25 May 2013 | NewScientist | 5

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THE Big Apple is cooking: climate change will increase the number of temperature-related deaths within decades.

A warmer climate means more extremely hot days in summer, and fewer extremely cold days in winter, leaving people more vulnerable in summer.

Radley Horton of Columbia University in New York has now calculated the net effect. He matched daily temperature data for Manhattan with death rates between 1982 and 1999, then used temperature forecasts to estimate future death rates. In all his 16 models, temperature-related deaths increased almost immediately (Nature Climate Change, doi.org/mkc).

New York is already taking action to protect its citizens from extreme heat, as part of a broader initiative called PlaNYC that aims to protect the city from climate change. The city is planting extra trees, painting roofs white and creating “cooling centres” where people can escape the worst of the heat. Many other mid-latitude cities will need to adapt, says Horton. “Efforts under way in New York City are a valuable example.”

Hot in the city

BULLSEYE, again. A new “self-aiming” rifle can help even a novice shooter hit targets up to 900 metres away. But critics are already warning of the potential consequences of allowing anyone to become a deadly sharpshooter.

The $22,000 weapon, a precision guided firearm, is made by TrackingPoint, based in Austin, Texas. It includes a computer that decides the best moment to fire, compensating for factors like

wind speed, arm shake and the bullet’s slight dip due to gravity.

When the beam from the gun’s laser illuminates the intended target, the user presses a button to make the rifle lock on to it. An algorithm then tracks the target as it moves, keeping the laser beam “painted” on the same point. It also increases the pressure required to pull the trigger, reducing it only when a perfect shot is expected – so the user fires at the right instant.

With such weapons in circulation, “there will be a lot of time and money spent figuring out how to secure any public area”, says Matthew Lang at Xavier

University in Cincinnati, Ohio. But Trevor Burrus, a specialist

in gun regulation at the Cato Institute, a think tank in Washington DC, says it would be odd to stop people buying a rifle because of its accuracy. “There is no reason to believe that this technology will be used less responsibly, especially with the exorbitant price tag,” he says.

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Causing a stinkDoctors hoping to perform a faecal transplant – replenishing a gut with healthy bacteria to treat infection and even Parkinson’s – must apply to the US Food and Drug Administration for an “investigational new drug application”. This will improve safety, but some are grumbling over the 30-day lag this imposes on treatment.

Second sightA man blinded by the degeneration of his retinal cells has had his sight restored in one eye after receiving a stem cell treatment. Human embryonic stem cells were turned into retinal pigment epithelial cells and then transplanted into his retina, as part of a trial by Advanced Cell Technology in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

Critternaut casualtiesThe space zoo has landed but many of the critternauts are dead. Russia’s Bion-M1 spacecraft took a range of animals into orbit to probe the biological effects of space travel. But when it returned to Earth after a month in orbit, most of the mice and all of the gerbils had perished. The geckos and snails survived but will be euthanised for study purposes.

Fukushima floodsIt’s the biggest remaining problem at Fukushima: each day, 400 tonnes of groundwater flood Japan’s stricken nuclear plant. Juan Carlos Lentijo of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who recently inspected the site, suggests pumping the groundwater out to sea before it leaks into the plant.

Shot in spaceCommercial spaceflight could be a boon to Hollywood. Upcoming sci-fi flick Newcomers will be shot aboard XCOR Aerospace’s Lynx spacecraft, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Though XCOR plans to offer tourist trips to sub-orbital space, it has yet to launch the Lynx.

–Too lethal for comfort?–

Sniping made easy

Bees buzz back

“New York is taking action to protect its citizens from extreme heat by planting trees and painting roofs”

“ The rifle’s computer compensates for factors like wind speed, arm shake and the bullet’s slight dip”

IT’S a rare piece of good news for pollinators. In Europe, wild insects and plants are bouncing back after decades of decline.

The years between 1950 and 1989 saw drastic decreases in the range of species in Belgium, the UK and the Netherlands. But since 1990, lost or new species have appeared, indicating that for many, the decline has halted.

The diversity of bumble bee species had tumbled by 30 per cent, but it has now stabilised in Belgium and the Netherlands, and slowed to a 10 per cent decline in the UK between 1990 and 2009. The range of solitary bee species rose over the same period, and hoverfly and wild plant species stopped declining (Ecology Letters, DOI: 10.1111/ele.1 2121).

It could be a sign that farming is becoming less intensive, says co-author Bill Kunin of the University of Leeds, UK.

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