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Silica deposits on Mars could entomb possible life
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Ash halts flights
conference in London last week, Feachem said that malaria has been eliminated in 100 countries. The challenge now is to eliminate the disease in the 99 countries where it remains. Most of the 32 countries he identifies as candidates for elimination are on the fringes of malaria’s equatorial heartland (see map, below left). Attempts to eradicate the disease in countries surrounded by malaria-ridden regions could be counterproductive, he says, and they may be better off trying to control malaria instead. “The key is to squeeze towards the equator,” says Feachem.
60 Seconds
According to Indonesia’s Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation, two other volcanoes are on high alert: Mount Karangetang and Mount Ibu. A further 18 volcanoes are showing signs of life, including
INDONESIA’S Mount Merapi continues to pump out clouds of ash and dust, more than a week after the eruption began. Thirty-eight people are confirmed dead. Meanwhile, “Two other volcanoes are several airlines have cancelled on high alert and 18 more, flights to the region, as volcanic ash can knock out aircraft engines. including Krakatau, are showing signs of life” The risk is well known but it is unclear how much ash engines can the famous island volcano of cope with, though preliminary Krakatau. Indonesia lies on the standards were established “Ring of Fire”, a seismically active earlier this year after Iceland’s region of the Earth’s crust that Eyjafjallajökull volcano closed circles the Pacific. airspace over much of Europe.
Did silica coffins trap Martian life?
Stuff the ISS…
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL/Brown Univ
UNDAUNTED by NASA’s cool THE pale deposits on the flank of an ancient volcano on Mars don’t look response to its interest in the International Space Station, China like anything special. But they might be the Red Planet‘s answer to amber, is going it alone. It has announced trapping and preserving any life plans to build its very own crewed that was present at the site billions space laboratory by 2020. of years ago. The news comes hot on the Measurements by a spectrometer heels of a visit to China by NASA on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance administrator Charlie Bolden that Orbiter indicate that the deposits failed to produce any plans for contain hydrated silica, a mineral that cooperation with the US in space. can be concentrated by the action of Some US lawmakers, including congressmen Frank Wolf and John hot water or steam. This suggests that the deposits were laid down by Culberson, oppose forging closer hydrothermal processes (Nature space ties with China. Such critics Geoscience, DOI: 10.1038/ngeo990). question the intent of its space “The heat and water required to programme, which appears to create this deposit probably made be run by the military, and note this a habitable zone,” says John Skok the dual-use nature of much of Brown University in Providence, space technology. China, meanwhile, has been expanding its space capabilities, and, on 27 October, officially launched a project to develop a space station by 2020. The station will have research applications, including studying living conditions for astronauts, reports the Xinhua news agency. China’s steady investments in human space flight “make it very clear they are going to be in space in terms of a human presence and are going to be there for a long time”, says Dean Cheng, an analyst at the Heritage –Where life may have flourished– Foundation in Washington DC.
Rhode Island, who led the team that identified the mineral. The deposits could have preserved evidence of any life that may have existed when they formed about 3.7 billion years ago. “Silica is a nice little coffin-making device,” says team member John Mustard, also at Brown University. “As it precipitates out, it coats things. If there was biological material, it could be wrapped up in a silica coating, like a jelly bean.” In 2007 NASA’s Spirit rover also found hydrated silica, beneath the soil in a region thought to have been volcanic, but its origin was uncertain. Mustard says the fact that the newly observed deposits lie on the side of a volcano leave no doubt as to their origin.
Diabetes double The diabetes drug metformin may help control lung cancer. In a study of 157 people with lung cancer and diabetes, the cancer had spread in 20 per cent of those who had taken the drug compared with 42 per cent of those who had not. The findings were reported this week at a meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians in Vancouver, Canada.
Humanoids in space By the time you read this, Robonaut 2 should be hurtling through space. NASA’s space shuttle Discovery was scheduled to start its final journey – an 11-day mission to the International Space Station – on Wednesday, with R2 on board. NASA’s first humanoid astronaut has a head, torso and highly dextrous arms and hands for manipulating tools.
Elephant smuggling Police in India have arrested five people allegedly involved in a transnational gang responsible for smuggling nearly 100 elephants over the past five years. Elephants are kept as status symbols in some parts of the country and can reportedly fetch up to £50,000.
Virgin birth snakes A female boa constrictor in the US has produced 22 offspring through parthenogenesis, or reproduction without sex. Born in two litters in 2009 and earlier this year, they are among the first parthenogenetic vertebrates to have made it to adulthood (Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.0793).
Liberal DNA A gene linked with sociality and novelty-seeking may make people more liberal in outlook, but only if they have plenty of friends during adolescence. The gene, DRD4-7R, makes a dopamine receptor and was identified from DNA samples and a survey of 2574 adolescents (The Journal of Politics, DOI: 10.1017/S0022381610000617).
6 November 2010 | NewScientist | 7
Ash halts flights
conference in London last week, Feachem said that malaria has been eliminated in 100 countries. The challenge now is to eliminate the disease in the 99 countries where it remains. Most of the 32 countries he identifies as candidates for elimination are on the fringes of malaria’s equatorial heartland (see map, below left). Attempts to eradicate the disease in countries surrounded by malaria-ridden regions could be counterproductive, he says, and they may be better off trying to control malaria instead. “The key is to squeeze towards the equator,” says Feachem.
60 Seconds
According to Indonesia’s Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation, two other volcanoes are on high alert: Mount Karangetang and Mount Ibu. A further 18 volcanoes are showing signs of life, including
INDONESIA’S Mount Merapi continues to pump out clouds of ash and dust, more than a week after the eruption began. Thirty-eight people are confirmed dead. Meanwhile, “Two other volcanoes are several airlines have cancelled on high alert and 18 more, flights to the region, as volcanic ash can knock out aircraft engines. including Krakatau, are showing signs of life” The risk is well known but it is unclear how much ash engines can the famous island volcano of cope with, though preliminary Krakatau. Indonesia lies on the standards were established “Ring of Fire”, a seismically active earlier this year after Iceland’s region of the Earth’s crust that Eyjafjallajökull volcano closed circles the Pacific. airspace over much of Europe.
Did silica coffins trap Martian life?
Stuff the ISS…
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL/Brown Univ
UNDAUNTED by NASA’s cool THE pale deposits on the flank of an ancient volcano on Mars don’t look response to its interest in the International Space Station, China like anything special. But they might be the Red Planet‘s answer to amber, is going it alone. It has announced trapping and preserving any life plans to build its very own crewed that was present at the site billions space laboratory by 2020. of years ago. The news comes hot on the Measurements by a spectrometer heels of a visit to China by NASA on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance administrator Charlie Bolden that Orbiter indicate that the deposits failed to produce any plans for contain hydrated silica, a mineral that cooperation with the US in space. can be concentrated by the action of Some US lawmakers, including congressmen Frank Wolf and John hot water or steam. This suggests that the deposits were laid down by Culberson, oppose forging closer hydrothermal processes (Nature space ties with China. Such critics Geoscience, DOI: 10.1038/ngeo990). question the intent of its space “The heat and water required to programme, which appears to create this deposit probably made be run by the military, and note this a habitable zone,” says John Skok the dual-use nature of much of Brown University in Providence, space technology. China, meanwhile, has been expanding its space capabilities, and, on 27 October, officially launched a project to develop a space station by 2020. The station will have research applications, including studying living conditions for astronauts, reports the Xinhua news agency. China’s steady investments in human space flight “make it very clear they are going to be in space in terms of a human presence and are going to be there for a long time”, says Dean Cheng, an analyst at the Heritage –Where life may have flourished– Foundation in Washington DC.
Rhode Island, who led the team that identified the mineral. The deposits could have preserved evidence of any life that may have existed when they formed about 3.7 billion years ago. “Silica is a nice little coffin-making device,” says team member John Mustard, also at Brown University. “As it precipitates out, it coats things. If there was biological material, it could be wrapped up in a silica coating, like a jelly bean.” In 2007 NASA’s Spirit rover also found hydrated silica, beneath the soil in a region thought to have been volcanic, but its origin was uncertain. Mustard says the fact that the newly observed deposits lie on the side of a volcano leave no doubt as to their origin.
Diabetes double The diabetes drug metformin may help control lung cancer. In a study of 157 people with lung cancer and diabetes, the cancer had spread in 20 per cent of those who had taken the drug compared with 42 per cent of those who had not. The findings were reported this week at a meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians in Vancouver, Canada.
Humanoids in space By the time you read this, Robonaut 2 should be hurtling through space. NASA’s space shuttle Discovery was scheduled to start its final journey – an 11-day mission to the International Space Station – on Wednesday, with R2 on board. NASA’s first humanoid astronaut has a head, torso and highly dextrous arms and hands for manipulating tools.
Elephant smuggling Police in India have arrested five people allegedly involved in a transnational gang responsible for smuggling nearly 100 elephants over the past five years. Elephants are kept as status symbols in some parts of the country and can reportedly fetch up to £50,000.
Virgin birth snakes A female boa constrictor in the US has produced 22 offspring through parthenogenesis, or reproduction without sex. Born in two litters in 2009 and earlier this year, they are among the first parthenogenetic vertebrates to have made it to adulthood (Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.0793).
Liberal DNA A gene linked with sociality and novelty-seeking may make people more liberal in outlook, but only if they have plenty of friends during adolescence. The gene, DRD4-7R, makes a dopamine receptor and was identified from DNA samples and a survey of 2574 adolescents (The Journal of Politics, DOI: 10.1017/S0022381610000617).
6 November 2010 | NewScientist | 7