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Milk's bone benefits questioned
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Climate computing
across – some 10 times the diameter of Earth – it’s the largest sunspot since 1990. At the moment, the only effect we are experiencing is some disruption to high-frequency radio communications. The outburst is unusual in that it hasn’t produced coronal mass ejections, which spit billions of tonnes of solar material into space. Mathew Owens at the University of Reading, UK, says there may yet be some coronal mass ejections, perhaps when AR12192 has rotated to the other side of the sun – in which case we will have got off lightly.
60 Seconds
likely to have on extreme weather events over the next 50 years. Chief executive Rob Varley says the machine will improve weather forecasts too, extending
RELIABLE weather forecasts? That’s a job for a supercomputer. The UK Met Office has announced plans to build the world’s largest climate-dedicated “This will be the biggest supercomputer at its headquarters supercomputer in the world for weather and in Exeter next year. climate research” The 140-tonne Cray XC40 is intended to boost the accuracy of climate model predictions, the accuracy of today’s four-day allowing better assessments forecasts to around five or six of how climate change could days ahead. affect the weather. One of the “We believe that in the field of computer’s first uses will be weather and climate research, this examining the effects that oceans, will be the biggest [computer] in aerosols and greenhouse gases are the world,” says Varley.
Milk’s bone benefits questioned
Infected world
Ian Waldie/Bloomberg/Getty Images
FROM bird flu to SARS to Ebola, IT’S seen as one of life’s more wholesome libations. But drinking it seems there is always a new milk in large quantities may not be disease to worry about. Now, as good for general health and bones there is data to back that up: the as we thought, according to a study number of outbreaks now is four of thousands of Swedish people. times what it was in 1980, and the The study, which tracked 61,433 number of diseases causing them women aged 39 to 74 over 20 years, has increased about 20 per cent. and 45,339 men of similar age for This is what Katherine Smith at 11 years, found that the more milk Brown University in Providence, people drank, the more likely they Rhode Island, and her colleagues were to die or experience a bone found when they analysed the fracture during the study period. GIDEON database of more than Women who said they drank three 12,000 outbreaks of 215 infectious or more glasses of milk a day had diseases, comprising 44 million almost double the chance of dying human cases worldwide. The during the study period as those online database compiles all who reported only drinking one. reports of outbreaks worldwide. A glass is defined as a 200 millilitre The increase is largely due to infections that jumped to humans serving. They also had a 16 per cent from animals, and is independent of a country’s wealth, climate or population. Some of the recorded increase is also down to improved reporting of disease. On the upside, for human-only infections an apparent increase in cases per person was related to more people using the internet to record cases. Once changes in internet use are accounted for, the number of infections per person has actually decreased since 1980. This suggests prevention and treatment have improved (Journal of the Royal Society Interface, DOI: –Drink in moderation– 10.1098/rsif.2014.0950).
higher chance of fracturing a bone anywhere in the body. Men’s risks were lower. Those drinking three glasses had a 10 per cent higher chance of dying during the study (BMJ, DOI: 10.1136/bmj.g6015). “They’re provocative findings but these are the facts,” says Karl Michaëlsson of Uppsala University in Sweden, who led the team. “The amount is important. If you drink only small amounts, there’s no problem.” However, he cautions that the study only shows an association, it doesn’t prove that milk is causing the effects. If the results are proven, the most likely explanation is damaging inflammation caused by the digestion of sugars in the milk, says Michaëlsson.
Tortoise triumph They’re big, and they’re back. Down to just 15 animals in the 1960s, giant Galapagos tortoises have made a comeback on the island of Española thanks to the reintroduction of captive-bred animals 40 years ago. There are now more than 1000 (PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal. pone.0110742).
Dead heart walking In a world first, two Australians have been given heart transplants using organs that had stopped beating for about 20 minutes. Hearts are normally transplanted from braindead patients whose hearts are still beating but Michelle Gribilas and Jan Damen’s new organs were re-booted using a technique that kick-started the cardiac contractions.
Stooping virus spreads It comes from the Swahili for stooped walk. Four cases of chikungunya, a mosquito-borne virus that causes fever and intense joint pain, have been reported in the south of France. It is only the second time the virus has been picked up locally in France.
Space jump beaten Pity Felix Baumgartner. His recordbreaking space jump has been topped. Last week, Google executive Alan Eustace donned a spacesuit with a helium balloon fixed to its backpack and rose to 41,425 metres, where he cut the balloon’s tethers. He broke the sound barrier as he fell and survived to beat Baumgartner’s 2012 record by 2450 metres.
A frog for freedom Rediscovered six years ago in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, the Atlantic Coast leopard frog is now officially a new species. The analysis – which involved examining its genetics and its croak – vindicates rejected claims made 80 years ago by biologist Carl Kauffeld that he had discovered a new leopard frog species in New York (PLoS One, DOI: 10.13781/journal.pone.0108213).
1 November 2014 | NewScientist | 7
Climate computing
across – some 10 times the diameter of Earth – it’s the largest sunspot since 1990. At the moment, the only effect we are experiencing is some disruption to high-frequency radio communications. The outburst is unusual in that it hasn’t produced coronal mass ejections, which spit billions of tonnes of solar material into space. Mathew Owens at the University of Reading, UK, says there may yet be some coronal mass ejections, perhaps when AR12192 has rotated to the other side of the sun – in which case we will have got off lightly.
60 Seconds
likely to have on extreme weather events over the next 50 years. Chief executive Rob Varley says the machine will improve weather forecasts too, extending
RELIABLE weather forecasts? That’s a job for a supercomputer. The UK Met Office has announced plans to build the world’s largest climate-dedicated “This will be the biggest supercomputer at its headquarters supercomputer in the world for weather and in Exeter next year. climate research” The 140-tonne Cray XC40 is intended to boost the accuracy of climate model predictions, the accuracy of today’s four-day allowing better assessments forecasts to around five or six of how climate change could days ahead. affect the weather. One of the “We believe that in the field of computer’s first uses will be weather and climate research, this examining the effects that oceans, will be the biggest [computer] in aerosols and greenhouse gases are the world,” says Varley.
Milk’s bone benefits questioned
Infected world
Ian Waldie/Bloomberg/Getty Images
FROM bird flu to SARS to Ebola, IT’S seen as one of life’s more wholesome libations. But drinking it seems there is always a new milk in large quantities may not be disease to worry about. Now, as good for general health and bones there is data to back that up: the as we thought, according to a study number of outbreaks now is four of thousands of Swedish people. times what it was in 1980, and the The study, which tracked 61,433 number of diseases causing them women aged 39 to 74 over 20 years, has increased about 20 per cent. and 45,339 men of similar age for This is what Katherine Smith at 11 years, found that the more milk Brown University in Providence, people drank, the more likely they Rhode Island, and her colleagues were to die or experience a bone found when they analysed the fracture during the study period. GIDEON database of more than Women who said they drank three 12,000 outbreaks of 215 infectious or more glasses of milk a day had diseases, comprising 44 million almost double the chance of dying human cases worldwide. The during the study period as those online database compiles all who reported only drinking one. reports of outbreaks worldwide. A glass is defined as a 200 millilitre The increase is largely due to infections that jumped to humans serving. They also had a 16 per cent from animals, and is independent of a country’s wealth, climate or population. Some of the recorded increase is also down to improved reporting of disease. On the upside, for human-only infections an apparent increase in cases per person was related to more people using the internet to record cases. Once changes in internet use are accounted for, the number of infections per person has actually decreased since 1980. This suggests prevention and treatment have improved (Journal of the Royal Society Interface, DOI: –Drink in moderation– 10.1098/rsif.2014.0950).
higher chance of fracturing a bone anywhere in the body. Men’s risks were lower. Those drinking three glasses had a 10 per cent higher chance of dying during the study (BMJ, DOI: 10.1136/bmj.g6015). “They’re provocative findings but these are the facts,” says Karl Michaëlsson of Uppsala University in Sweden, who led the team. “The amount is important. If you drink only small amounts, there’s no problem.” However, he cautions that the study only shows an association, it doesn’t prove that milk is causing the effects. If the results are proven, the most likely explanation is damaging inflammation caused by the digestion of sugars in the milk, says Michaëlsson.
Tortoise triumph They’re big, and they’re back. Down to just 15 animals in the 1960s, giant Galapagos tortoises have made a comeback on the island of Española thanks to the reintroduction of captive-bred animals 40 years ago. There are now more than 1000 (PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal. pone.0110742).
Dead heart walking In a world first, two Australians have been given heart transplants using organs that had stopped beating for about 20 minutes. Hearts are normally transplanted from braindead patients whose hearts are still beating but Michelle Gribilas and Jan Damen’s new organs were re-booted using a technique that kick-started the cardiac contractions.
Stooping virus spreads It comes from the Swahili for stooped walk. Four cases of chikungunya, a mosquito-borne virus that causes fever and intense joint pain, have been reported in the south of France. It is only the second time the virus has been picked up locally in France.
Space jump beaten Pity Felix Baumgartner. His recordbreaking space jump has been topped. Last week, Google executive Alan Eustace donned a spacesuit with a helium balloon fixed to its backpack and rose to 41,425 metres, where he cut the balloon’s tethers. He broke the sound barrier as he fell and survived to beat Baumgartner’s 2012 record by 2450 metres.
A frog for freedom Rediscovered six years ago in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, the Atlantic Coast leopard frog is now officially a new species. The analysis – which involved examining its genetics and its croak – vindicates rejected claims made 80 years ago by biologist Carl Kauffeld that he had discovered a new leopard frog species in New York (PLoS One, DOI: 10.13781/journal.pone.0108213).
1 November 2014 | NewScientist | 7