Science News

By Zeeya Merali

A quantum trick could provide sharper ticks for the atomic clocks of the future. [More]

Illegal logging, the bushmeat trade, mining, the charcoal trade and a new strain of the Ebola virus could drive gorillas into extinction in central Africa in as little as 15 years, according to a new report from the U.N. and Interpol.

Three of the four gorilla subspecies are already considered critically endangered, and the fourth is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Interest in electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrids has come on strong over the past year or so, pushed relentlessly by carmakers promoting a newer, greener generation of transportation. As the Chevy Volt , Ford Transit Connect Electric , Nissan Leaf and others trickle out into the marketplace over the next year, it's clear that they will go only as far as their lithium ion batteries can take them (which right now isn't all that far). [More]

In the northern British Isles, the Celtic tribes known as the Picts coexisted for centuries alongside literate cultures such as the Romans, the Irish and the Anglo-Saxons. [More]

By Jeff Mason and Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama announced plans on Wednesday for an expansion of U.S. offshore oil and gas drilling in an effort to win Republican support for new proposals to fight climate change.

The first sequenced drafts of the human genome were announced 10 years ago this June. President Bill Clinton remarked at the time that, "genome science will have a real impact on all of our lives." Although hopes were high, neither he nor the researchers involved promised magical genomic cures or personalized genomes for everyone by 2010. So when exactly can we, as individuals, expect to see that impact? [More]

Dear EarthTalk: Some time ago there were issues with Native American tribes storing nuclear waste on their land, something that was both unhealthy to the communities and caused considerable controversy among tribal leaders. Where is this issue today? --M. Spenser, via e-mail

If you ask the average person whether in the long run it is climate change or an asteroid/comet impact that's expected to kill more people annually, you'll undoubtedly get some confused replies. Those asteroid movies are scary, but there are no verified instances of an asteroid strike killing any humans, are there? Meanwhile, the science of climate change is currently being overshadowed by a media-driven public debate , mainly in the U.S. [More]

An estimated 20 million Americans take statins, making these cholesterol-lowering drugs the most widely prescribed class in the world. In coming years, these numbers are only expected to increase. In June 2011 the full patent for Pfizer’s blockbuster Lipitor (atorvastatin) will expire, making the drug significantly more affordable. And later this year the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute will release guidelines that could recommend stat­­ins for younger people who have no cholesterol issues--a move that could stave off cardiovascular disease later in life but also introduces questions about aggressively treating the healthy.

The current NCEP guidelines, published in 2001 and revised in 2004, recommend statins for heart disease patients with LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels greater than 70 milligrams per deciliter of blood and for people who have a moderately elevated risk of heart disease as well as LDL levels above 100 mg/dL. An expected NCEP move to lower the treatment bar this year would follow a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel’s vote in December 2009 to broaden the prescription base of Astra­Zeneca’s drug Crestor (rosu­va­statin) to an additional 6.5 million lower-risk Americans. The FDA usually accepts the panel’s recommendations.

Greenpeace is accusing one of the nation's largest conglomerates of sowing confusion around scientific assertions behind climate change, a broadside that comes amid waning public engagement on human-caused emissions.

Koch Industries, a sprawling private corporation based in Wichita, Kan., and run by two brothers, is the primary sponsor of the "climate denial machine," the environmental group asserts in a 44-page report .

Workers who apply certain pesticides to farm fields are twice as likely to contract melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer, according to a new scientific study. [More]