Anti-cancer virus
A tumour-munching virus will be given to a large number of cancer patients for the first time. First 80, then about 200 people with head and neck tumours will get two standard anti-cancer drugs plus Reolysin, which contains a harmless reovirus. In smaller trials, this cocktail helped up to three-quarters of patients.
Credit crunch joy
Our current economic woes have one bright side. Emissions of carbon dioxide are expected to be 3 per cent lower this year than in 2008 due to the economic slowdown, according to the International Energy Agency.This is the steepest drop in 40 years.
Sun shield lowered
Space radiation is at a record high. Measurements by NASA鈥檚 Advanced Composition Explorer indicate that cosmic rays are 19 per cent more abundant than at any other time in the past 50 years. A lull in solar activity has weakened the sun鈥檚 magnetic field, which normally shields the solar system from cosmic rays. The onslaught could play havoc with spacecraft electronics.
Advertisement
Toxic glaciers
Melting glaciers are feeding toxic chemicals into alpine lakes. An analysis of lake sediments deposited over the last 60 years shows that chemicals banned in the 1980s have been preserved in the ice and are still flowing into Swiss lakes. Global warming could accelerate this pollution, they add (Environmental Science & Technology, ).
Vaccine off the hook
A cervical cancer vaccine was not responsible for the death of 14-year-old Natalie Morton of Coventry, UK. On 1 October pathologists confirmed that the real cause was a large malignant tumour in her heart and lungs.