News at a glance: Infrared telescope debuts, GM rice stumbles, and maternal mortality drops

ASTRONOMY Highest scope opens its infrared eyes After 26 years of planning and construction, the world’s highest telescope began operating in Chile this week, offering a rare opportunity to make ground-based observations far into the infrared part of the spectrum. The University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory’s (TAO’s) 6.5-meter telescope is not especially large but benefits from its lofty position 5560 meters high on Cerro Chajnantor, a peak in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. Moisture in the atmosphere blocks much of the infrared spectrum, and telescopes equipped to record it—such as NASA’s JWST—are often launched into space. But at TAO, the air is bone dry, with little atmosphere to peer through. That will allow astronomers to conduct long, detailed observations of phenomena such as planets coalescing around newborn stars and black holes forming at the center of galaxies. The heavily subscribed JWST is not accommodating such lengthy studies. RESEARCH INTEGRITY No charges against image sleuth A prosecutor in France has declined to pursue criminal allegations of threats and blackmail brought against scientific integrity consultant Elisabeth Bik by microbiologist Didier Raoult after Bik publicly critiqued about 60 of his papers. The prosecutor said in a letter to Bik that a probe had found insufficient evidence of wrongdoing. Raoult, whose work at the Hospital Institute of Marseille Mediterranean Infecti...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news