Off the label
A fifth of all medicines are prescribed to treat conditions for which they are not approved, according to a survey of US doctors published in the Archives of Internal Medicine on Monday. While some 鈥渙ff-label鈥� prescribing follows logically from approved indications, nearly three-quarters lacks strong supporting scientific evidence.
IVF gene screen
British fertility regulators were this week expected to decide whether to allow screening of IVF embryos for genes linked to adult cancers. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority already permits screening for two gene defects which cause childhood cancers. It says looking for others would be 鈥渁 departure from current practice in prenatal diagnosis鈥�.
India鈥檚 lunar cargo
India and NASA confirmed on Tuesday that India鈥檚 mission to the moon will carry two US payloads aboard its lunar orbiter. Chandrayan-I, due for launch in early 2008, will carry the US鈥檚 synthetic aperture radar instrument and mineral mapper as well as five Indian instruments, three from the European Space Agency and one from the Bulgarian Space Laboratory.
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Jammed over Venus
A key instrument on ESA鈥檚 Venus Express is stuck. The probe, which entered orbit around Venus on 11 April, can鈥檛 swivel a mirror that is part of the planetary Fourier spectrometer. This is designed to measure temperatures and study the composition of the atmosphere.
Hail the new monkey
For the first time in 83 years, a new genus of living African primate has been identified. Rungwecebus kipunji is an arboreal, omnivorous monkey, named after Rungwe, the mountain in Tanzania where it was first seen. DNA samples from a monkey caught in a farmer鈥檚 trap have enabled scientists to assign the animal its own genus, related to baboons.