SCIEN NewScientist SPECIAL ISSUE CIVILISATION How human nature created the modern world THE WEEK’S BEST IDEAS | US j( NEWS ITE mere Ws ea3 Rane tea Burt Rutan heads for space FANTASY FILMS &‘Baggot me, Sethian cemet ecm sana sone bec aca Solhteanwetae Tianhe ‘oan sytem isan Sacra soa (Selaearnandeser ‘Srestpetmnmac chaste Princes wn enact oe Oooo NewScientist Sonmnenans Saves Cameron, page A i i q a Pagrot le. EM | ‘es iesboom, China scountsidesuersp6 Salvaging Gneisp 8 NEINS TECHNOLOGY REGULARS Controlingomputetswithyournose 17 ores Carbon nanotubes reach fortheskes 1g COMMENTAND AKALYSIS te a Se ee esr ny tna Tendon Weeteattpteade yy Ana stepieloronopt or pemeeoa supertelescope, argues trey 15 foettodmigcececreygenmras FHNSME OMNES hd Fists anddmgssprahlets tepcesatn;fecerratesrre YPUERPNES DAE CaM 20 cer ndden ct books; North Korea's mse explosion; of paridesand processes 2 devlengwefetcne wont; FEATURES neue Miconoftstoublsomeupgade Thane won mare awardsthan THI WeEK Slorlingnewetvenenessnowtren ee. abo eed its new series shaw dire, James Cameron finda coe ae humaniysoumey fom nomadto—tgerehscther dep pasion” Wo Ubanweathspasaprculurecriss 6 inonpe vss nutes sueghtnwetd Warning over modified trees 7 Stossel ay Pouks Westninster cary: Tam Dagell ‘on Afica's dreadful hunger andan wn goaloverairraftemisions 43 Genesismistonsuvivesthe debris ® qu To TAADE Eth safe" ftom extiterestial bugs 8 pigan obsession with material gods ay ‘ifewithout reams ° ? Haw beastcancerurnsbed 0 Hedereneiiaalis pwc 8 (Quantum gaviy’sdatalinit 410 nS Cerelcntnageroninin — M Teewssmactotesatot ming MORES Blacolesticupqusarmyeny 11 thantheneedtoflpape’sbelies 29 Smethingstong shappeningon Morespecesatrskofextincton 12 yaaa LecENDs has created is own cloud forest ecology IW BRIE Aer yearsasthe undisputed fistcly —fomscath~injustS0year: Wh World record fornanotubes; mised pis dwellers, the people of rukrnow ace confuse ecstasy tes bugsmunciplasic competition fom outo-towners 32 waste; how toregowlosthearingB BOOKS Talesof the int knappes; collected Bacorialghostcitpestcide use; ‘BEYOND THEXPRIZE fractals sple seduction; bulling it Eqplamreereddease;wnjok Whatsneorpritespace twee We vatumchalene Bharat’ nore tumstoacdsludgesatliispots__askBurtRutan,themediashy pioneer fulue. Pus: who'sreadingwhat 46 siadermetdonn 4 behindthesucesofSpaceSipOne 36 FEEDBAGK o THE LASTINORD 6 ‘Tims cower in twep examples of The cmenta pen onon the same type of cryptographic routine ‘research heaven it cals Biopols. have dashed experts' confidence" Wilitsoonbepaybacktime? 48 ‘Aresecure olin transactions til safe page20 08s 2 8 septenbern04 |Newsos iteennaten ‘Shes Somers = Sanco ‘eee, {thao ita Foesnoeincae terete Sst See Sois.. Ene rn — fecnennate ‘ena oe vn enact a Monster in the making Bird flu is back and it’s not just chicken farmers who should worry ‘TOO often the health news sounds ike threat- ‘oF the-week, We are told to worry about a host ‘of things, from fatty food toautism toSARS.. Mostof these threats stay mercifully distant. ‘Butiftherelsonetowatch carefully, tis u. ‘Atameetingin Shanghai this week, the World Health Organization warned that east Asia is ‘onthe brink of an outbreak of unprecedented Proportionsasit grapples with avian fu, ‘Worse, the measures taken to eradicate the disease may increase the threat o humans. ‘The SN flu virus ripped through east Asia's booming poultry industry earlier this ‘year, killing millions of birds and 23 people, Tocontaln the disease, tens of millions of chickens were slaughtered, and the outbreaks ‘ceased in March. But HSN1 was just biding its UUme. It is once againkilling peoplein Thalland ‘and Vietnam. Outbreaks have resumed in four ‘countries, and spread toa new one, Malaysia, Is posslble that HSNa will not be evicted from the region foryears, fever. should we be worried? Afterall there were ‘good reasons to be concerned about SARS: the ‘virus spread between people, and killed a high proportion of those infected. Thankfully, SARS seems ohaveleft the scene, But fui another ‘matter. We know that novel versions ofthis virus cankillon an apecalyptieseale. ‘The 1918 flupandemickilled an estimated so million, andeven that number pales in ‘comparison with what similar pandemic ‘could doin today’s more crowded, more mobile world, Surewe ean cook upa vaccine, but we ‘cannot doit quickly enough tostop a fast spreadingvirusbeforeithas killed millions. THSN1is showing ominoussigns of heading that way. tcan already kl people, though so far-thankfully~iteannot infect peopleessily, ‘or pass from one person toanother. But the Virus mutates rapidly, and virlogists do not knowhow many mutations away HSN might be from gaining those talents ‘What they have learned sthat HSNi has been under strong selective pressure for the pastthree orfour years, producing single ‘dominant, “super fit" strain, andat the same UUme asteadily increasing virulence ia ‘mammals New Scientist, July; P17). ‘The WHO describes human pandemicas “very likely” unless there are more vigorous cffortsto stamp out HSN1. Butwhat form should those efforts take? The WHO warns that LHsNumnightspawna monster fit hybridises witha human a viusinpeopleorin pigs ‘hlehcancatchboth humansndavin Tatwhilethisistheoretaly posible aneter rusiveexperinentinvrltehiionsunder wayuich aay pesca worse tet ‘hina has yacnated many oftschickens aghnst nt forthe pst few yeas Now Indonesia tsdoingt same, AsNew Seentist . went topressThaland “Wecannotcook —wesdecting whether upavaccine ‘start. Vacination hasits good points. fastenough to Feverbiarwilget stop afast- infected Infected birds ase _ shedless virus, so there Spreading virus _ istessforotherbirds beforeithas a4 people tocateh ees Vaccination nearan Killed millions” — outbreaiccan help to containit Routine vaceination ofall chickens will prevent uncontrolled outbreaks. Couple that with intensive monitoring and destruction of infected birds, and vaccination ‘anhelpto stamp outthe virus, ‘But without monitoring. vaccination can allow fis to persstin flocks unnoticed; because thevaccinels nota perfect mate fo the vin, the lnfection can spread among immunised birds Worse, these semi-immune chickens are an unustol hort foravian fl, which normally lives in waterfowl, and we know that when fu virus entersan unusual hostit evolves quickly toadapt. Some virlogists now think the 1918 fivemerged ater evolvingina novel host rather thanby hybridisation na pg. Certainly, Asian HGNi har been evolving ‘quickly ately and that burst coincides with ‘Widespread vaccination of chickens. The most ‘cent molecularevidencestiggestsit hasbeen ‘adapting to chickens. study published lst month showsthat in Mexico, homeof the biggest a vaccination programme for chickens outside Asia, HsN2flu is persisting ‘andevlving lournalof virology, vol78, P8372). Sofartheevidencethatvaccinationis helpingtoturnbird uintoamajorthreatto peopleiscireumstantial Butitisworrying enough that countriesshouldthinktwice boutstartingtovaceinate, unless they can accompany twithstingent monitoring andslaughterofinfected binds. Existing programmesshouldbewatchedcarefully ‘Theriskstopeople aetoohightogamble © ‘seg 2008 Manse |3News in perspective OXYGEN HITCH ON SPACE STATION The cro often paceman cewsinno immedi ange Sitio soneagainsrugzing erase Theta cries nso ising toubieme gen sl criss, which gneate oun fener While ne syomis on demand ad cana dr on Haney ot be ef years. nen ks inthe Progresso “TrefusionbulHekwonunit.vehidewhich ded ngs roducscrygen by splting weer AIKSAspolaswonen aid the suplis fromthesiatonsinkingsupph, should stunt acter Proges ares {dein Rusia sed orovera in Nvembey een fhe generar ead. ut theunitenthe sation has bond par. teane uelableandbstweck bole Rusia song anew vesion dun ogee. Genadyadala, ofthe anypen generator hich ld be thefusian commander of thestaton, red next. nd KAA desing madetheeatenpstoretarthe 3 doe fesoport stm that Ahiteitoutsees proce exgen fon reed ase Ahouph the saton'songen —_toreduce the ned for new spi. resurdiopped ater thegstam Howey NS ons tl ou Soppedwning WSAsasthetwor —_efetslauneh Ke t Aid wating envronment NorthKoreahasexpelled __condusions, says Catherine De Mystery blast UNniceirwesponsimpetos, Atgelpedtorincnsforaiva, Patch and crash ABIGbanginthemountains _withdrawnfromthenuclearnon-‘ThePharmaceuticalResearch _ACIUTCHTof popular software ofNorthKorea combined with _prolifertiontweatyandhaslong and Manufacturers ofAmerica, packages arelikely tocash when Intelligence reports about beensuspectedofdeveloping anindustrygroup,hasset pits PC usersintalla free upgrade suspiciousactvtyatothersies, nuclarweapons.Theexplosion _owndstabasen which member toWindowsXP this week hastrggeredafreshboutoffollowsanadmissionbySouth companiescan voluntary Butexperts say theupgradeis nervesaboutthecommunist _Koreathatithadensichedsmall deposit bothnegatveand positive probably worth the hassle. republiesnuclearambitions. _ amountsofuraniumtonear_results-ButDeAngelissaysselt Microsoft's Service Fack2(SP2) TheNorthKorean government weaponsgradeinlaboratory regulation will not work ‘upgrades inpart designed to plug says that th explosion experiments Inspectorstem the “Why would youput tfoxin security loopholes in Window XP 9SeptembernearYongie UNinterational Atomic Energy chargeofthebenhouse?"she _inludingsomethatallow flosetothe borderwithChina, _Agencyareinvestigatingthiswork. says.Ifthey have nothing to _nikerst take controlofaPCand demolisheda mountainto make hide why waste money setting steal passwords.Dutthe upgrade ‘way foralange hydroelectric up theirown database?” {uips up many supposed Micmesmucusseoway Enforcing fairness “* ene fstateColinPowell accepts __ELEVENtop medical journals have Shorevasnsindontattee devsedapantopeeentang” MMARNING OVER TOXIC STOCKPILE ‘ase nucleareventofanykind”. finns romsuppressing negative Butspeculationthat the resultsoftheirlincal trials Poor mans aresitingon trict programme afar te end of iyo countrycouldstillbecome the TheInternationalCommittee bam And mane set aseto dete Dass tale ta needs tobe of Medialjouralltorssays theproble sstrunning out plang defied medi. though eles “North Korea could stil itsmemberswillrefuseto publish thehath ofnilonsf people tisk. on althare cific quant, person clinical tral results The theatcomeserthaisands they aregeuine. "We hve reas of becomethe eighth country fyeualwasnotrecordedpubicy oma tlccwmalstat are cen lyon lero peti, totesta nuclear weapon” —atitsoutset The journals involved leaking tothe emitnment om old, _andeven offal ivnginpside includeThe New Enalandfournal —ededentines. Yet tet Food Sores” sys Dans nda st cighthtotestanuclearweapon—_ofMedicne, TheLancet and Su gale Oarizaion warmed ste potoning there's he ng hasbeenheightonedby US The foural ofthe American on9Septenbertatitspreganmete tem donc fs suds bith satelltesurvellance,whichhas Medical Assocation. day te socks wl fishy dts canes omeng” detected movementsofmaterials _Thevegisr—tobesetupover heen the er ules doer The rble pater atother unspecified sites, thenexti2months-would cord courts sump up nora severeln di, whiting “Wecan'tielivhetheitsnormal thesize designand purpose of “Fun areabout dry wp" says___5,000 tonne tcp periies, maintenanceactviyorsomething eachtrialThisshould prevent Marks, helo the Bs roganime and thefrmer Sot bc rane more" sysPowell."Soits companies from selectively entheprevenion and disposi of as19500 tomes onaing dpa, inconclusive atthismoment, reporting postive resuttsor stele pss Aste a Silo Macon 00 tnns, Plan 00 Tbutwecontinuetomenitorthese spinning datato suppress would been aibinthe tonnes and Matos 60. ‘things very carefully Incondlusiveor unflattering ‘sNewscerst 8 september 204 vnceee XP compatible software packages, suchas the drivers for networking and video cards. ‘Microsofthas already ‘entified some o packages that crash when $P2is installed se lst athttp://support.microsof.com/ defaul appr kbidH84390) Brands aflected include packages from Ot, WordPerfect, Encyclopsedi Britannica, Nortonand Zone Labs Although Pz hasbeen availableonlinesince te August, few have bothered to download the So-megabyte ile. But Microsoft is thisweekbeginningo rmailoutP2 on CD to100 million XPusers and giveftawayin magazines sotroubleis expected. ‘ut Pais stil worth installing says security expert Graharn Cluley of Sophos Antivirasin the UK."Forhome users itisprobably good thing to install Pa “Users should check for compatiblity before installing the upgrade” becauseit automatically turnson some security features that they didn’t even know they had” Users should work aut what programs they can'tafford tolose and check forSP2 compatibility before installing the upgrade, he says a ‘one should accidental fal, omen. Bonfire of rarities ARESTORATION project of. ‘mammoth proportions was under ‘waylast week in Germany after fire damaged 50,000 rare books, papersand manuscriptsat the Duchess Anna Amalia Library in ‘Weimar. Afurther2s,000books. ‘wore destrayed. Thelibrary specialised ia German literature between 1750and 850and. housed many important, ‘manuscripts fromauthors such as Johann Goethe and Franz Schiller The damaged books, which filed 14 lorries, were taken tothe Centre for Book Preservation in Lelpzig where they had tobe cleaned and refrigerated within three days to prevent fungus forming They are now walting tobe freeze-dried, a processthat should restorethem without ‘wrinkling. The process takes ‘between one and three days for tachbook, depending onitssize, “The rescued books will have to be freeze-dried, which can cost up to €1000 per book” and.an cost upto€1000 per book. The floeds in Germany two ‘years agomean the centrehas lots of practice at handling lange projects, utnone ofthis scale. Despite thegrest loss, many ‘works were saved by the heroic efor of local people who formed abuman chain ta pass books ‘utofthe Ubrary before the root ‘became unsafe. Among the preserved manuscripts isa ‘Martin Luther Bible dating rom, 4543and the travel papers ofthe German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, who fst measured the ocean current offthe west coast of America that now bears hisname, Disease detectives GUITZYTV showt:crme Scene nvestgaion mace forensic Science sexy. Now theumsone Sienecof epidemiology sgetting the gamour treatment withthe launchofa new dramacalled Mata! mesigatin. Thestarsofthe show, apalrot sharply-essed cents are Smtaoned ina heartbeat scope ut-andhopetuly suff out= otoresks of explained and fearfuldiseases” according NG the networkctht are the fist epiode inthe US lat Fria. runGestinga memberot the American Assocation ForenslSelencsatPace UniversisyinNew York says the'eSeffec has bumped up student appllations this forensie ese: "They ae ravm tothe gltzand theglory"he sys ‘Gestlagexpects epidemiology togetasimiarboort rom Maticlimestigaton "unless, italy stints" 60 SECONDS MMR in the clear ‘The combined measles, mumps and "ubellavecine doesnot use autism, ‘cording the most poner ty yet. Researchers rom london and ontcal studed tna children with aut and 0 unaffected dren, The found thatthe ats youngsters ere infact slighty ess kel to Fave been vacated. Fruit fight Papaya wars hve broken out across the Pacific In Hawai on 10 September onganicfarmers protested aginst icoverythathaf he papa seeds tested fom thors contained ones from plartations of genetially modified papaya. Two days before, Tal uit exporters had complained ‘hat European importers wer rejecting thei tinned frit because of umaurs that itconained GM pope. Plasma risk aomophiiacs nthe Ul be tld ‘tthe might have been infeed with ‘varont Gatatlitated disse, the human fom of mad wow disease. “Theat Protection Agen announced con September itil not thas hen ‘ood products posbly contaminated ‘with mater om vi victims. IBM giveaway Computer gant IBM isrelesing the comple cde foritsvoiceengnition softareto the opensource movemet, so other programmers an use and ‘mproveit. The company hapestebost the amount of saftire that reson oie reegrtion, a stratagy ithapes ll generate more longterm business. Clean-up in iraq {rag pelation police art swoop on ‘ontarinaton “hotspots” around the county. The WN Environment Programme is oordiating agi sent efforts to dean Up sabotaged ol pipetnes, 2 gantsulphar mining and processing works where fires have pollute groundwate, anda sed store fainted by meth mercury fang, UNEP sid on Tuesday 18 eptbe 200 |NewsIntemational news and exclusives Sowing the seeds of starvation Rapid urbanisation is destroying China's agriculture and its ability to feed one-fifth of the world’s people aco Pee CHINA’Seconomiec revolutions comingata cost. While improved prosperity and government Incentives convinced millions of people to give up therural life and move intotownsand cities, China's agriculture sin rapid decline, prompting fears thatthe country thats home toone-fifth ‘ofthe world’s population will soon be unableto feed itself. Those fears have been 6 Newser September 2008 Since 1998, thearea ofland in China devoted to gralncrops has fallen by 5percent. Last month, Beijing confirmed that grain yields have fallen by fifth that UUme, and consumption this year is expected toexceed production byarecord37 million tonnes. Thisdemandforimported grain has triggereda3o per centrise in global grain prices this year, ‘and further ests are expectedas Chinese demand soars. ‘The root problemisthat China {is urbanising fast, Already 500 million Chinese live in towns and cities, and the government wants that orise to 800 million by 2020.Citiesarespreadingacross former farmland and are getting heightened by two new reports bbyChinese scientists. They eveal thata national push toencourage farmerstoabandon themillennia- oldtradition of growing rice in favour of ruitand vegetables is havinga profound and detrimental affecton the quality of China's sofl and water. After just five years, elds growing fultand “Somme plants show errr, abnormal growth, deformed acidicandbarren, while nitrogen @ a and phosphorus levelsand fungal uit and diseases that are epidemics are rising sharply noteasy to contro!” firstcallon scarce water resources. ‘They are also changing food ‘markets: while prices for grains such as wheat and rice are capped by the government, city people are willing to pay igh prices forfruitand vegetables. And the government isencouraging rnillions of farmers to meet this soaring demand by converting ‘ice and wheat fields to growing. these more profitable crops (see "Fruits of prosperity’). ‘Asa result in the past decade, farmers have converted 33 million hectares an area the sizeof England, to fruit and vegetables. Itisthis unprecedented change ‘thathas triggered the new ‘once about deteriorating soils, Researchersfrom the government’ Institute of Soll Science in Nanjing have found that soils in fields converted to growing vegetables are becoming dramatically moreacid with ‘poor subsite fore pales vn rensdenstomea “inthe past decade China has converted an area the size of England to growing ftuitand vegetables” average pH falling from 6,305.4 Jno years. Meanwhile nitratesin thesolls are at four times previous levels and phosphate levels are uptenfold (Environmental Geochemistry and Health vol26, g7and p19)-Thechangesin soll chemistry have been accompaniedby anequally ddramaticdeclinein sollbacteria landan epidemic of fangus. The deteriorationis worst when the crops are grown under plastic. ‘These changesarestarting tohit vegetable yields and quality. Some plants show abnormal growth, deformed fruitsand various plant diseases which are not easy to control by the usual pesticides,” says Cao Zhihong of the Institute of Soil Science, ‘There's, inaddition “wide concem, ‘pecause of possible groundvwater nd well drinking waterpollution byleached nitratesand phosphates”. Already, a third of ‘well water exceeds government norms fornitrate. "Anything that diseupts ‘microbial activity and functionin soilcould be expected to affect long-term soll preductivity, and have serious consequences,” says Rui Vin, a co-uthorof the studies. Western agronomists suggest that changes in oll chemistry are not being caused by growing fruit and vegetables, but by farmers applying too much fertiliserto them. While China harvests similaramount of the crops tothe Us itusesalmost twice as much fertiliser, says Lester Brown, president ofthe Earth Policy Institute inthe US andanexpert ‘onChinese agriculture. @ eee FRUITS OF PROSPERITY Wang Shing is typi of hina new breed of ame. Mees the vile of Ermaoqu in northern Shar provins, bic as recent tartd growing ‘een beans, peanutsand water molons ‘on former grain Fikes. Farmesshave turmed over many ofthe ld hse ‘waco apple oxen. “Tice a week, Wang ges tothe neat town of Ginghuabian to sal his watermlons. life has changed here Since we started growing water sndons,” be sap. "Hy income as Ingeasedfourtimes. Wow we can al afford televisions and motores. Five years ago we had oly ragged thes, but now we buy good thes inthe town market.” ‘The prespeiy comes despite the hinese government recent taing may of the stoper il slopes, induding morethana tied of Wang's hectare fam, to plant tresin an ‘orto stabise cumblng ise. ‘Wangand his fellow farmers are stretting the natural resources tothe Tit. hey now use almost very drop ‘of mater that fallson the Indo wn enact ingate their aops. "Since the vegetable project started there isalmos no rer inthe valley” hess. But thera bigger potential problem than wate shortages. Thecountry'sone _—_‘tocombine too, Thisincrases thelr roposalthattherecouldbea explain thehugesizeofintensely—_massat a much faster rate than by fase ofthis directly related tothe powerful quasars recently dcovered feeding alone Itmeansa quasar Chemobylmucleardisasterisboth inthe istantuniverse. black hoe isa mass grave, fascinatingand sobering.” ‘Aquosarisa gay thatshines containing upto 0,000 corpses Bycomparingthesequences because matters fling into ahuge ofthe universe's fist sta. ofziethnically diverse volunteers blackholeat ts cantre. The brighter Wialda-Esaud6 says that It should ‘icchetti's team found six IRahlnes the bigger the blackhole. be possible to find poof ofthese insertionsthat werenotshared _Quasarblack holes welghin at around mergers. The colions would have byallofthem (PL0SBiology, vol2, ilion times thesun'smass. been violent enough to end 273) These must have occurred Buthow did they getthisbig?_gavitational waves ripping through afterourancestorssplitfromthe Aecodingtocrrenttheory, black __thetabrcof space-time. fancestorsofchimpsand thus holes graw byfeeding on nearty gas Thework meeting with cautious second Lesmcttrememascamen Sane seearate Cusemsesnen' agmatine oes? SacnrTwriteytane pleases Sreeenamae tan Trew ancneaine eter coreg, reine bee ity Paingeeert cehathinies pen aera Sanat carmen Menten ‘what happened tothe black holes ma easy Sola tpsjnettadeptscence couk fwww.andv.orgiastrophi04062T7). — campec statistical "a Sepembar200 [NewscentistSave rare parasites as well as primates Ma Youn MANY more species are at rskof extinction thanwe thought. That isbecause some species depend onanotherfortheirsurvival soit onedisappears, many more that have gone largely unnoticed by conservationists willfollow, There are 12,200 species at riskaccording tothe World Conservation Union IUCN) Red List the definitiveauditofrare, ‘threatened and endangered species. ut the true numberis looked in ‘Many depende might have 1a eset September 2004 likely to be much higher, saysa teamed by Lian Pin Kohat the National University of Singapore and RobertDunnatCurtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Austealia,Inaddition to ‘the Red List species, another 6300 are“co-endangered” they say For instance atleast three species oflice depend on the threatened redcolobus monkey. Ifthe monkey becomes extinct, sowilltheliceit carzies.Similaey, hurmmingbird flower mites faceextinctionif either the hummingbirds they Usefor transport, ofthe lowers ‘onwhich the mites depend for nectaror pollen, becameextinct Many of these dependent species ‘might have been overlooked in the past because they areoften less the charismatic than their hosts (ew Scienis27 March , p40) “"We would iketo see changes tothe Red Listsothat when, forexample,a mammal species {slisted asendangered,all the species affliated tothat animal arealsolistedasbeing possibly at sk," says Navjot Sod, of the [National University ofSingapore, who worked on the study “The team started by looking ateight well-studied groups of hostanimalsand theirafiiated species, such as primatesand theirparasites, seabirds and the mitesand lice thatliveon them, fand the Ficus plant which ‘supports the Ficus wasp. Foreach group, they estimated the number of affiliate species that would be ‘expected tosurvive the extinction of theirhost species. Then they estimated the numberof afliate species that would be likely to goalong with theirhost ‘They used their results to developa model toestimate levels ofco-extinctionsforother ‘animalsand plantsand.compared obs surveil tree other spades Nhen a mammals iste as endat affliated belisted ‘theirestimates withthe Red List. Inadditionto399 extinct host species of plants, fis, birds ‘ormammalson the Red List, ‘theyestimate another 200 affiliate specles have already been lost. ‘nd of the536endangered host, species on the Red List for which ‘theres sufficient data torun the ‘model, another 6300 affiliate speciesare likely to go with their ‘hosts. This co endangered Uist ‘includes more than 4000 beetles, ‘and butterflies, ice and other parasites (Science, vol 305, p 1632). The numberof aflilate species foreach host can vary widely. willbe important toidentify ‘thosespectes on which particularly largenumbers of others depend, Sodhi says. Forinstance, thearmy anthasatleast00 affliate species, many of which would be lost fit disappeared. “Itisextremely important totake co-extinctions and corendangermentintoaccount,” ‘agrees Thomas Brooks ofthe Center for Applied Biodiversity Sclenceat Conservation International in Washington DC. "The team has done conservationists great favourby synthesisingthe theory and data onthe co-extinction crisis” Craig Hilton-Taylor,an UCN, Red List programme officerin Cambridge, UK, also welcomes the research, "It certainly does elevate theabsolute magnitude of recent extinctions and potentially fmminentones," But itwill nt beeasy toadd detailsabout dependent species to the Red List, hhesays,because"in the vast majority of cases we ust don't know aboutaspecies' affiliates’ For instance, when conservation biologists captured thelast 25 remaining Californian condoreand brought them Intocaptivity, they deloused the birds. ndoingso, they inadvertently killed offthe last surviving condor lice. @ vn rensenst.omResearch news and discovery Record breaker HoWlongis acarbon nanotube? Untilrecently, theanswer was no more than a few micrometres Butthecreation ofthe world’s longest nanatube suggests there {snofundamentallengthlimit, Nanotubes will grow only withthe help ofacatayst such asapartideofiron, which encourages carbontocrystallise into tubes. Butthe tubes tend to bump into surfaces, preventing them from growing beyond afew ‘micrometres. Now Yuntian Zhu andcolleagues atLoe Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico hhaveovercomethis problem (Nature Materials, DOI: 10.1038/ ‘amati2i6), When they suspended aniron partcleinahotchamber ‘containingalcohol vapouras the sourceof carbon, the nanotube trailed behind the particle. “Tewaslike ite, wth the growing nanotube a the tring.” Zhu says Suspending the tube asi grew meantitreacheda recordlength of centimetres, and longer tubes should be possible, says Zhu. Bug turns waste to green plastic SIMPLE soil bacterium could converta toxic waste materia styrene, infoa valuable biodegradable plastic. The chemical industry produces coplous quantities of dirty styrene 25,000 tonnes ayearin the USalone—that has tobe buried or burnt. Now Kevin O'Connor’steamatUniversity College Dublinin ireland have shown that abacterium called Pseudomonas putidastrain Ca3cantum this styrene into polyhydraxyalkanoate (PHA), ablodegradable plastic used for cups, cutlery, packaging and ‘medical implants, (O'Connor presented his results atthe annual meetingofthe Society fr General Microbiology InDublin last week omen. On-the-spot tests fail to nail clubbers’ chemical cocktails PLLTESTING kits that clubbers use to dentiydrugsin the pilsthey tak cn alli the pls contain a cocktail of drugs. Theis contin reagents tat changscobur depending on the ubstancesin the pill Although ll the drugs being ‘ested for are illegal, poe nthe UKand Canada alow ‘volunteer groups to cary out pil testing at cubs and raves as part of “hanm-minimisaton” schemes. Ata recent ave In South stall attended by about 1,000 people, ‘volunteers tested pis withthe ks. The pls wer also How to regrow lost hearing |ATECHNIQUE that stimulates auditory nerve cellendingsto resprout cauldallow more people torecoverlost hearing some casesof deafness, cochlear implantscan restore hearing by bypassing damaged haaircelisand directly stimulating the auditory nerve. But the nerve's health depends on growth factors produced by haircells soit tends {odeterioratetoo, limiting the effectiveness of implants, Graeme Clarkof the Bionic Far Institutein Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues infused growth actors called neurotrophin 3and [BDNF into theinner ears of guinea cellshad been, stopped nerve cellsfrom dyingand caused nerves to regrow their branch like extensions withina month, The growth factors were used several weeksafter the haircells hhad been destroyed, obetter ‘ent to Andrew Cale of Forensic Science South Australia InAdelaide and his colleaguesfor chemical anayss. ‘The researchers found thatthe onsite test acurately Identiti ecstasy or estasytile substances. But ifthe pills contained one other legal substance besides ecstasy, the is fale toidentity the second drug. whopping {89 percent ofthe time. The mostcommon substance that oul not be identified was ketamine, an anaesthetic that can ceatea dean feeling ands halludnogenicin high coses.Itwas identified in only to pls of the20, that contained itasa second drug. ‘The esearch il be published inthe journal Forensic ence Intemational. ‘mimic the condition of people ‘who have been deaf for years before they get a cochlear implant. ‘Thereare several hurdles covercamebefore the technique ‘canbe used clinically including. setting nerve extensions togrow Inanorderly fashion. The team hopes to use a biodegradable scafold impregnated with growth factors to direct nerve growth towards the implant. Clark discussed the workllast weekafter receiving the Prime Minister's Prize for Science in Canberra for ‘his workon cochlear implants, ‘Septmbe 2008 |NawscenttGhost of bugs help cut pesticide use BACTERIAL" ghosts” could be ‘anew way totreat plants with pestildes. These empty shells ofacterial cells canbe filled with chemicals and will stick to leaves andstems even aRerheavy rain Thiscould eventually allow less frequent pesticide spraying. major target asagriculture tries toreduce costs and pollution. The bacterial ghosts are made from cells of Pectobacterlum ‘oppripedii,a species that has evolved tostick toplants. The cells are treated witha protein froma bacteriophage, avirus that infects bacteria, The virus protein creates Respect! Egyptians were cool for cats ANGENT Egyptians worshipped animalsas gods and mummified ‘them in their millions. Buti they tweatanimals with as much reverence ashuman mummies? Uitte analysis of animal mummies hasbeen done before sothe complexity ofthe ummitiation ‘ould only be guessed a tom the séaborate bandaging Now a cemical analysis ofthe tissues and bandages ‘rom hawk, ibisand cat mummies by Richard Evershed and colleagues atthe Univesity of Bristol, UK, hasshown that Egyptians treated ‘ NewscentsSptrber 2008 tunnel between theinnerand ‘outer cell membranes ofthe bacteria, enabling the cytoplasm. and geneticinformation to be removed. Since the cell anonly stick tothe plantif the outside fs not damaged, the chosen protein ‘mustleave only aneat hole, while preserving the rest ofthe cell. Wlikea bottle. Youtakethecork cout and can remove the contents but thebottleitselfisstillintact” says Tamas Hatfaludi thelead researcher from the University of Vienna, Austria atfaludi’s team sprayed their bacterial ghosts onto barley, ‘her cdead beastswith great respect. ‘The mummy preserved with the widestvariety of exotisubstances ‘mas the cat, hich symbolised Baste, the ancent Egyptian goddess ofjoy and protection. Sugar gum, animal fat, plato pistachio resin, bitumen, beeswax, balsam and what {sprobabiy edarresin were al present ~ substances similarto those ound in human mummies rom the same pevod, between S18 and343 BC (Wiature, ol 1, 254). Different ‘compositions in samples taken show that was sed to mumity the cat. Fr example, the sugar gumvas only fund in ared resin fake fom inside the ear. cotton, maize, cabbage, rice and soya plants and doused them, With simulated heavy ran, Between toand ss percent of the bacterial ghosts chungon, with rice keeping the highest proportion and soyatheleast Journal of agricultural and Food (Chemistry, vol 2, p 5627). ‘When the researchers filled ‘the ghosts with the widely used Tungicide tebuconazole, and then sprayedthem ontobarley and wheat, pesticide activity washigher than with one of ‘the commercially available applications of tebuconazole How oil turns to acid sludge ‘THZollin many of the world’s largest reserves, suchasthe oil sands of Canada and Venezuela, has degraded over millions of years from light, easy-to-use ‘molecules ntoanacidic, tarry residue thatis hard and costly to refine. Until now, geologists have been unsure whether oxygen ‘was required forthe degradation, or whetheranaerobic degradation Isalsoimportaat. ‘Butnow, researchersat the University of Newcastle upon ‘Tyne in the UK have found anaerobic degradation products called reduced2-naphthoicacids Insamples fromevery one of the 40 heavy-oil basins they sampled around the world Vature, vol 43, p291)."We've found thesmoking ‘gun~clearchemical indicators thattisindeed an anaerobic process," says eam leader Stephen Larter, whoisnowatthe University of Calgary, Canada. Petroleum engineers may someday beable tobarness and accelerate this process to produce ‘methane from the il reserves. ‘This would provide acheap and easy way toextractusable energy from otherwise uneconomic heavy oll deposits, Larter suggests Satellites spot glacier meltdown ‘THE lagestgacorin the French ‘Alp, the Mer de Glace near Mont Blanc, smelting faster than at any timeinitstecnt history. The Ascovery isthe fst tobe madewith technique for monitoring changes In glacier thicnessbased on satelite data alone. ‘tenne Bertie from EGOS (the Laboratory for the Stdy of Geoprysicsand Oceanography from Space) in Toulouseand colleagues used stereoscopic pars ofsatelite Images dating back to 1679 tomonitor ‘hangesin the heightof the Merde Glace. The mages showed thatbelon aheightof 00 metres the placer has increased its thinning rate fom ‘around 1 mete per year between 1979 and 1994 to around metres peryearbetmeen 2000 nd 203. The result confi the fears of local people who have been adding more stepseach year tothe staircase that leadsdown tothe glace ftom a cable arstation above. ‘The team calrated the satelite data using ground surveys and aerial (photos of te glacier. Thetecnique ‘an beusedto monitor large, emete aca areas that cannot be surveyed ffom the ground. Gwen that glaets are cansidered reliable indicators of climate change, the tzamsays the {technique could help estimate the ace of global warming. vncCommentand analysis roughly halfthespeedexperienced at cee Pole position mene ; - . entarth Theonkypreiptatonisthe Atelescope in Antarctica makes better sense than one out.in space, coc fel ofr ences whch or anywhere else on Earth for that matter, argues John Storey coffust 35 millimetres of water” ‘OK, so conditions may be favourable tooperating a big telescope, but what about thecostofgettingitthere? Wiouldn'titbe cheaper andeasierto launch our telescope into space? Once ‘morerealitys obscured by our image ‘ofbeanded heroes dragging agonisingly heavy sleds across an ey wasteland of crevasse fields. ‘Decades of development, especially by Freachand Australian teams, have ‘made the so-called “tractor traverse” Fromcoast to plateau routine, The cost isabout $3 perkilogram, Compared witha rocket launch tolow Earth orbit at $10,000 t0$15,000 perkllogram, it Is fairtosay that Antarctica is"almost lke space, but witha freelaunch’. And if Yyou'reina hurry, youcan always fly. Since 1957 US scientists haveflown From Christchurch in New Zealand to ‘MeMurdo~as-hourtrip.Three hours ‘THE discovery of planetlike Earth ‘orbiting another sun would bean. textraoninary event Butitcould +happen in ourifetimeif we can make telescopes thatare precise and sensitive enough, Bigger telescopes, however, costa fortune. An S-metre optical telescope costsin the region of $100 millionand the price rises steeply with every ‘small increase in diameter. Theres little ore tobe gained by improving detectors modern CCDs are already ‘more than go percent efficient. ‘What we need iseithera way to make Digger telescopes cheaper, orabetter site from which toobserve. ‘The good news isthat one ofthe least habitable environments on Earth — the Antarctic Plateau~ may turn out to bethe best place from which tosearch {ornew habitable planets Tobegin Interyoucan beat the South Ple. ‘wih its cold with temperatures ‘There are some drawbacks, While dropping to-85.Cinwinter.This thetotalamountof “night isexaclly dramatically reduces thermalradiation the same as anywhere elseon Fart, hathfromtheatmosphereandthe fortlescope designers Their results NG astronomical “dark time when the sun telescope lisel which wouldotherwise conflem predictions made morethan - {smorethani8 degrees below the ‘mask weak astronomical signals Sdecadeagoby PeterGilingham ofthe “DomeCisthe horlon, ls muchless.Andaurorae are “Measurementsat theSouthPolehave Anglo-Australian Observatory in diiest, coldest, atbestamuisance albeta spectacular shownthatintense cold reducesthis NewSouthWales,who recognised that Clearet sitar) ome Thefurther south you go, the less backgroundby uptotwoordersof the unique weather patteras over the ofthe sky you ee, until you reach the ‘magnitude. Thisimmediately implies AntarcticPlateaueliminatemostofthe Earthwith the south Pole where you see the same. thatsonstivity wilincrease by factor temperaturevarationsandturbulence bestSeeingand _peceofskyallthetime, Ofcourse, this of10.0r putanotherway,ans-metre thatdegradeastronomical images. lowest wind” _—hasadvantagesanddisudvantages. infrared tlescopeon the Antarctic ‘But whatabout the blizzards? ‘Sowhatare we waiting for? Radio Plateau could achievethe sensitivity How canany telescope be expected to astronomers have already achieved ofabypotheticalas-metzetelescope _survivethe 3oo-kilometres-per hour remarkable success in Antarctica with anywhere elseon Farth. ‘winds and massive storms thatcan experiments such as DASI, which last However, the best news arrived dump metres ofsnow ina few hours? yeardiscovered polarisation in the from Australiacarlirthis year when Here we have toconfrontour Gosmle microwavebackground. Jon Lawrence and hiscolleagues tthe prejudices, conditioned since early Telescopes at Amundsen-Scott Station University ofNewSouth Wales setupa childhood by storiesof fostbitten have operated successfully formany roboticobservatoryatDomeC, thesite heroes battling impossible odds, The years, but theirmediocre seeing has fofthenewFrenchItallanConcordia truth isthat Antarctica is abig place, deterred optical astronomers. Now we Station in Antarctica. They discovered roughly twicethesize ofthe US. We ‘knowDome€ is notonly the driest, thatthe"seeing’,orsharpnessofthe should not be too surprised to find that coldest, clearest siteon Earth, butalso astronomical images, was2to3 times the climate none part of thecontinent has the best seelng and the lowest wad. better than atthe very bestsites {svery different tothe climate in others. Asthe explorer Robert Falcon Scott currently used by astronomers,suchas __Atanaltitude of 3250 metres, ‘mighthavesaid (out didnt): "“Great God! thoseinChile,HawallandtheCanary — DomeC ishigh dry and extremely cold. Thisisa wonderful place.”"@ Islands.Inan article published inthis Thereis ollitie wind it iseerie.Peak week's Nature, they present these wind speeds areextremely low and the ‘John storey i professor of physics atthe findingsandexplore the implications median speed is 27 metres per second, University of New South Walesin Australia wn enact 8 Seplenber004|NewSdeniTechnology aeRO CNTY Thereis an easy way to control your computer without either a mouse or a keyboard corn ways for people to explore computer-generated TIRED ofusingamousetocontral environments or play three- yourPCrPezhapsthere another dimensional video games, he says ‘option for when yourarmstarts inthe jounalmageand Vision toache:yournose.AnovelPC Computing (vol22, p 930) contro system lets users nudge ‘The nouse takes advantage of acursoraroundthescreenwith webcam technology. Porordinary, gentle movements oftheitnose, two-dimensional applications Blinking the leftorright eye likea word processaror drawing ‘wee takes the place oflet or program, the nouse works with right mouse clicks. single webcam, plugged intoa ‘Theinventor, Dmitry PC's USB port. Tracking software Gorodnichy ofthe Institute ‘monitors the imagetrom the ‘oftnformation Technology in _ webcam to work out wherea user's Ottawa, Canada, calls hi noses pointing. and generates nose-steered mousea"nouse”. _signals that move the cursor Tnadditiontogivingpeoplea__ round the screen. Mean change fromthe keyboardand —_motiondetection software works mouse, hehopesit will make ‘ut whicheye is blinking to usingaPC easier for people who simulatea mouse click havea disability. Andit could Atthe startofasession, the also provide more intuitive nouse'scamera takes asnapshot EI ‘The none cn De sd with oe wstan octal 2 9 rth wo wean fr 5 pp tone ‘er rren, gmat tom tote a et Sinope ts Iesepan ane ‘Benn: i alow sitcom 35 ot weal wn enact IN THISSECTION (Nanotube scaffolding strengthens planes, page 18 Holywood quality forhome moves, page © Gyptogrephy incr pagezo ‘Bink anc cick ofthe user. Fromthisitisolates about 25 pixels representing the UUpof the noseand takes readings forthe brightness ofeach pixel. ‘The nouse software then tracks the patternof pixels. ‘Adouble bin switches the rnouseon. Its software then scans the region where the nose was ast looking forthe 2s-pixel target. Onceit has found the target its movements are translated intothe same signals {that would be expected from. anormal mouse. Gorodnichy has designed several software packages to demonstrate the nouse, including NousePaint, whichallows you odraw patterns on the screen, usingonly thenoseand eyes (see video at wwwevitnrcca/ research /Nouse), ‘Thenouse can also beused tonavigate around 3D computer software stichas virtual design ‘environments and games, but ‘this requires two webcams Ing mode, both cameras plnpolat thetip ofthe nose and ‘the nouse software calculates how faraway the userie-and whether they are moving into, ‘oroutof the environment. Previous face-tracking user Interfaces have used the mouth oreyebrowsas tracking points, Butbecause these facial features look entirely different when ted only slightiytoone side, software trying otrack themcan easily, become confused, The tp of the nose iseasiertotrack, Gorodnichy says, because iti postble tosee the characteristic pixel pattern cevenwhen the noseis rotated. "There fs something special about the nose,” hesays (Others agree."The 3D nase tracker will definitely have a place in human-computer {Interaction in future, but most LUkely incon) unction with the ‘mouse and keyboard ratherthan asan altemative,"says Charles Cohen, vice-president of R&D aatCybemet System in Ann Arbor, “Michigan, which makes gesture recognition systems for TV weather forecasters. He 83 Future computer games might rely on joystickinput, but might alsoallow extra movesdriven by the nose. But oe Laszlo a technology analyst atJupiterResearchin New York City issceptical."Tcannot fgnorethe high silliness factorof rouse" he says."People baulkat doing things that require them tolook silly and there is ample room forlooking sly here! @ se septber2004 News| 17