News in perspective

Upfront–

published a pamphlet detailing

how its irked members had

telephoned numerous companies

to ask how their products actually

worked. Some of the answers are

simply amusing, but others – for

example, herbal products that

claim to clear the body of 100

parasite species – shocked those

making the calls.

“The saddest part is that a lot

of people who buy these things

are desperately ill, perhaps with

cancer or multiple sclerosis,” says

pamphlet author Frank Swain. Yet

the firms “seemed completely

unprepared for anyone to take

issue with their products,” says

co-author Alice Tuff.

WE are on the brink of the “third

industrial revolution”, according

to José Manuel Barroso, president

of the European Commission –

who believes it means nations

may have to embrace nuclear

power.

Europe’s “low-carbon age” is

the revolution Barroso spoke of

last week at an energy conference

in Madrid, Spain. “Member

states cannot avoid the question

of nuclear energy,” he said,

following the commission’s

WHAT a difference a year makes.

Just 12 months ago, the British

government said it would

maintain a ban on creating

embryos that contain both animal

and human material. Now it

is proposing that regulatory

authorities be allowed to consider

the creation of four types of

hybrid embryo, including

so-called true hybrids.

In 1990, the Human

Fertilisation and Embryology Act

banned researchers from creating

hybrid embryos, but after a year

of consultation, the government

announced on 8 October its latest

plans to update this legislation.

The new proposals would allow

researchers to create “chimeras”

by adding animal cells to human

embryos, “cybrids” by replacing

the nuclear DNA of an animal egg

with human DNA, true hybrid

embryos by mixing human and

animal sperm and eggs, as well

as adding animal genes to

human embryos.

Parliament has yet to vote on

the issue but the Royal Society

and many researchers welcome

the government’s change in

position. “I anticipate that the

hybrid controversy will fade as

it did for heart transplantation,”

said Christopher Shaw of King’s

College London. He wants to

create animal-human cybrid

embryos to study motor neuron

disease. At present that can only

be done using human eggs, which

are very difficult to obtain.

However, whether it is possible

to create viable cybrid embryos

remains an issue, as attempts

outside the UK to grow them

have mainly failed.

WOULD you buy a compact disc

that claims to channel 34,000

homeopathic waves from your

computer into your body? Or a

skin patch that draws toxins out

of your body while you sleep?

No, thought not, but

apparently a lot people are being

taken in by the suspect claims

some manufacturers are making

for their unorthodox products –

claims being rubbished by a

group of young British scientists.

On 9 October, Sense about

Science, a charitable trust based in

London that works with 3000

young UK-based researchers,

Fancy heading down to the beach to

swim among a host of pathogens that

have come from human faeces? If not,

then steer clear of public beaches in the

US, because no one knows for sure what

levels of pathogens exist in the nation’s

bathing waters. “Current testing

practices are seriously flawed,” warns

public health expert Thaddeus Graczyk at

Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore,

Maryland.

Graczyk and colleagues sampled

water from Maryland’s beaches

on Wednesdays and Sundays for 11

consecutive weeks during the summer

of 2006. They tested for Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia lamblia, protozoans

in human faeces that can cause severe,

and sometimes fatal, gastrointestinal

problems. The pathogens lurked in

BEACH BUMS FOUL THE WATERS30 per cent of samples midweek,

but in almost 60 per cent at weekends –

levels strongly linked to the number of

bathers in the water (Applied and Environmental Microbiology,

DOI: 10.1128/AEM.00365-07).

Health inspectors usually test beach

waters during the week. “The water

should be tested when the numbers of

people are higher,” says Graczyk. “A lot

of beaches would be closed if they tested

on weekends.” Gracyzk suspects bathers

stir up sediment that already contains

the microbes, which enter recreational

waters primarily through human faeces,

either directly, through sewage or from

surface run-off after heavy rains. He will

present his findings next month in

Philadelphia at the American Society of

Tropical Medicine and Hygiene meeting.

SHAR

ON ST

ABLE

Y/NY

TIM

ES/R

EDUX

/EYE

VINE

–Flying the flag for nuclear power?–

JOE K

LAM

AR/A

FP/G

ETTY

“I anticipate the hybrid controversy will fade as it did for heart transplantation”

–Crappy waves await–

Hybrid U-turn Debunked!

Nuclear reactions

4 | NewScientist | 13 October 2007 www.newscientist.com

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