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Thursday, March 8, 2012 12:02 AM PST

Today's Reuters Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News: Strong solar storm heading for Earth Hong Kong dentist to help check pharaoh's cavity Group asks FDA to treat superbugs like rare diseases Strong solar storm heading for Earth Gorilla genome sheds new light on human evolution What sank the Titanic? Scientists point to the moon What sank the Titanic? Scientists point to the moon Alien invasion a threat to Antarctic ecosystem Four-legged "Cheetah" robot sets new speed record Scientists see rise in tornado-creating conditions Scientists see rise in tornado-creating conditions UK scientists to help satellites dodge sun storms DNA data helps to flesh out "Otzi" the Alpine iceman Loss of Arctic sea ice may lead to mercury deposits: NASA study Oceans' acidic shift may be fastest in 300 million years Strong solar storm heading for Earth Wed,7 Mar 2012 10:40 PM PST Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A strong geomagnetic storm is racing from the Sun toward Earth, and its expected arrival on Thursday could affect power grids, airplane routes and space-based satellite navigation systems, U.S. space weather experts said. The storm, a big cloud of charged particles flung from the Sun at about 4.5 million miles per hour (7.2 million km per hour), was spawned by a pair of solar flares, scientists said. ... Full Story Top Hong Kong dentist to help check pharaoh's cavity Wed,7 Mar 2012 09:44 PM PST Reuters - HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong dentist is wielding forceps to help reach for answers inside the last surviving example of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Great Pyramid of Giza. Pulling teeth by day and devising inventions by night, Ng Tze-chuen, 59, said he organized a team working with Egypt's former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass to unlock the mystery surrounding the doors blocking two narrow shafts in the pyramid, which is the tomb of the Pharaoh Cheops, also known as Khufu. "The Chinese have more experience with chopsticks. ... Full Story Top Group asks FDA to treat superbugs like rare diseases Wed,7 Mar 2012 09:02 PM PST Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A research group is proposing a new tool in the fight against drug-resistant bacteria: turn infections into a rare disease. The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) offered a plan on Thursday that would allow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to review certain kinds of antibiotics like it reviews "orphan" drugs for rare diseases, making it easier for companies to gain approval. Misuse of medications and other factors have fueled the evolution of multi-drug resistant bacteria, or "superbugs", for which there are few treatment options. ... Full Story Top Strong solar storm heading for Earth Wed,7 Mar 2012 02:24 PM PST Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A strong geomagnetic storm is racing from the Sun toward Earth, and its expected arrival on Thursday could affect power grids, airplane routes and space-based satellite navigation systems, U.S. space weather experts said. The storm, a big cloud of charged particles flung from the Sun at about 4.5 million miles per hour (7.2 million km per hour), was spawned by a pair of solar flares, scientists said. ... Full Story Top Gorilla genome sheds new light on human evolution Wed,7 Mar 2012 10:19 AM PST Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have sequenced the genome of the gorilla, the last great ape to have its genes decoded, and say it gives new insights into differences between the apes and humans - including their ability to produce competitive sperm. While confirming that our closest relative is the chimpanzee, the research also shows that around 15 percent of the human gene map resembles the gorilla more closely than it does the chimpanzee genome. ... Full Story Top What sank the Titanic? Scientists point to the moon Tue,6 Mar 2012 12:30 PM PST Reuters - SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - A century after the Titanic disaster, scientists have found an unexpected culprit for the sinking: the moon. Anyone who knows history or has seen the blockbuster movies knows that the cause of the transatlantic liner's accident 100 years ago next month was that it hit an iceberg. "But the lunar connection may explain how an unusually large number of icebergs got into the path of the Titanic," said Donald Olson, a Texas State University physicist whose team of forensic astronomers examined the moon's role. ... Full Story Top What sank the Titanic? Scientists point to the moon Tue,6 Mar 2012 10:13 AM PST Reuters - SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - A century after the Titanic disaster, scientists have found an unexpected culprit of the crash: the moon. Anyone who knows history or blockbuster movies knows that the cause of the ocean liner's accident 100 years ago next month was that it hit an iceberg. "But the lunar connection may explain how an unusually large number of icebergs got into the path of the Titanic," said Donald Olson, a Texas State University physicist whose team of forensic astronomers examined the moon's role. ... Full Story Top Alien invasion a threat to Antarctic ecosystem Tue,6 Mar 2012 05:23 AM PST Reuters - SYDNEY (REUTERS) - In the pristine frozen continent of Antarctica scientists fear an alien invasion -- not from outer space, but carried in people's pockets and bags. Seeds and plants accidentally brought to Antarctica by tourists and scientists may introduce alien plant species which could threaten the survival of native plants in the finely balanced ecosystem. ... Full Story Top Four-legged "Cheetah" robot sets new speed record Mon,5 Mar 2012 03:59 PM PST Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A four-legged robot known as the Cheetah lived up to its name on Monday, setting a new land speed record for legged robots by running at 18 mph on a treadmill at a laboratory in Massachusetts, its developer said. The Cheetah, being developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from the military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is part of a program aimed at achieving theoretical and experimental advances in the science of robotics. ... Full Story Top Scientists see rise in tornado-creating conditions Mon,5 Mar 2012 03:20 PM PST Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - When at least 80 tornadoes rampaged across the United States, from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico, last Friday, it was more than is typically observed during the entire month of March, tracking firm AccuWeather.com reported on Monday. According to some climate scientists, such earlier-than-normal outbreaks of tornadoes, which typically peak in the spring, will become the norm as the planet warms. ... Full Story Top Scientists see rise in tornado-creating conditions Mon,5 Mar 2012 03:18 PM PST Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - When at least 80 tornadoes rampaged across the United States, from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico, last Friday, it was more than is typically observed during the entire month of March, tracking firm AccuWeather.com reported on Monday. According to some climate scientists, such earlier-than-normal outbreaks of tornadoes, which typically peak in the spring, will become the norm as the planet warms. ... Full Story Top UK scientists to help satellites dodge sun storms Fri,2 Mar 2012 10:54 AM PST Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists have developed a system to help protect navigation and communications satellites from potentially devastating solar storms, they said on Friday. Services spanning everything from mobile phones to sophisticated weaponry increasingly depend on global positioning system, or GPS, technology. However damage by a massive burst of solar energy could knock out GPS satellites and send them veering into the paths of other craft or scramble their communications. ... Full Story Top DNA data helps to flesh out "Otzi" the Alpine iceman Fri,2 Mar 2012 05:07 AM PST Reuters - MILAN (Reuters) - The first complete genome-sequencing of "Otzi," Italy's prehistoric iceman, is revealing a wealth of details about the man who roamed the Alps 5,300 years ago and could unleash a frenzy of activity among scientists thanks to open data. Over the last 20 years, scientists have painstakingly collected data from the stomach, bowels and teeth of the 45-year old man, who was found sticking out of a glacier by German climbers in 1991 in the Tyrolean Alps on the Austro-Italian border. ... Full Story Top Loss of Arctic sea ice may lead to mercury deposits: NASA study Thu,1 Mar 2012 05:08 PM PST Reuters - LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Significant declines in perennial Arctic sea ice over the past decade may be intensifying a chemical reaction that leads to deposits of toxic mercury, a NASA-led study showed on Thursday. The study found that thick, perennial Arctic sea ice was being replaced by a thinner and saltier ice that releases bromine into the air when it interacts with sunlight and cold, said Son Nghiem, a NASA researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. ... Full Story Top Oceans' acidic shift may be fastest in 300 million years Thu,1 Mar 2012 02:40 PM PST Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The world's oceans are turning acidic at what could be the fastest pace of any time in the past 300 million years, even more rapidly than during a monster emission of planet-warming carbon 56 million years ago, scientists said on Thursday. Looking back at that bygone warm period in Earth's history could offer help in forecasting the impact of human-spurred climate change, researchers said of a review of hundreds of studies of ancient climate records published in the journal Science. ... Full Story Top

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