Science News

MIAMI (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Beryl, the second cyclone of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season, weakened on Thursday as it headed toward Cape Cod and other popular northeastern U.S. vacation playgrounds.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Less than a year after Hurricane Katrina hammered the U.S. Gulf Coast, killing more than 1,300 people, one third of Americans in southern states say they might ignore an order to evacuate their homes before a storm, according to a study released on Thursday.

BOSTON - The Massachusetts coast was under a storm warning Thursday as Tropical Storm Beryl swirled northward in the Atlantic Ocean, and parts of Long Island and Connecticut were told to prepare for foul weather.

PANGANDARAN, Indonesia - Rescue workers dug decomposed corpses from ruined homes and hotels in this tsunami-devastated town Thursday, and a mass burial was held for some of the 531 people killed by the waves.

BEIJING (AFP) - China's death toll from rainstorms and flooding triggered by Tropical Storm Bilis has risen by more than 20 to 228, state media said.

DARMSTADT, Germany - Chancellor Angela Merkel quizzed German astronaut Thomas Reiter about his scientific experiments, sleeping habits and guitar-playing skills during a linkup Thursday with the international space station's crew.

It's been 46 years since Frank Drake aimed an antenna at the stars in the first modern SETI experiment. His hope was to hear a deliberate signal - guided into space by intelligent beings - rather than the natural, noisy dance of hot electrons.

KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. - Tropical Storm Beryl gained strength Wednesday as it pulled away from the North Carolina coast and headed toward New England.

With Discovery back on Earth, NASA is confident the orbiter can be turned around in time for a December 2006 launch, though ground crews have their work cut out for them to redress the orbiter for that STS-116 mission.

JAKARTA (AFP) - Indonesians on the coasts of west Java and south Sumatra should be on alert for a tsunami after a 6.2-magnitude quake struck undersea at 5:57 pm (1057 GMT), a meteorology official has said.

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Malaysia and Indonesia will plough one million euros into a publicity campaign to fight claims oil palm plantations are destroying forests and habitats of endangered animals like orangutans, a Malaysian minister has said.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese vets and dentists are considering implanting three false teeth into a giant panda injured in the wilds of the northern province of Shaanxi, Xinhua news agency said.

LONDON - Lions licked blood-flavored ice blocks in the zoo, judges went wigless in court and guards at Buckingham Palace ducked into the shade.

LONDON (AFP) - Britons endured the hottest July day on record by pouring grit on melting roads, allowing school children home early and giving zoo lions blocks of ice flavored with blood.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Southern California hybrid drivers may soon be weaned further from the petroleum pump by a modification allowing these vehicles to operate almost exclusively in electric mode, according to engineers.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a plan to increase the state's production of biofuels in hopes of reducing dependency on imported fossil fuels.

SALT LAKE CITY - A National Park Service visitor center that was built over a dinosaur bone quarry has been deemed unsafe and closed indefinitely.

SYDNEY, Australia - Before there were cuddly koalas, hoards of flesh-eating kangaroos, "demon ducks," and marsupial lions roamed Australia's Outback, according to recent fossil discoveries by paleontologists.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Fuels produced from corn and soybeans offer clear economic and environmental advantages over fossil fuels but scientists should still work to develop even cleaner alternative energy sources that do not sap the world's food supplies, a study said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - High crude oil prices will more than offset the benefits of debt relief the Group of Eight rich nations gave to poor countries last year, and this year the G8 will make the situation worse by promoting more investment in fossil fuels, a new report warned on Wednesday.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A day after President Bush vetoed expanded federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday authorized a $150 million loan to fund California's stem cell institute, which has been stalled by lawsuits.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger moved on Thursday to provide his state's voter approved stem-cell research institute with a loan of up to $150 million.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Illinois' governor announced Thursday he was diverting $5 million from the state budget for stem cell research, despite repeated objections from state legislators.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Germany pressed its EU partners to ban European funding for embryonic stem-cell research, a day after President George W. Bush vetoed a bill that would have expanded such work in the United States.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush may have cited his moral stance in vetoing a bill that would have expanded embryonic stem-cell research on Wednesday but the issue transcends traditional divisions over abortion rights.

MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish company claimed on Thursday to have developed a method of breeding plankton and turning the marine plants into oil, providing a potentially inexhaustible source of clean fuel.

ROANOKE, Va. - The carbon monoxide that killed an elderly man and sickened more than 100 teens and adults staying in a Roanoke College dormitory last week had leaked from a natural gas-powered water heating system, investigators said Wednesday.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Southern California hybrid drivers may soon be weaned further from the petroleum pump by a modification allowing these vehicles to operate almost exclusively in electric mode, according to engineers.

ABUJA (Reuters) - The latest spike in oil prices to near $80 a barrel is "very uncomfortable" and is hurting the world economy, the president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said on Wednesday.

NEW YORK, Jul 18 (OneWorld) - Leaders of the world's industrial nations have drawn fire from international civil society groups after they embraced an energy plan that favors continued reliance on oil and other fossil fuels with no hint of any solid steps to deal with the impending threat of climate change.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Snakes may make people jump for a good reason -- human close-up vision may have evolved specifically to spot the reptiles, researchers reported on Thursday.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A federal judge halted a $320 million irrigation project Thursday for fear it could disturb the habitat of a woodpecker that may or may not be extinct.

BERLIN - U.S. and German scientists on Thursday launched a two-year project to decipher the genetic code of the Neanderthal, a feat they hope will help deepen understanding of how modern humans' brains evolved.

MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish company claimed on Thursday to have developed a method of breeding plankton and turning the marine plants into oil, providing a potentially inexhaustible source of clean fuel.

BANGKOK, Thailand - Tiger habitats worldwide have shrunk 40 percent in the past decade and their survival depends on cracking down on poaching, working to reduce conflicts with humans, and protecting key ranges, according to a study released Thursday.