Assault on HIV
A drug that stops HIV replicating has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Merck鈥檚 raltegravir is the first in a new class of drugs called integrase inhibitors that work by stopping the virus inserting its genetic material into human DNA, which in turn prevents it creating copies of itself.
Millimetres to the moon
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Using a laser rangefinder, a 3.5-metre telescope in New Mexico has measured the distance to the moon to an accuracy of 1 millimetre (). APOLLO 鈥� the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation 鈥� paves the way for tests of the fundamental properties of gravity.
Nuke pact nixed
A deal to trade in nuclear fuel and technology previously hailed as 鈥渢he single most important initiative that India and the United States have agreed to鈥� looks doomed by local political pressure. India鈥檚 prime minister Manmohan Singh told President George W. Bush that 鈥渃ertain difficulties鈥� will prevent the pact going ahead.
Deadly bacteria
Antibiotic and vaccine-resistant bacteria continue to boom. Strains of streptococcus resistant to childhood pneumococcal vaccine and all seven antibiotics used to treat ear infections in children have emerged in the US. Meanwhile the first estimate of deaths from MRSA in the US suggests it kills nearly 19,000 people a year 鈥� more than AIDS (The Journal of the American Medical Association, vol 298, p 1763 and p 1772).
Giant dinosaur unearthed
One the largest ever dinosaurs has been discovered in northern Argentina. Dug up by Brazilian and Argentinian palaeontologists, the largely complete fossil is of Futalognkosaurus dukei, thought to have been 32 to 34 metres long, according to a report in the Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.