17 October 2009 | NewScientist | 7

through the debris plume created by the rocket impact.

Earthbound observers failed to see any sign of a plume, as had been hoped. Even the Hubble Space Telescope came up empty. NASA claimed a technical victory, but it will likely be remembered as an anticlimax. It was neither a failure, such as the loss of the Mars Polar Lander in 1999, or a great success, like the spectacular comet collision of the Deep Impact mission in 2005.

Still, the infrared flash of the impact, which appeared in LCROSS data, may reveal big clues about lunar ice in the coming weeks.

Dwindling doom

CONSERVATION biologists may be deluding themselves.

An analysis of the minimum number of individuals needed for a species’ long-term survival concludes that conservation practices underestimate the risk of extinction by not fully allowing for the dangers posed by the loss of genetic diversity. If correct, it means the number of individuals in endangered species are being allowed to dwindle too far.

Lochran Traill at the University of Adelaide, Australia, and colleagues found that for thousands of species, the minimum viable population size – where a species has a 90 per cent chance of surviving the next 100 years – comes in at thousands rather than hundreds of individuals. Many biologists, Traill says, work with lower numbers and unacceptably high extinction risks (Biological

Conservation, DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2009.09.001).

“If critically endangered species are not brought up to total population sizes of a few thousand, then we are simply managing for their short-term persistence,” Traill says. He hopes his work will “encourage greater focus of resources to populations that need attention now”.

Banana banked

IT’S pink, grows in China, and wild Asian elephants love it. The Yunnan banana (Musa iterans) is also the 24,200th wild plant species banked by the Kew Millennium Seed Bank Partnership. It marks the point at which the bank has reached its initial target of collecting 10 per cent of the world’s known wild plant species.

Set up in 2000, the seed bank at Kew Gardens in London is the world’s largest for wild plants. The idea is that the seeds can all be accessed in one place to help researchers hunt for potential

medicinal species and crops resilient to climate change .

“We have every reason to be proud, but there’s much left to be done,” says Paul Smith, head of the partnership. Its next target is to have banked one-quarter of

the world’s wild species by 2020. The other large collection is

the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway, which collects crops to preserve them in case of disease.

“The seed bank will help in the hunt for potential medicinal species or crops resilient to climate change”

PET dogs with cancer in the US are

now entitled to receive experimental

drugs – before the drugs are available

for humans. Twelve trials are under

way on groups of 15 to 60 dogs,

and in several of the animals cancers

have disappeared.

“We’ve had dramatic remissions

in dogs with really aggressive

cancers,” says Chand Khanna, head

of the Comparative Oncology Trials

Consortium newly formed in

Bethesda, Maryland, by the US

National Cancer Institute.

Unlike mice and rats, dogs

experience cancer in a similar way to

humans. As in people, cancers in dogs

spread to form secondaries and can

become resistant to drugs. The

animals can also have relapses.

The consortium consists of

19 veterinary schools, and there are

plans to extend it to Europe. Owners

can opt for conventional drugs or

experimental ones, including some

that are untested in humans and

others that are already undergoing

trials, but that need additional animal

data – for example on dosing – before

they can proceed to the next stage

(PLoS Medicine, DOI: 10.1371/

journal.pmed.1000162).

As well as looking after their sick

dog, owners can help gather data for

the researchers. “They’re given

notebooks so that they can complete

assessments of quality of life,

appetite, demeanour and perhaps

even collect some specimens,”

Khanna says.

Sick dogs get newest drugs

–Getting better all the time–

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Ice to see youAt last, a temporary reprieve for

Arctic ice. Thirty-two per cent of

ice remaining at the end of the

2009 melt season was two years old,

compared with 9 per cent in 2008

and 21 per cent in 2007, according

to the US National Snow and Ice

Data Centre. This gives some hope

that the ice will thicken this winter

and stabilise for a few years.

Go long and prosperA proposal to visit asteroids and orbit

Mars has received a boost. NASA’s

future options for human space-

flight are being scored by a White

House panel, based on 12 criteria. An

early report puts the so-called “deep

space” option ahead of a return to

the moon, but that’s based on only

four criteria: schedule, cost, benefits

to science, and preserving workforce.

A full report is expected this month.

In deep waterThe government of the Maldives

will hold a cabinet meeting 6 metres

underwater on 17 October. Scuba

gear is the dress code for the event,

which seeks to raise awareness of

the rising sea-levels which could

devastate the atoll.

Abortions slashedFour million fewer abortions were

carried out worldwide in 2003 than

in 1995, mainly due to an increase

in contraception, reports the

Washington DC-based Guttmacher

Institute. The rate of unwanted

pregnancies also fell, from 6.9 to

5.5 per cent between 1995 and 2008.

Fetal cancer strikesIn a rare case of cancer being

transmitted from a mother to

a fetus, cancer cells seem to have

acquired mutations that allowed

them to avoid attack from the fetal

immune system. So say Takeshi

Isoda and colleagues at Tokyo

Medical and Dental University in

Japan, who analysed the DNA of

cancer cells in one such infant. Only

about 30 such cases are known.

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