Choosing flipper
A female bottlenose dolphin is the first zoo animal to be born after its sex was artificially selected. Sea World scientists in San Diego, California, artificially inseminated its mother Sandy with sperm sorted using a method developed by XY of Fort Collins, Colorado. The technique may help zoos manage the ratios of male to female animals in their collections.
More animal experiments
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The number of animals used in UK research rose by 2.1 per cent overall from 2003 to 2004. The increase was mostly the result of a hike in the numbers of genetically modified animals used in experiments, up nearly a fifth to 914,000. But the number of procedures using non-human primates was down by 12 per cent to 4208.
Going, going鈥�
An international team of scientists has identified almost 600 sites around the world as 鈥渃entres of imminent species extinction鈥�. Each site contains at least one endangered species which lives nowhere else. Of the 794 鈥渢rigger species鈥�, 408 are amphibians, 217 are birds and 131 are mammals.
Wave of destruction
A million Californians living in low-lying coastal areas are vulnerable to a tsunami. According to a report released on Monday by the California Seismic Safety Commission, the state has gaps in its readiness to handle a tsunami. These include flaws in its tsunami warning system and inadequate building codes that don鈥檛 account for the strength of a tsunami.
Destination Mercury
NASA鈥檚 Messenger probe, bound for Mercury, completed its first deep space manoeuvre on Monday and set course for a fly-by past Venus. Messenger fired its bipropellant thruster for the first time since its launch in August 2004. The spacecraft will 鈥渟ling shot鈥� round Venus, using the planet鈥檚 gravity as a boost towards Mercury 鈥� arrival March 2011.