Science News

TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo screenings of "The Cove," an Oscar-winning documentary about a grisly annual dolphin hunt have been canceled over planned protests by conservatives who say the film is anti-Japanese, the distributor said on Saturday.

The film, which picked up an Oscar for best documentary feature this year, follows a group of activists who struggle with Japanese police and fishermen to gain access to a secluded cove in Taiji, southern Japan, where dolphins are hunted.

At least two fundamental questions remain about the ongoing environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico: how much oil has spilled and where exactly is it located? BP's use of chemical dispersants to address the crisis has complicated the answers to these questions by likely redistributing oil from the surface to locations deeper into the water column--something BP's chief executive Tony Hayward disputes .   [More]

One thing that's both disconcerting and exhilarating about physics is how many seemingly simple questions remain unanswered. When you hear the questions that physicists struggle with, you sometimes say to yourself, Wait, you mean they don't even know that? Physics might be defined as the subject that tries to figure out why the world may look incomprehensibly complex at first, but on closer examination is governed by simple laws. Those laws, applied repeatedly, build up the complexity. From this definition, you'd presume that physicists have at least sorted out what they mean by "law".

Sorry.

NEW YORK--When ancient denizens of central France painted leaping horses on the cave walls at Lascaux, they might not have had the late Renaissance understanding of how to illustrate perspective and three dimensions. But they did, with simple black lines, give the implication of depth, showing the far pair of limbs behind the closer pair. [More]

Ever wondered what it looks like when tumor cells grow inside the body? Drug maker Amgen is hoping to sate this morbid sort of Fantastic Voyage with a new Web site that takes viewers through the various stages of tumor angiogenesis in 3-D. Angiogenesis is a physiological process whereby new blood vessels grow from existing vessels. Although this process is a normal part of the body's ability to grow and heal itself, angiogenesis is also the path through which tumors transition from benign to malignant. [More]

Private access to space took a giant leap forward Friday with a successful test launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, developed and built by SpaceX, a venture headed by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk. [More]

Much of the focus at the Deepwater Horizon disaster site has been on the oil pouring out of the damaged well, but some researchers are beginning to turn their attention to the methane , or natural, gas escaping along with the gushing crude. Careful study of this methane, which comprises about 40 percent of the riser pipe output, is expected to provide scientists with a wealth of information, including a more accurate calculation of the spill's magnitude and thereby a better understanding of its impact on ocean life. [More]