Shuttle launch delayed
The space shuttle seems loath to go quietly. On 29 April, just hours before Endeavour was to lift off on the second-to-last shuttle mission ever, a glitch with heaters that keep its fuel from freezing during flight forced NASA to call off the launch. The agency is replacing an avionics box and could try for another launch as soon as 10 May.
Caring sharing robots
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Robots with simulated brains and genes have evolved to share their food 鈥� but only with close relatives. The finding bolsters 鈥淗amilton鈥檚 rule鈥� that cooperation evolves only in closely related animals (PLoS Biology, ).
Hands off armadillos
Wild armadillos probably spread leprosy to people in south US states. Researchers found 28 of 33 wild armadillos and 25 of 39 leprosy patients shared the same, uniquely American strain of bacteria. People should not eat or touch armadillos, says the group (The New England Journal of Medicine, vol 364, p 1626).
Is it a bird, is it an ant?
Giant ants that were almost as large as modern hummingbirds invaded Wyoming 50 million years ago.Titanomyrma lubei was 5 centimetres long. It crossed to America from Europe via the Arctic, which had briefly reached tropical temperatures due to global warming ().
Drug kills kidney cells
Benzylpiperazine (BZP), an ecstasy-like recreational drug, causes significant damage to kidney cells. Researchers at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK, found toxic effects in all samples designed to mimic the street drug, they told the American Academy of Forensic Sciences鈥� annual conference in Chicago earlier this year.