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Slowingdownthe AsinglegenecanraiseorlowerCrohn’sdiseaserisk
world’srisingseas SCREENING the DNA of nearly treatments. Inga Peter of the 25 per cent (Science Translational
5700 Jewish people has identified Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Medicine, doi.org/ch79).
WHEN it comes to avoiding a gene that helps determine New York and her team looked for This gene is normally active
dangerous rises in sea level, a person’s risk of developing genes involved in the disorder by in macrophages – a type of white
every little bit of global warming Crohn’s disease. Different studying DNA from Ashkenazi blood cell – and a kind of stem cell,
we can avert will make a difference. mutations in the same gene can Jews – an ethnic group in which both found in the small intestine.
In 2015, world leaders agreed to make someone more likely to get Crohn’s disease is up to three It makes a protein that helps
try to limit warming to 2°C, and if the condition, or help protect times more common. collect and eliminate debris and
possible to 1.5°C. It turns out that them from ever developing it. Comparing DNA from 2066 waste inside cells. By mimicking
sticking to the lower goal will really Crohn’s disease is the most people with Crohn’s and 3633 the“good”version of this gene,
help when it comes to rising seas. serious form of inflammatory people without it, the team Peter’s team hopes to develop
Klaus Bittermann of Tufts bowel disease. Current treatments identified two variants of the new treatments for the disease.
University in Massachusetts and his for the condition frequently fail same gene, called LRRK2, with LRRK2 has also been implicated
colleagues simulated sea level rise to provide much relief, and it is differingeffects.Onevariantraises in Parkinson’s, so drugs targeting
under different levels of warming. hoped that understanding its a person’s risk of Crohn’s by 70 per this gene may help both diseases,
They found that stabilising the genetics could lead to new cent, the other variant lowers it by says Peter.
increase at 1.5°C would lead to seas
rising less, and more slowly, than if
the planet was allowed to warm by Betterbowel
2°C. By 2150, sea levels would be as
much as 17 centimetres lower for cancerscreening
a rise of 1.5°C, compared with 2°C.
That means fewer coastal cities lost. A BLOOD test that can spot CHANDRA X-RAY OBSERVATORY CENTER/NASA
Even if we overshoot and hit early-stage bowel cancer may be
2°C, there is still a chance to reduce a more accurate way to screen for
the impact. Bringing this increase the disease than current methods.
back to 1.5°C would mean sea levels Bowel cancer starts with the
rising by 12 centimetres less than growth of small clumps of cells
if it stayed at 2°C (Environmental called polyps. If found early,
Research Letters, doi.org/ch76). these can be removed before
That is in line with a 2016 study they turn cancerous.
by Carl-Friedrich Schleussner of Many countries currently use
Climate Analytics in Germany. He the faecal occult blood (FOB) test
also found that restricting warming to routinely screen those aged
to 1.5°C will result in the seas rising 50 or over for polyps. This simple
significantly more gradually. test detects blood in stools, but
“Sea level rise will continue for doing this only picks up around
many centuries, but it will happen 15 per cent of polyps.
more slowly if we limit warming,” Colonoscopies are much ‘Light echoes’ may reveal new worlds
says Schleussner. better, but are expensive, invasive
and require the use of general WE COULD use light echoes to Baltimore, Maryland, and his
IRA BLOCK/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE/GETTY IMAGES University, Taiwan, has developed sound waves off objects. stars (arxiv.org/abs/1801.01144).
colleagues argue that such a signal
find exoplanets in a similar way
anaesthetic, so cannot be used for
routine screens.
to how killer whales “see” through
could be used to detect otherwise
invisible planets around flaring
Now a team at Chang Gung
pitch-black water by bouncing
When a star emits a flare of
a blood test that detects cells
At the moment, most planets
that have become detached
radiation, some of its light may reach
are discovered when we see their
from polyps or more advanced
shadows dance in front of their
Earth where astronomers measure
tumours. In a trial of 620 people,
a burst of brightness. But the light
host star – a technique that limits
detections because it requires the
it detected 77 per cent of polyps
emanates in all directions, so it also
and 87 per cent of cancer cases.
of sight between its star and Earth.
Reflections from these could bounce
The FOB test only detects around
30 per cent of bowel cancers.
But the new method should
towards Earth, producing a second,
fainter burst of light, like an echo.
The results were presented heads towards any circling planets. planet to pass through the exact line
allow us to see light echoes from
at the Gastrointestinal Cancers William Sparks of the Space exoplanets in any configuration,
Symposium in San Francisco Telescope Science Institute in says Sparks.
this week.
20 | NewScientist | 20 January 2018