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Los Angeles smog thins, but remains a threat
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Logos up in smoke
unit of energy generated, burning natural gas produces less emissions than burning coal, and the US is using less coal because it has a glut of shale gas, extracted by fracking. Emissions could drop further if shale-gas operations continue to grow, says Kevin Anderson of the University of Manchester, UK. However, this will not slow climate change. US coal production is holding steady and the surplus is being sold to Asia: the nation is effectively exporting its coal emissions. “Gas is less bad than coal,” says Anderson, “but only if you keep the coal in the ground.”
60 Seconds
domino effect in tobacco control.” Daube says there will now be an “epidemic of plain packaging” across the globe. He says bans on smoking on flights seemed impossible but they spread once one airline took the plunge.
HERE’S a potential epidemic worth celebrating. Australia’s High Court has upheld ‘plain packaging’ legislation for cigarettes — a move that some say will see the practice sweep “The ramifications really through the world. are immense. There’s The legislation forces cigarette a domino effect in packages to carry prominent tobacco control” health warnings and a plain font over an olive green background — John Burman, senior legal logos would no longer be allowed. adviser at Cancer Research UK, “The ramifications really are says the Australian decision can immense,” says Mike Daube at be cited in US and UK courts, and Curtin University in Perth, is likely to have some influence. Western Australia. “There’s a
Beat LA smog beast Phoenix rises for a return to Mars
JPL/NASA
DOWN but not out – the infamous AS ONE rover starts exploring Mars (see “Aim, set, zap”, left), another Los Angeles smog may have gets the go ahead. NASA has decided thinned in the last 50 years, but that the next mission in its Discovery not enough to quash surface programme, which aims to do highozone levels, which remain the quality space science on a shoestring worst in the US. budget, will be InSight, a Martian Emissions regulations seismologist. introduced in the 1960s have paid Previous Discovery missions off, says Carsten Warneke of the include Dawn, which after a NOAA Earth Systems Research rendezvous with the asteroid Vesta Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. is now heading for the dwarf planet Typical emissions of volatile Ceres, and Kepler, a space telescope hydrocarbons are down by a that has bagged an impressive haul factor of 50 from the 1960s of extrasolar planets. (Journal of Geophysical Research: Based on the lander used for the Atmospheres, doi.org/h6t). Phoenix mission to the Martian However, the rules have not led to such dramatic reductions in the Arctic, InSight is due to land near the planet’s equator in September 2016. nitrogen oxides that also It will carry three main instruments, contribute to the formation of ozone and particulates. Peak levels of ozone were 143 parts per billion in 2010, only marginally down from 710 ppb in 1966. “Things have improved greatly in the last 20 to 30 years, but progress has slowed in the last decade,” says Sam Atwood, a spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which blames air pollution for 5000 premature deaths a year in the area, where the total population is 17 million. Despite the regulations, ozone levels exceeded federal standards –Martian seismologist– on 102 days in 2010.
including a seismometer that will be placed onto the planet’s surface. A previous attempt to record seismic activity on Mars, during the 1976 Viking 2 mission, failed because the seismometer was on the lander’s legs, where it was buffeted by wind. InSight edged out plans to float a craft on a sea of methane and ethane on Saturn’s moon Titan, and to land repeatedly on a comet. The decision will leave NASA without a craft studying the outer solar system after 2017, when the Cassini orbiter is due to crash into Saturn’s atmosphere. NASA science chief John Grunsfeld says that in scientific terms there was little to choose between the rivals, but the Mars mission looked more likely to stay within its budget.
Drought goes global The US drought seems to have reached its peak and is expected to start easing in some areas. But now Russia has been similarly hit, reducing the expected yields of wheat and grain, and the Australian wheat crop is also threatened by dry weather. Food prices will rise as a result.
Bigfoot spider A spider with claws on every foot has been discovered in a cave in Oregon. Named Trogloraptor marchingtoni, the unusual arachnid belongs to an entirely new family of spiders – the first new family to be discovered in North America since the 19th century (ZooKeys, doi.org/h6z).
Gene patent decision The US Court of Appeal has ruled that genes associated with cancers can be patented, upholding an earlier ruling. The court had been forced to reconsider the issue after the US Supreme Court ruled in December that the methods used to observe the genes are not themselves patentable.
Greenland melt record The Greenland ice sheet is following the example set by the neighbouring Arctic sea ice: it’s melting at a record pace. Satellite data analysed by Marco Tedesco of the City College of New York shows a bigger melt than any summer since records began in 1979, and there’s another month of warmth still to come. The previous record year was 2010.
Quantum protein fold A quantum computer has calculated how certain proteins fold, a problem key to understanding conditions such as Alzheimer’s. So far the computer, made by D-Wave of Burnaby, Canada, has only tackled folds already solvable by regular hardware. The hope is that it will be better than standard computers at the task as it can exploit quantum shortcuts that they cannot.
25 August 2012 | NewScientist | 5
Logos up in smoke
unit of energy generated, burning natural gas produces less emissions than burning coal, and the US is using less coal because it has a glut of shale gas, extracted by fracking. Emissions could drop further if shale-gas operations continue to grow, says Kevin Anderson of the University of Manchester, UK. However, this will not slow climate change. US coal production is holding steady and the surplus is being sold to Asia: the nation is effectively exporting its coal emissions. “Gas is less bad than coal,” says Anderson, “but only if you keep the coal in the ground.”
60 Seconds
domino effect in tobacco control.” Daube says there will now be an “epidemic of plain packaging” across the globe. He says bans on smoking on flights seemed impossible but they spread once one airline took the plunge.
HERE’S a potential epidemic worth celebrating. Australia’s High Court has upheld ‘plain packaging’ legislation for cigarettes — a move that some say will see the practice sweep “The ramifications really through the world. are immense. There’s The legislation forces cigarette a domino effect in packages to carry prominent tobacco control” health warnings and a plain font over an olive green background — John Burman, senior legal logos would no longer be allowed. adviser at Cancer Research UK, “The ramifications really are says the Australian decision can immense,” says Mike Daube at be cited in US and UK courts, and Curtin University in Perth, is likely to have some influence. Western Australia. “There’s a
Beat LA smog beast Phoenix rises for a return to Mars
JPL/NASA
DOWN but not out – the infamous AS ONE rover starts exploring Mars (see “Aim, set, zap”, left), another Los Angeles smog may have gets the go ahead. NASA has decided thinned in the last 50 years, but that the next mission in its Discovery not enough to quash surface programme, which aims to do highozone levels, which remain the quality space science on a shoestring worst in the US. budget, will be InSight, a Martian Emissions regulations seismologist. introduced in the 1960s have paid Previous Discovery missions off, says Carsten Warneke of the include Dawn, which after a NOAA Earth Systems Research rendezvous with the asteroid Vesta Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. is now heading for the dwarf planet Typical emissions of volatile Ceres, and Kepler, a space telescope hydrocarbons are down by a that has bagged an impressive haul factor of 50 from the 1960s of extrasolar planets. (Journal of Geophysical Research: Based on the lander used for the Atmospheres, doi.org/h6t). Phoenix mission to the Martian However, the rules have not led to such dramatic reductions in the Arctic, InSight is due to land near the planet’s equator in September 2016. nitrogen oxides that also It will carry three main instruments, contribute to the formation of ozone and particulates. Peak levels of ozone were 143 parts per billion in 2010, only marginally down from 710 ppb in 1966. “Things have improved greatly in the last 20 to 30 years, but progress has slowed in the last decade,” says Sam Atwood, a spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which blames air pollution for 5000 premature deaths a year in the area, where the total population is 17 million. Despite the regulations, ozone levels exceeded federal standards –Martian seismologist– on 102 days in 2010.
including a seismometer that will be placed onto the planet’s surface. A previous attempt to record seismic activity on Mars, during the 1976 Viking 2 mission, failed because the seismometer was on the lander’s legs, where it was buffeted by wind. InSight edged out plans to float a craft on a sea of methane and ethane on Saturn’s moon Titan, and to land repeatedly on a comet. The decision will leave NASA without a craft studying the outer solar system after 2017, when the Cassini orbiter is due to crash into Saturn’s atmosphere. NASA science chief John Grunsfeld says that in scientific terms there was little to choose between the rivals, but the Mars mission looked more likely to stay within its budget.
Drought goes global The US drought seems to have reached its peak and is expected to start easing in some areas. But now Russia has been similarly hit, reducing the expected yields of wheat and grain, and the Australian wheat crop is also threatened by dry weather. Food prices will rise as a result.
Bigfoot spider A spider with claws on every foot has been discovered in a cave in Oregon. Named Trogloraptor marchingtoni, the unusual arachnid belongs to an entirely new family of spiders – the first new family to be discovered in North America since the 19th century (ZooKeys, doi.org/h6z).
Gene patent decision The US Court of Appeal has ruled that genes associated with cancers can be patented, upholding an earlier ruling. The court had been forced to reconsider the issue after the US Supreme Court ruled in December that the methods used to observe the genes are not themselves patentable.
Greenland melt record The Greenland ice sheet is following the example set by the neighbouring Arctic sea ice: it’s melting at a record pace. Satellite data analysed by Marco Tedesco of the City College of New York shows a bigger melt than any summer since records began in 1979, and there’s another month of warmth still to come. The previous record year was 2010.
Quantum protein fold A quantum computer has calculated how certain proteins fold, a problem key to understanding conditions such as Alzheimer’s. So far the computer, made by D-Wave of Burnaby, Canada, has only tackled folds already solvable by regular hardware. The hope is that it will be better than standard computers at the task as it can exploit quantum shortcuts that they cannot.
25 August 2012 | NewScientist | 5