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US court rules against autism-vaccine link
For more on these stories go to www.NewScientist.com/section/science-news
60 SECONDS
Carbon still sinking
A lawsuit filed by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC) based in Huntington, West Virginia, argued that such valley fills violate the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, and a US district court ruled in their favour in March 2007. But on 13 February, a Court of Appeals panel voted 2:1 to reverse the decision. OVEC is now deciding whether to go to the US Supreme Court. “Meanwhile, we will redouble our efforts to educate the public on this national disgrace,” says Vivian Stockman, OVEC project coordinator.
as the total locked up in trees remains constant. Helene MullerLandau of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, says the forests could still be regrowing after partial destruction by past civilisations,
CAN we thank destruction caused by ancient civilisations for the fact that rainforests are soaking up carbon? An analysis of tree growth and death across tropical Africa has found that each hectare of forest soaks up about 0.6 tonnes “Mature forests should be carbon-neutral, but these of carbon a year (Nature, vol 457, may be regrowing after p 1003). This result, reported partial destruction” by Simon Lewis at the University of Leeds in the UK, mirrors the carbon-absorbing ability of such as African iron-making the Amazon rainforest. societies. Lewis favours a global In theory, mature forests influence instead, saying that it is should be carbon-neutral – “probably the fertilising effect of releasing as much as they absorb rising levels of carbon dioxide”.
No to vaccine link
Transgenes escape into the wild
AP PHOTO/MARCO UGATE
NO, VACCINES do not cause NOW it’s official: genes from genetically modified corn have autism, the US Court of Federal Claims has ruled. It found no basis escaped into wild varieties in rural Mexico. A new study resolves a for claims made by three families long-running controversy over the that the MMR vaccine, combined spread of GM genes and suggests with a mercury-based vaccine that detecting such escapes may preservative, was responsible be tougher than previously thought. for their children’s autism. In 2001, when biologists David More than 5500 claims have Quist and Ignacio Chapela reported been filed by US families seeking finding transgenes from GM corn compensation through the in traditional varieties in Oaxaca, government’s Vaccine Injury Mexico, they faced a barrage of Compensation Program. The criticism over their techniques. 12 February ruling means those Nature, which had published the families making the same claim research, eventually disowned will not receive compensation. their paper, while a second study The ruling does not directly by different researchers failed to affect those making slightly back up their findings. different claims, such as that But now, Elena Alvarez-Buylla the preservative thimerosal alone is to blame. But Paul Offit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania expects a similar outcome for all the cases, as he believes last week’s ruling clearly supports the science. “It’s not only that they didn’t leave a door open, they slammed the door shut,” he says. In one ruling, Special Master George L. Hastings wrote that while the daughter of the family had “tragically suffered” due to autism, “the petitioners have also failed to demonstrate that her vaccinations played any role at –Transgenes begone– all in causing those problems”.
of the National Autonomous University in Mexico City and her team have backed Quist and Chapela’s claim. They found transgenes in about 1 per cent of nearly 2000 samples they took from the region (Molecular Ecology, vol 18, p 750). “They are out there, but it’s hitand-miss,” says Paul Gepts of the University of California, Davis, a co-author of the new study. The escaped transgenes are common in a few fields and absent in others, he says, so gene-monitoring efforts must sample as broadly as possible. What’s more, not every detection method – or laboratory – identified every sample containing transgenes. Monitors should use many methods to avoid false negatives, says Gepts.
Neanderthal genome Neanderthals were lactoseintolerant and didn’t breed with their human cousins, says Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who sequenced the genome of the extinct species. The information will help geneticists pin down when the DNA mutations that make us different from our primate ancestors occurred.
Texas fireball A bright orange fireball that streaked through the skies of Texas on 15 February was a meteor, not debris from the collision between US and Russian satellites, as the US Federal Aviation Authority had suggested. Debris would be too small and slow to make a fireball, says Preston Starr of the University of North Texas.
Bipolar animals Hundreds of species that populate Antarctica are identical to those found 11,000 kilometres away in the Arctic, says the International Census of Marine Life. Whales and birds migrate, so are obvious contenders for being “bipolar” species. Species living on the sea floor may have to rely on a floating larval stage to move around the world.
Higgs hunt is on The hunt for the Higgs boson is hotting up. Teams at the Tevatron particle accelerator in Batavia, Illinois, have declared they have at least a 50 per cent chance of finding the Higgs within the next two years. If the Higgs has a high mass, the probability could be 96 per cent.
Mercury U-turn In a complete reversal of previous policy, the US has announced its backing for a legally binding global treaty to cut mercury pollution at a meeting of world environment ministers in Nairobi, Kenya, this week. The European Union, Russia and others also support a treaty, so negotiations may start this year.
21 February 2009 | NewScientist | 7
60 SECONDS
Carbon still sinking
A lawsuit filed by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC) based in Huntington, West Virginia, argued that such valley fills violate the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, and a US district court ruled in their favour in March 2007. But on 13 February, a Court of Appeals panel voted 2:1 to reverse the decision. OVEC is now deciding whether to go to the US Supreme Court. “Meanwhile, we will redouble our efforts to educate the public on this national disgrace,” says Vivian Stockman, OVEC project coordinator.
as the total locked up in trees remains constant. Helene MullerLandau of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, says the forests could still be regrowing after partial destruction by past civilisations,
CAN we thank destruction caused by ancient civilisations for the fact that rainforests are soaking up carbon? An analysis of tree growth and death across tropical Africa has found that each hectare of forest soaks up about 0.6 tonnes “Mature forests should be carbon-neutral, but these of carbon a year (Nature, vol 457, may be regrowing after p 1003). This result, reported partial destruction” by Simon Lewis at the University of Leeds in the UK, mirrors the carbon-absorbing ability of such as African iron-making the Amazon rainforest. societies. Lewis favours a global In theory, mature forests influence instead, saying that it is should be carbon-neutral – “probably the fertilising effect of releasing as much as they absorb rising levels of carbon dioxide”.
No to vaccine link
Transgenes escape into the wild
AP PHOTO/MARCO UGATE
NO, VACCINES do not cause NOW it’s official: genes from genetically modified corn have autism, the US Court of Federal Claims has ruled. It found no basis escaped into wild varieties in rural Mexico. A new study resolves a for claims made by three families long-running controversy over the that the MMR vaccine, combined spread of GM genes and suggests with a mercury-based vaccine that detecting such escapes may preservative, was responsible be tougher than previously thought. for their children’s autism. In 2001, when biologists David More than 5500 claims have Quist and Ignacio Chapela reported been filed by US families seeking finding transgenes from GM corn compensation through the in traditional varieties in Oaxaca, government’s Vaccine Injury Mexico, they faced a barrage of Compensation Program. The criticism over their techniques. 12 February ruling means those Nature, which had published the families making the same claim research, eventually disowned will not receive compensation. their paper, while a second study The ruling does not directly by different researchers failed to affect those making slightly back up their findings. different claims, such as that But now, Elena Alvarez-Buylla the preservative thimerosal alone is to blame. But Paul Offit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania expects a similar outcome for all the cases, as he believes last week’s ruling clearly supports the science. “It’s not only that they didn’t leave a door open, they slammed the door shut,” he says. In one ruling, Special Master George L. Hastings wrote that while the daughter of the family had “tragically suffered” due to autism, “the petitioners have also failed to demonstrate that her vaccinations played any role at –Transgenes begone– all in causing those problems”.
of the National Autonomous University in Mexico City and her team have backed Quist and Chapela’s claim. They found transgenes in about 1 per cent of nearly 2000 samples they took from the region (Molecular Ecology, vol 18, p 750). “They are out there, but it’s hitand-miss,” says Paul Gepts of the University of California, Davis, a co-author of the new study. The escaped transgenes are common in a few fields and absent in others, he says, so gene-monitoring efforts must sample as broadly as possible. What’s more, not every detection method – or laboratory – identified every sample containing transgenes. Monitors should use many methods to avoid false negatives, says Gepts.
Neanderthal genome Neanderthals were lactoseintolerant and didn’t breed with their human cousins, says Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who sequenced the genome of the extinct species. The information will help geneticists pin down when the DNA mutations that make us different from our primate ancestors occurred.
Texas fireball A bright orange fireball that streaked through the skies of Texas on 15 February was a meteor, not debris from the collision between US and Russian satellites, as the US Federal Aviation Authority had suggested. Debris would be too small and slow to make a fireball, says Preston Starr of the University of North Texas.
Bipolar animals Hundreds of species that populate Antarctica are identical to those found 11,000 kilometres away in the Arctic, says the International Census of Marine Life. Whales and birds migrate, so are obvious contenders for being “bipolar” species. Species living on the sea floor may have to rely on a floating larval stage to move around the world.
Higgs hunt is on The hunt for the Higgs boson is hotting up. Teams at the Tevatron particle accelerator in Batavia, Illinois, have declared they have at least a 50 per cent chance of finding the Higgs within the next two years. If the Higgs has a high mass, the probability could be 96 per cent.
Mercury U-turn In a complete reversal of previous policy, the US has announced its backing for a legally binding global treaty to cut mercury pollution at a meeting of world environment ministers in Nairobi, Kenya, this week. The European Union, Russia and others also support a treaty, so negotiations may start this year.
21 February 2009 | NewScientist | 7