13 October 2012 | NewScientist | 7

non-critical supplies as a trial run. This time, it carries food, clothes and life-support gear as well as equipment for US, Japanese and European experiments on the ISS.

This is the first of 12 contracted cargo runs for NASA, worth $1.6 billion in total, but it’s not yet clear what the engine problem with the Dragon’s Falcon 9 launch rocket means for SpaceX’s future. It doesn’t seem to have affected the main mission and, as New Scientist went to press, engineers were checking whether the mislaid prototype communications satellite could propel itself to the target orbit.

Lethal fungusAN OUTBREAK of fungal meningitis has infected 91 people in the US and killed nine, while 13,000 could be at risk. It has been linked to contamination of a steroid drug sold across 23 states.

The New England Compounding Center (NECC) in Framingham, Massachusetts, which produces the steroid, has recalled 17,676 vials and is working with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to find the source of contamination.

Meningitis is a potentially fatal inflammation of the brain or spinal cord, most often caused by bacteria or viruses. In the current outbreak, however, it appears two fungal species are to blame.

Compounding pharmacies normally combine drugs prepared elsewhere to create bespoke versions for individual patients. But some, like the NECC, have moved on to produce drugs on a larger scale. They are exempt from standard FDA regulations.

The FDA has sought to restrict such pharmacies from advertising their products but the Supreme Court overturned this in 2002. A spokesperson for the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists said questions should be asked about why the NECC was engaged in the wholesale production of a prescription drug.

Reactors assessedIT IS just as well that earthquakes and tsunamis are rare in Europe, because the continent’s nuclear power plants are ill-equipped to cope with them, a new report says.

Commissioned in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group’s report assesses Europe’s reactors.

Of 145 reactors checked, 81 had inadequate equipment for coping with earthquakes or floods, and 24 lacked backup emergency control rooms. A total of 32 had no venting systems that would work if the

primary cooling system failed. In spite of these issues, the

report says that overall the reactors operate safely. Still, EU energy commissioner Günther Oettinger stressed “there is no room for complacency”. All

countries have until the end of 2012 to produce an action plan.

Meanwhile, reactors in Japan may soon come back online – if regulators deem them safe.

“Nuclear reactors in the EU operate safely, but many are ill prepared to cope with a major disaster”

HOME-GROWN wheat could be the solution to a growing hunger problem in sub-Saharan Africa.

The region is one of the few in which the number of undernourished people is rising, bucking a global trend. But a new analysis suggests wheat production there falls a long way short of what’s possible.

A UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report concludes that the number of chronically undernourished people in the world has dropped in the last four years. Africa is the only region where the number has actually risen – by 20 million over the same period. The FAO says that agricultural growth there is essential.

Wheat could be the answer, say

researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center. At a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this week they presented an analysis of 12 sub-Saharan countries. They conclude that in areas where conditions favour wheat growing, the yields are only hitting 10 to 25 per cent of their potential.

“[Extra wheat] would free locals from dependence on markets, where the price can rise by 50 per cent in a few months,” says Hans-Joachim Braun, head of the centre’s global wheat programme. Braun says African ministers have contacted him saying they want to grow wheat. The FAO report gives broad-brush guidance on where this might be feasible.

Africa’s underused breadbasket

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It’s the economy, CupidThe US’s fertility rate is on the decline. A report published last week by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in 2011 the average number of children per woman of child-bearing age was 1.9, down from 2.1 in 2008. The figures may be linked to the economic downturn, with couples delaying having kids, and having fewer.

CaliwolficationWolves could become a protected species in California, after the state’s Fish and Game Commission voted to accept a petition to do so. While wolves have returned to several northern US states, the Californian population currently numbers just one: a wolf called OR-7 who entered the state from Oregon late last year.

Bouncing bot upgradeJapan’s next attempt at asteroid sampling, the probe Hayabusa 2, will carry a beefed-up version of its previous bouncing robot. The German-built Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) will launch with the mission in 2014, the German space agency announced on 1 October.

Sold: Tesla’s labFans of Nikola Tesla planning to build a museum dedicated to the inventor have purchased the site of his former Wardenclyffe laboratory in Shoreham, New York. The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe group raised the necessary $1.4 million this year thanks to online crowdfunding.

Predicting reading skillsAbility to read may depend on the stage of a child’s brain development. So suggest the results of brain scans taken over a 3-year period that showed children aged 7 to 12 with above-average reading skills initially had less-developed white matter that increased, while white-matter development declined in children with below-average reading skills (PNAS, doi.org/jg3).

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