Reuters: Science News

Meteoroid impact triggers bright flash on the moon

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:49:41 GMT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - An automated telescope monitoring the moon has captured images of an 88-pound (40 kg) rock slamming into the lunar surface, creating a bright flash of light, NASA scientists said on Friday.

Scientists create human stem cells through cloning

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:31:29 GMT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - After more than 15 years of failures by scientists around the world and one outright fraud, biologists have finally created human stem cells by the same technique that produced Dolly the cloned sheep in 1996: They transplanted genetic material from an adult cell into an egg whose own DNA had been removed.

China says EU solar duties to "seriously harm" trade ties

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:00:11 GMT

BEIJING (Reuters) - China warned the European Union on Thursday that imposing duties on Chinese solar panels would "seriously harm" bilateral trade ties, upping the tone of its criticism a week after the EU said it would move ahead with hefty penalties in June.

U.S. sees China launch as test of anti-satellite muscle -source

Thu, 16 May 2013 08:11:28 GMT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government believes a Chinese missile launch this week was the first test of a new interceptor that could be used to destroy a satellite in orbit, a U.S. defense official told Reuters on Wednesday.

National Weather Service gets big computing boost

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:37:56 GMT

MIAMI (Reuters) - The U.S. National Weather Service is getting a quantum jump in computing power that will significantly improve its forecasting and storm tracking abilities to better protect the country from severe weather.

Rocket blasts off from Florida carrying new GPS satellite

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:33:29 GMT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - An unmanned Atlas rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Wednesday to deliver an upgraded global positioning system satellite into orbit.

NASA telescope's planet-hunting days may be over

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:34:41 GMT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA's first telescope dispatched to hunt for Earth-like planets that may support life elsewhere in the universe has lost use of its positioning system, threatening its mission, officials said on Wednesday.

Scientists create human stem cells through cloning

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:09:16 GMT

U.S. sees China launch as test of anti-satellite muscle: source

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:43:23 GMT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government believes a Chinese missile launch this week was the first test of a new interceptor that could be used to destroy a satellite in orbit, one U.S. defense official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Critics slam new cloning research

Wed, 15 May 2013 21:29:59 GMT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Scientists' assertion that the advance in therapeutic cloning announced on Wednesday could not and would not pave the way to cloning a baby did little to assuage critics of the research.

Ice melt, sea level rise, to be less severe than feared: study

Tue, 14 May 2013 18:01:03 GMT

OSLO (Reuters) - A melt of ice on Greenland and Antarctica is likely to be less severe than expected this century, limiting sea level rise to a maximum of 69 cm (27 inches), an international study said on Tuesday.

Starman falls to Earth after five-month space odyssey

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:11:52 GMT

ALMATY/CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The Canadian astronaut who became a music sensation when his zero-gravity version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" went viral on the web returned to Earth along with two crewmates on Tuesday after a five-month stint on the International Space Station.

Spacewalking repairmen replace space station's leaky pump

Sat, 11 May 2013 20:36:24 GMT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A pair of spacewalking astronauts wrapped up a hastily planned repair job on Saturday to replace a suspect coolant pump needed to keep the International Space Station at full power.

Spacewalk planned to fix ammonia leak on space station

Fri, 10 May 2013 21:06:08 GMT

MIAMI (Reuters) - NASA plans to send two astronauts aboard the International Space Station out on a spacewalk on Saturday to try to fix an ammonia leak in a cooling system on one of the station's solar arrays, the U.S. space agency said on Friday.

U.S. returning looted Tyrannosaurus skeleton to Mongolia

Mon, 06 May 2013 21:27:19 GMT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A 70-million-year-old dinosaur skeleton from the Gobi Desert that was smuggled to the United States in pieces and auctioned for more than $1 million was returned on Monday by the U.S. government to Mongolia.

Solar-powered plane wraps first leg of flight across United States

Sun, 05 May 2013 09:04:27 GMT

(Reuters) - The flight from San Fransisco to Phoenix took 18 hours and 18 minutes on Saturday - and didn't use a drop of fuel.

Solar-powered plane wraps first leg of flight across U.S

Sat, 04 May 2013 18:48:26 GMT

(Reuters) - The flight from San Fransisco to Phoenix took 18 hours and 18 minutes on Saturday - and didn't use a drop of fuel.

Boeing demonstrator breaks hypersonic flight record

Sat, 04 May 2013 14:01:38 GMT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co's X-51A Waverider made history this week when it achieved the longest hypersonic flight by a jet-fuel powered aircraft, flying for 3-1/2 minutes at five times the speed of sound, the U.S. Air Force said on Friday.

Solar-powered plane takes off for flight across U.S.

Fri, 03 May 2013 23:06:07 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A solar-powered airplane that developers hope to eventually pilot around the world took off early on Friday from San Francisco Bay on the first leg of an attempt to fly across the United States with no fuel but the sun's energy.

Big drugmakers think small with nanomedicine deals

Fri, 03 May 2013 10:17:11 GMT

LONDON (Reuters) - Is nanomedicine the next big thing? A growing number of top drug companies seem to think so.

Alexander Graham Bell speaks, and 2013 hears his voice

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:00:40 GMT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nine years after he placed the first telephone call, Alexander Graham Bell tried another experiment: he recorded his voice on a wax-covered cardboard disc on April 15, 1885, and gave it an audio signature: "Hear my voice - Alexander Graham Bell."

Virgin's passenger spaceship completes first rocket test flight

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:54:55 GMT

(Reuters) - A six-passenger spaceship owned by an offshoot of Virgin Group fired its rocket engine in flight for the first time on Monday, a key step toward the start of commercial service in about a year, Virgin owner Richard Branson said.

Alexander Graham Bell speaks, and 2013 hears his voice

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:36:45 GMT

Space junk needs to be removed from Earth's orbit: ESA

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:04:20 GMT

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Space junk such as debris from rockets must be removed from the Earth's orbit to avoid crashes that could cost satellite operators millions of euros and knock out mobile and GPS networks, the European Space Agency said.

Why does anything exist? Scientists find a bit of the answer

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:10:54 GMT

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists probing the nature of antimatter have found a bit more evidence to explain why the universe is not an empty husk, although not enough to account for the billions of galaxies strewn across the cosmos.