Food, drugs and cigarettes?
Will cigarettes in the US soon be regulated by the country鈥檚 Food and Drug Administration? On 30 July the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favour of a bill that allows the FDA to demand safer tobacco products and curbs on advertising, although it rules out a complete ban on products. The bill is opposed by the White House and still has to pass through the Senate.
Eaten to extinction
Half of the world鈥檚 634 species of primate now face extinction. Many are losing their homes through tropical forest clearance or ending up in the dinner pots of hunters, says a report published on Tuesday by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Especially at risk are gibbons, leaf monkeys and langurs in Vietnam and Cambodia, and red colobus monkeys in Africa.
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Essence of maggot
A natural antibiotic discovered in secretions from maggots kills 12 strains of the superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), as well as the life-threatening Escherichia coli and Clostridium difficile. However, it takes 20 mugfuls of maggots to supply one drop of antibiotic, reports Norman Ratcliffe of Swansea University, UK.
Muddled Martians
Some good news for those hoping to find life on Mars鈥� and a dash of doubt. NASA鈥檚 Phoenix lander finally confirmed the presence of water ice on Mars last week, but now its instruments seem to disagree about whether the arctic Martian soil is tainted with the toxic compound perchlorate.
United weights of America
If current trends were to continue unchecked, all American adults would be overweight or obese by 2048, say researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. By 2030, half could be be clinically obese (Obesity, ).