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Sight restored

A retinal implant has given vision to 30 blind people for three years without sparking any adverse immune response. The device, developed by Second Sight in Sylmar, California, gave all participants some sight, with 29 able to locate objects, and four able to read large letters.

An aspirin a day…

…keeps cancer at bay. That’s the conclusion of a University of Oxford team that followed up 25,000 patients in eight clinical trials assessing the effects of daily aspirin. Low-dose daily aspirin reduced the rate of cancer deaths by 21 per cent during the trials, and by 20 per cent over a 20-year period after the trials had ended (The Lancet, ).

Ice is hanging on

Greenland’s glaciers are proving surprisingly resilient. It had been feared that meltwater reaching the base of the ice would lubricate the glaciers’ flow, speeding their progress to the sea. In fact, channels within the glaciers expand to drain the water (Nature, ). But heavy rain can still overwhelm the drainage system and accelerate the flow of ice.

‘Russian GPS’ setback

GLONASS, Russia’s rival to the US Global Positioning System, will probably be delayed by at least six months. A launch failure on 5 December sent the fleet’s final three satellites crashing into the Pacific Ocean. The cause of the Proton rocket failure is being investigated.

Now arriving at Venus

Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft has completed its six-month cruise to Venus. As New ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ went to press, mission leaders were waiting to find out if it had slipped into orbit around the planet. The two-year mission is designed to study the planet’s hothouse atmosphere and super-fast winds.