14 January 2012 | NewScientist | 5

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Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The UK government’s current recommendations imply that people can safely drink every day if they remain within recommended limits.

Nick Sheron, a liver specialist at the University of Southampton, UK, supports the idea of giving the liver a weekly break, but says an annual “liver holiday” of four to six weeks is more likely to heal liver damage. He says the benefit of a weekly break is more psychological because it proves to people that they can regularly manage without alcohol, and avoids escalation of intake.

MMR-scare lawsuit ANDREW WAKEFIELD, the doctor who proposed the long-discredited link between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is to sue for damages following accusations that his research was fraudulent.

Wakefield’s MMR-autism claims were undermined in 2010 when The Lancet retracted his original study. He was banned from practising as a doctor by the UK General Medical Council.

Wakefield is now suing journalist Brian Deer for articles he wrote in the BMJ last year claiming that Wakefield manipulated and falsified data and diagnoses. He is also suing the journal’s editor, the journal itself and its publishers.

Wakefield’s suit challenges Deer’s allegations that in some children, symptoms of autism began before they had their MMR shots. It also states that allegations that three of nine children reported as having regressive autism didn’t actually have autism, are false.

Finally, the suit challenges statements by Deer in interviews, in which the journalist accused Wakefield of embarking on a “campaign of lies” and of trying to “work out a nice little living… at the expense of autistic children”.

Carry on frackingTHERE’S no reason to stop. Two of the objections to “fracking” for shale gas have been blown out of proportion, say British geologists.

Hydraulic fracturing involves pumping water, chemicals and sand into shale deposits 2 kilometres underground to release natural gas. It has been accused of contaminating water and causing minor earthquakes.

“We think the risk is pretty low,” said Mike Stephenson of the British Geological Survey on Tuesday. Research on contamination is scarce but what

little there is suggests fracking is not to blame. There is little reason to believe gas liberated 2 kilometres down could work its way into water deposits that are less than 50 metres deep. Likewise for the chemicals. Fracking does cause

minor quakes but they are comparable to those caused by coal mining, and originate much deeper so have all but dissipated by the time they reach the surface.

“There is little reason to believe gas liberated 2 kilometres down can get into water deposits”

$380 billion. That’s how much natural disasters cost the global economy in 2011, making it the costliest year on record. The toll was driven by the earthquakes that struck New Zealand in February and Japan in March.

Munich Re, one of the world’s biggest reinsurance companies, has compiled data on the cost of natural disasters since 1980. It shows that the Japanese quake was the costliest disaster of all time, with losses of $210 billion – not including the nuclear incident at Fukushima.

More broadly, the figures reveal a clear rise in the financial losses associated with natural disasters over the past 30 years (see graph).

The number of earthquakes has remained stable since 1980 but their economic cost is rising – a reminder that quake risk should be recognised by town planners, say Munich Re.

In contrast, the number of weather-related events like floods and drought is rising. Evidence suggests this is linked to climate change, particularly in the case of extreme temperatures and rainfall, says Peter Stott of the UK Met Office in Exeter.

The cost of extreme temperatures, fires and droughts has remained stable, the Munich Re findings show, but floods and storms cost us more today than they did 30 years ago.

Spiralling cost of natural disaster

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Life in the deepThe deepest hydrothermal vents yet found have been discovered in a rift in the Caribbean seafloor. At a depth of 5000 metres, they are 800 metres deeper than any vents found so far. They are home to a new species of shrimp (Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1636).

Probe’s downfallAs New Scientist went to press, Russia’s hobbled Phobos-Grunt Mars probe – marooned in Earth orbit since November – looked destined to fall back to Earth on 15 January. Where was not clear but fragments totalling 200 kilograms could survive to reach the surface. Mission controllers think the craft’s toxic fuels will burn up safely since they are contained in easily melted aluminium tanks.

Patchy memoryAdults aged 76 on average with mild cognitive impairment performed better on memory tests after wearing nicotine patches for six months. Such patches can have side effects, says Paul Newman at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, so should only be used for cognitive purposes with medical supervision (Neurology, DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e31823efcbb).

Baby’s wake-up callHearing a baby cry makes adults more alert than hearing distressed grown-ups. Forty volunteers playing a fast-reaction game called “Whack- a-mole” scored highest on the game if they had heard babies crying beforehand (Acta Paediatrica, DOI: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02554.x).

Quake acceleratorA Japanese particle accelerator damaged in the March 2011 earthquake is set to resume operation after extensive repairs. The accelerator, part of the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex in Tokai, is used to generate neutrinos and might one day probe faster-than-light physics.

For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news

Natural disasters are more frequent than 30 years ago – and are costing us more

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