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Human bugs “killing wild chimps”
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60 SECONDS
Suicide test DRUG companies are being asked to pay special attention to a possible increase in suicidal thoughts in people who volunteer for clinical trials. The issue first gained prominence around four years ago, when it emerged that some antidepressants
Poacher vs plague SHOULD sneezing wild apes be given antibiotics? That’s the dilemma facing biologists in Africa, who have confirmation that wild chimps are dying from human respiratory diseases. Fabian Leendertz of the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, Germany, runs a chimp health project in the Tai forest in Ivory Coast. Leendertz and colleagues found either human respiratory syncytial virus, or human metapneumovirus, in
“Reduced human contact with Africa’s great apes will leave them vulnerable to poachers”
DAN LAMONT/DDR.NET
apes that died during outbreaks of respiratory disease between 1999 and 2005, as well as pathogenic bacteria such as Streptococcus. The viruses commonly cause cold symptoms in human adults, and can be serious in children (Current Biology, DOI: 10.1016/ j.cub.2008.01.012). Close contact with apes used to humans is thought to be the cause of the infections. The trouble is reduced human contact will leave Africa’s great apes vulnerable to an even bigger threat – poachers. For the apes, the “choice” is between the poacher and the plague. “We must decide how much we have to invasively treat the –Reality check required– wild apes,” says Leendertz, who
www.newscientist.com
For the first time, ordinary winter flu circulating in Europe and possibly elsewhere has been found to be fully resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu. Health authorities have called emergency meetings as the drug is the main defence against a pandemic. Tamiflu-resistant flu viruses had been thought weak and unable to spread.
Sporting coronaries
“People taking part in clinical trials are being given a test to assess their risk of suicide” seemed to increase the risk of suicide in young people. That prompted the US Food and Drug Administration to make more use of a psychological test designed to assess suicide risk in people taking part in clinical trials. According to reports in The New York Times last week, the FDA is now asking manufacturers of drugs for everything from obesity and urinary incontinence to epilepsy and smoking cessation to use the test in clinical trials. The FDA confirmed the test is being used more widely, although it claims that this is not the result of a sudden change in policy. Spokesman Chris DiFrancesco said decisions about the test are made on a case by case basis, but it might be used if existing data suggested that a drug had a psychiatric effect, or if drugs related to the one under study had shown an increased risk of suicide, for example.
Tough flu
Got a heart condition? Then avoid sports matches you really care about. A study in Munich, Germany, during the 2006 football World Cup found that heart –A helping hand?– attacks were 2.66 times as likely on days Germany played. Admissions peaked on says that, even with the disease 30 June, when Germany beat Argentina risk, on balance it is best for the in a penalty shoot-out (The New England chimps that research and Journal of Medicine, vol 358, p 475). ecotourism continues. These industries bring Whistling hummer prosperity to local people, so they protect chimps and their It is an extraordinary aerial display habitat, Leendertz says. “We have with a surprise at the tail end: male the highest density of chimps Anna’s hummingbirds dive at speeds around the research and tourist of more than 23 metres per second, sites. Without research, our site emitting a loud whistle. The noise would probably have none left.” comes not from the bird’s throat, but from its vibrating tail feathers (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2007.1619). HAVE we created a new epoch? A group of geologists say the Superfast star impact of our time on Earth on the rock record should be A fast-moving star has given the first officially recognised. clue of a black hole in our neighbouring In 2002, Nobel prizewinner galaxy. Most such stars are thought to Paul Crutzen suggested that have been flung out from the black hole humans are influencing the rocks at the Milky Way’s centre, but this star’s being laid down today, and coined composition suggests it came from the the term “Anthropocene”. The Large Magellanic Cloud, says Alcestes label has been used informally Bonanos at the Carnegie Institution for since. Now Jan Zalasiewicz and Science, Washington DC. The study will his colleagues at the Stratigraphy appear in Astrophysical Journal Letters. Commission of the Geological Society of London are urging Dam damage decision makers at the International Union of Geological Two dams appear to be threatening Sciences to make it official (GSA the health of Lake Victoria in east Today, vol 18, p 4) Africa – and locals who depend on the Formalising the Anthropocene lake for food. The dams caused water may serve a greater purpose than levels to drop over 2 metres between simply stroking our egos, says 2000 and 2006 and fish stocks have Mike Stephenson of the British dropped by 80 per cent as a result Geological Survey. “It is a clever (Wetlands Ecology and Management, way of focusing our minds on DOI: 10.1007/s11273-007-9072-4). what we are doing to the planet.”
Humans’ rock
2 February 2008 | NewScientist | 5
60 SECONDS
Suicide test DRUG companies are being asked to pay special attention to a possible increase in suicidal thoughts in people who volunteer for clinical trials. The issue first gained prominence around four years ago, when it emerged that some antidepressants
Poacher vs plague SHOULD sneezing wild apes be given antibiotics? That’s the dilemma facing biologists in Africa, who have confirmation that wild chimps are dying from human respiratory diseases. Fabian Leendertz of the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, Germany, runs a chimp health project in the Tai forest in Ivory Coast. Leendertz and colleagues found either human respiratory syncytial virus, or human metapneumovirus, in
“Reduced human contact with Africa’s great apes will leave them vulnerable to poachers”
DAN LAMONT/DDR.NET
apes that died during outbreaks of respiratory disease between 1999 and 2005, as well as pathogenic bacteria such as Streptococcus. The viruses commonly cause cold symptoms in human adults, and can be serious in children (Current Biology, DOI: 10.1016/ j.cub.2008.01.012). Close contact with apes used to humans is thought to be the cause of the infections. The trouble is reduced human contact will leave Africa’s great apes vulnerable to an even bigger threat – poachers. For the apes, the “choice” is between the poacher and the plague. “We must decide how much we have to invasively treat the –Reality check required– wild apes,” says Leendertz, who
www.newscientist.com
For the first time, ordinary winter flu circulating in Europe and possibly elsewhere has been found to be fully resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu. Health authorities have called emergency meetings as the drug is the main defence against a pandemic. Tamiflu-resistant flu viruses had been thought weak and unable to spread.
Sporting coronaries
“People taking part in clinical trials are being given a test to assess their risk of suicide” seemed to increase the risk of suicide in young people. That prompted the US Food and Drug Administration to make more use of a psychological test designed to assess suicide risk in people taking part in clinical trials. According to reports in The New York Times last week, the FDA is now asking manufacturers of drugs for everything from obesity and urinary incontinence to epilepsy and smoking cessation to use the test in clinical trials. The FDA confirmed the test is being used more widely, although it claims that this is not the result of a sudden change in policy. Spokesman Chris DiFrancesco said decisions about the test are made on a case by case basis, but it might be used if existing data suggested that a drug had a psychiatric effect, or if drugs related to the one under study had shown an increased risk of suicide, for example.
Tough flu
Got a heart condition? Then avoid sports matches you really care about. A study in Munich, Germany, during the 2006 football World Cup found that heart –A helping hand?– attacks were 2.66 times as likely on days Germany played. Admissions peaked on says that, even with the disease 30 June, when Germany beat Argentina risk, on balance it is best for the in a penalty shoot-out (The New England chimps that research and Journal of Medicine, vol 358, p 475). ecotourism continues. These industries bring Whistling hummer prosperity to local people, so they protect chimps and their It is an extraordinary aerial display habitat, Leendertz says. “We have with a surprise at the tail end: male the highest density of chimps Anna’s hummingbirds dive at speeds around the research and tourist of more than 23 metres per second, sites. Without research, our site emitting a loud whistle. The noise would probably have none left.” comes not from the bird’s throat, but from its vibrating tail feathers (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2007.1619). HAVE we created a new epoch? A group of geologists say the Superfast star impact of our time on Earth on the rock record should be A fast-moving star has given the first officially recognised. clue of a black hole in our neighbouring In 2002, Nobel prizewinner galaxy. Most such stars are thought to Paul Crutzen suggested that have been flung out from the black hole humans are influencing the rocks at the Milky Way’s centre, but this star’s being laid down today, and coined composition suggests it came from the the term “Anthropocene”. The Large Magellanic Cloud, says Alcestes label has been used informally Bonanos at the Carnegie Institution for since. Now Jan Zalasiewicz and Science, Washington DC. The study will his colleagues at the Stratigraphy appear in Astrophysical Journal Letters. Commission of the Geological Society of London are urging Dam damage decision makers at the International Union of Geological Two dams appear to be threatening Sciences to make it official (GSA the health of Lake Victoria in east Today, vol 18, p 4) Africa – and locals who depend on the Formalising the Anthropocene lake for food. The dams caused water may serve a greater purpose than levels to drop over 2 metres between simply stroking our egos, says 2000 and 2006 and fish stocks have Mike Stephenson of the British dropped by 80 per cent as a result Geological Survey. “It is a clever (Wetlands Ecology and Management, way of focusing our minds on DOI: 10.1007/s11273-007-9072-4). what we are doing to the planet.”
Humans’ rock
2 February 2008 | NewScientist | 5