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13 April 2013 | NewScientist | 5

competed to demonstrate their climate-sceptic credentials. To find out if their potential voters agreed, Maibach and researchers at Yale University polled 726 voters who identified themselves as Republicans or independents leaning towards the party.

Only 52 per cent thought climate change was happening, but 62 per cent said the US should take steps to address the issue – suggesting that even some who are unsure about climate change still think it’s worth responding to the potential threat. Seventy-seven per cent thought the US should use more renewable energy.

Family planningWHETHER it’s morning sickness or the morning-after pill, women in the US now have more options.

Emergency contraception could be available over the counter to all within a month following a federal court ruling last week. The US Food and Drug Administration has been ordered to lift restrictions that forbid the sale of emergency contraception to women under 17 without a prescription, and to women over 17 unless they have ID. If the FDA doesn’t appeal, women will be able to buy the drug in pharmacies.

The FDA also has good news for pregnant women with morning sickness. Diclegis, the first drug to combat the condition for 30 years, was approved this week – a bold decision given the harm caused by thalidomide, another anti-nausea drug, which resulted in widespread limb deformities in fetuses before it was withdrawn 50 years ago.

Diclegis was originally sold by a different manufacturer in 1956 under the trade name Bendectin but was withdrawn in 1983 because the company couldn’t afford to fight a lawsuit challenging the drug’s safety. However, a trial in 261 women has now convinced the FDA that the drug works and is safe.

Planet hunt grows“IT’S time to find out what the rest of the houses in the neighbourhood look like.”

No, not the words of a diligent homebuyer but of Natalie Batalha, one of the planet-hunting team behind the Kepler space telescope. This week NASA unveiled Kepler’s successor, TESS, which will be the first telescope to scan the entire sky for planets around nearby stars.

Since its launch in 2009, Kepler has been staring at a single patch of sky. It has confirmed the existence of more than 100 exoplanets and discovered

thousands of candidates. Due to launch in 2017, the

$200 million Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite will increase the speed and range of the search, using an array of wide-field cameras to scan around

2 million of the closest stars. TESS’s haul could reach 1000 planets in the first two years, hopefully including a few with promising atmospheres to scan for life.

“TESS’s haul could reach 1000 planets in two years, hopefully including a few to scan for life”

BRACE yourself: global warming is going to be a bumpy ride – literally.

On average, 1 per cent of a transatlantic flight today is spent flying through moderate to extreme clear-air turbulence. This develops when air at one altitude is travelling faster than the air below.

Paul Williams at the University of Reading, UK, and colleagues used climate models to work out whether this figure is likely to rise as carbon dioxide levels increase. They show that high-altitude atmospheric jet streams will accelerate as CO2 levels climb. This acceleration, relative to the air below, will lead to more turbulence at the cruising altitude of transatlantic flights.

The models also suggest that

the jet streams will migrate slightly northwards, shifting the patch of the most severe turbulence right into the path of many flights (Nature Climate Change, doi.org/k4m).

The team calculated that if CO2 levels double relative to pre-industrial levels – an event projected to occur by 2050 if current emission trends continue – it could lead to the strength of turbulence increasing by between 10 and 40 per cent, and an increase in the frequency of moderate to extreme turbulence of between 40 and 170 per cent.

On an 8-hour flight today, that would mean an increase from 5 minutes to up to 13.5 minutes. It could cost the aviation industry dear, by accelerating aircraft wear and tear.

Turbulent skies ahead for flyers

–Fasten your seat belts-

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Thinning on topMen with extensive hair loss on the crown may be at increased risk of heart disease. Researchers who analysed studies involving 36,990 men say that baldness may be associated with a condition linked to heart disease, such as inflammation (BMJ Open, doi.org/k5j).

Grapevine travelsMon dieu! Sharp declines in production triggered by climate change are expected in some of the world’s finest wine-producing regions, including Bordeaux, France. By 2050, a hotter, drier climate may shift grape growers to new terrain, such as in Tasmania, the UK or China (PNAS, doi.org/k5f).

Prostate problemsMen with prostate cancer who have a gene mutation called BRCA2 – often associated with breast cancer – should be treated as quickly as possible. So say researchers who found that tumours were more likely to spread in men with the faulty gene (Journal of Clinical Oncology, doi.org/k5k).

Methane fly-byWhen comet C/2013A1 buzzes Mars in 2014, it will engulf the planet in its methane-filled tail. Bad news for NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation, which are launching methane-analysing satellites into the Martian atmosphere this year. NASA worries that particles from the comet could damage the satellite, but still plans to launch on time.

Grease is the fuelIt should be the ultimate sustainable fuel, if our appetite for greasy food is anything to go by. Oil, grease and fat poured down London’s drains will be collected and used to drive a new power station. As well as providing enough energy for 40,000 homes, it should help cut the £1 million spent every month clearing drains blocked by fat from food manufacturers, households and restaurants.

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