Science Headlines

Yahoo! News: Science News


09/07/2010 03:15 PM
Microbes are eating BP oil without using up oxygen (AP)

In this undated image provide by the journal Science, microbes degrade oil, indicated by the circle of dashes, in the deepwater plume from the BP oil spill in the Gulf, as documented in a study by Berkeley Lab researchers. The newly discovered type of oil-eating microbe, which is suddenly flourishing in the Gulf of Mexico, was discovered by scientists studying the underwater dispersion of millions of gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf following the explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. (AP Photo/Science/AAAS) NO SALES.AP - Government scientists studying the BP disaster are reporting the best possible outcome: Microbes are consuming the oil in the Gulf without depleting the oxygen in the water and creating "dead zones" where fish cannot survive.




09/08/2010 04:35 AM
Big quake aftershocks plague New Zealand city (AP)

New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key stands in front of a destroyed farm house as he tours earthquake effected Darfield near Christchurch, New Zealand, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010. Key inspected smashed buildings, cracked roads and spoke to residents near the earthquake epicenter. The weekend's powerful 7.1-magnitude quake smashed buildings and homes, wrecked roads and disrupted the central city, though nobody was killed and only two people were seriously injured, which authorities attributed to good building codes and the quake's early-morning timing. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith)AP - A strong aftershock rocked terrified residents of New Zealand's earthquake-stricken city of Christchurch on Wednesday, as officials doubled their estimate for repairing the damage following nearly 300 temblors in five days.




09/08/2010 04:34 AM
Gunmen kill Iraqi TV journalist in Mosul (AP)

Iraqi security forces patrol the streets of Baghdad. A car bomb and several roadside blasts killed three people and wounded dozens in Baghdad on Wednesday morning, health and security officials said.(AFP/File/Ali al-Saadi)AP - Gunmen on Wednesday killed an Iraqi TV journalist, the second to be slain in Iraq in as many days, highlighting the dangers media workers continue to face in the country seven years after the U.S.-led invasion.




09/08/2010 04:34 AM
Destruction of Giant Algae Doughnut Threatens Lake Michigan (LiveScience.com)
LiveScience.com - An invasive species of mussel called quagga has recently begun eating its way through the phytoplankton population of Lake Michigan, which could have dire effects on the lake's ecosystem, scientists now warn.

09/08/2010 05:19 AM
BP: Multiple companies, teams contributed to spill (AP)

Outgoing BP chief executive Tony Hayward addresses the media outside the company's head office in central London, July 2010. Failures by several parties led to the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, British energy group BP concluded in the results of an internal inquiry published on Wednesday, accepting some of the blame.(AFP/File)AP - Oil giant BP PLC laid much of the blame for the rig explosion and the massive Gulf of Mexico spill on workers at sea, other companies and a complex series of failures in an internal report released Wednesday before a key piece of evidence has been analyzed.




09/08/2010 05:09 AM
Several sides to blame for Gulf of Mexico spill: BP (AFP)

Vessels work at the site of the Deepwater Horizon accident off the shore of Louisiana in August 2010. Failures by several parties led to the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, British energy group BP concluded in the results of an internal inquiry published on Wednesday, accepting some of the blame.(AFP/Getty Images/File/Win McNamee)AFP - Failures by several parties led to the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, British energy group BP concluded in the results of an internal inquiry published on Wednesday, accepting some of the blame.




09/07/2010 11:30 PM
2 Asteroids to Zoom Between Earth and the Moon's Orbit (SPACE.com)
SPACE.com - Two asteroids will zip close by the Earth Wednesday and may be visible in telescopes as they zip between our planet and the orbit of the moon.

09/08/2010 04:42 AM
Judge refuses to lift ban on government stem cell funds (Reuters)
Reuters - A U.S. judge refused on Tuesday to lift a ban on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research despite Obama administration warnings it would set back key research and cost more than a thousand jobs.

09/07/2010 01:48 PM
2 asteroids to whiz harmlessly past Earth (AP)
AP - NASA says two small asteroids discovered just days ago will zip harmlessly past Earth on Wednesday, a double flyby that should be visible through a telescope.

09/06/2010 11:14 PM
Greenpeace urges Japan to probe whaling graft (AFP)

Two Greenpeace activists, aboard an inflatable boat, attach themselves to an illegally killed Minke whale, whilst it is winched aboard the Japanese ship, the AFP - Greenpeace urged Japan on Tuesday to probe graft claims in its state-funded whaling programme, a day after two of its activists received suspended jail terms for committing theft during an investigation.




NPR Topics: Space


09/07/2010 11:22 AM
What Did One NASA Guy Say To The Other?
NASA is one of the newest members to Flickr Commons, where you can now find archival photos for public use.

08/26/2010 09:00 PM
Astronomers Identify Two New Solar Systems
One of the new systems has two planets; the other has as many as seven.  Though these planets aren't the type that can support life, scientists say detecting planets that can is looking very likely.

08/20/2010 10:00 AM
Images Show A Shrinking Moon
Scientists say images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been circling the moon for more than a year, show that the moon contracted about a billion years ago, relatively recently in geologic time. Space scientist Thomas Watters describes the lunar images.

08/15/2010 12:00 PM
Astronauts To Conduct Third Spacewalk To Fix Pump
On Monday, two astronauts aboard the International Space Station will venture outside for a third spacewalk to fix a pump that failed a few weeks back. NPR's science correspondent Joe Palca talks to host Guy Raz about why the faulty coolant system is so hard to fix, and why this probably won't be the last time astronauts have to strap on their tool belts.

08/13/2010 10:00 AM
SETI Throws A Party
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute -- SETI -- turns 25 this year, and it's celebrating with "SETIcon." Participants, including SETI father Frank Drake and the director of the Center for SETI Research, Jill Tarter, discuss the conference and their work.

Yahoo! News: Space/Astronomy


09/07/2010 11:30 PM
2 Asteroids to Zoom Between Earth and the Moon's Orbit (SPACE.com)
SPACE.com - Two asteroids will zip close by the Earth Wednesday and may be visible in telescopes as they zip between our planet and the orbit of the moon.

09/07/2010 03:15 PM
Students Help NASA Crash Satellite On Purpose (SPACE.com)
SPACE.com - When a NASA satellite met its doom in a fiery blaze in Earth's atmosphere after a seven-year mission, a bunch of college students were at the controls.

09/07/2010 01:48 PM
2 asteroids to whiz harmlessly past Earth (AP)
AP - NASA says two small asteroids discovered just days ago will zip harmlessly past Earth on Wednesday, a double flyby that should be visible through a telescope.

09/07/2010 01:15 PM
NASA Team to Trapped Miners: No Alcohol or Cigarettes (LiveScience.com)
LiveScience.com - After spending almost a week in Chile, a team of NASA personnel sent to provide nutritional advice and psychological support to 33 trapped miners reported Tuesday that the efforts of the Chilean government have been outstanding so far, and the focus needs to be on long-term strategies that will allow the men to live sustainably underground as a community.

09/07/2010 11:16 AM
2 Asteroids to Pass Earth Closer Than the Moon (SPACE.com)
SPACE.com - In an unprecedented event for astronomers, two asteroids will swing past the Earth Wednesday at a distance closer than the moon.

Yahoo! News: Dinosaurs & Fossils News


09/07/2010 08:50 AM
Scientists Drill into Ancient, Underwater Coral Reef (LiveScience.com)
LiveScience.com - A voyage to the outer edges of Australia's Great Barrier Reef has brought back pieces of an ancient, fossilized ancestor to the vast, living ecosystem.

09/02/2010 11:30 AM
Mass Extinction Threat: Earth on Verge of Huge Reset Button? (LiveScience.com)
LiveScience.com - Mass extinctions have served as huge reset buttons that dramatically changed the diversity of species found in oceans all over the world, according to a comprehensive study of fossil records. The findings suggest humans will live in a very different future if they drive animals to extinction, because the loss of each species can alter entire ecosystems.

08/31/2010 11:13 AM
Fossil of stocky new predatory dinosaur unearthed in Romania (AFP)

This image, obtained from the National Science Foundation (NSF), shows the fossilized hindlimb of a Balaur bondoc showing the double sickle claws of the foot, found on a Late Cretaceous island in what is now Europe.(AFP/NSF/Mick Ellison)AFP - The fossil of a stocky new dinosaur with two sets of claws on its feet unearthed in Romania has given researchers a window into what European predators looked like in the final years of the Age of Dinosaurs.




08/30/2010 12:00 PM
Remains of deadly European dinosaur discovered (AP)
AP - Around 70 million years ago a stocky dragon stalked what is now Romania.

08/25/2010 08:42 AM
Fossilized Creek Beds Offer Up Ancient Climate Change Clues (LiveScience.com)
LiveScience.com - An ancient, fossilized landscape is slowly rising up from the fields of sugar beets and barley in England's Fens, an agricultural hub near the country's central eastern coast.