16 | New Scientist | 21/28 December 2019Climate changeBeer can trick
doesn’t really workTAPPING a beer can is a time-
honoured tip to stop it fizzing
over, but does it work? Sadly not.
There is a rationale for tapping a
brew before opening it. Bubbles of
carbon dioxide form on the inner
surface of a shaken can. When it is
opened and depressurised, the
bubbles swell and rise to escape,
taking precious beer with them.
Tapping the can, proponents
say, dislodges bubbles from theMystery illness found
to have genetic causeSEVEN people with a mysterious
disorder that triggers a fever every
few weeks have finally received a
diagnosis. A genetic analysis has
revealed that all of them have a
previously unknown disorder,
now called CRIA syndrome.
The individuals, aged between
10 and 82 when they were first
assessed, belong to three families
in the US. All reported having had
a fever every two to four weeks
since they were babies.
“Having a fever and swollen
lymph nodes every two weeks
is not a good life,” says Najoua
Lalaoui at Walter and Eliza Hall
Institute of Medical Research in
Australia. Some also had nausea,
diarrhoea or mouth ulcers.
To find out what might be
causing these symptoms, Lalaoui
and her colleagues looked at the
individuals’ genes. They found
that all seven people have aHealth^ Fluid dynamicsTHE Greenland ice sheet is shrinking
rapidly. Between 1992 and 2018,
it lost 3.8 trillion tonnes of ice,
according to a new assessment.
That is roughly in line with the
most extreme scenario of future
ice losses set out in a 2014 report
by the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change, which predicts
global sea level will rise by between
52 and 98 centimetres by 2100.
Andrew Shepherd at the
University of Leeds, UK, and his
colleagues combined 26 satellite
data sets to reconstruct how
Greenland’s ice sheet has changed
due to the warming climate. As late
as the 1990s, it was in a state of
balance. Ice was lost as glaciers
flowed into the sea and when the
ice surface melted in summer, but
this was replaced by winter snow.
The climate had already warmed,but temperatures on Greenland
were still mostly below 0°C.
However, since the early 2000s,
losses have outweighed gains. This
means that, since 1992, ice losses
from Greenland have contributed
1.06 centimetres to sea level rise.
When you add ice losses from other
glaciers and Antarctica, plus the
expansion of seawater as it warms,
there has been a total rise of about
7.5 centimetres over roughly the
same period (Nature, doi.org/dgvk).
Such small rises aren’t enough
to permanently submerge much
land, but they dramatically increase
the risk of coastal flooding during
storms. “Small changes in sea level
do matter,” says Shepherd.
Globally, 630 million people
are estimated to live on coastal
land that will be flooded every
year by 2100. Michael MarshallMassive ice sheet in
Arctic is melting fast
sides of the can, making them rise
to the top where they won’t expel
beer when the can is opened.
To investigate, Elizaveta Sopina
at the University of Southern
Denmark and her team used 1000
330-millilitre cans of beer. Half
went on a mechanical shaker for
2 minutes to simulate being
carried on a bike. Half of the cans
in the shaken and unshaken
groups were “tapped” by flicking
them on the side three times.
The testers who opened the cans
didn’t know whether they had
been shaken or tapped. The cans
were weighed before and after
opening to measure beer loss.
The shaken cans lost on average
3.45 grams of beer on opening,
compared with 0.51 grams for
unshaken cans. However, tapping
the can didn’t make a significant
difference to how much beer was
lost (arxiv.org/abs/1912.01999).
The unspilt beer didn’t go to
waste – it was offered to staff and
students at the university, along
with snacks. Sam Wongmutation in a gene called RIPK1.
In another experiment, Lalaoui
and her colleagues genetically
engineered mice to carry the same
mutation. These animals also had
symptoms of the disorder. When
these mice were given fragments
of bacteria, their immune systems
seemed to mount an exaggerated
response, and the animals showed
more signs of inflammation and
cell death (Nature, doi.org/dgzj).
The new findings may lead to
more effective treatments for the
seven individuals, as well as for
others with the same diagnosis. A
team in China has identified two
further families with the same
mutation and similar symptoms.
Some of those affected in the
US are taking drugs that target
substances that are linked to
inflammation in the body. But
they don’t work for all who have
the mutation, and they can cost
more than $30,000 a year. Drugs
that specifically target RIPK1 may
be a better option, says Lalaoui.
Jessica HamzelouBE
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