- Email: [email protected]
Hurricane warning
For new stories every day, visit newscientist.com/news
NASA
Nuclear war off
60 SECONDS
Cassini’s final five NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has started the first of its final five orbits around Saturn before it crashes into the planet on 15 September. On 14 August, the spacecraft dipped lower into the atmosphere than ever before, forcing the thrusters to fire to maintain stability and allowing researchers to figure out the density of the top of Saturn’s haze.
NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-un has shelved plans to fire a missile at the US territory of Guam, the state media has said. Last week, an annual US military drill followed by North
“Nothing suggests Kim Jong-un is insane. Nuking US territory would invite massive retaliation”
Cardiac weight risk
BAS
Korean bluster escalated further than it has done in past years, thanks to a newly credible nuclear threat from North Korea. It ended in Kim promising to send missiles to Guam by mid-August. Hurricane warning Experts were not surprised when Kim backed down. “Nothing BATTEN down the hatches. The US Atlantic coastline may be suggests Kim Jong-un is insane,” facing its worst hurricane season says James Acton of the Carnegie since 2010. Endowment for International Forecasters at the National Peace in Washington DC. “Nuking Oceanic and Atmospheric US territory would invite massive Administration (NOAA) predict retaliation” aimed at regime 14 to 19 named storms – those change – which Kim doesn’t want. with sustained wind speeds of To prevent future escalation, at least 63 kilometres per hour – the US must stop insisting between 1 June and 30 November, Kim abandon his nukes before compared with an average of 12. starting serious talks, says Jeffrey Six named storms have already Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California. North Korea “We urge people in hurricane-prone areas must be dealt with as a nuclear to be prepared with an power, and brought within emergency plan and kit” the web of mutual deterrence that constrained the last Asian struck the region. dictatorship to succeed in going NOAA also predicts that two nuclear: 1960s China. to five major hurricanes – with sustained winds of at least 179 kilometres per hour – will brew this year, compared with an average of three. So far none have formed. “Our update to the initial outlook in May increases the likelihood of an above-normal season to 60 per cent from 45 per cent,” says Susan Buchanan at NOAA’s National Weather Service. NOAA upgraded its alert because changing weather conditions since May make hurricanes more likely. One factor is abnormally warm waters –Telltale topography– in the tropical Atlantic Ocean,
–Outlook, stormy–
which increase hurricane and cyclone intensity. There are also abnormally weak vertical shear winds; strong shear winds stop hurricanes forming. “We urge people who live in hurricane-prone areas, especially those with a history of flooding from heavy rain and storm surge, to be prepared with an emergency plan and kit,” says Buchanan.
Opioid emergency PRESIDENT Trump last week announced plans to declare the US opioid crisis a national emergency. Tens of thousands of people die from opioid overdoses each year. “The opioid crisis is an emergency and I am saying, officially, right now, it is an emergency. It’s a national emergency,” Trump told reporters. “We’re going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis. It is a serious problem the likes of which we have never had.” A subsequent White House statement said the president had instructed his administration to “use all appropriate emergency and other authorities to respond to the crisis”. It is not yet clear how much funding will be made available for tackling the epidemic, nor how it will be used.
You can’t be “fat but fit”. An analysis of more than half a million people in Europe found that even when overweight people have healthy blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels, they are still 26 per cent more likely to develop coronary heart disease (European Heart Journal, doi.org/cbs9).
Game on Artificial intelligence beat professional video gamers at the Dota 2 championships in Seattle last Friday. Elon Musk’s OpenAI developed the bot, and although it can only at present play a restricted version of Dota 2, the game is still considerably more complex than others AI has mastered.
Care home demand The average woman now requires three years of substantial care in old age and the average man 2.4 years, according to an analysis of 15,000 adults in England. The study predicts that by 2025, the nation will need an extra 71,000 care home places (The Lancet, DOI: 10.1016/S01406736(17)31575-1).
Dino mystery A strange dinosaur may be the “missing link” between two great dinosaur groups. Chilesaurus resembles a Velociraptor-like meat eater, but a new analysis suggests it is an Ornithischian, the group that includes Stegosaurus and Triceratops (Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2017.0220). It may reveal how the two groups diverged.
19 August 2017 | NewScientist | 5
NASA
Nuclear war off
60 SECONDS
Cassini’s final five NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has started the first of its final five orbits around Saturn before it crashes into the planet on 15 September. On 14 August, the spacecraft dipped lower into the atmosphere than ever before, forcing the thrusters to fire to maintain stability and allowing researchers to figure out the density of the top of Saturn’s haze.
NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-un has shelved plans to fire a missile at the US territory of Guam, the state media has said. Last week, an annual US military drill followed by North
“Nothing suggests Kim Jong-un is insane. Nuking US territory would invite massive retaliation”
Cardiac weight risk
BAS
Korean bluster escalated further than it has done in past years, thanks to a newly credible nuclear threat from North Korea. It ended in Kim promising to send missiles to Guam by mid-August. Hurricane warning Experts were not surprised when Kim backed down. “Nothing BATTEN down the hatches. The US Atlantic coastline may be suggests Kim Jong-un is insane,” facing its worst hurricane season says James Acton of the Carnegie since 2010. Endowment for International Forecasters at the National Peace in Washington DC. “Nuking Oceanic and Atmospheric US territory would invite massive Administration (NOAA) predict retaliation” aimed at regime 14 to 19 named storms – those change – which Kim doesn’t want. with sustained wind speeds of To prevent future escalation, at least 63 kilometres per hour – the US must stop insisting between 1 June and 30 November, Kim abandon his nukes before compared with an average of 12. starting serious talks, says Jeffrey Six named storms have already Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California. North Korea “We urge people in hurricane-prone areas must be dealt with as a nuclear to be prepared with an power, and brought within emergency plan and kit” the web of mutual deterrence that constrained the last Asian struck the region. dictatorship to succeed in going NOAA also predicts that two nuclear: 1960s China. to five major hurricanes – with sustained winds of at least 179 kilometres per hour – will brew this year, compared with an average of three. So far none have formed. “Our update to the initial outlook in May increases the likelihood of an above-normal season to 60 per cent from 45 per cent,” says Susan Buchanan at NOAA’s National Weather Service. NOAA upgraded its alert because changing weather conditions since May make hurricanes more likely. One factor is abnormally warm waters –Telltale topography– in the tropical Atlantic Ocean,
–Outlook, stormy–
which increase hurricane and cyclone intensity. There are also abnormally weak vertical shear winds; strong shear winds stop hurricanes forming. “We urge people who live in hurricane-prone areas, especially those with a history of flooding from heavy rain and storm surge, to be prepared with an emergency plan and kit,” says Buchanan.
Opioid emergency PRESIDENT Trump last week announced plans to declare the US opioid crisis a national emergency. Tens of thousands of people die from opioid overdoses each year. “The opioid crisis is an emergency and I am saying, officially, right now, it is an emergency. It’s a national emergency,” Trump told reporters. “We’re going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis. It is a serious problem the likes of which we have never had.” A subsequent White House statement said the president had instructed his administration to “use all appropriate emergency and other authorities to respond to the crisis”. It is not yet clear how much funding will be made available for tackling the epidemic, nor how it will be used.
You can’t be “fat but fit”. An analysis of more than half a million people in Europe found that even when overweight people have healthy blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels, they are still 26 per cent more likely to develop coronary heart disease (European Heart Journal, doi.org/cbs9).
Game on Artificial intelligence beat professional video gamers at the Dota 2 championships in Seattle last Friday. Elon Musk’s OpenAI developed the bot, and although it can only at present play a restricted version of Dota 2, the game is still considerably more complex than others AI has mastered.
Care home demand The average woman now requires three years of substantial care in old age and the average man 2.4 years, according to an analysis of 15,000 adults in England. The study predicts that by 2025, the nation will need an extra 71,000 care home places (The Lancet, DOI: 10.1016/S01406736(17)31575-1).
Dino mystery A strange dinosaur may be the “missing link” between two great dinosaur groups. Chilesaurus resembles a Velociraptor-like meat eater, but a new analysis suggests it is an Ornithischian, the group that includes Stegosaurus and Triceratops (Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2017.0220). It may reveal how the two groups diverged.
19 August 2017 | NewScientist | 5