STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Two European scientists won the 2007 Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for a discovery that lets computers, iPods and other digital devices store reams of data on ever-shrinking hard disks. France’s Albert Fert and German Peter Gruenberg independently discovered a physical effect in 1988 that has led to sensitive tools for [...]
Pioneering research into a “gay bomb” that makes enemy troops “sexually irresistible” to each other has scooped one of this year’s Ig Nobel Prizes. Other winners included work on treating hamster jetlag with impotency drugs, extracting vanilla from cow dung, and the side-effects of sword swallowing. The awards, founded in 1991, mark achievements that “first [...]
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Researchers in Singapore have created a handheld device that can detect the H5N1 bird flu virus from throat swab samples in under 30 minutes, raising hopes it will lead to rapid detection and containment of the virus. Conventional laboratory tests take around 4 hours, and require machines to first isolate and [...]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An orbiting spacecraft has found evidence of what look like seven caves on the slopes of a Martian volcano, the space agency NASA said on Friday. The Mars Odyssey spacecraft has sent back images of very dark, nearly circular features that appear to be openings to underground spaces. “They are cooler than [...]
(CNN) — Insulating foam that covers brackets of Discovery’s external fuel tank needs to be removed before the shuttle can fly again, NASA said Friday. A new X-ray analysis shows small cracks that probably make the material prone to shedding, officials said. NASA engineers said the foam — called Super Light-weight Ablative, or SLA — [...]
WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidates were basking in their own glory on Wednesday after a tough primary debate that featured several jabs among the White House hopefuls but afterward drew compliments about their own and each other’s performances. “I thought the questioning was fair in the sense that it gave us all a chance to [...]
(CBS/AP) In a whale-sized project, the world’s scientists plan to compile everything they know about all of Earth’s 1.8 million known species and put it all on one Web site, open to everyone. The effort, called the Encyclopedia of Life, will include species descriptions, pictures, maps, videos, sound, sightings by amateurs, and links to entire [...]
NEW YORK – Former President Bill Clinton announced agreements with drug companies Tuesday to lower the price of so-called “second-line” AIDS drugs for people in the developing world and to make a once-a-day AIDS pill available for less than $1 a day. The anti-retroviral drugs are needed by patients who develop resistance to first-line treatment [...]
JERUSALEM — An Israeli archaeologist on Tuesday said he has found the tomb of King Herod the Great, the legendary builder of ancient Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Hebrew University archaeologist Ehud Netzer said the tomb was found at Herodium, a flattened hilltop in the Judean Desert where Herod the Great built a palace compound. [...]
KOUROU, French Guiana (Reuters) – A heavy-lift Ariane-5 rocket blasted off from French Guiana on Friday putting into orbit two telecommunications satellites, space officials said. The rocket was launched from Europe’s space base in Kourou, on the northeast coast of South America, at 7.29 p.m
