Free-range Chickens Are More Prone To Disease

Chickens kept in litter-based housing systems, including free-range chickens, are more prone to disease than chickens kept in cages, according to a new study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm

Common Soil Mineral Degrades The Nearly Indestructible Prion

In the rogues' gallery of microscopic infectious agents, the prion is the toughest hombre in town. Warped pathogens that lack both DNA and RNA, prions are believed to cause such fatal brain ailments as chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and moose, mad cow disease in cattle, scrapie in sheep and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. Now researchers have found that a common soil mineral, an oxidized from of manganese known as birnessite, can penetrate the prion's armor and degrade the protein.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm

Next Generation Cloaking Device Demonstrated

A device that can bestow invisibility to an object by "cloaking" it from visual light is closer to reality. After being the first to demonstrate the feasibility of such a device by constructing a prototype in 2006, a team of Duke University engineers has produced a new type of cloaking device, which is significantly more sophisticated at cloaking in a broad range of frequencies.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm

Epilepsy Linked To Genetic Defect On Chromosome 15

Scientists find link between genetic defect on chromosome 15 and epilepsy. A subset of patients with epilepsy lack a certain part of this chromosome. The loss of small chromosomal segments, called microdeletions by geneticists, has previously not been connected with common disorders.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm

New Generation Of Salmonella-based, Single Dose Vaccine Candidates To Fight Infant Pneumonia

One of the major challenges in modern vaccinology is to engineer vectors that are highly infectious, yet don't cause illness. Now scientists have unveiled what may prove a winning strategy in the fight against infant bacterial pneumonia.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm

Switchboard In The Brain Helps Us Learn And Remember At The Same Time

The brain is in a constant struggle between learning new experiences and remembering old experiences, PLoS Biology reports. Most social interactions require the rapid exchange of new and old information. Normal conversation requires that while listening to the new information, we are already retrieving information for a reply. Yet, some memory theories assume that these different modes of memory cannot happen at the same time and compete for priority within our brain.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm

Odors Can Alter Gene Expression In An Olfactory Neuron

In a study of how sensory neurons in the microscopic worm C. elegans process smell, researchers have discovered the first evidence that a chemical in the environment changes gene expression within a sensory organ in its own specific way. The investigators also report that in contrast to previous studies showing that Pumilio proteins suppress gene expression, the proteins are activators of expression in the worm's olfactory sensory cell.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 4:00 pm

Largest Ever Prospective Medical Study Shows Epidurals And Spinal Anesthetics Are Safer Than Previously Reported

The largest ever prospective study into the major complications of epidurals and spinal anesthetics concludes that previous studies have over-estimated the risks of severe complications of these procedures. The study concludes that the estimated risk of permanent harm following a spinal anesthetic or epidural is lower than 1 in 20,000 and in many circumstances the estimated risk is considerably lower.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 4:00 pm

New Tool Gives Researchers A Glimpse Of Biomolecules In Motion

Using nanoscale "test tubes" researchers have demonstrated how terahertz spectroscopy can reveal the dynamic behavior of biomolecules like amino acids and proteins in water, important data for understanding their complex molecular behavior.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 4:00 pm

Mars May Still Be A Living Planet, Methane In Atmosphere Reveals

Scientists has achieved the first definitive detection of methane in the atmosphere of Mars. This discovery indicates the planet is either biologically or geologically active. If microscopic Martian life is producing the methane, it likely resides far below the surface where it is warm enough for liquid water to exist.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 4:00 pm

Tory blueprint for green economy

David Cameron is revealing Conservative plans to move the UK towards a "low carbon economy".
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Jan 2009 | 1:38 pm

South Korean experts find way to remove lead from blood

HONG KONG (Reuters) - South Korean scientists may have found a way to remove dangerous heavy metals such as lead from blood by using specially designed magnetic receptors.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 1:03 pm

How did the zebra get his stripes?

How The Zebra Got His Stripes is not, tragically, one of Rudyard Kipling's Just-so stories – although it feels like ought to be, alongside How The Camel Got His Hump, the whale his throat and the rhinoceros his skin.

A new scientific review has attempted to answer that seemingly simple question, along with the reasons behind the colouration of a whole monochrome menagerie, from pandas to ring-tailed lemurs. Less poetic than Kipling it may be, but the conclusion, from Dr Tim Caro at the University of California, Davis, is that in many cases scientists know very little for sure about why animals are coloured the way they are. The field is still hotly debated.

Even Charles Darwin and the co-discoverer of natural selection Alfred Russel Wallace tussled over the evolutionary reason for the zebra's stripes.

For Wallace, the patterns helps the animals to blend into the background at dusk:

It may be thought that such extremely conspicuous markings as those of the zebra would be a great danger in a country abounding with lions, leopards and other beast of prey; but it is not so… It is in the evening, or on moonlight nights, when they go to drink, that they are chiefly exposed to attack… in twilight they are not at all conspicuous, the stripes of white and black so merging together into a gray tint that it is very difficult to see them at a little distance. Wallace, Darwinism

Darwin dismissed this notion:

The zebra is conspicuously striped, and stripes on the open plains of South Africa cannot afford any protection. Burchell in describing a herd says, "their sleek ribs glistened in the sun, and the brightness and regularity of their striped coats presented a picture of extraordinary beauty." Darwin, Descent of Man

The mystery remains unsolved. Scientists have suggested everything from the stripes setting up cooling convection currents around the body to deterring tsetse flies, but no one has the definitive answer.

As Caro points out in his review in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, there is no one explanation for why black and white animals look the way they do. Horizontal black and white bands on, for example skunks and stink badgers are probably a text-book example of warning colouration (or aposematism). As Caro writes:

Attackers are warned first by a sudden erection of a white tail, then a handstand and possibly bipedal advance, that a jet of foul smelling fluid could be accurately ejected at them from anal glands.

Black and white face masks, sported for example by the raccoon dog and black-footed ferret, may also serve similar warning functions. But Caro believes that in other species it may serve a signalling function to other members of the same species. The iconic eye-spots on the giant panda and other species are anti-glare devices, he suggests. Without them, the white of their face would reflect light into their eyes, making it more difficult to see.

The panda's large blocks of black and white on its body (along with other species such as the tapir and giant tree rat) may also serve to disrupt the outline of the body so making it harder to spot. For the panda, though, this explanation seems a little hard to swallow.

The experiments to eliminate the various explanations for any one species are hard to do well, so there is a dearth of good evidence. For the most part, scientists are still relying on just-so stories.

What's your explanation for bar-coded beasts?

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 16 Jan 2009 | 12:06 pm

Ukraine and EU leaders seek to end gas cutoff (AP)

AP - The Ukrainian president hosted a bevy of European officials for talks Friday on the natural gas crisis, throwing Russia's plans for a weekend summit in Moscow into disarray.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 11:53 am

The Nation's Weather (AP)

AP - Frigid temperatures were chilling the Northeast and Midwest for another day Friday. Lows in the single digits or lower were expected from the Mid-Atlantic region northward. In the South, single digit lows were forecast to make it down to around Birmingham, Ala., with freezing temperatures as far south as Tampa. The skies were expected to be clear throughout most of the region.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 11:41 am

Tags reveal birds' ocean odyssey

Electronic tags have offered an insight into the mysteries of the 20,000km migration of Manx shearwaters.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Jan 2009 | 11:32 am

David Jones: The prospect of cures from animal-human hybrids is not based on credible predictions but on spin and empty promises

The question: Should we allow research using human-animal hybrid embryos?

A year ago the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority granted licences to allow the creation of part-animal part-human embryos. Cow ovaries were to be taken from the abattoir, the eggs extracted, cow DNA removed and human DNA inserted.

The resultant animal-human embryos, it was claimed, would help cure a range of diseases. Gordon Brown argued passionately:

Scientists are close to the breakthroughs that will allow embryonic stem cells to be used to treat a much wider range of conditions, especially those affecting the brain and nervous system … I also see the profound opportunity we have to save and transform millions of lives through this strand of medicine.

No doubt Brown, whose own child has cystic fibrosis, was desperate to believe the promises of scientists such as Professor Chris Shaw of King's College who claimed that, "this technique has the potential for very important outcomes for patients. To shut this research down at the moment would be an affront to those patients."

I thought at the time that this was a cruel deception – that the prospect of cures specifically from animal-human hybrids was not based on credible prediction but on spin and empty promises. The diagrams in the newspapers made it look simple: just insert human DNA from an adult human into an "empty" cow's egg and, hey presto, you have a hybrid embryo. Another arrow showed how scientists could harvest stem cells from the embryo to treat or understand diseases. These diagrams glossed over the considerable difficulties of mixing materials from two different species. And why put all this effort into making mixed animal-human cells rather than into finding better ways to make purely human cells?

Nevertheless, the alleged promise justified everything. The fact that up to 70% of the British public were deeply uneasy about creating animal-human embryos was brushed aside. The public were urged to forget about the dangers of weakening the species barrier, to forget about crossover diseases such as CJD, avian flu or indeed HIV. They should ignore the fact that scientist were creating genetically modified (GM) human embryos - with some nonhuman DNA - when many people were yet to be convinced even of the benefits of GM tomatoes.

The United Nations, the European Convention of Human Rights and Biomedicine, and the national laws of many European countries prohibit the creation of cloned human embryos, let alone cloning human embryos using cow eggs. However, the British government hailed its international isolation as a business opportunity. Britain does not fund biotech research to the level of the Americans, the Japanese, or the Germans, but scientists might come to Britain, we were told, to escape the higher ethical standards of other countries. Is this how we wish to be seen?

Now a year has passed, it is time to re-examine the alleged promise of animal-human embryos. In 2008, there have indeed been fantastic breakthroughs in stem cell research. However, none of these was due to animal-human embryo experiments.

Even before the licences for animal-human embryos were granted a year ago, these proposals had been overtaken by work from Japan. Professor Yamanaka had taken ordinary human skin cells and "reprogrammed" these to make "pluripotent stem cells" – without the need for cloning human embryos. The magazine Science has judged reprogramming adult cells as the greatest scientific breakthrough of 2008 – from any area of science.

Last year also saw extraordinary advances using adult stem cells. In 2008 doctors used stem cells from bone marrow to create a whole new human organ – a trachea – for transplantation. The operation was done in Spain but it involved scientists from Bristol. This revolutionary work is helping actual patients now. It is scientifically elegant and ethical, and what is more, it actually works. It is not all spin and vague promises.

In marked contrast the Newcastle team have apparently achieved little. They have taken cells from human embryos and created animal-human embryos. This is of little scientific interest in itself and has no obvious or immediate medical application. Furthermore, it seems to have been done without permission from the couple who donated the original embryo. Some of their DNA has been put into cow eggs without their consent. Would you be happy about this?

While the whole scientific community is excited by Yamanaka's work and by the Spanish organ transplant, the experiments in Newcastle are regarded as a side show. Even those doing these experiments admit that this is not the future. According to Professor Lyle Armstrong, "In 20 years there will be little need for embryo research."

The HFEA which issued these licences has the extraordinary record of never having ultimately refused a research licence in all its 20 years. Is there any bank that has never refused a loan? or any examination board that has never failed a student? If an institution never says "no" then one suspects that it not exercising adequate critical judgement.

The grandiose claims for cures from animal-human hybrids were never credible and now they can be seen to be empty promises. It can no longer be pretended that this avenue of research is "necessary". The international scientific community clearly do not think so. In light of this, the regulator must learn to say "no" to further animal-human experiments. These experiments do not deserve taxpayers' money or statutory licences. There is widespread agreement that the future of stem cell research lies elsewhere – with reprogrammed adult cells and with adult stem cells. The world is moving on to science that is both more exciting and more ethical. It is time to pack up this bizarre little sideshow and rejoin the rest of the world.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 16 Jan 2009 | 10:06 am

Earth Watch

How humanity is loving nature to death
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Jan 2009 | 9:41 am

Sharks, not humans, most at risk in ocean

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Three shark attacks in Australia in two days this week sparked a global media frenzy of "Jaws" proportions, but sharks are more at risk in the ocean than humans with man killing millions of sharks each year.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 8:12 am

Martian methane belch: From rocks or microbes? (AP)

AP - A surprising and mysterious belch of methane gas on Mars hints at possible microbial life underground, but also could come from changes in rocks, a new NASA study found. The presence of methane on Mars could be significant because by far most of the gas on Earth is a byproduct of life — from animal digestion and decaying plants and animals.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 6:02 am

Ex-astronaut Cernan to donate papers to Purdue U. (AP)

AP - Former astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, a 1956 Purdue University graduate and the most recent person to walk on the moon, is donating his personal papers to the school's flight archives.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 5:01 am

Soot-stained Snow Melts Sooner (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Soot-darkened snowdrifts aren't just unsightly; they also become warmer and thinner than pristine white snow, bumping up the start of the spring snowmelt by as much as a month, a new study finds.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 3:20 am

NASA awards to space station cargo haulers on hold (Reuters)

Reuters - NASA is suspending contract awards to two firms selected to fly cargo to the International Space Station after a third contender formally protested the outcome of the competition, officials said on Thursday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 1:36 am

NASA awards to space station cargo haulers on hold

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA is suspending contract awards to two firms selected to fly cargo to the International Space Station after a third contender formally protested the outcome of the competition, officials said on Thursday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 1:36 am

Science closing in on cloak of invisibility (AP)

AP - They can't match Harry Potter yet, but scientists are moving closer to creating a real cloak of invisibility. Researchers at Duke University, who developed a material that can "cloak" an item from detection by microwaves, report that they have expanded the number of wavelengths they can block.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Jan 2009 | 12:11 am

David Adam: Paint roofs white to slow climate change, say scientists. Radical or ridiculous?

Should we paint the world white to tackle the impact of global warming? Hashem Akbari, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in California thinks so, and is launching a worldwide campaign to brighten up our cities. Turn enough rooftops and roads a whiter shade of pale, he says, and enough extra sunlight will be bounced back into space to cool the planet.

It won't solve the problem of climate change. Like other geoengineering schemes, such as mirrors in space and dumping iron in the ocean, it counteracts the symptoms of global warming – the warming – without addressing the carbon emissions at the root of the problem. Akbari is careful to say that emission curbs are also needed, but that making urban areas more reflective could buy us some time.

It's not just about millions of people heading out with a ladder and a brush, though that could certainly help. Akbari wants communities, local authorities and householders to think about using more reflective materials when they perform routine maintenance or repairs. That way it wouldn't cost any more – and such switches could even make money. If cash from carbon offsets can be channelled into changing to cleaner lightbulbs and cooking stoves, then why not into making shinier cities?

Akbari isn't the only scientist looking at changes in reflectivity. Experts have talked of shinier fields of crops, such as barley, soy and wheat, while others have suggested we could cover the deserts in plastic sheets, scrubbed clean by robots. Space scientists have even considered painting the moon to make it less reflective, so more of the sun's energy seeps into the lunar soil where it could be tapped by astronauts.

Are lighter rooftops and roads the way to go? California already makes all flat roofs white to cool its cities. Should other places follow its lead? Would you want to live in a house with a white roof? Or should we forget about such schemes and focus on what really matters – getting our carbon footprints down?

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 16 Jan 2009 | 12:05 am

Go-ahead for new Heathrow runway

A third runway should be built at London's Heathrow airport, ministers say - but opponents vow to fight the plans.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Jan 2009 | 10:56 pm

NASA to fly unmanned drone for science research (AP)

AP - There will be a powerful new scientific eye in the sky come summer. NASA and Northrop Grumman on Thursday unveiled two unmanned drones that will be used for atmospheric research. One of the two Global Hawks, a version of the Air Force's top-of-the-line unmanned spy plane, will be outfitted with science instruments this spring and conduct its first earth science mission in June for NASA.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Jan 2009 | 10:10 pm

Elephant Dung Count Reveals Thriving Population

Malaysia's elephant population appears to be on the rise.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Jan 2009 | 10:00 pm

How Birds Can Down a Jet Airplane

The problem is far more common than most people realize.
Source: Livescience.com | 15 Jan 2009 | 9:44 pm

Methane discovery hints at living Martian microbes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Plumes of methane in the atmosphere of Mars provide evidence of the possible existence of microbes living below the Martian surface that produce the gas as some do on Earth, U.S. scientists said on Thursday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 15 Jan 2009 | 9:31 pm

House Democrats move to overturn Bush species rule (AP)

AP - A group of Democratic lawmakers on Thursday moved to overturn a last-minute rule by the Bush administration intended to reduce input from government scientists when evaluating whether dams, power plants or other projects might harm endangered species.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Jan 2009 | 9:26 pm

Farms to take heat out of warming

Selecting certain varieties of some common crops could help curb the rise in global temperatures, research suggests.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Jan 2009 | 8:30 pm

Fish Poop Helps Balance Ocean Acidity

Fish excrement contributes between 3 and 15 percent of carbonate in oceans.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Jan 2009 | 8:00 pm

Cloaking device may make cell phone static vanish

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A new light-bending material has brought scientists one step closer to creating a cloaking device that could hide objects from sight.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 15 Jan 2009 | 7:34 pm

Fish digestions help keep the oceans healthy

LONDON (Reuters) - The digestive systems of fish play a vital role in maintaining the health of the oceans and moderating climate change, researchers said on Thursday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 15 Jan 2009 | 7:22 pm

FDA to adopt more transparent process for GE animals (Reuters)

Reuters - The Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday it would make the process it uses to approve genetically engineered animals more transparent, but consumer groups expressed concern the government was not going far enough to protect the pubic.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Jan 2009 | 7:19 pm

FDA to adopt more transparent process for GE animals

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday it would make the process it uses to approve genetically engineered animals more transparent, but consumer groups expressed concern the government was not going far enough to protect the pubic.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 15 Jan 2009 | 7:19 pm

Mars Methane: Geology or Biology?

Plumes of methane gas detected on Mars could point to active geology or possibly even biology.
Source: Livescience.com | 15 Jan 2009 | 7:05 pm

New light on Mars methane mystery

Scientists detect seasonal releases of methane gas on Mars and say either geological activity or life could be the cause.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Jan 2009 | 7:01 pm

Mars Methane Found, Raising Possibility of Life

Could the presence of methane mean life on Mars? No one can say for now.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm

Invisibility Cloak Closer Than Ever to Reality

A new cloak hides objects from microwaves, inching closer to actual invisibility.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm

Methane plumes on Mars may be belches of buried microbes

The search for extraterrestrial life has received a tantalising boost with the announcement that Nasa scientists have detected wafts of methane on Mars that could be the emissions of microbes living deep beneath the surface.

A seven-year survey of the red planet using three powerful ground-based telescopes in Hawaii, Arizona and Chile spotted giant plumes of the noxious gas being released from the ground in the northern hemisphere during the Martian summer.

Over three months in 2003 around 19,000 tonnes of methane belched into the atmosphere from two valleys and a volcano, each about 620 miles apart, Nasa scientists report in the US journal Science.

On Earth more than 90% of methane in the atmosphere is produced by living things as a byproduct of food digestion. But the gas can also be emitted by common geological processes in volcanoes and from fissures in ocean floors.

Nasa scientists calculate that a colony of Martian microbes covering 2,316 sq miles of the planet's permafrost could account for the volumes of methane detected. Alternatively, the gas could be released by a community of ancient bugs living in aquifers nearly five miles beneath the surface, under the permafrost.

Michael Mumma, director of Nasa's Goddard Centre for Astrobiology in Maryland, US, said the agency was keeping an open mind about the origins of the plumes but added that there was now an urgent need to analyse the methane clouds for other chemicals that would either confirm or rule out life as the cause.

"We do not claim to have identified life, nor do we think it is possible to draw that conclusion solely on the basis of methane detection," he said. "But we now know where, and maybe when, to go and look for other chemical signatures that will distinguish whether this is biology or other processes at work. To me it is compelling and imperative that we now map the entire planet repeatedly over two Mars years to identify all of the active regions of methane release and to establish their ­seasonal variability." If it can predict when the plumes will appear, he said, Nasa could send probes to fly through them and investigate them further."

Scientists previously sniffed a haze of methane around Mars in 2004. The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter recorded levels of methane in the atmosphere at around 10 parts in a billion, suggesting that any releases from the planet were tiny.

The latest study provides evidence that substantial amounts of methane could be released on a seasonal basis, but is quickly broken down in the atmosphere.

The Nasa team used infrared detectors on the telescopes to confirm the presence of methane at three locations on Mars. One region, a valley known as Nili Fossae, is rich in clay minerals and was once covered in standing water. The two other sites are known as Syrtis Major, an enormous volcano nearly 500 miles wide, and the region of Terra Sabae.

On Earth there are two geological processes that produce methane. One, called serpentinisation, requires heat, water and carbon dioxide. "It could be responsible, but if it's ongoing it means there is hot rock below the surface, so Mars must still be active," said Mumma.

Methane is also produced in magma underneath volcanoes, but there is no evidence of active volcanoes on Mars.

If the methane is the belchings of Martian microbes, these are either living about three metres below the surface, or deep beneath the permafrost, said Mumma. The gas is thought to build up during the winter and is then released in the summer as the warmth of the sun opens up fissures in the ground.

John Parnell, an expert in astrobiology and professor of geology at Aberdeen University, said: "One of the key things about methane is it degrades in the atmosphere, so if it's there, something is replenishing it. If it's not life then something else is active on Mars. Even if it's not being produced by living organisms the methane could be used as a fuel by other microbes. On Earth some of the most primitive organisms, which are billions of years old, use methane as a fuel."

Nasa's next opportunity to analyse samples on the red planet will be provided by the Mars Science Laboratory, due for launch in 2011, which will carry more advanced sensors than any other probe to have set down on the planet.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 15 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm

Parkour Training: How to Do a Wall-Flip

How to perform a two-step wall-flip and live to enjoy the high-five that will follow. Good for impressing friends and escaping pursuers…
Source: Livescience.com | 15 Jan 2009 | 6:26 pm

The Best Inaugural Addresses Ever

Barack Obama will continue a 220-year-old oratorical tradition begun by George Washington.
Source: Livescience.com | 15 Jan 2009 | 5:42 pm

The third way

Concessions and costs of Heathrow's third runway
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Jan 2009 | 5:03 pm

Space shuttle is moved to Florida launch pad

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA moved space shuttle Discovery to its launch pad on Wednesday for a planned February 12 launch that will kick off the U.S. space agency's last full year of shuttle missions before the fleet is retired in 2010.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 15 Jan 2009 | 3:17 pm

Exoplanets' Heat Detected From Earth

Heat allows astronomers to detect planets outside our solar system from Earth.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Jan 2009 | 3:05 pm

Eye study shows how deadly form of malaria kills

LONDON (Reuters) - The human eye can help doctors understand how an acute form of malaria attacks the brain, researchers said on Wednesday, opening the way to new and better treatments for one of Africa's biggest killers.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 15 Jan 2009 | 3:04 pm

Gray Wolf Comeback Continues

The government de-lists gray wolves from the Rocky Mountain endangered species list.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Jan 2009 | 3:00 pm

God and Science: An Inner Conflict

Reconciling science and God in our minds is difficult because we unconsciously see these concepts as opposed.
Source: Livescience.com | 15 Jan 2009 | 2:37 pm

Human Hair: The Next Green Fertilizer?

Scientists test the claim that human hair helps plants grow. Guess what? It works.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Jan 2009 | 2:20 pm

Lightning Helps Predict Hurricane Fury

Lightning patterns near the cores of storms, can help predict hurricane intensify.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Jan 2009 | 2:10 pm