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28 September 2013 | NewScientist | 7 “Many of the reductions are related to increases in the availability of antiretroviral therapy,” says Peter Ghys, at UNAIDS. Of everyone eligible for treatment globally, 61 per cent are now receiving ART – almost 10 million people in total. Ghys says other key factors include scaled-up programmes to prevent mothers with HIV passing the virus to their babies, and the increase of male circumcision programmes in Africa. Recent changes to eligibility rules mean an additional 10 million can now receive ART, raising hopes of further success. Vive le carbon tax AUSTRALIA may be out, but France is in. Two weeks after the new Australian government scrapped its carbon tax, France has announced that from next year, fossil fuel use will be taxed and the money raised used to further reduce emissions. The tax will target transport fuels and domestic heating, as these are not covered by the continent-wide Emissions Trading Scheme that focuses on European energy and industry. The tax is predicted to raise €4 billion a year by 2016. “This is a positive move,” says Niklas Höhne, the director of energy policy at Ecofys in Cologne, Germany. France will become the seventh European country to have a carbon tax, after Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and the Republic of Ireland. “Australia backing off is not good news,” says Höhne. But many other countries are moving forward with carbon pricing schemes, including China. Australia’s new government also moved to disband its Climate Commission, which provided information on climate change. The commission’s employees say the body will live on as a non-profit funded by donations. Comet collusion COMET watchers just can’t catch a break. NASA has pronounced dead its most famous comet- watching spacecraft, Deep Impact, just as ISON, the so-called “comet of the century”, is shaping up to be a dud. But that’s not stopping an army of spacecraft gathering to watch as the comet begins its dive towards the sun this week. Deep Impact made a close-up study of comet Tempel 1 in 2005, and went on to observe ISON in 2012, when the comet looked like it would get bright enough to outshine the moon. But last month NASA lost contact with the craft, and then officially declared it lost. ISON’s early discovery means that spacecraft all over the solar system had a chance to gear up to watch its perilous trip. Orbiters around Mercury and Mars, rovers on Mars and even a balloon above Earth will watch the comet to see if it survives the journey. Some astronomers hope it will fracture, revealing fresh material inside. “An army of spacecraft is gathering to watch as comet ISON begins its dive towards the sun this week” EVEN turning it off and on again won’t work this time. A software glitch has delayed Cygnus’s arrival at the International Space Station. The uncrewed supply vehicle was due to become the second-ever private craft to dock with the ISS on 22 September, but its creators, Orbital Sciences, had to hold off after receiving GPS data from the station in the wrong format. Cygnus is using an older GPS format that is not compatible with a location system aboard the ISS. Cygnus had reached an altitude 4 kilometres below the station after successfully completing the first stages of its mission, but will now have to wait until its orbit realigns with the ISS to try again. Orbital Sciences, based in Dulles, Virginia, has developed a software patch to fix the problem and tested it on a ground-based simulator. The company will now upload the patch and test it in orbit before attempting to approach the ISS again. Orbital had hoped to retry on 24 September, but the arrival of a trio of astronauts in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft the next day meant the schedule was too tight. “It’s more of an embarrassing hiccup rather than any serious showstopper,” says Greg Sadlier, space analyst at consultancy firm London Economics. “It seems to be something that should have been predictable, but serves to underline the purpose of testing and demonstration flights.” Cygnus glitch isn’t rocket science -OK, let’s go round again- NASA/ORBITAL SCIENCES 60 SECONDS Pyongyang nukes North Korea can now make crucial components for constructing nuclear bombs without importing foreign parts. The claim was made at a conference this week in Seoul, South Korea, by Joshua Pollack, a consultant in Washington DC. Pollack says he has photographs and other evidence suggesting that the North Koreans can now make centrifuges for enriching uranium. Wrinkle pill vindicated For the first time, an anti-wrinkle pill has passed muster in a peer- reviewed journal. The “crow’s feet” around the eyes of women who took the pill for 14 weeks became 10 per cent shallower compared with those in women who took a placebo (International Journal of Cosmetic Science, doi.org/nxq). In-flight playback People in the US may soon be able to use ebook readers and iPods during take-off and landing if the US Federal Aviation Administration relaxes its rules on in-flight electronics this week. But a ban on using potentially interfering radio frequency services – like making calls and Wi-Fi access – is likely to remain in place. Shellfish off the menu “Sorry, we’re out of shellfish” could become a familiar refrain as coral reefs deteriorate. Using a database of 1300 species of crustacean, such as shrimp, crab and lobster, from the Mesozoic era, scientists found population crashes coincided with periods of reef collapse (Geology, doi.org/nxr). How many Earths? You might have wondered how many planets hosting life are out there. Help is at hand. Using data from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, we have made the first interactive map of the stars that could host roughly Earth-sized, potentially habitable planets. To explore the galactic map, go to bit.ly/howmanyearths. For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news
