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12 January 2013 | NewScientist | 5 COMICON DE MONTRÉAL 2012 “WE WILL never satisfy everyone. Some will still feel some studies are too risky, while others feel the benefits outweigh the risk.” So says Tony Fauci, head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), regarding plans to allow research into potentially pandemic mutants of H5N1 bird flu to resume, possibly within weeks. Such studies were put on hold last year after two labs reported making H5N1 transmissible among mammals. Biosecurity experts warned that if the work was published, bioterrorists might create and use the virus, or that it could escape from labs repeating the experiments. Flu researchers declared a moratorium on studies that make H5N1 more contagious until rules on what could be published were agreed. This week NIAID will start finalising rules for referring proposals for such H5N1 research to teams of researchers and biosecurity experts, who will reject any deemed too risky to publish. The rules do not apply to work funded by non-US agencies. Global biosecurity will be discussed at a meeting in Geneva next month. Flu work to restart CANADA’S push to exploit oil-rich sandy rock formations is certainly controversial, but does it pose a health threat? A first analysis has found an increase in carcinogens in sediment from lakes near to the Athabasca oil sands in Alberta, though it is not yet clear if the pollution could make people ill. John Smol of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and colleagues analysed sediment cores from six lakes up to 90 kilometres north-west of Athabasca. Concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), well-known carcinogens, are between 2.5 and 23 times higher in the top layers of sediment than in layers laid down in 1960, at least 20 years before tar sand extraction began (PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1217675110). The type of PAHs has changed over that period too, from those typically generated by wood- burning to those originating from unburned petroleum, suggesting tar sand excavation was the culprit. Smol acknowledges that levels in the lakes they tested have yet to reach concentrations found in urban lakes. Nor did his team find any evidence of a substantial impact on fish or other aquatic life, such as plankton. But his analysis is the first to look at potential health threats from tar sand extraction. Previous studies found that tar sands increase the production of greenhouse gases and deplete ancient forests. JIRI REZAC/EYEVINE TB fight intensifies For the first time in 40 years, a new class of drug to combat tuberculosis has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Bedaquiline blocks an enzyme vital for energy production in multidrug- resistant TB bacteria, which infect 630,000 people globally each year. Shell’s Arctic blues The drilling rig that ran aground in the Arctic on 31 December has been towed to an Alaskan bay where it will stay until seaworthy again. None of the oil products inside have escaped, but this has not stopped activists from petitioning the US government to revoke Shell’s permit to drill off the coast of Alaska. RIP Kyoto 1.0 Fifteen years after its birth, the world’s first legally binding agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions ended last week. It lives on in the form of an agreement forged at the Doha climate talks. But with Russia, Japan, New Zealand and Canada pulling out, it only covers nations which contribute 14 per cent of global emissions, mainly the European Union and Australia. Stem cell acceptance It’s a good sign for those about to take part in the first human trials of induced pluripotent stem cells, which are adult cells reprogrammed to become other types of tissue. Transplanting these cells into mice produced negligible immune rejection (Nature, 10.1038/ nature11807). The human trials, planned for this year, hope to aid blindness and blood diseases. Black holes snapped NuSTAR, an X-ray telescope NASA launched six months ago, has sent back its first images – of two black holes and a supernova remnant. NuSTAR can see through the cosmic gas and dust that plague other X-ray telescopes, giving us a first peek at the high-energy cosmos. –Oil is not well in lakes nearby– Toxic tar sands No cure for bank ills “Any research proposals into mutant H5N1 bird flu that are deemed too risky will be rejected” “Carcinogen levels in six lakes were higher than measurements from 1960, before extraction began” IT IS like storm-proofing a building with a paper towel. From 2015, the world’s banks will be forced to keep a proportion of their assets in reserve, to prevent a repeat of the 2008 banking crisis. But economists say the rules will make little difference. Serafín Martínez Jaramillo of the Mexican Central Bank endorses the move but says it doesn’t allow for the fact that bad debts can spread through the economy and take down many banks at once. This was at the heart of the 2008 crisis. “You have to incorporate contagion.” Simone Giansante of the University of Bath, UK, has modelled the effects of such rules and found they barely reduce this risk (Social Science Research Network, doi.org/j59). Many economists say what’s needed is a system that can also identify threats ahead of time. 60 SECONDS –Real-life science fiction– For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news
