Highest scope opens its infrared eyes
After 26 years of planning and construction, the world’s highest telescope began operating in Chile this week, offering a rare opportunity to make ground-based observations far into the infrared part of the spectrum. The University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory’s (TAO’s) 6.5-meter telescope is not especially large but benefits from its lofty position 5560 meters high on Cerro Chajnantor, a peak in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. Moisture in the atmosphere blocks much of the infrared spectrum, and telescopes equipped to record it—such as NASA’s JWST—are often launched into space.
But at TAO, the air is bone dry, with little atmosphere to peer through. That will allow astronomers to conduct long, detailed observations of phenomena such as planets coalescing around newborn stars and black holes forming at the center of galaxies. The heavily subscribed JWST is not accommodating such lengthy studies.
No charges against image sleuth
A prosecutor in France has declined to pursue criminal allegations of threats and blackmail brought against scientific integrity consultant Elisabeth Bik by microbiologist Didier Raoult after Bik publicly critiqued about 60 of his papers. The prosecutor said in a letter to Bik that a probe had found insufficient evidence of wrongdoing. Raoult, whose work at the Hospital Institute of Marseille Mediterranean Infection is itself under criminal investigation in France for suspected violations of biomedical ethics laws, filed his complaint against Bik in 2021. He asserted that he was harassed by the avalanche of automatic emails he received when Bik and others commented on his articles on PubPeer, an online forum for feedback on scientific papers. Bik, who lives in California, says she is relieved at the outcome, and had not been intimidated by the legal threat: “It didn’t silence me.”
Philippine court blocks GM rice
In a setback for genetically modified (GM) crops, a Philippine court of appeals has revoked a permit allowing farmers to grow rice for consumption that had been genetically modified to produce vitamin A. The fortified Golden Rice targets vitamin A deficiency, which is common in developing countries and can cause blindness and impair disease resistance. In 2021, the Philippines became the first country to allow commercial cultivation of the GM crop, capping a decadeslong quest by its developers. But responding to a petition brought by a farmers’ group, Greenpeace Philippines, and others, the court found no consensus on its safety for human health and the environment. Its decision last month also blocks the commercialization of GM eggplant that resists insects. The government can ask the court to reconsider—although a reversal is considered unlikely—and can also appeal to the nation’s Supreme Court.
Maternal mortality rate dives
After reaching a historic high in 2021, the U.S. maternal mortality rate fell by 32% the following year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said this week. The rate, defined as the number of pregnancy-related deaths during gestation or in the 6 weeks after birth, was 22.3 for every 100,000 live births in 2022, down from 32.9 in 2021. Decreases occurred across all age, ethnic, and racial groups, although the drop for Asian women was not statistically significant. For Black women, who suffer the highest rates, it dropped from 69.9 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2021 to 49.5 in 2022. Specialists say the declines are almost certainly related to a drop in COVID-19–related deaths in 2022; the disease puts pregnant people at greater risk for death. The overall rate for 2022 was still above that of 2019 and more than double the level 2 decades ago. Some researchers recently attributed that rise largely to a CDC-led addition of a “pregnancy checkbox” on death certificates that they say artificially inflates the number of deaths recorded as related to pregnancy. The agency has defended the change as a remedy for previous undercounting and said the switch cannot explain all the increase.
Antibiotics overused in pandemic
A whopping 75% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 received antibiotics even though only 8% had bacterial coinfections that warrant their use, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO). Doctors often give antibiotics to err on the side of caution, but that’s not recommended unless there’s evidence of a bacterial infection; overuse of the drugs can exacerbate the development of antibiotic resistance. The findings, presented on 27 April at a meeting in Spain, come from WHO’s Global Clinical Platform for COVID-19, which contains data about 450,000 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in 65 countries between January 2020 and March 2023. WHO says the numbers provide a new reminder of the need for more rational use of antibiotics, which will be discussed at a September meeting convened by the United Nations.
Bacteria could tame plastic waste
Researchers have developed a manufacturing method that seeds newly made plastic with bacteria that can digest and degrade the product after it is used and landfilled, potentially reducing the hundreds of millions of tons of waste plastic that foul Earth’s environment annually. A team at the University of California San Diego exposed batches of spores from a strain of Bacillus subtilis bacterium to rounds of successively higher temperatures. The survivors evolved to withstand temperatures up to 135°C, the level at which many plastic materials are shaped during manufacturing. The scientists mixed dormant spores with pellets of a thermoplastic polyurethane—which is used to make products as varied as shoes and automotive parts—then melted the pellets to create strips and placed them in soil, as would be found in a landfill. The spores awakened and degraded 90% of the plastic within 5 months, the researchers report this week in Nature Communications. Although they haven’t yet studied what chemicals and microplastic might get left behind, they note that any lingering spores are likely harmless, as B. subtilis is commonly used in probiotics and considered safe to humans, animals, and plants.
Rare report of clinical trial cost
A large clinical trial that ushered in a new global regimen for treating drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) cost only €34 million to conduct, an order of magnitude less than published estimates of other trials’ costs based on pharmaceutical industry data, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF). The group last week made the rare disclosure of an individual clinical trial’s price tag at a World Health Organization conference on pharmaceutical pricing. Previous studies have reported average overall trial costs across groups of trials and used proprietary industry data that cannot be scrutinized. MSF says its disclosure, to be published in greater detail in a journal, should spur trial sponsors to routinely reveal their costs, which are often cited to justify high drug prices. The group also launched an online toolkit for sponsors to calculate these costs. MSF’s clinical trial of the anti-TB drug bedaquiline in combination with other drugs, described in a 2022 paper, was stopped early because its efficacy and safety strikingly surpassed standard-of-care treatment.
Indigenous-led sanctuary honored
A marine sanctuary off British Columbia established and maintained by an Indigenous group has won recognition for its science-based management. The nonprofit Marine Conservation Institute last month named Gitdisdzu Lugyeks, a 33-square-kilometer preserve created in 2022 by the Kitasoo Xai’xais First Nation, as one of its Blue Parks, a network now comprising 30 marine sanctuaries in 23 countries; the British Columbia reserve is the only Indigenous-led one. Also known as Kitasu Bay, it contains a herring spawning ground, whales, seabirds, and other wildlife. The Blue Parks network promotes biodiversity and sustainable management in marine protected areas, and Kitasoo Xai’xais leaders have vowed to pursue those aims using traditional knowledge and the latest marine science. They utilized their tribal authority to declare and manage the sanctuary after failing to secure the designation from Canada’s government.
