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Science News


03/19/2010 07:39 AM
Geneva atom smasher sets record for beam energy (AP)
     

A view of a superconducting solenoid magnet at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva. The European Organisation for Nuclear Research said that the world's most powerful atom smasher will be brought up to unprecedented power by early April.(AFP/File/Fabrice Coffrini)AP - Operators of the world's largest atom smasher on Friday ramped up their massive machine to three times the energy ever previously achieved, in the run-up to experiments probing the secrets of the universe.
03/18/2010 04:05 PM
Cloak of invisibility takes a step forward (AP)
     

Gold bars are displayed to be photographed at bullion house in Mumbai December 3, 2009. REUTERS/Arko DattaAP - From Grimm's fairy tales to Harry Potter, the cloak of invisibility has played a major role in fiction. Now scientists have taken a small but important new step toward making it reality.
03/18/2010 05:03 PM
Export ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna rejected (AP)
     AP - Fishing nations won a victory over environmentalists Thursday when a U.S.-backed proposal to ban export of the Atlantic bluefin tuna was overwhelmingly rejected at a U.N. wildlife meeting.
03/19/2010 04:43 PM
Onions Made Pre-Human Ancestors Cry Too, Study Suggests (LiveScience.com)
     LiveScience.com - The sensors in your body that make you tear up when you're cutting onions have been around for 500 million years, a new study finds.
03/19/2010 10:19 AM
Japan sighs relief as bluefin tuna ban fails (The Christian Science Monitor)
     The Christian Science Monitor - Sushi chefs and fish dealers across the Japanese archipelago were letting out small sighs of relief Thursday night as news filtered in from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Qatar that a proposed export ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna had failed to pass. Japan consumes around three-quarters of the globe’s bluefin tuna catch, with almost all of it served raw as sushi and sashimi, of which it is the most sought-after variety.
03/17/2010 03:14 PM
Rio protests: Sharing Brazil's oil revenues will hurt 2016 Olympics (The Christian Science Monitor)
     The Christian Science Monitor - Thousands of Brazilian schoolchildren and city and state workers were given the afternoon off to gather in Rio de Janeiro today and protest a federal law that would reduce the amount of petroleum royalties the energy-rich state now gets.
03/19/2010 04:31 PM
Crippled Mars Rover is Chilled, But Still Alive (SPACE.com)
     SPACE.com - NASA's crippled Spirit Mars rover is still awake as it prepares for the oncoming Martian winter, which has already left it colder than ever before.
03/18/2010 01:18 PM
Bulgaria boosts GM crop restrictions (AFP)
     

Genetically modified corn cobs are seen at a corn field. Bulgaria's parliament on Thursday tightened restrictions on genetically modified food crops in the face of pressure from environmentalists seeking a total ban.(AFP/File/Khaled Desouki)AFP - Bulgaria's parliament on Thursday tightened restrictions on genetically modified food crops in the face of pressure from environmentalists seeking a total ban.
03/17/2010 05:52 PM
Arctic animals doing better, but not close to pole (AP)
     AP - The overall number of animals in the Arctic has increased over the past 40 years ago, according to a new international study. But critters who live closest to the North Pole are disappearing.
03/19/2010 12:12 PM
Activists urge Australia to charge Japanese whalers (AFP)
     

The Japanese harpoon vessel Shonan Maru No 2 shadows the Sea Shepherd's Ady Gil in the Southern Ocean off Antarctica in 2009. Anti-whaling activists have lodged a legal complaint against the captain and crew of a Japanese trawler which hit and sank their hi-tech speedboat, a politician said Friday.(AFP/Sea Shepherd/File/Laurens de Groot)AFP - Anti-whaling activists have lodged a legal complaint against the captain and crew of a Japanese trawler which hit and sank their hi-tech speedboat, a politician said Friday.
03/17/2010 04:54 PM
Smithsonian opens $21M human evolution hall (AP)
     

Part of the exhibit comparing the brain size of early humans is seen inside the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, on Wednesday, March 17, 2010. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)AP - Hundreds of early human fossils, artifacts and forensically recreated faces of our prehistoric relatives went on display Wednesday, exploring 6 million years of evolution at the National Museum of Natural History.
03/19/2010 08:30 AM
Lifetime tiger hunter, 92, snared in Indonesia (AFP)
     

A Sumatran at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, DC. Indonesian conservationists said they had caught red-handed a 92-year-old man who had admitted to killing dozens of critically endangered Sumatran tigers over a lifetime of hunting.(AFP/File/Karen Bleier)AFP - Indonesian conservationists said on Friday they had caught red-handed a 92-year-old man who had admitted to killing dozens of critically endangered Sumatran tigers over a lifetime of hunting.
03/19/2010 05:39 AM
The nation's weather (AP)
     AP - Most of the nation will see generally pleasant conditions on Friday, but there are some clouds, rain and snow in store for the western Plains and the Rockies.
03/19/2010 04:31 PM
Saturn at its Best for 2010 (SPACE.com)
     SPACE.com - While the planet Venus is now gaining in prominence low in western evening sky and Mars continues to slowly fade as it recedes from Earth, another bright naked eye planet, Saturn, is now enjoying its finest month in 2010. The great ringed beauty arrives at opposition to the sun on the American evening of Sunday, March 21, putting on an all-night performance.
03/17/2010 05:39 PM
Tests for genes don't predict breast cancer better (Reuters)
     Reuters - Studying genes linked to breast cancer may someday lead to better treatments, but they do little to improve a doctor's ability to predict who is likely to develop a tumor, researchers reported on Wednesday.
03/17/2010 12:47 PM
Sudan hangs two for killing Chinese oil workers (Reuters)
     Reuters - Sudan executed two people convicted of killing four oil workers, two of them Chinese, in one of the country's most energy-rich regions, state media reported on Wednesday.
03/19/2010 04:35 PM
Many tools but no guarantees in forecasting floods (AP)
     

National Guard troops patrol the perimeter of flood waters along the Red River, Friday, March 19, 2010, in Fargo, N.D. The rising waters of the Red are expected to crest in Fargo on Sunday. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)AP - A year ago, weather forecasters changed their estimate late in the game of just how high the Red River would rise, stoking an 11th-hour sandbagging flurry in Fargo that proved unnecessary in the end because the new prediction was wrong.