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INSECTICIDE resistance in malarial mosquitoes could be wiped out for good, paradoxically by using slow-killing agents.

The World Health Organization recommends fast-acting insecticides for malaria control . But such agents stop mosquitoes from reproducing, giving any insect that resists them an enormous competitive advantage. As this drives the evolution of resistance, Andrew Read at Pennsylvania State University in University Park decided to examine what happened if this selection pressure was removed by only killing elderly mosquitoes that had already laid eggs.

This could be achieved using

slow-killing insecticides, which should still stop malaria transmission as mosquitoes can’t pass on the parasite until it has grown inside them for two weeks,

Mosquito killer almost a lifetime to a mosquito. Crucially, using a model, Read

found that such an approach is “evolution proof”: mosquitoes never evolve resistance to slow-acting insecticides because both resistant and susceptible insects have the same chance of laying eggs, removing the selection pressure favouring resistant mosquitoes (PLoS Biology, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000058 ).

Some insecticides that take weeks to kill, such as insect-killing fungi , are already being studied. Read believes these may be the only way to wipe out malaria.

Ebola accident

DID an experimental vaccine save a scientist in Germany from Ebola? The lives of other scientists might depend on the answer.

On 12 March a researcher at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg accidentally stuck her finger with a needle carrying Ebola virus. Worried colleagues gave her an experimental Ebola vaccine that had not previously been tested on people. It is being developed mainly to protect lab workers from just such mistakes, which

have killed researchers in the past. Whether the vaccine worked

is still not clear. Although the woman remains healthy, it could be that she never developed an infection in the first place. It should be possible to discover the truth, as an infection would elicit antibodies to many more Ebola proteins than the vaccine alone. However, Stephan Günther, head of virology at the institute, says its labs do not have the right tests to identify which antibodies the woman has, so the scientists hope to send samples to a US military lab that does.

Space revamp

RUSSIA is embarking on its most ambitious space project since the cold war, with plans for a new spaceship and launcher.

Until now, Russia has tweaked rather than upgraded spacecraft. Soyuz is over 40 years old and on its fifth generation. Now the Russian space agency plans to replace all its launch facilities and rocket designs. “Post-Soviet Russia has never had a massive project of this kind,” says Aleksey

–Would you buy this sperm sample?–

–Retirement looms for Soyuz–

Sued over ‘unsafe’ spermSPERM should be subject to the same

product liability laws as car brakes,

according to a US judge who has given

a teenager with severe learning

disabilities the go-ahead to sue the

sperm bank that provided her with a

biological father.

Brittany Donovan, now 13 years

old, was born with fragile X syndrome ,

a genetic disorder causing mental

impairment and carried on the

X chromosome. She is now suing the

sperm bank, Idant Laboratories of

New York, under a product liability

law more commonly associated with

manufacturing defects, such as faulty

car brakes.

Donovan does not have to show

that Idant was negligent, only that the

sperm it provided was unsafe and

caused injury. “It doesn’t matter how

much care was taken,” says Daniel

Thistle , the lawyer representing

Donovan, based in Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania. Genetic tests have

revealed that she inherited the

disorder from her biological father.

Donovan was conceived in

Pennsylvania, where a “blood shield

law” protects sellers of human bodily

material from product liability suits.

In New York state, however, sellers

are not protected by any such law.

On 31 March, federal judge Thomas

O’Neill ruled that Donovan’s case

should be tried in New York.

Wendy Kramer of the Donor

Sibling Registry , which helps people

conceived through donor gametes

find genetic relatives, suspects other

sperm recipients may try to sue. “This

could open the floodgates,” she says.

“Insecticides that take weeks to kill may be the only way to successfully wipe out malaria”

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Krasnov, head of the agency’s human space-flight programme.

The company that will build the spaceship has been given until June 2010 to design a 20-tonne reusable craft that can carry six people, twice the capacity of Soyuz. As well as ferrying crew to the International Space Station, it should be able to repair or retrieve satellites. A beefed-up version could reach lunar orbit and perhaps beyond.

The plans are similar to NASA’s Orion programme – earning it the nickname “Orionski” – and could provide back-up for the US spacecraft if needed.

Obama undermined

THE US will “lead by example to reduce our carbon footprint”, President Barack Obama pledged at the G20 summit in London last week. But back in Washington, the message from Congress was “not so fast”.

Obama’s plan to reduce US greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 relies on a cap-and-trade system, in which emitters will be charged for the carbon dioxide they put into the air. The cash raised – tens of billions of dollars – will help fund “green” jobs to revive the US economy by developing renewable energy and a smart grid to deliver that power.

Last week, when Congress began considering the laws necessary for cap-and-trade, Democrats in coal-mining Midwestern states came out in opposition. “The odds are [the legislation] will slip to 2010,” says Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change in Arlington, Virginia.

In London, G20 leaders said they would leave a deal on a successor to the Kyoto protocol to December’s Copenhagen talks. The big question now is what Obama will be able to offer. Bill Clinton signed at Kyoto, but Congress blocked the protocol.

Make airlines pay

THEY may be an unlikely green lobby, but four of the world’s largest airline companies have called on governments to be stricter with them.

British Airways, Air France-KLM, Cathay Pacific and Virgin Atlantic have joined forces with the British Airports Authority and The Climate Group, a policy consultancy, in a proposal for a global cap-and-trade scheme that would regulate airline emissions. They want their proposal to be included in the next global emissions agreement, scheduled

to be signed in December. The move was announced at the close of 10 days of climate negotiations held in Bonn, Germany, this week.

The UN estimates air transport is reponsible for roughly 3 per cent of human greenhouse gas emissions

worldwide. Without action, its share could rise to 15 per cent by 2050. Yet the industry is not yet required to reduce its emissions – even under the Kyoto protocol.

“Four of the world’s largest airlines have called on governments to be stricter with them”

BREAKING up is getting easier to do,

it seems, especially when it comes

to the Antarctic Peninsula. On

3 April, satellite images showed that

an ice bridge which connected two

islands to the Wilkins ice shelf had

shattered. This has left the shelf

vulnerable to the ocean and in danger

of breaking away from the peninsula.

Last year, the 13,000-square-

kilometre Wilkins ice shelf released

huge chunks of ice, leaving a narrow

ice bridge as the only connection

between the northern front of the ice

shelf and the ice surrounding nearby

Charcot and Latady islands.

Now that ice bridge has collapsed –

leaving an iceberg-filled channel in

its wake – the northern front of the

shelf is exposed. “We expect in the

next few days and weeks that the

northern ice front will lose between

800 and 3700 square kilometres of

ice,” says Angelika Humbert of the

Institute of Geophysics at Münster

University, Germany.

The break-up of the Wilkins ice

shelf will not lead to sea-level rise

as it is already floating on water,

and nor will it speed up the

movement of any glaciers into the

oceans. Nevertheless, these events

serve as a dire warning, says

Humbert: “It shows us that ice

shelves have the potential to become

unstable on very short timescales.”

If other ice shelves in the region

start calving, then the glaciers that

feed them could slip faster into the

ocean, leading to sea-level rise.

Collapse imperils Wilkins ice shelf

–Going, going…–

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Quake foretoldThe worst earthquake to strike Italy

in 30 years seems to have vindicated

the controversial predictions of

a seismologist. After recording

anomalous radon gas emissions,

Giampaolo Giuliani warned of a

quake weeks before the magnitude

6.2 earthquake struck a region near

Rome early on Monday, killing at

least 90 people. After his warning,

Giuliani was reported to the

authorities for “spreading panic”.

Nigerian drug trial dealThe drug company Pfizer is close to

an out-of-court settlement with the

Nigerian state of Kano, which claims

that 11 children died after taking

part in a trial of the meningitis drug

Trovan. Pfizer says meningitis, not

Trovan, killed the children. Nigeria’s

federal government is also trying to

sue Pfizer, although it may withdraw

if Kano reaches a firm settlement.

Male pill hopesA male contraceptive drug could be a

step closer thanks to the discovery

of a gene that controls sperm

movement. CATSPER1 allows sperm

cells to burrow into the egg and

fertilise it. Antibodies against the

protein made by CATSPER1 could be

used as a contraceptive (American

Journal of Human Genetics, DOI:

10.1016/j.ajhg.2009.03.004).

Bonobo epidemicA deadly outbreak of what appears

to be flu is threatening a group of

endangered bonobos in a sanctuary

in the Democratic Republic of

the Congo. At least four of the

60 residents have died.

Old plastic, new printsRecycling may be good for the

environment, but it is making life

difficult for forensic scientists.

Chemists who have developed

protocols for identifying fingerprints

on different types of plastic surface

say the increasing prevalence of

recycled plastics is forcing them to

rethink their methods.

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