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R.I.P. CO2
News in perspective
Upfront– WASHINGTON
WISCONSIN
Pro-environment senator Maria Cantwell (D) holds on to her seat. Voters also pass a proposition requiring state utilities to produce 15 per cent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020
MONTANA
Incumbent senator Conrad Burns (R), who opposed renewable energy, loses his seat
Governor Jim Doyle (D) defeats his opponent, who would have banned research on embryonic stem cells
MASSACHUSETTS Deval Patrick (D) wins the governor's race comfortably. Expect a green light for the biggest wind farm in the US
ENVIRONMENT ENVIRONMENT
STEM CELLS RENEWABLE ENERGY
EVOLUTION THERAPEUTIC CLONING EVOLUTION
ENVIRONMENT
STEM CELLS
OHIO Pro-science candidate Ted Strickland (D) takes the governorship, and anti-evolution school board member Deborah Owens Fink is defeated
KANSAS
Anti-evolution crusaders John Bacon (R) and Kenneth Willard (R) elected to the state school board
CALIFORNIA
Anti-environment incumbent Richard Pombo (R) is defeated, but Proposition 87, which would have imposed a tax on oil companies that drill within the state, is defeated. The tax would have funded renewable energy
Healing herbs? COULD the official registration of herbal medicines be seen as medical approval? That’s the concern after the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) registered its first: an arnica gel for aches and pains last week. For a herbal medicine to be allowed on the register, its maker must show that it is safe and manufactured to a sufficiently high standard. The maker must also provide proof, not of efficacy, but that the substance has been used in traditional medicine for many years. The MHRA argues that without this new system herbal products would be completely unregulated, but others say the decision is a cop-out, opening the door to remedies of no proven worth.
“Medicines work or don’t work, and they should be labelled accordingly” 6 | NewScientist | 18 November 2006
061118_N_p6_p7_Upfronts.indd 6
MISSOURI Democrat Claire McCaskill wins Senate seat based on her support for research on embryonic stem cells Voters agree to alter the state’s constitution to enshrine the ability of scientists to research therapeutic cloning
Conventional medicines have to be thoroughly tested in clinical trials to prove that they work. “It’s shameless,” says David Colquhoun, professor of pharmacology at University College London. “Medicines work or don’t work, and they should be labelled accordingly,” he says. All European Union countries must have similar laws by 2011 to comply with an EU directive on herbal medicines that allows “the requirement to demonstrate efficacy to be replaced by the need to demonstrate traditional use”, an MHRA spokesman says.
R.I.P. CO2 MANY countries would love to bury the problem of rising carbon dioxide levels and forget about it. Soon they will be able to do just that, hiding CO2 away in caverns, aquifers and porous rocks beneath the seabed. The London Convention governing burial of material in the sea was amended on
“Burial could cut British carbon dioxide emissions far faster than any other option” 2 November, making it legal to bury CO2 in natural structures under the oceans. Twenty-nine countries ratified it, including the UK, China and Australia. “It’s great news,” says Jeff Chapman, chief executive of the Carbon Capture & Storage Association in London, representing 37 multinational companies eager to press on with burial schemes linked to electricity generation. He says that seven prototype schemes are planned in the UK alone, and that by 2025 they could cut British CO2 emissions by a quarter, far faster than any other option. The idea is controversial, however, because of fears that the buried CO2 may escape back into the atmosphere, causing a surge in warming. Chapman claims this is unlikely because caverns would be sealed once they were full.
A GOOD DAY FOR SCIENCE It was not just the Democrats who won big in last week’s US midterm elections. Science and the environment triumphed too, nearly everywhere. Democrat Claire McCaskill from Missouri won her Senate seat on a platform that argued for research on embryonic stem cells. The citizens of Missouri also decided to give scientists constitutional protection to pursue therapeutic cloning, while Wisconsin ousted a governor who wanted to ban any work on embryonic stem cells. Renewable energy also got the green light in many states, but California hedged its bets on environmental issues. While the anti-environment congressman Richard Pombo was shown the door, the state said no to a tax on oil companies to fund green energy. Meanwhile, it seems America will continue to bicker over creation vs evolution: supporters of both positions made gains.
Out of space OUR throwaway culture could extend into space if the crew of the International Space Station starts to pitch rubbish overboard. It would mean more space junk in orbit, but NASA says that the trash will soon fall into the atmosphere and burn up, and will pose no extra danger to spacecraft. Until now astronauts had shied away from intentionally jettisoning gear from the ISS, in case items hit the station or other spacecraft. Now an accumulation of garbage and used equipment on the station is forcing a change of policy. Objects that might be dumped include redundant fuel tanks that are too dangerous to return to Earth by spacecraft and objects mislaid during space walks that would take too long to fetch back inside. An astronaut would release objects during a spacewalk by pushing it away from the ISS in the opposite direction to the station’s orbit. This would speed www.newscientist.com
13/11/06 5:08:41 pm
Upfront– WASHINGTON
WISCONSIN
Pro-environment senator Maria Cantwell (D) holds on to her seat. Voters also pass a proposition requiring state utilities to produce 15 per cent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020
MONTANA
Incumbent senator Conrad Burns (R), who opposed renewable energy, loses his seat
Governor Jim Doyle (D) defeats his opponent, who would have banned research on embryonic stem cells
MASSACHUSETTS Deval Patrick (D) wins the governor's race comfortably. Expect a green light for the biggest wind farm in the US
ENVIRONMENT ENVIRONMENT
STEM CELLS RENEWABLE ENERGY
EVOLUTION THERAPEUTIC CLONING EVOLUTION
ENVIRONMENT
STEM CELLS
OHIO Pro-science candidate Ted Strickland (D) takes the governorship, and anti-evolution school board member Deborah Owens Fink is defeated
KANSAS
Anti-evolution crusaders John Bacon (R) and Kenneth Willard (R) elected to the state school board
CALIFORNIA
Anti-environment incumbent Richard Pombo (R) is defeated, but Proposition 87, which would have imposed a tax on oil companies that drill within the state, is defeated. The tax would have funded renewable energy
Healing herbs? COULD the official registration of herbal medicines be seen as medical approval? That’s the concern after the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) registered its first: an arnica gel for aches and pains last week. For a herbal medicine to be allowed on the register, its maker must show that it is safe and manufactured to a sufficiently high standard. The maker must also provide proof, not of efficacy, but that the substance has been used in traditional medicine for many years. The MHRA argues that without this new system herbal products would be completely unregulated, but others say the decision is a cop-out, opening the door to remedies of no proven worth.
“Medicines work or don’t work, and they should be labelled accordingly” 6 | NewScientist | 18 November 2006
061118_N_p6_p7_Upfronts.indd 6
MISSOURI Democrat Claire McCaskill wins Senate seat based on her support for research on embryonic stem cells Voters agree to alter the state’s constitution to enshrine the ability of scientists to research therapeutic cloning
Conventional medicines have to be thoroughly tested in clinical trials to prove that they work. “It’s shameless,” says David Colquhoun, professor of pharmacology at University College London. “Medicines work or don’t work, and they should be labelled accordingly,” he says. All European Union countries must have similar laws by 2011 to comply with an EU directive on herbal medicines that allows “the requirement to demonstrate efficacy to be replaced by the need to demonstrate traditional use”, an MHRA spokesman says.
R.I.P. CO2 MANY countries would love to bury the problem of rising carbon dioxide levels and forget about it. Soon they will be able to do just that, hiding CO2 away in caverns, aquifers and porous rocks beneath the seabed. The London Convention governing burial of material in the sea was amended on
“Burial could cut British carbon dioxide emissions far faster than any other option” 2 November, making it legal to bury CO2 in natural structures under the oceans. Twenty-nine countries ratified it, including the UK, China and Australia. “It’s great news,” says Jeff Chapman, chief executive of the Carbon Capture & Storage Association in London, representing 37 multinational companies eager to press on with burial schemes linked to electricity generation. He says that seven prototype schemes are planned in the UK alone, and that by 2025 they could cut British CO2 emissions by a quarter, far faster than any other option. The idea is controversial, however, because of fears that the buried CO2 may escape back into the atmosphere, causing a surge in warming. Chapman claims this is unlikely because caverns would be sealed once they were full.
A GOOD DAY FOR SCIENCE It was not just the Democrats who won big in last week’s US midterm elections. Science and the environment triumphed too, nearly everywhere. Democrat Claire McCaskill from Missouri won her Senate seat on a platform that argued for research on embryonic stem cells. The citizens of Missouri also decided to give scientists constitutional protection to pursue therapeutic cloning, while Wisconsin ousted a governor who wanted to ban any work on embryonic stem cells. Renewable energy also got the green light in many states, but California hedged its bets on environmental issues. While the anti-environment congressman Richard Pombo was shown the door, the state said no to a tax on oil companies to fund green energy. Meanwhile, it seems America will continue to bicker over creation vs evolution: supporters of both positions made gains.
Out of space OUR throwaway culture could extend into space if the crew of the International Space Station starts to pitch rubbish overboard. It would mean more space junk in orbit, but NASA says that the trash will soon fall into the atmosphere and burn up, and will pose no extra danger to spacecraft. Until now astronauts had shied away from intentionally jettisoning gear from the ISS, in case items hit the station or other spacecraft. Now an accumulation of garbage and used equipment on the station is forcing a change of policy. Objects that might be dumped include redundant fuel tanks that are too dangerous to return to Earth by spacecraft and objects mislaid during space walks that would take too long to fetch back inside. An astronaut would release objects during a spacewalk by pushing it away from the ISS in the opposite direction to the station’s orbit. This would speed www.newscientist.com
13/11/06 5:08:41 pm