Parched of ideas
As Australia鈥檚 worst drought in a century continues to bite, pressure is mounting to reduce the nation鈥檚 greenhouse gas emissions. Australia has refused to sign up to the Kyoto protocol but this week prime minister John Howard pledged to spend A$230 million ($175 million) developing technologies to reduce emissions.
Back to the drawing board
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A revolutionary reusable rocket crashed last week while attempting to lift off, hover for 90 seconds and travel 100 metres, then do the same thing in reverse. Armadillo Aerospace鈥檚 attempt to win the $350,000 prize offered by aerospace giant Northrop Grumman ended in failure when its vehicle veered off course during the return leg.
FBI to the rescue
Animal lab workers have called in the FBI to advise on how best to avoid attacks by animal rights activists. At the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science鈥檚 annual meeting in Salt Lake City last week, the FBI suggested educating people by inviting them into labs and explaining procedures.
Eco-bankruptcy looms
The world鈥檚 ecological debt is now so severe that we face global ecosystem collapse by the 2050, according to WWF鈥檚 two-yearly 鈥淟iving Planet Report鈥�. Measurements of 1300 vertebrate species show biodiversity has declined by around 30 per cent between 1970 and 2003. Without commitments to stem the decline we will exhaust our ecological assets, the report says.
Stem cell concerns
They have been touted as a future cure for Parkinson鈥檚, but when embryonic stem cells were injected into the brains of rats with a comparable disease, they appeared to cause tumours in some animals. Other rats did benefit from the treatment, but any human studies should be done very cautiously, the report in Nature Medicine warns.