Plasma power

Researchers from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem say they may be able to redirect lightning using laser beams.

The key is plasma: When a laser beam shoots through the air, it leaves a thin, hot trail of plasma in its wake. That plasma channel can conduct electricity but only lasts 3 billionths of a second before it cools off and disappears.

To extend the lifetime of the plasma channel, the researchers shot another laser beam that overlapped the plasma and kept it hot 10 times longer. The team is now working to extend the life of the channel even more by using a more powerful secondary laser or by adding additional beams.

A second challenge was to lengthen the plasma channel. Laser beams generate multiple plasma channels that tend to spread out randomly along the beam. But by using lenses, the researchers were able to make three plasma channels line up in sequence, acting as a single 3-meter-long channel.

“The beauty is that you can extend it for pretty much as long as you want, as long as you have the proper optical set up and a laser beam with enough power,” said lead researcher Jenya Papeer.

The result is a laser lightning rod that would reach higher than metal rods and may better avert property damage due to lightning strikes, estimated at nearly $1 billion per year in the United States.

Better shots

This year’s flu vaccine should be more effective than last year’s, Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said at a news conference.

The 2014-2015 vaccine was ineffective against the predominant H3N2 strain that circulated last winter. H3N2 strains tend to cause more severe illness and mortality. Last year the rate of flu-related hospitalizations among people aged 65 or older was the highest in the past decade. Children were also hit hard with more than 140 pediatric influenza deaths.

This year’s vaccine will be a closer match for the H3N2 strain that is still circulating from last year. It will also target a strain of the influenza A virus that wasn’t covered in last year’s shots.

The CDC recommends everyone over 6 months old get the flu vaccination.

“Even in a year when the flu virus isn’t well matched,” said Frieden, “it remains the single best thing you can do to protect you, your family, and your community against influenza.” —J.B.

Child-proof treatments?

There may be no reason to delay treatment or terminate a pregnancy when an expecting mother is diagnosed with cancer, according to results of a new study from Belgium.

The researchers studied 129 children, currently between the ages of 1 and 3, who were born after prenatal exposure to their mother’s cancer treatment. There was no significant difference in the cognitive and heart function development of these children and that of other children.

“The study also shows that children suffer more from prematurity than from chemotherapy, so avoiding prematurity is more important than avoiding chemotherapy,” said Frédéric Amant, gynecological oncologist at University Hospitals in Leuven, Belgium.

The most common maternal cancers were breast and hematological cancers like leukemia and lymphoma. Most of the mothers were treated with chemotherapy and a smaller number with radiation or a combination of both.

The researchers caution that although the study included many types of chemotherapy, they cannot guarantee that all types are safe and more research is needed on long-term effects. —J.B.