NPR Topics: Science

New BP CEO: Some Efforts To Be Scaled Back

The changes do not signify a lessening of the oil giant's commitment to clean up the oil spill, but do signify that some areas don't need a continuing effort, incoming executive Bob Dudley said Friday.

A new generation of wireless medical sensors mounted on an adhesive strip can call a doctor and transmit key data when they detect a problem. But federal regulators, who want to make sure the technology is safe, have yet to iron out regulations for these devices.

The Gulf of Mexico has a few ways of cleansing oil from its waters: it hosts legions of microbes adapted to dine on natural oil seepages, and its warm water temperatures favor the evaporation of oil. But scientists say it's still too early to know how long it will take the Gulf to recover.

How do scientists deal with sloppy or shoddy science? A survey found that researchers were often able to deal with minor misconduct informally. Gerald Koocher, one of the scientists behind the survey and co-author of a handbook for dealing with research misconduct, explains.

Spiders and silkworms make silk by the yard. Why can?t we copy them? Silk is strong, light and flexible and is being examined for use in everything from medical sutures to advanced electronics. Silk researcher David Kaplan explains the challenges in bioengineering silk.

Filters, centrifuges, and oil-gulping ships may be among the contenders for a new X prize designed to avert another Deepwater Horizon disaster

For 60 years, engineers have placed escape rockets on top of crew capsules – future craft may stow them below

All today's stories on newscientist.com at a glance, including: the threat from cosmic Trojans, a convenient "drop-in" biofuel, and spinning dog brains

Injecting electrons beneath the surface of a silicon wafer could move us closer towards building things atom by atom

The decision to take the Galapagos off UNESCO's danger list suggests the islands are in the clear – but conservationists say that's far from true

Research by a Rutgers-Camden psychologist suggests that teens fond of reality TV programs are more likely to join the millions who go under the knife each year. For bodies -- and minds -- still in development, these drastic decisions could have implications way after prom.

Imagine technology that allows you to get inside the mind of a terrorist to know how, when and where the next attack will occur. That may not be as far-fetched as it sounds. Northwestern brain wave research suggests that if the lab test had been employed in the real world with the same type of outcome, law enforcement officials ultimately may be able to confirm details about an attack that emerges from terrorist chatter.

Researchers at JILA have demonstrated the use of infrared laser light to quickly and precisely heat the water in "nano bathtubs" -- tiny sample containers -- for microscopy studies of the biochemistry of single molecules and nanoparticles.

Results from a new study suggest that oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy may yield additional benefit of protecting against the formation and rupture of brain aneurysms in women. The findings from this first-of-its-kind study by a neurointerventional expert from Rush University Medical Center were presented at the Society of Neurointerventional Surgery 7th annual meeting.

Finding bodies buried by someone who wanted them to stay undiscovered can be difficult. However a new technique developed by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, can reliably detect biochemical changes in a decomposing cadaver.

EcoEarth.Info Environment RSS Newsfeed

Climate change blamed for Portugal's “probable” first case of West Nile virus

Portugal News: Experts are warning that climate change could heighten the risk of surges of infectious diseases more common to warmer climates, such as the West Nile virus or Malaria, in Europe. Last weekend the National Health Board (DGS) confirmed an investigation was taking place into a "probable case of West Nile Virus" in Portugal. DGS general sub-director José Robalo said this week that the disease had still not been confirmed, but there is a "great probability" that it would ...

Wired: A massive simulation of soot`s climate effects finds that basic pollution controls could put a brake on global warming, erasing in a decade most of the last century`s temperature change. Compared to the larger, longer term task of getting greenhouse-gas pollution under control, limiting soot wouldn`t be hard. Unlike new energy technology and profound changes in lifestyle, the tools -- exhaust filters, clean-burning stoves -- already exist. "Soot has such a strong climate ...

Spiegel: It is the starting point for our oceans' food chain. But stocks of phytoplankton have decreased by 40 percent since 1950, potentially as a result of global warming. It is an astonishing collapse, say researchers, and may have dramatic consequences for both the oceans and for humans. The forms that marine flora and fauna come in are varied and spectacular. From bizarre deep sea creatures to elegant predators and giant marine mammals, the diversity in our planet's oceans is ...

Agence France-Presse: A century-long decline in tiny algae called phytoplankton could disrupt the global ocean food chain, including the human consumption of fish, according to a study released Wednesday. The microscopic organisms - which prop up the pyramid of marine animal life from shrimps to killer whales - have been disappearing globally at a rate of one percent per year, researchers reported. Since 1950, phytoplankon mass has dropped by about 40 percent, most likely due to the accelerating ...

BBC: Greenpeace says key wildlife habitats are being destroyed Greenpeace has accused a major Indonesian conglomerate of continuing to log in high conservation-value rainforests. The environmental activists' group said subsidiaries of Sinar Mas, an agribusiness giant, were logging in peat forests and orangutan habitats. Sinar Mas says it complies with Indonesian law and denies wrong-doing. The company is due to release an audit responding to previous Greenpeace ...

Associated Press: BP says it has picked a charitable foundation in Louisiana to administer a $100 million fund for oil workers struggling because of a federal moratorium on deepwater drilling. The Rig Worker Assistance Fund will be administered through the Gulf Coast Restoration and Protection Foundation, an affiliate of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation. BP PLC announced last month that it would set up the fund after the Interior Department declared a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in ...

Reuters: More than 2,000 miles from the Gulf of Mexico shoreline, a panel of U.S. judges heard arguments from lawyers on Thursday on how piles of oil spill-related lawsuits against BP Plc should be merged. The panel, meeting in Boise, Idaho, as part of its regularly scheduled rotation among federal courts, did not immediately rule on how it would handle the mounting civil litigation brought against BP and other defendants involved in the worst offshore oil disaster in U.S. history. A ...

Reuters: BP Plc said on Friday it will establish a $100 million fund to help drilling rig workers in the Gulf of Mexico who are unemployed as a result of the company's oil leak. After BP's Macondo well ruptured on April 20, causing the worst U.S. oil spill, the U.S. government halted deep-water drilling for six months. The moratorium, due to be lifted in November, has idled dozens of rigs in the Gulf and companies are moving vessels to work in other parts of the world. The funds ...

Reuters: Three months after the catastrophic oil rig explosion that sent millions of gallons of crude spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. House of Representatives was poised on Friday to debate legislation clamping down on the industry's offshore drilling practices. The Democratic-led House is expected to pass the legislation that could have a far-reaching impact on deep-water drilling in the Gulf, a major supplier of domestic energy. Passage just before the House is scheduled to ...

Inter Press Service: In early July, whales from the world's largest population of humpbacks began arriving in the warm, subtropical waters off Australia's north-west coast to breed and nurse their young. From May each year, some 22,000 humpbacks make the pilgrimage up Australia's west coast from their Antarctic feeding grounds before beginning the return journey in September. The whales, which usually grow to between 12 and 16 metres when mature, constitute just a tiny fraction of the wide variety ...

New York Times: The company responsible for a massive oil spill here was warned in January by federal regulators about insufficient monitoring of corrosion on the pipeline that federal officials say leaked more than one million gallons of oil into a major waterway this week. The owner of the pipeline, Enbridge Energy Partners, received several citations from federal regulators in recent years before the warning in January. Company officials said they had routinely tested the pipeline for ...

Associated Press: BP gas station owners across the country are divided over whether the oil giant stained by its handling of the Gulf spill should rebrand U.S. outlets as Amoco or another name as part of its effort to repair the company's badly damaged reputation. Some who have seen their sales plunge because of protests say BP has already sought a fresh start by naming an American to replace its gaffe-prone British CEO, so why not change the name on gas station marquees to Amoco, which once stood for ...

National Public Radio: Crews are working Friday in southwest Michigan to clean up as much as 1 million gallons of crude oil that spilled from a broken pipeline into the Kalamazoo River. There are concerns that the oil could reach Lake Michigan if it isn't stopped soon. Exactly when the 30-inch pipe burst is a point of contention. Residents in the little town of Marshall, Mich., say they smelled oil Sunday morning. Enbridge Energy Partners, the Canadian company that owns the pipeline, says it didn't ...

Deutsche Presse-Agentur: US environmental regulators on Thursday rejected a series of challenges to the science behind climate change, reaffirming that global warming is real and the result of man-made pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruling was welcomed by US climate groups and comes after a number of recent controversies over the workings of climate scientists provided fodder for sceptics around the world. The EPA reaffirmed its 2009 "endangerment finding", which for the first time ...

Reuters: As many as 60,000 metric tons of heavy crude oil could have been spilled into China's northeast coastal waters as a result of an explosion that rocked the port of Dalian on July 16, Greenpeace said on Friday. A pipeline blast at Dalian's Xingang port caused fires that spread to a nearby oil storage facility, disabling many of the port's control systems and disrupting cargoes for almost two weeks until full operations resumed on Thursday. The government said only 1,500 metric ...