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GLOBAL NEWS "FLYING SYRINGE" MOSQUITOES he Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently awarded US$100,000 each to scientists in 22 countries, including funding for a Japanese proposal to turn mosquitoes into "flying syringes" delivering vaccines. The charitable foundation created by the founder of software giant Microsoft said in a statement that the grants were designed to "explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve global health". The grants were awarded for research into preventing or curing infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis and limiting the emergence of drug resistance. Among the proposals receiving funding was one from Hiroyuki Matsuoka at Jichi Medical University in Japan. "[Matsuoka] thinks it may be possible to turn mosquitoes that normally transmit disease into ‘flying syringes', so that when they bite humans they deliver vaccines," the Gates Foundation said. (Source: AFP, 22 October 2008, via http://news.yahoo.com) causing the barrier to shrink in this way, and are to launch the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission to study the heliosphere. "Around 90 per cent of galactic cosmic radiation is deflected by our heliosphere, so the boundary protects us from this harsh galactic environment," said Dr Nathan Schwadron, co-investigator on the IBEX mission at Boston University. The heliosphere is created by the solar wind, a combination of electrically charged particles and magnetic fields that emanate at more than a million miles an hour from the Sun, when it meets the intergalactic gas that fills the gaps in space between solar systems. At the boundary where they meet, a shock wave is formed that deflects interstellar radiation around the solar system as it travels through the galaxy. (Source: The Telegraph, UK, 19 October 2008) The notes—known in the business as Periodic Safety Update Reports (PSURs) —are submitted regularly to national authorities and the European Medicines Agency in London. PSURs detail, for example, how doctors in various countries suspect that teenagers grow suicidal when taking a certain medication against pimples, or that a diet product could lead to a stroke and what industry has to say about the medical fears. The move by Dutch daily newspaper Trouw and Belgian magazine Knack, in cooperation with Danish magazine Samvirke, to put the documents on the Internet comes as the European Commission decided on Tuesday [22 October] to delay the publication of a new package of regulations for drugs producers. The commission package is not expected to mandate publication of PSURs but is likely to allow pharmaceutical companies to contact patients directly—a practice that is currently illegal and was condemned by the European Parliament in 2002. Reacting in a test case on PSUR publication in Denmark in 2007, lawyers for drug firm Roche threatened to sue the Danish state if disclosure harmed the company's commercial interests. (Source: EUObserver.com, 22 October 2008, http://euobserver.com/ 24/26973) SECRET REPORTS REVEALED ON DRUG SIDE-EFFECTS dverse reaction to medication is the fifth most common cause of death in hospitals, according to the European Commission, but European Union agencies and _ national governments until now have kept pharmaceutical companies! reports on side-effects secret. SUN'S PROTECTIVE "BUBBLE" IS SHRINKING he protective bubble around the Sun that helps to shield the Earth from harmful interstellar radiation is shrinking and ou getting weaker, NASA THe scientists have warned. New data have | Fito revealed that the | i protective. shield ne id THNTS THE energy that surrounds ge ameeict our solar system, has weakened by 25 per cent { over the past decade and & if is now at its lowest level ff ‘4 \ a since the space race ‘(kt began 50 years ago. _ Gy / Scientists are baffled tr | f | as to what could be eo ' GOR RESEAECK Sttovs qe EPCTH His T1PreD | | Fito 16 Aytig ovT OF | | Bauntce gout Every | Fowl YEARS. Ty ee? THATS THE [AME C1CLE Ag ameAiche! EVECTIOn f —— P ie i ComPene nie © IG ee Beo-prmkey | ful VOR = 4 Tees AcuUM cua ms TST CO COINCIDENCE... tar FEILE MOE 7) of oR: 2, leo. Serie a P scomecith “somerville NEXUS ¢ 7 DECEMBER 2008 — JANUARY 2009 www.nexusmagazine.com