Skull Study Suggests at Least Two Groups Colonized Americas (Sci-Tech Today - 2005/12/15) -- 'The 7,500- to 11,000-year-old remains suggest the oldest settlers of the Americas came from different genetic stock than more recent Native Americans. Modern Native Americans share traits with Mongoloid peoples of Mongolia, China, and Siberia, the researchers said. But they found dozens of skulls from Brazil appear much more similar to modern Australians, Melanesians, and Sub-Saharan Africans.'

2005 warmest ever year in north (BBC News - 2005/12/15) -- 'This year has been the warmest on record in the northern hemisphere, say scientists in Britain. ... It is the second warmest globally since the 1860s, when reliable records began, they say.'

'Trojan cells' treat brain diseases from the inside (New Scientist - 2005/12/15) -- 'Scientists have managed to protect and regenerate the part of the brain that is damaged in Parkinson’s disease, by genetically engineering cells to bypass the blood-brain barrier. The study was conducted in animals, but the approach could one day be used to treat brain conditions in humans, the researchers say.'

Dr. Hwang Dropped from Scientific American 50 for Faking Research (Scientific American - 2005/12/15) -- 'With considerable disappointment, the editors of Scientific American are immediately removing Dr. Woo Suk Hwang from his honored position as Research Leader of the Year on the 2005 Scientific American 50 list.'

Plasma engine passes initial test (BBC Science - 2005/12/14) -- 'The European Space Agency (Esa) says initial testing of a new plasma drive for spacecraft has been a success. ... The 'double layer thruster' is a new kind of ion drive which could give much more power than existing versions. '

Ancient Pictures Provide New Insight on Maya's Beginnings (Sci-Tech Today - 2005/12/14) -- '"With its fine painting and its elaborate mural showing the mythic basis of kingship, the chamber has upended much of what we thought we knew about the early Maya," said project director William Saturno. "The mural shows that early Maya painting had achieved a high level of sophistication and grace well before the great works of the Classic Maya in the seventh century." '

Hubble finds mass of white dwarf (BBC Science - 2005/12/14) -- 'The mass of the nearest white dwarf star to Earth has been measured accurately for the first time. ... Sirius B is just 12,000 km (7,500 miles) in diameter, similar to Earth, but its mass is 98% that of the Sun.'

Strange new object found at edge of Solar System (New Scientist - 2005/12/13) -- 'A large object has been found beyond Pluto travelling in an orbit tilted by 47 degrees to most other bodies in the solar system. Astronomers are at a loss to explain why the object's orbit is so off-kilter while being almost circular.'

Hundreds Of Auroras Detected On Mars (Science Daily - 2005/12/13) -- 'Auroras similar to Earth's Northern Lights appear to be common on Mars, according to physicists at the University of California, Berkeley, who have analyzed six years' worth of data from the Mars Global Surveyor.'

Researcher says math can protect border (El Paso Times - 2005/12/12) -- 'Recently, U.S. politicians have come up with costly ideas to improve border security. Some want to hire more Border Patrol agents. Others push for a guest-worker program. And one, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., wants to build a 2,000-mile-long wall. ... Stefan Schmidt, a researcher at New Mexico State University's Physical Science Laboratory, came up with a pretty cheap alternative -- mathematics.'

Nobel laureate admits string theory is in trouble (New Scientist - 2005/12/10) -- '"WE DON'T know what we are talking about." That was Nobel laureate David Gross at the 23rd Solvay Conference in Physics in Brussels, Belgium, during his concluding remarks on Saturday. He was referring to string theory - the attempt to unify the otherwise incompatible theories of relativity and quantum mechanics to provide a theory of everything.'

Entanglement reaches new levels (PhysicsWeb - 2005/12/01) -- 'Two rival teams of physicists in the US and Austria have succeeded in entangling the largest number of particles ever. Dietrich Leibfried and colleagues at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Colorado have entangled six beryllium ions while Hartmut Haffner and co-workers at Innsbruck University have independently entangled eight calcium ions. The results are the latest step on the long road to large-scale quantum computers and may also be important for quantum cryptography and ultra-sensitive measurement techniques.'

Buried craters and underground ice - Mars Express uncovers depths of Mars (Mars Today - 2005/11/30) -- 'For the first time in the history of planetary exploration, the MARSIS radar on board ESA's Mars Express has provided direct information about the deep subsurface of Mars.'

2005's Hurricane Season Was "Unprecedented" (National Geographic - 2005/11/29) -- 'There's a long list of reasons why this hurricane season, which ends Wednesday, will be regarded as one for the ages...'

Discovery of a spiral ring around Saturn (Innovations Report - 2005/11/29) -- 'A team of astrophysicists from the CEA (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique), the Université Paris 7 Denis Diderot and the CNRS in France has discovered that one of Saturn’s rings has a spiral shape and has published its results today in the American journal Science. This unusual astronomical configuration is perhaps the result of a collision with a recently formed small moon. The discovery is a great opportunity for astrophysicists who think that this ring is the only place in our solar system where astronomical bodies are still forming. The observation of this "nursery" will undoubtedly shed light on the processes of planet and moon formation in the solar system.'

Cassini spacecraft discovers 'fountains' on Saturn moon (Spaceglight Now -- 2005/11/28) -- 'Recent Cassini images of Saturn's moon Enceladus backlit by the sun show the fountain-like sources of the fine spray of material that towers over the south polar region. This image was taken looking more or less broadside at the "tiger stripe" fractures observed in earlier Enceladus images. It shows discrete plumes of a variety of apparent sizes above the limb of the moon.'

Spirit Marks One Year on Mars (One Martian Year, that is) (Mars Today - 2005/11/22) -- 'Spirit, the untiring robotic "wonder child" sent by NASA to explore the eerily earthlike fourth planet from the sun, has completed one martian year--that's almost two Earth years--on Mars. Designed to last only 90 martian days (sols), the six-wheeled marvel the size of a golf cart has pursued a steady course of solar-driven geologic fieldwork, bringing back some 70,000 images and a new understanding of Mars as a potential habitat.'

Breakthrough for quantum measurement (PhysicsWeb - 2005/11/22) -- 'Two teams of physicists have measured the capacitance of a Josephson junction for the first time. The methods developed by the two teams could be used to measure the state of quantum bits in a quantum computer without disturbing the state.'

Dino-Era Lizard Is Missing Link to Swimming Reptiles, Experts Say (National Geographic - 2005/11/21) -- 'A lizard whose fossilized bones were discovered near Dallas, Texas, 16 years ago is a missing link in the evolution of extinct swimming reptiles known as mosasaurs, a new study says.'

Planet's Wildlife Growing More Alike, Experts Warn (National Geographic - 2005/11/11) -- 'Known as "biotic homogenization," it's a phenomenon that "elicits serious concern among conservationists as a major threat to regional individuality," according to University of Wisconsin biologist Julian Olden.'

Infrared Glow of First Stars Found (Scientific American - 2005/11/03) -- 'When NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Telescope snapped pictures of a distant quasar in the Draco constellation in October of 2003, the photo shoot was only intended to calibrate the instrument. Those images, however, just may have provided a glimpse of the very first stars in the universe.'

Supermassive Black Hole at Center of Milky Way, Study Hints (National Geographic - 2005/11/02) -- 'Astronomers are closing in on proof that a supermassive black hole is the source of mysterious radio waves at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way.'

Neutron Star Discovered Where a Black Hole Was Expected (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center - 2005/11/02) -- 'A very massive star collapsed to form a neutron star and not a black hole as anticipated, according to new results from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This discovery shows that nature has a harder time making black holes than previously thought.'

DNA May Offer Defense Against Pandemic (CNN - 2005/11/01) -- ' Several biotechnology companies are at work on a new and quicker way of making a flu vaccine they hope can replace one that requires people to be inoculated with the entire influenza virus. Their technique: extract just a few genes from the virus and inject it into people.'

APL Scientist, Team Spot New Moons Around Pluto (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory - 2005/11/01) -- 'Hal Weaver, a planetary scientist in APL’s Space Department, is co-leader of a team that used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to view the ninth planet in our solar system – and discover that Pluto may have not one, but three moons.'

Dark Matter: Invisible, Mysterious and Perhaps Nonexistent (Space.com -- 2005/10/10) -- 'Galaxies don't have enough regular matter to keep them from flying apart, scientists have been telling us for years. So there must be a bunch of unseen "dark matter" lurking in every galaxy. -- But dark matter has never been directly detected, and nobody knows what it might be made of. A few scientists remeain skeptical. To a lay person, it might sound downright crazy. -- Now a new study suggests there may be no such thing as dark matter.'

Depression, Epilepsy, and Suicide May Be Linked (WebMD - 2005/10/10) -- ' Symptoms of major depression, especially suicidal attempts are associated with an increased risk of unprovoked seizure.'

Robotic comet explorers could be given new lives (Spaceflight Now - 2005/10/10) -- ' The future may not be empty for a pair of NASA space probes that are wrapping up their primary missions this year, as the agency plans to formally announce the availability of the platforms this fall to gather proposals from the academic and science communities.'

A Closer Look at NASA's New Exploration Architecture (Mars Today - 2005/10/09) -- ' A group of NASA officials briefed a panel at the National Academy of Sciences last week on Administrator Mike Griffin's revamped exploration plans. The panel being briefed was part of the Academy's Space Studies Board - one organized to review NASA's plans for the International Space Station.'

Gamma-Ray Mystery Solved (Scientific American - 2005/10/07) -- ' A 30-year-old puzzle about the origin of short bursts of high-radiation energy in the cosmos has been solved. In the current issue of Nature, four different teams of astronomers provide a variety of evidence that, for the first time, establishes the cosmological distance of the so-called short gamma-ray bursts and points to the source as either the collision of two small but dense stars, known as neutron stars, or the collision of a neutron star with a black hole. The finding finally confirms a theory called the merger model and opens the door not only to more detailed studies of these unusual events but to the potential for detecting gravitational waves, the elusive oscillations in spacetime created by gravity.'

Killer flu lives again? (MyDNA.com - 2005/10/06) -- ' Scientists report in the journals "Science" and "Nature" that the 1918 Spanish Flu, which was responsible for the deaths of 40 million people, was caused by a strain of avian flu similar to the type of flu currently circulating in birds in Asia.'

Organic Chemists Receive Nobel (Scientific American - 2005/10/06) -- ' Organic chemists Yves Chauvin, Robert Grubbs, and Richard Schrock have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their groundbreaking research on a reaction called metathesis, which breaks the bonds of carbon-based molecules so that they can be combined with other elements including hydrogen, oxygen and chlorine to form new molecules. Not only has the process resulted in new compounds used to make everything from living tissue to plastics to therapeutic drugs for treating Alzheimer's disease, arthritis and HIV/AIDS, but it also produces fewer environmentally hazardous byproducts than previous methods did.'

Optics Research Garners Nobel in Physics (Scientific American - 2005/10/04) -- 'This year’s Nobel Prize in physics is split between three scientists in the field of optics. They are Roy Glauber of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., John Hall of the University of Colorado and National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colo., and Theodor Hänsch of the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany. Glauber received the award for his theoretical description of the behavior of light particles; Hall and Hänsch used that theory to develop a precision laser than can measure the color of the light of atoms and molecules, which can help identify the composition of materials.'

Medicine and Physiology Nobel Awarded to H. pylori Researchers (Scientific American - 2005/10/04) -- 'For their discovery of ulcer-causing bacteria, Australian doctors Robin Warren and Barry Marshall have received the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.'

Gravity Probe B mission completes data collection (Spaceflight Now - 2005/10/03) -- ' Almost 90 years after Albert Einstein first postulated his general theory of relativity, scientists have finished collecting data to put it to a new, different kind of experimental test.'

Amazing pictures of Saturn's spongy moon Hyperion (Spaceflight Now - 2005/10/02) -- 'This stunning false-color view of Saturn's moon Hyperion reveals crisp details across the strange, tumbling moon's surface. Differences in color could represent differences in the composition of surface materials. The view was obtained during Cassini's close flyby on Sept. 26, 2005.'

Cassini flies past Tethys, revealing spectacular details (Spaceflight Now - 2005/10/01) -- 'With this full-disk mosaic, Cassini presents the best view yet of the south pole of Saturn's moon Tethys.'

Oxygen increase caused mammals to triumph, researchers say (EurekAlert - 2005/09/29) -- 'The first, high resolution continuous record of oxygen concentration in the earth's atmosphere shows that a sharp rise in oxygen about 50 million years ago gave mammals the evolutionary boost they needed to dominate the planet, according to Paul Falkowski, Rutgers professor of marine science and lead author of a paper published Sept. 30 in the journal Science.'

Physicists say universe evolution favored three and seven dimensions (EurekAlert - 2005/09/28) -- 'Physicists who work with a concept called string theory envision our universe as an eerie place with at least nine spatial dimensions, six of them hidden from us, perhaps curled up in some way so they are undetectable. The big question is why we experience the universe in only three spatial dimensions instead of four, or six, or nine.'

Voyager Finds Three Surprises Near Our Solar System's Edge (Space-Travel.com - 2005/09/27) -- 'A trio of surprise discoveries from NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft reveals intriguing new information about our solar system's final frontier.'

Researchers Find That Carbon Dioxide Does Not Boost Forest Growth (Scientific American - 2005/08/26) -- 'Levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas, have been on the upswing over the last century. How the earth's plant life, particularly trees, will react to the change remains unclear. Some researchers have proposed, however, that the rising concentrations will spur plant growth and thus allow them to store additional amounts of carbon dioxide, thereby mitigating the atmospheric increase to some degree. Now a report published in the journal Science disputes this claim. A four-year study of a forest in Switzerland indicates that additional carbon dioxide does not boost tree growth.'

Scientists confirm super-rotation of Earth's inner core (EurekAlert - 2005/08/25) -- 'Scientists at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have ended a nine-year debate over whether the Earth's inner core is undergoing changes that can be detected on a human timescale.'

US senators: Global warming obvious in far north (Reuters AlertNet - 2005/08/17) -- 'Fresh from visits to Canada's Yukon Territory and Alaska's northernmost city, four U.S. senators said on Wednesday that signs of rising temperatures on Earth are obvious and they called on Congress to act.'

Animals Going Awry as Earth Warms, Scientists Say (National Geographic - 2005/08/12) -- 'The world on average is about 1ºF (0.6ºC) warmer today than it was a century ago. That may not sound like a lot, but it's enough to concern some scientists. ... The temperature rise has put feathered, furry, and scaly animals alike in a state of flux. Some are seeking higher ground, others are breeding earlier, and many can't find enough to eat.'

A Nasal Vaccine for Alzheimer's Disease? (WebMD - 2005/08/11) -- 'Vaccine, Tested on Mice, Reduces Protein in Brain Linked to Alzheimer's Disease'

India's smoking gun: Dino-killing eruptions (EurekAlert - 2005/08/09) -- 'The Deccan Traps of India are one of Earth's largest lava flows ever, with the potential of having wreaked havoc with the climate of the Earth - if they erupted and released climate-changing gases quickly enough. French and Indian geologists have now identified a 600-meter (2000-foot) thick portion of the lava that may have piled up in as little as 30,000 years - fast enough to have possibly caused a deadly global climate shift.'

Scientists discover genetic pathway responsible for breast cancer cell growth (EurekAlert - 2005/08/09) -- 'Scientists at the MUHC have made an important discovery that will advance our understanding of how the female hormone estrogen causes growth of breast cancer cells. The research, in collaboration with scientists at the Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montreal (IRCM) identifies 153 genes that respond to estrogen and one in particular that can be used to halt the growth of breast cancer cells. The study, published in today's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), will focus future research for a breast cancer cure. "We have known for a very long time that estrogen causes the growth of breast cancer cells," says lead investigator Dr. Vincent Giguère. "This is how oncologists came to use anti-estrogen as drugs to combat the most common forms of breast cancer." What has remained a mystery however, is the molecular mechanism by which estrogen makes breast cancer cells grow. "Until this is solved, we will be no closer to figuring out how to prevent and cure breast cancer," Dr. Giguère noted.'

Cassini flies by Saturn's tortured moon Mimas (Science Blog - 2005/08/08) -- 'On its recent close flyby of Mimas (MY-muss), the Cassini spacecraft found the Saturnian moon looking battered and bruised, with a surface that may be the most heavily cratered in the Saturn system.'

Dirac Medal goes to condensed matter physicists (PhysicsWeb - 2005/08/08) -- 'Sam Edwards of Cambridge University and Patrick Lee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have been awarded this year's Dirac Medal by the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics. Edwards wins the prize for "his fundamental contributions to polymer physics, spin glass theory and the physics of granular matter", while Lee is recognized for "his pioneering contributions to our understanding of disordered and strongly interacting many-body systems".'

Bigger than Pluto: Tenth planet or icy leftover? (Science News - 2005/08/06) -- 'Step aside, Pluto, there's a new kid in town. Astronomers last week announced that they have detected a body larger and more distant than Pluto. It's the biggest body found in the solar system since Neptune and its moon Triton were discovered in 1846. But whether the body, dubbed 2003 UB313, qualifies as our sun's tenth known planet is a matter of intense debate.'

Stem Cell Transplant Bests Chemo for Common Childhood Leukemia (Health Central - 2005/08/04) -- 'The worst cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common leukemia in children, respond better to a stem cell transplant than to chemotherapy, a new study finds.'

Prizes reward high-energy physics (PhysicsWeb - 2005/07/14) -- 'The European Physical Society (EPS) has recognized four individuals and a collaboration for their work on charge-parity (CP) violation, gamma-ray astronomy, cosmology and outreach activities. Heinrich Wahl, formerly of CERN, and the NA31 collaboration share the 2005 High Energy and Particle Physics Prize for their work on CP violation at CERN. Mathieu de Naurois of IN2P3 in France receives the Young Physicist Prize, Matias Zaldarriaga of Harvard University wins the Gribov Medal, and Dave Barney of CERN and Peter Kalmus of Queen Mary, University of London, share the Outreach Prize.'

Triple Sunset: Planet Discovered in 3-Star System (Space.com - 2005/07/13) -- 'The triple-star system, HD 188753, is located 149 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. The primary star is like our Sun, weighing 1.06 solar masses. The other two stars form a tightly bound pair, which is separated from the primary by approximately the Sun-Saturn distance.'

Researchers discover how tumor suppressor gene works (EurekAlert - 2005/07/10) -- 'A team of University of Minnesota researchers has discovered how a gene that suppresses the development of melanoma and other human cancers works. The study points the way to treatments based on the function of the gene. The researchers, led by Zigang Dong, director of the university's Hormel Institute in Austin, Minn., have applied for a patent on one such treatment. The work will be published online July 10 in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.'

Four named storms in early July set record (MSNBC - 2005/07/09) -- 'Martin Nelson, the lead forecaster at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, says this is the first time the Atlantic hurricane season had four named storms this early since record-keeping began in 1851. The season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.'

Deep Impact tells a tale of the powder-coated comet (Spaceflight Now - 2005/07/08) -- 'Data from Deep Impact's instruments indicate an immense cloud of fine powdery material was released when the probe slammed into the nucleus of comet Tempel 1 at 6.3 miles per second.'

TILLING Genes To Improve Soybeans (Agricultural Research magazine - July, 2005) -- 'A new genetic tool is making it possible to reap many of the benefits of genetic engineering without its disadvantages, whether real or perceived. Among these benefits is breeding better crops—that is, plants that are more nutritious or that can lower risk of developing cancer or food allergies.'

Breakthrough study finds adult stem cells (EurekAlert - 2005/06/23) -- 'In a ground-breaking study, scientists at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh have discovered that adult, or post-natal, stem cells have the same ability as embryonic stem cells to multiply, a previously unknown characteristic indicating that post-natal stem cells may play an important therapeutic role.'

'Strange' physics experiment is unraveling structure of proton (EurekAlert - 2005/06/17) -- 'An international team of nuclear physicists has determined that particles called strange quarks do, indeed, contribute to the ordinary properties of the proton.'

Scientists confirm Earth's energy is out of balance (EurekAlert) -- 'Using satellites, data from buoys and computer models to study the Earth's oceans, scientists have concluded that more energy is being absorbed from the Sun than is emitted back to space, throwing the Earth's energy "out of balance" and warming the planet.'

New State of Matter Is 'Nearly Perfect' Liquid (Scientific American.com) -- 'Physicists working at Brookhaven National Laboratory announced today that they have created what appears to be a new state of matter out of the building blocks of atomic nuclei, quarks and gluons. The researchers unveiled their findings--which could provide new insight into the composition of the universe just moments after the big bang--today in Florida at a meeting of the American Physical Society'

Sacred constant might be changing: Scientists discover one of the constants of the universe might not be constant (EurekAlert) -- 'Dr Murphy has used the largest optical telescope in the world, the Keck telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, to study light from distant quasars. This light has been travelling across the universe for billions of years, and seems to show that the fine structure constant, often known as "alpha", may be varying over time.'

Plants Challenge Genetic Inheritance Laws (Washington Post) -- 'Challenging a scientific law of inheritance that has stood for 150 years, scientists say plants sometimes select better bits of DNA in order to develop normally even when they inherited genetic flaws from their predecessors.' [Bruce's note: this is a major developing story calling into question fundamental assumptions about inherited traits.]

Hubble images of dust belt point to planet's presence (Spaceflight Now - 2005/06/22) -- 'Astronomers zooming in on a nearby star with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered unmistakable evidence of a planetary system: a perturbed dusty belt around the star that's analogous to the vast Kuiper Belt of icy rocks encircling the sun.'

New Species of Catfish Found in Mexico (Sci-Tech Today - 2005/06/14) -- 'Thorough anatomical studies of the fish document its status as a new family, the announcement said. It showed the fish is the only member of an ancient group that may have arisen while dinosaurs roamed the Earth.'

Looking inside glass (PhysicsWeb) -- 'Physicists in the UK and France have observed previously unseen long-range ordering in glass. Philip Salmon of Bath University and colleagues at Bristol University and the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble have seen the ordering in two very different glassy materials, which suggests that it could be a common feature of all glasses (Nature 435 75). Understanding the nature of the glassy state remains one of the outstanding challenges in condensed-matter physics.'

T. Rex Soft Tissue Found Preserved (National Geographic News) -- 'A Tyrannosaurus rex fossil has yielded what appear to be the only preserved soft tissues ever recovered from a dinosaur. Taken from a 70-million-year-old thighbone, the structures look like the blood vessels, cells, and proteins involved in bone formation.'

Theories of high-temperature superconductivity violate Pauli principle (Science Blog) -- 'Scientists seeking to explain high-temperature superconductivity have been violating the Pauli exclusion principle, a team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Rutgers University report. Any theory that does not embrace the Pauli principle has a lot of explaining to do, they say.'

Unveiling the high energy Milky Way reveals 'dark accelerators' (EurekAlert) -- 'In the March 25th 2005 issue of Science Magazine, the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) team of international astrophysicists, including UK astronomers from the University of Durham, report results of a first sensitive survey of the central part of our galaxy in very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays. Included among the new objects discovered are two 'dark accelerators' - mysterious objects that are emitting energetic particles, yet apparently have no optical or x-ray counterpart.'

Global Warming Unstoppable for 100 Years, Study Says (National Geographic) -- 'Even if humans stop burning oil and coal tomorrow—not likely—we've already spewed enough greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to cause temperatures to warm and sea levels to rise for at least another century.'

First dark galaxy possibly discovered (Science Blog) -- 'A British-led team of astronomers using The University of Manchester's Lovell Telescope in Cheshire have discovered an object that appears to be an invisible galaxy made almost entirely of dark matter -- the first ever detected. A dark galaxy is an area in the universe containing a large amount of mass that rotates like a galaxy, but contains no stars. Without any stars to give light, it could only be found using radio telescopes.'

New Robot Reproduces on Its Own (National Geographic) -- 'The researchers add that the ability could be harnessed to drive major advances in nanotechnology, the science of the very small, and may even lead to space colonization by robots.'

Unique Antenna to Probe the Depths of Mars (Science Blog) -- 'Scientists will use MARSIS to probe beneath the surface of Mars. The radar will search for underground features much the way an ultrasound device looks at an unborn child inside a mother's womb. When radar waves encounter a boundary between different materials, some energy is reflected and some is transmitted. MARSIS will use radar signals with wavelengths hundreds of meters long to detect features up to 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) deep. One of the things scientists will look for are aquifers, zones in buried rocks that are rich in liquid water. If spaces between rock grains are empty, most of the radar waves will penetrate. If spaces are filled with water, the signals will bounce back.'

A mission to conquer Venus (EurekAlert) -- 'CRUSHING atmospheric pressures, fierce winds, baking temperatures and acidic clouds have quickly destroyed every probe or lander ever sent to Venus. So the prospect of emulating the spectacular success of NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity on Venus might seem bleak. But there is hope. Space scientists in the US believe a solar-powered aircraft could explore the atmosphere of the second rock from the sun, and carry a flying "brain" to control a toughened rover on the ground.'

Yes, it is the Image of an Exoplanet (European Southern Observatory) Astronomers Confirm the First Image of a Planet Outside of Our Solar System -- 'Among the most essential quests of modern astronomers, taking direct images of planets outside of our solar system is certainly up there among chart-toppers. Obtaining such images of a so-called exoplanet would enable scientists to study in detail the physical nature of the object and, in particular, to analyse the composition of its atmosphere. The astronomers' ultimate goal is of course to perform such analysis for earth-sized planets, in the hope of detecting a telltale signature of extraterrestrial life.'

Black holes 'do not exist' (News @ Nature.com) -- 'Black holes are staples of science fiction and many think astronomers have observed them indirectly. But according to a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, these awesome breaches in space-time do not and indeed cannot exist. ... George Chapline thinks that the collapse of the massive stars, which was long believed to generate black holes, actually leads to the formation of stars that contain dark energy. "It's a near certainty that black holes don't exist," he claims.'

Gene therapy for blindness places DNA directly in eye (Science Blog) -- 'At least 150 faulty genes cause inherited retinal diseases. But scientists are taking advantage of new viral vectors and the retina's unique structure to place genes directly into the eye, where they take over from the faulty, or "bad," genes.'

U. of Colorado study shows early Earth atmosphere hydrogen-rich, favorable to life (EurekAlert) -- 'A new University of Colorado at Boulder study indicates Earth in its infancy probably had substantial quantities of hydrogen in its atmosphere, a surprising finding that may alter the way many scientists think about how life began on the planet.'

Studies expand understanding of X chromosome (EurekAlert) -- 'The National Institutes of Health (NIH) hailed the first comprehensive analysis of the sequence of the human X chromosome, saying that this provides sweeping new insights into the evolution of sex chromosomes and the biological differences between males and females. These studies, a detailed analysis of the X chromosome's DNA sequence and a survey of its gene activity, are published in the current issue of the journal Nature.'

Biologists discover why 10% of Europeans are safe from HIV (Science Blog) -- 'Biologists at the University of Liverpool have discovered how the plagues of the Middle Ages have made around 10% of Europeans resistant to HIV. Scientists have known for some time that these individuals carry a genetic mutation (known as CCR5-Ä32) that prevents the virus from entering the cells of the immune system but have been unable to account for the high levels of the gene in Scandinavia and relatively low levels in areas bordering the Mediterranean.'

The oldest Homo sapiens (EurekAlert) -- 'When the bones of two early humans were found in 1967 near Kibish, Ethiopia, they were thought to be 130,000 years old. A few years ago, researchers found 154,000- to 160,000-year-old human bones at Herto, Ethiopia. Now, a new study of the 1967 fossil site indicates the earliest known members of our species, Homo sapiens, roamed Africa about 195,000 years ago.'

Earth creates powerful gamma-ray flashes (New Scientist) -- 'Gamma rays that flash briefly in Earth's atmosphere during lightning storms are much more frequent and powerful than previously thought, a new study reveals. The rays - high-energy photons - exceed the energies of those from cosmic sources such as the explosive births of black holes and the new observations support a phenomenon predicted in 1925.'

Alarm bells ring louder over climate change (New Scientist) -- 'The impacts of global warming discussed at the meeting sounded like a roll call of disasters. Topics ranged from the collapse of ice sheets in Antarctica to the irreversible melting of the Greenland ice caps; from droughts in Africa to floods in Japan. And fears were also raised over the rapidly changing current-patterns in acidifying ocean .'

Animal-Human Hybrids Spark Controversy (National Geographic) -- 'Chinese scientists at the Shanghai Second Medical University in 2003 successfully fused human cells with rabbit eggs. The embryos were reportedly the first human-animal chimeras successfully created. They were allowed to develop for several days in a laboratory dish before the scientists destroyed the embryos to harvest their stem cells.'

Maps reveal dark matter clumps in galaxies (Spaceflight Now) -- 'Although little is known about it, cold dark matter is thought to have structure at all magnitudes. Theoretical models of the clumping properties were derived from detailed, high resolution simulations of the growth of structure in the Universe. Although previous evidence supported the "concordance model" of a Universe mostly composed of cold, dark matter, the predicted substructure had never been detected.'

The first evidence for string theory? (New Scientist) -- 'A double view of galaxies and a quirky quasar leads astronomers to think they have spotted a thread of pure energy streaking through our galaxy'