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New York will bear brunt of uneven sea level rise
MICHAEL S. YAMASHITA/NGS/GETTY
UPFRONT
Flood risk to US east coast THE Big Apple could be awash by the end of this century. New predictions suggest that US east coast cities will be hit hard by sea level rise. Today, the sea level along the US east coast is relatively low, whereas further offshore it rises sharply. This anomaly is caused by the balance of forces required for the flow of the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Current, both of which contribute to the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). The AMOC transports warm surface waters to polar latitudes, where it cools and sinks before flowing back south. A previous study has shown that the AMOC slowed by about 30 per cent between 1957 and 2004 (New Scientist, 3 December 2005, p 6), and it is expected to slow
further due to global warming. Jianjun Yin of Florida State University in Tallahassee and colleagues used climate models to study how an AMOC slowdown would affect sea levels. They found that, for the worst-case scenario of greenhouse gas emissions, the sea level rise due to AMOC slowdown on top of the thermal expansion of water could reach 52, 51 and 44 centimetres around Boston, New York and Washington DC respectively by 2100. This would pose a particular threat to New York, as some parts are only 1.5 metres above sea level (Nature Geoscience, DOI: 10.1038/ngeo462). “The modelling is highly credible,” says Stuart Cunningham at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK.
–The waters are rising–
Drug data fraud A PROMINENT case of scientific fraud is being seized on by critics of the pharmaceutical industry to highlight their calls for a crackdown on the use of scientific studies for marketing purposes. Starting in 1996, Scott Reuben of the Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, published a series of trials testing whether painkillers, including Pfizer’s Celebrex and Merck’s Vioxx, relieve post-operative pain. Now 21 of Reuben’s papers have
“Drug companies say small studies are a legitimate way of investigating new uses for existing products” been shown to contain fabricated data, after he was investigated by Baystate officials. Many have already been retracted. Reuben’s studies were part of an array of small clinical trials funded by Pfizer and Merck after Celebrex and Vioxx were approved for market by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The trials investigated the 4 | NewScientist | 21 March 2009
drugs’ use in a variety of different medical situations. The firms were not aware of Reuben’s fraud. Because such trials are usually too small to get the FDA to add new uses to a drug’s label, critics allege that they are run for marketing reasons. Doctors are free to prescribe how they see fit, and sales reps often give doctors reprints of papers describing the results of such trials. Drug companies say that these studies are legitimate preliminary investigations of new uses for their products, and reject suggestions that they are undertaken for marketing reasons. Now the Reuben case has focused attention on calls for tougher controls on the way the pharmaceutical industry uses the results of small, post-approval trials. Merrill Goozner of the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington DC hopes the FDA will introduce tougher controls on the distribution to doctors of scientific papers describing the use of approved drugs in new settings. The current guidance is “very permissive”, he argues.
FutureGen revival THE future looks a little brighter for one of the world’s most ambitious carbon capture projects – so long as its backers can avoid more embarrassing arithmetic blunders. The $1.8 billion US-led FutureGen project was supposed to demonstrate the capture and storage of carbon dioxide from a coal power plant. But last year the US Department of Energy (DOE) cancelled its commitment to the project, citing spiralling costs.
Now that decision may be reconsidered. A report by the Government Accountability Office says the apparent cost increase was mostly due to a misleading comparison between old and new budget numbers that treated inflation differently. A Congressional committee was scheduled to hear from Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Tuesday to find out how the DOE plans to spend the billions of dollars in economic stimulus money it has received, some of which could be used to restore FutureGen.
Caving ban where bats are dying VIRGINIA has became the third US state to temporarily ban cavers from caves where bats are dying from white nose syndrome (WNS). New York and Vermont both issued similar appeals in February. Since 2007, thousands of bats have died from the condition, which is characterised by a white fungus covering their noses, ears and wings. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to find out how the disease kills the animals and how it spreads.
“We believe WNS is likely to spread through direct bat-to-bat and cave-to-bat contact,” says Diana Weaver, a spokeswoman for the FWS, “but it’s possible that human activity may be spreading the causative agent.” In recent weeks, suspicion has fallen on cavers. They are cooperating fully with the FWS, and an anonymous caver says the caving community is deeply distressed by the idea that they may be responsible.
UPFRONT
Flood risk to US east coast THE Big Apple could be awash by the end of this century. New predictions suggest that US east coast cities will be hit hard by sea level rise. Today, the sea level along the US east coast is relatively low, whereas further offshore it rises sharply. This anomaly is caused by the balance of forces required for the flow of the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Current, both of which contribute to the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). The AMOC transports warm surface waters to polar latitudes, where it cools and sinks before flowing back south. A previous study has shown that the AMOC slowed by about 30 per cent between 1957 and 2004 (New Scientist, 3 December 2005, p 6), and it is expected to slow
further due to global warming. Jianjun Yin of Florida State University in Tallahassee and colleagues used climate models to study how an AMOC slowdown would affect sea levels. They found that, for the worst-case scenario of greenhouse gas emissions, the sea level rise due to AMOC slowdown on top of the thermal expansion of water could reach 52, 51 and 44 centimetres around Boston, New York and Washington DC respectively by 2100. This would pose a particular threat to New York, as some parts are only 1.5 metres above sea level (Nature Geoscience, DOI: 10.1038/ngeo462). “The modelling is highly credible,” says Stuart Cunningham at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK.
–The waters are rising–
Drug data fraud A PROMINENT case of scientific fraud is being seized on by critics of the pharmaceutical industry to highlight their calls for a crackdown on the use of scientific studies for marketing purposes. Starting in 1996, Scott Reuben of the Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, published a series of trials testing whether painkillers, including Pfizer’s Celebrex and Merck’s Vioxx, relieve post-operative pain. Now 21 of Reuben’s papers have
“Drug companies say small studies are a legitimate way of investigating new uses for existing products” been shown to contain fabricated data, after he was investigated by Baystate officials. Many have already been retracted. Reuben’s studies were part of an array of small clinical trials funded by Pfizer and Merck after Celebrex and Vioxx were approved for market by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The trials investigated the 4 | NewScientist | 21 March 2009
drugs’ use in a variety of different medical situations. The firms were not aware of Reuben’s fraud. Because such trials are usually too small to get the FDA to add new uses to a drug’s label, critics allege that they are run for marketing reasons. Doctors are free to prescribe how they see fit, and sales reps often give doctors reprints of papers describing the results of such trials. Drug companies say that these studies are legitimate preliminary investigations of new uses for their products, and reject suggestions that they are undertaken for marketing reasons. Now the Reuben case has focused attention on calls for tougher controls on the way the pharmaceutical industry uses the results of small, post-approval trials. Merrill Goozner of the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington DC hopes the FDA will introduce tougher controls on the distribution to doctors of scientific papers describing the use of approved drugs in new settings. The current guidance is “very permissive”, he argues.
FutureGen revival THE future looks a little brighter for one of the world’s most ambitious carbon capture projects – so long as its backers can avoid more embarrassing arithmetic blunders. The $1.8 billion US-led FutureGen project was supposed to demonstrate the capture and storage of carbon dioxide from a coal power plant. But last year the US Department of Energy (DOE) cancelled its commitment to the project, citing spiralling costs.
Now that decision may be reconsidered. A report by the Government Accountability Office says the apparent cost increase was mostly due to a misleading comparison between old and new budget numbers that treated inflation differently. A Congressional committee was scheduled to hear from Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Tuesday to find out how the DOE plans to spend the billions of dollars in economic stimulus money it has received, some of which could be used to restore FutureGen.
Caving ban where bats are dying VIRGINIA has became the third US state to temporarily ban cavers from caves where bats are dying from white nose syndrome (WNS). New York and Vermont both issued similar appeals in February. Since 2007, thousands of bats have died from the condition, which is characterised by a white fungus covering their noses, ears and wings. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to find out how the disease kills the animals and how it spreads.
“We believe WNS is likely to spread through direct bat-to-bat and cave-to-bat contact,” says Diana Weaver, a spokeswoman for the FWS, “but it’s possible that human activity may be spreading the causative agent.” In recent weeks, suspicion has fallen on cavers. They are cooperating fully with the FWS, and an anonymous caver says the caving community is deeply distressed by the idea that they may be responsible.