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NEWS NATURE|Vol 443|19 October 2006

Is ice on the Moon just a mirage?

If hopes of colonizing the Moon are ever to way as the incoming pulse (called a high cir- become reality, water needs to be found there. cular polarization ratio, or CPR) — a property Sizeable amounts of ice could provide Moon- of ice. Rough surfaces have the same effect, but dwellers with drinking water and, if they split the Moon has few rough areas, because apart it into its atomic components, hydrogen for from young features such as recent impact fuel and oxygen to breathe. If lunar water is craters, the surface has been sandblasted to a scarce, colonizers would have to carry water fine dust. and fuel with them from Earth, or perhaps But astronomer Donald Campbell, of Cor- extract hydrogen from the rocks, either of nell University in Ithaca, New York, has never which could be hugely expensive. bought this argument. Now he has gathered the But a paper published in Nature this week highest-resolution radar images made of the (see page 835) strengthens the argument that Moon so far, and claims that they dash hopes of radar data previously interpreted as showing finding large lumps of ice at Shackleton. ice could reveal nothing more than rough Campbell and his colleagues sent radar ground. signals from the Arecibo radio telescope in The Shackleton crater at the Moon’s south Puerto Rico to the Moon, and captured the pole is a good place to look for deposits of reflections using the Robert C. Byrd Green water ice, because parts of it are in permanent Bank Telescope in West Virginia. Campbell loose rock, not as lumps. He urges those plan- shadow from the Sun and so perpetually fro- says that Shackleton shows the same pattern ning Moon missions to take his findings into zen. Areas of the crater’s rim are in permanent of high CPR as the similarly shaped Schomb- account. “Planning for future bases on the sunlight; together these factors make it a good erger crater — which is dried out by sunlight. Moon should be predicated on there being low candidate for a lunar base. Campbell also found similar patterns in the concentrations of water ice,” he says. But scientists have argued for a decade walls and floors of other young craters. So, he Predictably for such a long-running debate, about whether there is really ice in the crater. argues, the signal from Shackleton is probably not everyone agrees. “Don sees one thing The evidence for Shackleton containing ice caused by rough rocks. and says ‘no ice’. I see the same thing and say deposits is based on the fact that radar signals Campbell did see some evidence of ice ‘maybe ice’,” says planetary geologist Paul reflected off the crater are polarized the same at Shackleton, but as dispersed particles in Spudis of the Lunar and Planetary Institute

Missing results might have rung warning bell over trial drug

The company whose experimental the UK Medicines and Healthcare assesses drugs for clinical trials. between the amino-acid sequence drug left six volunteers critically Products Regulatory Agency His co-author is Adam Cohen of the of the antibody receptor in rhesus ill failed to provide regulatory (MHRA), concluded that this was Centre for Human Drug Research in monkeys on which the drug was authorities with relevant data before caused by an unexpected biological Leiden. initially tested and the human the trial, claim two experts. They effect of the drug. Kenter and Cohen identified sequence. The differences might say a checklist could help to ensure Now two drug-safety specialists several key pieces of data that were more rigorous risk assessment for who have investigated the case say absent from TeGenero’s file. For future applications, especially given relevant information about TGN1412 example, they say that tests in mice the increasing popularity of drugs that might have raised a red flag was given a humanized immune system that act on the immune system. missing from the file TeGenero gave had shown that the antibody caused The antibody, called TGN1412, the MHRA and other authorities (M. T-cell numbers to decline, perhaps activates the immune system’s Kenter and A. Cohen Lancet 368, because they were so fired up they STANSALL/AFP/GETTY B. T cells, and was being developed 1387–1391; 2006). “If assessors had committed suicide. These data were by the German company TeGenero. known, they probably would have published online in early March But in the first human tests on started asking questions,” says by researchers, including those at 13 March, it triggered a dangerous Marcel Kenter, executive director of TeGenero (N. Legrand et al. Blood over-reaction of the immune system the Central Committee on Research 108, 238–245; 2006). called a cytokine storm. The agency Involving Human Subjects in The The authors also say the company Six volunteers almost died during responsible for approving the trial, Hague, Netherlands, which also failed to mention key differences the TGN1412 trial.

MASTERS DEGREE

Spudis disagrees that the radar signals from Open Houses Oct. & Nov. Shackleton and Schomberger craters are the RSVP Online Now. same: “Those patterns look different to me.” The CPR signal from Schomberger weakens as Evening and the crater deepens, consistent with roughness Weekend Classes at its rim, Spudis says, whereas the signal at Shackleton starts halfway down the crater and Earn Your Degree Onsite continues deeper in, as might be expected from and Online ice deposits (see Figure 2, page 837). Spudis is involved with NASA’s Lunar Recon- Conveniently located in naissance Orbiter (LRO), set to launch in Octo- Washington, D.C. ber 2008, which aims to provide a more detailed Baltimore, MD map of the Moon. In April, NASA announced that the mission would also include a probe Rockville, MD that, by crashing into the Moon, might clear up Online. the ice debate. The probe will split in two, with cameras and a spectrometer on the upper stage recording and analysing the plume of material produced by the lower stage’s impact with the Moon. The rest of the probe will crash into the Moon 15 minutes later. A strong signal of water vapour from the impact could confirm the presence of ice. But an absence of water vapour is unlikely to end the debate, as Spudis argues that the probe could simply hit a dry patch. On the rocks: astronomers might have mistaken The only way to find out for sure will be MS in Environmental

NASA rough craters for lunar ice deposits. to land on the Moon and take a sample, says Sciences and Policy Spudis. Bernard Foing, project scientist on in Houston, Texas. Spudis has believed there the European Space Agency’s Smart-1 lunar MS in Biotechnology is ice on the Moon since the 1994 Clemen- orbiter — which ended its three-year mission tine mission found high CPR in dark polar by crashing into the Moon on 3 September — MS in Bioinformatics regions of the Moon. In 1998, spectrometers agrees, and is lobbying hard for the agency to on NASA’s Lunar Prospector found high levels develop a lunar lander that could be launched MS in Biotechnology/ of hydrogen in the same areas, again suggest- by 2012. ■ MBA Joint Degree ing the presence of ice. Katharine Sanderson MS in Bioscience Regulatory Affairs have suggested that the in a preliminary July report into bodies such as the MHRA antibody would bind more the incident, an expert scientific adopt a checklist during risk Certii cate in strongly to human than to group recommended that rules assessments to ensure that they Biotechnology Enterprise monkey cells, and perhaps for such phase I clinical studies have all the information on a cause a more severe reaction. be tightened to improve the drug’s mechanism of action and Thomas Hanke, chief safety of volunteers. the effects of human exposure LEARN MORE AND scientific officer at now-insolvent The Paul Ehrlich Institute to similar agents. Löwer TeGenero, says all relevant in Langen, Germany, had also agrees, and says the Ehrlich APPLY ONLINE information was given to the approved an application from Institute already operates a MHRA before the trial. Although TeGenero to carry out a similar similar checklist, but that other advanced.jhu.edu some of TeGenero’s studies trial. Its president, Johannes agencies, with less expertise in were carried out in rhesus Löwer, says assessors there basic research, might not. 1.800.847.3330 monkeys, he says the company did ask TeGenero for additional TGN1412 is thought to be an used cynomolgus monkeys for information during the approval exceptional case. Even so, Kenter toxicological studies because process and received it. “I’m says the lessons are particularly the antibody-receptor sequence not sure [a company] is obliged important because of the of the cynomolgus monkey is to include these data but they increasing number of drugs that identical to the human one. did provide them, so they are designed to work specifically The MHRA says that at the were thinking about the their in humans and so may have time of TeGenero’s application, relevance,” he says. side effects that are difficult to senior assessors judged the data Kenter and Cohen predict from animal trials. ■ submitted to be adequate. But recommend that regulatory Helen Pearson