Moon crash
The first phase of China鈥檚 lunar programme ended with a crash on Sunday. The country鈥檚 space agency halted the 16-month Chang鈥檈 1 mission by sending the probe to the moon鈥檚 surface. The exercise provided data for the Chang鈥檈 2 mission, which will land a lunar rover on the moon in 2011. The third phase, due for 2017, will try to bring back lunar samples.
Forbidden games
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Forbidden fruit is the sweetest, even when it is a game. Marije Nije Bijvank of VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands asked children to rate 12 video games. Children given only descriptions of the games found them equally attractive. But kids shown that some games had restrictions due to age or content wanted to play those the most (Pediatrics, ).
Senate stem cell bill
Stem cell legislation vetoed by President George Bush has been reintroduced to the US Senate. If passed, the bill would allow federal funding of research that uses stem cells taken from human embryos left over from fertility treatments. It would also make it harder for future presidents to reimpose restrictions.
Big fish, little fish
Fish evolve to be smaller when the biggest fish get caught. Researchers feared this change was permanent, but David Conover at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, and his team showed fish can get bigger again when the pressure is off. But full recovery will likely take decades for most commercial species.
Monkey model of HIV
HIV has been engineered to fully infect monkeys, forming a useful test bed for human therapies (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ). The only option before was SIV, the monkey form of HIV, which produces only mild symptoms.