Today on New Scientist: 26 November 2012

Arafat's bones could reveal polonium poisoning

If the former Palestinian leader was poisoned, enough radioactive material would remain in his bones to prove it eight years on from his death

Mega-risks that could drive us to extinction

Technological hazards that could wipe out the human race will be studied by a proposed research centre at the University of Cambridge

UK consumers lose their taste for green energy

In a world of rising energy costs and consumer alarm, UK energy policy continues to lack focus, says Michael Brooks

Holiday gifts: What to give the scientifically curious

Stuck for gift ideas? There's something for everyone in CultureLab's selection of science-inspired goodies

Water-hating shoes repel (almost) any liquid

Watch how white trainers can stay clean on the mean streets, thanks to a superhydrophobic coating

A gorilla in the midst - of emotional rebirth?

A wild gorilla capers through a cloud of butterflies. A week before she had given birth to a stillborn fetus - is she over the death now?

Our true dawn: Pinning down human origins

The argument over when our lineage split from chimps is about to be settled, with colossal consequences for prehistory, finds Catherine Brahic

Fighting the flab means fighting makers of fatty foods

Now that Denmark's fat tax is no more, nutritionist Marion Nestle says only more targeted policies and the will to take on big business can combat obesity

Virtual economy looms as digital cash grows up

Online currency Bitcoin is maturing rapidly, so much so that it might soon be taken seriously by businesses - and become regulated by banks in the process

Animals are already dissolving in Southern Ocean

In a small patch of the Southern Ocean, the shells of sea snails are dissolving as a result of ocean acidification

New vaccine may give lifelong protection from flu

Messenger RNA from the flu virus produces an immune response that could do away with the need for annual flu jabs

Keystroke-logger checks your identity as you type

A biometric authentication system monitors the telltale gaps between the letters you type to continually authenticate that you are who you say you are

Papa pipefish's pregnancy good for young's immunity

In the role-reversed world of the pipefish, it is the males that carry the pregnancy - which helps deliver more resilient offspring

Curiosity result could confirm Mars life, says Levin

As the internet buzzes in anticipation of results revealing organic molecules on the Red Planet, ex-NASA scientist Gilbert Levin is more nervous than most

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Bahrain police tear gas Shiite protesters

DUBAI: Bahraini police fired tear gas at Shiite protesters on Tuesday, as they tried to reach the site of month-long anti-regime demonstrations that were brutally suppressed by the government last year.

Witnesses said hundreds of demonstrators tried to march from the village of Deih, one kilometre (0.6 miles) away, to the former Pearl Square, now razed and turned into a junction, before being confronted by police.

Police also fired stun grenades at the crowds, who gathered to pray before beginning their demonstration, according to witnesses.

The interior ministry said on its Twitter page that police confronted a "group of vandals" on the Budaiya artery, after they "blocked the road, hurled petrol bombs, and terrified passers-by".

Demonstrations have shaken Bahrain since it crushed a Shiite-led uprising against the ruling Sunni regime in March last year.

The kingdom came under strong criticism from international rights groups over the deadly crackdown.

Bahrain, home to the US Fifth Fleet and strategically situated across the Gulf from Shiite Iran, has continued to see sporadic demonstrations, though mostly outside Manama.

According to the International Federation for Human Rights, a total of 80 people have been killed in Bahrain since the violence began on February 14, 2011.

The United States last week expressed concern about rising violence in Bahrain, one year after an inquiry report was issued on the violence, saying the country needed to put more of its recommendations into effect.

- AFP/fa

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Versatile indoor grill makes turkey sandwiches all year round

The Thanksgiving tradition of finding new ways to cook leftovers continues.

(Credit:
Amazon)

It's time to talk turkey. A lot of turkey. As in turkey sandwiches. It is that time of year, after all. However, as high as the leftovers may be piled up in the refrigerator, that doesn't necessarily mean it's easy to figure out what to do with them. One can only eat so many sandwiches. Unless of course, there can be found new ways of constructing them.

The Frigidaire FPPG12K7MS Professional Panini Grill (about $120) takes an old classic and smashes it -- in a good way. But panini sandwiches are just the start. The indoor grill opens flat and each side has an individual temperature control. The reversible cooking plates can be used to grill or griddle so when it comes time to fry up some bacon for that turkey sandwich, this one countertop appliance has you covered.

Finding creative ways to deal with Thanksgiving leftovers is a delicious tradition, but sometimes it's the classics that really hit the spot. The device features five adjustable height settings that can be used to find the perfect pressure for creating pressed sandwiches. With 1,500 watts and 240 square inches of cooking area, the indoor grill makes it easy to cook up some classic leftover combinations -- or perhaps to use that extra cooking area to come up with some new ones.

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Cracks in the Conservative Armor?

So much for pledges?

As lawmakers return to Washington today, the deadline to put on the brakes before the country plunges off the fiscal cliff is now in sight, and it appears that both sides are open to some wheeling and dealing.
For Republicans, that may mean breaking a promise many of them made not to raise taxes.

"When you're $16 trillion in debt, the only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming Greece," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told ABC's George Stephanopoulos yesterday in a "This Week" interview. "Republicans should put revenue on the table."

Infographic: What to Know About the "Fiscal Cliff"

But for Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist, the spirit of the pledge seems as alive as ever even as GOP lawmakers like Graham publicly contemplate defecting.

"What the pledge does of course is allows elected officials to make it clear openly to their voters where they stand," Norquist said in an interview with ABC's David Kerley. "Are they going to be with reforming government or raising taxes to continue more of the same?"

Peter Foley/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Dick Durbin on 'This Week' Watch Video

California Drunken Driving Case: Woman Drove With Dying Man on Car Watch Video

Norquist is casting the pledge as lawmakers' "commitment to their constituents" -- rather than to him -- and he told ABC News over the weekend that the hundreds who have signed it "are largely keeping it."

But other prominent Republicans are joining Graham, including Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who signaled his openness to re-thinking the pledge yesterday on NBC's "Meet The Press."

"The world is changed and the economic situation is different," King said.

Watch: Nancy Pelosi on the status of the fiscal cliff

Of course, Graham on "This Week" and other GOP members of Congress who appeared on the Sunday talk shows qualified their support for raising revenue on not raising tax rates but rather on capping certain deductions.

And for all the talk of taxes, there's another elephant in the room that gets a lot less attention: Entitlement reform.

"I will violate the pledge -- long story short -- for the good of the country only if Democrats will do entitlement reform," Graham said.

Also appearing on "This Week," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., acknowledged that "meaningful reforms" for Medicare should be on the table.

"Only 12 years of solvency lie ahead if we do nothing," Durbin said. "So those who say don't touch it, don't change it are ignoring the obvious."

But how many other Democrats are going to be willing to see serious reform as part of the discussion?

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New vaccine may give lifelong protection from flu

Flu season has come early this year in parts of the northern hemisphere, and many people are scrambling to get their annual vaccination. That ritual may someday be history.

In a first for any infectious disease, a vaccine against flu has been made out of messenger RNA (mRNA) – the genetic material that controls the production of proteins. Unlike its predecessors, the new vaccine may work for life, and it may be possible to manufacture it quickly enough to stop a pandemic.

We become immune to a flu strain when our immune system learns to recognise key proteins, called HA and NA, on the surface of the flu virus. This can happen either because we have caught and fought off that strain of flu, or because we received one of the standard vaccines, most of which contain killed flu virus.

Flu constantly evolves, however, so those proteins change and your immunity to one year's strain does not extend to following year's. For this reason, a new vaccine has to be produced each year. Most flu vaccines are grown in chicken eggs or cell culture, a process that takes at least six months.

This time lag means that the World Health Organization has to predict months in advance which viruses are most likely to be circulating the following winter. Drug companies then make a new vaccine based on their recommendations. Of course, these recommendations can be wrong, or worse, when a completely new flu virus causes a pandemic, its first waves can be over before any vaccine is ready.

Freeze-dried vaccine

Now there could be a solution. The mRNA that controls the production of HA and NA in a flu virus can be mass-produced in a few weeks, says Lothar Stitz of the Friedrich-Loeffler Institute in Riems Island, Germany. This mRNA can be turned into a freeze-dried powder that does not need refrigeration, unlike most vaccines, which have to be kept cool.

An injection of mRNA is picked up by immune cells, which translate it into protein. These proteins are then recognised by the body as foreign, generating an immune response. The immune system will then recognise the proteins if it encounters the virus subsequently, allowing it to fight off that strain of flu.

Similar vaccines have been made of DNA that codes for flu proteins. But DNA vaccines seem unlikely ever to be approved, because of worries that they might be incorporated into human DNA, disrupting gene regulation.

Safety advantage

That is not a risk with mRNA, which cannot become part of the genome. For this reason, "RNA probably has advantages over DNA as concerns safety," says Bjarne Bogen of the University of Oslo, Norway, who is working on a DNA vaccine for flu.

Trial RNA vaccines have failed, however, after being destroyed rapidly in the blood. But CureVac, a company in Tübingen, Germany, has found that a protein called protamine, binds to mRNA and protects it. It has an mRNA vaccine against prostate and lung cancer tumours in human trials.

"Amazingly, mRNA vaccines have never been really tested against infectious diseases," says Stitz. His team used CureVac's process to make durable mRNA vaccines for common human flu strains, as well as H5N1 bird flu. In mice, ferrets and pigs, the vaccines rapidly elicited protective levels of antibodies.

Two-pronged immunity

They also induced cell-mediated immunity, which is an immune response that does not involve antibodies but activates blood cells such as killer T-cells to destroy specific pathogens. Vaccines made only of the proteins do not elicit this type of response. Having both types of immunity clears infection faster, and can also protect against flu for longer, as cell-mediated reactions still recognise flu viruses after they have evolved enough to evade antibodies.

A true universal vaccine for flu, however, would induce immunity to proteins that are the same in all flu viruses, but which flu normally hides from the immune system. Stitz's team made an mRNA vaccine to one such protein from an ordinary seasonal flu. The vaccine not only protected animals from that flu strain, but also from H5N1 bird flu.

Vaccines that work against all flu strains could eventually be given once in childhood, like vaccines for other diseases. Meanwhile, Stitz is also working on an mRNA vaccine for rabies. "We think that mRNA would provide an excellent platform against viral, bacterial and fungal diseases," he says.

Journal reference: Nature Biotechnology, DOI: 10.1038/nbt.2436

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Motor Racing: Triple-top Vettel wins third world title

SAO PAULO: Sebastian Vettel became the youngest triple champion in Formula One history on Sunday when he finished sixth behind the victorious Jenson Button in a tumultuous Brazilian Grand Prix.

The 25-year-old German, who was involved in an opening lap collision, made light of the damage to his Red Bull car as he fought through the field in a dramatic race run in treacherous rain-swept conditions at the Interlagos circuit.

Vettel's only title rival, two-time champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso, finished a fine second after a courageous drive for Ferrari, but it was not enough to overhaul a pre-race 13-point deficit as his German rival won the crown by just three points.

The race was littered with accidents and incidents and ended behind a Safety Car with Vettel bringing his car home in the rain in tears, unable to respond to the screamed congratulations from Red Bull team chief Christian Horner.

Vettel became only the third driver in history to win three successive titles, equalling the feats of the great Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio and his own childhood idol Michael Schumacher, who finished seventh for Mercedes in his final race before retiring.

Alonso's Ferrari team-mate, local hero Brazilian Felipe Massa, drove brilliantly to finish third ahead of Australian Mark Webber in the second Red Bull and German Nico Hulkenberg of Force India.

"We lost communication at the start but Sebastian stuck at it. He drove with determination," said Horner.

"He just never gives up. After the first lap spin I thought that was it because we knew Fernando would be on the podium. But he got back to the top six, the rain came, we went to inter (tyres) and then slicks.

"It was maximum stress throughout the race, but Seb stayed cool. Fernando did a great job but he knew he was up against one of the best. What Seb achieved was incredible."

Hulkenberg played a prominent role in the race, not only leading for a spell but also crashing into Lewis Hamilton's McLaren to wreck the Briton's hopes of a triumphant conclusion to his career with the British team just when he looked sure of winning.

Vettel was sixth, Schumacher seventh and Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne eighth for Toro Rosso ahead of Japanese Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber and Finn Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus.

Vettel, whose Red Bull team took a third constructors' championship in succession last weekend in Texas, finished with 281 points and Alonso with 278.

It was Briton Button's first win in Brazil, his third of the season and the 15th of his career.

Alonso paid tribute to his Ferrari team.

"First of all I'm very proud of the team. We lost the championship before today, not in Brazil, this is a sport after all," said the Spaniard.

"When you do something with your heart and do it 100 percent you have to be proud of yourself and your team and we'll try again next year."

Button added: "First of all I want to congratulate the whole team. This is the perfect way to end the season. We have had ups and downs and to end on a high bodes well for 2013."

-AFP/ac

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Apple acquires use of Lightning trademark in Europe from Harley

Apple's Lightning connector.

(Credit:
Apple)

Apple appears to have secured use of the European trademark for Lightning from Harley-Davidson.

The term, which Apple uses to reference the connector for the new
iPhone 5, was partially-transferred to Apple on Thursday, according to the Trade Marks and Design Office of the European Union. TMDO documents show that the Harley-Davidson-owned trademark No. 003469541 was partially transferred to Apple under trademark No. 011399862.

TMDO defines a partial transfer as a transfer of the term for use in a limited number of goods or services, suggesting that Harley-Davidson will still be able to use the term. Harley-Davidson's trademark lists clothing and outerwear as the goods and services for its trademark, while Apple's trademark lists a variety of "games and playthings."

Terms of the transfer were not revealed. CNET has contacted Apple and Harley-Davidson for comment and will update this report when we learn more.

A U.S. trademark application for Lightning was submitted by the Lightning
Car Company in January 2011, however the March 2012 notice for allowance of the application was canceled on September 13.

On September 12, Apple unveiled Lighting, its proprietary Lightning connector for the iPhone 5, the fifth-generation
iPod Touch, and seventh-generation iPod Nano.

[Via Patently Apple]

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Distant Dwarf Planet Secrets Revealed

Orbiting at the frozen edges of our solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake is finally coming out of the shadows as astronomers get their best view yet of Pluto's little sibling.

Discovered in 2005, Makemake—pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh after a Polynesian creation god—is one of five Pluto-like objects that prompted a redefining of the term "planet" and the creation of a new group of dwarf planets in 2006. (Related: "Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule.")

Just like the slightly larger Pluto, this icy world circles our sun beyond Neptune. Researchers expected Makemake to also have a global atmosphere—but new evidence reveals that isn't the case.

Staring at a Star

An international team of astronomers was able for the first time to probe Makemake's physical characteristics using the European Southern Observatory's three most powerful telescopes in Chile. The researchers observed the change in light given off by a distant star as the dwarf planet passed in front of it. (Learn how scientists found Makemake.)

"These events are extremely difficult to predict and observe, but they are the only means of obtaining accurate knowledge of important properties of dwarf planets," said Jose Luis Ortiz, lead author of this new study and an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, in Spain.

It's like trying to study a coin from a distance of 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more, Ortiz added.

Ortiz and his team knew Makemake didn't have an atmosphere when light from the background star abruptly dimmed and brightened as the chilly world drifted across its face.

"The light went off very abruptly from all the sites we observed the event so this means this world cannot have a substantial and global atmosphere like that of its sibling Pluto," Ortiz said.

If Makemake had an atmosphere, light from the star would gradually decrease and increase as the dwarf planet passed in front.

Coming Into Focus

The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake—not only limiting the possibility of an atmosphere but also determining the planet's size and surface more accurately.

"We think Makemake is a sphere flattened slightly at both poles and mostly covered with very white ices—mainly of methane," said Ortiz.

"But there are also indications for some organic material at least at some places; this material is usually very red and we think in a small percentage of the surface, the terrain is quite dark," he added.

Why Makemake lacks a global atmosphere remains a big mystery, but Ortiz does have a theory. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the sun heats this volatile material, it turns straight into a gas, creating Pluto's atmosphere.

Makemake lacks nitrogen ice on its surface, so there is nothing for the sun to heat into a gas to provide an atmosphere.

The dwarf planet has less mass, and a weaker gravitational field, than Pluto, said Ortiz. This means that over eons of time, Makemake may not have been able to hang on to its nitrogen.

Methane ice will also transform into a gas when heated. But since the dwarf planet is nearly at its furthest distance from the sun, Ortiz believes that Makemake's surface methane is still frozen. (Learn about orbital planes.)

And even if the methane were to transform into a gas, any resulting atmosphere would cover, at most, only ten percent of the planet, said Ortiz.

The new results are detailed today in the journal Nature.

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No Powerball Winner; Jackpot Grows to $425 Million

Nov 25, 2012 10:37am

                                                                (Image Credit: Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo)

The Powerball jackpot has swelled to $425 million, the largest in the lottery’s history, after no tickets matched the winning numbers in a drawing Saturday night.

The Powerball numbers for Saturday were 22-32-37-44-50, and the Powerball was 34.

Iowa Lottery spokeswoman Mary Neubauer said the jackpot could get even bigger before Wednesday, because sales tend to increase in the run-up to a big drawing.

The previous top windfall was $365 million. The jackpot was claimed by eight co-workers in Lincoln, Neb., in 2006.

PHOTOS: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

While millions of Americans can have fun dreaming about how they’d spend the jackpot, the odds of winning are 1 in 175,000,000, according to lottery officials.

To put that in perspective, a ticket holder is 25 times less likely to win the jackpot then they are to win an Academy Award.

Even still, the old saying holds true: “You’ve got to be in it to win it.”

SHOWS: Good Morning America

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Papa pipefish's pregnancy good for young's immunity

MALE pipefish pregnancy may suit the females, but it's a real boon for their offspring.

In human fetuses, antibodies from the mother's egg and others that pass across the placenta help build its developing immune system. Sperm are too small to carry antibodies, so males aren't thought to contribute.

Not so in pipefish, where the male carries the pregnancy. To see if the immune priming might come from both the mother's egg and via the father's placenta-like structure, Olivia Roth at the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany and colleagues exposed lab-grown male and female broad-nosed pipefish to dead bacteria. The fish were then left to mate and the resulting offspring were later also exposed.

The young had the strongest immune response if both parents had been exposed to the bacteria, suggesting both provided antibodies (The American Naturalist, doi.org/jrq).

Pipefish may not be the only fathers that help build their offspring's immune system. Pigeons of both sexes have been shown to "lactate" antibody-rich "milk" in their crops for their chicks.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

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