1
22 June 2013 | NewScientist | 5 STEPHEN PAKBAZ THE US says it has “high confidence” that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons. In an apparent policy shift last week, the White House says it will now provide military support to Syrian rebels. The decision follows mounting evidence such as the detection of isopropyl methylphosphonic acid in recent urine samples from Syria. This is a breakdown product that “can only come from sarin”, says Alastair Hay, a toxicologist at the University of Leeds, UK. In a statement, the White House notes that such results do not reveal who released the nerve agent, though it also says it has reports that Syrian officials planned such attacks. The sarin has killed some 100 to 150 people, suggesting very little of it was used. Why risk censure for little obvious military advantage? Its release could have been accidental, says Richard Guthrie, formerly with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in Sweden. Alternatively, attackers might have released small amounts alongside other chemicals to muddy the evidence for sarin. US: Syria used sarin CYBERSPACE really is full of hot air. Giant balloons floating 20 kilometres above Earth are set to beam internet access to remote areas. This is Google’s Project Loon, an ambitious attempt to connect the two-thirds of the world’s population without web access. The balloons, currently being trialled in New Zealand, deliver a coverage area of 1250 square kilometres as they pass overhead. Home computers connect to the closest balloon and the signal is then bounced from balloon to balloon, until it joins the internet back on the ground. Solar panels power the balloons’ electronics, storing energy in batteries. Google will rely on weather prediction to keep its balloons in the right place, moving them up and down to take advantage of different air currents. This will be tricky, says Mariya Zheleva, who works on wireless networks for remote developing regions. “A slight shift of the balloon due to wind can result in a major shift of the coverage area on the ground,” she warns. But there are more fundamental problems, says Stephane Boyera, an ICT development consultant formerly with the Web Foundation. “Connectivity is not the primary bottleneck in providing ICT services. The real problem is a lack of content that’s useful to people in developing countries, and the lack of Wi-Fi-compatible devices,” he says. JON SHENK/DPA/PRESS ASSOCIATION IMAGES Biggest brain yet The world’s largest artificial neural network was announced this week by researchers at Stanford University, California, and computer graphics company Nvidia. The network aims to model human learning and has 11.2 billion parameters that represent connections between neurons. Liquidated coldly Plankton got a shock in the second half of the dinosaur era: a bout of global cooling. Temperatures at the time were much hotter than today, but between 116 and 114 million years ago, the oceans cooled by 5 °C, killing off many plankton species (Nature Geoscience, doi.org/mw3). Plumage revised The iconic dino-bird Archaeopteryx has changed colour. X-rays of a fossil’s feathers – believed to be black like a crow’s – revealed lighter regions in the centre. The colour scheme wasn’t a fashion statement: dark pigments strengthen feathers, so were probably concentrated at the edges, where feathers suffer the most wear (Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectroscopy, doi.org/mw4). Closing in on child porn Google has launched a $2 million fund to develop better tools to wipe out child pornography. It has already created systems that fingerprint flagged images that are then shared across protection agencies and other search engines. The company now hopes to create tools that automatically flag images and remove them from search results. Farewell Herschel The world’s largest infrared space telescope has been laid to rest. The Herschel Space Observatory ran out of liquid helium in April, blinding it to wavelengths it was designed to see. After moving the spacecraft to a safe orbit around the sun, the European Space Agency signalled it to sever communications with Earth forever. –Whatever floats your net– Wi-Fi in the sky Catching its breath “Sarin may have killed up to 150 people in Syria. Why risk global censure for little obvious military gain?” “The signal is bounced from balloon to balloon, before joining the internet back on the ground” CHINA may soon breathe a little easier. The nation’s State Council has announced strict measures to cut the amount of air pollution pumped out by industry by nearly a third by the end of 2017. Heavy industries like steel manufacturing will have to replace outdated technologies and publish data on pollutants. The council also wants to cut the use of coal-fired boilers, which heat many apartment buildings. Owen Cooper of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colorado, calls the target ambitious. The challenge, he says, will be to cut pollutants fast enough to outpace China’s rapid economic growth. China made cuts to emissions between 1990 and 2005, but the economy grew so fast that pollution levels still rose (Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, doi.org/bg84fq). 60 SECONDS –Nuclear power pack not included– For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news
