Something for the weekend
Weekend skies are officially clearer, thanks to pollution鈥檚 effect on weekday weather. NASA scientists have found that increased air pollution from vehicles and factories on weekdays seeds summer clouds in the south-east US, which create more rain than at weekends ().
Green watch
NASA鈥檚 blue logo is poised to get a little greener, says the agency鈥檚 sciences chief Alan Stern. President Bush鈥檚 2008/9 budget announcement on Monday promises NASA $910 million for six new Earth-observation satellites to monitor for changes due to global warming.
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鈥淭hree-parent鈥� embryo
A human embryo with genetic material from three 鈥減arents鈥� has been created for the first time. The aim is to conquer inheritable diseases transmitted in a mother鈥檚 mitochondrial DNA. A team at Newcastle University in the UK transferred a 鈥減ronucleus鈥� 鈥� containing as-yet unfused nuclear DNA taken from a sperm and egg 鈥� into an egg which had been stripped of its own nuclear DNA but which carried healthy mitochondrial DNA. They successfully grew the resulting embryo for several days.
MMR vaccine cleared
A study of 250 children in the UK has cleared the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine of any link with autism. It is the third and largest study to do so. It also found no link between the vaccine and bowel symptoms in any of the participants with autism, the authors report in Archives of Disease in Childhood ().
Whales spared headache
A federal judge in California ruled on Monday that the US navy must follow environmental laws designed to protect whales and dolphins. The ruling is a blow to President Bush, who tried to exempt the navy so that it could use powerful submarine-detecting sonar in areas where whales are abundant.