Nobel goes missing
The 1939 Nobel prize in physics, awarded to Ernest Lawrence for inventing the cyclotron, has been stolen. The 23-carat gold medallion had been on display at the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Museum officials reported the theft on 1 March and have announced a $2500 reward for information leading to its recovery.
Cattle drug row
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The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve a cattle antibiotic, even though it belongs to a class that is needed as a last line of defence against human infections. An FDA advisory committee has already voted against approving cefquinome, concerned that it could promote the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria. However, the FDA鈥檚 own guidelines on approving animal drugs 鈥� which public health advocates claim are too industry-friendly 鈥� would make it difficult for the agency to deny approval.
One-off bird is back
The world鈥檚 most elusive bird has been spotted, twice. A single specimen of the large-billed reed warbler (Acrocephalus orinus) was collected in India in 1867. Now a live bird has been caught in Thailand, while a preserved specimen has turned up in a drawer at a branch of the UK Natural History Museum in Tring, Hertfordshire.
Ocean fish stocks low
Half of all sharks classed as 鈥渉ighly migratory鈥� and two-thirds of fish that regularly swim across national maritime boundaries are either over-exploited or already depleted, says a report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization published on 5 March.
Quake shakes Indonesia
Yet another powerful earthquake rocked Indonesia on Tuesday and was felt as far away as Singapore. The epicentre of the magnitude-6.3 tremor was below the town of Solok, on the western coast of the island of Sumatra.