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Phoenix finds evidence of past liquid water on Mars
News in perspective
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Upfront– GO-AHEAD FOR CHEAP ‘POLYPILL’ Tests of a single, cheap tablet combining a range of drugs that protect against heart disease and stroke have begun. The “polypill” was mooted years ago as a cheap way to slash deaths from the big killer diseases, but pharmaceutical companies were reluctant to take on the project as the inexpensive drugs involved provided no financial incentive. Now a team funded by the Wellcome Trust in London, UK, and the British Heart Foundation, and led by Anthony Rodgers at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, has begun recruiting 700 volunteers in six countries for a pilot trial of a polypill manufactured by Dr Reddy’s of Hyderabad, India. Their Red Heart Pill, which costs just $1 for a month’s supply, blends blood-thinning aspirin, a cholesterol-
lowering statin, and an ACE inhibitor and a thiazide to lower blood pressure. Trials in thousands of people could start next year. The polypill is aimed at reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke in poor and rich countries alike. However, its use will vary around the world, says Simon Thom of Imperial College London, who is running the UK trials. In the developing world, he advocates distributing the pill “almost blind” to everyone over 55. But countries where people have better access to doctors and drugs are unlikely to adopt the one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, over-55s could be put on one of several different polypills containing varying doses of the drugs, depending on their health needs.
Urban myth
boundaries may make up as little as 30 to 40 per cent of the total, he says. Taking into account the emissions generated by producing goods and services consumed by city dwellers raises the figure to 60 to 70 per cent. This is still lower than the usual figure, and most of it is accounted for by rich North American and European cities. “I’m sick of cities being blamed,” says Satterthwaite, who claims city dwellers use cars less and have smaller, better-insulated homes than rich rural dwellers. The key to greening cities, he says, is to have excellent public transport and safe pedestrian and cycling routes, as in many European cities.
–Four pills in one could be a lifesaver–
Wet all over IS NASA’S Mars Phoenix lander sitting in an area that once was able to harbour life? That’s the tantalising question raised by the announcement on Monday that the craft’s landing site, which is now bone dry, may have been wet in the past. Since the 1970s, spacecraft have beamed back images of deep channels and canyons on the Red Planet that suggest water used to flow there. More recently, orbiting spacecraft and NASA’s rovers have gleaned evidence from Martian rocks that water was once present. The higher Martian latitudes where Phoenix sits lack dramatic features such as gullies, however, so the picture is less clear for regions like this. Now two of its instruments –
Mars, but only in small quantities. The Phoenix team has also found hints of clays, which form in water, and analysis of the soil has pinned down its pH at 8.3, which is about as alkaline as seawater. “Is this a habitable zone on Mars? I think we are approaching this hypothesis,” says Peter Smith at the University of Arizona, the mission’s principal investigator. The Phoenix team also announced that it has detected snow, using an instrument that bounces light off the clouds above. “Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars,” says Jim Whiteway of York University in Toronto, Canada.
Bogged down
6 | NewScientist | 4 October 2008
DAVID HOWELLS/CORBIS
“Is this a habitable zone on Mars? I think we are approaching this hypothesis” the wet chemistry laboratory and its TEGA ovens – have detected calcium carbonate, which on Earth forms primarily through reactions with water. The mineral has been found elsewhere on
CITIES are shouldering too much of the blame for heating up the planet, while the effects of deforestation, agriculture and wasteful lifestyles are not getting the attention they deserve. So says David Satterthwaite of the International Institute for Environment and Development in London. Some 75 to 80 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions are usually attributed to cities, but calculations he publishes in Environment and Urbanization (DOI: 10.1177/0956247808096127) tell a different story. Emissions from within city
RESTORATION of the Florida Everglades is stuck in a bureaucratic quagmire. Despite a deal earlier this year in which the state bought 75,000 hectares of Everglades farmland, restoration is moving slowly, risking further deterioration of the fragile ecosystem and irreversible species losses. The US National Research Council panel charged with reviewing an ambitious –Diversity is draining awayb restoration programme for the www.newscientist.com
CHRIS WAHLBERG/GETTY
Upfront– GO-AHEAD FOR CHEAP ‘POLYPILL’ Tests of a single, cheap tablet combining a range of drugs that protect against heart disease and stroke have begun. The “polypill” was mooted years ago as a cheap way to slash deaths from the big killer diseases, but pharmaceutical companies were reluctant to take on the project as the inexpensive drugs involved provided no financial incentive. Now a team funded by the Wellcome Trust in London, UK, and the British Heart Foundation, and led by Anthony Rodgers at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, has begun recruiting 700 volunteers in six countries for a pilot trial of a polypill manufactured by Dr Reddy’s of Hyderabad, India. Their Red Heart Pill, which costs just $1 for a month’s supply, blends blood-thinning aspirin, a cholesterol-
lowering statin, and an ACE inhibitor and a thiazide to lower blood pressure. Trials in thousands of people could start next year. The polypill is aimed at reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke in poor and rich countries alike. However, its use will vary around the world, says Simon Thom of Imperial College London, who is running the UK trials. In the developing world, he advocates distributing the pill “almost blind” to everyone over 55. But countries where people have better access to doctors and drugs are unlikely to adopt the one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, over-55s could be put on one of several different polypills containing varying doses of the drugs, depending on their health needs.
Urban myth
boundaries may make up as little as 30 to 40 per cent of the total, he says. Taking into account the emissions generated by producing goods and services consumed by city dwellers raises the figure to 60 to 70 per cent. This is still lower than the usual figure, and most of it is accounted for by rich North American and European cities. “I’m sick of cities being blamed,” says Satterthwaite, who claims city dwellers use cars less and have smaller, better-insulated homes than rich rural dwellers. The key to greening cities, he says, is to have excellent public transport and safe pedestrian and cycling routes, as in many European cities.
–Four pills in one could be a lifesaver–
Wet all over IS NASA’S Mars Phoenix lander sitting in an area that once was able to harbour life? That’s the tantalising question raised by the announcement on Monday that the craft’s landing site, which is now bone dry, may have been wet in the past. Since the 1970s, spacecraft have beamed back images of deep channels and canyons on the Red Planet that suggest water used to flow there. More recently, orbiting spacecraft and NASA’s rovers have gleaned evidence from Martian rocks that water was once present. The higher Martian latitudes where Phoenix sits lack dramatic features such as gullies, however, so the picture is less clear for regions like this. Now two of its instruments –
Mars, but only in small quantities. The Phoenix team has also found hints of clays, which form in water, and analysis of the soil has pinned down its pH at 8.3, which is about as alkaline as seawater. “Is this a habitable zone on Mars? I think we are approaching this hypothesis,” says Peter Smith at the University of Arizona, the mission’s principal investigator. The Phoenix team also announced that it has detected snow, using an instrument that bounces light off the clouds above. “Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars,” says Jim Whiteway of York University in Toronto, Canada.
Bogged down
6 | NewScientist | 4 October 2008
DAVID HOWELLS/CORBIS
“Is this a habitable zone on Mars? I think we are approaching this hypothesis” the wet chemistry laboratory and its TEGA ovens – have detected calcium carbonate, which on Earth forms primarily through reactions with water. The mineral has been found elsewhere on
CITIES are shouldering too much of the blame for heating up the planet, while the effects of deforestation, agriculture and wasteful lifestyles are not getting the attention they deserve. So says David Satterthwaite of the International Institute for Environment and Development in London. Some 75 to 80 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions are usually attributed to cities, but calculations he publishes in Environment and Urbanization (DOI: 10.1177/0956247808096127) tell a different story. Emissions from within city
RESTORATION of the Florida Everglades is stuck in a bureaucratic quagmire. Despite a deal earlier this year in which the state bought 75,000 hectares of Everglades farmland, restoration is moving slowly, risking further deterioration of the fragile ecosystem and irreversible species losses. The US National Research Council panel charged with reviewing an ambitious –Diversity is draining awayb restoration programme for the www.newscientist.com