21 January 2012 | NewScientist | 5

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ONE of astronomy’s great orbiting observatories has breathed its last. On 14 January, the liquid helium cooling one of the Planck space telescope’s two photon

sensors ran dry, ending a mission to map the big bang’s echo.

The European Space Agency telescope has been measuring the cosmic microwave background (CMB) with unprecedented accuracy since 2009. The helium was due to run out when it did.

Planck’s data will help tease apart the large-scale structure of the universe and determine how it formed. It will also provide the most detailed views of nearer phenomenon, such as galactic dust and magnetic fields, which are superimposed on the spacecraft’s view of the CMB. This data will be released in early 2013, once it has been processed.

Planck is the last in a line of observatories studying the CMB, which date back to 1989. As yet, there is no successor. “We want to know what the spacecraft will reveal before planning the next mission,” says Jan Tauber of the European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwick, the Netherlands.

Death by helium

X dOESN’T mark the spot where pirates stash their loot, but the night-time glow of artificial lighting is a dead giveaway.

A satellite study has shown for the first time where Somali pirates may be putting their money. In a report for the London-based think tank Chatham House, Anja Shortland of Brunel University, London, says the pirates’ home towns of Garoowe and Boosaaso seem to be prospering.

She averaged a year of light readings from images of the area and found that the two towns’ glow has grown since 2008 – when piracy was on the rise and high food prices forced other towns to cut their electricity bills. Cattle prices also reveal more spending.

Somali custom means the pirates spend their loot on extended families rather than stashing it abroad – or in buried chests. However, the coastal settlements that pirates sail from are getting very little: they don’t emit enough light even to show up in the night-time images.

Those trying to end piracy could exploit coastal frustration,

says Shortland. They should offer alternative industries that could be more attractive than helping the pirates. Local government officials dispute the findings.

Paradoxically, cracking down on the pirates’ home towns would cut an important source of income in one of the poorest of nations, says Shortland, and just make the root problem – poverty – worse.

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Monthly pain reliefAnecdotal tales that the pill eases period pain have been given new credence. Over 1200 women were asked to rate period pain at age 19 and again at 24. Accounting for age-related changes, women on the combined oral contraceptive pill reported significantly less severe pain than those who did not use it (Human Reproduction, DOI: 10.1093/humrep/der417).

Death by musicListen up and take care when walking with music: the number of US pedestrians killed by vehicles while wearing headphones has almost trebled, from 16 in 2004 to 47 in 2011. A warning was sounded by the vehicle in almost one-third of the cases (Injury Prevention, DOI: 10.1136/injuryprev-2011-040161).

Timing the death hugThe boa constrictor’s habit of squeezing its prey to death is an energy-intensive process – so the snake feels for its prey’s weakening pulse to identify exactly when death occurs and it can release its grip (Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.1105).

Grunt huntRussia’s failed Mars moon probe, Phobos-Grunt, burned up in Earth’s upper atmosphere on 15 January but nobody yet knows where any debris has landed. Most predictions point towards the Pacific Ocean, while a few suggest it may have reached South America. The European Space Agency is awaiting confirmation of re-entry time and location from the US Strategic Command.

Wiki-blackoutAt the time of going to press, Wikipedia was set to replace its entire English language site with a single black page for 24 hours to protest against the two proposed US laws that are aimed at halting online piracy. Critics say the laws could seriously affect internet freedom.

–Paying the bills–

Pirate towns aglow

Wine results faked?

“Planck will help tease apart the large-scale structure of the universe and determine how it formed”

“The coastal settlements that pirates sail from don’t emit enough light even to show up in the images”

IF YOU thought all the news reports that wine was good for your health were too good to be true, you could be right. Some of the research was faked, says the University of Connecticut.

A three-year investigation by the university concluded that dipak das, head of its cardiovascular research centre, “is guilty of 145 counts of fabrication and falsification of data”.

An anonymous tip of possible fraud in 2008 triggered the investigation. The resulting report came to 60,000 pages, drawn from examination of more than 100 papers. The university has notified 11 journals in which das published suspect papers and has begun dismissal procedures.

Much of das’s work centred on the health benefits of resveratrol, a compound found in red wine. Other labs have also reported similar benefits of the compound.

60 SeconDS

–Greener times ahead?–

For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news

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