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Juno at Jupiter, at last
Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP/PA
Upfront
Juno at Jupiter, at last JUBILATION, relief and exhaustion. That was the reaction at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the heart of the Juno mission, when the probe pulled into orbit around Jupiter on Monday night. It was the most dangerous day for NASA’s Juno spacecraft since its launch in 2011. Long communication times between Earth and the probe made human help impossible, so mission engineers could do nothing but wait to hear whether it had succeeded. Juno’s approach was the fastest ever by a spacecraft going into orbit, at more than 200,000 kilometres per hour relative to Earth. In the event, the spacecraft slipped into a near-perfect orbit after a journey covering 869 million kilometres.
“We conquered Jupiter!” said mission lead Scott Bolton, who was overwhelmed as confirmation came in. “All that went through my head is, ‘Wow. It’s perfect.’ ” Bolton wasn’t exaggerating: Juno’s orbit is so close to ideal that it is a mere second behind its scheduled trajectory. Juno is now in a 53.5-day capture orbit. Then, on 14 October, it will burn its main engine, tightening up into a 14-day orbit. This is also when it will turn its scientific instruments on to carry out its major observations. Over the next year and a half, the craft will investigate some of Jupiter’s biggest mysteries, mapping the planet’s gravity and magnetic fields, looking for evidence of a solid core and tracking its auroras.
–By Jove, we did it–
No need for drugs OUT with antibiotics for colds? People do not experience more serious health problems when family doctors are stricter about prescribing the drugs for conditions such as coughs, colds and sore throats – a finding that should help stop the spread of antibiotic resistance. Martin Gulliford at King’s College London and his team studied 610 general practices in the UK and found that, overall, those that prescribe fewer antibiotics for respiratory
“This study provides GPs with the evidence to convince patients they don’t need antibiotics” infections do not have higher rates of serious bacterial complications, such as meningitis (BMJ, doi.org/bkrd). However, the researchers did detect slightly higher rates of pneumonia and quinsy, a rare complication of sore throats. They estimate that if an average-sized GP surgery with 7000 patients cut 6 | NewScientist | 9 July 2016
antibiotic prescriptions by 10 per cent, it would see one extra case of pneumonia a year and one more case of quinsy every decade. “Both these complications can be readily treated once identified,” says Gulliford. These findings are encouraging for family doctors, who have to decide many times a day whether to prescribe antibiotics, without knowing if a person’s condition is caused by bacteria or a virus. Using antibiotics for what is actually a viral infection helps spread drug resistance, but the fear has been that failing to catch a bacterial infection in its early stages can have severe consequences. “This is an important study and addresses a very emotive subject,” says Adam Roberts, who studies antibiotic resistance at University College London. “The pressure on GPs to reduce prescriptions is increasing, and this study provides them with the evidence they need to convince patients that, at least for respiratory tract infections, it is not going to harm them if they don’t receive the drugs.”
Deeper exploration THE deep sea is about to yield more of its secrets. The Nekton alliance, launched this week, brings together more than 30 international organisations from the fields of science, technology and business to try to learn more about Earth’s final frontier. “We know more about the surface of Mars and the moon than we do about our own seabed,” says principal scientist Alex Rogers at the University of Oxford.
The alliance’s XL Catlin Deep Ocean Survey will kick off with dives in Bermuda this month, using both manned and autonomous submersibles. Rogers says such increasingly sophisticated craft are giving us unprecedented access to the deep sea. “We see a great need to learn, and we now have the technology to do it.” Nekton’s ultimate aim is to diagnose the health of waters below 200 metres, to better inform policy decisions on protecting these habitats.
Tesla: accidents will get rarer THE first death in an autonomous car has occurred. According to the US road safety administration, Joshua Brown was killed in Florida in May after his Tesla Model S hit a truck while in autopilot mode. Brown was on a highway when the truck joined the road from a cross street. Unable to pick out the white truck against the bright sky, the self-driving system failed to brake. Florida police found a DVD player in the car, but it is not known if Brown
was watching a movie at the time. Tesla said the accident was a tragic loss. “As more real-world miles accumulate and the software logic accounts for rare events, the probability of injury will keep decreasing,” it said in a statement. The fatality will raise tough questions about the safety of semi-autonomous cars but should not be seen as an indictment, says Hussein Dia of Swinburne University of Technology in Australia.
Upfront
Juno at Jupiter, at last JUBILATION, relief and exhaustion. That was the reaction at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the heart of the Juno mission, when the probe pulled into orbit around Jupiter on Monday night. It was the most dangerous day for NASA’s Juno spacecraft since its launch in 2011. Long communication times between Earth and the probe made human help impossible, so mission engineers could do nothing but wait to hear whether it had succeeded. Juno’s approach was the fastest ever by a spacecraft going into orbit, at more than 200,000 kilometres per hour relative to Earth. In the event, the spacecraft slipped into a near-perfect orbit after a journey covering 869 million kilometres.
“We conquered Jupiter!” said mission lead Scott Bolton, who was overwhelmed as confirmation came in. “All that went through my head is, ‘Wow. It’s perfect.’ ” Bolton wasn’t exaggerating: Juno’s orbit is so close to ideal that it is a mere second behind its scheduled trajectory. Juno is now in a 53.5-day capture orbit. Then, on 14 October, it will burn its main engine, tightening up into a 14-day orbit. This is also when it will turn its scientific instruments on to carry out its major observations. Over the next year and a half, the craft will investigate some of Jupiter’s biggest mysteries, mapping the planet’s gravity and magnetic fields, looking for evidence of a solid core and tracking its auroras.
–By Jove, we did it–
No need for drugs OUT with antibiotics for colds? People do not experience more serious health problems when family doctors are stricter about prescribing the drugs for conditions such as coughs, colds and sore throats – a finding that should help stop the spread of antibiotic resistance. Martin Gulliford at King’s College London and his team studied 610 general practices in the UK and found that, overall, those that prescribe fewer antibiotics for respiratory
“This study provides GPs with the evidence to convince patients they don’t need antibiotics” infections do not have higher rates of serious bacterial complications, such as meningitis (BMJ, doi.org/bkrd). However, the researchers did detect slightly higher rates of pneumonia and quinsy, a rare complication of sore throats. They estimate that if an average-sized GP surgery with 7000 patients cut 6 | NewScientist | 9 July 2016
antibiotic prescriptions by 10 per cent, it would see one extra case of pneumonia a year and one more case of quinsy every decade. “Both these complications can be readily treated once identified,” says Gulliford. These findings are encouraging for family doctors, who have to decide many times a day whether to prescribe antibiotics, without knowing if a person’s condition is caused by bacteria or a virus. Using antibiotics for what is actually a viral infection helps spread drug resistance, but the fear has been that failing to catch a bacterial infection in its early stages can have severe consequences. “This is an important study and addresses a very emotive subject,” says Adam Roberts, who studies antibiotic resistance at University College London. “The pressure on GPs to reduce prescriptions is increasing, and this study provides them with the evidence they need to convince patients that, at least for respiratory tract infections, it is not going to harm them if they don’t receive the drugs.”
Deeper exploration THE deep sea is about to yield more of its secrets. The Nekton alliance, launched this week, brings together more than 30 international organisations from the fields of science, technology and business to try to learn more about Earth’s final frontier. “We know more about the surface of Mars and the moon than we do about our own seabed,” says principal scientist Alex Rogers at the University of Oxford.
The alliance’s XL Catlin Deep Ocean Survey will kick off with dives in Bermuda this month, using both manned and autonomous submersibles. Rogers says such increasingly sophisticated craft are giving us unprecedented access to the deep sea. “We see a great need to learn, and we now have the technology to do it.” Nekton’s ultimate aim is to diagnose the health of waters below 200 metres, to better inform policy decisions on protecting these habitats.
Tesla: accidents will get rarer THE first death in an autonomous car has occurred. According to the US road safety administration, Joshua Brown was killed in Florida in May after his Tesla Model S hit a truck while in autopilot mode. Brown was on a highway when the truck joined the road from a cross street. Unable to pick out the white truck against the bright sky, the self-driving system failed to brake. Florida police found a DVD player in the car, but it is not known if Brown
was watching a movie at the time. Tesla said the accident was a tragic loss. “As more real-world miles accumulate and the software logic accounts for rare events, the probability of injury will keep decreasing,” it said in a statement. The fatality will raise tough questions about the safety of semi-autonomous cars but should not be seen as an indictment, says Hussein Dia of Swinburne University of Technology in Australia.