Child killer found
The mystery behind the in Cambodia may have been solved. The World Health Organization tested 24 blood samples from children showing symptoms, and 15 came back positive for enterovirus-71, which can cause hand, foot and mouth disease. Neighbouring Vietnam is plagued with the same disease.
Fukushima blame
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Many would blame nature for last year鈥檚 Fukushima nuclear accident, but a Japanese parliamentary committee report has concluded that culpability lies with Homo sapiens. It is the second investigation to finds plant operator Tepco鈥檚 safety measures lacking.
Hotter heatwave
Some things you can reasonably pin on climate change. Take last year鈥檚 heatwave in Texas: models suggest long-term temperature rises made the hot weather 20 times more likely to happen (Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, in press). As a result, Texas suffered the hottest and driest growing season on record, and severe drought.
No arsenic life
Life can鈥檛 be built from arsenic, it seems. In 2011, a paper in Science claimed that GFAJ-1 bacteria in an arsenic-rich lake in California could use the toxin in their DNA instead of phosphorus. Attempts to replicate the result have failed and the journal has now issued a statement: 鈥淣ew research shows that GFAJ-1 does not break the long-held rules of life鈥�.
Gastronauts鈥� delight
Six lucky individuals have been chosen as crew for a simulated Mars voyage, focused on food. The HI-SEAS mission will last four months and take place in Hawaii in early 2013. It will test how nutrition, food satisfaction and palatability vary if crews cook for themselves versus eating prepared food.