Scientist Stephen Jay Gould dies
Scientist Stephen Jay Gould, a leading evolutionary theorist at Harvard and science populiser, has died of cancer aged 60 in New York.
(Guardian, Financial Times)
Southern Africa faces worst hunger crisis in 10 years
Bad weather, poverty and violence lead world agencies to warn that 5 million Africans will soon need food aid. Many of the affected areas have suffered food shortages over the past two or three years, and some scientists predict that the El Niño weather phenomenon will cause trouble for next year's crop as well. (New Scientist)
Chinese aim to put mine on the moon
Chinese scientists are aiming to put a man on the moon in 2010 and to set up a base to mine minerals there.
(Daily Mirror, Guardian)
Berkeley offers course in peace and love
The University of California at Berkeley is to open a department of social psychology dedicated to finding out what makes us mellow. The Centre for the Development of Peace and Well-being will focus on research into what makes us happy.
(Times)
Quarter of mammals faced with extinction
Almost a quarter of the world’s mammals face extinction within 30 years, scientists who contributed to a United Nations study on the state of the global environment will announce tomorrow.
(Independent)
Genetic scientists breed featherless chicken
Geneticists at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem have produced a featherless, genetically plucked chicken that they believe could lead to cheaper, leaner and more eco-friendly meals for millions.
(Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph)
White wine can help look after your lungs
Red wine helps protect the heart, but choosing white wine can help look after the lungs, according to scientists at the University of Buffalo, New York.
(Independent, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Guardian, Times, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times)
Physics bans cloning
Perfect clones can't exist, say physicists. They're not doing down the hottest topic in biology, merely pointing out that the laws of classical physics forbid making an exact copy of an object, living or inanimate, just as the laws of quantum physics have been known to do for 20 years. (Nature)
Greeks eat chips in Glasgow
Greek students living in Glasgow swap tomatoes and olives for chips, lager and fizzy pop, a new study shows. If Mediterraneans can't eat a Mediterranean diet in Scotland, nutritionists are asking, then how can the resident Scots? (Nature)