30 March 2013 | NewScientist | 7

Amazon and founder of the private space-flight company Blue Origin, announced that his staff had recovered engines from a Saturn V rocket used on one of the Apollo lunar missions. The pieces are enough to recreate two F-1 units. But it’s not yet clear if they are from Apollo 11 – the first crewed mission to land on the moon – or another Apollo flight.

Bezos hopes one engine will go on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington, where Amazon is based. The other will probably go to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.

Radiation lawsuitsFUKUSHIMA’S financial fallout is far from over. More US military personnel are signing up to a lawsuit seeking $2 billion in damages for illnesses they say were caused by radiation from the stricken Japanese plant. They allege that TEPCO, the plant’s operator, misrepresented radiation levels when it accepted US military help to deal with the meltdown.

Paul Garner, a lawyer in San Diego, California, representing the 26 plaintiffs, says thousands more people who were in the area at the time could be party to the suit if they wish.

The plaintiffs claim that the Fukushima radiation leak caused leukaemia, testicular cancer and gynaecological bleeding, among other illnesses. As New Scientist went to press, TEPCO had not responded to a request for comment.

A recent World Health Organization assessment found that although infants in the immediate vicinity of the plant may have a slightly increased risk of developing some cancers, the risk to adults is low.

Earlier this month, over 1600 Fukushima residents filed a suit against TEPCO demanding compensation for psychological damage and forced relocation.

Maths millionairesUSING pictures to solve equations just earned someone $1 million.

Pierre Deligne of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton took home the 2013 Abel prize last week, awarded by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, for playing a crucial role in linking algebraic geometry to other areas of mathematics.

Deligne is best known for proving the last of the Weil conjectures, four statements concerning polynomial equations that were proposed in 1949. His proof, and much of his other

work, provided new tools in algebraic geometry that are still yielding important results.

A day later, Alexander Polyakov, also of Princeton, netted $3 million for his contributions to quantum field theory and string theory. He

was awarded the Fundamental Physics prize, launched by billionaire internet investor Yuri Milner, at a ceremony at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland.

“Deligne’s work provided tools in algebraic geometry that are still yielding important results”

IT SURVIVED the last great extinction, but the paddlefish is no match for the luxury food industry.

Conservationists fear that black- market demand for caviar is pushing the American paddlefish towards extinction. This month, a multi-year investigation into the trade led to the indictment of eight people in the US.

Strictly speaking, caviar is made from the roe of beluga sturgeon. But demand for the fishy delicacy led to a 90 per cent drop in the population in just 20 years, causing suppliers to look for ersatz alternatives. The eggs of the North American paddlefish – the last member of a family of fish that is between 300 and 400 million years old – are a particular favourite.

They are often exported from

the US, relabelled as beluga caviar, then reimported.

A few years ago, citizen reports of poachers illegally catching paddlefish in Missouri triggered an investigation by the state’s department of conservation (MDC) and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. It identified a poaching hotspot in Warsaw, Missouri, where spawning fish become trapped by a dam on the Osage river, upstream of the Mississippi. On 13 and 14 March, more than 100 suspects were contacted, and eight were charged with illegal trafficking of paddlefish and their eggs.

According to the MDC, one female’s roe sells for about $4000 on the black market, with an ounce of eggs (28 grams) going for $13.

Paddlefish hit by luxe tastes

–It’s no sturgeon, but the eggs are tasty–

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Pre-op diet tipWatch what you eat before surgery. Rodents given a high-fat diet were more likely to experience chemical imbalances and inflammation after an operation than those fed normally. Calorie restriction may be an inexpensive way to help protect the body from the stress of an operation (Surgery, doi.org/kw4).

Whale cornucopiaBone-eating snot-flower worms, a limpet and a marine woodlouse were among nine new species found thriving on a sunken carcass of a minke whale off Antarctica’s South Sandwich Islands. The team studying the “whale fall” think it perished several decades ago (Deep Sea Research Part II, doi.org/kw5).

Syrian chemical probeThe UN will investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons in Aleppo, Syria. The government claims rebels launched a weapon containing unidentified chemical material on 19 March in an attack thought to have killed 25 people. Rebel groups accuse the government. Syria is believed to have stockpiles of the nerve agent sarin and mustard gas.

Meteorite namedThe meteorite that exploded over Russia last month now has a name – the Chelyabinsk, after the city and surrounding region it showered with fragments. So far pieces ranging from less than a gram up to 1.8 kilograms have been found. The total rock is thought to have weighed around 100 kilograms.

Alaska’s brolar bearsCall them brolar bears. The brown bears on the Alaskan ABC islands are in fact a cross between polar bears and brown bears, according to an analysis of their DNA. It seems a group of polar bears got stuck on the islands at the end of the last ice age, before migrations of brown bears from the mainland turned them brown (PLoS Genetics, doi.org/kw6).

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