Science Headlines
Brazil forest law parts vetoed
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has vetoed some of the articles in the controversial forest code, which environmentalists say could speed up deforestation.
SpaceX Docking A Boost For Spaceflight Industry
For the first time, a spacecraft sent up by a private company has successfully reached the international space station. A NASA astronaut on the station used a robotic arm to grab the unmanned Dragon capsule Friday morning.
Neil Armstrong Opens Up In Rare Interview
Robert Siegel discusses a rare one-on-one interview Neil Armstrong gave in Australia.
Nations 'wasting time' on climate
The latest round of UN climate talks makes little progress against a "coalition of the unwilling", observers say.
Tick Talk: Lyme Disease Under The Microscope
Banking giant JPMorgan's multibillion-dollar trading loss is blamed on an executive's absence due to Lyme disease. And a mild winter has some scientists predicting a busy tick season ahead. A panel of experts discuss how the infection is contracted, why it's often misdiagnosed and the most effective treatment options.
Breaking Out Of A Web Of Fear
Reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers write that a brief therapy session with people who had a lifelong phobia of spiders resulted in lasting changes to brain areas that process fear. A panel of experts discuss the results, debilitating fear and ways to overcome it.
Humans, The World's 'Superomnivores'
In his book The Omnivorous Mind: Our Evolving Relationship with Food, neuroanthropologist John S. Allen discusses the history of human eating, from foraged foods on the savannah to four-star meals cooked by celebrity chefs, and discusses why crunchy foods like tempura and fried chicken have universal appeal.
Monster Turtle Fossil Discovered In Colombian Mine
Reporting in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, researchers write of discovering a car-sized turtle they named Carbonemys cofrinii. Edwin Cadena, who found the fossil, describes the giant reptile's lifestyle 60 million years ago, and what it may have dined on--like baby alligators.
What's The Secret To Great Tomato Flavor?
Horticulturalist Harry Klee is on a mission to bring great taste back to the supermarket tomato. To do so, he asks taste-testers to rate the most flavorful fruits, and analyzes each winning variety's chemical profile. Then he uses his 'chemical recipe' to breed high-yield, better-tasting hybrid tomatoes.
Station grabs SpaceX Dragon ship
The first commercial cargo ship to visit the space station is attached to the orbiting laboratory by a robotic arm.
Stand Back When Snapping Turtles Crop Up In The Garden
Snapping turtles look to suburban New England gardens to lay eggs as their habitats are increasingly threatened. So the next time you're checking the progress of the peas and lettuce this spring, beware.
Nations to share giant telescope
The Square Kilometre Array - one of the great scientific projects of the 21st Century - will be hosted by both Africa and Australasia.
Dogs, booze and bling: Northern Ireland's medieval shopping mall
Excavations reveal a medieval luxury shopping mall
Earliest music instruments found
Researchers excavating a cave in Germany identify what they say are the oldest-known musical instruments in the world.
SpaceX Craft Docks With Space Station; Commercial Era Begins
The historic first mission to dock a commercial spacecraft at the International Space Station is happening today, and is being webcast around the world.
Space Station's Robot Arm Grabs SpaceX Capsule
If all continues to go well, a private spacecraft sent to orbit by the company SpaceX is expected to dock with the International Space Station on Friday. The mission is historic because it is the first for the commercial spaceflight industry.
'Cloaking' idea traps a rainbow
A grid of 25,000 "invisibility cloaks" shows how to slow light down and spread out its constituent colours in an advance dubbed "trapping a rainbow".
Two jailed over NZ ship disaster
Two officers of the container ship that ran aground off New Zealand causing its worst maritime spill are jailed for seven months.
Mars 'has life's building blocks'
New evidence from carbon in meteorites suggests that the basic building blocks of life are present on Mars, a study in Science journal says.
Creating the perfect garden
Flower Show winner's guide to the perfect garden
VIDEO: ECB scoops prize for work on helmet safety
The England & Wales Cricket Board have won the BMJ Sport and Exercise Team of the Year.
VIDEO: Will the SKA telescope change our view of Universe?
Scientists are awaiting the announcement of a decision on where the world's biggest and most powerful radio telescope will be built.
Rare Arabian leopard in need of safe corridors
Arabian leopard bred for release into wild
Male 'contraceptive gene' found
It may be possible to make a new form of male contraceptive after scientists in Edinburgh find a critical gene for the production of healthy sperm.
A Meat Mea Culpa: What Went Wrong With 'Pink Slime'
Meat processors blame social media and their own lack of transparency for the "pink slime" storm. . But will consumers ever trust the industry when it comes to understanding how the food processing system works?
Butterflies spread in hot summers
Once rare brown argus butterflies have been moving north due to a pattern of hot summers, say researchers.
Do Plants Smell Other Plants? This One Does, Then Strangles What It Smells
Plants, of course, don't have noses. But there is a vine that can smell the difference between a tomato and a stalk of wheat.
UK bioscience in £250m cash boost
Science minister David Willetts outlines the government's high-tech industrial strategy and announces £250m in funding for research institutes across the UK
Solar feed-in tariff cut delayed
The government delays the reduction in the subsidies on offer to homeowners who install solar panels to generate electricity.
Bloodhound diary: 'Flying Scotsman'
World's fastest car will have wheels made in Scotland
Met adopts fingerprint scanners
Scotland Yard has equipped its officers with mobile fingerprint scanners to identify suspects while on the streets.
SpaceX Ship Passes Close By International Space Station
So far everything looks good for a possible docking with the station on Friday by the company's Dragon capsule.
Man fined for eating rare eagle
Conservationists in the Philippines express outrage over what they say is a lenient punishment for a farmer who shot and ate a rare eagle.
The joylessness of shopping
Will ministers regulate consumption at Rio+20?
Japan radiation levels are 'low'
Radiation levels in most of Japan are below cancer-causing levels a year after the Fukushima plant accident, a World Health Organisation report says.
Stone age burial site discovered
Archaeologists are to exhume and analyse human bones found under a prehistoric monument in Pembrokeshire recently identified as the cap on a burial site.
VIDEO: Buzzard capture plans condemned
Conservationists say they're outraged by proposals to allow Buzzards to be captured and their nests destroyed in an effort to protect young pheasants in England.
Virtual patient under the knife
How a giant touchscreen is teaching surgeons
Buzzard capture plans condemned
Conservationists condemn a plan they say would allow buzzard nests to be destroyed and the birds to be captured, to protect pheasant shoots.
Warning over deep-ocean stowaways
Care must be taken not to spread deep-sea creatures around the world during exploration of the remote ocean floor, scientists caution.
How whales open their huge mouths
A sensory organ discovered in the jaw of the world's largest whales explains how the animals open their huge mouths so quickly, say scientists.
Ivorian sacked over toxic scandal
A minister in Ivory Coast is sacked over his alleged role in the disappearance of millions of dollars meant for the victims of a toxic waste dumping scandal.
Ancient walking mystery deepens
An ancient creature thought to be the first to step on land could not have walked on four legs, 3D computer modelling shows.
Google funds computer teaching
The search firm's chairman announces funds to place new computer science teachers in English schools.
Big Picture: Mars rover late in the day
Mars rover snaps a picture of its winter home
Nations need food security goals
The biggest environmental summit for a decade needs to deliver meaningful progress on global food security sustainable agriculture, say researchers.
The female scientist who took on a man's world
Jocelyn Bell Burnell 'not bitter' over missing a Nobel
Chimpanzees behave 'like people'
Chimps and orangutans really do have "personalities like people", new research says
Street lights 'changing ecology'
Researchers find that ground-dwelling invertebrates such as harvestmen and beetles preferentially live near street lights, even during the day.
HS2 only rail solution, MPs say
Alternatives to the High Speed Two (HS2) rail link will not solve the capacity problems on Britain's railways, MPs say.
