Feeling their pain
Did the animals suffer mild, moderate or substantial pain? That鈥檚 the question UK researchers may soon have to answer for each procedure they carry out on live animals, if a recommendation published on Wednesday is adopted by the Home Office. The move is aimed at increasing openness over the amount of suffering to which lab animals may be subjected.
Doomsday dismissed
A lawsuit claiming the Large Hadron Collider might unleash planet-eating black holes has been thrown out by a US court. Federal judge Helen Gillmor said she lacked jurisdiction over the LHC since the US paid for less than 10 per cent of it, but opponents of the LHC may be encouraged by Gillmor鈥檚 comment that there is 鈥渄isagreement among scientists鈥� about the machine鈥檚 danger.
They did it for real
China took another step in the space race this week with its first space walk. Live images showed the taikonauts waving the Chinese flag and retrieving experiments, though the event was somewhat marred by a Chinese news agency reporting on its success before it had happened, complete with dialogue.
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Climate calamity
Despite efforts to curb carbon dioxide emissions, global output has grown four times as fast since 2000 as during the previous decade, the Global Carbon Project reports. Concentrations reached 383 parts per million in 2007, 37 per cent higher than at the dawn of the industrial revolution in 1750, and the highest concentration for 650,000 years.
Heart therapy on hold
A trial of a controversial therapy for heart disease has been suspended. Backed by the US National Institutes of Health, it aims to establish whether the chelating agent disodium EDTA can dissolve fatty plaques in arteries. There had been complaints that the consent form failed to say that some patients had died after being injected with the drug.