Second time lucky
Japan successfully tested a prototype supersonic aircraft over the Woomera Test Range in Australia on Monday. The unmanned craft, the Scaled Experimental Supersonic Transport, was launched from a rocket. It flew for 15 minutes and 22 seconds, reached twice the speed of sound and rose to an altitude of 19 kilometres. The first test in 2002 failed.
Wildlife crime arrests
Advertisement
Police in London made their first arrest this week under a new wildlife law designed to punish those who trade in material from endangered species. Officers arrested a woman at a shop in central London supplying Chinese medicine, seizing hundreds of products which turned out to contain traces of tiger, bear, rhino and musk deer.
Nobel for game theory
Two pioneers of game theory scooped up this year鈥檚 Nobel prize for economics. Robert Aumann of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Thomas Schelling of the University of Maryland in College Park received the award on Monday. Their work helps explain conflict and cooperation in areas as diverse as nuclear arms races, trade battles and price wars.
Mad cow rules
The US has finally banned the remains of older cattle, the most likely source of BSE, from all animal feed as well as cattle feed. Europe had to do this to stop the spread of the disease, but the US delayed this rule for a year, and has yet to ban every risky feed, such as cattle blood in calf feed.
Search insect
Type 鈥済oogle鈥� into Google and you will find that one of the hits is a new Madagascan ant Proceratium google. It was described and named by entomologist Brian Fisher of the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. The ant eats spider eggs. So like its namesake, it excels at locating juicy nuggets.