space “The US Senate failed to pass four amendments Agency – will have access to proposed after the China’s station. Orlando mass shooting” Later this year, China will launch the space lab Tiangong-2 a 72-hour delay and review to practise the skills needed to process. Both were voted down, build the station. as were competing amendments on background checks. One piece of good news is that the freeze on gun research has thawed a little. California has voted to set up a firearms violence research centre, and to provide $5 million of funding over the next five years. “California [has] taken a critical step toward developing the effective, evidence-based policies needed to save lives,” said Marc Futernick of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Less than $5 million a year is currently spent on gun violence –Take a whiff– research. This is the result of a
–An all too familiar protest-
1996 amendment, pushed for by the gun lobby, that has been interpreted as banning all federal funding of such research. The California money comes from a different pot. “To my knowledge, this is the first such publicly chartered centre in the country,” said gun violence researcher Garen Wintemute at the University of California, Davis.
Court for dirty UK WHEN will the UK clean its dirty air? The answer depends on what happened in Thursday’s vote. The air in many places in the UK frequently breaches the nitrogen dioxide limits set by EU law. In 2015, ClientEarth, a group of activist lawyers, won their case against the UK government for failing to comply with this law. But a year later, the government still has no adequate plan for reducing air pollution, ClientEarth says, so it has taken the case back to the UK courts. On 16 June, a high court judge agreed that the case should be fast-tracked due to its importance. It is now set to be heard in October. Whether this will make a difference depends on the UK’s referendum on EU membership, which took place after New Scientist went to press. If the leave vote has triumphed, the country may never have to clean up its act.
OK Jeff, we get it, you can land a rocket. Blue Origin, a Texas-based firm owned by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, has launched and landed the same sub-orbital New Shepard rocket four times in a row. The latest flight tested the effects of a parachute failure on an empty crew capsule; it returned to Earth safely.
Better together A ground-breaking pair of cancer drugs that unleash the body’s immune system on tumours will be paid for by the NHS in England. The approval decision is one of the fastest in NHS history. In trials, ipilimumab and nivolumab shrank the most deadly type of skin cancer in 69 per cent of patients. A fifth of patients had no sign of cancer after receiving the treatment.
Drug decriminalisation The UK’s two leading public health bodies have called for drug use to be decriminalised. A poll of 2000 UK adults, supported by the Royal Society for Public Health and the Faculty of Public Health, found that more than half agreed that drug users ought to get treatment rather than be charged. Fewer than a quarter disagreed.
The lionfish is coming Careful where you swim – the venomous lionfish is spreading through the Mediterranean. The invasive species has a nasty sting that can kill people. A native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, it has now spread to waters off Turkey and Cyprus.
25 June 2016 | NewScientist | 7
CHINA is launching a rival to the International Space Station (ISS) – and it wants to share its new toy. The China Manned Space Agency and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)
SCOTT OLSON/GETTY
Timeshare in space
60 SECONDS
Worst bleaching ever The bleaching of coral taking place across the world is officially the most widespread in history. According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, warm ocean temperatures mean the bleaching event is likely to last for a third year, and could soon hit reefs in Hawaii and the Florida Keys again.
“This is an exciting opportunity to build the space capacity of developing countries”
Up and down again
ESA/ROSETTA/NAVCAM
have announced a partnership that will let UN member states conduct experiments on and even send astronauts to the Chinese space station, due to start operating in the 2020s. Gun law stalemate The UN and China say they THE impasse over gun control in are keen to get more nations the US holds steady in the wake involved in space activities. of the mass shooting at the Pulse “This is an exciting opportunity to further build the space capacity gay club in Orlando on 12 June. On Monday, the US Senate failed to of developing countries and pass four amendments proposed increase understanding of the after the tragedy. benefits space can bring to The Democrat amendment humankind,” said UNOOSA could have stopped people on director Simonetta Di Pippo. terrorist databases from buying China is excluded from the ISS firearms; Republicans proposed because of a US government ban that firearm purchases by those on its participation. It’s not clear linked to terrorism be subject to if the other ISS partners – Russia, Japan, Canada and the member countries of the European Space “The US Senate failed to pass four amendments Agency – will have access to proposed after the China’s station. Orlando mass shooting” Later this year, China will launch the space lab Tiangong-2 a 72-hour delay and review to practise the skills needed to process. Both were voted down, build the station. as were competing amendments on background checks. One piece of good news is that the freeze on gun research has thawed a little. California has voted to set up a firearms violence research centre, and to provide $5 million of funding over the next five years. “California [has] taken a critical step toward developing the effective, evidence-based policies needed to save lives,” said Marc Futernick of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Less than $5 million a year is currently spent on gun violence –Take a whiff– research. This is the result of a
–An all too familiar protest-
1996 amendment, pushed for by the gun lobby, that has been interpreted as banning all federal funding of such research. The California money comes from a different pot. “To my knowledge, this is the first such publicly chartered centre in the country,” said gun violence researcher Garen Wintemute at the University of California, Davis.
Court for dirty UK WHEN will the UK clean its dirty air? The answer depends on what happened in Thursday’s vote. The air in many places in the UK frequently breaches the nitrogen dioxide limits set by EU law. In 2015, ClientEarth, a group of activist lawyers, won their case against the UK government for failing to comply with this law. But a year later, the government still has no adequate plan for reducing air pollution, ClientEarth says, so it has taken the case back to the UK courts. On 16 June, a high court judge agreed that the case should be fast-tracked due to its importance. It is now set to be heard in October. Whether this will make a difference depends on the UK’s referendum on EU membership, which took place after New Scientist went to press. If the leave vote has triumphed, the country may never have to clean up its act.
OK Jeff, we get it, you can land a rocket. Blue Origin, a Texas-based firm owned by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, has launched and landed the same sub-orbital New Shepard rocket four times in a row. The latest flight tested the effects of a parachute failure on an empty crew capsule; it returned to Earth safely.
Better together A ground-breaking pair of cancer drugs that unleash the body’s immune system on tumours will be paid for by the NHS in England. The approval decision is one of the fastest in NHS history. In trials, ipilimumab and nivolumab shrank the most deadly type of skin cancer in 69 per cent of patients. A fifth of patients had no sign of cancer after receiving the treatment.
Drug decriminalisation The UK’s two leading public health bodies have called for drug use to be decriminalised. A poll of 2000 UK adults, supported by the Royal Society for Public Health and the Faculty of Public Health, found that more than half agreed that drug users ought to get treatment rather than be charged. Fewer than a quarter disagreed.
The lionfish is coming Careful where you swim – the venomous lionfish is spreading through the Mediterranean. The invasive species has a nasty sting that can kill people. A native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, it has now spread to waters off Turkey and Cyprus.
25 June 2016 | NewScientist | 7