Two-hour TB test
Tuberculosis infections can now be identified within hours thanks to a test which relies on the amplification of DNA unique to the bacteria that cause the disease. Tests on sputum samples from 1730 people with TB correctly identified 98 per cent of established cases (New England Journal of Medicine, ).
Seahorses hit by oil spill
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One of the world鈥檚 smallest seahorses could disappear as a consequence of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, warns the London Zoological Society. The floating mats of seagrass that the dwarf seahorse, Hippocampus zosterae, hides in have been burned as part of the clean-up.
鈥楰nown unknown鈥� fault
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit New Zealand last weekend, revealing a previously unknown fault. Euan Smith at the Victoria University of Wellington says the fault is an example of Donald Rumsfeld鈥檚 鈥渒nown unknowns鈥�, as not all the active faults in the country have been identified. No deaths were reported.
Hope for Tevatron
The ageing Tevatron particle smasher is a step closer to a new lease of life 鈥� and the chance to find the Higgs boson. A panel of physicists that advises Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, which manages the Tevatron, says it should be run until 2014, although it is not clear where the $150 million to fund this will come from.
Rocket grounded
Cracking government agencies鈥� monopoly on space travel is proving tricky. The first rocket that non-profit outfit Copenhagen Suborbitals of Denmark attempted to send into the stratosphere 鈥� a cylindrical capsule that snugly fits around a standing person 鈥� failed to take off in a test on 5 September.