Countdown to Venus
The first spacecraft to head for Venus in 15 years is due to blast off on Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The European Space Agency鈥檚 Venus Express will study the planet from a highly elliptical orbit that at its closest will be only 250 kilometres from the surface.
Whaling for science?
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A Japanese whaling fleet set sail on Tuesday for the Antarctic in the first hunt since Japan doubled its target catch for scientific whaling earlier this year. About 850 minke whales and 10 endangered fin whales are expected to be killed. In June the International Whaling Commission turned down Japan鈥檚 bid to resume commercial whaling.
Build first, experiment later
NASA has halved the research projects it was planning for the International Space Station in a bid to get the station finished by 2010. NASA chief Michael Griffin told a congressional science committee last week that the agency faces a $5 billion funding shortfall until 2010. Research on the ISS 鈥渨ill have to be minimised in favour of getting it assembled鈥�, he said.
Anti-cancer aspirin
Aspirin may protect against some forms of skin cancer, suggests a 15-year study of 1600 people by the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Australia. It works by shutting down the enzyme cyclo-oxygenase, which triggers some cancers. Only people taking at least two tablets weekly for five years benefited.
Gloomy gas forecast
If the world does not curb its energy consumption, emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide will be 52 per cent higher by 2030, the International Energy Agency warned on Monday. Even if rich nations do implement policies to combat climate change, CO2 emissions will still rise about 30 per cent by 2030, says the IEA鈥檚 report, World Energy Outlook 2005.