60 Seconds
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10 August 2013 | NewScientist | 7 PABLO BIELLI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES WANT to do your own space experiment? From next week, you will be able to buy time on the world’s first open source satellites. ArduSat-1 and ArduSat-X were launched to the International Space Station on 3 August aboard a Japanese resupply vehicle. Known as CubeSats, each satellite packs an array of devices, including cameras and a Geiger counter, into a box 10 centimetres square. The cargo ship should arrive at the ISS on 9 August, and the CubeSats will then be deployed. The project was partially funded by a Kickstarter campaign, with backers buying time slots to run experiments. Users will be able to program controls on the satellites and run experiments for three days or a week. Projects are yet to be announced, but a list of ideas from the developers includes tracking meteorites and making a 3D model of Earth’s magnetosphere. The satellites will orbit for three to seven months before burning up as they fall to Earth. NanoSatisfi, the San Francisco start-up that builds the machines, hopes to send fleets of them into space on future launches. Citizen satellites SUMMER was once an important time for reflection in the Arctic. Perhaps not for much longer: the Arctic Ocean now reflects 15 per cent less sunlight than it did 30 years ago. Aku Riihelä of the Finnish Meteorological Institute and his colleagues looked at satellite measurements of reflectivity, or albedo, between 1982 and 2009 (Nature Climate Change, doi.org/ nct). He says the darkening is partly due to thinning ice and the formation of fissures, and partly because in the warmer air, ponds of liquid water form on the surface of the ice. The shallow ponds reduce albedo and increase the amount of solar radiation that the ice absorbs. The melting and darkening of the Arctic is a major factor in climate change. It acts as a positive feedback, because the more ice melts or darkens, the more the Arctic warms and the more ice melts. It may help to explain the speed of Arctic ice loss, which far exceeds the predictions of existing climate models, including those used in the 2007 climate assessment issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. At the end of the 2012 summer, Arctic sea ice extent hit a record low. Some recent predictions suggest the Arctic Ocean could have no ice left at the end of each summer by 2030. Riihelä says the dramatic reduction in albedo can only hasten the day. PANU LAHTINEN, FMI Nine months... or so Pregnant? You might want to reconsider your due date. Gestation can vary naturally by five weeks, according to a study that recorded 125 women’s hormone levels daily to pinpoint the date of conception. The average pregnancy lasted 38 weeks, but the range between the shortest and longest pregnancies was 37 days (Human Reproduction, DOI: 10.1093/humrep/det297). Biofuels are go Commercial-scale biofuel production may soon be a reality. INEOS Bio says it has succeeded, at its Indian River BioEnergy Center in Florida, in scaling up the production of ethanol from wood waste enough to make it commercially viable. The US Environmental Protection Agency confirms a small amount of biofuel has been produced so far. Sleeping Armadillo Armadillo Aerospace is taking a breather in the race to build reusable rockets for commercial space travel. At a conference in Dallas, Texas, on 1 August, founder John Carmack – inventor of megahit video games Doomand Quake – said that the company is out of cash. West German doping It wasn’t just the East Germans. A report seen by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung claims that the West German Federal Institute for Sports Science experimented with anabolic steroids, testosterone, oestrogen and blood doping in the 1960s and 70s. Three members of the 1966 World Cup soccer team are said to have been involved. Remember my whistle Every bottlenose dolphin produces a unique whistle that acts as a name, which stays the same throughout their lives. They can even remember the signature whistles of dolphins they haven’t encountered for 20 years (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.1726). –Worrying loss of albedo– Dark Arctic future Cell dispute settled “Users could track meteorites or make a 3D model of Earth’s magnetosphere” “Melting and darkening of the Arctic is a major factor in climate change. It acts as a positive feedback” IT’S been a long time coming. Justice has been served for the woman whose cancerous cells have fuelled biomedical investigation for decades. In 1951, researchers collected tissue samples from Henrietta Lacks without her permission and the “HeLa” cell line has become one of the most commonly used in medicine. In March, the HeLa genome was published but then withdrawn after complaints from her family. The family have now agreed to make the genome available, but requests for access will have to be reviewed and a credit must be given to Lacks and her family. A separate study out this week reveals that Lacks was infected with human papillomavirus. It is likely that this caused the aggressive cervical cancer that led to her death (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature12064). 60 SECONDS –Where the grass is greener?– For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news
Transcript of 60 Seconds
10 August 2013 | NewScientist | 7
PABL
O B
IELL
I/AFP
/GEt
ty
ImAG
Es
WANT to do your own space experiment? From next week, you will be able to buy time on the world’s first open source satellites.
ArduSat-1 and ArduSat-X were
launched to the International Space Station on 3 August aboard a Japanese resupply vehicle.
Known as CubeSats, each satellite packs an array of devices, including cameras and a Geiger counter, into a box 10 centimetres square. The cargo ship should arrive at the ISS on 9 August, and the CubeSats will then be deployed.
The project was partially funded by a Kickstarter campaign, with backers buying time slots to run experiments. Users will be able to program controls on the satellites and run experiments for three days or a week. Projects are yet to be announced, but a list of ideas from the developers includes tracking meteorites and making a 3D model of Earth’s magnetosphere.
The satellites will orbit for three to seven months before burning up as they fall to Earth. NanoSatisfi, the San Francisco start-up that builds the machines, hopes to send fleets of them into space on future launches.
Citizen satellites
SUMMER was once an important time for reflection in the Arctic. Perhaps not for much longer: the Arctic Ocean now reflects 15 per cent less sunlight than it did 30 years ago.
Aku Riihelä of the Finnish Meteorological Institute and his colleagues looked at satellite measurements of reflectivity, or albedo, between 1982 and 2009 (Nature Climate Change, doi.org/nct). He says the darkening is
partly due to thinning ice and the formation of fissures, and partly because in the warmer air, ponds of liquid water form on the surface of the ice. The shallow ponds reduce albedo and increase the amount of solar radiation that the ice absorbs.
The melting and darkening of the Arctic is a major factor in climate change. It acts as a positive feedback, because the more ice melts or darkens, the more the Arctic warms and the more ice melts.
It may help to explain the speed of Arctic ice loss, which far exceeds the predictions of existing climate models, including those used in
the 2007 climate assessment issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
At the end of the 2012 summer, Arctic sea ice extent hit a record low. Some recent predictions suggest the Arctic Ocean could have no ice left at the end of each summer by 2030. Riihelä says the dramatic reduction in albedo can only hasten the day.
“Quote to go in here over four lines range left like this Quote to go in her like this xxxxx”
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u L
Ah
tIn
En, F
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Nine months... or soPregnant? You might want to reconsider your due date. Gestation can vary naturally by five weeks, according to a study that recorded 125 women’s hormone levels daily to pinpoint the date of conception. The average pregnancy lasted 38 weeks, but the range between the shortest and longest pregnancies was 37 days (Human Reproduction, DOI: 10.1093/humrep/det297).
Biofuels are goCommercial-scale biofuel production may soon be a reality. INEOS Bio says it has succeeded, at its Indian River BioEnergy Center in Florida, in scaling up the production of ethanol from wood waste enough to make it commercially viable. The US Environmental Protection Agency confirms a small amount of biofuel has been produced so far.
Sleeping ArmadilloArmadillo Aerospace is taking a breather in the race to build reusable rockets for commercial space travel. At a conference in Dallas, Texas, on 1 August, founder John Carmack – inventor of megahit video games Doom and Quake – said that the company is out of cash.
West German dopingIt wasn’t just the East Germans. A report seen by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung claims that the West German Federal Institute for Sports Science experimented with anabolic steroids, testosterone, oestrogen and blood doping in the 1960s and 70s. Three members of the 1966 World Cup soccer team are said to have been involved.
Remember my whistleEvery bottlenose dolphin produces a unique whistle that acts as a name, which stays the same throughout their lives. They can even remember the signature whistles of dolphins they haven’t encountered for 20 years (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.1726).
–Worrying loss of albedo–
Dark Arctic future
Cell dispute settled
“Users could track meteorites or make a 3D model of Earth’s magnetosphere”
“Melting and darkening of the Arctic is a major factor in climate change. It acts as a positive feedback”
IT’S been a long time coming. Justice has been served for the woman whose cancerous cells have fuelled biomedical investigation for decades.
In 1951, researchers collected tissue samples from Henrietta Lacks without her permission and the “HeLa” cell line has become one of the most commonly used in medicine. In March, the HeLa genome was published but then withdrawn after complaints from her family.
The family have now agreed to make the genome available, but requests for access will have to be reviewed and a credit must be given to Lacks and her family.
A separate study out this week reveals that Lacks was infected with human papillomavirus. It is likely that this caused the aggressive cervical cancer that led to her death (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature12064).
60 SEConDS
–Where the grass is greener?–
For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news
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