Another climate change report
scheduled to be released Friday


The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change brings together hundreds of the world’s leading scientists to study the effects of human activity on the Earth’s climate, the impact of climate change on the environment and civil society and ways to mitigate its effects.

Since 1990 the panel has issued four assessments; the fifth is due out Friday. The panel reports help governments and others make more informed decisions on climate issues.

The Fifth Assessment Report will be released in stages over the next year, beginning with an analysis of the physical science of climate change. The report is said to be a consensus of how and why the climate is changing and how it might change in the future.

“It will look at changes in the temperature of the atmosphere and oceans, changes in storms, rainfall patterns, droughts, and other extreme weather events, and the consequences of changes in glaciers and ice sheets for sea level rise," said Alden Meyer, a policy analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists. "It will also assess the contributions to these changes from both human activities and natural factors.”

The report synthesizes peer-reviewed studies on climate change science released since the last report in 2007. It is an immense task that has engaged hundreds of authors, editors and reviewers from 47 countries. Meyer doesn’t expect any startling new findings.

“But it will validate and reinforce the findings of previous IPCC reports with probably an increased level of confidence in some areas,” Meyer said. 
   
James McCarthy played a lead role in the Third Assessment Report released in 2001. The Harvard oceanographer says that since the fourth report, climate science has advanced significantly. Much more is known, for example, about the heat content of the ocean, he says, as reflected in data from an immense array of floats in the world’s oceans.

“The ocean heat content has been steadily increasing over the last 20 years and although earlier data would have allowed us to make a statement like that, the precision, coming from these 3,500 floats, allows us to say this with much greater confidence," McCarthy said.

Also, McCarthy adds, a lot more is now known about the accelerated loss of ice from Greenland and Antarctica, and the projection of sea level rise connected to that loss. 

“If the ice melts on Greenland and Antarctica, how much will sea level rise? We’ll see now in the calculations for projected sea level rise that we didn’t see in 2007," he said. "So this will be a big improvement for people who are indeed looking with increasing concern at what might happen in coastal areas.” 

A draft version of the report leaked to the media last month states that the planet has warmed at a rapid pace since the 1950s and that it is extremely likely, 95 percent likely, that humans caused more than half of the observed changes, including melting snow and ice, sea level rise and climate extremes.
       
Climatologist Heidi Cullen with the non-profit group Climate Central says if that degree of certainty remains in the language of the report it will be significant.

“I think that with this report coming out, a statement like 95 percent certainty that human influence on climate is a result of our actions, that statement in and of itself, is quite profound," Cullen said. "We have altered the planet. Our actions have altered the planet, and we’re about as precise as you can get, as confident as you can get in that."

The Fifth Assessment Report will be released in Stockholm, followed by reports in 2014 on the impact of climate change and what can be done about it.

 
NASA comet probe declared
to be lost and silent in space


NASA is calling off attempts to find its Deep Impact comet probe after a suspected software glitch shut down radio communications in August, officials said.

The spacecraft was launched in January 2005 for a close-up study of Comet Tempel-1.

It was not just a passive experiment. The probe released an 820-pound (372-kg) metal slug that crashed into the comet's nucleus, triggering a shower of particles for analysis by the mother spacecraft and remote observatories.

Deep Impact continued its comet quest with a flyby of Hartley 2 in November 2010 and long-distance studies of other bodies, including the approaching Comet ISON. The spacecraft was also used to look for planets beyond the solar system.

NASA last heard from Deep Impact Aug. 8. Engineers suspect a software problem caused the spacecraft to lose its orientation system, cutting off radio contact with Earth in the process.

After a month of fruitless attempts to find the probe, NASA Friday announced it was formally ending the mission.

“Despite this unexpected final curtain call, Deep Impact already achieved much more than ever was envisioned,” Lindley Johnson, who oversees the program at NASA headquarters in Washington, said in a statement.

University of Maryland astronomer Michael A'Hearn, who led the Deep Impact science team, said in a separate statement: “I'm saddened by its functional loss. But, I am very proud of the many contributions to our evolving understanding of comets that it has made possible.”

“These small, icy remnants of the formation of our solar system are much more varied, both one from another and even from one part to another of a single comet, than we had ever anticipated,” said A'Hearn.

NASA had hoped Deep Impact would play a key role in observations of the approaching Comet ISON, a suspected first-time visitor to the inner solar system that was discovered in September 2012 by two Russian astronomers.

The comet is heading toward a close encounter with the sun in November, a brush that it may not survive.

Later this month, NASA's Mars Curiosity rover and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will attempt to catch a glimpse of the comet as it flies by Mars.


Smoking creates a DNA legacy
for four generations, study says


According to a new study, women who smoke while pregnant not only increase the risk that their children and grandchildren will develop asthma, but also that their great-grandchildren will face a higher risk for the sometimes deadly lung ailment. The findings come at a time when the number of asthma cases worldwide is climbing.

Experts have known for some time that women who smoke during pregnancy increase their non-smoking offspring’s and grandchildren's risk of developing asthma.

That’s because nicotine appears to make changes to DNA, creating a biological legacy, according to Virender Rehan, a neonatologist and biomedical researcher at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in California.

“And we speculate ... on how nicotine might be affecting lung development in subsequent generations,” said Rehan.

Now comes the latest finding by Rehan and colleagues, suggesting expectant mothers who smoke also may transmit asthma to their non-smoking great-grandchildren.

In a study of pregnant rats, investigators gave the rodents daily injections of nicotine for almost three weeks until they gave birth.

A second group of pregnant rats received placebos or injections of an inactive substance. All of the rat pups were allowed to breast feed as much as they wanted before being weaned.

The young rats from the original mothers were then bred for up to three generations. At no time were any of these rodents exposed to nicotine.

Scientists next conducted a series of tests similar to those given to humans to diagnose the lung ailment. Rehan says the offspring of all of the rats exposed to nicotine showed signs of asthma.

“This is very well established that this is seen in the pups of the generation which is directly affected by nicotine. But the key findings of this study that we’ve taken not only the directly exposed generation, but to subsequent generation and then subsequent generation.”

Experts say some 300 million people around the world suffer from asthma, a condition sometimes requiring emergency medical care when the airways become inflamed and swell rapidly in reaction to triggers including dust, pollen or medications, causing a serious narrowing of the airways. The number of asthma sufferers is expected to climb to 400 million by 2025.

An article on smoking’s effect on the great-grandchildren of pregnant women is published in the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology.


Deadly Middle East virus
seen moving among species


Genetic analysis of samples of the deadly MERS virus that has killed 58 people in the Middle East and Europe shows the disease has jumped from animals to humans several times, scientists said.
 
At least 132 people have been infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus since it emerged about a year ago, and it has killed 58 of them, according to the World Health Organization.
 
While cases have been reported in people across the Middle East and in France, Germany, Italy, Tunisia and Britain, the vast majority of infections and deaths are in Saudi Arabia.
 
After conducting genome sequencing studies of the virus — from the same coronavirus family as the one that caused SARS a decade ago, British and Saudi researchers found several infection transmission chains and said they painted a picture of what they called lively pathogenic chatter between species.
 
“Our findings suggest that different lineages of the virus have originated from the virus jumping across to humans from an animal source a number of times,” said Paul Kellam, a professor of viral pathogenesis at Britain's Sanger Institute and University College London, who led the research.
 
His team sequenced and analyzed the genomes of MERS-CoV samples taken from 21 patients from across Saudi Arabia. They then combined the geographic locations of the patients with the time they were infected and the amount of genetic differences seen between the virus genomes.
 
This led them to what they called a “higher resolution picture of how the virus has spread and how its genome has changed over time.”
 
While the findings, published in the Lancet medical journal, cannot help scientists predict how likely MERS is to become more easily transmissible in people — and how likely to cause a human pandemic — they should help health experts develop more effective infection control measures to limit its spread.
 
The virus, a cousin of the coronavirus that caused a deadly outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002 and 2003, can cause coughing, fever and pneumonia.
 
As yet no firm evidence has been found on the so-called animal reservoir of MERS, although several recent studies have linked it to bats and to dromedary camels.
 
Various groups of scientists are conducting studies of other potential reservoir species, including goats, sheep, dogs, cats, rodents and others.
 
Ziad Memish, Saudi's deputy minister of health and one of the researchers on this latest study, said pinning down the animal source or sources would be critical in allowing health authorities to get on top of the outbreak.
 
Researchers and health officials say they take some solace from evidence showing that while the virus can spread from person-to-person, it does not do so easily and doesn't appear to be gaining a firm foothold as a human disease.
 
“Two mass gathering events attracting over 8 million pilgrims have occurred in Mecca, Saudi Arabia since the discovery of MERS-CoV 12 months ago — the annual haj in October 2012 and the July 2013 Ramadan Umrah season — and yet no MERS-CoV cases have been reported from these events to date,” said Ali Zumla, a professor of infectious diseases, who also worked on the study.
 
He added, however, that “despite the current minimal risk of global spread” and in the light of these latest genetic findings, “watchful surveillance and vigilance is required.”

 
iPhone release brings crowds
but no jump in Apple stock


Thousands of iPhone enthusiasts queued up at Apple, Inc., stores around the world Friday as two new models of the smartphone went on sale, but Apple's shares ended slightly lower as investors wait for initial sales figures, due as early as next week.
   
Long lines formed outside stores in Sydney, Tokyo, New York, San Francisco and other cities as Apple broke with tradition and launched two iPhone models, the new top-of-the-line 5S and the less-expensive 5C, on the same day.
   
Apple watchers said early signs pointed to more demand for the 5S than last year's new model. But some cautioned that the size of the crowds this year may not be an accurate gauge because consumers were unable to order the more expensive model online ahead of time, as with previous launches.
   
"While it is likely some of this line is due to not having an early pre-order option for the 5S, we still believe it shows loyalty to the iPhone remains strong among Apple's installed base," said ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall. He estimates Apple will sell about 6 million units in the first three days.
   
Apple sold more than 5 million of the previous iPhone 5 units during its opening weekend last year.
   
A survey done by Piper Jaffray of 416 customers standing in lines outside of stores in New York, San Francisco and Minneapolis found that 95 percent of the people were planning to buy the 5S. Gene Munster, analyst with Piper Jaffray, estimates Apple will sell 5 million to 6 million iPhones over the weekend.
   
While Apple's stock dipped 1 percent by the close of trade, shares of Avago and TriQuint ended higher after they were identified as component suppliers for the new models.
   
The gold-colored version of the 5S, which also comes in silver and gray, was already sold out as of Friday and will now ship only in October, according to Apple's Web site. The gray and silver versions can still ship in 7 to 10 days.

Supplies of both the new models has been disappointing, a source at a U.S. wireless carrier said.


Synthetic molecule tricks
AIDS virus into suicide


Researchers have designed a synthetic molecule that tricks the AIDS virus into destroying itself. The compound, called DAVEI, was developed by researchers at Philadelphia’s Drexel University and causes the deadly pathogen to eject its contents before it can infect human cells.
 
The AIDS virus uses protein spikes on its surface to fuse to healthy cells.  Once attached, the microbe inserts its genetic material, turning the cells into little factories that crank out thousands of copies of HIV.
 
But DAVEI hijacks the virus, mimicking its interaction with immune system cells.  DAVEI binds to the pathogen's outer coat, triggering a firing mechanism that breaches the wall of the AIDS virus, according to Irwin Chaiken, a researcher in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Drexel’s College of Medicine.
 
Explaining how DAVEI works, Chaiken said, “so that the contents that are inside the virus that are small enough to go through the pores will go through the pores and leak out.  And at that point, the virus shrinks and it becomes inactivated.”
 
DAVEI was designed by Cameron Abrams, a professor of engineering at Drexel. Abrams envisions using the synthetic agent in a microbicide, a cream or gel that women can use vaginally to protect themselves from contracting the disease from their HIV-infected partners.
 
“And so this we think this would benefit primarily populations in sub-Saharan Africa where male-to-female transmission is very high rate, young women are being infected at a very high rate.  That’s extremely detrimental to those societies,” said Abrams.
 
Abrams also says DAVEI might be used someday as a treatment for those who are HIV positive by destroying infected cells.
 
“In an active infection in an individual, there are cells that are continuously producing virus.  And if those cells could be destroyed before they produce a lot of virus that obviously would be very good,” Abrams pointed out.
 
Researchers say much more work needs to be done with DAVEI and compounds like it before actual anti-HIV therapies could be developed.  An article on the manmade molecule was published in the October edition of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.


Germany's Ms. Merkel seems
to have won a third term


Partial results in Germany's elections show Chancellor Angela Merkel on her way to a third term in office with voters close to awarding her conservatives a historic absolute majority in parliament.

Projections by ARD and ZDF television put Merkel's Christian Democrats at more than 42 percent of the vote, stronger than the combined opposition parties that won enough support to enter parliament.

If that result is confirmed by the final count, it would allow the chancellor's conservative bloc, the Christian Democratic Union and Bavarian Christian Social Union, to govern Germany without a coalition partner.

Center-left challenger Peer Steinbrueck's Social Democrats trailed well behind with up to 26.5 percent.

The polls put Merkel's coalition partners, the pro-business Free Democrats, at 4.7 percent, below the minimum five percent threshold to keep their seats in parliament. The Alternative for Germany, a new party calling for an orderly breakup of the 17-member eurozone, held at 4.9 percent, also uncertain of winning seats.

If the current coalition fails to win a parliamentary majority, the likeliest outcome is a switch to a Merkel-led partnership with the Social Democrats. The two are traditional rivals, but governed Germany together in Ms. Merkel's first term after an inconclusive 2005 election.

"This is a super result," Merkel told cheering supporters. "We will do everything together in the next four years to make them successful years for Germany."

Nearly 62 million Germans are eligible to elect the lower house of parliament, which in turn chooses the chancellor.

Merkel's nearly certain third term as chancellor cements her place in history as one of the longest-serving and most influential European leaders in the postwar era.

The election is being closely watched across the continent. In southern Europe and especially, Greece Germany continues to be vilified as the country that has forced austerity on the European Union, and many single out Chancellor Merkel.