24 July 2010 | NewScientist | 5

15 times as bright as the neutron star Scorpius X-1, normally the brightest X-ray object in the sky.

No one knows what emitted the X-rays, but a clue lies in a long burst of gamma rays that came with them, thought to be emitted by jets of matter from a star that is collapsing into a black hole. However, such events usually produce much weaker X-rays.

“We’re very puzzled,” says David Burrows of Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Swift’s chief scientist. “Once in a while something comes along that’s completely unexpected, and this is one of them.”

HIV gel success AT LAST, women may soon have a way to protect themselves against HIV infection without the cooperation of their sexual partner. A vaginal gel containing the anti-retroviral drug tenofovir has been shown to halve infection rates in women if used properly.

“It has the potential to avert millions of infections,” says Salim Abdool Karim at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, who directed the trial of the gel.

Infection rates fell by 39 per cent overall in the 445 women in South Africa who received the gel, compared with rates in the 444 women given a placebo gel. The gel may be even more effective if used precisely as instructed: among the 336 women who did so, rates fell by 54 per cent (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1193748).

The results need to be replicated and the gel regime improved before it can be licensed and approved for commercial use. Karim says this could take another two years.

UNAIDS and the World Health Organization are considering ways to fast-track approval. “We will work with countries and partners to accelerate access to these products,” says Margaret Chan, director-general of the WHO.

Well under pressureHAS Top Hat 10, the new cap that came to the rescue of BP’s wrecked well head last week, finally got the better of the gushing oil? That’s the top question for engineers who were crunching numbers from pressure tests as New Scientist went to press.

Tests on Top Hat 10 began on 15 July, when the cap was closed off and measurements of the pressure inside it began. If the cap is fully sealed, the engineers expect to see a pressure of between 55 and 60 megapascals, according to Thad Allen, the

retired US Coast Guard admiral charged with managing the spill. But on Tuesday, the pressure registered by the cap was little more than 47 megapascals

So either estimates of the pressure were wrong or the

reservoir is still not sealed. Two locations elsewhere on the seabed are leaking oil and gas, but it is still not clear whether the seeps are natural or due to the pressure tests.

“Either estimates of the pressure were wrong or the reservoir is still not sealed”

IT’S OK to fly even if you have serious heart problems, according to this week’s advice from the British Cardiovascular Society.

Its guidelines are much more upbeat than previous reports on air travel and heart disease, which warned of heart attacks and lung failure from deep-vein thrombosis – when blood clots form, blocking veins and arteries.

“The cabin environment doesn’t pose a significant risk to heart health,” says lead author David Smith at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust in the UK. The key for those with a pre-existing heart condition, Smith says, is to make sure that it is fully diagnosed and under

control when you fly. “It’s down to how stable your condition is,” he says.

People who have recently had heart attacks, for example, should make sure they take their medication, avoid caffeine and alcohol, and walk regularly during the flight. The advice is published in the journal Heart, and lists in-flight precautions for a range of heart conditions (DOI: 10.1136/hrt.2010.203091).

The report does acknowledge that the risk of clots forming in the lungs is doubled in healthy people during flights of 4 hours or more. However, this is because people are forced to sit still for hours, and the risk applies to other forms of long-haul travel, such as car or train, Smith says.

Hearty news for flyers

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Space, next timeVirgin Galactic’s VSS Enterprise, which shares a name with the famous ship from Star Trek, has reached the stratosphere with a crew on-board. Eventually, the rocket will fly in an arc that reaches space for a few minutes. But it’s not yet ready to leave the nest: this time, the VSS Enterprise remained attached to its carrier, VMS Eve.

Painless injectionA patch containing hundreds of microscopic needles could herald painless vaccination, and boost the effectiveness of immunisation against disease. The vaccine-laden needles penetrate the skin then dissolve. Mice tested with the patch showed a better immune response to flu than those given an injection (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nm.2182).

Bioterror drug cutsProject Bioshield faces significant budget cuts. The project was created by the Bush administration in 2004 to foster development of new drugs to respond to a bioterror attack. Critics of the project say the money would be better spent developing antibiotics to fight bacterial diseases.

End of life supportThe UK is the best in the world at supporting people at the end of life, according to a report published by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The report compares 40 countries in factors that include the level of government involvement, access to hospice care, and public awareness.

Smelling whalesWe may have underestimated whales – not their size, but their senses. Dissections of bowhead whale brains point to a fully developed olfactory system, questioning assumptions that the largest animals on Earth have a lousy sense of smell (Marine Mammal Science, DOI: 10.1111/j.1748-7692.2010.00406.x).

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