Broken tsunami buoys
Three of the six American buoys in the Pacific Ocean that detect tsunamis are broken, the US National Weather Service admitted last week. Two near Alaska have been broken for 14 months, while one off the coast of Washington started to malfunction in November. The warning system should still work, but with less data to evaluate the risk, there may be more false alarms.
66-year-old gives birth
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A Romanian woman aged 66 has become the oldest mother on record. Her baby girl was delivered six weeks early by emergency Caesarean after her twin died in the womb. The woman became pregnant after insemination with donated sperm after nine years of fertility treatment, including hormones to reverse the menopause.
Evolution court victory
Parents in Cobb county, Georgia, have won a court battle to have stickers saying 鈥渆volution is theory not fact鈥� removed from schools鈥� biology textbooks. The judge ruled that this was promotion of religion, which is illegal in publicly funded schools. The school district may appeal.
Flight into danger
The US air force wants to flash warning lasers at pilots if they stray into restricted air space over Washington DC. Last year, the USAF came close to shooting down a plane carrying the governor of Kentucky when it flew into DC with defective radio equipment. The Federal Aviation Administration is considering the USAF鈥檚 request. Meanwhile, the FBI continues to investigate a rash of cases of pilots reportedly being dazzled by laser beams. One man is being prosecuted.
Meteorite on Mars
The Mars rover Opportunity last week stumbled across a metallic lump the size of a potato. The rock, close to the heat shield that Opportunity jettisoned before it landed, could be a rare metallic asteroid.