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Junk radio signals track all space debris in one go
TONY KARUMBA/AFP/Getty
UPFRONT
Gorillas in the fog of war IT’S looking grim for all primates. As the United Nations warns of a growing humanitarian crisis in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the advance of the M23 rebel militia might also affect the gorillas and chimps in the region. The M23 rebels have now taken the city of Goma and have vowed to march south to Bukavu. In their path is the Primate Rehabilitation Centre of Lwiro, which holds more than 50 chimps, and the GRACE sanctuary, which cares for gorillas wounded by poachers or armed conflict. “In addition to the captive apes, we are concerned about wild ape populations – chimpanzees, lowland gorillas and the critically endangered mountain gorillas,” says Anna Behm Masozera of the International
Gorilla Conservation Programme in Kigali, Rwanda. Amid reports of murder and abduction of women and children, the M23 have more or less cooperated with the authorities at Virunga National Park near Goma, allowing staff to search for missing gorilla families. Two mountain gorilla families are currently unaccounted for. Some sections of the 7800-squarekilometre park are controlled by militia groups of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, who do much of the region’s poaching. Chief warden Emmanuel de Mérode says: “There are many concerns in this time of uncertainty but the biggest is that for three months we have been unable to redeploy our rangers into the gorilla sector of the park.”
–Rebels on the warpath–
Hardliner chosen A RADICAL conservative is set to be the European Union’s new health commissioner. Tonio Borg, the deputy prime minister of Malta, was chosen by the European parliament last week despite concerns that he would allow his opinions to influence policy. Borg is known for his strict views on abortion, homosexuality and divorce. For example, he backs the Embryo Protection Act now being debated in the Maltese parliament. If approved, the bill will prohibit experimentation on human embryos and the freezing of embryos for IVF, and ban women from being implanted with an embryo created with another woman’s egg.
“Personal views, especially when radical in nature, could interfere with important projects” The bill also requires Maltese citizens to seek approval before embarking on IVF treatment. Unapproved sperm or egg donation would result in a fine of 6 | NewScientist | 1 December 2012
up to €23,000 and five years in jail. Borg assured the EU parliament that his personal views would not drive his policies. He also said that he would not interfere with EU research programmes already under way, including work on HIV and stem cells, although he did not say whether he intends to renew their funding. Some MEPs questioned Borg’s stance on abortion, recalling how he once tried to incorporate a ban on abortion – even when the mother’s life is at risk – into Malta’s constitution. Borg replied that “the laws on abortion are a matter of national law… not matters within the competence of the Commission and the Union”. Francesco Dazzi, head of stem cell biology at Imperial College London, says Borg’s election might have “profound impacts” on funding for stem cell therapy. “Although I do not dispute his technical skills, there is the risk that personal views, especially when radical in nature, will interfere with or slow down important projects which have already been endorsed by public opinion,” he says.
Space-trash tracker CALL it Junk FM. Rogue signals from your radio may help warn about space debris on a dangerous collision course with Earth. As New Scientist went to press, astronomers at the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope in Western Australia were analysing the results of a trial to see whether stray FM signals from radios, bouncing back off space junk, could allow them to track the whole population of space debris. The MWA is a set of some
2000 radio antennas spread out over 3 kilometres. The team used these to pick up rebounding FM signals and track the International Space Station. If it works, the technique should be easy to scale down to objects as small as 10 centimetres, says Steven Tingay, director of the MWA at Curtin University in Western Australia. “We could almost get the whole population of space debris,” he says. And if it fails? “We will keep observing the reflections off the moon that motivated this idea.”
Arafat exhumed for radiation test IT WAS a seismic death – but a radioactive one? Eight years after Yasser Arafat died, the former Palestinian leader’s bones are being tested to determine whether he died of polonium-210 poisoning. Doctors at the French hospital where he died could not establish a cause of death. Medical records obtained suggest he died from a stroke, but tests found high levels of polonium-210 on Arafat’s clothes and toothbrush, prompting his widow to
request an exhumation. The body was removed from his mausoleum in Ramallah on 27 November so scientists could take bone samples to test for the isotope. Polonium-210 has a half-life of 138 days, meaning just one part in 2.5 million of the original would remain, says Patrick Regan of the University of Surrey in Guildford, UK. That sounds tiny, but if he received a lethal dose, the current levels would be detectable.
UPFRONT
Gorillas in the fog of war IT’S looking grim for all primates. As the United Nations warns of a growing humanitarian crisis in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the advance of the M23 rebel militia might also affect the gorillas and chimps in the region. The M23 rebels have now taken the city of Goma and have vowed to march south to Bukavu. In their path is the Primate Rehabilitation Centre of Lwiro, which holds more than 50 chimps, and the GRACE sanctuary, which cares for gorillas wounded by poachers or armed conflict. “In addition to the captive apes, we are concerned about wild ape populations – chimpanzees, lowland gorillas and the critically endangered mountain gorillas,” says Anna Behm Masozera of the International
Gorilla Conservation Programme in Kigali, Rwanda. Amid reports of murder and abduction of women and children, the M23 have more or less cooperated with the authorities at Virunga National Park near Goma, allowing staff to search for missing gorilla families. Two mountain gorilla families are currently unaccounted for. Some sections of the 7800-squarekilometre park are controlled by militia groups of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, who do much of the region’s poaching. Chief warden Emmanuel de Mérode says: “There are many concerns in this time of uncertainty but the biggest is that for three months we have been unable to redeploy our rangers into the gorilla sector of the park.”
–Rebels on the warpath–
Hardliner chosen A RADICAL conservative is set to be the European Union’s new health commissioner. Tonio Borg, the deputy prime minister of Malta, was chosen by the European parliament last week despite concerns that he would allow his opinions to influence policy. Borg is known for his strict views on abortion, homosexuality and divorce. For example, he backs the Embryo Protection Act now being debated in the Maltese parliament. If approved, the bill will prohibit experimentation on human embryos and the freezing of embryos for IVF, and ban women from being implanted with an embryo created with another woman’s egg.
“Personal views, especially when radical in nature, could interfere with important projects” The bill also requires Maltese citizens to seek approval before embarking on IVF treatment. Unapproved sperm or egg donation would result in a fine of 6 | NewScientist | 1 December 2012
up to €23,000 and five years in jail. Borg assured the EU parliament that his personal views would not drive his policies. He also said that he would not interfere with EU research programmes already under way, including work on HIV and stem cells, although he did not say whether he intends to renew their funding. Some MEPs questioned Borg’s stance on abortion, recalling how he once tried to incorporate a ban on abortion – even when the mother’s life is at risk – into Malta’s constitution. Borg replied that “the laws on abortion are a matter of national law… not matters within the competence of the Commission and the Union”. Francesco Dazzi, head of stem cell biology at Imperial College London, says Borg’s election might have “profound impacts” on funding for stem cell therapy. “Although I do not dispute his technical skills, there is the risk that personal views, especially when radical in nature, will interfere with or slow down important projects which have already been endorsed by public opinion,” he says.
Space-trash tracker CALL it Junk FM. Rogue signals from your radio may help warn about space debris on a dangerous collision course with Earth. As New Scientist went to press, astronomers at the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope in Western Australia were analysing the results of a trial to see whether stray FM signals from radios, bouncing back off space junk, could allow them to track the whole population of space debris. The MWA is a set of some
2000 radio antennas spread out over 3 kilometres. The team used these to pick up rebounding FM signals and track the International Space Station. If it works, the technique should be easy to scale down to objects as small as 10 centimetres, says Steven Tingay, director of the MWA at Curtin University in Western Australia. “We could almost get the whole population of space debris,” he says. And if it fails? “We will keep observing the reflections off the moon that motivated this idea.”
Arafat exhumed for radiation test IT WAS a seismic death – but a radioactive one? Eight years after Yasser Arafat died, the former Palestinian leader’s bones are being tested to determine whether he died of polonium-210 poisoning. Doctors at the French hospital where he died could not establish a cause of death. Medical records obtained suggest he died from a stroke, but tests found high levels of polonium-210 on Arafat’s clothes and toothbrush, prompting his widow to
request an exhumation. The body was removed from his mausoleum in Ramallah on 27 November so scientists could take bone samples to test for the isotope. Polonium-210 has a half-life of 138 days, meaning just one part in 2.5 million of the original would remain, says Patrick Regan of the University of Surrey in Guildford, UK. That sounds tiny, but if he received a lethal dose, the current levels would be detectable.