Today's Reuters Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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Psychedelic gecko, "Elvis" monkey in new Mekong finds
Sun,11 Dec 2011 04:15 PM PST
Reuters -  (Reuters) - A wildly-colored gecko, a fish that looks like a gherkin, and a monkey with an Elvis-like hairstyle are among the more than 200 new species discovered in the Greater Mekong region last year, environmental group WWF said on Monday. The area's diversity is so astonishing that a new species is found every two days, but regional cooperation and decision-making must take centre stage to preserve its richness, the group added. The dangers posed to local wildlife were highlighted earlier this year, when WWF said that Vietnam's Javan rhinos have been poached into extinction. ...
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CERN set to report probable Higgs sighting this week
Sun,11 Dec 2011 10:16 AM PST
Reuters -  GENEVA (Reuters) - Scientists predicted this weekend that sighting of the first strong signs of a particle vital to support Einstein's ideas on the working of the universe will be reported Tuesday by the CERN physics research center. While warning there would be no announcement of a full scientific discovery, they said even confirmation that something like the long-sought Higgs boson had been spotted would point the way to major advances in knowledge of the cosmos. ...
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Analysis: World still in arrears on climate change pledges
Sun,11 Dec 2011 05:22 AM PST
Reuters - DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) - When the Kyoto Protocol, the world's only legally-binding pact to tackle climate change was adopted in the economically-booming 1990s, it was meant to be a down payment. Sunday's tentative promise, thrashed out over days of talks, that all the big emitters will eventually join an international scheme of carbon reduction targets is the latest small installment and allows U.N. law to retain some value in trying to stop the planet from overheating. Environmentalists want much more. ... Full Story | Top |
Instant View: U.N. climate talks reach modest deal
Sun,11 Dec 2011 05:22 AM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - Negotiators at U.N. climate talks in Durban, South Africa, reached a deal that for the first time would bring all major emitters into international efforts to limit global warming, but which environmentalists said did not go far enough. Following is reaction from key players and observers. CHRISTIANA FIGUERES, UNFCCC EXECUTIVE SECRETARY "I salute the countries who made this agreement. They have all laid aside some cherished objectives of their own to meet a common purpose, a long-term solution to climate change. ... Full Story | Top |
What U.N. climate talks agreed in Durban
Sun,11 Dec 2011 05:22 AM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - U.N. climate change talks in Durban, South Africa, agreed a package of measures early on Sunday that would eventually force all the world's polluters to take legally binding action to slow the pace of global changing. After more than two weeks of intense talks, some 190 countries agreed to four main elements -- a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol, the design of a Green Climate Fund and a mandate to get all countries in 2015 to sign a deal that would force them to cut emissions no later than 2020, as well as a workplan for next year. ... Full Story | Top |
Private sector finance eyed for U.N. forest projects
Sun,11 Dec 2011 05:22 AM PST
Reuters - DURBAN (Reuters) - Private investors may be allowed to earn carbon credits by paying poor countries to halt the destruction of tropical forests, but a U.N. climate summit failed to agree the details needed to get the ambitious program off the ground. The felling of trees that capture the heat-trapping gases responsible for global warming accounts for about 20 percent of the planet's greenhouse gas emissions, and studies show an acre (0.4 hectare) of forest is lost every second around the globe. ... Full Story | Top |
Gene therapy proves effective for hemophilia B
Sat,10 Dec 2011 07:11 PM PST
Reuters - SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - A single treatment with gene therapy, an experimental technique for fixing faulty genes, has been shown to boost output of a vital blood clotting factor, possibly offering a long-term solution for people with hemophilia B. Researchers said the same technology was also being studied as a treatment for hemophilia A, the far more common type of the inherited bleeding disorder. "It is a technique for potentially permanently curing patients," said Dr. ... Full Story | Top |
Provocative U.S. nuclear chief faces political test
Sat,10 Dec 2011 02:46 PM PST
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The embattled chief of the U.S. nuclear safety regulator found some powerful political support on Saturday ahead of Capitol Hill hearings next week that will scrutinize his bid to enact sweeping safety reforms. Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is locked in a bitter battle with fellow regulators over how to move forward on expensive changes for the nation's 104 nuclear reactors - reforms prompted by Japan's Fukushima nuclear accident in March. ...
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Stem cells used to produce blood platelets
Sat,10 Dec 2011 11:35 AM PST
Reuters - SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - Scientists have for the first time created blood platelet cells by reprogramming stem cells derived from adult cells, offering the potential for a renewable supply of the fragile blood component. Researchers at the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application at Kyoto University in Japan presented data at a meeting of the American Society of Hematology showing they were able to create the cells in the laboratory and confirm they had the same life span as normal human platelets when infused in mice. ... Full Story | Top |
Factbox: Countries to consider tiny steps in climate draft
Sat,10 Dec 2011 06:49 AM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - Countries would consider on Saturday small, incremental progress in a draft paper on cutting carbon emissions and preparing for a warmer world, at a climate conference in Durban. That may be the only outcome of the U.N.-backed conference which over-ran on Saturday, as separately negotiators struggled on bigger commitments to agree in future a global climate deal, to extend the existing, limited Kyoto Protocol, and to launch a Green Climate Fund. ... Full Story | Top |
NASA clears SpaceX for trial run to space station
Fri,9 Dec 2011 02:25 PM PST
Reuters -  CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A private company will make a trial cargo run to the International Space Station in February, a key step in a new U.S. program to buy spaceflight services on a commercial basis, NASA said on Friday. California-based Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, plans to launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon cargo capsule from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on February 7. The mission would mark the second flights of the Falcon 9 and Dragon, which debuted in December 2010. ...
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Mayans never predicted world to end in 2012: experts
Thu,8 Dec 2011 02:05 PM PST
Reuters -  PALENQUE, Mexico (Reuters) - If you are worried the world will end next year based on the Mayan calendar, relax: the end of time is still far off. So say Mayan experts who want to dispel any belief that the ancient Mayans predicted a world apocalypse next year. The Mayan calendar marks the end of a 5,126 year old cycle around December 21, 2012, which should bring the return of Bolon Yokte, a Mayan god associated with war and creation. ...
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Support grows for Durban climate deal
Thu,8 Dec 2011 10:56 AM PST
Reuters -  DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) - Support grew on Thursday for an EU plan to agree a global climate change pact with binding targets by 2015, after poor nations vulnerable to climate change forged alliances with developed countries. The European Union said it was encouraged its "road map" to legally binding commitments by 2015 to cut greenhouse gas emissions was gaining traction at the talks, which are due to wrap up in the South African port of Durban on Friday. ...
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NASA catalogs thousands of asteroids near Earth
Thu,8 Dec 2011 05:03 AM PST
Reuters -  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - About 1,000 asteroids big enough to cause catastrophic damage if they hit Earth are orbiting relatively nearby, a NASA survey shows. In a project known as Spaceguard, the U.S. space agency was ordered by Congress in 1998 to find 90 percent of objects near Earth that are 1 km (0.62 of a mile) in diameter or larger. The survey is now complete, with 93 percent of the objects accounted for, astronomer Amy Mainzer of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. ...
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Debt and doubt loom large over Durban climate talks
Wed,7 Dec 2011 09:51 AM PST
Reuters -  DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) - Economic crisis and the top three polluters China, the United States and India, loomed as obstacles to a new global deal at the start of a second make-or-break week of U.N. climate talks in the South African city of Durban. After a first week of preliminary discussion, serious doubt hangs over the future of the Kyoto Protocol, whose first commitment period on tackling climate change expires at the end of next year. ...
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