5 June 2010 | NewScientist | 5

Chameleon particle

Avoiding cancer

“A protein made by cancerous breast cells prevented cancer in engineered mice”

YET another attempt is under way

to control the flow of oil from the

damaged Deepwater Horizon oil well.

As New Scientist went to press, BP

was taking a three-pronged approach

to the situation.

Last week’s efforts to plug the

leaking well head with mud failed

over the weekend. BP now hopes

to exploit the same pipes and

equipment but in reverse, to carry oil

to the surface. The company hopes

to have this up and running in the

next two weeks.

In addition, it is also seeking to

place a cap on the well head. The well

head is topped with a now infamous

“blowout preventer” (BOP) that

is allowing oil to flow into the sea

through a section of pipe that once

led to the surface and now lies

damaged on the seabed (see

diagram). As New Scientist went to

press, BP was preparing to saw this

pipe off where it meets the BOP. This

will clear the way for a cap that will sit

over the BOP and channel escaping

gas and oil through another pipe to

the surface.

Finally, BP is drilling two relief

bores into the leaking well, which

should channel some of the flow

away. The resulting reduction in

pressure at the main outpouring

should allow engineers to fit an

additional BOP on top of the first to

finally staunch the flow – an operation

BP hopes to complete by early

August. Despite previous setbacks,

BP is confident it will succeed.

BP’s three-pronged oil attack

FALLEN PIPE

below sea level

60 SECONDS

UK’s haste on drug ban

Drug control procedures in the UK

came under fire this week after a

toxicology report on two teenagers

said to have died from mephedrone –

cases instrumental in the imposition

of an emergency ban on the drug –

showed neither had actually taken it.

Quake alert

The US Pacific Northwest should

brace itself for a major earthquake. In

a US Geological Survey report, Chris

Goldfinger at Oregon State University

surveyed undersea landslides to

gauge how many quakes above

magnitude 8 have struck in the

past 10,000 years. Their frequency

suggests a 37 per cent chance that

there will be one within 50 years.

That light smells great

Who’d confuse blue light with the

aroma of rotting fruit? By adding a

light-sensitive protein to neurons

triggered by the smell, researchers

made fruit fly larvae do just that, and

the larvae crawled towards a bright

blue light (Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, DOI: 10.3389/

fnbeh.2010.00027)

Drunken teen monkeys

Binge-drinking monkeys are offering

clues to the toll that drinking takes

on the teen brain. Adolescent rhesus

macaques fed alcoholic drinks for an

hour a day for 11 months had fewer

stem cells in their hippocampuses,

the area responsible for memory and

spatial awareness (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0912810107).

Stormy weather

The north Atlantic will be unusually

stormy this summer, according to

the US government agency in charge

of seasonal hurricane forecasts. It

predicts that 2010 could be among

the most active years on record, with

three to seven major hurricanes of

category 3 to 5. In 2005, the region

was hit by seven major hurricanes,

including Katrina. The Pacific is

expected to be quieter than average.

For daily news stories, visit www.NewScientist.com/news

FALLEN PIPE

CAP

BOP

1. The fallen surface pipe is cut just above the blowout preventer (BOP) and removed

BP’s latest plan

2. A cap is placed over the top of the BOP to carry oil and gas to the surface

3. The pipes formerly used to pump mud into the well are used to carry oil and gas to the surface

4. Relief bores are drilled into the leaking well and a second BOP is placed over the first

1500 metres

below sea level

1

2

3