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2 teenage boys and a girl, all friends of the 19 year old daughter of the scientist, have been arrested in connection with the stabbing death. While the police have not said anything officially, a reporter for one station said the death was possibly related to "cult-like activity" and the reporter for a different station said the three suspects were involved in some sort of Goth group with the victim's daughter.

I'll grow marigolds on the moon, says scientistBy Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 4:01pm BST 17/04/2008 Marigolds could be growing on the moon by around 2015, if an ambitious effort by scientists pays off. In what marks an important step towards helping lunar colonists grow their own food, a Ukrainian team, working with the European Space Agency, ESA, has shown that marigolds can grow in crushed rock very like the lunar surface, with no need for plant food. Marigolds were shown to survive in crushed rock The research was presented at the European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna, by...

Terror threat sparks scientist check By Richard Alleyne Last Updated: 2:03am BST 31/03/2008 Police and secret service officers are carrying out background checks on thousands of scientists without their knowledge, amid fears terrorists are targeting British laboratories to obtain deadly viruses. The vetting, which includes checks on family backgrounds, political views and associates, is part of a review of some 800 laboratories in hospitals, universities and private firms where staff have access to incurable viruses such as ebola. Whitehall sources confirmed the operation by MI5 and the National Counter Terrorism Security Office. A series of spot checks and detailed inspections...

Chief scientist revolts over biofuel legislation 29 March 2008 From New Scientist Print Edition. Could biofuels do more damage to the climate than the fossil fuels they replace? That's the fear casting doubt on the wisdom of a law that from next month will require a certain proportion of vehicle fuel to come from biological sources. On Monday, Bob Watson, chief scientist at the UK's Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs, called into question the idea of switching to biofuels. This follows the publication of studies showing that more carbon is emitted in producing some biofuels than is saved...

A mysterious bomb-making experiment that ended with the accidental death of a government scientist has remained an official secret for more than five years, leaving his family in the dark about what went wrong. Terry Jupp, a scientist with the Ministry of Defence, was engulfed in flames during a joint Anglo-American counter-terrorism project intended to discover more about al-Qaida's bomb-making capacities. There has been no inquest into his death, as the coroner has been waiting for the MoD to disclose information about the incident. An attempt to prosecute the scientist's manager for manslaughter ended when prosecutors said they were withdrawing...

D.C. Fire Hazmat Teams responded to an apparent suicide in the District after fire officials said the man may have killed himself using cyanide. Police got a call around 4:30 p.m. on Monday for an unconscious male at a house in the 4300 block of 36th Street. Two officers responded and found a man laying next to a small vile of cyanide. Immediately, fire officials said police left the home and called in the hazmat crew, which is standard procedure. -snip-

Mumnesia is a medical fact, say scientists By Ben Farmer Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 06/03/2008 Forgetful new mothers can blame their loss of memory on the arrival of their children, according to scientists. For generations, many new mothers have noticed small lapses of memory such as struggling with names, misplacing things or forgetting what they are looking for. Now neuroscientists and psychiatrists have reported that rather than being merely an old wives' tale, the phenomenon of "mumnesia" is based on medical fact. A combination of fatigue, hormonal changes and stress can all contribute to a loss of memory. Louann Brizendine,...

The Pakistani scientist disgraced for selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya has been hospitalized after complaining of weakness, the military said Wednesday. Medics who checked on Abdul Qadeer Khan at his home Tuesday found that he was suffering from low blood pressure and fever, probably due to an infection, a military statement said. He was subsequently admitted to a hospital for a detailed examination, it said. Doctors are hopeful that Khan will make a full recovery and return home in a couple of days.

Deep in the basement of a dusty old library in Edinburgh lies a small black box that churns out random numbers. At first glance the box looks profoundly dull, but it is, in fact, the ‘eye' of a machine that appears capable of peering into the future. The machine apparently sensed the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre four hours before they happened, and appeared to forewarn of the Asian Tsunami. "It's Earth shattering stuff," says Dr Roger Nelson, Emeritus researcher at Princeton University in the USA. "But unfortunately we don't have a box for predicting the future...

PHOENIX —Biologist Karen Krebbs used to study bats in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument on the Arizona-Mexico border. Then, she got tired of dodging drug smugglers all night. "I use night-vision goggles, and you could see them very clearly" — caravans of men with guns and huge backpacks full of drugs, trudging through the desert, Krebbs said. After her 10th or 11th time hiding in bushes and behind rocks, she abandoned her research. "I'm just not willing to risk my neck anymore," she said. Across the southwestern U.S. border and in northern Mexico, scientists such as Krebbs say their work...

Scientist Chases Fast-Melting Tropical Glaciers Charles J. Hanley in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea Associated PressJanuary 14, 2008 For 5,000 years, great tongues of ice have spread over some of the tallest slopes of tropical New Guinea—the remotest reaches of this remote tropical island. Now those glaciers are melting, and Lonnie Thompson must reach them before they're gone. To the American glaciologist, the ancient ice is a vanishing "archive" of the story of El Niño, the equatorial phenomenon driving much of the world's climate. More than that, the little-explored glaciers are a last unknown for a mountaineering scientist who for...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Bert Bolin, a pioneering Swedish climate scientist and co-founder of the U.N.'s Nobel award-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has died, his colleague Henning Rodhe said Wednesday. He was 82. As early as the 1950s, Bolin produced research about the circulation of carbon in nature that remains relevant to the continuing debate on climate change. Most importantly, he played a key role in communicating the dangers of climate change to decision-makers and served as the first chairman of the IPCC from 1988 to 1998. He died in a Stockholm hospital from stomach cancer, but was active until...

Scientist claims men are funnier than women By Nick Britten Last Updated: 1:40am GMT 22/12/2007 Men are more naturally funny than women, according to a male scientist who says men make more jokes and the gags tend to be more aggressive. As part of his research Professor Sam Shuster, of Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, rode a unicycle around Newcastle upon Tyne and judged the reaction of 400 onlookers. Comedians Victoria Wood and Peter Kay He said 75 per cent of male respondents made snide comments such as "Lost your wheel?" and jeered, while few women made cutting remarks and...

"The battle between science and creationism has reached the prestigious Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where a former researcher is claiming he was fired because he doesn't believe in evolution. Nathaniel Abraham filed a lawsuit earlier this week in US District Court in Boston saying that the Cape Cod research center dismissed him in 2004 because of his Christian belief that the Bible presents a true account of human creation. Abraham, who is seeking $500,000 in compensation for a violation of his civil rights, says in the suit that he lost his job as a postdoctoral researcher in a biology lab...

Hillary backed lab of donorBy Jim McElhatton October 30, 2007 Lawmakers, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, have taken thousands in campaign cash from an embattled Nobel-prize winning scientist while earmarking federal money for his New York lab. Mrs. Clinton and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, also a New York Democrat, requested a $900,000 earmark in June for the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where James D. Watson served as chancellor before resigning last week after apologizing for comments that suggested that people descending from Africa aren't as intelligent as those from Europe. Federal campaign filings show that Mr. Watson has donated more...

Nobel scientist condemned for 'racist' claims By Stephen Adams Last Updated: 2:48pm BST 17/10/2007 Nobel Prize winning scientist Dr James Watson has been heavily criticised for making “racist” comments after he said Africans were not as intelligent as Europeans. Dr Watson is no stranger to controversy Dr Watson, who helped unravel the structure of DNA with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, was roundly condemned for saying he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not...

... Last week, Hansen, NASA's lead scientist on global warming, penned a rather strange ad hominem attack against critics that questioned the validity of his work in the wake of corrections prompted by Steve McIntyre at Climate Audit http://www.climateaudit.org/ Under most circumstances, it is inappropriate for a Federal Agency Administrator to pen such a highly policitical polemic, although Hansen has a long history of doing just that. Rather than respond with a proper full acknowledgement of his error and a promise to uncover other potential flaws which may be lurking in his data and analyis, his technical explanation is interspersed...

Scientist doubts efforts to detect avian flu in U.S. By Kevin Miller Monday, July 30, 2007 - Bangor Daily News ORONO, Maine - A potential avian flu pandemic may have slipped from the headlines, but the threat is still very real. And one leading expert worries that U.S. efforts to detect the deadly avian flu strain may be subpar. Peter Marra, a research scientist with the Smithsonian Institution and the National Zoo in Washington, told fellow ornithologists gathered at the University of Maine on Saturday that health and wildlife officials may be focusing too heavily on migratory birds when looking...

Scientist Tests Husband's DNA, Fidelity Wednesday July 4, 2007 1:46 AM By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN Associated Press Writer LANSING, Mich. (AP) - A state forensics scientist who said she tested DNA in her husband's underwear to find out whether he was cheating could be disciplined if investigators determine she violated the use of state equipment. Ann Chamberlain-Gordon of Okemos testified in a March 7 divorce hearing that she ran the test in September on the underwear of Charles Gordon Jr. Asked by his attorney what she found, she answered: ``Another female. It wasn't me.'' She also said during a May...

Reid Bryson, known as the father of scientific climatology, considers global warming a bunch of hooey.

JERUSALEM: Renowned British scientist Sir Isaac Newton, the father of modern physics and astronomy, predicted the world would end in 2060. He made the prediction in a 1704 letter that went on show in Jerusalem on Sunday. A famed rationalist, who secured a royal exemption from the ordination in the Church of England that was normally expected of academics of his day so he would not have to follow its teachings, Newton nonetheless based his prediction on a Biblical text. Working from verses in the Book of Daniel, the elaborator of the classical laws of gravity, motion and optics argued...

An Italian researcher is working on a project that could lead to the development of a real-life 'spider-man' suit. Nicola Pugno, a 35-year-old researcher at the Polytechnic University of Turin, says he has spent the past 10 years working on a form of adhesion based on the feet of gecko lizards. "It's a field that can have very interesting applications in science, like in space, for example," Mr Pugno said. "An astronaut could use a suit with a suction-cup adhesion system." He estimates the suit could be constructed in another 10 years.

Scientists find fatness gene By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 2:15am BST 13/04/2007 More than half of the population carries a gene that makes people more likely to pile on the pounds, scientists announce today. Half of English men and a third of women are classified as overweight They hope the discovery could eventually lead to treatments to help people lose excess weight they carry simply because of their genetic make-up. Obesity is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other medical problems and is rising in prevalence in most western countries, where at...

WASHINGTON – One of the world's top scientists on global warming called for the United States to stop building coal-fired power plants and eventually bulldoze older generators that don't capture and bury greenhouse gases. But 159 coal-fired power plants are scheduled to be built in the next decade or so, generating enough power for about 96 million homes, according to a study last month by the U.S. Department of Energy. Burning coal is one of the major sources of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas causing global warming. In prepared remarks to be delivered at the National Press Club Monday...

Mysterious Death of Iranian Nuclear Physicist Esfandiar Saffari - 2007.02.08 Despite initial denials by Iran’s state-run media, Baztab news website [affiliated with former Passdaran Revolutionary Guards commander Mohsen Rezai] confirmed the “mysterious” death of Ardeshir Hosseinpour, a senior nuclear physicist involved in the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Baztab quoted “one of Hosseinpour’s acquaintances” as saying, “Unfortunately, 20 days ago, Dr. Ardeshir Hosseinpour, who was only 40 years old and a medal-holder in Kung Fu, passed away in a house belonging to a professor at Shiraz University.” Baztab did not reveal further more details about the death, but confirmed that Dr....

WASHINGTON — A prize-winning Iranian nuclear scientist has died in mysterious circumstances, according to Radio Farda, which is funded by the U.S. State Department and broadcasts to Iran. An intelligence source suggested that Ardeshire Hassanpour, 44, a nuclear physicist, had been assassinated by Mossad, the Israeli security service. Hassanpour worked at a plant in Isfahan where uranium hexafluoride gas is produced. The gas is needed to enrich uranium in another plant at Natanz which has become the focus of concerns that Iran may be developing nuclear weapons. According to Radio Farda, Iranian reports of Hassanpour’s death emerged on Jan. 21...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. government scientists Friday said the long-term outlook for global warming may be more dire than suggested by this week's United Nations' report, which they say doesn't fully address the impact of clouds and melting glaciers. Recent evidence of accelerated melting of glaciers in Greenland and the Antarctic ice cap came too late to be included in the report released Thursday by the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Glaciers are among the largest sources of fresh water in the world and are contributing to rising ocean levels. Rising sea levels could expose population centers bordering the ocean...

Interview: Why we help others By CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Why some of us help our fellow man while others stay selfish has long been a riddle to scientists. Now, Scott Huettel, an associate professor of psychiatry at Duke University and colleagues are beginning to form a picture of how our brains drive altruism. In the Jan. 21 issue of Nature Neuroscience, Huettel and colleagues report a novel discovery: Altruism may be linked to the perception of a person's actions, in addition to the potential for reward. United Press International talked to Huettel about his research. Q....

Source: University of Delaware Date: January 3, 2007 Scientists Discover New Class Of Polymers Science Daily — They said it couldn't be done. And that's what really motivated polymer chemist Chris Snively and Jochen Lauterbach, professor of chemical engineering at the University of Delaware. Since the late 1990s, Lauterbach and Snively have been developing a method to make extremely thin polymer layers on surfaces. The film covering the surface of these metal samples is at least 1,000 times thinner than a human hair. (Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson) For years, polymer chemistry textbooks have stated that a whole class of...

Some 10,000 US researchers have signed a statement protesting about political interference in the scientific process. The statement, which includes the backing of 52 Nobel Laureates, demands a restoration of scientific integrity in government policy. According to the American Union of Concerned Scientists, data is being misrepresented for political reasons. It claims scientists working for federal agencies have been asked to change data to fit policy initiatives. The Union has released an "A to Z" guide that it says documents dozens of recent allegations involving censorship and political interference in federal science, covering issues ranging from global warming to sex...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein objected to the testimony of a leading American forensic scientist called in to speak about a mass grave of Kurds, saying Tuesday that only neutral international experts should be permitted at his genocide trial. Clyde Snow — an expert from the University of Oklahoma who has also investigated mass graves in Argentina, Guatemala and the former Yugoslavia — took the stand and began to give background on his work. Saddam insisted that Snow should not be allowed to testify because he was American and demanded neutral international experts, suggesting that the bodies in the grave...

Renowned Scientist Defects From Belief in Global Warming – Caps Year of Vindication for Skeptics -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- October 17, 2006 Washington DC - One of the most decorated French geophysicists has converted from a believer in manmade catastrophic global warming to a climate skeptic. This latest defector from the global warming camp caps a year in which numerous scientific studies have bolstered the claims of climate skeptics. Scientific studies that debunk the dire predictions of human-caused global warming have continued to accumulate and many believe the new science is shattering the media-promoted scientific “consensus” on climate alarmism. Claude Allegre, a former...

Several prominent scientists said yesterday that they had formed an organization dedicated to electing politicians “who respect evidence and understand the importance of using scientific and engineering advice in making public policy.” Organizers of the group, Scientists and Engineers for America, said it would be nonpartisan, but in interviews several said Bush administration science policies had led them to act. The issues they cited included the administration’s position on climate change, its restrictions on stem cell research and delays in authorizing the over-the-counter sale of emergency contraception. In a statement posted on its Web site (www.sefora.org), the group said scientists...

A British Ministry of Defense scientist who helped improve the design of a protective suit worn by bomb disposal experts is now working in Iraq close to a military team that uses the suit. Scientist Mark Helliker is completing a tour as the head of an operational analysis team working in the Headquarters of the Multi-National Division - South East based in Basra. Helliker normally works in Warminster as the lead deployable analyst for the British 1 Armored Division in the Land Warfare Center. The post is a two-year duty from the Defense Science and Technology Division. "I was the...

SEOUL, South Korea - A discredited South Korean cloning scientist admitted in court Tuesday to ordering subordinates to falsify stem cell data for a paper in a scientific journal, but he insisted he should not be the only one blamed in the scandal. Hwang Woo-suk, who falsely claimed breakthroughs in creating stem cells from cloned human embryos, testified at the second hearing of a trial in which he is accused of accepting funds under false pretenses, embezzlement and violating the bioethics law by purchasing eggs for research. For a 2005 paper in the journal Science, Hwang acknowledged that he told...

Editor's note: Global warming is unlikely to be a dangerous future problem, with or without the implementation of such programs as the Kyoto Protocol, according to Dr. Richard Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...alarmist media claims to the contrary are fueled more by politics than by science... The global mean temperature is never constant, and it has no choice but to increase or decrease--both of which it does on all known time scales. That this quantity has increased about 0.6ºC (or about 1ºF) over the past century is likely. A relevant...

...This dogmatic notion, enforced with alarming severity, has also insinuated itself into every fiber of our public education system. Children today are unable to read, write, compute, or even speak at grade level---and they can't find Canada on a world map---but you can be darned sure they know whose fault global warming is. I recall, many years ago, seeing a note pinned to a friend's door from his young cousin that read, "you are the best cusen (sic) in the wrld (sic)." A very sweet, albeit poorly spelled gesture of familial affection. Of course, on that same paper, almost as...

A judge refused to declare a mistrial Tuesday in the case against a prominent University of Southern California geneticist accused of molesting the daughter of a colleague over a five-year period. Superior Court Judge Michael E. Pastor made the ruling after defense attorneys unsuccessfully argued against the introduction of e-mail exchanges between William French Anderson, known as the father of gene therapy, and his accuser. Anderson, 69, is charged with one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child under age 14 and three counts of committing a lewd act upon a child. He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors claim...

SEOUL, South Korea - Disgraced cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk went on trial Tuesday on charges of fraud and embezzlement in a scandal over faked stem cell research that undermined global hopes of dramatic new treatments for incurable diseases. Hwang was indicted last month for allegedly accepting $2.1 million in private donations based on the outcome of the falsified research and embezzling about $831,000 in private and government research funds. Hwang also was accused of buying human eggs for research, a violation of the country's bioethics law. If convicted, the 52-year-old scientist faces at least three years in prison. Hwang is...

The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there's an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy the Earth, world-renowned scientist Stephen Hawking said Tuesday. The British astrophysicist told a news conference in Hong Kong that humans could have a permanent base on the moon in 20 years and a colony on Mars in the next 40 years. "We won't find anywhere as nice as Earth unless we go to another star system," added Hawking, who arrived to a rock star's welcome Monday. Tickets for his lecture planned for...

WASHINGTON – It should be glorious to be William Gray, professor emeritus. He's the guy who predicts the number of hurricanes for the coming tropical storm season. He works on a country road leading into the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in the atmospheric science department of Colorado State University. He's mentored dozens of scientists. He's a towering figure in his profession and in person. He's loud. His laugh is gale force. He can be very charming. He's also angry. He's outraged. He recently had a shouting match with one of his former students. It went on for 45...

Scientists make water run uphill By Roland Pease BBC science correspondent Watch the drop move Physicists have made water run uphill quite literally under its own steam. The droplets propel themselves over metal sheets scored with a carefully designed array of grooves. The US scientists did the experiment to demonstrate how the random motion of water molecules in hot steam could be channelled into a directed force. But the team, writing in Physical Review Letters, believes the effect may be useful in driving coolants through overheating computer microchips. The physics at work here has been witnessed by all of us...

Prof. Yuval Ne'eman, 80, a world-acclaimed physicist, multi-talented academic, one of Israel's most prominent scientists and a right-wing ideologue, died on Wednesday at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center after suffering a stroke. Born in Tel Aviv on May 14, 1925, he was not only the initiator of the Science and Technology Ministry and twice minister but also the founder and chairman of the Israel Space Agency. His coffin is to be on view in the courtyard of the Tel Aviv University Senate Building on Thursday from noon, and a funeral ceremony will begin at 1 p.m. in the presence of...

What would happen if a world-renowned scientist and evolutionary ecologist told hundreds of his colleagues that 90 percent of the human race needed to be wiped out by exposure to Ebola or some other deadly virus? Apparently, according to a scientist who claims to have witnessed such a remarkable event one month ago, the fiend would get a standing ovation and an award. Forrest Mims III That's the story being told by Forrest Mims III, a member of the Texas Academy of Science, chairman of its environmental science section and editor of the Citizen Scientist.

No future for fusion power, says top scientist 19:00 09 March 2006 NewScientist.com news service David L Chandler Nuclear fusion will never be a practical source of electrical power, argues a prominent scientist in the journal Science. Even nuclear fusion’s staunchest advocates admit a power-producing fusion plant is still decades away at best, despite forty years of hard work and well over $20 billion spent on the research. But the new paper, personally backed by the journal’s editor, issues a strong challenge to the entire fusion programme, arguing that the whole massive endeavour is never likely to lead to anything...

WASHINGTON’S CHANGE OF HEART Ex-IISc chief gets visa to US From Shyam Bhatia DH News Service Washington: The State Department’s change of heart came after concern was expressed in several quarters, both in the US and abroad, that distinguished foreign scientists are being needlessly excluded from attending legitimate conferences, seminars and lectures in America. Professor Goverdhen Mehta will be able to travel to the US as planned after the State Department in Washington backed down and told Deccan Herald that a visa has been approved for the former Director of the Indian Institute of Science. A US State Department spokesman...

SEOUL (Reuters) - The president of Seoul National University stripped a title from a disgraced researcher because of science fraud and called for six others to be punished who were part of the same cloning scandal, the school said on Friday. Once heralded and now scorned, scientist Hwang Woo-suk lost his title as "chair-professor." Hwang had already resigned his post at the university on December 23 when an investigation panel said in an interim report that he bore major responsibility for deliberately fabricated data in two landmark papers on embryonic stem cells. Seoul National University President Chung Un-chan said the...

SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) - A honeycomb cluster of cells on NASA's Stardust spacecraft captured thousands of samples of interstellar and comet dust that scientists said Thursday could give them the first definitive evidence about how the solar system formed. "Its cargo was an ancient, cosmic treasure from the very edge of the solar system - a treasure that formed when the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago," said Donald Brownlee, a University of Washington scientist who worked on the Stardust mission managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Some of the samples collected during the seven-year,...

SEOUL, South Korea - Disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk asked his fellow South Koreans for forgiveness Thursday at his first public appearance in almost three weeks, saying he takes full responsibility for his fraudulent stem cell research. "I ask for your forgiveness," Hwang told a nationally televised press conference in Seoul. "I feel so miserable that it's difficult even to say sorry." Seoul National University, where Hwang is a professor, on Tuesday issued a final report that he fabricated landmark published claims in 2004 and 2005 to have created the world's first human embryonic stem stells from cloned embryos. "The use...

Scientist compares Moses to Hitler, calls New Testament 'sado-masochistic doctrine'Controversial scientist and evolutionist Richard Dawkins, dubbed "Darwin's Rottweiler," calls religion a "virus" and faith-based education "child abuse" in a two-part series he wrote and appears in that begins airing on the UK's Channel 4, beginning tomorrow evening. Entitled "Root of All Evil?," the series features the atheist Dawkins visiting Lourdes, France, Colorado Springs, Colo., the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and a British religious school, using each of the venues to argue religion subverts reason. In "The God Delusion," the first film in the series, Dawkins targets Catholicism at the pilgrimage...