Today's Reuters Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News: | | Mars rover finds first evidence of water: a river of it Thu,27 Sep 2012 02:35 PM PDT Reuters - CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA's Mars rover, Curiosity, dispatched to learn if the most Earth-like planet in the solar system was suitable for microbial life, has found clear evidence its landing site was once awash in water, a key ingredient for life, scientists said Thursday. Curiosity, a roving chemistry laboratory the size of a small car, touched down on August 6 inside a giant impact basin near the planet's equator. The primary target for the two-year mission is a three-mile (five-km) -high mound of layered rock rising from the floor of Gale Crater. ... Full Story | Top | New "extreme" Hubble shows deepest view yet of night sky Tue,25 Sep 2012 03:54 PM PDT Reuters - Cape Canaveral, Florida (Reuters) - Piecing together 10 years of Hubble Space Telescope images, astronomers on Tuesday unveiled the deepest view yet of a small sliver of the night sky, revealing a kaleidoscope of galaxies and other celestial objects. The Hubble eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF, adds another 5,500 galaxies to Hubble's 2003 and 2004 view into a tiny patch of the farthest universe. Hubble returned to the same target more than 50 times over the past decade, racking up an additional 2 million seconds of exposure time. ... Full Story | Top | Florida wants NASA land to develop commercial spaceport Sun,23 Sep 2012 01:29 PM PDT Reuters - CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - With an eye toward developing a commercial spaceport, Florida has asked NASA to transfer 150 acres of land north of the shuttle launch pads and the shuttle runway to Space Florida, the state's aerospace development agency. "Florida believes that the properties identified in this request are excess to the needs of the U.S. ... Full Story | Top | Boost for carbon capture from new non-toxic absorber Sun,23 Sep 2012 10:07 AM PDT Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - Researchers have created a new material that could solve some of the problems holding back projects to combat global warming by capturing and burying carbon emitted from power stations. The material, made from aluminum nitrate salt, cheap organic materials and water, is non-toxic and requires less energy to strip out the carbon when it becomes saturated, the scientists said. ... Full Story | Top | GE plans medical technology acquisitions in Germany Sat,22 Sep 2012 03:55 AM PDT Reuters - FRANKFURT (Reuters) - General Electric plans to make acquisitions in Germany to raise its market share in CAT scan and MRI technology, the company's new Germany chief told a magazine. "Especially in the high-end segment we want to double, in some areas even triple, our market share," Volker Wetekam told Wirtschafts Woche weekly, according to an excerpt of an article to be published on Monday. He said the company plans to spend a "considerable" sum on acquisitions, without elaborating. "We are looking for companies that move us forward in terms of technology, not just in Germany but globally. ... Full Story | Top | Space shuttle Endeavour home in Los Angeles after final flight Fri,21 Sep 2012 03:37 PM PDT Reuters - LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The space shuttle Endeavour touched down in Los Angeles on Friday on the back of a jumbo jet, greeted by cheering crowds as it ended a celebratory final flight en route to its retirement home at a Southern California science museum. The 75-ton winged spaceship, ferried by a modified Boeing 747, landed at Los Angeles International Airport shortly before 1:00 p.m. after hop-scotching across the country from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and flying a victory lap over California. ... Full Story | Top | Honeybee homicide case against Syngenta pesticide unproven Fri,21 Sep 2012 03:55 AM PDT Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists have shot down a study on declining honeybee populations that triggered a French ban on a pesticide made by Swiss agrochemicals group Syngenta. France's farm minister Stephane Le Foll withdrew Syngenta's marketing permit for the pesticide Cruiser OSR in June, citing evidence of a threat to the country's bees. But a study by Britain's Food and Environment Research Agency with the University of Exeter says the results of the original research were flawed. ... Full Story | Top | Space shuttle Endeavour lands piggyback in California Thu,20 Sep 2012 01:43 PM PDT Reuters - EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, California (Reuters) - The space shuttle Endeavour, carried piggyback atop a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California on Thursday after a cross-country trip to Los Angeles to begin its final mission as a museum exhibit. The 747 carrying the newly retired spaceship touched down safely shortly before 1 p.m. (4 p.m. EDT) at Edwards, located in the Mojave Desert north of Los Angeles. ... Full Story | Top | Author defends Monsanto GM study as EU orders review Thu,20 Sep 2012 08:56 AM PDT Reuters - BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The French author of a study linking a type of genetically modified corn to higher health risks in rats dismissed criticism of his research methods on Thursday, describing the work as the most detailed study to date on the subject. Gilles-Eric Seralini of the University of Caen and colleagues said on Wednesday that rats fed on Monsanto's genetically modified corn or exposed to its top-selling weed killer suffered tumors and multiple organ damage and premature death. ... Full Story | Top | Study on Monsanto GM corn concerns draws skepticism Thu,20 Sep 2012 05:57 AM PDT Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - In a study that prompted sharp criticism from other experts, French scientists said on Wednesday that rats fed on Monsanto's genetically modified corn or exposed to its top-selling weedkiller suffered tumors and multiple organ damage. The French government asked the country's health watchdog to investigate the findings further, although a number of scientists questioned the study's basic methods and Monsanto said it felt confident its products had been proven safe. ... Full Story | Top | NASA rover snaps pictures of an eclipse from Mars Wed,19 Sep 2012 03:24 PM PDT Reuters - CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, dispatched to determine if the planet most like Earth in the solar system could have supported microbial life, has taken on a second job - moonlighting as an astronomer. Last week, Curiosity outfitted its high-resolution camera with protective filters and took pictures of the sun as Phobos, one of Mars' two small moons, sailed by. It was a tricky shoot. Phobos and its sister moon Deimos are closer to Mars than our moon is to Earth, so they shoot across the sky relatively quickly. Phobos takes less than eight hours to circle Mars. ... Full Story | Top | Shuttle Endeavour sets off for California museum Wed,19 Sep 2012 06:35 AM PDT Reuters - CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Riding piggyback atop a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, the space shuttle Endeavour left its Florida home port for the last time on Wednesday and headed to California to begin a new mission as a museum exhibit. After waiting two days for weather to clear, the specially modified carrier jet sped down the Kennedy Space Center runway shortly after dawn on Wednesday, the first leg of a planned three-day trek to the West Coast. "There's sadness to see it go, but the space shuttle program had to end for us to move on to the next thing," said astronaut Greg Chamitoff. ... Full Story | Top | Quantum teleportation tipped for Nobel Prize: Thomson Reuters Tue,18 Sep 2012 09:11 PM PDT Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - Researchers who wrote the rulebook for quantum teleportation, described as "spooky" by an exasperated Einstein, are among the 2012 Thomson Reuters tips to win Nobel prizes for science. Nobel prediction expert David Pendlebury's annual forecasts are based on the company's "Web of Knowledge" data on how often a scientist's published papers are cited as a basis for further investigation by other researchers. ... Full Story | Top | Trees must fall to make way for space shuttle's L.A. road trip Tue,18 Sep 2012 06:10 PM PDT Reuters - LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The space shuttle Endeavour always had plenty of elbow room while soaring around Earth. But to make way for its slow 12-mile (19-km)journey through city streets next month to its final destination at a Los Angeles museum, some trees must fall. Clearing an unobstructed route for the retired spaceship to take from Los Angeles International Airport to the California Science Center will require cutting down nearly 400 trees in all, and the temporary removal of hundreds of utility poles, street lights and traffic signals, officials say. ... Full Story | Top | Arctic sea ice thaw may be accelerated by oil, shipping Tue,18 Sep 2012 02:46 PM PDT Reuters - OSLO (Reuters) - Local pollution in the Arctic from shipping and oil and gas industries, which have expanded in the region due to a thawing of sea ice caused by global warming, could further accelerate that thaw, experts say. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said there was an urgent need to calculate risks of local pollutants such as soot, or "black carbon", in the Arctic. Soot darkens ice, making it soak up more of the sun's heat and quickening a melt. ... Full Story | Top |
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