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Secret DNA tests outlawed in Germany
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BERNARD PATRICK/ABACA/PA
60 SECONDS
Hard times FREE Viagra for the unemployed! Pharmaceutical company Pfizer earned this catchy headline this week with its plans to make 70 products free to US residents
“We all know people who have been laid off, making it difficult for them to pay for healthcare”
“Quote to go in here over four lines range left like this Quote to go in her like this xxxxx”
NASA
who have lost their job. Anybody who has been taking one of the 70 drugs for at least three months and became unemployed after 1 January this year can apply. “We all know people who have Beastly acts been laid off recently and have STARS of the show they may be, lost their health insurance, making it difficult for them to pay but circus acts featuring elephants, lions and tigers should end, the for healthcare,” says company first global study of animal executive Jorge Puente. welfare in circuses concludes. The decision is not all about “Whether it’s lack of space patients, however. It also reflects and exercise, or lack of social Pfizer’s concern for the bottom contact, all factors combined line: people cut costs when they show it’s a poor quality of life lose their job, which may involve switching to a competitor’s drugs. compared with the wild,” says lead researcher Stephen Harris of the Many of the drugs on the list, including painkiller Celebrex, face University of Bristol, UK. On average, circus animals competition from rival products. A generic version of another Pfizer top-earner, the cholesterol “Circus animals spend most of their time confined to medicine Lipitor, is set to be cages or enclosures far introduced in 2011. smaller than those in zoos” By giving away some drugs for a limited period, market analysts were found to spend just 1 to say Pfizer will keep patients loyal 9 per cent of their time training, to its brand during hard times. and the rest confined to cages or enclosures typically covering a quarter of the area recommended for zoos. While domesticated animals such as dogs or horses can adapt to these conditions, species such as elephants, lions, tigers and bears cannot, the researchers say. Many of the confined animals exhibit stress behaviours such as pacing up and down for hours on end. “Even if they are in a larger circus pen, there’s no enrichment such as logs to play with, in case they use them to break the fence –Give it a good kick– and escape,” says Harris, whose
Primate ancestor A 47-million-year-old primate fossil could be the common ancestor of monkeys and apes, including humans. The find may suggest that we evolved not from precursors of the tarsier, as generally thought, but from a primate group that led to today’s lemurs. The pristine skeleton was unveiled by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg on 19 May (PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005723).
Health job filled
–Born to be wild–
team’s results appear in Animal Welfare (vol 18, p 129). Some countries, including Austria, have already banned wild animals from circuses, but they still feature prominently in the US and much of Europe. While elephants were not seen in UK circuses for 10 years, three have been performing since February in the Great British Circus.
Germany’s DNA law SECRETLY obtaining someone’s DNA to settle paternity disputes was banned in Germany last week. The UK passed a similar law in 2006, and Australia is considering following suit. The new law allows paternity disputes to be settled using DNA evidence only if all parties consent. “People can still do it secretly using companies outside Germany, but the result would have no legal status within Germany,” says Carston Proff of LCG Forensics in Cologne. The law bans sex determination of fetuses and testing for predisposition to diseases that may or may not develop in adulthood. It also forbids employers and insurance companies from demanding gene tests except in special circumstances, such as to identify individuals who might be allergic to chemicals used in a particular job.
President Barack Obama has named Thomas Frieden, New York’s health commissioner, as director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Frieden is best known for spearheading a ban on smoking in public places and boosting the number of New Yorkers getting tested for HIV.
Park of peace Sierra Leone and Liberia have announced plans to create a transboundary “Peace Park” to protect one of the biggest surviving areas of intact forest in west Africa. The park will include Sierra Leone’s Gola reserve and Liberia’s Lofa and Foya reserves, as well as wildlife corridors to link them.
Nuclear waste on top We shouldn’t rush to bury nuclear waste as it’s perfectly safe to store it in dry casks for 60 to 70 years. That was the unanimous verdict of scientists at a meeting in Boston this week. Money would be better spent on improving waste reprocessing technology, they concluded.
Back to black bees The UK’s forgotten black honeybee could restore declining populations. Beekeepers ousted the native species a century ago in favour of bees from Italy and eastern Europe, but the larger, hairier black bees may be hardier. On 18 May the Co-op Group announced a £10,000 fund to map remaining native populations and set up a breeding programme.
23 May 2009 | NewScientist | 5
BERNARD PATRICK/ABACA/PA
60 SECONDS
Hard times FREE Viagra for the unemployed! Pharmaceutical company Pfizer earned this catchy headline this week with its plans to make 70 products free to US residents
“We all know people who have been laid off, making it difficult for them to pay for healthcare”
“Quote to go in here over four lines range left like this Quote to go in her like this xxxxx”
NASA
who have lost their job. Anybody who has been taking one of the 70 drugs for at least three months and became unemployed after 1 January this year can apply. “We all know people who have Beastly acts been laid off recently and have STARS of the show they may be, lost their health insurance, making it difficult for them to pay but circus acts featuring elephants, lions and tigers should end, the for healthcare,” says company first global study of animal executive Jorge Puente. welfare in circuses concludes. The decision is not all about “Whether it’s lack of space patients, however. It also reflects and exercise, or lack of social Pfizer’s concern for the bottom contact, all factors combined line: people cut costs when they show it’s a poor quality of life lose their job, which may involve switching to a competitor’s drugs. compared with the wild,” says lead researcher Stephen Harris of the Many of the drugs on the list, including painkiller Celebrex, face University of Bristol, UK. On average, circus animals competition from rival products. A generic version of another Pfizer top-earner, the cholesterol “Circus animals spend most of their time confined to medicine Lipitor, is set to be cages or enclosures far introduced in 2011. smaller than those in zoos” By giving away some drugs for a limited period, market analysts were found to spend just 1 to say Pfizer will keep patients loyal 9 per cent of their time training, to its brand during hard times. and the rest confined to cages or enclosures typically covering a quarter of the area recommended for zoos. While domesticated animals such as dogs or horses can adapt to these conditions, species such as elephants, lions, tigers and bears cannot, the researchers say. Many of the confined animals exhibit stress behaviours such as pacing up and down for hours on end. “Even if they are in a larger circus pen, there’s no enrichment such as logs to play with, in case they use them to break the fence –Give it a good kick– and escape,” says Harris, whose
Primate ancestor A 47-million-year-old primate fossil could be the common ancestor of monkeys and apes, including humans. The find may suggest that we evolved not from precursors of the tarsier, as generally thought, but from a primate group that led to today’s lemurs. The pristine skeleton was unveiled by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg on 19 May (PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005723).
Health job filled
–Born to be wild–
team’s results appear in Animal Welfare (vol 18, p 129). Some countries, including Austria, have already banned wild animals from circuses, but they still feature prominently in the US and much of Europe. While elephants were not seen in UK circuses for 10 years, three have been performing since February in the Great British Circus.
Germany’s DNA law SECRETLY obtaining someone’s DNA to settle paternity disputes was banned in Germany last week. The UK passed a similar law in 2006, and Australia is considering following suit. The new law allows paternity disputes to be settled using DNA evidence only if all parties consent. “People can still do it secretly using companies outside Germany, but the result would have no legal status within Germany,” says Carston Proff of LCG Forensics in Cologne. The law bans sex determination of fetuses and testing for predisposition to diseases that may or may not develop in adulthood. It also forbids employers and insurance companies from demanding gene tests except in special circumstances, such as to identify individuals who might be allergic to chemicals used in a particular job.
President Barack Obama has named Thomas Frieden, New York’s health commissioner, as director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Frieden is best known for spearheading a ban on smoking in public places and boosting the number of New Yorkers getting tested for HIV.
Park of peace Sierra Leone and Liberia have announced plans to create a transboundary “Peace Park” to protect one of the biggest surviving areas of intact forest in west Africa. The park will include Sierra Leone’s Gola reserve and Liberia’s Lofa and Foya reserves, as well as wildlife corridors to link them.
Nuclear waste on top We shouldn’t rush to bury nuclear waste as it’s perfectly safe to store it in dry casks for 60 to 70 years. That was the unanimous verdict of scientists at a meeting in Boston this week. Money would be better spent on improving waste reprocessing technology, they concluded.
Back to black bees The UK’s forgotten black honeybee could restore declining populations. Beekeepers ousted the native species a century ago in favour of bees from Italy and eastern Europe, but the larger, hairier black bees may be hardier. On 18 May the Co-op Group announced a £10,000 fund to map remaining native populations and set up a breeding programme.
23 May 2009 | NewScientist | 5