British shale gas decision deferred
Preston, England (UPI) Jun 25, 2015 -
A British county council at the center of the evolving debate over hydraulic fracturing said it was reviewing legal advice before deciding on drilling permits.
Caudrilla Resources aims to target shale natural gas reserves in Lancashire County. The region's council said mid-June it recommended approval for a campaign with as many as four drilling sites and hydraulic fracturing. The recom ...
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'Back to the Future' hoverboard comes to life
Tokyo (AFP) June 25, 2015 -
The future is here already - or at least the one imagined for Marty McFly - with a carmaker unveiling a real, working hoverboard, like that used in the "Back To The Future" film franchise.
Toyota's luxury car brand Lexus says it has created a prototype that glides frictionlessly just above the ground with technology similar to that used in so-called maglev trains.
A teaser video posted ...
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Google self-driving prototype cars hit public roads
San Francisco (AFP) June 25, 2015 -
Google said on Thursday that its self-driving prototype cars have taken to streets in the Silicon Valley city of Mountain View where it has its headquarters.
The move comes after Google's internal testing of the bubble-shaped vehicle over the past year and more extensive experience with technology adapted for existing cars.
"We want to understand what it really means to have self-driving ...
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Solar Impulse could be stuck in Japan for a year: pilot
Geneva (AFP) June 25, 2015 -
A solar-powered plane attempting to fly around the world must cross the Pacific within a few weeks or it could remain stuck in Japan for a year, its pilot said in an interview published Thursday.
Solar Impulse 2, which has been stranded in Japan for three weeks and had to postpone a planned take off this week due to bad weather over the Pacific, only has a short window for making the next le ...
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Scotland in a huff over wind energy subsidies
London (UPI) Jun 24, 2015 -
The Scottish government said it wants the British energy secretary to come to its capital to explain the reasons behind a cut in wind energy subsidies.
"The Scottish government has been clear that onshore wind should be able to compete with other technologies," Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said in a statement Wednesday.
London announced plans to end public subsidies for ...
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400,000-year-old dental tartar provides earliest evidence of manmade pollution
Tel Aviv, Israel (SPX) Jun 22, 2015 -
Most dentists recommend a proper teeth cleaning every six months to prevent, among other things, the implacable buildup of calculus or tartar - hardened dental plaque. Routine calculus buildup can only be removed through the use of ultrasonic tools or dental hand instruments. But what of 400,000-year-old dental tartar?
Tel Aviv University researchers, in collaboration with scholars from Sp ...
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NOAA, partners predict an average 'dead zone' for Gulf of Mexico
Washington DC (SPX) Jun 22, 2015 -
Scientists are expecting that this year's Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone, also called the "dead zone," will be approximately 5,483 square miles or about the size of Connecticut-the same as it has averaged over the last several years.
The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico affects nationally important commercial and recreational fisheries and threatens the region's economy. Hypoxic zones hold ver ...
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Baboons decide where to go together
Washington DC (SPX) Jun 22, 2015 -
Researchers have found evidence of shared decision-making among a troop of wild baboons, providing insight into how animals that live in socially complex, hierarchical societies reach consensus on decisions that affect the entire group. Until now, researchers had wondered if animals with clear hierarchies, such as primates or wolves, use democracy to reach a consensus - or if their decisions are ...
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Snake fungal disease parallels white-nose syndrome in bats
Champaign IL (SPX) Jun 22, 2015 -
A deadly fungal infection afflicting snakes is eerily similar to the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome in bats, researchers report. Although Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola (the snake fungus) and Pseudogymnoascus destructans (the bat fungus) inhabit different ecological niches and thrive at different temperature and humidity ranges, the fungi share basic traits that allow them to persist across a ...
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Fossil of large 'walking' bat discovered in New Zealand reveals ancient lineage
Sydney, Australia (SPX) Jun 22, 2015 -
Fossilised remains of a new bat species, which lived 16 million years ago, walked on four limbs and was three times larger than today's average bat, have been discovered in New Zealand.
The fossils were found near Central Otago on South Island, in sediment left over from a vast prehistoric body of water known as Lake Manuherikia, which was part of warmer subtropical rainforest during the e ...
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Staying cool: Saharan silver ants
New York NY (SPX) Jun 22, 2015 -
Nanfang Yu, assistant professor of applied physics at Columbia Engineering, and colleagues from the University of Zurich and the University of Washington, have discovered two key strategies that enable Saharan silver ants to stay cool in one of the hottest terrestrial environments on Earth.
Yu's team is the first to demonstrate that the ants use a coat of uniquely shaped hairs to control e ...
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Europe launches next phase of hi-tech Earth satellites
Kourou (AFP) June 23, 2015 -
The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched the second phase of a 4.3-billion-euro ($4.91-billion) programme to deploy new-generation satellites to monitor environmental damage and aid disaster relief operations, officials said early Monday.
Sentinel-2A was hoisted by a lightweight Vega rocket from ESA's base in Kourou, French Guiana, overnight Monday-Tuesday, launch operator Arianespace sa ...
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Surprisingly few 'busy bees' make global crops grow
Burlington VT (SPX) Jun 22, 2015 -
A major international study finds that surprisingly few bee species are responsible for pollinating the world's crops. The paper, published in Nature Communications, suggests that only two percent of wild bee species pollinate 80 percent of bee-pollinated crops worldwide. The study is one of the largest on bee pollination to date.
While agricultural development and pesticides have been sho ...
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Lockheed, Raytheon, Bombardier team for JSTARS contract bid
Palmdale, Calif. (UPI) Jun 17, 2015 -
Lockheed Martin has announced it is teaming with Raytheon and Bombardier for the U.S. Air Force's JSTARS Recapitalization program contract.
Under the teaming, Lockheed Martin will serve as the lead systems integrator for the program, while Raytheon will bring to the team their experience with ground surveillance, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems, mission systems int ...
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International Spacecraft Carrying NASA's Aquarius Instrument Ends Operations
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jun 22, 2015 -
An international Earth-observing mission launched in 2011 to study the salinity of the ocean surface ended June 8 when an essential part of the power and attitude control system for the SAC-D spacecraft, which carries NASA's Aquarius instrument, stopped operating. The Aquarius instrument successfully achieved its science objectives and completed its primary three-year mission in November 2014. ...
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All Systems Go for NASA's Mission to Jupiter Moon Europa
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jun 22, 2015 -
Beyond Earth, Jupiter's moon Europa is considered one of the most promising places in the solar system to search for signs of present-day life, and a new NASA mission to explore this potential is moving forward from concept review to development.
NASA's mission concept - to conduct a detailed survey of Europa and investigate its habitability - has successfully completed its first major rev ...
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Astronomers create array of Earth-like planet models
Ithaca NY (SPX) Jun 22, 2015 -
To sort out the biological intricacies of Earth-like planets, astronomers have developed computer models that examine how ultraviolet radiation from other planets' nearby suns may affect those worlds, according to new research published June 10 in Astrophysical Journal.
"Depending on the intensity, ultraviolet radiation can be both useful and harmful to the origin of life," says Lisa Kalte ...
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Satellites enable coral reef science leap from Darwin to online
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jun 22, 2015 -
With Earth-observing satellite data, scientists can now monitor the health of coral reefs, even in the most remote regions scattered around the globe where it is otherwise difficult to see changes.
Satellites fill a void by providing a more complete view of remote reefs. The information is monitored globally through Coral Reef Watch, an online tool that provides near real-time and long-ter ...
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From ESA: more than 300 new companies
Paris (ESA) Jun 22, 2015 -
ESA's business incubators hit a milestone this month: they have now fostered 300 start-up companies - and more are joining all the time. Thanks to innovations from the many Business Incubation Centres (BICs) start-ups, leading-edge applications that spring from space are spreading throughout Europe.
"Technologies from Europe's space programmes have turned out to be great problem-solvers he ...
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Roscosmos to Launch More Satellites, Set up Imaging Center
Moscow (Sputnik) Jun 22, 2015 -
The Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos plans to expand its fleet of satellites for taking images of the Earth, as part of a project to create a new center for global imaging, which aims to become a major player in Earth remote sensing services.
The existing Research Center for Earth Operative Monitoring, part of the Russian Space Systems holding, will become the core of the new structu ...
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Study suggests active volcanism on Venus
Providence RI (SPX) Jun 22, 2015 -
An international team of scientists has found some of the best evidence yet that Venus, Earth's nearest neighbor, is volcanically active. In combing through data from the European Space Agency's Venus Express mission, the scientists found transient spikes in temperature at several spots on the planet's surface. The hotspots, which were found to flash and fade over the course of just a few days, ...
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Russia to Build New Generation Space Surveillance Systems
Moscow (Sputnik) Jun 22, 2015 -
Russian Defense Ministry will construct more than ten complexes of new-generation space surveillance systems, increasing the precision of space observation, the ministry said in a press release Thursday.
This would "considerably increase the information capabilities of Russian space surveillance, expand the range of controlled orbits and reduce the minimum size of space objects detected by ...
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Russia eyes Kazakh cosmonaut as space tourist
Moscow (AFP) June 22, 2015 -
Russia on Monday proposed sending a Kazakh cosmonaut to the International Space Station in place of a space tourist in September after a Japanese candidate formally dropped out.
Satoshi Takamatsu, a Japanese businessman, was gearing up to go to space after signing a contract to undergo training but said Monday that he was not ready for the launch expected in early September.
"The Russian ...
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Europe launches next phase of hi-tech Earth satellites
Kourou (AFP) June 23, 2015 -
The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched the second phase of a 4.3-billion-euro ($4.91-billion) programme to deploy new-generation satellites to monitor environmental damage and aid disaster relief operations, officials said early Monday.
Sentinel-2A was hoisted by a lightweight Vega rocket from ESA's base in Kourou, French Guiana, overnight Monday-Tuesday, launch operator Arianespace sa ...
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Japan delays removal of fuel rods from Fukushima for 3 years
Tokyo (Sputnik) Jun 16, 2015 -
The removal of spent uranium fuel rods from the Fukushima power plant will begin three years later compared to the originally planned date, the Japanese government said in a roadmap published on Friday.
Initially, the removal was scheduled for the end of 2015 for Unit 3 and for late 2017 for Units 1 and 2.
Due to the high level of radiation in the area and the difficulty of the opera ...
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