New Scientist Magazine Press Release

A BODY REPAIR KIT FROM YOUR OWN BLOOD
A small company in London, called TriStem, claims to be able to turn human blood cells into cells capable of regenerating worn out, damaged or diseased tissues including heart, nerve, muscle and bone. If TriStem’s method really can produce such a wide range of cells, its potential would be huge and could revolutionise medicine. The company has so far provided proof that it can turn white blood cells into the blood-generating stem cells found in bone marrow. Yet, their astounding claims have been met with disbelief by researchers and experts. Pages 6-7

WANTED: PEOPLE TO TEST ORGASMATRON
In February 2001, New Scientist broke the news of an electronic spinal implant that can trigger the same effect for women who have an inability to achieve an orgasm naturally. We can now report that clinical trials of the “orgasmatron” have begun in the US. The surgeon who invented the device says one woman has successfully completed the first stage of the trial, in which wires were connected through the skin and into the woman’s spinal cord. The married woman who responded to his call for volunteers was said to have been “instantly aroused” when the device was switched on. Page 11

FIRST GENE THERAPY APPROVED
For the first time, a gene-therapy based treatment has been approved by regulatory authorities. The cancer therapy treatment, called Gendicine, has been approved by China’s medicines authority, after promising results on head and neck squamous cancers in a clinical trial. Page 13

BEAR BONES HINT AT OSTEOPOROSIS TREATMENT
Bears are able to stop their bones from degenerating during hibernation and wake with bones as strong as ever. It seems they recycle waste calcium by putting it back on their bones during their three to five-month hibernation. The finding, by American researchers, could lead to new therapies for human bone loss (osteoporosis) which is often caused by a lack of physical activity or enforced rest. Page 13

LONE PLANETS MAKE IT JUST LIKE STARS
Planets can be spawned by the same process that makes stars. Astronomers have discovered a developed planet floating alone in a star nursery without a parent star. Until recently, it was thought that planets only build up from gas and dust swirling around a newborn star. Page 10

GENETIC PATTERN EMERGES
Genes are not scattered randomly across our genome as we thought. Instead, British biologists have shown that genes are clustered according to their pattern of expression. Understanding the benefits of genes being in certain stretches of DNA could one day help biologists attempting gene therapy. Page 9

THERE’S LIFE IN THE OLD MARTIAN VOLCANOES YET
It has been assumed that the volcanoes on Mars were long dead. But new analysis of pictures suggests that the Martian volcano Olympus Mons erupted less than 10 million years ago, and that any one of the volcanoes littering the surface of Mars could erupt again sometime in the distant future. Page 12

WILL EUROPE BE NEXT ON MOON?
If you had billions to spend on sending humans into space, where would you send them? When the European Space Agency posed this question to a panel of independent experts, they were surprised by their answer. The panel thought that while missions to Mars would be exciting, trips to the Moon would be Europe’s best bet. Page 9

BOOBY-TRAP PATENT THWARTS SPAMMERS
The US Patent office last week granted telecoms firm AT&T a patent which means spammers can now be sued if they try to fool anti-spam filters running on mail servers. The firm have been criticised for giving away too much information on how spam filters work, but AT&T says that its move will benefit Internet users in the long run by stopping spammers coming their way. Page 20

END OF THE SQUEEZE TEST
A label that changes colour as fruit ripens is allowing shoppers to see whether pears are ready to eat – without having to squeeze, and possibly damage them. The colour of the label responds to changing concentrations of volatile compounds that fruit emit as they ripen.
Page 20

FEATURES:-

THE POWER OF MUSIC - Who Could live without it?
This week New Scientist has a special section on the power of music:-
Music affects us all in a very powerful, emotional way - but why? Psychologist John Sloboda explains that if you manipulate music in the ways in which speech is manipulated to express emotion, then music sounds emotional too. And emotions kick in when the environment around you changes in ways that are important to you (falling in love, the death of a loved one). Pages 40-42

We also visit a music therapy centre to see how this vital form of communication can heal. Page 43

And Michael Bond hears exactly how it feels to write music. He talks to the Greek composer Vangelis, who wrote the scores for the films Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire, as well as Mike Stock, part of the trio who wrote more chart hits than anyone alive, Stock, Aitken and Waterman. Pages 44-49

THE SECRET IS OUT
Cryptographers claim that the very first quantum network will give 100 per cent security. Yet, the company responsible for the first attempt at quantum communication is discovering potential hacks that designers never even dreamed of. Pages 24-27

MAKING WAVES
One researcher believes that his experiments with a bucket full of spinning water can convince weather forecasters to change the way they calculate values of temperature and pressure. There is initial evidence to prove that by introducing random numbers to stand in for randomly varying physical events you can improve long-term forecasting. Pages 30-33

TAMING THE BEAST
Try and kill bugs with antibiotics and they are likely to evolve resistance to the treatment. But by saying to the bug “No, you can’t stay here”, you could sidestep the development of bacterial resistance. The hope is that this new kinder treatment, called anti-adhesion therapy, will prevent bacteria from clinging to the cells of the body – and stop infection. Pages 34-37

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