Ebola accident
A microbiologist at the Vector laboratory in Novosibirsk, Siberia, has died after being accidentally infected with the Ebola virus while experimenting on guinea pigs. Hospital staff who tried to save her are being kept under close surveillance.
Rights and writing
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PalmOne has won a seven-year legal battle with Xerox over the handwriting recognition software used on its hand-held computers. On 21 May, a New York court declared a patent held by Xerox invalid, because its method of turning hand-sketched symbols into text was not unique. PalmOne abandoned its Graffiti handwriting recognition software as the dispute started.
Overheating Arctic
The Arctic is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the world. Ice is thinning more frequently, and trees are encroaching onto lichen pastures in Nordic regions, the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment has found. Some parts of Alaska have warmed up 10 times as much as the global average, according to ACIA chairman Robert Corell of the American Meteorological Society, who will present a full report to the governments of eight Arctic-rim nations in November.
Frozen sperm record
A healthy baby born two years ago was conceived using sperm kept frozen for 21 years 鈥� a world record. The father had his sperm frozen in 1979, when aged 17, before treatment for testicular cancer. Details of the case have just been revealed in Human Reproduction (vol 19, p 1448).
Fusion tug-of-war
The UK, Russia and France are pressing for an end to the dispute over whether to site the ITER experimental fusion reactor at Cadarache in France or at Rokkasho in Japan. The French bid is backed by the European Union, Russia and China. Japan has the support of the US and South Korea.