Discovery News

Atlantis docks at Space Station

space#topic

Astronauts have unloaded a huge platform of spare parts onto the International Space Station after the shuttle Atlantis arrived for a week’s stay.

Heavy collections of pumps, storage tanks and other devices needed to keep the outpost running for another 10 years were unloaded from the platform, measuring 16 feet by 14 feet.

Robot arms helped to unload the weighty equipment, two hours after the link-up, 220 miles above the Pacific between Australia and Tasmania.

Hardened arteries found in mummies

history and cultures#topic

Scientists have discovered evidence of hardened arteries in 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummies, suggesting that heart disease and stroke may have been a major health danger at the time.

Although typically associated with modern western lifestyles, heart disease and similar issues seem to have been a problem among high-ranking Egyptians as well.

Research started after it was noticed that an inscription on the mummy of Pharaoh Merenptah, housed in Cairo's Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, indicated he was afflicted by diseased arteries, arthritis and dental decay when he died aged 60 in 1203 BC.

Nasa launches 'spaceworm' flight

space#topic

Muscle development is being studied by sending thousands of microscopic worms into space on the latest shuttle, the University of Nottingham has announced.

The mollusc passengers - traced to a rubbish dump in Bristol - are aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, which was launched from Cape Canaveral this week, and will help physiology experts at the British university understand how the body loses and builds muscle.

They will be studied in the Kibo lab on the International Space Station during the study. Nottingham's Dr Nathaniel Szewczyk, from the university's Institute of Clinical Research in Derby, will use the worms to study the signals controlling muscle protein degradation.

More water on moon than expected

space#topic

Water on the moon may be more widespread and in greater quantities than previously thought, according to Nasa.

The findings from an experiment involving a rocket smashing into the surface of earth's satellite has pleased scientists. The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) was fired into the lunar crust on October 9 and created a 1.6km-high two-part plume from the Cabeus crater.

The materials unearthed had been untouched by sunlight for billions of years, according to scientists. Examination of the blast now suggests that there is more water on the moon than previously believed.

Down-under bee returns to the UK

natural world#topic

A bumblebee no longer found in Britain is featured in a new book - of bumblebees found in Britain.

The somewhat previous entry in the Field Guide To Bumblebees Of Great Britain And Ireland is based on efforts to reintroduce the down-under bee - Bombus subterraneus - from New Zealand.

Small populations of the bee were established on South Island after being transported there from the UK to pollinate crops of red clover.

Stars being born at 'runaway' rate

science#topic

New stars such as the sun are born in young galaxies at a rate much faster than earlier thought, astronomers have said.

They observed that "stellar nurseries" in early galaxies similar to our own were producing stars at a rate of up to 50 a year.

Using "gravitational lensing" to magnify one of the most distant galaxies known, MS1358arc, and using the way its light bent around a nearby galaxy cluster, they observed rapid bursts of star formation.

Fossil 'could be T rex ancestor'

natural world#topic

Scientists have concluded that a fossil in London's Natural History Museum could be an ancestor of the tyrannosaurus rex.

The remains, studied by British and German researchers, belong to a dinosaur named proceratosaurus which lived during the middle Jurassic Period, about 165 million years ago. The carnivore stood on two legs and would have weighed up to 60kg.

Dr Oliver Rauhut, from LMU Munich, and Dr Angela Milner, from the London museum, said the fossil was initially misclassified. Later it was recognised to belong to a previously unknown genus, which was named proceratosaurus.

Kilimanjaro snow could melt by 2022

nature#topic

Scientists claim that the famous snows of Kilimanjaro that cap Africa's highest mountain will vanish within two decades due to global warming.

The team, led by Professor Lonnie Thompson, from Ohio State University in the US, who combined data from aerial photographs and ground measurements of ice thickness, discovered that more than a quarter of the ice present in 2000 has now disappeared.

Research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences noted that the northern and southern ice fields on the summit of Kilimanjaro had thinned by 6.2 feet and 16.7 feet respectively.

Newborns Pick Up Language in the Womb

human

Nov. 6, 2009 -- Comparing the gurgles, coos and cries of French and German newborns, a team of scientists from both countries found that baby talk is not, as previously assumed, universal.

Earlier research showed that human fetuses start to memorize sounds from the external world by the third trimester, and are especially keyed in to the melodic qualities of music and speech.

Previous studies also showed that newborns prefer the voice of their mothers, and can decipher different emotional content -- anger, joy -- from the intonation of maternal speech.

Bright Bacteria Wins Synthetic Biology Competition

tech

Nov. 6, 2009 -- Bacteria bright enough to see with the naked eye won the coveted BioBrick at this year's International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition.

The annual contest brings together teams of undergraduate students from across the globe and showcases some of the newest and most unique ideas in synthetic biology.

"We saw some incredible projects this year," said iGEM organizer Randy Rettberg. "We are training the next generation of synthetic biologists."