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Strike blinds the world's largest radio telescope
Silvio Rossi/eso
UPFRONT
Strike blinds telescope BOTHERED by bad office coffee and rush-hour traffic? Tell that to the people who staff the world’s largest radio telescope, 5000 metres above sea level in Chile’s Atacama desert. On 22 August, almost 200 staff at the Atacama Large Millimeter/ submillimeter Array (ALMA) went on strike to demand higher pay for working in the extreme conditions at the observatory. The site, which will eventually boast 66 radio dishes, officially opened in March, although construction is ongoing. Water vapour in Earth’s atmosphere blocks shorter radio wavelengths, so the thin, dry air of the Atacama desert is ideal for radio astronomy. ALMA is already studying planet formation and detecting radiation from very distant galaxies in the early universe.
But staff at the site have to deal with altitude sickness, chapped skin and chilly temperatures – not to mention being hours away the nearest city. Victor Gonzalez, president of the ALMA union, says that the workers are on indefinite strike following a breakdown in negotiations with Associated Universities Incorporated, which manages the observatory. The union wants a 15 per cent pay rise and other benefits. ALMA is not making fresh observations during the strike, but off-site researchers are analysing existing data, scheduling new projects and refining software, says Charles Blue, a spokesman for the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Virginia, which co-manages ALMA.
Tribe caught on film
encounters in the past. But such tribes often feel forced out by encroaching civilisation, says Rebecca Spooner of London-based Survival International, which has documented cases where settlements have been bulldozed and tribespeople harassed, or even killed. This leaves survivors feeling like they have no option but to give up and end their isolation. But tribes may seek contact with outsiders because they begin to trust their intentions, says Kim Hill at Arizona State University. “It’s a human trait to want to expand our contacts.”
–Left high and dry–
Genome prize axed
“Current technologies are affordable, but are far from meeting the X Prize goal for accuracy” for little more than the $1000 per genome the prize specified. But not all of the prize’s targets have been outpaced – particularly the goal of making only one error 6 | NewScientist | 31 August 2013
NASA
IT IS an anticlimax, to say the least. The $10 million Archon Genomics X Prize – intended to spur a revolution in fast, cheap and accurate human-genome sequencing – has been abruptly cancelled just shy of its start date. The prize had asked innovators to design devices that could sequence 100 human genomes in 30 days or fewer, with goals for accuracy and cost. The cash was to be up for grabs from 5 September. Peter Diamandis, chair of the X Prize Foundation in Playa Vista, California, says the prize was withdrawn because it was outpaced by innovation. Today, companies are routinely sequencing human genomes
per million DNA bases sequenced. Genomics pioneer Craig Venter, who conceived the prize, argues that high accuracy will be paramount as we move towards a future in which genome sequencing is used routinely for medical diagnosis. Clifford Reid of Complete Genomics in Mountain View, California, agrees. But he believes accuracy will improve, with or without an X Prize. “The market forces are in the process of changing from meeting the needs of the research community to the needs of medicine,” he says.
WHAT else can you do when backed into a corner? The MashcoPiro, a so-called uncontacted tribe in the Peruvian Amazon, has come out of hiding after years of voluntary isolation. Members of the tribe have been filmed on the banks of a river on the edge of their land, attempting to make contact with outsiders. There are thought to be more than 100 uncontacted tribes around the world. Many choose to avoid contact with outsiders because they have had unpleasant
Launch pad for sale WANT a portable piece of history that helped put astronauts on the moon? You’d better have a powerful pickup truck. NASA is seeking bids for its three mobile launcher platforms. The 3700-tonne hunks of steel were used at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to ferry rockets to the launch zone and as launch pads. They carried Saturn V rockets during the Apollo era, then were –Hefty chunk of history– modified for the space shuttles.
UPFRONT
Strike blinds telescope BOTHERED by bad office coffee and rush-hour traffic? Tell that to the people who staff the world’s largest radio telescope, 5000 metres above sea level in Chile’s Atacama desert. On 22 August, almost 200 staff at the Atacama Large Millimeter/ submillimeter Array (ALMA) went on strike to demand higher pay for working in the extreme conditions at the observatory. The site, which will eventually boast 66 radio dishes, officially opened in March, although construction is ongoing. Water vapour in Earth’s atmosphere blocks shorter radio wavelengths, so the thin, dry air of the Atacama desert is ideal for radio astronomy. ALMA is already studying planet formation and detecting radiation from very distant galaxies in the early universe.
But staff at the site have to deal with altitude sickness, chapped skin and chilly temperatures – not to mention being hours away the nearest city. Victor Gonzalez, president of the ALMA union, says that the workers are on indefinite strike following a breakdown in negotiations with Associated Universities Incorporated, which manages the observatory. The union wants a 15 per cent pay rise and other benefits. ALMA is not making fresh observations during the strike, but off-site researchers are analysing existing data, scheduling new projects and refining software, says Charles Blue, a spokesman for the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Virginia, which co-manages ALMA.
Tribe caught on film
encounters in the past. But such tribes often feel forced out by encroaching civilisation, says Rebecca Spooner of London-based Survival International, which has documented cases where settlements have been bulldozed and tribespeople harassed, or even killed. This leaves survivors feeling like they have no option but to give up and end their isolation. But tribes may seek contact with outsiders because they begin to trust their intentions, says Kim Hill at Arizona State University. “It’s a human trait to want to expand our contacts.”
–Left high and dry–
Genome prize axed
“Current technologies are affordable, but are far from meeting the X Prize goal for accuracy” for little more than the $1000 per genome the prize specified. But not all of the prize’s targets have been outpaced – particularly the goal of making only one error 6 | NewScientist | 31 August 2013
NASA
IT IS an anticlimax, to say the least. The $10 million Archon Genomics X Prize – intended to spur a revolution in fast, cheap and accurate human-genome sequencing – has been abruptly cancelled just shy of its start date. The prize had asked innovators to design devices that could sequence 100 human genomes in 30 days or fewer, with goals for accuracy and cost. The cash was to be up for grabs from 5 September. Peter Diamandis, chair of the X Prize Foundation in Playa Vista, California, says the prize was withdrawn because it was outpaced by innovation. Today, companies are routinely sequencing human genomes
per million DNA bases sequenced. Genomics pioneer Craig Venter, who conceived the prize, argues that high accuracy will be paramount as we move towards a future in which genome sequencing is used routinely for medical diagnosis. Clifford Reid of Complete Genomics in Mountain View, California, agrees. But he believes accuracy will improve, with or without an X Prize. “The market forces are in the process of changing from meeting the needs of the research community to the needs of medicine,” he says.
WHAT else can you do when backed into a corner? The MashcoPiro, a so-called uncontacted tribe in the Peruvian Amazon, has come out of hiding after years of voluntary isolation. Members of the tribe have been filmed on the banks of a river on the edge of their land, attempting to make contact with outsiders. There are thought to be more than 100 uncontacted tribes around the world. Many choose to avoid contact with outsiders because they have had unpleasant
Launch pad for sale WANT a portable piece of history that helped put astronauts on the moon? You’d better have a powerful pickup truck. NASA is seeking bids for its three mobile launcher platforms. The 3700-tonne hunks of steel were used at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to ferry rockets to the launch zone and as launch pads. They carried Saturn V rockets during the Apollo era, then were –Hefty chunk of history– modified for the space shuttles.