Today's Reuters Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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Yoga for jets: why planemakers prefer bent wingtips
Wed,2 May 2012 04:00 PM PDT
Reuters - CHICAGO/PARIS (Reuters) - There are, so the industry saying goes, only three secrets in the commercial airplane business: the selling price, the production cost and the shape of the wing. Boeing and Airbus are testing that proverb to the limits as they squeeze improvements out of the wings of their most popular jets to make them more aerodynamic -- hunting down extra pennies per gallon of fuel savings for ultra-thrifty airlines. ... Full Story | Top |
Plant study flags dangers of warming world
Wed,2 May 2012 10:18 AM PDT
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - Plants are flowering faster than scientists predicted in response to climate change, research in the United States showed on Wednesday, which could have devastating knock-on effects for food chains and ecosystems. Global warming is having a significant impact on hundreds of plant and animal species around the world, changing some breeding, migration and feeding patterns, scientists say. ...
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Italy scientists say they have found oldest human blood
Wed,2 May 2012 08:26 AM PDT
Reuters -  ROME (Reuters) - Scientists examining the remains of "Otzi," Italy's prehistoric iceman who roamed the Alps some 5,300 years ago, said on Wednesday they have isolated what are believed to be the oldest traces of human blood ever found. The German and Italian scientists said they used an atomic force microscope to examine tissue sections from a wound caused by an arrow that killed the Copper Age man, who was found frozen in a glacier, and from a laceration on his right hand. ...
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Can an African "green revolution" help feed the world?
Wed,2 May 2012 03:06 AM PDT
Reuters -  SABA SABA, Kenya, May 2 (AlertNet) - Her bare feet coated with mud, Sabena Gitau trudged down the rain-sodden hillside to her banana plantation, machete in hand. She chose and cut several giant bunches of bananas, which she strapped to a motorbike to be taken to nearby Saba Saba town, 77 km (48 miles) north of Nairobi, to be weighed, graded and sold. A decade ago, Gitau made the same 10 km trip a couple of times a month, on foot with her bananas on her back, earning about 420 shillings ($5) for the dawn-to-dusk trek. ...
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"Green bullet" innovations aim to feed world of 9 billion
Wed,2 May 2012 03:02 AM PDT
Reuters -  LONDON, May 2 (AlertNet) - In flood-hit fields in the Philippines, farmers are testing a hardy new variety of rice that can survive completely submerged for more than two weeks. In Kenya's Kibera slum, poor urban families are turning around their diets and incomes just by learning to grow vegetables in sack gardens outside their doors. And in India, a push to help marginalized rural communities gain title to their land is leading to a significant drop in hunger. ...
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Polar bears can swim vast distances, study finds
Tue,1 May 2012 07:35 PM PDT
Reuters -  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Polar bears are capable of swimming vast distances, a potential survival skill needed in an Arctic environment where summer sea ice is vanishing, a study led by the U.S. Geological Survey showed on Tuesday. The study, published in the Canadian Journal of Zoology, tracked 52 female polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea off Alaska. Between 2004 and 2009, a period of extreme summer-ice retreat, about a third of those bears made swims exceeding 30 miles in distance, according to the study results. ...
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Silkworms and squid inspire smart materials
Tue,1 May 2012 04:39 PM PDT
Reuters -  (Reuters) - Car panels made of silkworm cocoons, clothing that can camouflage the wearer at the flick of a switch and a "smart" shirt with a phone and power source embedded in the fabric. Scientists, some with funding from the U.S. Air Force, have made breakthroughs that could eventually make all this reality. Research published on Wednesday reveals advances in materials science that could transform industries struggling with the rising cost and scarcity of raw materials and save lives in post-conflict countries still clearing minefields. ...
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Icy Alpine caves setting for Mars mission tests
Tue,1 May 2012 06:52 AM PDT
Reuters -  VIENNA (Reuters) - Scientists were out of this world on Tuesday about tests in icy Alpine caves of the technology needed for a mission to Mars one day. "We have learned an infinite amount in the past three days," project leader Gernot Groemer from the Austrian Space Forum said of the 11-nation field test in the Dachstein region near Salzburg. Scientists picked the area - which Groemer called a "scientific playground" - for experiments because ice caves would be a natural refuge for any microbes on Mars seeking steady temperatures and protection from damaging cosmic rays. ...
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Tech billionaires bankroll gold rush to mine asteroids
Mon,30 Apr 2012 12:31 PM PDT
Reuters -  CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Google Inc executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt are among those bankrolling a venture to survey and eventually extract precious metals and rare minerals from asteroids that orbit near Earth, the company said on Tuesday. Planetary Resources, based in Bellevue, Washington, initially will focus on developing and selling extremely low-cost robotic spacecraft for surveying missions. A demonstration mission in orbit around Earth is expected to be launched within two years, said company co-founders Peter Diamandis and Eric Anderson. ...
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Space shuttle Enterprise lands in New York atop jet
Fri,27 Apr 2012 12:33 PM PDT
Reuters -  NEW YORK (Reuters) - The space shuttle Enterprise flew to New York from Washington on Friday piggybacking atop a Boeing 747 and made a dramatic flight along the Hudson River past the Statue of Liberty to the delight of observers. En route to John F. Kennedy International Airport, the retired shuttle flew at low altitude along the river, giving residents of New York and New Jersey an extraordinary view of the craft, which will be put on display at a New York museum. ...
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FDA approves Glaxo cancer drug Votrient
Thu,26 Apr 2012 02:57 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. regulators gave the nod to GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Votrient for a type of sarcoma on Thursday, following a positive advisory panel vote last month. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the pill for people with soft-tissue sarcoma who have already received chemotherapy. Soft-tissue sarcoma is a rare but aggressive form of cancer that afflicted about 11,000 Americans last year, 4,000 of whom died from the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute. The cancer begins in the muscles, fat or other tissues. ...
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Corrected: Tech billionaires bankroll gold rush to mine asteroids
Thu,26 Apr 2012 11:47 AM PDT
Reuters - CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Google Inc executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt are among those bankrolling a venture to survey and eventually extract precious metals and rare minerals from asteroids that orbit near Earth, the company said on Tuesday. Planetary Resources, based in Bellevue, Washington, initially will focus on developing and selling extremely low-cost robotic spacecraft for surveying missions. A demonstration mission in orbit around Earth is expected to be launched within two years, said company co-founders Peter Diamandis and Eric Anderson. ...
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Worm turns sheep clone to "good" fat: China scientists
Thu,26 Apr 2012 08:17 AM PDT
Reuters -  HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese scientists have cloned a genetically modified sheep containing a "good" type of fat found naturally in nuts, seeds, fish and leafy greens that helps reduce the risk of heart attacks and cardiovascular disease. "Peng Peng", which has a roundworm fat gene, weighed in at 5.74 kg when it was born on March 26 in a laboratory in China's far western region of Xinjiang. "It's growing very well and is very healthy like a normal sheep," lead scientist Du Yutao at the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) in Shenzhen in southern China told Reuters. ...
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Scientists call for rethink on consumption, population
Wed,25 Apr 2012 04:05 PM PDT
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have called for a radical rethink of our relationship with the planet to head off what they warn could be economic and environmental catastrophe. In a report published on Thursday by the London-based Royal Society, an international group of 23 scientists chaired by Nobel laureate Sir John Sulston called for a rebalancing of consumption in favor of poor countries coupled with increased efforts to control population growth to lift the estimated 1.3 billion people living on less than $1.25 a day out of poverty. ...
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GSK says it the only obvious owner for Human Genome
Wed,25 Apr 2012 07:16 AM PDT
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said on Wednesday its $2.6 billion bid for long-time partner Human Genome Sciences was "full and fair" and it was the only obvious owner for the biotechnology firm. After releasing disappointing first-quarter results, Britain's biggest drugmaker insisted its $13 a share offer was generous and Chief Executive Andrew Witty played down the possibility of increasing the price. "We absolutely believe that we are the compelling owner for this business," he told reporters in a conference call. ...
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