Rocks baffle astronomers
The Cassini spacecraft鈥檚 closest fly-by yet of Saturn鈥檚 moon Enceladus, on 14 July, has revealed strange surface features seen nowhere else in the solar system. Its icy surface appears to be strewn with boulders up to 20 metres wide. Astronomers, who had expected a smooth or cratered surface, are at a loss to explain this anomaly.
Skiing in Antarctica
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The British Antarctic Survey鈥檚 new base on the Brunt Ice Shelf will be built on skis. If the base is in danger of being stranded on a section of ice breaking away from the shelf, the 12 modules can be towed to safety.
EU wants cleaner seas
The European Union last week adopted a directive to help tackle oil spills and illegal dumping at sea. Member states can now impose penalties on offenders that include heavy fines, restricting commercial activities, prevention of access to subsidies and aid, and even prison sentences. More than 400,000 tonnes of hydrocarbons are thought to be dumped illegally each year in European waters.
Indonesia flu fears
H5N1 bird flu may have killed a father and his two daughters in Indonesia, officials say. If tests confirm their suspicions, the family will be the first people in the country to die of the virus. It is not yet clear how the trio became infected.
Roy Meadow struck off
The doctor who came up with the term 鈥淢unchausen鈥檚 syndrome by proxy鈥� in 1977 to describe parents who harm their children to get attention will no longer be allowed to practise medicine. British paediatrician Roy Meadow was found guilty of serious professional misconduct for telling a jury in a 1999 murder trial that the chance of two cot deaths in the same family was 1 in 73 million. The odds are now put at 1 in 200. Meadow鈥檚 assertion was described as being either careless or incompetent.