Kids on cholesterol drugs
Drugs that lower blood cholesterol should be given to some children as young as 8, say new guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics. The academy wants to avoid an epidemic of heart disease in later life linked to rising rates of childhood obesity. The guidelines are expected to fuel controversy over the safety of these drugs in children.
Tree fungus fuels fires
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Wildfires raging in the Big Sur area of coastal California are burning hotter and spreading faster, thanks to the estimated 1 million dead oak trees in the region. They were killed over the past decade by the sudden oak death fungus.
Radioactive cache grows
The UK鈥檚 stockpile of plutonium from nuclear power stations has risen to 108 tonnes, according to the British government鈥檚 latest submission to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria. The stockpile at the end of 2007 exceeded the previous year鈥檚 total by 1.1 tonnes, and is enough for 13,500 nuclear bombs.
Colour me fossilised
Images from high-powered electron microscopes have revealed tiny pigmented cellular structures preserved in million-year-old fossilised bird feathers. The finding may make it possible to reconstruct the plumage patterns of extinct birds and feathered dinosaurs (Biology Letters, ).
Shuttle swansong nears
Will the last space shuttle flight be on 31 May 2010? That鈥檚 the date 鈥� four months earlier than originally planned 鈥� that NASA tentatively announced on Monday for the final flight. Meanwhile a bill going through the US Senate recommends that NASA look into the possibility of 鈥渞ecertification鈥� of the shuttle, involving a major structural inspection so that it can continue flying beyond 2010.