Science News
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Japan's nuclear leaks sparked butterfly mutations
Tweet Share on Facebook 12:44PM August 16, 2012 CommentTOKYO (AP) — Radiation that leaked from the Fukushima nuclear plant following last year's tsunami caused mutations in some butterflies — including dented eyes and stunted wings — though humans seem relatively unaffected, researchers say.
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Skydiver's supersonic plunge stalled by rough fall
Tweet Share on Facebook 11:06AM August 16, 2012 CommentSkydiver Felix Baumgartner will have wait until fall before attempting a supersonic jump from 23 miles up.
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Study off Mass. coast finds noise harming whales
Tweet Share on Facebook 9:41PM August 15, 2012 CommentBOSTON (AP) — Researchers say increasing amounts of underwater noise, largely from shipping traffic, are enveloping rare right whales in "acoustic smog" that makes it harder for them to communicate.
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Star births seen on cosmic scale in distant galaxy
Tweet Share on Facebook 3:11PM August 15, 2012 CommentWASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have found a cosmic supermom. It's a galaxy that gives births to more stars in a day than ours does in a year.
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Mexico's monarch butterfly reserve stops logging
Tweet Share on Facebook 2:56PM August 15, 2012 CommentMEXICO CITY (AP) — Illegal logging has practically been eliminated in the western Mexico wintering grounds of the monarch butterfly, according to a research report released Wednesday, and Mexican officials now hope to use the successful program of anti-logging patrols and payments to rural residents to solve other forestry conflicts throughout the country.
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Unmanned U.S. Military Hypersonic Craft Failed
Tweet Share on Facebook 2:49PM August 15, 2012 CommentLOS ANGELES (AP) — An unmanned experimental aircraft failed during an attempt to fly at six times the speed of sound in the latest setback for hypersonic flight.
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Cayman's imperiled blue iguanas on the rebound
Tweet Share on Facebook 12:33PM August 15, 2012 CommentQUEEN ELIZABETH II BOTANIC PARK, Cayman Islands (AP) — The blue iguana has lived on the rocky shores of Grand Cayman for at least a couple of million years, preening like a miniature turquoise dragon as it soaked in the sun or sheltered inside crevices. Yet having survived everything from tropical hurricanes to ice ages, it was driven to near-extinction by dogs, cats and cars.
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From Bill Gates, a toilet challenge spills forth
Tweet Share on Facebook 11:16AM August 15, 2012 CommentSEATTLE (AP) — These aren't your typical loos. One uses microwave energy to transform human waste into electricity. Another captures urine and uses it for flushing. And still another turns excrement into charcoal.
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Biggest Asian wildlife traffickers are untouchable
Tweet Share on Facebook 11:12AM August 15, 2012 CommentBANGKOK (AP) — Squealing tiger cubs stuffed into carry-on bags. Luggage packed with hundreds of squirming tortoises, elephant tusks, even water dragons and American paddlefish. Officials at Thailand's gateway airport proudly tick off the illegally trafficked wildlife they have seized over the past two years.
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17th century shipwreck to be freeze-dried, rebuilt
Tweet Share on Facebook 3:20AM August 15, 2012 CommentBRYAN, Texas (AP) — More than three centuries ago, a French explorer's ship sank in the Gulf of Mexico, taking with it France's hopes of colonizing a vast piece of the New World — modern-day Texas.
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New toilet technology after 150 years of waste
Tweet Share on Facebook 8:46PM August 14, 2012 CommentSEATTLE (AP) — These aren't your typical loos. One uses microwave energy to transform human waste into electricity. Another captures urine and uses it for flushing. And still another turns excrement into charcoal.
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Aircraft shoots to reach 3,600 mph for 5 minutes
Tweet Share on Facebook 7:15PM August 14, 2012 CommentEDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) — The Air Force planned a key test Tuesday of an experimental aircraft designed to fly at six times the speed of sound, or about 3,600 mph.
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Scientists plot driving routes for new Mars rover
Tweet Share on Facebook 5:23PM August 14, 2012 CommentLOS ANGELES (AP) — NASA's newest rover Curiosity has yet to make its first move on Mars, but scientists said Tuesday they are already mapping out possible driving routes to a Martian mountain.
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New geek chic: Mohawks in, pocket protectors out
Tweet Share on Facebook 2:54PM August 14, 2012 CommentPASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Known to the Twitterverse and the president of the United States as "Mohawk Guy" of the Mars mission, Bobak Ferdowsi could be the changing public face of NASA and all of geekdom.
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Obama cheers 'mind-boggling' Curiosity mission
Tweet Share on Facebook 12:12PM August 13, 2012 CommentABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — Hailing NASA's "mind-boggling" Mars landing of the Curiosity rover, President Barack Obama urged the scientists operating the craft on Monday to phone home immediately if they find any extra-terrestrials.
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NASA's mega-rover landed on Mars. What's next?
Tweet Share on Facebook 8:11PM August 11, 2012 CommentPASADENA, Calif. (AP) — After a spectacular landing on Mars, the rover Curiosity wasted no time embracing its inner shutterbug, delighting scientists with vistas of Gale Crater complete with sand dunes, mountain views and even haze.
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NASA: Mars rover snapped pic of rocket stage crash
Tweet Share on Facebook 4:14PM August 10, 2012 CommentPASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Space enthusiasts have been abuzz for days over whether the Mars rover Curiosity captured an extraterrestrial crash. On Friday, NASA declared the mystery solved.
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NASA's 'green' planetary test lander crashes
Tweet Share on Facebook 8:13AM August 10, 2012 CommentWASHINGTON (AP) — Earlier this week NASA safely landed a robotic rover on Mars about 150 million miles away. But on Thursday here on Earth, a test model planetary lander crashed and burned at Kennedy Space Center in Florida just seconds after liftoff.
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Mass of volcanic rocks floating off New Zealand
Tweet Share on Facebook 7:45AM August 10, 2012 CommentWELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A mass of small volcanic rocks nearly the size of Belgium has been discovered floating off the coast of New Zealand.
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NASA rover sends back colorful picture of Mars
Tweet Share on Facebook 7:28PM August 09, 2012 CommentPASADENA, Calif. (AP) — The photo-snapping rover Curiosity returned another postcard from Mars on Thursday — the first 360-degree color panorama of Gale Crater.
