Newswise — DRUGS, CRIME AND A CONSERVATION CRISISInvestigations by New Scientist suggest that illegal drug production and trafficking is a serious but largely neglected threat to conservation efforts in biodiversity hotspots. The problem is particularly rife along the drug smuggling routes of Latin America. Conservation officials appointed are finding it increasingly difficult to do their jobs because of threats of violence from drug runners, making certain sites too dangerous to visit. In other areas where drugs like opium or marijuana are grown, the disturbance can lead to endangered animals being displaced, or to their habitat being destroyed. And in some cases projects are being undermined by an epidemic of drug addiction among local people. NEWS Pages 6-8
SCANDAL GROWS OVER SUSPECT BODY PARTSRetrieving and supplying body parts for surgery is a billion-dollar business, but safety regulations which came into effect last year are still being breached. For the second time this year in the US, a firm which harvests body parts - including bone, tendon and heart valves - has been shut down because it failed to follow procedures intended to prevent bacterial contamination and errors in the medical histories of the donors. Legislation has been introduced to force all companies who deal with body parts to be accredited by the American Association of Tissue Banks. NEWS Page 10
DON'T USE IT, DON'T LOSE ITAny muscle gained during exercise soon withers away once you stop your workout or get ill. But imagine being able to take a pill that lets you keep those biceps you've built up, even after you've become idle. As well as being tempting to athletes and to the lazy, there are valid applications for a drug that prevents muscle wastage, and researchers are getting closer to developing one. Their aim is to tackle weakness in sick people confined to their beds, or for astronauts on long space trips, where loss of muscle becomes a serious problem. FEATURE Page 32-35
IT CAME FROM ANOTHER ZONEIt's easy to blame teenagers for staying up too late, and for having problems staying awake during their school classes, but according to scientists it's not their fault. Teenagers live in a different biological time zone to the rest of us, with their body clock shifted forwards so that they're more alert later in the day. Whatever the reason for this shift, it could be having a profound effect on teenagers' future prospects and health. FEATURE Pages 40-43
HOW TO KEEP FOOD BURSTING WITH GOODNESSHealth-conscious consumers can now buy food stuffed with added vitamins, minerals or omega-3 oils. There is, however, growing evidence that many of these ingredients degrade during storage or simply breakdown in the body before they've had a chance to deliver the good stuff. Now the food industry is investigating new technologies to protect these ingredients, including micro-encapsulation, a simple technique to protect fish-oils against the atmosphere and stomach acids. NEWS Pages 24-25
IT'S A REAL GEMWith every gem being unique, how do you describe an emerald or a ruby when words are vague and digital pictures aren't accurate enough? A gem software company in Israel has a new technique to record a jewel's exact colour using a unique colour map. The system could vastly improve buying and selling online as well as helping to spot stolen jewels. NEWS Page 23
ELEVATOR TO THE STARSForget noisy, expensive space rockets to take you into low-Earth orbit. Soon we may be able to take a gentle ride up an elevator reaching all the way into space. With backing from NASA, several entrepreneurs are going all out to build a workable space elevator which could climb a cable either built from the ground up, or deployed from a satellite downwards. But their biggest challenge will be finding a material for the cable that's strong enough not only to haul things into space but to survive the harsh space environment. FEATURE Pages 36-39
NORTH OF THE BIG BANGMagnetic fields that span whole galaxies are the last unexplored features of the universe. But perhaps more excitingly these cosmic fields are leaving astronomers clues about the nature of the universe mere instants after it was created. FEATURE Pages 28-31
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New Scientist is the world's leading science and technology news weekly, boasting a circulation of 165,000.
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