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Radio wave ruckus
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THAT was quick. Last week researchers reported they had traced a cosmic blast of radio waves back to its source for the first time – but now another team of fast-acting astronomers has
Xu Yu/Xinhua Press/Corbis
Radio wave ruckus
60 Seconds
Winston destruction Tropical storm Winston is both the most powerful storm ever recorded in the South Pacific and the most destructive. Fiji estimates the damage at half a billion dollars, 10 per cent of the country’s GDP. Around 50,000 people are still living in evacuation shelters.
“The authors at least have to explain why their interpretation is more probable”
Grey hair gene
ANDY RAIN/EPA
called the result into question. On 25 February, a team lead by Evan Keane at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in the UK published a paper in the journal Nature claiming they had finally found Winds of change the source of one of these CHINA is surging ahead in its mysterious signals. They did this switch to renewables and away by following up an observation of from coal – a move it claims will a fast radio burst (FRB) and seeing allow the nation to surpass its a galaxy with a radio “afterglow” carbon emissions targets. in the same direction. The country’s solar and wind But Peter Williams of the energy capacity soared last year Harvard-Smithsonian Center for by 74 and 34 per cent respectively Astrophysics and his colleagues compared with 2014, according to say that conclusion is wrong. figures issued by China’s National Over the following weekend they Bureau of Statistics this week. found the galaxy was glowing Meanwhile, its consumption again, which shouldn’t happen (arxiv.org/abs/1602.08434). “The latest figures confirm The galaxy probably contains what is known as an active galactic China’s record-breaking shift toward renewable nucleus. These are common, and energy, away from coal” should be an obvious explanation to rule out. “The authors at least of coal dropped by 3.7 per cent, have to explain why their with imports down by a interpretation is more probable,” substantial 30 per cent. says Williams. The figures back up claims made last month by Xie Zhenhua, China’s lead negotiator at the UN climate talks in Paris last December, that the country will “far surpass” its 2020 target to reduce carbon emissions per unit of national wealth (GDP) by 40 to 45 per cent from 2005 levels. “The latest figures confirm China’s record-breaking shift toward renewable power and away from coal,” says Tim Buckley of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, an energy consultancy –Privacy protector?– in Cleveland, Ohio.
–China’s future: who needs coal?–
“It’s a really positive signal, a perfect example of an emerging economy trying to shift the way it develops,” says Ranping Song of the World Resources Institute think tank in Washington DC. China is due to issue its next fiveyear economic plan this month. “So it’s a perfect time to see how serious they are about tackling emissions,” Song says.
Space twins TIME to come home. As we went to press, two astronauts were due to return from the International Space Station, having spent almost a year living in space. Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko are returning after 340 days on the ISS. Also returning is Sergey Volkov, who spent six months in orbit. The trio should touch down in Kazakhstan early Wednesday morning. Some Russians have spent more than a year in space, but Kelly now holds the US record and has taken part in a unique experiment. His identical-twin brother Mark, also an astronaut, has been monitored by NASA on Earth for the past year. Comparing the twins should help disentangle the effects of space from those of genetics, potentially leading to treatments for the bone mass loss and vision problems experienced by astronauts.
The discovery of a gene that causes hair to go grey may inspire ways to delay the process. The IRF4 gene dictates the amount of the dark pigment, melanin, in hair. By tweaking the gene it may be possible to boost melanin levels (Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10815).
Google car collision On 14 February, a Google car drove into the side of a bus. It is the first clear-cut case of an accident caused by self-driving technology. The car detected the approaching bus but wrongly predicted that the bus would allow it to pass. Google says it needs to improve its AI’s anticipation of other road users even when both (or neither) are following the law.
C = fail for Europe… The European Union is not on track to meet carbon targets set at the Paris climate talks. It is relying on its trading scheme to reduce emissions after 2020, but has not raised carbon prices fast enough to cut industrial emissions by a sufficient amount, says a leaked note from the European Commission seen by the UK’s Guardian newspaper.
...and UK fails on NO2 The UK government is off track, too. Last year, law firm ClientEarth won a case that resulted in the government being ordered to draw up a plan to cut nitrogen dioxide pollution. But the plan falls “woefully short” of what was required, ClientEarth says, and it has given the government 10 days to redraft it or face renewed legal action.
5 March 2016 | NewScientist | 7
THAT was quick. Last week researchers reported they had traced a cosmic blast of radio waves back to its source for the first time – but now another team of fast-acting astronomers has
Xu Yu/Xinhua Press/Corbis
Radio wave ruckus
60 Seconds
Winston destruction Tropical storm Winston is both the most powerful storm ever recorded in the South Pacific and the most destructive. Fiji estimates the damage at half a billion dollars, 10 per cent of the country’s GDP. Around 50,000 people are still living in evacuation shelters.
“The authors at least have to explain why their interpretation is more probable”
Grey hair gene
ANDY RAIN/EPA
called the result into question. On 25 February, a team lead by Evan Keane at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in the UK published a paper in the journal Nature claiming they had finally found Winds of change the source of one of these CHINA is surging ahead in its mysterious signals. They did this switch to renewables and away by following up an observation of from coal – a move it claims will a fast radio burst (FRB) and seeing allow the nation to surpass its a galaxy with a radio “afterglow” carbon emissions targets. in the same direction. The country’s solar and wind But Peter Williams of the energy capacity soared last year Harvard-Smithsonian Center for by 74 and 34 per cent respectively Astrophysics and his colleagues compared with 2014, according to say that conclusion is wrong. figures issued by China’s National Over the following weekend they Bureau of Statistics this week. found the galaxy was glowing Meanwhile, its consumption again, which shouldn’t happen (arxiv.org/abs/1602.08434). “The latest figures confirm The galaxy probably contains what is known as an active galactic China’s record-breaking shift toward renewable nucleus. These are common, and energy, away from coal” should be an obvious explanation to rule out. “The authors at least of coal dropped by 3.7 per cent, have to explain why their with imports down by a interpretation is more probable,” substantial 30 per cent. says Williams. The figures back up claims made last month by Xie Zhenhua, China’s lead negotiator at the UN climate talks in Paris last December, that the country will “far surpass” its 2020 target to reduce carbon emissions per unit of national wealth (GDP) by 40 to 45 per cent from 2005 levels. “The latest figures confirm China’s record-breaking shift toward renewable power and away from coal,” says Tim Buckley of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, an energy consultancy –Privacy protector?– in Cleveland, Ohio.
–China’s future: who needs coal?–
“It’s a really positive signal, a perfect example of an emerging economy trying to shift the way it develops,” says Ranping Song of the World Resources Institute think tank in Washington DC. China is due to issue its next fiveyear economic plan this month. “So it’s a perfect time to see how serious they are about tackling emissions,” Song says.
Space twins TIME to come home. As we went to press, two astronauts were due to return from the International Space Station, having spent almost a year living in space. Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko are returning after 340 days on the ISS. Also returning is Sergey Volkov, who spent six months in orbit. The trio should touch down in Kazakhstan early Wednesday morning. Some Russians have spent more than a year in space, but Kelly now holds the US record and has taken part in a unique experiment. His identical-twin brother Mark, also an astronaut, has been monitored by NASA on Earth for the past year. Comparing the twins should help disentangle the effects of space from those of genetics, potentially leading to treatments for the bone mass loss and vision problems experienced by astronauts.
The discovery of a gene that causes hair to go grey may inspire ways to delay the process. The IRF4 gene dictates the amount of the dark pigment, melanin, in hair. By tweaking the gene it may be possible to boost melanin levels (Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10815).
Google car collision On 14 February, a Google car drove into the side of a bus. It is the first clear-cut case of an accident caused by self-driving technology. The car detected the approaching bus but wrongly predicted that the bus would allow it to pass. Google says it needs to improve its AI’s anticipation of other road users even when both (or neither) are following the law.
C = fail for Europe… The European Union is not on track to meet carbon targets set at the Paris climate talks. It is relying on its trading scheme to reduce emissions after 2020, but has not raised carbon prices fast enough to cut industrial emissions by a sufficient amount, says a leaked note from the European Commission seen by the UK’s Guardian newspaper.
...and UK fails on NO2 The UK government is off track, too. Last year, law firm ClientEarth won a case that resulted in the government being ordered to draw up a plan to cut nitrogen dioxide pollution. But the plan falls “woefully short” of what was required, ClientEarth says, and it has given the government 10 days to redraft it or face renewed legal action.
5 March 2016 | NewScientist | 7