Archive by date | January 2011

Mars rover mission in need of further funds

Mars rover mission in need of further funds

In what has practically become a routine event, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is asking for a little extra cash. During a public presentation to the NASA Advisory Council’s planetary sciences subcommittee on 26 January, Jim Green, director of NASA’s planetary science division, said that the mission must add $82.1 million to its $2.476 billion budget after exhausting program funding reserves.  Read more

UNESCO deals another blow to ocean fertilization hopes

UNESCO deals another blow to ocean fertilization hopes

Using ocean fertilization to fight global warming has little chance of success, an independent group of experts concludes in a report released today.

Scientists first suggested in the late 1980s that adding iron or other nutrients to nutrient-poor ocean regions might stimulate blooms of photosynthesizing algae which use dissolved carbon dioxide to grow. They reasoned that such ocean fertilization might remove substantial amounts of the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere and so slow the rate of global warming.

More frequent droughts likely in East Africa

More frequent droughts likely in East Africa

A new study in the journal Climate Dynamics suggests that these months will be much drier in the future in Kenya, Ethiopia and other East African nations because of ancillary effects of climate change. Some 17.5 million people in the Horn of Africa already face food insecurity in the region, with stagnating agricultural production, population growth and recent drought.

Duke cancer trials allegedly lacked proper clearances.

“West_campus.jpg”After starting a misconduct investigation, suspending three clinical trials, and triggering an expensive Institute of Medicine (IOM) probe into the use of genomics technology in clinical trials, Duke University does not yet seem to be anyways near to moving on from the legal and ethical quagmire surrounding the work of cancer geneticist Anil Potti.  Read more

Gates, UK government pledge to eradicate polio at Davos

Gates, UK government pledge to eradicate polio at Davos

The $720 million funding gap this year for eradicating polio is a bit closer to being closed. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK government announced funding today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, of $102 million and $63.7 million (40 million pounds annually) respectively.

Letters to Congress confirm fate of NIH research resources centre

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius minced no words in notifying Congress recently of the demise of the research resources institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to pave the way for a new centre dedicated to translational research.  Read more

Biology teachers often dismiss evolution

Biology teachers often dismiss evolution

Almost a century after the famed Scopes Monkey Trial, battles over teaching evolution versus creationism in US public schools persist – but they have shifted to individual classrooms where teachers have a vast influence over whether evolution is present, a new study finds. In the courtroom, advocates for creationist thinking, or its re-packaged equivalent “intelligent design”, have lost nearly every major case in the last 40 years. While this has undoubtedly helped set a high scientific standard for state curricula, the study finds that a majority of public high school teachers are either uncomfortable with teaching evolution or doubtful of its accuracy.  Read more