Reuters: Science News

SpaceX capsule docks at space station, opens new era

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:07:39 -0400

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship and guided the privately owned craft into a docking berth on Friday, opening a new chapter in the U.S. space program.

Italy doctors save baby with smallest artificial heart

Thu, 24 May 2012 10:13:43 -0400

ROME (Reuters) - Italian doctors have saved the life of a 16-month-old boy by implanting the world's smallest artificial heart to keep the infant alive until a donor was found for a transplant.

Corrected: Gevo starts up first new plant, shares jump

Fri, 25 May 2012 16:57:52 -0400

(Reuters) - Gevo Inc started production at a converted ethanol plant in Minnesota, bringing on line the world's first commercial-scale facility to make advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals. Shares rose more than 9 percent.

Giant telescope to explore far reaches of cosmos

Fri, 25 May 2012 11:56:56 -0400

LONDON/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The world's biggest and most advanced radio telescope, capable of detecting signs of extraterrestrial life in the far reaches of the universe, will be located in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Scientists turn skin cells into beating heart muscle

Wed, 23 May 2012 13:16:20 -0400

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have for the first time succeeded in taking skin cells from patients with heart failure and transforming them into healthy, beating heart tissue that could one day be used to treat the condition.

Pollution-hunting robot fish take to the sea

Tue, 22 May 2012 01:02:03 -0400

LONDON (Reuters) - Robot "fish" developed by European scientists to improve pollution monitoring moved from the lab to the sea in a test at the northern Spanish port of Gijon on Tuesday.

Rights group aims to stop killing of Canada GMO pigs

Tue, 22 May 2012 15:23:38 -0400

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - A U.S. animal rights group hopes to save a herd of genetically modified pigs from early deaths after funding dried up for a Canadian research project that has stoked controversy about altering animal genes to produce food.

Scientists deploy genetics in search for bigfoot

Tue, 22 May 2012 10:02:37 -0400

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists are turning to genetic testing to see if they can prove the existence of the elusive hairy humanoid known across the world as bigfoot, yeti and sasquatch.

Rare "ring of fire" solar eclipse dims skies

Mon, 21 May 2012 01:33:06 -0400

KANARRAVILLE, Utah (Reuters) - The sun and moon aligned over the Earth in a rare astronomical event on Sunday - an annular eclipse that dimmed the skies over parts of Asia and North America, briefly turning the sun into a blazing ring of fire.

Astronauts float inside SpaceX Dragon capsule

Sat, 26 May 2012 12:25:31 -0400

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station opened the hatch and floated inside a Space Exploration Technologies' Dragon capsule on Saturday, the first privately owned spaceship to reach the orbital outpost, NASA said.