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NASA blasted for losing space samples in the mail
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Apes need fruit
will then thaw and release methane into the atmosphere. He suggests cooling the surface by increasing the reflectance of lowlevel clouds or by adding aerosols to the stratosphere. Nissen is backed by Peter Wadhams at the University of Cambridge, but others doubt that ice will be lost so quickly. Euan Nisbet of Royal Holloway, University of London, says the largest releases of methane may be from the tropics, not the Arctic. Recent signs of methane release in the Arctic may also reflect leaking since the permafrost was inundated thousands of years ago.
60 Seconds
orangs had gone without fruit for several months, their urine contained nitrogen compounds indicating the apes had begun to digest their muscles for protein (Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/ rsbl.2011.1040).
LIFE on the edge of starvation means some orang-utans are digesting their own muscles. Halting the logging that is destroying their habitat could rescue them from the brink. “When the orang-utans Bornean orang-utans (Pongo had gone without fruit for pygmaeus) live in tropical many months, they began rainforests, where the supply to digest their own muscle” of fruit is erratic. To survive, the orang-utans eat poorly digestible Because there is so little pristine leaves and bark in fallow years. Erin Vogel of Rutgers University forest left for the endangered apes, Vogel says it is also important to in New Brunswick, New Jersey, protect partially logged forests, monitored wild orang-utans for and even create new ones. five years. She found that when
Your moon dust is in the mail
A patent too far?
nasa
THE long arm of the law may soon WE’RE used to cheques getting lost in the mail – but moon dust? A recent reach your doctor’s office. In a case before the US Supreme Court, report blasts NASA for losing hundreds of rock and dust samples a drug company is fighting for a from the moon and elsewhere – and patent that could hold medical the space agency says in some cases knowledge hostage. the postal service was to blame. Prometheus Laboratories in NASA has a treasure trove of some San Diego, California, holds a of the world’s rarest materials: moon patent on guidelines for treating rocks, a pinch of comet dust netted gastrointestinal diseases. It is by the Stardust space probe and battling the Mayo Clinic in Martian meteorites gathered from Minnesota over claims that the Antarctica. But hundreds of these clinic’s methods of treating these samples have been lost or stolen over diseases conflict with its patent, the years, according to a new report which covers dosage adjustments by NASA’s Office of the Inspector that tell doctors how much General (OIG), which provides medicine should be prescribed independent oversight of the agency. based on metabolites in the body. NASA officials told OIG Although discoveries can be investigators that 517 samples patented in the US, this claim over natural body processes goes too far, according to a statement by a group of organisations including the American Medical Association in support of the Mayo Clinic. “Long before the patentee drafted his claims, physicians treating autoimmune disorders… recognized the relationship between metabolite levels and therapeutic efficacy of the drugs,” they write. They say that patenting the “utterly conventional steps” will result in poorer patient care. “Higher priced medical care is –Lost in space– an inevitable result,” they add.
had been reported lost or stolen between 1970 and June 2010. Some of these were recovered not long after they went missing, including a stolen batch of over 200 lunar samples. But many appear to be lost to science forever, and the losses continue. In March, OIG investigators started checking on materials loaned to 59 US researchers. They found 22 meteorite samples and two comet dust samples from the Stardust mission were missing. NASA does not have adequate controls in place to protect these unique resources, says the report. A NASA spokesperson responded that most of the losses occurred decades ago. Some items were sent overseas and got lost in the mail, he added.
Rats for freedom Rat-catchers beware: the rodents can learn to release one another from plastic traps, sticking to the task even when a tempting chocolate treat was placed nearby to distract them (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1210789 ).
Haemophilia therapy Gene therapy has reduced symptoms of haemophilia B – a disorder that results in abnormal blood clotting. Six people with the disease received a gene that codes for an enzyme important in blood coagulation. Levels of the gene rose from less than 1 per cent of normal levels to between 2 and 12 per cent, and episodes of spontaneous blood loss were reduced in all six cases (The New England Journal of Medicine, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1108046).
Ostrich erections Male ostriches maintain an erection for only a few seconds, because their penises fill with low-pressure lymphatic fluid rather than higherpressure blood (Journal of Zoology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.2011. 00858.x). All evolutionarily ancient birds have similarly weak penises, suggesting dinosaurs may have done so as well.
Quake moved satellites The Tohoku earthquake that rattled Japan on 11 March changed Earth’s gravitational field. This affected the orbits of NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, GRACE, which consists of two satellites. Their altered courses suggest the quake was stronger and deeper than instruments on Earth indicated.
Largest telescope RadioAstron, effectively the largest radio telescope ever built, is now up and running. Its main component is a 10-metre radio dish. By coordinating observations with radio telescopes on Earth, the system acts like one enormous telescope that is 30 times as wide as our planet.
17 December 2011 | NewScientist | 5
Apes need fruit
will then thaw and release methane into the atmosphere. He suggests cooling the surface by increasing the reflectance of lowlevel clouds or by adding aerosols to the stratosphere. Nissen is backed by Peter Wadhams at the University of Cambridge, but others doubt that ice will be lost so quickly. Euan Nisbet of Royal Holloway, University of London, says the largest releases of methane may be from the tropics, not the Arctic. Recent signs of methane release in the Arctic may also reflect leaking since the permafrost was inundated thousands of years ago.
60 Seconds
orangs had gone without fruit for several months, their urine contained nitrogen compounds indicating the apes had begun to digest their muscles for protein (Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/ rsbl.2011.1040).
LIFE on the edge of starvation means some orang-utans are digesting their own muscles. Halting the logging that is destroying their habitat could rescue them from the brink. “When the orang-utans Bornean orang-utans (Pongo had gone without fruit for pygmaeus) live in tropical many months, they began rainforests, where the supply to digest their own muscle” of fruit is erratic. To survive, the orang-utans eat poorly digestible Because there is so little pristine leaves and bark in fallow years. Erin Vogel of Rutgers University forest left for the endangered apes, Vogel says it is also important to in New Brunswick, New Jersey, protect partially logged forests, monitored wild orang-utans for and even create new ones. five years. She found that when
Your moon dust is in the mail
A patent too far?
nasa
THE long arm of the law may soon WE’RE used to cheques getting lost in the mail – but moon dust? A recent reach your doctor’s office. In a case before the US Supreme Court, report blasts NASA for losing hundreds of rock and dust samples a drug company is fighting for a from the moon and elsewhere – and patent that could hold medical the space agency says in some cases knowledge hostage. the postal service was to blame. Prometheus Laboratories in NASA has a treasure trove of some San Diego, California, holds a of the world’s rarest materials: moon patent on guidelines for treating rocks, a pinch of comet dust netted gastrointestinal diseases. It is by the Stardust space probe and battling the Mayo Clinic in Martian meteorites gathered from Minnesota over claims that the Antarctica. But hundreds of these clinic’s methods of treating these samples have been lost or stolen over diseases conflict with its patent, the years, according to a new report which covers dosage adjustments by NASA’s Office of the Inspector that tell doctors how much General (OIG), which provides medicine should be prescribed independent oversight of the agency. based on metabolites in the body. NASA officials told OIG Although discoveries can be investigators that 517 samples patented in the US, this claim over natural body processes goes too far, according to a statement by a group of organisations including the American Medical Association in support of the Mayo Clinic. “Long before the patentee drafted his claims, physicians treating autoimmune disorders… recognized the relationship between metabolite levels and therapeutic efficacy of the drugs,” they write. They say that patenting the “utterly conventional steps” will result in poorer patient care. “Higher priced medical care is –Lost in space– an inevitable result,” they add.
had been reported lost or stolen between 1970 and June 2010. Some of these were recovered not long after they went missing, including a stolen batch of over 200 lunar samples. But many appear to be lost to science forever, and the losses continue. In March, OIG investigators started checking on materials loaned to 59 US researchers. They found 22 meteorite samples and two comet dust samples from the Stardust mission were missing. NASA does not have adequate controls in place to protect these unique resources, says the report. A NASA spokesperson responded that most of the losses occurred decades ago. Some items were sent overseas and got lost in the mail, he added.
Rats for freedom Rat-catchers beware: the rodents can learn to release one another from plastic traps, sticking to the task even when a tempting chocolate treat was placed nearby to distract them (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1210789 ).
Haemophilia therapy Gene therapy has reduced symptoms of haemophilia B – a disorder that results in abnormal blood clotting. Six people with the disease received a gene that codes for an enzyme important in blood coagulation. Levels of the gene rose from less than 1 per cent of normal levels to between 2 and 12 per cent, and episodes of spontaneous blood loss were reduced in all six cases (The New England Journal of Medicine, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1108046).
Ostrich erections Male ostriches maintain an erection for only a few seconds, because their penises fill with low-pressure lymphatic fluid rather than higherpressure blood (Journal of Zoology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.2011. 00858.x). All evolutionarily ancient birds have similarly weak penises, suggesting dinosaurs may have done so as well.
Quake moved satellites The Tohoku earthquake that rattled Japan on 11 March changed Earth’s gravitational field. This affected the orbits of NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, GRACE, which consists of two satellites. Their altered courses suggest the quake was stronger and deeper than instruments on Earth indicated.
Largest telescope RadioAstron, effectively the largest radio telescope ever built, is now up and running. Its main component is a 10-metre radio dish. By coordinating observations with radio telescopes on Earth, the system acts like one enormous telescope that is 30 times as wide as our planet.
17 December 2011 | NewScientist | 5