1
6 October 2012 | NewScientist | 7 NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS IS DNA fingerprinting unconstitutional? A US Court of Appeals may be about to rule that it is, on the back of recent science. DNA fingerprinting is a routine part of data collection on those charged with felonies in the US. The “fingerprint” comprises markers that do not code for proteins but help to distinguish individuals from one another. Some of those fingerprinted say that recording the markers breaches their privacy, and they have launched an appeals case. The results of the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project – revealed last month – may play an important role in the case. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has volunteered information to the appeal, says ENCODE confirms that non-functioning DNA plays a role in cell behaviour. But it is unusual for single markers to give any privacy- breaching information, says Ryan Gregory at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. “The genetic tests [help] exonerate people,” he says, “I would hate to see a backlash because of a misinterpretation of one study.” DNA data appeal DISTURBING a dormant volcano might seem ill-advised, but that’s what a company will do this month in a bid to exploit an untapped source of clean energy. Engineers working for Seattle- based AltaRock Energy have been given the green light by the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to start injecting water into a series of connected cracks 3 kilometres down at Oregon’s Newberry volcano (pictured above). Their goal is to heat the water, before returning it to the surface as steam to drive turbines and generate electricity. Geothermal power projects usually tap into naturally convecting hot water below Earth’s surface, but most geothermal energy is actually stored in impermeable hot rocks. The $44-million Newberry project is one of a new wave of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) that aims to exploit these rocks by fracturing them with pressurised water. This boosts permeability enough to support geothermal operations. The BLM gave permission for the project only after independent studies had demonstrated that the project did not risk triggering earthquakes near the volcano or contaminating groundwater. The testing phase should be complete by 2014. If the results are as good as AltaRock hopes, the system could rival the cost- efficiency of fossil fuels, says Susan Petty, the firm’s CEO. AP PHOTO/US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY/LYN TOPINKA Polar bear care Arctic researcher Charles Monnett has been reprimanded for leaking US government emails to green campaign groups, but cleared of any scientific misconduct. His work highlighted the risk climate change poses to polar bears – including drowning as ice melts – and contributed to regulatory decisions over offshore drilling in Alaska. Grey planet BY 2050, people over 60 will for the first time outnumber those under 15, the UN Population Fund said this week. The number of over-60s will reach 2 billion, up from 810 million today. The UNPF says countries need to prepare now to manage the changes, as almost half of older people develop disabilities. Ban on gay ‘cures’ California has become the first US state to ban unfounded therapies that attempt to turn gay teenagers straight. In a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle, governor Jerry Brown said they have no scientific basis and will be “relegated to the dustbin of quackery”. Brand new sun-grazer Newfound comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) is a dot beyond Jupiter now, but in a year it could be the brightest object in the night sky. The comet should skirt within 1.4 million kilometres of the sun on 28 or 29 November 2013, when it could outshine the full moon. Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok of the International Scientific Optical Network in Russia spotted the comet on 21 September. Chemist saga continues A Russian chemist freed from custody in Moscow last week must still fight to prove her innocence of charges relating to her expert testimony in a narcotics smuggling court case. Olga Zelenina of the Penza Scientific Research Institute of Agriculture has now also been accused of an abuse of power. She denies all the charges. –What fries beneath– Volcano power Fraud finders “A US Court of Appeals may be about to rule that DNA fingerprinting is unconstitutional” “Most geothermal energy is stored in impermeable hot rocks. Fracturing them allows water in to heat up” ARE biomedical scientists becoming more dishonest? That’s one way to read a new analysis, which concludes that retractions for fraud or suspected fraud have increased tenfold since 1975. Arturo Casadevall of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and his colleagues studied the 2050 papers listed as retracted on the PubMed database of biomedical papers. The database references 25 million papers published since the 1940s. Some of the 2050 papers are explicitly listed as fraudulent, but for others, the reason for the retraction is vague. Information from media reports and the watchdog Retractionwatch.com revealed that at least 158 of these vague retractions were actually due to fraud, suggesting that the extent of the problem was underestimated in earlier assessments (PNAS, doi.org/jf5). 60 SECONDS –A rover runs through it– For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news
