Science News

Forecasters predicted rain, freezing rain and snow in the eastern part of the United States on Thursday, while a separate system was expected to bring snow to the Dakotas.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (Reuters) - Flash flooding from Tropical Storm Olga's torrential rains killed at least eight people in the Dominican Republic and forced tens of thousands out of their homes, government officials said on Wednesday.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Floods in Malaysia have killed 12 people and left more than 20,000 homeless, and more rain is expected, which could push up food and palm oil prices in one of the world's top growers.

We are preparing to visit the North Pole on December 22, to see an unusual meteor shower called the Ursids. This meteor shower radiates from the constellation known as the Little Dipper: Ursa Minor. This minor shower is quite unremarkable in most years, but this year the parent comet 8P/Tuttle is approaching, and it has a strong Perseid-level shower in store for us. We think. We predict a peak time around 20 - 22.2 Universal Time and a width of 5 to 8.5 hours at half the peak rate.

WASHINGTON -- Boeing Space Exploration of Houston nabbed its second major role on NASA's new astronaut launcher, winning a contract potentially worth $800 million to build and outfit an avionics ring that will control the Ares I rocket in flight.

WASHINGTON -- NASA officials said Monday that they have run out of room for error as they try to keep the agency's $700 million Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission on track for a launch next October.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Spirit, one of the two US robotic probes probing the surface of Mars, made a key find suggesting the existence of past microbial life on the Red Planet, NASA mission scientists said.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Spirit, one of the two US robotic probes probing the surface of Mars, made a key find suggesting the existance of past microbial life on the Red Planet, NASA mission scientists said this week.

JERUSALEM - Israeli army spotters have a new job: counting wild animals on both sides of the West Bank separation barrier to help naturalists assess the problems caused by the huge structure, an army publication reported.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said it had documented cruelty to pigs at a supplier for U.S. meat company Smithfield Foods Inc.

LONDON (Reuters) - Turning off a sex "switch" triggered when female insects mate may be a smart and green way of controlling pests in future.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is calling for a boycott of M&Ms;, Twix candy bars and other snack foods made by Mars Inc, claiming the company funds experiments that kill mice, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The New Mexico meadow jumping mouse is among a handful of species from the Southwest that is being considered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as candidates for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's Royal Ontario Museum unveiled the skeleton of a massive dinosaur on Wednesday that had been lost for decades -- in its own collection.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists searching for fossils high in the Andes mountains in Chile have unearthed the remains of a tank-like mammal related to armadillos that grazed 18 million years ago.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists searching for fossils high in the Andes mountains in Chile have unearthed the remains of a tank-like mammal related to armadillos that grazed 18 million years ago.

A hefty, long-necked dinosaur that lumbered across the Antarctic before meeting its demise 190 million years ago has been identified and named, more than a decade after intrepid paleontologists sawed and chiseled the remains of the primitive plant-eater from its icy grave.

Dinosaurs had bumpy skin, similar to the skin of an alligator or a flightless emu bird. But their skin color remains a mystery to paleontologists today.

TOKYO - Cat and mouse may never be the same.

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have made two significant advances in developing a stem-cell patch to repair the damage caused to the heart after an attack.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Scientists have demonstrated that a combination of stem cell and gene therapy can be used to correct the devastating hereditary disease of muscular dystrophy, according to a new study published Wednesday.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - German chemicals group BASF aims to secure European Union approval in the next few weeks for farmers to grow its genetically modified (GMO) potato in April, the first EU approval for GMO cultivation in a decade.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - British scientist Alan Colman, who helped clone Dolly the sheep, is leaving Singapore, dealing another blow to the city-state's biotech ambitions.

WASHINGTON - A vast new energy supply in hard-to-tap older oil fields may be generated simply by feeding fertilizer to some deep-dwelling, gas-making microbes, new research suggests.

SAN FRANCISCO - Scientists think they have discovered the energy source of auroras borealis, the spectacular color displays seen in the upper latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democrats are calling the White House's bluff on a threatened veto of an energy bill by refusing to take out language that would remove tax breaks for big oil and gas companies.

WASHINGTON - Despite a threatened veto, Senate Democrats decided Tuesday to push ahead with billions of dollars in oil industry taxes as part of an energy bill, but abandoned a requirement for utilities to use wind and other renewable energy to produce electricity.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US House of Representatives Tuesday adopted sanctions against Myanmar's multi-million dollar gemstone exports and natural gas industry, in response to the military junta's lethal crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korean scientists have cloned cats by manipulating a fluorescent protein gene, a procedure which could help develop treatments for human genetic diseases, officials said Wednesday.

BALI, Indonesia - European nations on Thursday threatened to boycott U.S.-led climate talks next month unless Washington accepts a range of numbers for negotiating deep reductions of global-warming emissions at a U.N. conference here.

Like cushy baby strollers, women's bodies have evolved spines that are more flexible and supportive than men's to keep from tipping over while walking during pregnancy.

WASHINGTON - Scientists think they have figured out why pregnant women don't lose their balance and topple over despite ever-growing weight up front. Evolution provided them with slight differences from men in their lower backs and hip joints, allowing them to adjust their center of gravity, new research shows.

TOKYO - Cat and mouse may never be the same.