Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category
February 3rd, 2012 | 
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The decades-long stalemate on where to store U.S. nuclear waste could be ending.
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Astronomers at the Paranal observatory combine four telescope to create the world’s largest virtual device with a 130m-mirror.
The Hubble space telescope captures an image of a “barred spiral” galaxy that could help us better understand our own Milky Way.
A step-by-step guide to how volcanoes in the tropics could engulf northern European towns in ice.
The number of deaths worldwide from malaria has been underestimated, according to data published in the medical journal the Lancet.
The UN’s climate agency, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) this week released a new online tool to assist companies and communities in planning for climate adaptation.
Abnormalities in the brain may make some people more likely to become drug addicts, according to scientists.
Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning during the 126th annual Groundhog Day festivities. What else do you need to know about Groundhog Day?
A potentially habitable alien planet that orbits a triple-star system is perfectly positioned for liquid water — and possibly life.
Astronomers have found a fourth planet with conditions similar to Earth, which they say could support life.
Land plants may have brought about their own demise by triggering a series of ice ages.
Meadows of seagrass, a keystone species in marine ecosystems, found in the Mediterranean Sea are likely to be tens of thousands of years old, a study shows.
The German-UK consortium building the operational spacecraft for Europe’s Galileo sat-nav system wins a contract to provide an additional eight units.
Airlines tank up passenger jets with used restaurant cooking oil in an effort to make travel a bit greener.
Research shows that primitive moss-like plants could have helped cool the Earth 470 million years ago, bringing on mini ice ages.
“Big Miracle” recalls the events during the Cold War, when this woman had the courage to call Russia.
A huge crustacean called a supergiant – more than 30cm long – has been discovered 7km down in the waters north of New Zealand.
Climate scientists are protesting the Wall Street Journal’s publication of a letter from climate skeptics with mostly non-climate backgrounds.
The eruption of some of the largest volcanoes on the planet could be predicted decades before the event, research suggests.
An MP tables a motion calling for computer pioneer Alan Turing to be posthumously pardoned over a conviction for gross indecency.
NASA’s Terra Earth-observing satellite captured this image of the crack across Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica.
Three Mozambicans are sentenced to 25 years each in a South African court for rhino poaching, according to the South African national parks body.
Cancer: Drug drives cancer stem cells
Nature 482, 7383 (2012). doi:10.1038/482009c
Cancer drugs that attack tumour-sustaining blood vessels may spur proliferation of the stem cells that contribute to the disease.One such drug, bevacizumab, fails to prolong the survival of patients with advanced breast cancers, and studies have shown that patients on similar drugs often relapse.
Genomic medicine: Sequencing diagnoses disease
Nature 482, 7383 (2012). doi:10.1038/482009b
In a study that shows both its promise and limitations in the clinic, researchers have used genomic sequencing to diagnose the genetic cause of disease in individual children — but succeeded in only a small proportion of them.A team led by David Thorburn at
